Pivot of the Sky Chapter 127

Translator: adomman

Editor: Snorri

The supreme mage Wadj-hotep was participating in the battle of defense as well. Learning from Urhiya's lesson, he did not float in the air. Instead, he stayed safely far behind the city wall.

After seeing what happened to the arrow, Gilgamesh laughed. “Amon, did you use such a huge magical formation just to block my arrow? Let's see how strong the walls of Khenmet are!”

As the war drums thundered, forty guards carried Gilgamesh's platform and advanced towards the left, avoiding the direction which Amon was facing from the city tower. The troops tasked with sieging the city finally commenced with their task and charged forward. On the city walls, the spears and boulders were long prepared. When the enemy troops entered their firing range, the first round of spear kicked off and rained onto the Uruk legion. On the other hand, the Uruk archers atop the arrow towers let loose their own arrows upon the forces on the city walls. Some of those hit by the arrows fell off the walls, while others on the ground hit by the rocks fell among the advancing chariots. It was the start of a great battle once more.

If the enemy forces were allowed to unload the sand carried by the chariots without any hindrance, a slope leading up Khenmet's walls would be easily created. Although these chariots faced resistance from the flying rocks and arrows, some of them were able to reach the city walls eventually by weaving through the blind spots of the boulders, spears and arrows.

Bags and bags of sand were swiftly piled onto the base of the walls. However, the sand crumbled just as quickly as they piled up. This was the work of the quicksand technique using earth magic. At this moment, it was effective at disrupting the Uruk legion's siege. Numerous chanting sounds from the city walls could be heard as various flames and wind blades descended upon the enemy troops pushing the chariots. Raising their shields, the Uruk soldiers attempted to defend themselves from the magic attacks, but many of them were still injured or killed by these attacks.

The groups of mages which Amon had stationed on the city walls also participated in the fighting by attacking the enemies at the base of the walls. Standing some distance away from the edge of the walls, they were protected by warriors from the front.

Amidst the sound of drumming, the chariots with the arrow towers approached the walls. Arrows whizzed through the air continuously as archers on both sides started shooting arrows at each other. From time to time, shields of light appeared around the arrow towers, causing the incoming arrows to lose their power and fall to the ground harmlessly. The priests from the Uruk legion had also advanced together with the chariots and casted defensive magic from behind.

On the tower, Gilgamesh said to Enkidu: “Indeed, Amon has stationed mages on the walls to help the warriors defend the city.”

Enkidu smiled coldly. “With these few mages compared to warriors, they must be getting desperate.”

Gilgamesh reminded him: “Just as I have predicted earlier, those mages are probably waiting for you with the scrolls.”

“It's nothing but a shell. Once broken, it will be useless!”

Gilgamesh smiled and said: “There's no need for you to be impatient, let me test the strength of the shell on the city walls first.”

The forty guards carrying the platform moved along the city walls behind the frontlines. Avoiding the tower in the middle of the city where Amon was located, Gilgamesh aimed at the walls with his bow and fired an arrow. The range of an arrow did not only depend on the bow used, it also depended on the strength of the one shooting the arrow. While the arrows from the city walls could not reach Gilgamesh, his arrow was able to hit the walls with great force.

Upon impact, bits of rocks were blasted off as a large piece of the wall collapsed, causing a number of Ejyptian soldiers to fall off. Immediately after, chanting sounds could be heard as several mages combined their efforts to invoke the wall strengthening technique. The fallen rocks and pieces flew back to the damaged portion and the gap was temporarily repaired.

Gilgamesh smiled and did not continue to fire another arrow at the same place. Instead, the platform continued moving to another location not far away, where he repeated the same feat. Several soldiers holding shields were knocked into the air by the arrow, while the protective shield conjured by the three mages behind them was destroyed. The arrow pierced through one of the mages, killing him instantly. The other two mages were blasted off the walls, falling into the city behind.

Just like that, Gilgamesh continued shooting arrows, shifting his location after each arrow. Although he did not shoot the arrows at full strength, they still possessed great power. Every arrow either created a gap in the walls or took down numerous soldiers. Sometimes, an arrow tower was destroyed by the impact, causing chaos on the walls. The sieging troops took advantage of the gaps created to launch fierce attacks and were able to inflict heavy damage on the defending forces who had to seal the gaps desperately.

