City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)
Book 6 - The Beauty Of Smoke And Fire Chapter 118

Crushing Might

Hundreds of treants wasn’t much of a threat, but this was only the first wave of the offence; one could imagine just how many more lay in wait. The treants forged ahead with big rocks in their hands and on their backs, ready to throw them out once they got close. There was a significant amount of meadow that hadn’t been blocked up by the wall of trees, and once within two to three hundred metres of the tree of life this volley of rocks would be a dangerous attack.

Every step made the earth quake, causing many of the evernight elves to pale. Their arrows were sharp, but certainly not sharp nor long enough to pierce into the tree hearts and take these treants down. Besides, these young treants that were only just activated by druids weren’t very important to the offensive at all; fighting them with one’s own would just be a battle of mana wherein they were at a significant disadvantage.

Just the first wave left the Evernight Tribe in despair. Many of the hunters even put down their longbows and pulled out their swords, gritting their teeth behind the wall of trees as they prepared for a close fight. One needed heavy weapons like hammers and axes to properly fight treants, but the tribe did not have a supply of those.

However, while the elves were making their peace, the true defenders made their own move. More than a hundred beautiful streaks of light lit up the sky once the treants were a kilometre away, various kinds of aura twined around javelins that flew faster than arrows to smash into the frontlines. These spears were so powerful that some even took out two trees in one go, and there were ones with dark red glows that lit them aflame. Others with a black aura caused the treants to start rotting away in place, while even more just blew the trees apart.

These javelins were naturally from the rune knights, nearly every one destroying its target. The knights that didn’t hold back had even destroyed two or more treants in one blow.

The defenders immediately pulled out their second set of javelins, showing no trace of panic at all. Richard was watching everything from above, and he hadn’t even deigned it necessary to enter the field himself yet. Once they were prepared, Alice’s voice rang out behind them, “Cover with black powder, add flame energy, throwing strength at two-thirds. Prepare… FIRE!”

The moment she had called for the use of gunpowder, the rune knights had dipped their javelins in tubs of the catalyst used to light stonewood. Winding up once more, they had thrown the mass of now-blackened weapons towards the treants. The rear end of the javelin started burning halfway to the target, and in the few moments it took to travel the rest of the way this flame made its way towards the tip. The lowered-strength attack wasn’t enough to pierce all the way through the javelins did reach the tree heart. This flame was extraordinarily fierce, consuming the treant in only a brief few moments. The targets were all lit up and could only rush forth a dozen metres before crashing into the ground.

A strange scream resounded through the meadow, an unknown mix of anger and fear; although they had little wisdom due to their youth, these new treants still valued their lives. Over the next 200 metres, just as many treants met their demise. Alice was only using 150 rune knights to repel this part of the offensive; the rest were spread out in all the other directions.

The actions of the rune knights were rather monotonous, but that only added to the terror of their might. By the time they were only half a kilometre away, more than 800 treants had burnt to death. The threat had been completely neutralised before even one of the treants managed to throw their stone.

The rune knights started to stretch and relax, but the evernight elves could barely believe their own eyes. A force of a thousand treants that could easily level their tribe had been finished off before they could even attack! It was also clear that they had been restricted to using two-thirds of their power, but even so the elves knew those javelins would be impossible to resist before the power of those flames were even considered.

The forest went silent, even the enemies hidden within the woods not making a noise. One hundred druids had spent most of their mana to summon these thousands of treants, but they had actually failed to even make it halfway? The two great druids of the Evernight Tribe looked at each other and saw the fear in their eyes; Richard’s army seemed to be made of killing machines that were born for war. Even in bear form these druids weren’t confident in blocking more than one or two of those javelins before they died; against these 150, it felt like even the Jadeleaf Tribe’s legendary druid would be killed.

The druid who was once in Greyfeather’s camp felt a chill running down his spine. With such an army, Richard would have been able to take over the tribe even with Grand Elder Tzu still alive; how on earth would they have held off against his attacks even if the Duskword Tribe helped?

A short while later, the earth started shaking once more. Hundreds of treants stepped out as before, but this time they were protecting nearly a hundred high-level hunters behind them. These hunters could fire from 800 metres away, and the arrows shot towards the rune knights with doubled power thanks to the blessings of the druids. The volley ran parallel to the ground, possessing such great power that the earth below the arrows was ripped apart.

“BARRIERS!” Alice shouted behind the lines, her short red hair standing up. Dozens of rune knights stepped forward, pairing up in groups of two as they placed their tower shields before them. The long arrows were slowed down by an invisible force, and by the time they struck the knights they were greatly weakened. Only two of the barrier knights were sent flying away, but even those two just flipped over and landed on the ground; the injuries were minor at best.

On the other end, more than a dozen saint hunters paled, some even coughing up blood. These arrows took a huge toll on their reserves, and at least for some time they wouldn’t have the strength to fight anymore. Their eyes were wide with shock; how could the full blow of more than a dozen saints not manage to kill even a single enemy?

These saints were puzzled and angry, but they were forced to retreat. Now, they were even weaker than regular hunters and could not contribute to the battle. However, just as they tried to escape another volley of javelins was lobbed in their direction. In only a few moments the treants protecting the elves had turned into a wall of fire that blocked their retreat, and in the distance the rune knights could be seen lining up to charge.