Close Combat Mage

Chapter 243 - Powerful Magic Machine Part 1

The victor of the third Dawn battle was once again Dawn. But this time, they finally suffered casualties. In addition, the casualties hadn’t come from the direction of the back walls, but the front ones.

From the beginning of the battle, the people at the front gates had suffered from powerful attacks. The 36 Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes alone couldn’t block all of the enemy’s main force. Thus, the swordsmen and the slave pike users could only try to hold them back and completely seal the city walls.

Originally, Suo Jia and the others had thought that the 10,000 crossbow holders with the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes would definitely be able to protect the city walls to the point where it was invulnerable to attack. However, they had all overlooked the fact that Dawn wasn’t the only one that had a mid-ranged attack force.

Although the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes and the others had already fought very hard, especially the Frost Wyrm, which hadn’t rested for an entire night, the enemy had been too strong. Those 2000 experts from the opposite direction was equivalent to the frontal assault’s normal soldiers. Even though Dawn’s forces had tried their hardest to resist, they were unable to block the enemy’s powerful attack.

Fortunately, the swordsmen had been able to go against them with their crossbows to support the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes. However…when the enemy all pulled out daggers, the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes suddenly realized that these while these guys didn’t have crossbows, they had knife-throwing skills. Each one of the enemy’s men had an effective shooting range of 50 meters, just like the crossbow users!

Just like that, Dawn Army began to suffer from casualties. It was pretty much one life lost for every one of the enemy’s lives. Both Dawn Army’s and the enemy’s sides had lost a lot of people. By dawnbreak, Dawn’s frontal defense force had dwindled from 20,000 men to 4,000 men, with 16,000 or more injured.

Suo Jia shook as he glared in fury at the 100 meters of completely crimson-soaked city walls in front of him. He hadn’t realized, really hadn’t even imagined, that the enemy would be so powerful, and would deal so much damage to Dawn. This was something that Suo Jia refused to accept.

Although the enemy gotten that much either, and left 30,000 or more corpses behind, Suo Jia still refused to accept this outcome. He stared at into the unclear, hazy skies outside the gates, and tightly clenched his fists; there would eventually be a day where he’d demand for repayment!

The battle’s statistics were quickly totaled. 16,000 soldiers had been sacrificed outside the front gates, while 33,000 enemies had died. It was pretty much a 1:2 ratio. On the opposite side however, they hadn’t lost a single person. 100,000 enemies had been killed that night, basically completely eliminating the enemy force’s presence.

However, Suo Jia knew that the war hadn’t ended yet. Based on the information from mounted scouts, Oz City’s area still had 400,000 men currently gathering in Dawn’s direction. It was clear to see that Karuda wouldn’t admit defeat. Once he did, the border area’s reputation would be completely lost. No matter what, he had to obtain victory in this war.

Suo Jia turned around and rushed towards the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes’ training area. Last night’s battle had been too bitter; all the enemies they had faced were much stronger than them. Suo Jia didn’t even understand how they had lasted.

When Suo Jia entered the training area and glanced around, he saw that the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes were all sitting on the ground in exhaustion, with haggard faces. Although their spirit power, physical power, and battle qi had all been restored by the potions, their mental exhaustion was incurable.

Suo Jia walked up to Duo Mei and asked in concern, “How are you, Duo Mei? You must be really tired from last night’s battle, right?

“Yea…” Duo Mei nodded weakly and said with a fearful expression, “The enemy was really too powerful, to a point where it was impossible to believe. Even the normal enemy soldiers were more powerful than the 2,000 experts on the opposite side. As for the slightly more formidable elite soldiers, they were so mighty that it only induced fear. In reality, if we hadn’t activated the Fire Phoenix equipment set’s effects, we wouldn’t have been able to endure a single hit.”

“That…” Suo Jia stared in astonishment. If the enemy was really that powerful, then Dawn was in danger. Just the people left were enough to completely eliminate Dawn Army.

Of course, Suo Jia could also transfer the 5,000 pike users outside the city gates. But if he did that, Dawn would most likely collapse right then. Once the enemy experts passed over the wall, they would be able to threaten Dawn’s archery formations. If the city walls were lost, Dawn was doomed. Just defending the gates was meaningless.

Suo Jia’s frown grew deeper and deeper as he pondered the issue for a long time. With their current strength, Suo Jia knew that there was no way they could defend the city. It looked like they could only put their hopes on those 1000 Magic Automatons now!

Suo Jia didn’t waste any time, and quickly stood up to leave the training area. He rushed over to the alchemy lab within the city lord’s mansion. At this point, he could only rely on the Magic Automatons!

By reading the recorded notes, Suo Jia understood these Magic Automatons’ abilities. In reality, they weren’t really automatons, but more like machine-operated type objects.

Actually, these so-called Magic Automatons used a fixed array to activate their machine’s systems. By responding to energy, temperature, and life signs, they probed their surroundings to find the enemy. After searching through all the energy, temperature, and life sign readings within a certain perimeter, these Magic Automatons would automatically begin to move. By extracting energy from the magic cores within them, they would initiate attacks on the enemy! Even if it was their owner that entered the attack range, they would still become a target. They didn’t actually have a consciousness, or any intelligence.

