Chapter 798: Enemy at the Gate

The dead branch monsters that were thrown out did not dare to come back to argue with the magic tree people. They followed the large army and ran forward again to hunt new prey.

Not only did their hunting mode resemble that of an ant colony, but their overall composition mode was also similar.

They were the worker ants at the bottom of the entire ant colony. Everything they had was given by the queen ant, and their purpose of life was to serve the queen ant.

At least in the army of magic trees, this mode was presented.

The magic tree people who had just taken food from their mouths were not soldier ants, but ant guards, the direct guards of the queen ant. They did not enjoy any of the food, but worked together to drag it to the path of the rumbling magic tree.

The magic tree that entered the mobile state did not grow hands and feet like ordinary tree people, and pulled up from the ground. The lower body was like a spider with eight claws, with a thick chassis, and eight thick tree roots supported in all directions. It took small steps to drive the thick upper body forward.

This situation is an inevitable choice.

Unlike ordinary tree people, those activated seed magic tree people are an extremely important part of its survival. This means that even when they enter the mobile state, they must maintain an extremely large upper body, even full of unripe fruits.

If they walk on their feet, it is a problem to stand firmly, let alone move forward.

Another advantage of maintaining a huge tree root system like this is that it does not need to deliberately take root, and can maintain some of the benefits of the rooted state.

As for the arms, those blood-colored vines hanging from the crown are much more useful than arms. They wrap the prey that has been placed within its reach and send it to its big mouth, and swallow it whole. The sound of a crisp heavy object falling into the pool can be heard, accompanied by a strong corrosion sound.

You can guess without looking that the prey is being corroded and decomposed by the strong acid fluid in the body of the magic tree at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The process of their march is also the process of their hunting.

And there are as many as thirty such hunting circles.

Due to the different speeds of various monsters, the formation of the magic tree withered army is very long.

The dead branch monsters had already driven the herd out of the forest for four or five kilometers, and the spider-like bodies of the magic trees staggered out.

When the herd arrived at the foot of Usmer City, the army of withered magic trees had already stretched out a ten-kilometer front.

"So many! The enemy's strength is far stronger than we expected, and the number of withered ones is at least more than 30,000!"

After seeing the enemy's appearance, everyone couldn't help but gasp.

The enemy looked scattered, but in fact, they were clearly divided into 30 hunting circles.

Each hunting circle was centered on a magic tree, with 20 to 30 magic tree people wandering around it, and then there was a square formation composed of different numbers of withered needle monsters and withered vine monsters, ranging from 100 to 200.

The dead branch monsters rushed to the front, with at least 700 to 800, or even thousands of them in each hunting circle, and they were the most scattered.

Those magic tree people and magic trees can only keep a distance of one kilometer at most, and the withered needle monsters and withered vine monsters will not exceed three kilometers at most.

"Tactics! Tactics! Tactics! Aren't those magic trees intelligent? Don't they have any tactical concept at all? Doing this is just to disperse their own forces and die!" Ferrican, the third leader of the Sword Brotherhood, lay on the tower, looking at the situation below, and he was so angry that he gnashed his teeth. He suspected that the other party had obtained intelligence and deliberately adopted this tactic to target them.

If it were ordinary enemies, they would definitely be overjoyed to adopt this swarming tactic and rely on the city wall to consume their manpower bit by bit.

But they had just formulated a series of tactics of luring the enemy into a trap and burning the city with fire, which was a bit unpleasant to face the enemy's long front.

They couldn't pay a heavy price to burn a group of withered needle monsters like cannon fodder.

"Tactics are dead, but people are alive. Even those well-trained soldiers cannot execute tactics completely according to our will, let alone the enemy. They cannot cooperate with us 100%. We must use our strength to make them follow our will and push them into the trap step by step."

Gavin, the maker of this tactic, was not surprised, and his face was still full of confidence.

War is not hunting. How can we win the final victory of a war with one or two traps? In the Goblin Border, in the Goddess of Strategy's Ascension War, even if there was a god standing on their side, they also worked hard and made all efforts to win the final victory of the war.

This time is no exception. The blazing fire is only the last step. If he can rely on the city defense facilities of Usmer City to eliminate the enemy outside the city, he doesn't mind doing so.

"The commander is worthy of being the God of Strategy. His use and understanding of tactics are indeed beyond our reach." Duis, the leader of the Sword Brotherhood, praised Gavin.

As the enemy approached the city, their last doubts disappeared. The enemy did not deliberately set a trap for them.

As for the reason why this monster army attacked Usmer City, it was no longer important. What was important was that both sides were tied to the same rope and had the same interests in defending Usmer City.

"Great leader, you are too kind." Gavin took the opportunity to ask about the progress of their mission. "How is the evacuation of ordinary citizens in Usmer City going?"

