Alien world

Chapter 1873, Section 506: Epilogue
Preliminary estimates suggest that the air raids killed at least hundreds of thousands of ratmen and millions of rats, their remains and remaining oil forming a long carpet of ash and charcoal, shimmering with dark red embers.

The defiant ratman stepped on it, and the thin outer shell shattered instantly, his foot sinking into the bright red, magma-like interior, which burst into flames.

The reconnaissance airship, now atop the northern wall, hovered at a height of 200 meters, out of the reach of the ratmen, before beginning its attack downwards.

From ordinary muskets to arcane missiles, from grease spells to live rope spells to sneeze spells, from fireball spells to shadow detection spells to curse spells, the main feature is a dazzling array of spells.

Tons of spells were rained down on the rat swarms on the city walls, looking intimidating—and the effect was quite good. Large numbers of ratmen were electrocuted, frozen, burned, and cursed; the worst off were those who survived the barrage of spells and were then bombarded with more.

Some reconnaissance airships descended to the top of the defenders' heads and airdropped large quantities of medicine to restore their physical strength and energy.

As is well known, Liberty City has a large number of mage apprentices and alchemy apprentices. Under the systematic teaching of the Mage Tower and Liberty City University, every student has assignments to do: such as brewing a potion, inscribing a magic scroll, or constructing a spell model.

This allowed Liberty City to accumulate a large number of low-level magic scrolls and potions.

They're usable, but far less effective. Selling them directly would damage Free City's reputation, while selling them as defective products at a low price would be too wasteful. Using them on the Skaven is the perfect solution.

As for the medicine... since it's included in the qualified list, it's not a failure; at most, it might have a few side effects.

Fermi and his men knew they were using up their reserves, but the ratmen couldn't tell. They just assumed that the airship carried a large group of mages, and since there were no gray rats supervising from behind, the rats were running around and the pressure on the defenders was greatly reduced.

"Come on! You rat-man scum!"

The berserker cleaved the elite rat in two with one axe stroke, then cleaved it into four pieces with two more strokes, unleashing a war roar at the horde.

However, their bodies betrayed their true intentions, leading the resistance army to escape the rat swarm.

They're just a bit savage, rude, and simple-minded; they're not stupid. The reinforcements arrived, the gray rats escaped, so why would they stay trapped in the rat swarm and try to die alongside the rats?
Didn't you see the city wall has stabilized? If anyone dies here, they'll be laughed at for fifty years when they get back!

Fortunately, the reconnaissance airships discovered their predicament, and two of them approached. One dropped supplies, while the other dropped a dazzling array of magic scrolls.

"Can you take us on board?" The resistance fighters started thinking about the reconnaissance airship.

"You're too heavy! Head west, reinforcements are almost here!" shouted the scout knight who peeked out.

The resistance fighters gradually moved to the edge of the battlefield, escaping the swarm of rats.

The battle at the Great Wall in the north has not yet ended, but the Skaven commander has fled. In addition, reconnaissance airships have begun to be loaded with oil and used to replicate previous air raids to inflict casualties. Since the Skaven are unable to cross the Great Wall, victory is only a matter of time.

A day and a night had passed since the start of the battle. At the break of dawn, good news arrived: the resistance forces and the rangers had joined forces and were on their way.

Two hours later, gunshots rang out in the west.

The rangers, spread out yet maintaining a fixed distance, began to retreat upon contact with the rat swarm, tearing the rats into loose pieces before picking them off one by one.

However, there were too many rats, and even if they fought for a week, they wouldn't be able to take a large piece of meat. Soon they began to split up: half of them led the rat horde to the northwest, while the other half joined the resistance forces on the city wall to encircle the rat swarm on the wall with the defenders, eventually breaking through the wall and meeting up.

"You guys are still holding on."

Seeing Fermi struggling to get back on his feet, his helmet nowhere to be found, Jack burst into laughter. What happened?

The berserker assumed the two didn't get along, but Commissar Frank smiled and said, "I think this is his way of saying 'I'm not late, am I?'"

Fermi looked at the "ash zone" created by more than thirty airships, where sparks were occasionally blown by the wind, revealing the still smoldering interior. "Why didn't we think of dropping oil on the airships earlier?"

“That’s why His Majesty Annan left us here, to teach us how to fight.” Jack quoted an elven saying: “Even the most talented poet’s first sound is a cry, not a good poem.”

"Whether a poem is good or not, you'll only know after you've tried it," Fermi said in a hoarse voice.

Jack grinned: "Have your men give us the guns."

Because of the need for guerrilla tactics and precision, the Rangers still mainly relied on the stable first-generation magic muskets, which put them at a disadvantage when fighting rat swarms.

Commissar Frank collected the muskets of the deserters and handed them over to the Ranger Legion.

They only had two thousand men, but to the defending forces, that meant they had half again the immediate fighting strength.

Jack told Fermiklian and the others to go rest and took over command on the city wall.

As the commander of the Rangers, Jack was different from Fermi's "rigid thinking." Due to his slick experience of mingling on the streets as a child, he didn't like to be rigid and preferred to use his wisdom to solve problems—which was also what Annan admired about him.

His first order was to have the artillerymen raise their cannons and bombard the rat swarm outside the wall again. He then ordered the reconnaissance airships to plow out a second isolation zone. After that, he led 7,000 musketeers and more than 3,000 defenders and resistance troops to reduce the defensive line.

In his view, since the ratmen had already climbed the city wall, it wouldn't hurt to let them stay a little longer.

The whistling sound of shells falling echoed across the battlefield once more, now accompanied by the acrid smell of burning oil on the ratmen.

Jack stared out of the city, and at a certain moment, he suddenly ordered a counterattack.

They had tried to drive the ratmen back before, but every time you killed one, two more would pop up. After all that effort, they had only managed to push them back less than a meter.

Jack was also continuously wearing down the rat horde outside the two isolation zones and the smoldering ash zone, and only dared to launch a counterattack because the number of rats climbing up was limited.

Gunfire suddenly intensified, and the resistance fighters fought desperately to stay at the front. With this shift in momentum, they actually managed to drive the ratmen back outside the wall and once again bombarded the rat embankment, returning to their initial defensive posture.

Over the next two days, the alien legions and the punitive legions arrived one after another, and with the rat swarm leaderless, the northern Great Wall became even more secure.

The few ratmen who had slipped across the northern wall and into the Empire during the earlier chaos were discovered and eliminated by the spontaneously arriving resistance.

On the fourth day, the rat population in the north was no longer boundless; it became sparse, loose, and even showed signs of dispersing.

As the war neared its end, Hellfire finally had time to tally the casualties.

Kirian reported: "Hellfire: 158 dead, 6 missing. Resistance: 512 dead, 267 missing. Rangers: 15 dead, Alien Legion: 2 dead, Punishment Legion: unharmed, resource consumption unknown."

(End of this chapter)