There was nothing Amon could do but watch Gilgamesh fire arrow after arrow onto the walls. The only fortunate thing was that Gilgamesh had to take a short break after each arrow since they consumed a great amount of energy and magic.

In response, Wadj-hotep slowly floated up into the air and followed Gilgamesh's movement. Now, an invisible barrier would appear whenever Gilgamesh fired an arrow at the walls. The situation finally stabilized, but they were still fighting too passively. The Uruk legion was doing all the attacking thus far.

On the side of the Uruk legion, stone throwers had arrived and they were positioned between the arrow towers. Scores of flying rocks fell upon the walls of Khenmet, causing even more damage and destruction. As the strongest legion in the continent, their throwers were even more accurate and skilled compared to the Ejyptian forces. Amon finally took out his bow and shot a dozen arrows in quick succession.

In total, he managed to destroy two chariots loaded with sand, one thrower as well as one arrow tower. The remaining arrows were blocked by magical barriers erected by the enemy mages. Seeing that Enkidu was still beside Gilgamesh and had not yet made his move, Amon sighed and left the city tower quietly. Lykwid, the supreme mage beside him, also disappeared with him.

There were only a few thousand soldiers in Khenmet. If they continued defending in this way, they would eventually lose. Now, the only thing left was when Enkidu chose to attack. Until now, Enkidu had been watching Gilgamesh fire arrows from the platform they were standing on. Finally, he spoke softly to Gilgamesh: “Lord Governor, you have attracted the attention of their main magical formation and their supreme mage.”

Gilgamesh nodded. “It's time for you to take action!”

“By now, the horsemen and chariots of Khenmet should have been dispatched from the left and right side of the city with the intention to flank our army from the sides and execute a pincer attack.”

“I'm already prepared for that since it was obvious that they were going to try something like that. It was never going to be an easy battle right from the start.” As he spoke, he suddenly shot three arrows in succession. Each arrow was faster than the previous one and they sped towards a single point on the city walls.

A huge rumbling sound was heard and the invisible curtain of light which enveloped the city suddenly became extremely bright. Wadj-hotep waved his staff, exerting all his power to block the three arrows. The entire section of wall seemed to be shaking as the soldiers on the wall lost their balance and fell to the ground. Everyone thought that Gilgamesh had chosen this location to launch the main attack. It was at this moment that Enkidu jumped down from the platform.

At the first sight of Enkidu's movement, Wadj-hotep immediately flew back and disappeared from behind the wall. This was an order which Amon had given before the battle started as he did not want the same thing to happen and lose another supreme mage to Enkidu's fists.

However, instead of rushing forward, Enkidu started sprinting behind the frontlines, making his way to the city walls on the other side of the city tower with an incredible speed. When he arrived at his destination, he made a great leap into the air, jumping towards the walls with his fists wrapped in a golden light. Behind him, a squad of armored horsemen rushed out, joining him in the endeavour to break through the defense.

The location which Enkidu had chosen was the place where Gilgamesh had shot his second arrow earlier and eliminated the group of three mages stationed here. Although the nearby groups of mages spread out to fill the gap somewhat, it was still a point of weakness. After all, the mages holding the scrolls were only advanced mages and not supreme mages. How could they not panic at the sight of Enkidu rushing towards them?

Enkidu's speed was so fast that he gave the impression of being a mere illusion. His feet had only just left the ground, and in the next moment, he had reached the walls. The mage holding the spatial locking scroll had activated it too early due to panic. The space in front of the wall was distorted and many arrows caught in the effect were frozen momentarily in the midst of the air before dropping to the ground slowly. These included the arrows which the defending soldiers had shot towards Enkidu.

The imprisoned space was immediately smashed into pieces by a golden light, leaving numerous cracks on the ground below. On the other hand, the mage holding the attacking scroll had reacted too slowly. This was a wind elemental scroll, and once activated, it produced a storm of wind blades which sliced and diced everything in the vicinity. The wind blades left behind long slash marks on the wall and killed the nearby enemy troops who were attacking the walls, many of them crying out in agony as they fell.