The leader of Jianzhao said apologetically: "It's not going very well. So far, only about 40% of the citizens have responded to our call. Except for the Shadow Union and the Skeleton Gang, most of the remaining citizens don't believe that there is anyone. If the enemy wants to attack Uthmer, even if there are enemies, they should come from the sea, not from inside the giant valley.”

"Normal." Gavin nodded understandingly, "The enemy's loose formation left us more time. Now that the enemy has arrived at the city, they can't help but believe that I will send a field medical team to assist you in this matter and strive to win the battle." More than 80% of the citizens evacuated.”

It is impossible to be 100%. No matter which world you are in, there is no shortage of people who are extremely minded and have a luck mentality.

Especially when there are people who are interested in it.

They were seeking death, and no one could stop them. When the enemy really entered the city, it was too late for them to regret it.

"Leave it to me to organize the evacuation of the remaining citizens. Brady and Felican will be left to the commander. The one hundred swordsman elites and more than a thousand militiamen led by them are our swordsmen brothers. They will be formed together with the citizens of Uxmail. Although they cannot charge into the battle, they all have good archery skills. They can be used to defend the city and delay it for a while." Duis pointed at the people behind him. Jun Jun said.

Although this army was put together temporarily, its equipment was quite good.

Needless to say, the sword stabbing elites are all heavily armored soldiers wearing Far Eastern Mingguang armor. This time they are no longer holding sticks, but matching sophisticated weapons. Armed to the teeth, with both long-range bows and arrows and short-range weapons, they are the foundation upon which the Brotherhood of Sword and Thorn stands.

The remaining 1,000 militiamen had different types of armor, including animal skin armor and heavy cotton armor, but their weapons were basically the same, equipped with long bows and spears.

At a glance, you can tell that a lot of the equipment has just been taken out of the weapons depot and distributed, and it still has a strong smell of tung oil.

As for the source, it is naturally the Sword and Thorn Brotherhood.

In order to defend the city of Uxmail, the Sword Thorn Brotherhood also spent a lot of money.

"Thank you for your great help, Chief. I will make reasonable use of them and ensure their safety as much as possible." Gavin's evaluation of the three leaders of the Sword and Thorn Brotherhood involuntarily improved by one point.

Although they come from the market, they still have some necessary responsibilities.

While seeing their bullying and domination of the city of Usmail, we cannot ignore their management and protection of the city.

Gang rules, even in the absence of laws, are also an effective management method.

"Commander, you are out of touch when you say this. This is our city, and we also have the responsibility to protect it!" Duis said with a look of shame, "But our abilities are limited. In a short period of time, we can only organize such With more than one manpower, we can only choose where to start. In the end, it all depends on you, Commander."

Then he turned around and said, "Brady, Felican, next, you must obey the commander's orders completely. He tells you to move forward. You must not retreat or disgrace our brotherhood."

"Here!" Brady and Felican responded loudly, performing a chest-beating military salute.

"Okay, to be polite, I won't say any more." Gavin was not polite and directly arranged for them to enter the battlefield. "These hundred swordsmen are led by Chief Felican and are on standby at the city gate. The Thousand Militiamen were led by Chief Brady into the city defense. They formed a small team of ten and joined the Giant Valley Rangers and Rangers to supplement their long-range firepower. All the arrows you carried were soaked in oil and modified into Rocket."

After a pause, Gavin turned to Duis and said, "Big Chief, I still need you to organize a few hundred soldiers to go to the warehouse, soak the arrows there in oil, modify them into rockets, and be ready to transport them to the city wall at any time. Come up, we have to prepare for a protracted war.”

The first batch of the Kingdom of Cormyr fleet delivered not only food, but also a large amount of military supplies, of which arrows were naturally indispensable. Tens of millions of arrows were enough to support a large-scale war.

It's just that ordinary arrows have very limited damage to those activated plants and must be modified into rockets.

"This is simple, I'll start preparing now." Duis promised, patting his chest.

"Then please, enter the battlefield." Gavin waved his hand towards Brady.

"Here!" Brady shouted again, "Follow me."

Under his leadership, these thousand temporarily armed militiamen surged onto the low earthen wall of Usmail City.

The situation on the city wall made the citizens of Uxmail couldn't help but exclaim, "How is this possible?!"

The city of Usmail was built based on the terrain. It is like a sword, piercing the Eastern Gulf. It is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and only one side is connected to the land. It is wrapped by a city wall about one and a half kilometers long.

There are far more threats from the sea than from the land.

Coupled with very limited financial resources, this one and a half kilometer city wall was built bit by bit over decades and was made of a mixture of earth and stone.

Now the earthen wall has disappeared and been replaced by a brand new stone wall.

"Turn mud into stone! This is using the magic of turning mud into stone, turning our original earthen city wall into a stone city wall."

"The one and a half kilometer long wall was all turned into stone using the spell of turning mud into stone. This required at least hundreds of spellcasters to achieve this."

