The Golem Mage Chapter 1179: Icy Death Zone.
Previously on The Golem Mage...
It did not take long for Legion’s orders to spread throughout the city.
Nine and Ten were placed in charge of moving the citizens toward the castle district; they were not being taken into the castle itself. Rather, there was an underground bunker beneath the surrounding area where they could safely hide.
Although Legion was fully confident that he could win the coming battle, however; he did not want to risk even a single citizen losing their life under his watch, once that had been settled, the remaining captain-rank Cybernetic Golems began issuing orders to Arthur’s military units.
They were divided into two main forces: the Ironblade Vanguard and the Iron Revenants.
Both operated much like knight orders, although the Ironblade Vanguard represented the more traditional side of that image, and they made up around eighty percent of Arthur’s military force and were equipped with heavy weapons while fully clad in knight armor.
The Iron Revenants, on the other hand, were the darker branch of the army, they were willing to perform all the dirty work that the Ironblade Vanguard refused to do because they proudly raised their heads and constantly spoke about a knight’s honor and all that.
Compared to the Ironblade Vanguard, the Iron Revenants were much faster, and their metal-manipulation abilities were far more suited for assassination.
Although the two units preferred operating separately, but they had no choice but to cooperate after the ten captain-rank Cybernetic Golems stepped in and began arranging the city’s defenses.
The Iron Revenants were especially pleased when they were ordered to construct traps around the city walls and prepare several other measures that bordered on outright cheating.
“Awhhioooooool!”
From the distance, a thunderous howl pierced the sky, announcing the arrival of the Werewolves.
Legion glided through the air before landing atop a stone statue overlooking the city wall, his metallic wings remained spread wide behind him, giving everyone who looked at him the impression that they were staring at a mechanical angel.
His newly constructed firearm, the Cryo-Launcher, remained firmly gripped in his hand, not in the position to shoot though.
Legion stared into the far distance as the irises within his mechanical eyes began opening layer after layer, as though he were steadily increasing the magnification of a sniper scope.
However, Legion did not even need to strain his enhanced vision that much, and that was because their opponents were Werewolves, and they were charging toward the city on all fours at incredible speed, which made them visible in a few more seconds.
They were closing the distance so swiftly that Legion began wondering what kind of tactic they were trying to employ; the way they rushed forward appeared completely chaotic, without any clear formation or strategy.
Despite that, Legion immediately got to work and ordered his captain-rank golems to prepare their weapons, the Cybernetic Golems began assembling their own Cryo-Launchers.
However, unlike Legion’s weapon, which was a sixteenth-generation model, theirs belonged to much older generations, ranging between the tenth and twelfth, though not all ten Cybernetic Golems possessed the necessary weapon specialization to amplify the Cryo-Launchers’ damage, but none of them cared about that at the moment.
With all ten of them firing alongside their lord, they were confident that the combined barrage would produce a devastating effect across the battlefield.
“Set,” Legion issued his first command.
The Cybernetic Golems gripped the handles of their weapons with their right hands while using their left hands to support the bodies of the Cryo-Launchers near their release points.
“Aim.”
At Legion’s second command, they tilted their weapons, the handles were lowered slightly while the release points were raised toward the sky.
The Ironblade Vanguard and the Iron Revenants did not understand how the strange weapons before them worked. Still, they tried their best to figure out why the Cybernetic Golems were aiming toward the sky instead of directly at the more than five hundred Werewolves charging toward them at such terrifying speed.
“Fire.”
Legion finally gave the command after detecting that most of the Werewolves had crossed into the eighty-meter range, their exact positions constantly being calculated by the streams of data flowing through his mechanical eyes.
For the golems beneath him, this was the order they had been waiting for.
One after another, the captain-rank Cybernetic Golems fired their Cryo-Launchers into the air.
The Cryo-Launchers released a series of muffled thuds as their shells were fired into the air, after travelling a certain distance, the shells suddenly changed direction and began descending toward the battlefield at incredible speed.
