Chapter 272: When All Strategy Fails, Charge

(Lian Li POV)

I had chosen to stay with the first group after retreating back into town, knowing that the first contact would be the most important time that decides if the line will hold or break.

The first charge went about just as well as it could be, I even had the opportunity to strike down several of their Practitioners for being overconfident by flying above us.

After that it was a back and forth tug of war between the Dongs and us.

While the non-Practitioner soldiers held the wall, the Practitioner group would leap over the wall from time to time and inflict as much damage as we could before leaping back. Our archers on the roofs would provide covering fire for both our entry and retreat.

I killed my share and more but a few of our Practitioners were lost when they got careless or the enemy responded fast enough, impaling them with spears or having their own Practitioners counter them.

Though we still come out on top in terms of casualties inflicted, they had more people to last through this fight than we do.

It is only because of our defensive tactics with the barricades that we are able to hold for this long now.

"Prepare!" One of the officers yelled, his eyes trained on the enemy's movements behind the barricade.

The other Practitioners and I tensed our legs, most of us bending into a half crouch.

"Now!"

I leapt over the wall alongside all the other Practitioners, all of us already prepared to launch our own Techniques.

I landed on top of one of the soldiers, kicking him into the ground before unleashing the lightning I had been charging beforehand.

My lightning pierced through the group of soldiers that had been standing in front of me, killing at least twenty of them before their Practitioner could redivert my lightning into the sky.

I let loose my second lightning that I had prepared in my other hand, this one killing fewer soldiers than the first since they were already prepared for it.

One of the Dong Practitioners tried to throw a fireball to burn our group but it was promptly deflected back by one of our own Practitioners, taking the chance to burn a few more Dong soldiers with it.

With both my Techniques discharged, I leapt back over the wall again, landing on my feet without making a sound.

The other Practitioners also returned one after the other, though a quick mental headcount revealed that one was missing.

I spied through the gaps of the barricade to see the missing Practitioner impaled through the chest by an earth spike, his body hanging limply on top of our barricade. He must have been shot while leaping over the barricade.

Another one lost.

I do not doubt the effectiveness of such a tactic where none better can be thought of at the moment. But if each jump results in the loss of a Practitioner, we would be running out of people to jump in soon enough.

"Incoming! Deflection!" Someone shouted from behind me.

I looked up to see several fireballs descending towards us, or more accurately, towards the barricades.

This would be the sixth time the Dongs tried this little trick, it seems like they were really slow on learning new things.

For the sixth time today, one of the Elders from our Heaven Sect redirected the fireballs away and back towards the Dong army, letting it explode to kill their own soldiers.

We got ready for the next call to jump over the wall again. I prepared my Lightning Technique in both my hands once more.

Before the order could be given, a loud roar pierced through the air from behind the wall. Everyone turned towards the source just as one of our soldiers yelled out an alarm.

The wall exploded inwards in a blast of debris and earth, sending everyone that had been near it flying backwards.

A man easily three times my height stepped out of the debris, his muscled chest clearly visible since he only wore a pair of pants and nothing above it.

He smirked at the soldiers before him, hefting a greatsword equal to his height on his shoulder with a single hand.

"Time for all of you to die!" He roared, swinging his sword down in an arc and decapitating the five soldiers that had been standing in front of him.

I unleashed the lightning I had been charging at him, aiming to blast a hole through his chest.

Instead of what I envisioned happening, what seemed to be tattoos glowed on his body and my lightning dissipated the moment it got within two feet of him.

A few other Practitioners also launched their own Techniques at him but all met with the same result.

"Useless, useless, useless!" He laughed. "I have been inscribed with a Quark nullifier inscription! No Quarks can exist around me so your petty little tricks can't harm me!"

A few brave soldiers rose up to the challenge and charged him with their spears.

They only got within three feet before the prick swung his sword again, instantly killing everyone in a single swing.

Dong soldiers began pouring out of the gap in the wall, trying to secure a foothold in the opening to push us back.

Not good.

If this continues we will be overrun in no time.

I was about to try another stronger Lightning when I saw something blur past our soldiers to charge towards the big shitstain.

He barely managed to raise his sword in time to block the sword slash that came from his right, aiming straight for his neck.

"Impressive..." He growled, looking down at the much smaller Eris who was pressing her blade against his. "Didn't think there would be such a swordmaster in such a backwater country! You and I shall have the duel of the centu--"

Eris leapt and spun over his head, landing in a crouch behind the trash with her arm stretched to the side.

The Dong soldiers paused in their advance, opting to wait for their champion to turn around and finish her.

Except the trash did not turn around and instead, his head had slid off from the neck, bouncing on the floor three times before rolling away, the face still stuck in that mocking grin of his.

The body slammed down a few moments later with a loud thud, blood pouring out of where the head had been on the neck.

Before we could celebrate their champion's defeat, even more of those big cockroaches crawled out from the wall's gap, numbering fifty in total.

Seems like that guy wasn't their champion after all and just a member of some corps.

Fifty of them might be too much even for Eris, especially since she could not rely on the pseudo-Techniques she had learnt how to do.

Luckily, she did not have to face them alone.

The thunder of hooves came from behind just as our soldiers moved aside to make way, allowing a centaur with various weapons strapped on her to gallop to Eris's side.

Following closely behind her was a teenage girl with rainbow coloured hair that shimmered in the light, no prizes on guessing who that was.

Looking behind in the distance, I could see the unmistakable forms of Manami and Kiyomi rushing towards us to join the fight as well.

With the last wall broken, there was no reason for us not to commit fully into the fight anymore.

Our two sides stared at each other for a few seconds before someone roared a warcry.

That initiated a chain reaction of warcries and both sides charged, all plans and tactics thrown aside.