Chapter 789: Helping with the Defense

Several thick pillars of water hang three or four meters above the walls.

They are not truly pillars. Rain has gathered there into dense, suspended curtains.

Each curtain stretches down to a pool at the foot of the wall, forming something like a doorway.

Subterranean River Bandits emerge from the pools, dive into the curtains, and swim through passages about two meters in diameter.

Like fish swimming upstream through pipes, they race to the ramparts and leap out fighting.

It is a method of attack almost impossible to guard against.

Tuge recovers from his shock at once. "First and Second Companies, with me! Block those passages!"

"Third and Fourth, clear the ramparts! Fifth Company, stand ready to reinforce either side. Move!"

A little over ten minutes later, the First and Second Companies have surrounded the dozen or so water-curtain passages.

The other two hundred-man companies have nearly cleared the ramparts.

Tuge runs to the inner edge of the wall and shouts to the reinforcements below, "Oil! Find me oil! Any kind will do, as long as it fouls the water!"

Barrels of lamp oil soon arrive. The Peace Haven soldiers throw them into the water-curtain passages, then hurl spears after them to smash the barrels.

Within moments, oil fouls the entire passage.

The Subterranean River Bandits inside writhe in agony.

The hunting force has studied them before. They breathe through lungs on land, but switch to a second respiratory system underwater.

The gill-like organs along their necks can filter sand and grit. An oil film, however, damages the entire system.

Now the Subterranean River Bandits bursting from the curtains do not even raise their weapons. They hit the ground coughing violently.

The waiting Peace Haven soldiers stab them to death before they can rise.

The grisly game of whack-a-mole continues for more than an hour.

Only then does the enemy realize something is wrong with the water-curtain passages.

The enemy may have plenty of water demons capable of casting spells, but these passages are clearly difficult to construct.

Their surprise attack has already inflicted heavy casualties on the human defenders tonight.

Once the Peace Haven elites take over, the Subterranean River Bandit army pays just as dearly through the latter half of the battle.

The fighting ends before dawn.

That afternoon, after the Peace Haven elites finish another round of treating the wounded, the defenders' commander invites Tuge to meet.

The commander comes straight to the point. "General Tuge, we're all in the same boat now. First, let me thank you for treating our wounded these past several days."

"You can do far more than that, though. We've decided to ask you to join the defense."

"The eastern wall will be yours. We'll also place a thousand-man battalion under your command."

Tuge frowns. "Who has final command?"

"You will have complete authority over the eastern wall, General Tuge. The thousand-man battalion will answer to you as well!"

"For the sake of our shared humanity, and to spare the people of this city from slaughter, please accept!"

Tuge raises two fingers. "Two thousand men. I need a reserve force. Your soldiers aren't used to our tactics."

"My officers will form the extra thousand into a reserve force that can reinforce us anywhere."

"Give us those two thousand, and forget about the eastern wall. It won't fall while one of us is still breathing!"

After a brief discussion, the others agree.

They draw a thousand soldiers from the Nineteenth Legion's warband and another thousand from the garrison troops, placing all of them under Tuge.

Tuge already knows exactly how to use them.

The five hundred soldiers he brought are all serving officers in Peace Haven's army.

Even the lowest-ranking among them served as squad leaders in their original units.

Every one of them is also due for promotion after this hunting operation.

Tuge breaks up four hundred-man companies and spreads their officers throughout the two-thousand-man force.

From squad leader to battalion commander, every level receives both a primary and a deputy officer.

The final hundred soldiers become an elite rapid-response force.

Another fierce assault strikes the eastern wall that night, but this battle unfolds very differently.

Under Peace Haven's officers, the soldiers quickly steady their lines and pin the enemy at its landing points.

Tuge and the others find their new troops barely satisfactory. A few more days together should make them much easier to command.

On the third day after taking command of the eastern wall, Tuge's men build an ingenious device that greatly limits the enemy's ability to attack.

It is a massive net draped over the ramparts and hanging more than two meters down the outer wall.

The design is simple. The net is covered with sharp caltrops and every jagged object the defenders can find.

It looks like harmless rubbish, but it causes endless trouble for the Subterranean River Bandits.

The water-curtain passages may carry attackers straight to the ramparts, but only a few can pass through at once.

Whenever one leaps out, a ten-man squad is waiting. The creature dies before it can even see the wall clearly.

The defenders soon stop using lamp oil against the passages.

Instead, the pharmacists devise a highly irritating potion for the soldiers to throw directly into the water-curtain passages.

It acts like a concentrated pepper solution, leaving any attacker inside the water-curtain passages in agony.

Most Subterranean River Bandits still climb the walls along the water lattice.

The spiked nets turn that route into a death trap.

The lattice forms from rainwater running down the wall. When the attackers grab the water ropes, sharp objects hidden in the current punch through their palms.

That very night, enemy soldiers begin falling from the walls with screams.

Some grit their teeth and drag themselves onto the ramparts anyway.

With torn palms, even holding a weapon is agony.

The webbing between their fingers only makes the wounds worse.

How are they supposed to fight defenders who are rested and waiting?

Often, the first clash of weapons sends a shock of pain through an attacker's hands and makes him drop his blade. In a siege, an unarmed soldier is a dead one.

Once the device proves itself, the defenders mobilize the city's residents and begin making as many as they can.

They mean to cover every inch of the outer walls.

While Pearl City fights for its life, Selaser, commander of Peace Haven's Eighth Legion, arrives at Stillwater City.

He has come for two reasons.

First, he must discuss rescuing the hunting force trapped in Pearl City.

Second, he intends to retrieve the hunting-force members detained by Stillwater City.

The detainees are Akta's squad, which should be taking young Ronan back to Peace Haven.

Instead, Stillwater City has placed them under house arrest and barred them from returning.

As soon as he receives the news, Selaser comes in person to demand their release.

There is one complication. The detention order bears the signature of Lumir's Grand Marshal Clifford!