Chapter 94 The Strange War

After the banquet, new mages kept arriving at the fortress, though no more banquets were held. However, Mage Roland would pass on news from the capital and elsewhere to Shaoke whenever new arrivals came. It turned out that the Blue Feather Empire had begun a frenzied conscription campaign. Soldiers from hereditary military families were briefly integrated and then swept along the routes, subduing bandit forces large and small, and forced them back to this fortress to face the coming war.

A few days after the banquet, Shaoke was meditating after breakfast when a commotion broke out outside. A soldier knocked and delivered the news: the war had started. This time, they had to go to the battlefield first because the enemy was about to attack.

Over the past year, Shaoke, preoccupied with meditation and magical study, still traveled by carriage. However, Mage Roland and a large group of mages rode ahead on warhorses to prepare for battle on the walls.

On the way to the wall, Shaoke saw teams of soldiers marching in orderly rows toward it. There were few pedestrians on the road, as they had to make enough space for the soldiers to march. Under the command of a third-tier mage, Shaoke and the others quickly ascended the wall and took shelter in the already constructed, sturdier stone towers. After completing these arrangements, the third-tier mage offered a somewhat somber blessing: "Good luck to you all!" before leaving.

In their stone tower, only Shaoke had experienced war at this fortress. The other two mages were newcomers—one had just arrived, while the other had been transferred from another border.

"See this window here? As long as there are warriors within our spellcasting range, we are to cast spells to kill them. We take turns, one at a time, while the other two rest. Any questions?" Shaoke took the initiative to act as the guide, responsibly explaining everything he had heard when he was first here. "Be careful of stray arrows. One of my companions was once injured by a stray arrow that came through the window." To ensure the two mages paid attention, Shaoke changed the story of how that mage was injured. He was worried the new mage might linger by the window too often, as he himself had done the same thing back then.

"No problem," said the mage transferred from elsewhere, shaking his head. "Who goes first?"

"You," Shaoke pointed to the new mage. "You should be able to distinguish between a first-tier warrior and a second-tier warrior, so choose the appropriate spell. Don’t panic. These warriors, entangled by our soldiers, won’t be able to reach us."

The new mage nodded nervously. "I’ll be careful. Should I call you after I cast my spell?" He imitated Shaoke’s posture, leaning against the wall and peering out through the window.

"Right," Shaoke glanced at the battlefield and noticed, to his dismay, that there were no long-range offensive weapons on the entire wall—only melee soldiers. This gave Shaoke a headache. He couldn’t understand why this was the case. Had all the commanders gone mad?

"After you finish casting your spell, wake me up, then go meditate nearby. I’ll call you when it’s your turn again." Shaoke carefully observed the battlefield but didn’t see many warriors. Moreover, these warriors weren’t at the front lines but were subtly surrounding the mages’ stone towers.

"Woo... woo!" A long, drawn-out horn sounded from the enemy camp outside the city. Hundreds of red fireballs shot into the sky and then exploded violently. A loud voice carried across several miles to the wall: "Attack! Attack!"

The entire enemy camp seemed to come alive. Streams of black figures surged from every corner, eventually converging into a long, dark line that rushed toward the miles-long wall. Behind them, more lines of people continued to replenish the front. The defenders on the wall grew tense. After all, anyone would be afraid seeing so many enemies swarming forward. Even with the guidance of veteran soldiers, some young, inexperienced soldiers tried to leave their positions, but the veterans beside them quickly stopped them with their blades.

Siege engines pressed against the wall, and a flood of enemies surged onto the battlements. Shaoke felt his mind filled with the clashing of weapons, the sound of blades and axes biting into bone, and ragged, tearing screams. Soldiers from both sides began to fight fiercely on the wide wall. From time to time, someone would tumble off, but no one paid them any attention. On the battlefield, no one cared about what lay at their feet, even if it had once been a comrade.

Corpses slowly piled up on the wall, eventually trampled into pulp by the frenzied soldiers or kicked off. Faced with this kind of battle, Shaoke felt somewhat relieved. He hadn’t seen any warriors appear, nor had he encountered any threat from long-range attacks. He didn’t even spot the massive catapults on the battlefield. This made him completely uninterested in the ordinary soldiers’ slaughter.

The intense fighting among the soldiers continued until noon, after which they slowly retreated under the command of their officers.

According to protocol, people soon came to clear away the corpses and weapons on the ground, and then the fighting began anew.

Shaoke observed that these soldiers fought for about a magic hour before being led away by their officers, replaced by fresh soldiers rushing up to fill the gaps. As for those soldiers who had gone berserk, no one cared whether they lived or died. If any charged toward their own ranks, they were simply and unhesitatingly killed by their comrades. However, such soldiers were few, as most came from families of hereditary soldiers trained from childhood to become qualified soldiers. The longer a family’s military lineage, the greater the advantage their descendants held as new recruits, after all, generations of accumulated experience weren’t easily discarded.

