The metal balls were filled with a substance that was similar to gunpowder, the only difference being that it could interact with mana, simply infusing a little bit of mana in the ball would create a reaction in the substance and it would explode in a violent fashion after a collision.
The metal balls were created by Raigon, of course, he wasn't the only one that had understood the value of the substance they called 'Licin' as there were other kingdoms that used it in a similar fashion. The explosive arrows that the kingdom used for one were something that was created with the use of the substance, the soldiers only needed to infuse the slightest amount of mana in order to activate the licin that was inside of the arrow in order for it to become an explosive one.
Not only was licin powerful when used in weapons, but it was also not volatile at all without infusing mana to it, one could light it on fire, throw it into water, and more without it being changed in any way. The reason why it was so was still unknown to the many kingdoms but they didn't really want to even know as they weren't sure that that kind of information would even be valuable in any way.
As such there was only a small amount of researchers in the whole world that studied licin. The balls were a great hit during the testing phase and Raigon immediately went to work, licin wasn't that rare in the world and most kingdoms had a good amount of it. The metal balls were able to even kill a couple of the powerful elite soldiers that made up the army, their strength, coupled with the armor they wore gave them great defense, but it still wasn't enough to survive the powerful explosion from the licin balls, that by itself was a testament of their power.
That however was still not enough to truly stop the army, the laser-like attack from before wasn't something that could be fired again in a short period of time, but for now, it would do as it would take some time for the defensive array to get patched up.
The leader and the two vice-leaders of the army quickly get to work, thanks to their high levels they were able to get to the holes and defend them, even with that however it was still risky as the explosions could still hurt them. Of course, they couldn't block all of the holes and more metal balls continued being thrown in the midst of the marching army as more soldiers died.
Compared to their numbers, however, the casualties were still quite low and they didn't need to worry too much about the metal balls as they were getting closer and closer to the wall. Before they entered the 8-meter mark from the wall however a new surprise suddenly welcomed them.
The earth suddenly erupted as multiple spiked pillars emerged, each of the pillars was about 10 meters tall and about 2 meters wide, right after emerging the pillars erupted with mana as an almost invisible curtain of mana had formed and connected all of them. The army stopped for a brief moment as they expected the pillars, nobody knew what exactly the pillars nor to mana curtain could do but the leader grit his teeth and ordered his army forward. Nobody hesitated as all of the soldiers started marching in unison once again.
The second that the defensive array and the mana curtain touched however there was a reaction, electricity sparked between the two as the army found out that they could no longer continue forward, the soldiers could but the defensive array was blocked by the mana curtain. It was obvious to them now that this was something that was built specifically for countering the defensive array, it wasn't very surprising as everybody knew that the defensive arrays the kingdom of Irtil could make were always a headache for their enemies.
The only question in the minds of the soldiers and the leader of the army was simple, why were they not told that the kingdom of Riplas had something like this?
Well, the answer to that is obvious, because nobody knew. This was actually the first time that the totems had been used, the creator of the totems was not Raigon this time, well he was the one to come up with the idea but he had no clue of how to create such a device.
It was one of the kingdom's blacksmiths that came up with the idea. By utilizing the great manpower of the kingdom and the many talented blacksmiths of the kingdom they were able to actually create such a counter to the defensive array. The pillars could create a curtain of mana that was similar to the defensive array, when the two would come into contact it would be similar to steel touching steel, none would budge and the army that was being shielded by the defensive array would be forced to stop and they would be faced with two choices.
One choice was to get out of the array and attack the pillars, each one was quite tough and it wouldn't be hard to take them down, not to mention that they would be forced to defend against attacks while trying to destroy the pillars. The other choice was to simply charge at the enemy without the defense provided by the defensive array.
The same went for the army right now, they could either try to attack and destroy the pillars now or they could simply charge toward the wall, it was only about 8 meters away and they could get there incredibly quickly. The problem would however surface after that, the leader of the army was certain that this wasn't all that Raigon had prepared and was certain that there would be more surprises in store for them at the wall.
The leader quickly went out of the defensive array with the 2 vice-leaders, each of them charging at the pillars in order to destroy them swiftly. A hail of arrows fell down from the many watchtowers and hit the defensive array, the holes were still not patched up and some of the arrows manage to get in and deal some damage to the soldiers.
Metal balls continued falling down and exploding as some of the soldiers had switched their aim down toward the leader and the powerful combatants of the army who had charged out in order to destroy the pillars quickly. Suddenly 3 large arrows were launched toward one of the vice-leaders who promptly dodged two before using his spike bat in order to block the last one.
One of the arrows came from Dain while the other 2 were from some ballistae that were mounted on top of the walls, of course, it wasn't only 2 ballistae as more huge arrows were launched at the leader and other top combatants.
Previously they didn't use the ballistae that were carefully hidden on the wall, the reason for that was simply to hide another means of attack from the army who had started their march a bit too comfortable thanks to the defensive array they had around them. Without the protection of the array however, the ballistae could be used to attack the powerful people that had gone out of the array and bother them while they tried to destroy the pillars.
Even though the ballistae were powerful, they wouldn't really be that dangerous to the top combatants of the enemy army, each of them was incredibly powerful and perhaps only the weakest amongst them would face a lot of pressure because of it. The leader for example was barely bothered by the huge arrows as he was able to easily dodge them before attacking the pillar.
His scimitar shone a dark red color as he brought it down on the pillar that shook after the collision. The incredible attack managed to cut a small part of the pillar and shake it roughly, right after finishing the attack the leader jumped to the side as two arrows had arrived.
He flashes a quick smile before attacking the pillar once again, only to widen his eyes as he felt an incredible sense of danger coming from his left. He quickly twisted his waist and attacked on the left.
Clang!
Bzzzzz
A lightning-clad Reign had appeared next to him and with the help of his [ Lightning Stab ], he was able to not only catch the leader by surprise but also send him flying back for a couple of meters after the initial collision.
The leader had a grave look on his face as he looked at Reign, the attack was enough to make him sense danger and from what he could see this wasn't Reign going all out. He had been told by a messenger before that there could potentially be a powerful person at the fortification, and now he knew who they were talking about.
Reign was without a doubt a fighter at a similar level to him, but that didn't make him worried however as he licked his mouth while looking at Reign with a savage expression on his face.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel