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For more than half a month now, half of the folk magic and martial arts experts from the Holy Os Kingdom have been answering the nation's call, converging in an organized manner towards Qingfulu City. Though fewer than half have arrived, many are seasoned experts, and once these combat forces engage in battle, they could inflict significant casualties on our army.

However, this was not enough to halt the advance of our orc coalition. It took the orc army just two days to flatten several auxiliary fortresses near Qingfulu City at the cost of a thousand warriors, officially positioning our forces under the city walls. Due to seasonal reasons, the Qingfulu City area was experiencing constant southern winds at the time, making our "Earth Smoke Tactics" less effective. Therefore, after discussing with Katherine, we decided to launch a strong attack to crush the morale of the humans.

Concerned about the arrival of human reinforcements, I dispatched the eagle-human Siegfried as a scout while instructing my disciple Ankara to lead the wolf cavalry, enhanced by the Magic Aura, to sweep the area around Qingfulu City and prepare to intercept any human reinforcements. Meanwhile, I immediately commenced the city assault, first deploying half-orcs to level the traps and obstacles in front of the city walls at any cost, then setting up siege weapons obtained from the Duchy of Langton to batter the walls day and night.

Initially, the humans attempted to defend normally, using crossbows, catapults, and magic from afar, bows and arrows at mid-range, and dense spear formations up close. The warriors of the Holy Os Kingdom had used this method to defend against many attacks from the Duchy of Langton before. However, they soon discovered that this defense was not very effective against orcs. Although orcs are generally larger than humans, long-range weapons did little damage to them. Stones that could smash human soldiers into pieces at most only broke a half-orc's arm, and stronger yak warriors could simply shrug off the impact by rolling with it. Other crossbow bolts and arrows were not fatal either, as resilient orcs could fight fiercely even with multiple wounds, becoming more ferocious due to their injuries. In contrast, human soldiers would lose significant combat effectiveness if wounded even once or twice, bleeding profusely. As a result, in just three days of city assault, human casualties outnumbered those of the orcs by a factor of two.

To alleviate the pressure on the wall defenses, the human magic towers had to use the expensive crystal core artillery to support the human warriors, and most of the human experts who were supposed to countercharge against the orcs were deployed on the walls. In fact, without the aid of these two forces, the casualty ratio between orcs and humans might have reached 1:3 or even 1:4.

However, I did not intend to rely solely on the sacrifices of my subordinates for victory. These initial attacks were merely to gauge the strength of the human forces.

"Xuanfeng, humans have shortened their shifts to two groups. I believe they have very few reserves left aside from some elite forces. After all, our orc combat power and endurance far surpass those of humans. I think it's time to launch the final assault," Katherine, sitting on her golden-eyed dragon-lion, finally concluded after watching the battle for the walls from afar for a long time.

I nodded and said, "Let our ice giants open the gates. Even if the humans might have figured out some of our strategies, it won't change the outcome."

With the command issued, the orc battle formation suddenly opened two passages, and the two level-ten ice giants, which had been held in reserve, roared and charged towards the city gates with thunderous steps. These beasts, now twelve meters tall and weighing dozens of tons, caused the ground to tremble as they ran, making even the strongest yak warriors stagger.

The two ice giants were massive and as fast as horses, but the human response was also quick. As soon as the ice giants charged the city, arrows, boulders, and magic were rained down on them, and the eight magic towers, which had been firing sporadically, turned their cannons towards the two snow-white beasts. However, the ice giants, known as creatures "born to fight," especially the top-tier giants that were super monsters, were indestructible. The two charged towards the gate, holding up giant ice shields under the onslaught, and without hesitation, continued their advance.

As the two beasts, together weighing nearly a hundred tons, charged the city gate, the scene was like a tidal wave of destruction. I even saw soldiers on the gate fall from the tower due to the tremor and fear. One of the ice giants, getting close to the gate, swung its massive claw with a roaring ice storm, smashing it against the gate. The thick wooden and steel-reinforced door shattered into fragments, debris flying everywhere. Although humans had blocked the gate with various objects over the past two days, the combined force of both ice giants shattered the barricades. Then, instead of trying to squeeze through the gate passage, which was only half their height, the two giant beasts simply grabbed the wall and, with a powerful leap, flipped their dozens-of-tons bodies over the wall.

"Drink, die, monster—"

"No way you're breaking the gate!"

Just as the second ice giant was about to strike the gate, two brilliant beams of sword light, one white and one purple, suddenly erupted from the top of the city gate, slashing towards the ice giant's eyes from both sides. The glorious sword energy was the powerful force that only a high-ranking Sword Empress could possess. It turned out that the humans, having learned from the failed Red River Four Nations Alliance, knew that our Fontainebleau possessed two super-beast level ice giants. They dared not be negligent, not only blocking the gate passage with heavy objects but also ambushing the city's only two elite Sword Empresses to strike and eliminate our war beasts.

However, things did not go as the humans had planned.

"Clang—clang—"

Two loud clashes of metal resounded as four blue beams shot out from the back fur of the ice giants, each pair blocking the incoming sword lights. Although the four blue beams were at a disadvantage, they still managed to fend off the attacks from both sides. This delay allowed the ice giant's massive claw, the size of a carriage, to hit the barricaded gate. The force of hundreds of tons instantly turned those heavy objects into fluttering debris. With the path cleared, the main force could enter the city.