A comet streaked across the sky, its long tail aiming directly at Matthew Horner and his men. The comet, with a diameter of over ten meters, was brimming with energy. Morgiana extended her hand to control the comet's power. "Mousilon's serpent, today is your end!"
However, the undead did not choose to sit idly by. Several vampire lords chanted necromantic spells in unison.
"Wind of Death!" Dense necromantic energy swept across the grounds of Spire Palace. Trees withered, the dead rose, and the ghostly wind engulfed the battlefield. Under the resistance of the Wind of Death, the descent speed of the Holy Grail Comet slowed.
Morgiana's celestial spell clashed with the deathly wind summoned by the vampire lords. The sky-blue magical wind and the black-red magical wind compressed, collided, tore, and twisted until they dissipated.
Without the Lich King Arkhan overseeing them, Mousilon's necromancers were ultimately no match for the Lake Witch. The Holy Grail Comet tore through the Wind of Death and crashed to the ground. The earth shook, and the explosion of light, fire, and magic on the swamp overwhelmed the undead's main army. The entire blast wave engulfed Matthew Horner and his men.
In the mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke, the Holy Grail Comet completed its mission.
Morgiana felt a pang of disappointment, for her summoned comet had not struck Matthew Horner. Seizing the moment of the collision between the Wind of Death and the Holy Grail Comet, Horner had already led his men to evade the strike. He personally led the Black Grail Knights, Blood Knights, and Black Knights toward the city walls.
The color of the Holy Grail instantly turned purple, and Morgiana summoned a vast poison mist to shroud Horner and his men. However, the poison mist had limited effect on vampires and the undead. Horner's elite force of over a hundred continued to approach the walls.
"Fire! Fire at them! Don't spare any bullets!" Sir Bertrand shouted from the walls, pointing at Horner and his men. "Fire at them!"
The dwarf and human gunners turned their guns, and waves of bullets engulfed Horner and his men. The sound of bullets clashing with armor echoed densely through the smoke.
"Did we succeed?" Bertrand took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on the depths of the smoke.
To his disappointment, this volley only eliminated a few Black Knights. The Blood Knights and Black Grail Knights' cursed plate armor was too sturdy for even the dwarven guns to penetrate.
Now they were charging up!
"Raise!" A Blood Knight grabbed the top of a siege ladder, directing skeleton warriors and grave guards to set it against the wall. This Blood Knight, wearing a blood dragon helmet and red spiked plate armor, roared as he landed on the wall. With a single slash, he cut a human gunner in half. "For Abel Wallace! For the Blood Dragon! For glory!"
"Ahhh!" Two nearby pikemen immediately rushed up. The Blood Knight sneered, slicing one pikeman and his pike in two, then swiftly beheading the other. With another swing, he severed the cannon's mounting on the wall. "Come on! Human scum! Show me your strength!"
"Then come!" A knight from the Duchy of Carcassonne charged at the Blood Knight. His knight's sword clashed with the Blood Knight's sharp longsword. The Blood Knight smirked, twisting his blade to throw the young knight aside, then impaled his chest with a single thrust, spraying blood everywhere.
As the knight fell from the wall with a scream, the Blood Knight reveled in the frenzy of fighting for the Blood Dragon Ancestor. "Not enough, not enough!!! Send stronger ones!"
With his actions, more Blood Knights and Black Grail Knights used similar tactics to storm the walls. The sounds of combat filled the air. Ordinary human soldiers and archers were no match for the Blood Knights and Black Grail Knights. The defenders suffered heavy casualties almost immediately. Dwarf gunners and rangers were slaughtered in succession as the undead army formed black lines, slowly climbing the walls.
Cannons could no longer fire. Even dwarf engineers and serf archers picked up weapons to fight the undead. Rangers and kingdom knights rushed to aid wherever they could, for only they could confront the Blood Knights.
A solitary Blood Knight soon faced five or six Bretonnian knights in combat. He fought fiercely until a Grail Knight finally answered the call, engaging in a champion duel and ultimately falling under the knight's blade infused with the Lady's light.
However, the ladders were already up, and the undead forces continued to flood the walls.
"Swish!" An arrow imbued with starlight arced through the air, piercing a Blood Knight's eye socket. The knight screamed, clutching his face as the starlight burned his eye.
Bertrand nocked another arrow, drew his bowstring tight, and aimed at the ladders below. The string twanged.
A starlight arrow swept across the battlefield, striking the shoulder and chest joint of a grave guard holding the ladder. The grave guard roared silently, stepped back a few paces, and fell, toppling the ladder and crushing at least a hundred undead.
But Bertrand sensed trouble. He looked up to see over a dozen ladders set against the walls. Below, a tide of undead swarmed, climbing the ladders.
There were simply too many undead! Despite the cannons and numerous guns, the outnumbered human and dwarf alliance was suffering heavy losses. Morale began to waver in many places.