"Hundreds of five-ring spells? Wouldn't the spellcasting materials alone cost millions? If we could have taken out half of them, we could have built a similar stone wall."

"Just based on this, I am full of confidence in the next defense. It is not easy for those monsters that lack wisdom to break through its defense."

Some people who knew the goods guessed what was going on in an instant. This was the result of the spellcasting enhancement by those extraordinary druids.

For a moment, their morale was greatly boosted.

Because this not only meant that they had enough protection, but also meant that there were a large number of spellcasters fighting alongside them.

The stone wall was not empty, but was already full of defenders, and there was more than one wave, because they had very different clothes.

Most of the people in one group wore dark brown animal skin armor, their faces were painted with oil paint, and they carried scattered animal bones, feathers and other ornaments, or carried two swords, or inserted a short sword, and held a longbow in their hands.

Not far away, there was either a ferocious hound or a wild wolf, or even a tiger or a black bear. The light flashing in their eyes was not wild, but with wisdom. Even when they saw strangers, they did not show much aggression.

These people in Usmer City recognized their identities at a glance, because they were locals of the Giant Valley, the rangers of the Giant Valley. They were the most important defense force of the Giant Valley besides the druids, and they were also the most frequently seen.

If there was an influx of monsters or darkness in the Giant Valley, the rangers closest to the place would usually investigate. When they found that they could not solve it by their own strength, they would contact the druids.

They are respected wherever they go in the Giant Valley, because their protection of the Giant Valley is spontaneous, without any profit demands. On the contrary, they often give the extra prey they hunt to the poor people.

The Usmer people instinctively feel close to them and walk towards them involuntarily.

The rangers who are adjusting their bowstrings, sharpening their weapons with whetstones, or slowly chewing dried meat, when they see them walking towards them, most of them just respond in silence, and very few will nod in a friendly manner.

The Usmer people are not surprised by this. These rangers have been running around in the wilderness all year round, and the time they spend dealing with wild beasts and monsters is far more than dealing with people. Most of them have developed a taciturn temperament, but their superb archery and rich combat skills are trustworthy, because the failed rangers have long been eliminated by the cruel wilderness.

The other group of people were obviously not from the Giant Valley. Their equipment was very uniform. They were all equipped with double-layer armor, chain mail inside and a thick cotton armor outside. They did not hold weapons, but were assembling huge city defense crossbows.

Like the city defense crossbows, they were brought by Commander Gavin, and the latter was also part of the military supplies.

There were so many of them that there were nearly 200 crossbows on the short 1,500-meter city wall, which was one for every 10 steps.

The last group of people were short and strong, with red skin that was unique to the plateau. The men had more or less tattoos on their bodies, and most of the women had veils covering their faces. There was no other family in the whole of Faerun that had this unique custom except the Leathermen.

There were about a thousand rangers, and there were also a thousand crossbow operators from the valley. There were slightly fewer Leathermen, about 500, plus the Usmer people who had just climbed the city wall.

Three thousand five hundred people filled the entire city wall.

"The beasts are coming, and these monsters are going to drive the beasts to attack the city walls."

"We must not let the beasts get too close. Even if the stone walls block their rampage, those monsters will kill them wantonly, and let their corpses pile up under the walls, which can become their springboards, allowing them to easily rush up the walls. With just a few of us, we can't withstand the one-time attack of thousands of monsters."

"You are so smart, you are a green hand who has never been on the battlefield, but you can figure it out. Do you think the commander chosen by the Lady of Strategy will not understand it? Calm down, calm down, calm down. Look at those rangers, which one of them is as loud as you?"

"They seem to be very close to the city wall, that's because they are so powerful and we are in a high position. In fact, their closest one is also 500 meters away. Outside, far beyond the attack range of the city defense crossbow cart, let alone arrows. "

"Don't judge the distance with your naked eyes. See the small bumps on the ground. Those are the small bumps that the commander sent people to pile up in advance to help judge the distance. The largest and highest one is located at one kilometer, and then one every 100 meters. After 300 meters, one every 50 meters.

This method is only useful now. Wait, when the ground is completely covered with enemies and corpses, other methods will be needed to assist in identifying the distance.

This telescope is a good thing. It has a built-in distance identification function.

If there is no such auxiliary equipment, it will rely on the crossbow range and bow and arrow range for marking. Bow and arrow test distance is an introductory course for archers. I don't think I need to teach you. "

"So there is such a mystery in it. Thank you for your teachings. "

"This is your first time on the battlefield, so it's normal that you don't understand some of the little tricks. You just need to remember the first point of militia training. All actions should be subject to command. Shoot when you are told to, draw your gun when you are told to, and dodge when you are told to. Don't worry about whether you hit the target or not, and don't worry about why you do it. Just listen to me."

"Understood."