Before the enemies arrived, Jack and Aldryth had decided the placement of the defenders.
Arther led the defenders on the Northern side while Meryl was at the Eastern wall. Hydrurond's sole Lord Dominator, Dytess, was in charge of the Southern side. Grace and Arthur stood guard above the main gate at the Western side. Jack was supposed to defend this side as well once he finished with the management inside the place.
The ninth king of Themisphere, Theardeat, flew to where Grace and Arthur were. He was a level 80 rare elite. He held a sword in his right hand and a staff in his left. He used to be a native who could use both melee skills and magic spells.
Jack also summoned his royal agents and had them spread out along the defensive walls.
Messephyria was very large and it had no natural barrier like Mount Thenias for Thereath. They had to defend all sides.
One positive thing they could be grateful for was that the defensive wall was even sturdier than it was during the first siege of the capital. At that time, although the wall was functional, it still needed some repairs. They didn't complete the repair then because of Master's rush tactic. This time, the wall was in perfect condition because Jack used his ruling powers to complete it. The completion also activated multiple ranged weapons that were attached to the wall.
Additionally, the enemy didn't seem to bring any siege weapons except for the siege ladders. Siege ladders were much cheaper and easier to carry than a standard siege weapon, so Master's army had plenty of them.
The siege ladders were carried by the living soldiers. Linda arranged for these living soldiers to spread out among the massive zombie army. Most of the zombie troops had low levels. They were meant as interference and kept the enemy's attention away from the high-level ones. It would still be the high-level soldiers that were the substance of the attack.
Once the zombie horde came into range, the ballistae and catapults on the wall began firing. Those with ranged attacks also send their attacks.
The zombies completely ignored these attacks. They kept on charging without fear. The living soldiers that marched with these zombie troops even used them as a shield. Some of the lowest-level and lowest-grade zombies perished from the bombardment, but many more replaced them.
When they arrived under the wall, it was as if their number was never reduced from all that bombardment. The defenders used their AOE skills on the enemies below.
Siege ladders started going up. Their hooked ends latched onto the battlement, refusing to let go. The number of ladders was exorbitant. There was a ladder every ten meters for the entire wall. Master had mass-produced these ladders from Hydrurond workers using the leftover funds since the siege weapons were too expensive and took too long to produce. These ladders proved useful now.
The zombies started climbing the ladder en masse. Everyone started targeting the zombies that were climbing. The zombies ignored all the attacks. Since they used to be natives, they had the HPs to tank these attacks. Only attacks with knockback could knock them off the ladder, but the zombies behind them quickly take over their positions.
The defenders managed to destroy the latches on some of the ladders. They successfully pushed the ladders away and all the zombies climbing on it fell to the ground, but these zombies quickly got back up as if nothing had happened. They sent the ladders back up again with the latches magically fixed. The process repeated all over.
Some enemies who could fly went into the air to disrupt the defenders so the zombies could climb the wall. Luckily, there weren't too many such enemies. Most of the zombies were low level so they didn't have access to flying ability. The defenders who could fly also went into the air to face these flying enemies.
In some parts, where the defenders failed to break the ladder's latches, the zombies successfully climbed onto the battlements. The defenders then had to fight these zombies in melee.
As time passed, more and more places on the wall had zombies climbed onto them. The fight became fiercer at these places.
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Two ladders were latched on both sides of the main gate. One of them had the zombie soldiers successfully climb up. Grace and Arthur went over to deal with the breach there. Arthur's katana slashed with expert precision while Grace's mace hit with quick and fierce strikes.
With the two's lead, the defenders were able to take out the zombies that had climbed up. Arthur's One-word Slash shattered the latch and the ladder fell back down.
Beside them, Theardeat continued to fire one spell after another. Most of his spells were AOE and almost all were fire elements. These fire spells easily caused burn effects to a large number of the zombie units. Since the zombies revived from the Necronomicon couldn't be healed, this small damage still proved effective.
Not far away from them, Elayne was playing her Melody of Death. Her music had an extremely far reach. Even though the damage was small. It affected even more enemies than Theardeat's spells. To top it all, this music lasted for as long as Elayne continued playing. Some of the low-level and low-grade zombies died from Elayne's music before they even arrived at the wall.
Jack had left the palace and came to the Western wall. He saw Grace and Arthur were doing well but at a couple of spots some distances away, the fight was worrying. So, he cast Double Clone and went to those separate spots.
He used his AOE skills and spells like the Lightning God Barrage, Perpetual Lightning Judgement, Realm of the Sword God, and the such, but he refrained from using his transformation skills. He might need them in case of emergency.
Jack looked around. He spotted neither Master nor his two zombie dragons. He had warned everyone to inform him once they did. Right now, he believed it was those three who could truly breach their defense.
He wondered where those three were.
