Chapter 15: The scales (and mybe something else) tip3rd Person Pov

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  As the wolves charge with renewed vigour, assuming that the traps are finally gone, a wolf gets pierced by a spike trap. Then another. Then another. The charge halts yet again, and yet again, a volley of arrows hits the wolves. The lord and his retainers smirk.

  It is a standard tactic against moderately intelligent opponents. Hide spike traps on the battlefield, and then make some of them easily triggered preemptively using magic. The opponent will trigger some traps, becoming hesitant, allowing the archers to hit with the first barrage of arrows. Then the enemy would use magic, triggering the easy traps and would be certain that all the traps were gone. After that, they would step on the traps once again and hesitate again, allowing for another valley of arrows.

  Now the opponent could do two things. They could force their troops to charge no matter what, ignoring some sacrifices, or they could try to make the rest of the traps harmless as well, yet for every second they take, another valley could come.

  A howl sounds from the back, as the wolves charge once more, this time jumping as far as possible over and over again. At first, this seems like a clever decision. By minimising the area in which the wolves hit the ground, they minimise the chance of a spike hitting a wolf. Therefore, the casualties are minimal, right? Well, no. The sheer number of wolves makes it unlikely that any traps will remain after they pass through the area. In other words, these wolves are just wasting their stamina and making for easier targets for the archers.

  In the end, ten per cent of the wolf horde dies. And yet, the benefits of these spikes far exceed that. These spikes made the wolves wary and hesitant, in addition to drastically reducing their stamina.

  Now the wolves reach the second obstacle, and yet, when they want to stop before the trench, they fail and fall right in. Making it slippery before the trench allowed the defenders not only to immediately catch another ten per cent, but also to make these guys even warier toward the ground.

  The rest of the wolves stop at a safe distance and are once again hit by a volley of arrows. Once again, a howl takes pce, and the wolves this time run to the sides. They split into two groups, running to the right and left of the trench. However, another nasty surprise awaits them. Suddenly, many wolves find themselves on slippery ground again, before it slightly angles and makes the wolves glide right into the trench.

  On the city walls, the mages once again recover after their jointly cast spell. Unfortunately, because the wolves were wary, only around twenty per cent of the total wolves were caught. Now it's sixty per cent left. The city lord and co are hoping to take down another thirty to forty through their st trap. That would secure the deal.

  Yet, as they are preparing for the climax, somebody suddenly shouts: "Look! Over there! There is a lone wolf left!" Everyone looks, and before they can react, the wolf jumps forward and crosses the trench. The lord doesn't take long to understand that this is the leader. They are left with a decision. Activate the final trap ahead of time to eliminate the leader, or wait until the others have arrived and risk the leader doing something problematic. Just ten seconds ter, they have their answer.

  However, before they can give the order to make the wall fall, something terrible happens. The wall begins to tip. Yet it doesn't tip in the direction of the wolf. It tips in the direction of the city walls. A brief moment of silence acts as the calm before the storm. Then chaos breaks out. The guild leader's eyes open to one-third lidded, and the close combatants try desperately to escape the range of the tipping wall. Yet it seems impossible. That is, until the city lord steps in. It wasn't as if he never considered such a situation.

  "Close comat mages, cast barriers! Other close combatants, step into them! Le, shatter the wall!"

  Every half-decent commander would assign a few close combat mages to the close combatants. It was not just for variety. Close combat mages have the role of supporting the fight on the ground. They buff the warriors, detect traps, receive and rey orders from the higher-ups and cast barriers against long-range and AoE attacks. If the wolves had some of them, they could have immensely cut down the losses. Additionally, after numerous tests, the optimal warrior to close combat mage ratio is one hundred to one, meaning one doesn‘t need many mages.

  After the city lords shout, the guild leader's eyes open to one-fourth lidded, and he pulls back his right fist before punching outward. A fist phantom appears and flies toward the tipping wall. When it hits the wall, an explosion occurs, and the wall crumbles into many pieces.

  The close combat mages set up barriers, making the rubble harmlessly fall off. However, now, another problem arises. The rubble of the wall now blocks the gates and can additionally be used to climb to the top of the city wall. The city lord stands there, his brain madly calcuting ways to deal with this crisis. He already knows where he miscalcuted. It was a trap by the enemy leader. The wolf, with its magic proficiency, could have easily disarmed all earth spike traps during its first try. Yet it didn't. It purposefully made itself look weak, to make the impression that no matter what, it has no way of shaking that wall. Then, when it was close enough, it made the wall tip. It traded the lives of its subordinates to win.

  What he didn‘t know was that this wasn‘t some eborate pn. The alpha simply couldn‘t sense the spike traps. After that, it simply didn‘t know how to deal with the rest of the spike traps and wanted to save the Magic Power that it would take to experiment.

  Now the city lord stands before a problem. The width of the path they need to defend more than quadrupled. Initially, he pnned a rotation system in which the warriors were always repced the moment they were too exhausted to continue or had died. However, now that the size of the path increased, the number of people per point of defence was cut in four.

  The city lord makes a fast decision: "Everyone, onto the walls," he shouts, "Le, hold the wolves off!"

  His pn is simple. Since the rocks are shaped like a cone, the higher they are, the smaller the path they need to defend is. He could have made the mages blow away the rubble. But no matter how well they could control the spell, the mages could never have blown it away without impacting the warriors. The close combatants follow his orders. Everyone, including Recepti and the adventurers, climbs the rocks. At the same time, the guild leader opens his eyes a bit more, reaching one-fifth lidded, and then jumps off the wall. The defenders look at him for a few seconds before starting to climb again. Nobody is worried about him, for he is the strongest human in the city. For he is the only Aura user in the city.

  HidingInTheNovels