Kingdombuilding: All My Inventions Are Novelty

Chapter 173: Ready?

The clash of weapons and furious roars intertwined across the battlefield, blood soaking into the grass below.

Corpses of slave soldiers began to pile up across the land, yet wave after wave still surged forward without fear of death.

Behind them were the arrows of the reavers. In front of them were the arrows of the defenders of Dunmere. There was still a sliver of hope for survival if they could capture Dunmere. If they failed, they would all be slaughtered by the reavers.

This was the order given by Alkamite chief, Agarth, before the siege.

To survive, the slave soldiers could no longer care that the ones standing atop the walls were their own countrymen, or that behind the walls lay the land of the Eldorian Empire, and the people of the Eldorian Empire.

No. They weren’t just fighting for survival anymore. Deep in their hearts, they carried hatred, hatred for the Eldorian Empire. Hatred that when their wives and children were violated by the reavers, the Eldorian Empire had not sent its army.

They hated that when their homes were burned to the ground, the Eldorian Empire had not intervened.

They hated that when Prince Augustus committed suicide in his own castle, the Eldorian Empire had still done nothing.

That hatred festered day and night in their hearts. The nation behind the walls had become unfamiliar to them. A desire to destroy everything was growing within. ’If we must die, then let’s all die together.’

Argarth looked upon the slaves storming the walls of Dunmere with a satisfied smile. The tactic of using slave soldiers as the vanguard was widespread among the reavers, and a string of victories had elevated this strategy to a revered status.

To them, the other nations were weak. The threat of death and the longing to survive made these slaves willingly submit to the reaver’s control.

Most importantly, the slaves saw no hope of returning home.

No army could challenge reaver cavalry on the grasslands.

And occasionally, they would be indoctrinated with the belief that their king had abandoned them. This further extinguished any hope in the Eldorian Empire they might have held.

Amon was also watching the desperate struggle of the slave soldiers. His expression was complicated, a mix of sympathy and sorrow, though these feelings quickly gave way to hatred.

In the Order, many from the Eldorian Empire advised the reavers. Some were frustrated scholars, others merchants who travelled between the two nations.

Most were descendants of former slaves, already fully assimilated into reaver life. To them, the Eldorian Empire was nothing more than a distant name.

Like many merchants who frequented the grasslands, Amon believed it was only a matter of time before the reavers conquered the Eldorian Empire.

To him, the term ’reaver’ was nothing but a biased label from the Eldorian Empire. The so-called reavers were a people whose governance, civil affairs, commerce, and craft rivalled those of the Eldorian Empire, a nation with a full bureaucratic and military system.

Controlling the Hexi Corridor and the ancient Silk Road, the reavers profited massively by taxing merchants along the route.

Eldorian elites believed that the war between the reavers and the Sapphire Empire stemmed from bloodlust, but they were blind to the true reason: control over this vital trade route.

After all, the Sapphires had grown strong from this same trade. They taxed merchants heavily, inflating the cost of goods. As a result, many traders began to abandon the overland route in favour of opening new sea routes.

This had greatly frustrated the reavers and triggered the war with the Sapphire Empire.

Yet the Sapphires were strong. In defeating one thousand enemies, the reavers lost eight hundred of their own.

Amon snapped out of his thoughts and looked once more at the battlefield. The slave soldiers had already crossed the stone barricades and begun setting up scaling ladders.

What caught his attention next were the soldiers atop the city wall, all clad in full silver armour.

He turned toward Agarth, who wore a curious expression and said. "You noticed it too, didn’t you? I’ve seen similar armour in the Father’s castle. They say this kind of armour comes from the outside."

"This is my first time seeing it. I haven’t returned in a long while." Amon replied.

Agarth frowned. "This armour won’t be easy to deal with. Regular blades won’t do much to them. And forging even one suit requires a lot of silver. When did they not only learn how to make it but also produce so many of them?"

"According to what I’ve heard, Prince Simon supposedly has the forging technique. That prince is no ordinary man." Amon warned.

The reavers were nomads. A tribe was a banner: small ones were minor banners, middle ones were central banners, and large ones were great banners. Their leaders were called banner chiefs.

The Alkamite tribe was only a central banner within the Order.

For their meritorious role in the capture of the Snake Pass, the Father had granted them all the lands within.

That made this war critical for Agarth. It determined whether he could further expand his tribe’s holdings.

In recent years, the Alkamite’s population has grown rapidly. If he could conquer the fertile lands inside the pass, he believed that becoming a great banner chief was only a matter of time.

"Princes of the Eldorian Empire are all useless. So what if they’re wearing fancy armour? Can they block our arrows? Ready armour-piercing arrows." Agarth scoffed.

Seeing the slave soldiers reach the base of the wall, he waved to his cavalry.

Two thousand reaver archers immediately formed up and advanced toward the city wall.

Meanwhile, atop the wall, the soldiers of the Brambleford Army were hurling stones and logs down at the climbing slave soldiers.

Bodies fell continuously from the ladders, yet more climbed up behind them.

"Boiling oil!" Bellowed Benjamin, watching the battlefield unfold.

The slave soldiers charged with no thought for their lives. Arrows flew like a forest of thorns. The wounded lay groaning, only to be trampled by the next wave.

Inside the wall, boiling oil had already been prepared. At the order, support troops carried the burning cauldrons up to the ramparts.

These were meant to destroy the ladders. As long as the ladders held, the slave soldiers would continue to climb.

Prince Simon had been studying the battlefield closely. At that moment, he noticed the reaver archers advancing.

But this wasn’t what concerned him most.

He had also spotted slave soldiers digging at the base of the wall.

"You four, take out those diggers!"

Prince Simon ordered a team of crossbowmen to fire on the slave soldiers beneath the wall. Their aim was clear: plant explosives to breach the defences.

The crossbowmen obeyed, and with screams rising from below, the diggers fell one by one in pools of blood.

At the same time, the reaver archers drew nearer, clearly aiming to cover the ongoing assault.

Prince Simon drew in a sharp breath and shouted. "Trebuchets! Load the gunpowder jars!"