Appearing within the Castle Main Building were soldiers from the Mount & Blade World!
They were now standing on the balconies and various firing positions of the Castle Main Building, looking at the surging Wood Elf soldiers below with excitement in their eyes, picking up their crossbows or bows, and beginning their long-range fire coverage!
Whether they were Vigia archers or Rodok Crossbowmen, at this moment, looking at the surging Wood Elf soldiers outside, they didn't even need to aim; they simply raised their crossbows or bows and unleashed the crossbow bolts and feathered arrows they had drawn.
That was enough.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—”
For a moment, outside the Castle Main Building, only the sound of countless feathered arrows and crossbow bolts tearing through the air could be heard, with shadows appearing in an instant, darting through the space.
Then came the splashing blood, the wails from being hit by arrows, and countless terrified shouts and angry curses, rising and falling.
Of course, it also included the tragic sight of those who were hit in vital spots, letting out only a muffled groan before collapsing to the ground, twitching completely and quickly falling silent.
Together, they formed a varied tableau of life between the inner and outer courtyards outside the Castle Main Building.
It was still a painting of those Wood Elves who most liked to be aloof and arrogant.
These Wood Elves suffered heavy casualties!
“How could this be!? How could this be!?” And just as Zhang Song and Yang Di rushed out of the second floor of the Holy White Council's Holy Light Torch Tower, they watched helplessly as these Wood Elf soldiers were covered by an arrow rain, like a sudden storm or a pouring downpour, in the narrow space of the inner and outer courtyards.
They couldn't even resist.
They were simply riddled with feathered arrows and crossbow bolts, wailing and scattering, trying to hide, but ultimately ending up like hedgehogs, covered in crossbow bolts and feathered arrows.
Yang Di and Zhang Song were dumbfounded, their eyes wide as if they would burst!
“Why! Why is this happening!?” Especially Yang Di, who suddenly looked up at the Castle Main Building, which, according to intelligence, should have had few troops. Their Wood Elf soldiers only needed to rush over, break down the Castle Main Building's gate, rush in to find Shen Mu, find this Deherim Spiritual Realm Lord, behead him, and win the final victory—such a wonderful outcome.
But why did it turn out like this!?
“No, no! This is absolutely not how it should be!” Even Zhang Song, at this moment, clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, looking at the tragic scene before him: two to three hundred Wood Elf soldiers covered in arrows and collapsing to the ground in a short amount of time, and the subsequent Wood Elf soldiers all being wounded.
Zhang Song's hands were trembling, and his heart felt as if it were tightly squeezed by a large hand. His mind was somewhat blank at this moment; he didn't know what had happened.
And at this moment, as if by telepathy, Zhang Song instinctively looked up towards the third floor of the Castle Main Building.
Over there, he clearly saw figures moving on the third-floor balcony.
After his soul-level resonance with the Wood Elves, Zhang Song's vision had been enhanced, allowing him to clearly see that among the figures moving on the third-floor balcony was Zhang Bo, his cousin, who also came from the city village and shared the same surname.
“What on earth is going on!?” Zhang Song was truly furious at this moment.
Originally, according to the plan, they should have rushed out of the library towards the important areas of the surrounding Castle District, taking complete control of them.
Then, in this process, they also needed to rush into the Castle Main Building, search out Shen Mu, who had already been lured there, and then kill him.
Everything was supposed to be that simple and smooth.
But how did it come to this? Zhang Song now found that not only was nothing going according to plan, but even the troops painstakingly assembled from his Wood Elf Village were now trapped in the inner and outer courtyards, caught between a rock and a hard place.
And they were still being continuously covered by arrow rain from the Castle Main Building.
The casualties were extremely heavy!
However, during this process, Yang Di, as the general manager, suddenly changed his expression, especially when he looked up at the figures rapidly appearing on the surrounding city walls. His face also changed, because he found that those appearing figures had also raised their bows and crossbows, clearly being long-range archers.
There were a great many of them, no less than four or five hundred, and at this moment, they mercilessly unleashed another volley of arrows upon the Wood Elf assault troops they had brought.
This caused extremely heavy losses to the Wood Elves trapped in the inner and front courtyards.
And it also meant that the Wood Elf archers in the library now dared not rush out casually due to the dense rain of arrows, preventing them from continuing their charge outwards.
Even though many Wood Elf archers, at this crucial moment, burst forth with their potential and began shooting arrows at the city walls, hitting several or a dozen human archers or Crossbowmen, causing them to fall screaming from the city walls.
But one must know that the number of human archers and Crossbowmen on the city walls or in the Castle Main Building was simply too great.
With these scattered counterattacks.
What truly useful thing could be done?!
At such a critical moment.
They had to open a breakthrough to allow the Wood Elf soldiers, who were crowded in the front and inner courtyards and specially equipped with longswords for the beheading operation, mostly with melee equipment, to open a new front.
It would be best to avoid the current firing of these human archers and Crossbowmen.
Otherwise, they would truly be like lambs to the slaughter, fish on a chopping block, surrendering in place, being trapped and killed here, shot down on the spot by the raining arrows.
This kind of scene was clearly not what they wanted to see.
“Boom!”
But at this moment, a huge sound suddenly appeared in their ears.
It was from within the Castle Main Building.
The already bent and cracked main gate of the Castle Main Building, now, as the members of the Security Department and the Wood Elves they led faced such a fierce rain of arrows, in their haste, slammed into the gate with all their might, directly smashing it open.
Immediately, the idea of finding a breakthrough in the hearts of these Wood Elves truly came to fruition.
