Under the command of their commander, the catapults and ballistae on the city wall diverted some of their firepower to suppress the skeletal mortar positions.
The holy water-blessed boulder crashed into the mortar array, and pale golden flames exploded in the sea of bones, crushing several bone mortars along with the necromancers who controlled them.
The crossbow bolts were specifically designed to target necromancers, piercing their magical shields and pinning their skeletons to the ground.
After a salvo, more than a dozen gaps were blasted open in the sea of bones, and shattered bones and twisted remains of bone cannons were scattered all over the ground.
But after the necromancer paused firing the mortars, he waved his staff, and hundreds of shadow arrows rose from behind the sea of bones, accurately intercepting some of the projectiles and shattering the boulders in mid-air.
The two sides exchanged long-range firepower in the air, with explosions and the sound of air being torn apart echoing one after another.
"The 300-meter line!"
The siege towers have advanced to within range of the arrows.
The gray-robed crossbowmen on the city wall simultaneously raised their crossbows, and thousands of crossbows formed a dense firing formation behind the battlements. The crossbowmen knelt behind the battlements, with the crossbows resting on their shoulders, and their sights aimed at the undead archers on top of the siege towers.
The longbowman stood on a high platform behind the crossbowmen, his bow already strung, the arrow tip pointing diagonally forward.
The blessing of the holy light canopy increased their range from 200 meters to 300 meters, and the arrows left pale golden trails in flight.
"put!"
Crossbow bolts and longbow arrows were released simultaneously, raining down on the advancing bone siege towers.
The arrows struck the tower, producing a series of sharp, cracking sounds, and shards of bone flew everywhere.
The undead archers at the top of the tower were struck by arrows and fell one after another, but they also fought back as they fell.
The long-range enhancements of the Bone Siege Towers also extend their range to 300 meters.
Grayish-white bone arrows shot from the tower's top platform toward the city wall, clashing with a rain of golden arrows in the air.
On the crenellations of the city wall, crossbowmen and archers fell one after another, their arrows striking the ground.
Just as a gray-robed crossbowman finished firing an arrow, before he could even crouch down to reload, a bone arrow pierced through his shoulder blade.
He groaned and leaned against the battlement. His companion grabbed his belt and dragged him to the base of the wall.
He struggled to get up, but his companion pressed down on his chest: "Don't move, the priest is coming right away!"
Before the priest even arrived, a second volley of bone arrows came.
"Shields!" The garrison infantrymen behind the crenellations raised their heavy shields and stood in front of the crossbowmen, the bone arrows striking the shields with a clanging sound.
As the arrows rained down, the army of skeletons on the ground had already reached the 100-meter line.
The earth trembled violently, and hundreds of bone snakes suddenly rose from the ground.
Their thick spines twisted like giant pythons, slamming into the outer wall of the city from different angles, creating steep slopes at 42 degrees on the vertical wall.
The bones make a screeching sound when subjected to force, but the bone snake's structure is extremely stable. Even if it is cracked by rolling stones falling from the city wall, it will heal quickly within seconds.
The first wave of skeleton soldiers began frantically climbing the bone snake slope.
Fifty thousand skeleton soldiers surged towards the city wall from hundreds of bone snakes, the gray-white bone tide rising up the city wall like a waterfall flowing backward.
Behind the skeleton soldiers, a second echelon of ten thousand undead warriors followed closely behind, wielding bone swords and bone shields, interspersed with a small number of death knights riding skeleton warhorses.
"Rolling stones! Boiling oil!" the commander on the city wall shouted the order.
Huge boulders were pushed out from behind the ramparts, rolling down the bone snake slope with a roar, crushing the climbing skeleton soldiers into pieces.
Immediately afterwards, scalding hot oil poured down from the city wall, seeping into the gaps between the bones, and torches were thrown down in quick succession.
The flames instantly spread along the bone snake slope, burning large numbers of skeletons into charred skeletons.
But the skeletons behind them continued to climb, stepping on the remains of their comrades. Before the flames had died down, new skeletons had already crossed the wall of fire.
"Halberdmen! Front ranks!" On the city wall, the commander of the kingdom's halberdmen drew his longsword and pointed it at the crenellations.
Thousands of halberdiers lined up along the inner side of the city wall, standing in three rows.
The first row of halberds were held horizontally, their tips extending beyond the crenellations, forming a dense steel fence on the outside of the city wall.