"Sir Bertrand! If this continues, the castle will fall!" A soldier shouted urgently.
"We cannot retreat! We cannot retreat!" Bertrand fired arrow after arrow, his voice hoarse with desperation. "The Count raised me from a thief to this! If I retreat, I'll never forgive myself!"
"Argh!" Amidst the corpses on a section of the wall, Ryan swung Thor's Hammer to block the attack of a Black Grail Knight. These knights possessed immense undead strength. Ryan pushed the knight's sword aside and raised his hand. "Psychic Storm!"
"Ice Arrow!" In the distance, the sorceress Teresa unleashed a spell. A frostbolt struck the Black Grail Knight, encasing him in ice. The next moment, a blue lightning storm engulfed the knight.
"Skullcrusher!" Seizing the opportunity, Ryan lifted his warhammer, his muscles swelling, and lightning crackled around the hammerhead. He swung it in a wide arc. "Over!!!"
"Boom!" The warhammer smashed the Black Grail Knight's helmet, shattering the dragon-winged helm. Black blood streamed down the knight's face. As he staggered back, Ryan drew the Vengeance Goddess and impaled the knight's chest. "For the Lady! Let me end your suffering!"
Runes lit up along the Vengeance Goddess's blade. Silver flames and pale blue light purified the cursed soul. The knight's spirit softly thanked Ryan before dissipating into the air.
Ryan didn't have time to respond. He dodged as a heavy battle-axe struck where he had stood. Two grave guards were closing in, while dozens of human soldiers and a few knights' bodies lay around, with more undead climbing onto the wall.
Ryan looked up at the sky. After a whole day of fighting, it was nearing dusk, but the undead showed no signs of stopping.
The Lake Prophetesses were collectively casting divine spells to enhance the soldiers' combat abilities and heal their wounds, but they couldn't resurrect the dead. After a day of battle, Ryan's army, both soldiers and knights, was exhausted.
This was as Ryan expected. Humans couldn't match the undead in endurance, and they were outnumbered. Grail Knights were still too few, and the entire frontline was collapsing.
"Brother Ryan! We'll lose at this rate!" An exhausted Belegar slowly approached. The King of the Angrund Clan had fought from morning till night and was feeling the strain. He swung his Angrund Hammer, knocking down a grave guard, then crushed its head. "Do you have any reinforcements?"
"...Hold on, King Belegar!" Ryan and Belegar stood blocking the tower entrance. Ryan had drawn the Vengeance Goddess. "We must hold Spire Palace!"
"I know that! I'm asking if you have any backup plans!" Belegar shouted.
"There will be! Trust me!" Ryan beheaded a tomb banshee.
"I feel like you're lying to me!" Belegar shouted back.
Nearby, Morgiana's chain lightning was decimating waves of undead, turning hundreds into charred corpses. Sorceress Teresa cast the Seven-Ring Spell "Psychic Scream," a golden magical light sweeping over a hundred meters. Every undead touched by the golden aura lost control and collapsed.
Despite the defenders' valiant efforts, Spire Palace's defenders were losing ground. Heavy casualties had reduced their five-thousand-strong force to just over three thousand, and many areas were already overrun.
The battle raged on. Even the legendary knights were exhausted, and the serf soldiers were barely holding on. If it weren't for Ryan's well-prepared logistics ensuring they were well-fed, the serfs might have already given up.
On the walls, Matthew Horner thrust his Serpent Sword into a Lake Prophetess's chest, red blood staining her blue dress. Mousilon's serpent sneered, beheading the Prophetess. "Are you watching?"
Around him lay the bodies of knights, even a Grail Knight. Horner's eyes were blood-red as he glared at the battlefield.
The humans were on the verge of collapse! Horner sneered, chanting a spell to summon Mousilon's last remaining terrorgheist and a unit of bloodthirsty vargheists, preparing to deliver the final blow to the humans.
But before he could finish, a towering Black Knight, adorned with a helmet featuring a golden boar's head, wearing the ancestral armor of the Duke of Artois, and riding an undead steed, approached. "At your command, master."
"Ah, it's you, Zilfrois!" Horner smiled. "Perfect timing. I have a task that suits your expertise."
"Please command!" The Black Knight's eyes blazed with blue soul fire.
At one o'clock in the morning, the exhausted human army heard a massive crash. The gates of Spire Palace collapsed as a massive Black Knight forcibly smashed through, killing five serf pikemen instantly. He raised his lance, piercing through a knight from Montfort.
A black flood poured into the castle, engaging in brutal street fighting with the human-dwarf alliance. Horner pressed all his Blood Knights and monstrous creatures into the attack. Mousilon's last three bloodthirsty varghulfs and a terrorgheist, along with a unit of vargheists, joined the fray.
Seeing this, Ryan, still fighting on the walls, finally issued the command.
"Retreat! My soldiers, fall back to the inner keep!"
"The castle has fallen! We need to organize a second line of defense!"
"Retreat!!!"
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