They had one breath, a duration of only one breath, and only a few of them possessed the equipment to escape the fifty-meter killing zone in front of the walls. The golden sands hidden in the dirt couldn't be seen until then, that is, until they formed sharp spikes, causing blood-red flowers to bloom on the bodies of the Golden Leaf Guild soldiers.
"Run, get away from the walls!"
The one shouting was a mid-level soldier from the command echelon, but before he could repeat the order a second time, he collapsed where he stood due to a spike piercing him from the waist and splitting him in two. Scenes like this were happening constantly, and those stuck in the fifty-meter killing zone had no chance to escape.
"Bookworm, what is going on?"
Even if Dimitri was nervous when the shield disappeared, he had managed not to reflect this on his body language, but now, seeing at least three thousand enemy soldiers die right before his eyes, he couldn't help but shout. He wasn't a naive man; he had witnessed many acts of violence in his childhood and early youth, he even had a history of playing an encouraging role, but this was his first time seeing such a large-scale massacre.
"The day we went up the walls and examined the enemy, I calculated that things would eventually come to this. From that day on, I laid my Golden Mines with my golden sands on the fifty-pace area in front of the wall, and it seems my decision was quite spot on!"
The technique the purple-robed orc called Golden Mine was shredding the soldiers who carried the same adjective at the beginning of their names. Even though its name was a mine, instead of causing damage by exploding, it reached the height of a normal human within seconds, and chopped up whoever was around it with extensions growing outwards from the main body.
Within a timeframe of ten seconds, there was no one left in front of the eastern walls of the Balsici Castle; it was a dead zone. Taking a metallic-colored patch out of the small pocket on his waist, Nikolay covered the part remaining of his left arm, which was no longer there, with it. He was swinging the cannonball with his right hand and had extended his other hand forward to gain momentum, he was almost going to take the shot. He just wanted to take one more step, a small step to be sure, how could he know this would cost him an arm?
He could still consider himself lucky; he was the only survivor among those from the command echelon who chose to attack. Aril, who wanted to shatter the walls with his fists, Slati, who wanted to go up using his steel cable, and Hzktor, who tried to infiltrate by advancing underground, were no longer in one piece.
"This is him, this is truly the person who is the uncle of the Orc Empire Khan. The ability to use golden sands and a weak physical build, there is no need for doubt!"
Despite all the losses, General Alina, a few meters away from the killing zone, had her eyes fixed on Bookworm. The orc warrior, exposed due to the ability he used, was in the crosshairs of the woman who could use electrical energy, and she could reach him within seconds with her normal speed.
"He came to his death on his own two feet!"
General Alina, turning with her entire body towards the direction she turned her head, was about to move towards her prey she set her eyes on; she would launch into the air after taking her first step, but the shapeless pressure mounting on her caused her to be rooted to the spot.
"Who are you saying you're going to kill?"
When she managed to throw herself to the right, her gazes caught the deep gouge opening where she had been just a moment ago. The axe separating from the earth took a small arc, and now it was coming down right between her eyebrows; she had very little time to escape.
One of the reactions the human body would give in a life-or-death moment was to dodge, and as a mercenary, Alina must have mastered this. She could have dodged such an obvious swing even with her eyes closed, but as if the pressure mounted on her body wasn't enough, it was also as if thousands of arms shooting up from the ground were preventing her from moving.
A shrill scream was heard when the metallic axe became smeared with blood. General Alina, managing to dodge by twisting herself at the last moment, had a deep gash on her back extending from the medulla oblongata to the coccyx.
"Retreat! Inform the Merchant Guild! The Royal Family of the Orc Empire is here!"
Alyon's eyes opened wide; he aimed to finish off General Alina with this blow, but instead, he had to hear the order that revealed their identities. He attacked fiercely; he wanted to finish the job without talking further, and judging by the darkening lineage power, he was pushing whatever he had to the limit.
The movements of Alina, who up until that moment looked down with arrogance and saw the others as ants she could crush at any moment, completely changed. Since she focused all her attention on escaping the moment she found the opportunity despite the intense pressure on her, she wasn't taking a single scratch.
The soldier's mind evolved from the merchant mentality had already made its calculation; if she stayed here she would die, but if she could escape and deliver what she learned to the Golden Leaf Guild, she would receive great rewards. She threw the soldiers she got her hands on in front of the massively built orc, left traps on the ground, and made intense efforts to escape his sight.
In a normal time, she could have waited for her soldiers to carry out her orders, she could have conducted her battle with Alyon more carefully, but due to the destruction created by the new generation weapons, she wasn't sure if her perished army could return.
She didn't hesitate when entering the area with intense elemental fire; the moment she escaped Alyon's pressure, who couldn't follow right behind her, she would reach her tent in seconds and be able to deliver the necessary news to the unit.
The plan she constructed in a short time was truly splendid, she even felt the shapeless pressure lift off her, albeit for a moment, but in the next breath, the lineage power that turned into a nightmare descended upon her again.
"How is this possible?"
General Alina, turning her head back, was looking for the enemy she should have shaken off her collar, but the place she looked was wrong. Alyon wasn't behind her, he was up above along with the Nameless Ten beside him. This would be the last guess for Alina trying to dodge the elemental attacks raining down on her head, because she had never seen Bookworm's power animal before.
King Cobra had come to the rescue of Alyon, who couldn't get in between the attacks of the new generation weapons. After coming by advancing underground, taking him too, with a single massive flight, he bypassed the firing ranges of the death-raining weapons from above and landed at the headquarters of the Golden Leaf Guild siege army.
The young woman couldn't scream when she managed to survive Master Leonardo's latest creations; she gritted her teeth so hard from pain that not a single sound managed to come out of her mouth, but oh well, she had reached her goal in the end. Neither those weird weapons nor the orcs they called the Royal Family were here, she thought, until she saw him before her.
"You!"
She could only say a single word; she had to face such a pressure that the time it took for the things coming out of her blood-dripping mouth to reach her addressees was like a lifetime for her. She was resisting not to fall to her knees, but following the arrows embedding into her kneecaps and the whip coming down on her shoulder, she fell flat on her face.
"Don't let her die, but make her unable to move. The rest of you are coming with me!"
The order was very clear, don't let her die, but make her unable to live again. The members of the Nameless Ten were carrying out the order they received from a person whose name was mentioned in the books at the Military Academy and glorified their lineage to the letter. Just as Genghis Khan's generals killed five million people upon the order 'take precautions against things that will endanger the army', the members of the Nameless Ten treated General Alina exactly like that. Within seconds, the young woman's limbs were ripped off and sealed in a way that she couldn't use her five sensory organs.
When the three orcs, finishing their job, raised their heads, they saw Alyon cleaning up the remains of those running to the front by the order of the woman beneath them. It was the end of the road for those who stayed behind due to their fear and managed to escape the elemental attacks with the least damage; along with the orcs under his command, Alyon had no mercy.