Imperial Crown

News of the siege by the Hand of Death also reached the coalition tent. The ongoing military meeting had to be stopped, and the atmosphere suddenly became solemn.

Minsk looked gloomy and glanced across the audience: "Things have changed. We can't wait any longer. Let's follow the previous plan - assemble the army and attack!"

The human race is not undead, and it will take quite a while for the 30,000-strong army to complete its formation and set off.

Each legion began to be busy, and only Raven, the "Scout Captain", had some freedom. He did not have to join the entire army.

Scouts, of course, have to be outside at all times. How can they conduct reconnaissance in a military formation?

So Raven took the lead with his own soldiers and found a place with a wide view to observe the war.

The siege of the city had begun, and the first ones to launch were the skeleton archers. Rains of bone arrows covered the sky for miles, and then they rained down in waves, so heavy that the defenders at the top of the city could not even lift their heads.

At the same time, the undead army was also advancing.

A large number of cannon fodder skeletons serve as pioneers, mixed with first-level skeletons and rotten corpses. Every once in a while, there will be a second-level plague colossus guarded by second-level bone cavalry.

There were only a few of the Terrorist Colossi that I encountered before, but now I looked up and saw that there were at least dozens of them participating in the siege. They were so tall that they were almost as tall as the city wall, and they were holding up a city gate-like statue in their hands. The giant shield of bones.

Raven frowned slightly. Although the battle in which Viscount Morgan died was a disastrous defeat for the coalition forces, the undead army at that time basically had no tactics at all. Apart from knowing that arrows would rain down the ground before the war started, they just rushed in a swarm.

But now these undead armies participating in the siege showed a hint of tactical planning.

The rain of bones and arrows continued, and a large number of skeleton soldiers covered and coordinated with the epidemic colossus to advance.

If the undead army had this kind of dispatching ability during the field battle, the losses of the coalition forces would be even greater.

"Did the war give them experience, or are the commanders really different this time?"

Reality quickly gave Raven the answer.

The sea of ​​skeletons gradually approached the city wall, but the rain of arrows did not stop, covering their forwards as well.

Skeleton soldiers themselves are not vulnerable to arrow damage, and they will not cause morale problems due to the rain of arrows coming from behind. It is indeed the best choice.

The defenders on the city wall were not just beaten. Over the past few months, they had developed a method of dealing with the undead.

Raven put up the awning with his hands, a look of surprise on his face.

On the city wall, something similar to a carriage appeared - a steel skin. I don't know if it was equipped with wheels, but it was enough to withstand the rain of bones and arrows. Then, clusters of firelight splashed out. It was a flame enchanted cross. The arrows fired from the bow were aimed at the giant statues of the plague-stricken people.

The firelight fell on the shield regardless of the cost, but it was difficult to achieve success. Some were bounced to the ground, and some were extinguished as soon as they landed on it.

Raven looked astonished: "It's not flame enchantment, it's just an ordinary fire arrow!"

Obviously, months of hard fighting have exhausted the city's defenders' reserves of enchanted crossbows. The flame-enchanted crossbows also have a useful life and may have expired long ago.

But what the defenders did was not in vain. Even ordinary kerosene arrows, if they were in large numbers, would slowly ignite the shields.

Immediately afterwards, a new carriage appeared, with the same shape, but larger, and the crossbow arrows shot from it were thicker than a bucket!

It's a bed crossbow.

The giant white bone shield like a city gate became fragile after being roasted by the fire, and was immediately smashed into pieces by the huge impact of the bed crossbow arrows.

Then the bed crossbow and crossbow aimed at the head of the plague colossus and started firing.

That huge body is an excellent target. Once the shield is broken, it won't take long for their heads to explode, allowing the green soul fire to fly everywhere.

"Why not use magic crystal cannon?" Volaf asked.

"Bone dragon." It was Eric who answered him: "The magic crystal cannon is aimed at the ground but not in the air. The magic crystal cannon on the city wall has probably been removed by the bone dragon long ago, leaving only the empty shell."

While he was talking, the army of bones had already swarmed to the city.

The moat has long been filled with countless bones, and a layer of bones several meters high has been laid under the city wall.