Enkidu was able to pass by the storm of wind blades from the air above it, his body brushing past the boundary of the storm. Swinging his golden fists, the wind blades dissipated easily. Several stray wind blades were destroyed by the light emitted from his scalemail. With one great punch, Enkidu hit the wall with a tremendous force! The mage holding the defensive scroll was unable to activate it in time.

In an instant, half of the wall collapsed, creating large dust clouds which obscured vision of the area. The soldiers on both sides were knocked down onto the ground by the winds generated by the impact of Enkidu's punch. In the cacophony of rumbling and the swirling of flames in the air, the two groups of mages stationed on either sides of Enkidu activated their scrolls. Although they could not see Enkidu, they knew that he was in the midst of the dust clouds.

As the scrolls unfurled, a great shout was heard. A burly figure burst out from within the dust clouds before somersaulting away from the wall and landing some distance away. Enkidu had not even paused for a single moment after delivering the devastating punch. Instead, he had made use of the recoil from the punch to escape into the air before he had even landed on the ground.

One of the spacel locking scroll nearly managed to trap Enkidu, but he had been prepared for such magical attacks. While still in the air, he punched out once more and dispelled the effects of the scroll before finally leaving the area. Amon, who had been watching the whole ordeal from a distance, nearly died from frustration. Enkidu seemed to be aware of what lay in store for him once he attacked and did not leave any opportunities for them to deal with him. With his speed and strength, even the spatial locking scrolls were not effective.

What made things worse was the fact that the attacking scrolls activated by the two groups of mages ended up destroying the portion of wall that was still functional after Enkidu's punch, inadvertently helping Enkidu! There were still quite a few soldiers on the damaged wall who were either injured or merely knocked down from the impact of the punch, but unfortunately, all of them ended up getting killed by the scrolls. No matter how good Amon's plans were, ultimately they needed to be executed by people and it was only human to err. Besides, there was no better way to deal with Enkidu, so it was not like they had any choice.

Mages were never meant to fight at close range on the battlefield, not to mention that they were facing the top warrior in the continent. Even if they did not panic, it was not possible to coordinate perfectly considering the speed at which Enkidu attacked. Finally, Enkidu had been well prepared for what they were trying to do, and that made it all the more difficult to succeed.

Once Enkidu landed on the ground, the horsemen behind caught up with him. With the gap in the walls fully open, he shouted once again and rushed into the gap. The morale of the Uruk legion was greatly bolstered and all the troops nearby charged forward to break through the defense together with Enkidu.

At this moment, Amon shouted: “Enkidu, it is time for you to die!”

Where was Amon right now? He was standing on top of the roof of a tall building situated behind the city tower. From there, he had a bird's eye view of the city walls in front of it, allowing him to see everything that happened at the frontlines clearly. Countless arrows flew over the walls into the city while rocks enveloped in flames shot from the enemy arrow tower fell everywhere. It was a majestic sight to behold.

As participants of the battle, the mages weren't idling away either. From time to time, the rocks would be covered by an icy fog which extinguished the flames and manipulated by spatial magic so that they would fail to hit the soldiers below them. Mere moments ago, Amon had been watching silently from the roof. A squad of horsemen wearing shining armor stood in formation nearby, quietly waiting.

Amon nocked an arrow and drew his bow, looking extremely focused. Behind him, Lykwid was holding a staff in his left hand and a spatial artifact in his right hand. Right now, he was deep in meditation. The two of them had prepared for this moment for a long time.

Just as Enkidu's figure appeared at the gap that was freshly created, Amon shot his arrow. Initially, the arrow was silent and extremely fast. When it neared the wall, it suddenly slowed down. As the sound of crashing waves appeared, the surroundings were enveloped in dazzling blue light.

Countless sharp ice arrowheads appeared and shot towards Enkidu from all directions, freezing the air around the area. With a hissing sound, Amon's arrow accelerated once more and headed straight for Enkidu through the ice arrowheads, making it impossible for him to dodge. This was an arrow which Amon had shot at full strength enhanced with the magical power of a ninth-level supreme mage. In order to boost the effect of the ice arrowheads, Lykwid had made use of a spatial artifact filled with water.