The skeleton soldiers who climbed up were pierced through the eye sockets or sternums by halberds as soon as they appeared at the top of the ramparts, and bone fragments flew everywhere.
The second and third rows stood ready, prepared to fill any gaps left in the front.
"Guard infantry! Block the slope!"
The garrison infantry, with shields in front and guns behind, blocked the junction of the Bone Snake Slope and the city wall.
Their shields were pressed tightly against the edge of the ramparts, and spears pierced through the gaps in the shields, stabbing the skeleton soldiers who tried to climb over the ramparts back onto the slope.
A skeleton soldier grabbed onto a spear shaft and tried to climb up, but the infantryman behind the shield suddenly exerted force and threw it violently off the city wall.
The battle on the city wall erupted simultaneously on the slopes of hundreds of bone snakes.
The skeletons climbed incredibly fast, constantly assaulting the lines of halberdiers and garrison infantry.
Every second, skeletons are stabbed or hacked down, but every second, new skeletons are brought up from below the slope.
...
The fiercest fighting took place on a bone snake slope near the middle of the city wall.
Zhao Tiedun's heavy shield slammed into the edge of the crenellation, and a purple light wall burst forth from the shield, sealing off the entire exit of the slope.
In the middle of the slope, three necromancers hovered in mid-air, their bone staffs glowing purple at the same time, and three shadow arrows shot towards the light wall in a fan shape.
The Shadow Arrow struck the light barrier, blasting open a large cloud of black mist, causing the shield to tremble violently.
“Pastor!” Zhao Tiedun did not turn around.
Behind him, the young female priest in white robes had already raised her staff, and a soft white light fell, pulling back the blood that had been scattered by the impact.
"Old Li!" Zhao Tiedun roared again.
A two-handed swordsman leaped out from his left rear, unleashing a fiery slash from the sky.
The greatsword, glowing with scorching heat, slashed towards the nearest necromancer.
The archmage's purple shield rippled with dense waves the moment the blade touched it, triggering a spell deflection that slid the blade to one side, where it struck the skeletal frame of the slope with a heavy blow.
However, the aftershocks of the flames still knocked the archmage down a body length from his levitating state, causing him to briefly lose his balance in mid-air.
"Whoosh whoosh!"
Behind the battlements, nine silver arrows shot out and struck precisely the center of the necromancer's shield.
Three arrows struck, while six were deflected, instantly creating a fatal gap in the shield. The archmage's figure swayed violently while suspended in mid-air.
The pikemen on the flanks immediately filled in, their wrists swift, firing four shots in a second, two of which hit their targets precisely.
The soul fire in the necromancer's eye sockets flickered violently, and its shield was on the verge of shattering.
The pikeman twisted his wrist, attempting to pierce the shield with the tip of his spear for the final blow.
But at that very moment, two other necromancers simultaneously raised their bone staffs.
Two shadowy arrows crossed and covered the spearman's position, the dense barrage leaving him almost no room to dodge.
He was forced to abandon his gun and retreat, taking several steps back before he could barely regain his footing.
At the same time, one of the archmages released a shadow chain that tightly wrapped around the waist of his injured companion and pulled him backward.
The skeleton, about to be pierced, was pulled out of the spear's attack range by the chains and slid rapidly down the middle of the slope, falling into the dense array of skeletons behind it.
The remaining two necromancers did not linger in the fight. After covering their companions' retreat, they both retreated downwards.
Having escaped the attack range of the human melee units on the city wall, they hovered above the distant skeleton army, maintaining a safe distance from the people on the city wall.
Zhao Tiedun gripped the shield handle, watching the three floating dark gray figures settle back down in the distance.
He did not pursue, but pressed the edge of his heavy shield firmly against the wall, his gaze fixed on the gray tide that was receding again below the slope.
He couldn't chase after them; the ranks of the undead outside the city walls were too dense, and countless skeleton soldiers were waiting at the bottom of the slope.
As soon as his shield leaves the gap, a second wave of undead will refill the ramp exit within a few breaths.
"He's not dead." His voice was low and heavy with heavy breathing.
The young pastor sat leaning against the wall behind him, his staff resting on his lap, and said softly, "I'll come again."
Zhao Tiedun remained silent for a moment, his gaze hardening: "I know."
Just as the skeleton army and the defenders were locked in a fierce battle on the Bone Serpent Slope, the Bone Siege Towers finally advanced to the outside of the city walls.
