章 241: Legion vs. Adventurers (4)
While the soldiers are crazily attacking the legion on either side the armored figures, who I still presume to be dwarves have entered the center legion's javelin range.
However, they are mostly unaffected by the javelins. Their armors seem sturdy enough to take even the heavy javelins at the end without sustaining much more than a mild injury.
Shame, with how few of them there are, they can at most occupy one legion's attention and even that might be difficult.
As the dwarves enter the firing range of the legionaries' javelins, they begin to speed up. They are still slow but I can tell that they are also building momentum. They must be planning to break through the legion's shield wall in one go.
Wave after wave of javelins rains down on the advancing dwarves and a few of them even get hurt. No matter how good heavy armors are they need to leave some space between the pieces to accommodate movement.
Hitting those gaps that appear and disappear while the armor is moving can't be purposely achieved by the legionaries. However, doing so by chance is possible and, since there are more javelins in each wave than dwarves, hits aren't unlikely.
Unfortunately, those hits at most inconvenience the armored figures. They simply keep walking and the javelins vanish shortly after.
I think this might come down to who cracks first. If the humans can't keep up their frenzied assault the dwarves will be in trouble. On the other side, if the center legion fails to stop the dwarves before the humans break, they will force the two side legions to retreat or risk revealing their inner flank.
<Vespasian is the dungeon master of this dungeon. Do you really think he would field his legions like that if he had no way to counter those dwarves?>
How do you counter those suits of armor? Apart from their slow movement, I see no possible weakness. Is he going to send a high-level monster?
<I highly doubt he can send a monster that would be effective down here without paying an exorbitant price. He has much more effective and less costly things to use for such occasions.>
A high-pitched whistle sounds and a bunch of blurs pass by above the undead legionaries' heads. As the blurs begin to slow down due to air resistance, gravity begins to pull them down and they collide with the armored dwarves.
A lot of dust is kicked up and blocks my sight. Only once the dust settles can I see what those blurs were.
Giant steel bolts. Fired with ungodly velocity, these bolts have shredded bloody paths through the rows of the dwarven unit. Even those heavy armors that can easily withstand javelin rains are torn apart.
I know this sounds inappropriate but I can't get the thought out of my head that this looks like some teen went ham on a bunch of canned food tins containing tomatoes.
I turn my head to look toward the back of the legions trying to find the origin of those menacing can openers... errr I mean those bolts.
Behind the legions, multiple constructs made of wood and metal have been erected. Those are ballistas aren't they?
<Those are dragon tendon ballistas.>
Dragon tendon ballistas? You want to tell me that the strings used to make these ballistas were the tendons of a dragon?
<Yes, the torsion string of each and everyone of those machines was created by using the tendons of a dragon as the raw material. The biggest limitation these things face is that the other materials aren't strong enough to bear the full force that the torsion string could be put on.>
And therefore they could fire even more devastating shots? Isn't this way too overpowered for a battle like this?
<If it were a monster, yes of course. However, it's a lifeless object that is used by other monsters and therefore it is considered a weapon. Weapons, so long as they have no soul, intelligence, spirit or mass destruction capabilities can be used freely and anywhere.>
That's nice. Having strong firepower to cover us will make things easier.
<I hate to disappoint you but the next floor's terrain doesn't allow the ballistas to be used effectively.>
Well damn.
At least the fight below is going increasingly well for us. The dwarves are being decimated by the ballistic bolts that plow deep gashes into their lines every dozen seconds. The human soldiers have managed to breach the legions' front lines a couple of times but each attempt cost them many lives and just caused the undead legionaries to switch position with the reserve cohorts of the line behind them.
The elves are finally on the move too. They circle around the fighting parties and attempt to attack the left flank.
The legions answer by moving all the cohorts stationed in the last line to the left flank. The force that is now awaiting the elves is even bigger than the one currently facing the dwarves.
From their sudden halt, I guess that the elves weren't expecting this move. Isn't this the expected countermeasure?
<It is but the elves weren't expecting the dwarves to be hindered by the ballistas thereby allowing the legions to send more forces to bolster their flank.>
The elves seem to be so intimidated by the undead legionaries' greater numbers that they begin to retreat. Simultaneously, the dwarves and humans begin to disengage and pull back. Navi, can you ask Vespasian if it's alright for me to send the skull goblins after them?
<He's fine with it but fears that you'll lose a lot of them.>
That's fine, I'd rather have half their numbers and instead give them some actual experience in a safe environment.
<Safe environment?>
The enemy is already fleeing and with the threat of the legions advancing they'll be unable to wipe us out.
I tell the harpy to drop me off in front of the goblins and she does that quite literally. I drop down about 5 meters and thank the gods for my high stats and light body.
At least my spectacular entrance got me the attention of all the skull goblins.
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