Path of Light.

Chapter 974, 969. Precitus

The two mountain ranges of the Villaria Valley extend eastward from the west coast, finally converging at a point more than 300 kilometers away. This confluence of mountains is where the city of Precitus is located.

The grey dwarves built a mountain city atop this mountain, its walls seamlessly integrated with the mountainsides on either side, making the city appear as if it grew out of the cliff face...

The magic airship, perched high above, offered a panoramic view of the entire city of Presites. While noticeably smaller than Boles, the city's location atop a mountain pass gave it an imposing and majestic air…

A winding mountain road leads through the valley to Precitus, and beyond the valley lies a sheer cliff, completely isolating it from the outside world.

The entire city of Precitus could be described in one word for Roy—'dilapidated'.

The city resembled a ruin, a ruin atop a mountain.

The collapsed houses, along with some buildings that did not collapse, formed a mountain town.

The cliffs and precipices were riddled with holes. No one knew how the Black Cavalry had managed to leave so many wounds on the cliffs hundreds of meters high. Roy didn't believe they would use so many magical weapons to bombard the cliffs.

Roy was standing at the bow of the ship, his gaze passing over Presidius and looking towards the vast land to the east.

Although they were far apart, Roy could still see that the land was ablaze with fire, and billowing black smoke rose into the sky, merging with the dark clouds.

Tents are a common sight on that land.

A grey dwarf official followed Roy, his gaze also fixed on the vast land outside the city of Presidius.

"Those are the Demon Servant Army, the vanguard of the Nakma Demon Black Rider Army, or you could say the Black Rider Army's cannon fodder. To be honest, on the battlefield of Durag's Knee, these Demon Servant Army are the main force. They are numerous, fearless of death, and have no sense of pain. Once they charge forward, it's a fight to the death."

"Even if they only have one breath left, or only half a body left, they will keep crawling forward. Many of our excellent soldiers were dragged down by them and died together."

"Now the entire heartland of Drag's Knee is overrun with Nakhmar demons. We retreated with all our might to the Vale of Vale and held out in the city of Pristis for five years..."

The gray dwarf official fell silent and said no more.

But Roy immediately understood his unspoken meaning: if the war supplies hadn't been so scarce that they couldn't hold onto this mighty city, the grey dwarves might not have compromised with them so easily.

It was precisely because the Nachma demons on the eastern battlefield launched powerful offensives that the situation in Presidius City became so precarious that the Northern Army fleet, after suffering several losses, finally lowered its head and sought peace with them.

Guided by the gray dwarf officials, the Black Pearl slowly approached the city of Presidius, hoisting a flag of the Northern Fleet at its bow.

At this moment, on several high towers near the Black Pearl in the city of Presidius, more than a dozen large ballistae slowly changed their firing angle, no longer locking onto the Black Pearl...

The gray dwarf warriors on the tower also poked their heads out from behind the battlements, signaling for the Black Pearl to descend.

Roy saw the gray dwarf warriors on the tower gesturing in their direction and asked the gray dwarf officer standing at the bow of the ship:

"What are they talking about?"

"They told us to descend as quickly as possible, hoping the magic airship could hide in the shadows behind the mountain town before it was locked onto by the giant catapults..."

"The gray dwarf official said with a look of horror on his face."

Before the gray dwarf official could finish speaking, countless flames suddenly lit up on the vast land outside the cliffs of Presites City. The flames looked no bigger than match heads, and the light they emitted after burning was like a wildfire spreading.

Then came a deafening roar, and flames the size of match heads leaped up from the vast land in quick succession.

Countless flames grew larger and larger in everyone's sight, transforming into enormous fireballs that spun continuously, trailing thick black smoke as they traced parabolic arcs across the sky.

Roy finally understood why the cliffs around the city of Presidius had so many scars.

Thousands of fireballs were hurled from the vast eastern land, managing to travel thousands of meters in an attempt to sink the magic airship bound for the city of Presidius...

Fireballs streaked across the sky, growing larger and larger in view.

After traversing several kilometers, many of the fireballs in the air had extinguished, but the thick smoke from them still left long trails.

Some more fireballs, still burning, flew by, but they weren't densely packed.
Their coverage was very wide; half of the fireballs even hit the city of Presidius. As the fireballs continued to fall, the cracking sounds continued, like a meteor shower falling from the sky.

As fireballs whizzed past the Black Pearl, Rodhart stood pale-faced in the captain's cabin, yelling at the crew on deck to shut down the levitation devices so the Black Pearl could descend quickly.

However, it was all too late; the magic airship still couldn't escape the rain of fire.

Those fireballs, which looked like match heads from a distance, became larger than millstones when they flew up to us. And watching them whistling through the air, we knew that these fireballs must be solid and carved out of large rocks.

As for why this multi-ton stone fireball could be thrown so far, we need to examine the structure of the catapult in detail.

A streak of fire traced a parabolic trajectory across the sky, causing the half-elf crew members on the deck to gasp in alarm. Its target was clearly the Black Pearl, and no matter what the Black Pearl did, it couldn't avoid the massive fireball directly in front of it.

The firelight even illuminated the faces of the half-elf crew members standing on the deck...

Just as everyone gasped in surprise, the air directly in front of the Black Pearl seemed to freeze, as if transparent air had suddenly begun to condense, and a huge ice curtain ten meters wide appeared out of thin air a few seconds later.

It happened to block the bow of the Black Pearl, and during the solidification process, the half-elf crew members on board could even clearly hear the cracking sound of the ice breaking.

The fireball slammed directly into the ice wall, instantly shattering the massive ice wall.

The shattered ice wall extinguished the flames on the fireball, and the stone changed its trajectory upon impact, only lightly grazing the bronze ram's horn before falling from the sky.