Although more than half of the fearful plague colossi were wiped out, some still rushed to the edge of the city. They stepped on the pile of bones, put their hands on the city wall, lowered their heads to support it, and turned into a wide ladder!

The skeleton soldiers followed the ladder all the way up and rushed towards the city wall!

Deep in the city wall, heavy hammers hit the fingers of the giant statues of fear of the epidemic. Some of them were still wrapped in fighting spirit, and bone fragments were scattered everywhere, but it was difficult to shake their bodies for a while.

The method was not limited to that. Barrels of kerosene were pushed up and poured on the Terror Colossus. The fire ignited and burned the skeleton soldiers who stepped on them.

But the skeleton soldiers did not feel pain. They rushed up to the city with burning fire, were pushed down, and then rushed up again and were pushed down again.

Even from such a long distance, Raven felt that he could faintly smell the stench of burning bones.

The colossus of the disease that was hanging on the top of the city began to be disintegrated, but before the soldiers on the wall could take a breath, a new colossus of the disease had already risen from the ground and rushed towards the city wall.

Each Terror Colossus consumes hundreds of undead. Looking at this situation regardless of the cost, you know that the Hand of Death has made up its mind to break through Men'en City!

Woo——

The horn sounded, and Raven looked back. The Iron Legion had completed preparations and came out in full force.

As the vanguard, the Iron Brigade, composed of 500 Iron Warriors, all wearing enchanted plate armor, reflecting the sunlight like a mirror. They held steel shields and long swords and began to advance with heavy steps!

Although there were only 500 people, their calm momentum was comparable to that of thousands of troops, and it was like a slowly advancing unstoppable wall.

And behind them was the 5,000-strong army of the Iron Legion, all in full helmet and armor, and even the crossbowmen were wearing bright armor.

This was the elite guarding the border of the empire, with an overall cost of no less than millions of gold coins, and a war machine that consumed hundreds of thousands of gold coins every year

--the Iron Legion!

Looking at the slowly advancing battle formation, Raven showed a trace of longing in his eyes: "Sooner or later, I will have such an army!"

The undead army, which had been on guard against them, immediately launched an attack!

The speed of the Iron Brigade was not fast, but its steps were very steady. The skeleton soldiers who came into contact with them could not make any decent resistance at all.

The tattered weapons in the hands of the skeleton soldiers could not break through the defense of the Iron Brigade, and the soldiers of the Iron Brigade could smash the skeletons to pieces as long as they took action!

With the Iron Brigade as the vanguard, the entire Iron Legion was like a wedge, driving hard into the Undead Army.

The other four legions also slowly completed their preparations. They spread out along the two sides along the opening torn by the Iron Legion, on the one hand to expand the results of the battle, and on the other hand to prevent the Iron Legion from being robbed.

Since the army has already set out, Raven, the "scout unit", certainly cannot stay where it is, but rushed out and began to swipe around the periphery of the army formation, occasionally interspersed to disperse a group of skeleton soldiers and then go around, fishing in a fair and aboveboard manner, but no one can find fault with it.

With just more than 30 cavalrymen, you can't expect them to kill through the Undead Army and reach the city of Mon'en, right?

The speed of the Iron Legion's advance aroused the vigilance of the Death Hand Cult. After a storm of bones, more than a dozen Plague Colossi rose from the ground and rushed towards the Iron Brigade.

When they rushed to the near side, five of them lay on the ground at that time, and began to condense gray-white soul flames in their mouths, obviously preparing to fire a few soul-burning fires.

This immediately aroused Raven's interest.

Minsk had obviously been communicating with Earl Tyrone in some way. Even if he had not encountered them directly, he must have known the combat methods of the Plague Colossi very well, but he still chose to let the Iron Brigade advance in a dense formation, so there must be a way to deal with it!

Then this method of dealing with it appeared in front of Raven.

I saw that the five hundred Iron Warriors almost simultaneously triggered the fighting spirit. Some of them stood up straight, and some half-knelt on the ground, with shields connected to shields. Under the reinforcement of the Iron Fighting Spirit, these shields were almost linked together without any gaps.

It was simply a wall made of steel!

The dead white soul-burning fire roared out, burning the steel wall. The color of the shield surface changed several times, but it was not broken after all.

The steel brigade was not just defending. Just behind the team, hundreds of steel warriors took off the javelin behind them, infused their fighting spirit, and threw them out!