Of course, that didn’t mean real Magic Automatons didn’t exist. They really did exist, but…the ones that Suo Jia had obtained were definitely not them, they were just mechanical bodies.

As the great battle had just passed, Suo Jia knew that there would definitely be a few days of intermittence. If he wasn’t able to release the Magic Automatons appropriately within these few days, Dawn would be forced to lose a large number of soldiers again in the next battle.

Suo Jia immediately called upon the whole city’s forces to begin changing the outside walls. A large amount of rocks were extracted and shipped to the opposite walls. The construction followed the records to establish an area for the automatons to be able to respond in. At the same time, Suo Jia chose 1,000 smarter and intelligent slave soldiers to specially defend these Magic Automatons. There was a three-shift system every day so that every person only had to guard them for 1 hour before going off to rest.

Although the project was extremely large, Dawn had tons of people. After working day and night for an entire week, the hundred meter long city walls were finally finished being fixed up. As Suo Jia looked at the imposing walls, he nodded in satisfaction; this time, he wasn’t afraid of anyone attacking them.

After the modifications, the city walls were 20 meters in height, and as wide as a small mountain. Starting from 2 meters, each level had a Magic Automaton that could release blazing fireballs. There were a total of 9 levels, and each level shot 100 fireballs. The firepower was so concentrated that even if Suo Jia went, he’d be instantly turned into slag.

However, the arrangements didn’t end there. On the top of the city walls were 100 speed-type harvesters. These guys were extremely fast, and held two blades in their hands. Their whole bodies were invulnerable, and even if they were damaged, Suo Jia could immediately repair them. It wasn’t hard because they were machines, not real automatons.

Looking out from the distance at the 20 meter tall city walls filled with rows and columns of black holes made anyone feel terrified.

The 200 meter circumference in front of the city walls were all paved with rocks as glossy as mirrors. Two mounds had been built up by piling thick slabs, forming an 100 meter wide and 200 meter long plaza! This plaza was the response area that all the Magic Automatons could sense in. Once the enemy entered this plaza, the Magic Automatons would fire 900 fireballs at them. Basically, unless the owner allowed them, even Divine Warriors couldn’t possibly cover that area.

Although the city walls had already become so stable, Suo Jia still didn’t dare to relax, and he re-established another 10,000 swordsmen to guard the place for a long time. Each of the swordsmen were given a crossbow. That way, even if the enemy managed to break through the Magic Automatons area, they wouldn’t be able to immediately seize Dawn, which gave Dawn Army enough time to deploy another team.

Just as Suo Jia had predicted, the third night after the Magic Automatons had been positioned, the enemy once again charged at Dawn while attacking from both sides simultaneously. But this time, Suo Jia was well prepared; he was 100% confident in Dawn City’s ability to face the enemy.

First, Suo Jia dispatched the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes and the Frost Wyrm to the back wallside. Just as the enemy came rushing through, they jumped down from the city walls to intercept the enemy’s vanguards underneath.

Next, the 5000 pike users remained stationed at the rear city walls, waiting to be sent out at any given time. If the enemy broke through the city walls, the pike users would instantly surround them and capture the enemy alive. Perhaps attacking them wasn’t possible, but in terms of making a defensive perimeter, they were able to capture any expert alive.

But this time, the enemy clearly didn’t focus their attack on the opposite side. It was just an attempt to pin down Dawn’s troops. The enemy’s main attack point was still the front walls. The great benefits that they had gained from the last battle had given the enemy the chance to experience the sweet taste of victory, and so they prepared to advance this battle in the same way.

Although the enemy’s number of casualties had been two times greater than Dawn Army’s, Dawn only had a total of 100,000 men. In addition, the enemy had only lost weaker, minor soldiers last time. The real generals hadn’t died, so the enemy was completely confident that if their main forces went out to battle, evening out the casualties definitely wouldn’t be a problem. That way, they’d only lose 10,000 lives at most, and they’d be able to obtain Dawn in exchange. That was more than worthwhile.

As the only exit from the Holy Light Empire to the other six countries, this place’s strategic and commercial values were really immeasurable. As long as one possessed this city, the revenue from imposing a tariff on merchants alone was already an astronomical amount. In addition…Dawn City was easy to guard. Once one had this kind of foundational area, they wouldn’t fear even other empires. After all…the front city walls were only 100 meters. No matter how many men one had, only a few thousand could attack at the same time.

After obtaining Dawn City, one only had to build a good relationship with Holy Light Empire, and everything else after would be like a dream. They could attack anyone they wanted. As thieves that had private permits, they would definitely be able to develop a global thief alliance with this piece of land as their foundation.

Putting aside the battle going on at the opposite side, there was a powerful 100,000 man army outside the city front in the mountain pass, currently following along the cliffs towards Dawn to attack. The people that had come today were all experts among experts. In this upcoming night battle, they’d disregard all losses and completely seize Dawn. As long as they obtained the city, any amount of sacrifices would be worth it.