Even though it was just a slight scratch, it was a huge shock to the Black Pearl.

Many of the half-elf crew members were thrown about by the impact; had they not been secured by safety ropes, they might have been flung off the Black Pearl. Roy, meanwhile, was clinging tightly to the grey dwarf officer beside him, preventing his spherical body from being thrown off the airship…

The entire hull emitted a series of cracking sounds, and it was unclear what had broken during the collision.

Archmage Graemus stood atop the ship's deck, wand in hand, water elementals constantly gathering around him, his entire being enveloped in a massive vortex. Clearly, the ice wall he had just created was his doing.

Roy didn't see Opeia standing behind the Archmage Graemus. She had also created a spatial rift at the same time, using spatial laws to erase a corner of the stone sphere, causing it to change its trajectory the instant it hit the ice wall, narrowly missing the Black Pearl...

The laws of space are the most unpredictable of all elements; a slight mishap can cause spacetime collapse.

After the magic airship avoided the fireball, it did not encounter any more fireballs and quickly took cover behind the city of Presidius, successfully avoiding the rain of fire that kept falling from the sky.

The half-elf crew erupted in cheers...

No one expected that a fireball could be thrown from several kilometers away.

That's far, the range must be at least two or three kilometers...

After a round of fire rain, several places in the city of Pristis were engulfed in flames. At this time, many gray dwarf warriors emerged from the ruins, some fighting the fires and others rescuing people...

Meanwhile, the Black Pearl magic airship successfully approached the city of Presidius and docked in front of a tower.

The city of Presites has an airport dock, which is much more convenient for magic airships, unlike in Boles, where magic airships have to dock at the same docks as other ships...

There were hardly any people at the airport terminal, and a few gray dwarf warriors peered out from the tower.

The gray dwarf official was the first to step out of the magic airship and stand on the high tower to inquire about the battle situation with the gray dwarf warriors.

Roy, along with Moira, Sabrina, and Miss Tiffany, disembarked from the ship. Standing at the airport dock of Prestis City, everyone truly felt the grandeur of this mountain city...

Towers line a city wall that stretches for over ten kilometers, its towering structure blending perfectly with the Villaria Mountains.
At intervals along the city wall stood large arsenals, each guarded by squads of grey dwarf warriors. Battle axes and warhammers were scattered haphazardly across the walls, piled together without any racks. Some axes were rusty, some had broken handles, and some had various defects on their blades…

Behind the city wall, there were many huge stones, oil canisters, and other miscellaneous items piled up in the supply area.

The gray dwarf warriors guarding the city walls all looked like veterans. They knew how to rest on the battlefield in the most energy-efficient way. Even with fireballs constantly falling from the sky, they could sit behind the battlements and smoke with calm expressions.

Roy had never seen such exceptional combat skills in those grey dwarf bandits before.

A group of orc leaders disembarked from the ship and stood at the airport dock. The tower here was connected to the city wall of Presidius. No one was in the mood to visit the ruins of the city. Instead, they all wanted to look at the demon servant army outside the city wall that had robbed the gray dwarves of their last bit of fighting spirit.

Chief Grop mocked the grey dwarves all the way, saying that these grey dwarves who survived the battlefield were worthless.

Orc warriors rarely desert; they either win or die in battle.

Having probably sensed the impending war at the airport docks, the orc leaders appeared quite excited after disembarking. Naturally warlike, they couldn't wait to rush to the front lines of the city walls.

Led by the gray dwarf officials, the group walked up the stone steps directly to the city wall.

The gray dwarf warriors on the city wall were all dressed in the heaviest metal armor, each one looking like a metal can, holding hammers and axes, looking like clumsy metal puppets.

Seeing Roy and his mixed-blood elves and orcs climb the city walls, all the grey dwarf warriors focused their attention on this side.

The gray dwarf official walked directly over and communicated with the gray dwarf commander on the city wall.

He quickly returned, indicating that everyone could climb onto the city wall...

The wind on the city wall was bitingly cold. In addition to water pouches, the gray dwarf warriors all carried a bag of rum on their waists. They could get a certain amount of rum every day while guarding the city wall. This rum was the last belief that allowed them to hold on.

Standing on the city wall, I could finally observe the scenery outside the wall up close...

Only then did Roy see the endless camps, densely packed on this vast land outside the Villaria Valley. The tents were dilapidated, some even stained with blood, and many had holes that hadn't been repaired.

In this extremely harsh camp environment, a dozen or so demon servants, their bodies hunched over and their backs covered in sharp thorns, sat around a campfire.

Their sheer number is staggering, impossible to count; it's estimated that the demonic servant army in this area numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

With such a large and fearless army of demonic servants, it's no wonder the Northern Fleet was in a hurry to withdraw from Boles City...

Why are there so many dwarf monsters below the city walls?

"Grandmaster Grop asked, frowning."

"If the Black Cavalry wants to launch a full-scale attack on a certain place, the first to engage will be this group of demon servants. Only after the demon servants have exhausted the guards will the Black Cavalry launch a sneak attack from the rear..."

The gray dwarf official quickly explained.

“In the past few years, the demon servants outside Presites City have been rotated several times. The appearance of the Black Knights' scouts here only started about half a year ago.”

"At the end of the month, our grey dwarf warriors will be withdrawing from here. They need to hurry to Port Boles to board the last fleet of ships and leave Durag. Of course, not all grey dwarves will leave, but the city will be taken over by half-elves!"

"These demon servants below organize sieges every day. Their siege tactics are very simple. However, I think that before you take over Boles City, you should communicate more with our warriors. This will give you a lot of combat experience!"

As he spoke, the grey dwarf official straightened his back.

He was clearly satisfied with these elite gray dwarf warriors.

(End of this chapter)