The expedition army advanced while maintaining their formation, and the breaching unit had reached the wall and fighting their battle against their persistent enemy, the city gate.

“Now then, third wall… commence attack,” Vandalieu whispered, now that plenty of enemies had been drawn in. And then he used Flight to move back to the second wall.

“That brat, he’s runni– what the hell?!”
As Riley and the rest of the army advanced, the wall began collapsing. It had indeed been worn out, but they hadn’t expected it to collapse all at once. They stopped unconsciously in surprise.

“It was a trap!” Gordan shouted. “But he was too hasty; it seems that he was planning to trap us under the collapsed wall, but we are still too far away!”

The breaching unit had taken some damage, but their martial skills had already been active. Though some bones might be broken, they would not die.

Now all that was left to do was to climb over the remains of the wall to proceed… or so they thought, but the eyes of every single member of the expedition army widened.

They could now see that on the other side of the collapsed wall, there was another, white wall, slightly shorter in height but sturdy-looking.

“Wha–?! There was nothing in the military records about there being two walls!” shouted Chezare.

“Damn it! That’s why I’m telling you to pull the troops back!” Mauvid said, urging him to give the command.

“Indeed… Archers, back up the breaching unit as they retreat! Each unit should temporarily – huh?” In the middle of giving orders, Chezare makes a foolish sound of confusion.

The wall they had thought to be collapsed had stood up.

Letting out resentful groans, Stone Golems and Rock Golems that had been part of the wall stood up. There were easily more than a thousand of them.

The stone men ran towards each unit of the expedition army with much more agility than their appearance suggested they could move with, and aiming to strike the soldiers down.

“R-retreat! Retreat!”

“UOOOH! Raise your shields! Show them your front, not your back!”

“Maintain your formations, where’s the pride of the heavy infantry!”

There was some distance between the Stone Golems and the expedition army’s units that had been advancing on the wall. The most pitiful were the heavy infantrymen of the breaching unit.

They had managed to avoid being crushed to death under the wall that had suddenly collapsed, only to be surrounded by stone giants. They would certainly be beaten to a pulp.


And the iron city gate they had been trying to break down had transformed into a Rank 6 Iron Golem.

It seemed that the breaching unit had preserved its morale and wasn’t planning to give up until the very end, but its fate was in a precarious state.

“Rescue the breaching unit!”

“Black Bull Knights’ Order, advance! Do not slow down! There is nothing to fear from these lifeless Golems!”

The expedition army that was shouting heroically was made of the Mirg shield-nation’s prided elite. Naturally, they had experienced the battlefield many times. That was why each of them, from the knights to the soldiers, possessed strong bonds as comrades.

And for them, a thousand Golems were not lethal enemies.

Even with Chezare and General Mauvid frozen in surprise in the stronghold, each of the expedition army’s members were making their own decisions all over the battlefield. The same applied for those led by Riley and Gordan.

They came into contact with the Golems, and using their individual strength and coordinated abilities, they struck down the stone giants that were groaning and swinging their fists.

At this rate, they would be able to defeat all of the Golems and regain their formation.
At that moment, Vandalieu gave the order to the Cursed Weapons, the crossbows in the second wall and the trebuchets installed on the rooves of Talosheim’s buildings.

“Fire.”

“Gah!”

“Gyah!”

“Hyih! Boulders are flying… gyih!”

Some of the crossbow bolts pierced the Rock Golems, but as the Rock Golem numbers had been reduced, around two thirds of them found their targets in the expedition army.

And no matter how elite the Shield-bearers and heavy infantrymen were, they could not avoid being rendered unable to fight by the trebuchet boulders falling from overhead.

Even as they saw the boulders’ trajectory and tried to run, the remaining Rock Golems would stop them from doing so and as the word “heavy” in “heavy infantryman” would suggest, they were incapable of fast movements.