“Re-open the barrier!”

Given that the number of pecker orcs had decreased, Wizard Calder decided to re-open the miracle wall’s defense. The orcs would definitely go with the “corpse explosion.” They were planning to detonate the piles of the dead pecker orcs’ bodies to do that, which were exactly why the two sharpshooters went up.

Soon, twenty black-hooded orc priests came closer with their mounts. They didn’t even wait for all of the pecker orcs to die. They were planning to use the corpse explosion even when some were still trying to make it to the miracle wall.

On the other hand, the two sharpshooters were standing next to two giant war machines. Each of them was accompanied by two ice element knight commanders, who were supposed to keep a close watch in case the enemies attacked.

The sharpshooter Hector called towards the sharpshooter Manuel, “Hey! You up for another competition today? Let’s see who gets more heads.”

“Ha!” Manuel laughed out loudly, “You old idiot, Hector! When’s the last time you’ve ever beat me? Fine, I’ll bet a bottle of good wine on this one!”

When the covers were taken off, two giant war ballistas were revealed on top of the Miracle City wall. They were many times bigger than normal ballistas.

Hector continued to laugh, “Good to see you again there!”

It was not a sunny day today. The clouds were up all day and night, and that was how long this battle had taken so far. The only bright thing was the lightning circles that were placed on the miracle walls. While the orcs found it hard to look at it directly, it gave them a very good sense of direction.

And no, the two sharpshooters weren’t going to be reloading the arrows. They were too old for that. Instead, each of them had two very strong knights to do the loading.

Hector was ready. He was standing behind his own giant ballista. The arrows were loaded. The gears were turned so that the string was right in front of him. His eyes were just as sharp as him during his younger days, if not sharper. With his hands full of warts, he grabbed onto the handle and placed his foot on the activation petal.

And there. A quick, deafening streak went piercing towards the enemy. It wasn’t from Hector, though. It was from Manuel. He decided to take the first shot. Hector wasn’t too distracted by that. His aim was still steady, and so were his hands.

Two shots flew, one after the other. They weren’t all that visible whilst midair. The lighting circle was directly in the orcs’ face, making it hard for them to defend against the incoming wave.

One black-hooded priest was just about to get closer to the miracle city with his mount. If he was about two hundred meters close, so he thought, it’d be possible for him to take full advantage of his “corpse explosion” spell. One of the arrows went through his heart, however. He only realized as he felt his hair standing on his skin.

Before he fell, he saw another of his comrades being hit by the same arrow. His life ended then. Hector was not very affected when he saw this. He was like a machine, neither gladdened nor sad to see two soldiers being stopped by his shooting.

Soon, two strong knights loaded the arrows for Hector again. There were about ten or more black-hooded priests that were getting closer to the miracle wall. There were about four that were killed by the sharpshooters. However, there was only one that was killed by other knights that were using the city ballista. These orc priests were really something. Not only were they experienced, but the speed of their mounts also made it extremely hard to snipe them from afar.

Still, even after knowing about the sharpshooters’ existence, the remaining black-hooded priests marched on. The command they received told them to do so. In a war of this magnitude, even the highest-ranked soldiers must put their lives on the line. They could return if they wanted to, but that would be a betrayal of the army, and the punishment would be execution.

There was even a more devastating fact than that. All the orcs heard about it before they participated in this war. If they failed to seize Miracle City this time, most of them and their families would starve due to a lack of food. There was literally no turning back for them. They were the most combative race on the Holy Continent, but the humans had all of the lushest pieces of land. If Miracle CIty was taken, they would finally be able to take control of this desperate situation.

Which was why the black-hooded priests didn’t stop using “corpse explosion” spells. The more that it was triggered, the more the giant miracle wall began to shake. The sharpshooters were all that affected by this, though. The ground below them started to tremble, but they continued to fire at the black-hooded priests that were making this happen.One by one, they went for the heads of the black-hooded priests that were in their sight. Two minutes passed in total. After that, the miracle wall went from being deafeningly loud to dead silent. All of the black-hooded priests were taken down. The sharpshooters managed to do it when the barrier was still barely on.

Unfortunately, though, the quietness lasted shorter than they wanted it to be. Countless carts started to appear on the orc battlefield. They all looked very simple in their design. Some of them looked like they could barely be pulled.

The purpose was very simple: once these carts were about 250 meters away from the miracle wall, they would drop the rocks they were carrying and return to the back. Meanwhile, about 400 meters away from the miracle wall, tens of black-hooded priests would prepare themselves to cast even more “corpse explosions.”

Of course, Wizard Calder knew exactly what it was that the orcs were trying to do. He couldn’t do much about it, however. The orcs were simply too far away. The ones pulling the carts were just regular orcs. It wasn’t worth it to shoot them with the ballistas. Worse yet, if they decided to waste the arrows on these orcs, there might be a chance that the enemy would be able to use them back.

And no, it wasn’t like the intermediate wizards could go attack them. There were just too many black-hooded priests to risk making them go on the front. Even one intermediate wizard was enough to sacrifice thousands of the regular orcs in the orcs’ mind. It was this same reason that they would use a strategy like this one.

While the orcs were about 250 meters away from the miracle wall, they began to pile up a tower with the rocks that they brought. They were trying to build a siege tower, which was supposed to be about the same height as the miracle wall itself. There had to be an endless supply of back-ups that would come and carry the needed materials for it to work. The orcs didn’t lack that, and as a result, they managed to build a whole building right in front of the humans’ eyes.

It wasn’t like the humans couldn’t do anything about it. They did have an advantage in their military technology. Once the war machines were turned on, they were pretty confident that they could destroy whatever buildings that the orcs could build within seconds.

Wizard Calder commanded, “Don’t let them do this too easily! Use catapults! I want five rounds thrown towards them, or else they will continue to damage our morale!”