Chapter 74: City Guard
On the Canglong Continent, central region, the Royal Capital: Yifanlingge.
The great bell tower stood in the central district of Yifanlingge City. Apart from the Duoyin people, few knew the place name "Yifanlingge"; most simply called it the Royal Capital.
The evening sun cast its glow from the horizon, blocked by the towering city walls, forming a hazy band of yellow light above them.
Within the Royal Capital at this time, the great bell tower emitted a dull, clanging sound. The streets were quiet; two days prior, the commoners within the city had been gradually evacuated.
It wasn't just the Duoyin Royal Capital; the main city of the Chaos Legion had also long since evacuated its civilians. These centers of power were the most vulnerable to surprise attacks. For both sides, population was the foundation, and soldiers were the guarantee of development.
One by one, city guards stood watch on the walls. A substance resembling black rock had solidified on the inner side of the wall, forming a long, gentle slope.
This served two purposes: it greatly enhanced the wall's defensive capabilities, and it allowed the city guards within to rush up to the wall or retreat from it at maximum speed, evading the enemy's ranged attacks.
A total of 500,000 city guards were stationed on the walls in all four directions of the Royal Capital. All stood ramrod straight. In their left hands, they held round heavy shields, entirely forged from metal—convex on the front, concave on the inside, thinner at the edges, and nearly ten centimeters thick at the center.
Besides the round heavy shields, the city guards held all-metal war spears in their right hands. Conservatively estimated, each spear weighed over 300 kilograms, not to mention the full-body armor made of black lamellar plates they wore.
Behind every city guard were three additional war spears, identical in specification to the one in their right hand. More critically, each spear was engraved with a "Piercing Formula."
Furthermore, at the rear of the wall stood a large wooden rack, laden with spears already inscribed with the "Piercing Formula."
Under normal circumstances, forces hostile to Duoyin would not attack the Royal Capital. During the Chaotic Era, before the Six-Race Alliance was established, the Elf race, relying on their archery prowess, once dispatched an elite cavalry unit riding elk to raid the Duoyin Royal Capital.
The result: 470,000 Elf cavalry attacked the city. Within half an hour of the battle's start, that elite Elf cavalry unit was pierced by war spears until they doubted their own existence. After leaving nearly 170,000 corpses behind, they fled in panic.
Since then, no one has attempted a surprise attack on the Duoyin Royal Capital. The city walls were reinforced with a total of 276 types of strengthening formulas, along with four main formulas: Iron Wall, Canglong's Strength, Scorching Sun, and Righteous Duke.
These four main formulas were developed specifically for the wall's defense. Any one of them would be the dream of other forces.
On the front wall of the Royal Capital, a giant clad in full heavy armor, over three meters tall, sat on an iron chair. He was Duoyin's First Prince, over forty years old, but utterly uninterested in the throne.
"Stay vigilant. Our enemy is the War Demon."
The First Prince sat there like a small mountain, but his towering stature didn't make him seem foolish. His brownish-yellow eyes held only resolve and fortitude.
"As you command."
Ten squad leaders all knelt on one knee. The squad leaders in the city guard were different from those in other units. Each commanded 50,000 city guards. Below them were several echelons of officers. Defending a city was different from fighting on the front lines; commands were easier to convey.
The selection process for city guards was extremely strict. It didn't consider birth or status, but several requirements had to be met. First, they needed combat experience of 8 to 10 years on the front lines. Second, they must have earned battle merits. Third, their age at the time of selection could not exceed 30.
That wasn't all. After screening a batch of veterans, they underwent 3 to 5 months of rest. During this period, they did nothing; Duoyin provided excellent treatment. This allowed the soldiers to recover their bodies, scarred from the front lines.
After the rest period, they participated in a second selection, followed by 1 to 2 years of brutal training. The 68% mortality rate deterred many.
Did passing the training make one an official Royal Capital city guard? No. There was a final round of selection: whether their trained bodies could withstand the power of the formulas.
The heavy shields, war spears, and armor of the city guards were all inscribed with formulas. Using and wearing these items required sufficient adaptability to the formulas; otherwise, severe backlash would occur.
Selecting city guards was difficult, but Duoyin's population, coupled with years of continuous war, kept the city guard numbers at a constant 500,000.