The mages had it relatively easy, except for the new mage, who was extremely nervous facing this situation for the first time. After all, this wasn’t a battle of dozens of people, nor was it hunting magical beasts at the border—it was a frenzied battle involving tens of thousands!

"Rest for a while. I’ll observe the situation outside. You should learn to meditate under these circumstances. I think this method is quite easy to master." Seeing the other mage’s tightly clenched hand on his staff, Shaoke couldn’t help but change his earlier decision. "I’ll call you later. Don’t worry, no one will charge here to harm us." He pointed to the layers of warriors and soldiers surrounding the stone tower outside.

The mage nodded, carefully sitting down next to the other mage who was already meditating. Under Shaoke’s encouraging gaze, he smoothly entered the meditation space.

Seeing that the new mage could meditate, Shaoke felt relieved. He didn’t want the other to make any mistakes during the battle due to extreme nervousness.

Facing the war, the mages in the rear positions were quite bored. They had to endure various shouts and, even more, the final wails of those losing their lives. Shaoke didn’t know what this battle was for. He only knew that in the short span of a morning, the entire wall was covered in a thick layer of blood. The soldiers had already rotated several rounds, with only a small portion successfully disengaging from the enemy each time. The rest would never return to safety.

In Shaoke’s eyes, the first day of the war was as bland as plain water—just both sides’ soldiers continuously exchanging slaughter. Although brutal, neither side deployed higher-level warriors into the battle. As for the reason, it wasn’t something Shaoke could guess. After meditating for a while, the other mage replaced Shaoke in observing the battle on the wall, allowing Shaoke to use meditation to recover his perpetually tense mind.

Until evening, there were no significant changes on the battlefield. The mages had no opportunity to cast spells. When Shaoke returned to his tent, he found Mage Roland already waiting in his room. "Any new news?"

Facing Shaoke’s direct question, Mage Roland shook his head regretfully. "I don’t know. I asked many mages, but none of them knew what was really going on. Tomorrow, Mage Xueye, tomorrow we still have to go to the wall to watch the soldiers slaughter each other." Mage Roland rubbed his face in frustration, because he had spent the entire day on the wall maintaining the stiff etiquette expected of a mage.

In the following days, the mages went to the wall daily for guard duty, but they never saw any enemy warriors appear. The prolonged bloody scenes made Shaoke feel a pang of irritation every time he went to the wall. The other two mages weren’t in good condition either, especially the new mage. Today, he arrived at the stone tower with a pale face. Shaoke and the other mage shook their heads, unsure how to resolve the situation. They could only let him meditate, but the young mage, his mind in disarray, was forced out of the meditation space several times, and even caused severe turbulence within it.

The departure of that mage seemed to give the enemy commander a signal. While observing the enemy’s assault, Shaoke suddenly noticed the attack had intensified greatly, and warriors had appeared. Shaoke didn’t know if other sections of the wall were experiencing the same situation, but he knew he had to use spells now to attack and kill that warrior.

‘Elemental Blessing’, ‘Spellcasting Concentration’—two support spells were quickly cast on himself. Then, Shaoke began attacking with the first-tier ‘Scorching Ray’. Just after killing one warrior, several more charged onto the wall. Judging by the aura emanating from them, they were all below the second rank. The other mage still on the battlefield intended to replace Shaoke in killing them, but with one mage missing, Shaoke changed his previous spellcasting approach. He planned to let the other mage replace him only after he had consumed half his mana or mental energy, allowing sufficient time for meditation.

Their own warriors quickly charged forward. With Shaoke’s constant sniping, they soon cut down a group of warriors who had scaled the wall. The soldiers assisted in killing first-tier warriors and desperately resisted the relentless onslaught of enemy soldiers. The entire battle on the wall became even more bloody with the addition of warriors.

Locking onto targets, releasing spells—Shaoke strained his mind, hunting the enemy warriors one by one. ‘Scorching Ray’—as Shaoke cast this spell again, he suddenly felt the meditation rhythms in his mental space become chaotic. The newly formed spell structure in his hand, not yet infused with sufficient mental energy and mana, began to twist and dissipate.

The massive leakage of magical energy instantly startled the other mage who was meditating nearby. "Quick, stop meditating." Even as the mage urged him, Shaoke began trying to halt his meditation. It took the mental energy equivalent of a second-level spell before he successfully stopped the chaotic meditation.

Spellcasting failure—this term surfaced almost simultaneously in the minds of both mages. Shaoke’s already pale face lost all color, and the other mage’s face also turned pale. They didn’t know why spellcasting failure had occurred. They weren’t beginners at this spell; they had undergone some battlefield tempering. Although the spells they mastered weren’t at their most proficient state, this kind of situation, which usually only occurred during practice, shouldn’t have happened!