pjbooks Chapter 104 Jiang Chen Arrives
Chapter 104 Jiang Chen Arrives
"Three hundred years ago, at least your Awakened Ones would charge forward. Now, all you do is cower behind walls and tremble?"
His voice wasn't loud, yet it clearly pierced through ten miles, through the defensive barriers of the city walls, and through the eardrums of every soldier guarding the city. On the city walls, some began to tremble.
"Commander," Adjutant Chen Yan's voice trembled, "three more groups are coming from the southeast. Each group is led by at least one Demon King. Our flanks are about to collapse."
Zhao Tiecheng didn't answer. He stood atop the watchtower, his telescope shattered, a shrapnel wound on his left arm leaving a deep, bone-revealing gash; blood dripped from his fingertips, quickly turning into dark brown scabs in the dry Gobi wind. He gazed at the dark mass of the Demon King's army outside the city, at the black array stretching between heaven and earth, at the demon god hovering at the forefront of that array.
Then he pressed the communicator.
"Command center, this is Black Wind Canyon Outpost No. 3. No, this is Liangzhou Fortress." His voice was hoarse but calm. "The enemy forces have assembled. The number of Demon Kings exceeds seventy. We can't hold out."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the communicator. Then Chu Tianxiong's voice came through: "How long until reinforcements from headquarters arrive?"
"The first echelon has assembled outside the city," Chu Tianxiong said. "Ye Wuhen, Zhou Tianze, and Luo Qinghe, three SSS-level Awakened, are personally leading the team. But they can only hold off five Demon Kings at most. The rest..."
He didn't continue.
But Zhao Tiecheng understood.
Who will stop the remaining sixty-five demon kings and the demon god hovering at the front of the formation?
"How many civilians are still inside the Liangzhou fortress city?" Zhao Tiecheng asked.
"120,000." Chu Tianxiong's voice was deep, as if squeezed from the deepest part of his chest. "The evacuation routes have been interfered with by demonic energy, and the teleportation arrays are not functioning properly. The fastest evacuation will take at least six hours."
120,000 civilians. Six hours. Sixty-five demon kings. One demon god.
Zhao Tiecheng closed his eyes. Then he opened them, turned around, and looked at his adjutant and the few young communications soldiers crammed into the watchtower behind him. Fear was on their faces, but none of them backed down. Chen Yan was bandaging his bleeding hand, and the communications soldiers were staring intently at the monitor screen. Someone was muttering something quietly; if you listened closely, it was a local folk song from Liangzhou, saying, "Liangzhou City, an iron city, the wind cannot blow it down, the sand cannot bury it."
"Old Chen," Zhao Tiecheng said.
"arrive!"
"Pass down the order. All Awakened Ones on the first wall, defend the city gates at all costs. All non-combatants on the second wall, evacuate and help the civilians evacuate. I'll stay here."
Chen Yan's hand froze. He looked at Zhao Tiecheng, opened his mouth as if to say, "I'll go with you," but Zhao Tiecheng didn't give him a chance to speak.
"That's an order."
Chen Yan gritted his teeth, straightened his body, and gave the most perfect military salute he had ever given in his life. Then he turned and ran down the watchtower, his footsteps fading into the distance on the stairs.
Zhao Tiecheng turned around again, looking at the dark, imposing army of Abyss soldiers outside the city. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a flattened pack of cigarettes, took one out, and lit it. The smoke dispersed in the morning breeze, mingling with the stench of blood seeping from the wound on his left arm.
"Liangzhou," he muttered to himself, "a city built of iron."
He stubbed out his cigarette, threw it on the ground, and crushed it with his toe. Then he shouted a sentence into the communicator, a sentence that the two thousand soldiers guarding the Liangzhou Fortress had wanted to hear most since last night, yet also feared hearing most.
"Headquarters, this is Zhao Tiecheng. The first wall of Liangzhou Fortress is requesting final defense orders."
A piercing static crackled from the communicator. Then, Chu Tianxiong's voice rang out, each word emphasized.
"Headquarters received. Zhao Tiecheng, all garrison troops of Liangzhou Fortress—you are the shield of the western border."
Zhao Tiecheng smiled. He tucked the communicator back into his waistband and drew his battle sword. That sword had been with him for twenty years; its blade was covered in nicks and chips, but each chip was a testament to a life-or-death struggle.
Below the city walls, Balsalon raised his right hand.
"The entire army—" he drawled, with a languid cruelty that came with the scramble of a cat to catch a mouse, "Break the city."
The black shield wall stretching for miles moved in an instant. Abyss heavy infantry advanced in orderly steps, each step causing the wall to tremble slightly. Behind the shield wall, countless crossbows simultaneously raised their muzzles, unleashing a deluge of eerie green, poisonous bolts upon the wall. In the sky, the Bat-Winged Demon King spread its wings, like the shadow cast by death. Dark red fiery skulls emitted silent shrieks, staining the entire sky the color of lava.
Zhao Tiecheng raised his battle sword. The Awakened Ones on the city wall simultaneously activated the spiritual power within their bodies. Flames, lightning, wind blades, frost—all powers were squeezed to their limits at this moment, weaving a defensive net composed of various spiritual energies in front of the city wall.
The crossbow bolts struck the defensive netting, creating a series of explosive explosions. Where the netting had cracked due to the poison, bolts pierced through, embedding themselves in the walls and into soldiers who couldn't dodge in time. Screams echoed from every corner of the walls, but no one retreated. When someone fell, someone nearby took their place, continuing to channel their remaining spiritual energy into the netting. Someone whose leg was pierced by a poisoned arrow knelt on the ground and continued to unleash flames. Someone whose spiritual energy was exhausted and collapsed to the ground pulled out a grenade from their waist, bit off the pin with their teeth, and threw it down from the walls.
Zhao Tiecheng's sword was already chipped. He couldn't remember how many abyssal demon soldiers he had slain who had climbed the city walls. The wound on his left arm had gone numb, and a new gash had opened in the web of his right hand from the continuous slashing, blood flowing down the hilt and making it almost impossible to grip the sword. But he didn't stop. Because the city walls were still there, and the city gates hadn't fallen yet.
Wherever the light passed, the bat-winged demon kings swooping down from the sky simultaneously let out a scream. The membranes at the edges of their wings began to char, curl, and shatter. The bat-winged demon kings falling from the sky desperately flapped their rapidly disintegrating wings, but like birds with broken wings, they crashed to the ground one after another.
The heavily armored Abyss soldiers on the ground halted. The tower shields in their hands, those shields forged from Abyssal black iron and strong enough to withstand a full-force attack from an A-level Awakened, were fading from the edges under the light.
The barrage of comments exploded at that moment.
"Sword Domain!!! It's Sword Domain!!! Brother Chen is here!!!"
"From the East! The light is coming from the East! That's not the sun! That's sword energy!!!"
On the city wall, Zhao Tiecheng gripped his chipped sword, his face covered in blood, but the smile on his lips burned brighter than any light. With his last ounce of strength, he hoarsely roared into the communicator, "Headquarters, all the garrison at Liangzhou Fortress—the shield of the Dragon Kingdom—is not broken."
In the overwhelming silver light of the east, a figure in a school uniform could be vaguely seen, walking towards the dawn. Behind him was the hope in the eyes of the entire Liangzhou Fortress garrison.