Five kilometers outside the front of the Royal Capital, wolf cavalrymen halted. On the surface, 530,000 wolf cavalry against 500,000 city guards meant they had the numerical advantage. But the enemy had sturdy walls. The hundred-meter-high walls, even from a distance, gave off a metallic texture.
Barbatos flew overhead. On the dragon's back, Su Xiao looked at the distant Royal Capital. To breach this place was to claim the Void Tree fruit for himself.
One could say that the Void Tree fruit located within this world was a gift from heaven. Originally, this Void Tree fruit was in the Demon Sea, a chaotic place where Ancient Gods, contractors, and major Void races all had ways to enter.
Recently, a Void Tree fruit was discovered in the Void. Tuanzhang and White Bull had both gone to seize it. The intensity of the struggle there was easy to imagine.
Compared to that, the current Void Tree fruit, even if not a freebie, had a difficulty within Su Xiao's acceptable range. As for the one in the Void, Su Xiao had no thoughts about it.
"Roar!"
Barbatos let out a dragon roar. Hearing this roar, the Orc Hero, Woboer, at the very front of the wolf cavalry army, took a deep breath.
"Sound the horn."
Orc Hero Woboer raised his warhammer. A long, drawn-out horn call spread. Woboer slapped his mount, a dire wolf, and charged forward as the vanguard.
"Kill!"
Hundreds of thousands of wolf cavalrymen shouted in unison, charging towards the Royal Capital. Five kilometers away was the enemy's towering wall. The wolf cavalry didn't know how to breach that high wall, but when the order was given, they would execute it.
Meanwhile, on the front wall of the Royal Capital, the city guards struck their round heavy shields with their war spears, producing a loud *thump thump* sound.
After three strikes, all city guards placed their heavy shields before their feet, locking them on the ground.
All city guards on the wall stepped back in unison. On the watchtower at the highest point of the wall, flag bearers raised their battle flags.
Every city guard on the front wall assumed a throwing posture. The formulas on their armor lit up, causing their muscles to bulge slightly. Wind patterns and fire patterns coiled and climbed onto the war spears in their hands.
With a *whoosh*, dozens of flag bearers simultaneously swung down their command flags. After a one-second pause, the city guards on the wall rushed forward a few steps. When their left feet all stepped onto the locked round shields, a surge of energy connected all the city guards.
*Thump, thump, thump...*
Spears were thrown, over a hundred thousand in total. These spears tore through layers of air, descending upon the charging wolf cavalry below.
Initially, the spears flew quickly, but not so fast that the wolf cavalry couldn't dodge. However, after flying a certain distance, the wind patterns on the spears were activated. All the spears began to spin, creating spiraling air currents, and then suddenly accelerated a second time in mid-flight.
*Pfft!*
Orc Hero Woboer, charging at the very front, felt a numbness in his abdomen. He pressed his hand there, only to find his three fingers pressing into empty space.
Woboer looked down at his abdomen. A bloody hole the size of a bowl had appeared, surrounded by spiral cracks.
The whimpers of dire wolves came from all around. Some grey orcs, pierced through vital spots, let out pained cries.
The wolf cavalry legion, caught in mid-charge by a volley of spears, fell in a massive swath. These weren't arrows. Being hit by one meant a severed limb if it struck an arm or leg, and at least severe injury if it struck the torso.
Before even reaching the base of the wall, the wolf cavalry had suffered over 30,000 casualties. The ground was covered in blood and the pinned bodies of grey orcs and dire wolves.
The wolf cavalry legion had fought from the Western Border to the Southern Border, and then to the Northern Border, but had never suffered such horrific losses. This was just the beginning of the siege, not even a melee with the enemy, and over 30,000 wolf cavalry had already fallen.
On the wall, the city guards who had completed the first spear throw looked somewhat drained. They retreated down the inner slope of the wall, and a new batch of city guards took their place.
Again, they locked all the round heavy shields on the ground, pulled out spears, stepped back eight paces, gathered strength, and prepared for the charging throw.
A long row of upturned spear tips gleamed with cold light. It could be said that the city guards of this Royal Capital were terrifyingly formidable.