A silver-gray arc passed through the sky, and then fell on the bodies of those terrifying plague giants.

The heavy javelin wrapped in steel fighting spirit smashed down with a strong impact force. Even if one was difficult to break, the large number of them still smashed the bones of those terrifying plague giants, and the green soul fire floated!

The terrifying plague giants who did not prepare the soul-burning fire and rushed wildly were even more miserable. They were almost smashed to pieces by the javelin!

This is the terrifying combat power that erupted after the extraordinary assembly!

The bone dragon in the sky wanted to pounce down to deal with this batch of steel brigades, but after seeing this scene, it immediately began to pull up and turned to the other side of the battlefield.

Although it was much stronger than the Plague Colossus, it did not want to use its body to resist the javelins.

However, the other four legions suffered because they did not want to bite the hard bone of the Iron Brigade. Whenever it pounced, even without breathing, the faint dragon power it carried was enough to terrify most soldiers, and many of them were frightened and incontinent on the spot.

Once the dragon breath was spewed, it was even more fatal. Except for a few fourth-level legion commanders, no one could resist it.

In addition to the Plague Colossi that appeared everywhere on the battlefield, the formations of the four temporary legions, which were not well trained and coordinated, began to become chaotic, and the orderly advancement turned into a melee.

In this way, Raven's pressure was relieved. The more chaotic the battlefield was, the fewer people would notice him, and he would have the opportunity to jump out and analyze the war from the perspective of a bystander.

This kind of scene of a decisive battle between large legions is rare, and Raven eagerly absorbed the experience and lessons from it.

Gradually, he began to find that the command of each legion leader seemed to have problems. For example, in the Fourth Legion, a brigade had penetrated too deep and was completely surrounded by the skeletons. If Raven himself was in charge, he would have ordered both sides to speed up the advance, which would not only relieve the crisis of the brigade, but also expand the results of the battle.

But Viscount John chose to lead the team to penetrate diagonally, which rescued the brigade, but also made the overall formation more chaotic.

"Is my vision better than Viscount John's?" Raven asked himself this question, but immediately shook his head.

I know my own level. Although I have some theoretical knowledge, I have never really commanded a large army. At best, it is just talking about war on paper, and at worst, it is "I won't go, just beep".

Then he found that not only the Fourth Legion, but also the decision-making of the other three legions had many problems to a greater or lesser extent.

"I understand." Raven's eyes became clear.

He is now looking at the whole war from the perspective of an observer. Of course, he can see and understand it clearly, but people in the war may not have such a perspective as him, and it is even more difficult to control the overall situation in the chaos.

On the other hand, the optimal solution that Raven thinks may not be the optimal. For example, Viscount John's oblique insertion destroyed the formation, but it also boosted the morale of the Fourth Legion to a certain extent.

This also made Raven secretly alert, never think too highly of himself, and don't take marching and fighting so lightly.

As the melee unfolded, the battle intensified. With the Iron Brigade as the vanguard, the coalition forces slowly and firmly advanced towards Mon'en.

And the Death Hand Cult also saw the determination of this side, and the siege force became more and more fierce!

Magic began to appear on the top of the city. This was the necromancer in the undead army starting to show his power. At the same time, more and more skeleton soldiers rushed to the city at all costs, even if they were buried in the flames in vain!

As more and more undead went to die, the pile of dead bones became higher and higher.

The Hand of Death wanted to use the bones of the undead to pave a wide road leading to the city wall!

In an instant, whether inside or outside the city, everyone who observed this action understood the tactical intentions of the undead army, but few people could stop it!

If there were still third-level and fourth-level extraordinary people on the city, they might be able to quickly disintegrate it, but these forces had long been exhausted in the long years of defending the city, and the more they fought, the fewer they were.

Now in the entire Monen City, the only real strong man left was Tyrone Shiva Slater, who had a fifth-level corrupt poisonous fighting spirit.

He could not appear on the city wall, and could not even be exposed to the sight of the Hand of Death. Once he had any accidents, the entire Monen City and the entire war would be completely defeated!

Seeing that Monen City might be breached at any time, Minsk began to get anxious and immediately ordered the Iron Brigade to speed up its advance.

…