“Good opportunity!” Zhang Song, whose heart had already despaired, quickly looked at the breached gate of the Castle Main Building.
“Quick, let Zhou Wu'an rush in!” Even General Manager Yang, as the supreme commander, was now extremely excited as he looked at the shattered gate of the Castle Main Building, especially at the dark interior. He felt little fear, but rather a great deal of ecstasy.
Because he knew that as long as these Wood Elf soldiers rushed in, these Wood Elf Sword Dancers, who possessed extremely powerful melee capabilities and very high melee combat efficiency, would show those human long-range archers and Crossbowmen what fear was!
“Kill, kill, kill!” At this moment, Zhou Wu'an, at the entrance of the Castle Main Building, indeed led the surrounding Wood Elf Sword Dancers and rushed into the Castle Hall.
However, upon entering, they found that the Castle Hall seemed to be too dark; the surrounding windows had been blocked by wooden boards, making it exceptionally dim inside.
It was somewhat difficult to see clearly.
If there were no torches or lighting, searching for anything here would require a large number of people.
“Damn it, what on earth is going on?” Zhou Wu'an frowned at this moment, looking at the dim environment, and loudly ordered the Wood Elf followers and Security Department members behind him: “Don't dally, spread out quickly! Look for stairs that lead upwards!”
The surrounding Wood Elf followers and Security Department members spread out, searching for possible stairs according to his command.
However, when they searched this floor, they found that besides a few rooms serving as a kitchen, meeting room, and reception room, there were no stairs leading upwards in the Castle Hall.
“Wait?!” At this moment, Zhou Wu'an's face also showed a hint of solemnity. Before he could say anything, his gaze instinctively fell upon the stone-carved Lord's Throne at the end of the Lord's Hall.
And right beside him, the Wood Elf Sword Dancers, whose hearing and sight were extremely keen, suddenly spoke: “Something's happening! Everyone, be on guard!”
And almost at the moment their shouts appeared, figures suddenly emerged from above the first floor of the Castle Main Building, then these figures seemed to appear abruptly from the darkness, appearing on the walls all around the Castle Hall.
Then, expressionlessly, they looked at them, directly raising the bows and crossbows in their hands, and shot out the arrows and crossbow bolts they had already prepared at them.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—”
A series of sharp whistling sounds once again appeared in the Castle Hall, causing the Wood Elf Sword Dancers and Security Department members, who had spread out and had not expected to be ambushed, to fall in unison in a state of extreme shock and panic.
It even made the originally confident Zhou Wu'an somewhat disbelieving at this moment.
“What the hell is going on? How can there be such an ambush around the Castle Hall!?” In his impression, the Castle Hall was a place for balls and meetings; tall and spacious was the expected construction model for a Lingjie Human Race castle.
But a Deherim castle like this, with a small area specifically for ambush archery at the top of the first floor, was simply beyond his imagination.
And not only was it beyond his imagination, but it also had a huge effect, causing heavy losses to his most elite Security Department members and their Wood Elf Sword Dancers, these special professional Wood Elf soldiers!
After all, no matter how powerful a soldier or professional, when facing the firepower coverage of such a large number of long-range archers, unless they have already mastered more powerful extraordinary abilities, they are no different from lambs to the slaughter.
As long as they are hit by an arrow, they will be injured; as long as they bleed a lot, they will die; as long as a vital spot is hit, the result is also death!
In other words, as long as they are still living beings, as long as they are still in a biological state, they will be injured and die if they are wounded!
So, facing such a crisis, they naturally had to find a new breakthrough quickly.
Especially outside the Castle Gate, Wood Elf soldiers were constantly rushing in, thinking they had escaped the arrow rain coverage from the surrounding city walls and the Castle Main Building, but they didn't expect that upon arriving here, before they could adapt to the dim light, with a series of whooshing sounds, they also discovered with surprise that they had already been hit by one or two crossbow bolts or feathered arrows.
“Found it, found the stairs to the second floor!” Just as everyone was anxious, someone suddenly discovered a steep staircase behind the stone-carved Lord's Throne.
Immediately, he excitedly waved and shouted, signaling the constantly falling Wood Elf Sword Dancers to rush over and up the stairs.
“Go, go, go, let's go!” Zhou Wu'an, along with the Wood Elf Sword Dancers, began to prepare to climb the steep stairs.
But when they had just reached the top of the stairs, they found that behind it was a platform of about fifty square meters.
And within this platform.
“Long live the Rodok Kingdom! Long live Lord Shen Mu!” A group of human heavy infantry, dressed in heavy armor, carrying heavy broadshields, and holding three-meter-long heavy Rodok war axes forged from refined steel, had already formed a neat pike square and were waiting here.
Facing their figures rushing onto this platform, their eyes, reduced to mere slits, showed no trace of fear, only eager excitement.
Then a surging shout erupted, and at the same time, the entire formation subtly shifted again, arraying even more tightly, making the shield wall and the pike square even more solid and intimidating!
So much so that the Wood Elf Sword Dancers who had rushed up first felt dumbfounded, their minds filled with disbelief, a feeling as if their thoughts had gone blank.
To have their light-armored warriors, who specialized in melee combat and surprise attacks in complex environments, attack such heavy, heavily armored human troops who had already occupied a topographical advantage and formed a defensive formation, complete with a shield wall formed by broadshields and a pike square formed by war axes.
What difference would that be from sending themselves to their deaths?!
“How… how could this be!?” Even Zhou Wu'an, who had climbed onto this platform, looked at the hundred or so heavily armored human pikemen crowded ten meters away, and his heart was utterly despairing.