Even then, the captain-rank Cybernetic Golems did not stop firing, they continued until they had emptied every shell within their magazines.
Meanwhile, the Werewolves who had crossed into the eighty-meter range soon looked toward the sky and saw dozens of shells falling toward them, many of them swung their claws into the air, releasing waves of claw Qi in an attempt to intercept the shells before they could land.
But that was precisely when an icy hell descended upon them.
Boom!
Countless explosions rang out across the battlefield after the Claw Qi touched them, these were not the kind of deafening explosions that shook the earth or sent violent tremors through the surroundings.
Instead, they were explosions that inflicted massive damage upon everything within their range before instantly freezing whatever parts of the body they struck.
After just one barrage, the entire eighty-meter zone was covered with the frozen sculptures of more than fifty Werewolves.
But that was not all.
Those who had not been frozen to death found it extremely difficult to cross the frozen terrain and continue toward the city gates.
Large portions of their fur had been caught within the explosions produced by the Cryo-Launcher shells, leaving frost clinging stubbornly to their bodies.
Although it was not severe enough to turn them into complete ice sculptures, it had still greatly affected their mobility, as their movements became stiff, and their charging speed dropped considerably.
At that moment, the captain-rank Cybernetic Golems shifted their Cryo-Launchers onto their backs where they were strapped by the machinery there and they all started assembling different sniper-type weapons they were each used to.
They immediately placed their eyes against the scopes and began firing at the Werewolves struggling through the frozen zone created by their bombardment.
Bang!
The thunderous report of a sniper rifle rang across the battlefield, every time the Werewolves who had not yet entered the eighty-meter range heard another gunshot, they shivered.
After all, each shot meant that another Werewolf had fallen, they could only stand at a distance and watch as another fifty Werewolves were gunned down, too frightened to close the distance as they believed they too would get stuck like those before them and then become sitting ducks for those shooting from afar, so no one wanted to risk it.
After killing those fifty, the Cybernetic Golems stopped firing as Legion raised his hand, he stared toward the opposing army, trying to determine exactly who was leading the Werewolves.
And it did not take long for him to receive his answer, because the remaining Werewolves from the group of more than five hundred who had charged forward suddenly turned and looked behind them, towards the location where another werewolf unit stood.
More specifically, they looked toward a particular position where the leader of the Werewolf army had been hiding among the ordinary soldiers.
However, he could no longer conceal himself after drawing so much attention now, the Werewolf leader just extended his right hand and pointed his index finger toward the ground.
The moment he did so, the remaining Werewolves began digging into the earth, seemingly attempting to create tunnels that would allow them to bypass the frozen terrain without stepping onto it.
The Werewolf leader had concluded that a weapon capable of releasing ice attacks comparable to a Quasi-High-Rank spell could not possibly strike beyond a certain distance, that was the only reasonable explanation he could come up with for why the strange figures in the distance had waited until his forces crossed the eighty-meter mark before attacking.
Although his army also had archers that could attack from the eighty meters distance, however; he did not believe they could compete against that level of firepower, one salvo and they wouldn’t be any different from the hundred that just lost their lives.
For now, he wanted to test whether the enemy would still be able to attack once his Omega-rank Werewolves were able to breach a much closer distance from underground to the city walls.
When Legion saw this, a sly smile appeared on his face, he could tell that his plan was working, but he still could not resist mocking the Werewolves to make them feel more confident about what they were doing.
“Come on! I thought you were descendants of one of the noblest bloodlines of the night. When did you all become tunnel rats that burrow through the ground?” Legion shouted, amplifying his voice with mana.
He was certain his words reached the Werewolf leader on the other side, the Werewolf leader’s body trembled with rage, but he forced himself to remain calm and ordered the Werewolves before him to dig faster believing he was touching on the nerves of the leader on the wall.
Although Legion’s words deeply humiliated him, but he had no intention of sending more of his soldiers to die within the eighty-meter icy death zone before the city.