Taking a page from Gilgamesh's book, Amon also made an attack combining his strength with Lykwid's magical prowess. When Enkidu rushed into the city, he had been prepared for any attacks that came at him. When the arrow reached him, he immediately punched at it with his golden fist. With an explosion of golden light and a deafening boom, his fist connected with Amon's arrow. The energies which erupted from the collision shattered the ice arrowheads into icy dust.

Gritting his teeth, Lykwid waved his staff. All the icy dust swirling in the air quickly solidified into a gigantic shell of ice, trapping Enkidu and sealing the gap in the wall at the same time. Within the shell, flames suddenly flickered into existence. The orange flames first changed into bluish flames before changing again into pale golden flames. This technique was similar to the effect from Nero's unique scroll, “Song of Ice and Fire”. Using this scroll, Amon had been able to slay the serpent monster at the Euphrates River. Right now, it was being casted by a ninth-level supreme mage for the purpose of dealing with Enkidu.

Enkidu was much more difficult to deal with compared to the serpent monster. Staying in one spot, he spun his body and swung his fists, his figure blurring from the motion. Together with his scalemail which emitted a bright bronze light, the flames nearby were dissipated. Suddenly, an arrow flew in from outside with a sharp whistling sound and hit the outer layer of the ice shell. Crack! In an instant, the entire shell cracked opened. It was Gilgamesh who had shot an arrow at the shell with his full strength.

At the same time that Gilgamesh's arrow cracked the ice shell, Enkidu had turned around and punched the shell from the inside. The deadliness of “Song of Ice and Fire” came from the inescapable huge explosion from within thick layers of ice. However, just before the explosion occurred, Gilgamesh's arrow and Enkidu's fist hit the shell simultaneously, causing the shell to split open and allowing Enkidu to escape.

Behind Enkidu, the huge explosion finally occurred. Ice fragments and flames scattered everywhere and the force of the explosion blasted the Uruk soldiers that were approaching the wall. As the flames died down, the ice fragments in the air and the rocks nearby were gathered once more by a mystical force, forming a tough frozen earth wall at the gap.

The wall formed from a mixture of ice and earth was quite resilient, leaving only a faint mark from the slashing of a sword. It was impossible for such a large piece of frozen earth to be melted within a short period of time unless several mages concentrated their efforts to attack it with fire magic. Once Lykwid saw that Enkidu had escaped, he immediately used his magical power to repair the gap in the wall using this technique. This was the incredible capability of a ninth-level supreme mage.

Currently, this location was not the only place where amazing things were happening. Everywhere else in front of the city walls was flooded with magical power. The Uruk legion's siege vehicles were set on fire or outright destroyed into pieces. Some of them were even lifted up before falling down onto the soldiers behind. Within a short while, the Uruk legion suffered heavy casualties and losses.

The arrow that Amon shot was a signal. All the mages on the city walls had been given the order to activate the attacking scrolls they were holding upon the signal, targeting only the Uruk forces. Some of the mages had died, but the remaining mages activated their supreme scrolls, launching numerous devastating attacks onto the enemy.

Everything had been done according to the plan. Once Enkidu attacked a point along the walls, the mages at the other locations would be unable to attack him anyway, so they might as well use all their attacking scrolls at the same time on the sieging forces. This was an incredibly extravagant counterattack, squandering the entire stock of scrolls which the Drick family had accumulated for years. No legion in the continent would engage a battle in such a manner!

If there was any general who held the record for spending the most money on the battlefield in one day, it would undoubtedly be Amon for the plan he just executed. In any case, the money he spent belonged to Cape and Ejypt. Eventually, the expenses would be claimed from the Ejyptian treasury, so it did not matter one bit to him.

The Uruk army had not been defeated yet, but the sieging forces at the frontlines had been completely dismantled. The urgent sound of a horn came from the rear of the army, and it was an order to reorganize and retreat temporarily. The surviving troops abandoned the corpses and damaged chariots on the battlefield and retreated swiftly. The remaining arrow towers that were still intact also slowly made their way back for redeployment.

Chapter end