Chapter 350: Trolls

The next wave emerged through the heat haze.

At first, Kael could only make out enormous shapes moving behind the remaining goblin formations. They were too broad to be orcs and too tall to be hobgoblins, their silhouettes swaying with every step as though their own weight made walking an inconvenience. Once they came closer, Kael immediately understood what they were.

Trolls.

Most stood more than twice the height of an ordinary man, with thick shoulders, arms like tree trunks, and grotesquely swollen stomachs hanging beneath slabs of muscle. Their skin ranged from muddy gray to a sickly green and was covered in scars, boils, warts, and patches of rough growth that almost resembled bark.

If orcs had looked brutish, trolls looked unfinished. Their faces were wide and malformed, with flat noses, protruding jaws, and teeth large enough to remain visible even when their mouths were closed. Several had one eye larger than the other, while one appeared to possess an entire row of small horns growing across its forehead.

Kael watched them advance. "Those are ugly."

The soldiers around him did not laugh.

The trolls were armed with whatever they had apparently decided counted as a weapon. Some carried enormous wooden clubs reinforced with iron bands, while others dragged entire tree trunks across the battlefield, their branches hacked away but the bark still covering their surfaces. One particularly large troll carried what looked like the broken support beam from a building over one shoulder.

They did not move quickly, but they did not need to. The battlefield moved for them.

Goblins scattered from their path, and even the orcs still advancing toward the fortress stepped aside whenever the larger creatures approached. The trolls offered no acknowledgment. They simply continued walking in a straight line, crushing anything too slow to escape.

An injured goblin tried crawling away from the feet of one troll, but the enormous foot came down before it could clear the creature’s path. The goblin disappeared beneath it with a wet crunch, and the troll continued forward without looking down. When its foot lifted again, nothing recognizable remained beyond a dark red smear pressed into the earth.

Another wounded goblin was knocked aside by the trunk of a troll’s club. Its body spun through the air before striking the ground several meters away. The trolls marched through their own army as though everything smaller than them was merely another part of the terrain.

The defenders noticed them, and Kael saw worry spreading along the walls.

The other climbers had barely finished dealing with the orcs that had reached their ramparts. Soldiers were still pulling bodies from the battlements, several siege weapons remained damaged, and portions of the walls were littered with shattered shields, broken arrows, and corpses.

There was no proper pause or chance to reset. The Tower simply added another problem.

The burly climber stood at the edge of his battlement, breathing heavily as he stared toward the approaching trolls. Blood covered most of his sword, and one side of his armor had been dented by an orc’s club.

The spear wielder was in similar condition. She had killed the last orc on her wall moments earlier and was already drinking from a potion while soldiers dragged the corpse away.

The mage leaned against her staff, her magical barrier gone, likely because she could no longer justify maintaining it while recovering mana. None of them had properly recovered before the trolls continued their advance.

Kael looked toward his own approach and found a very different battlefield awaiting them.

The massive trench created by his improvised railgun still burned. Stone had partially melted along the path of the shot, creating stretches of black glass and glowing earth that continued radiating heat. Smaller fires spread across the remains of the goblins and orcs unfortunate enough to survive the initial blast only to die afterward. Occasional electrical arcs still jumped between exposed sections of metal buried within the crater.

The trolls approaching Kael’s gate slowed as their size began working against them. There was no clean route through the destruction.

One stepped onto a half-melted section of stone and immediately pulled its foot back when its flesh burned against the surface. Another tried crossing between two burning areas, only for an electrical arc to jump through a piece of armor wrapped around its ankle. The troll roared and stumbled into the creature behind it, forcing the entire formation to spread around the ruined terrain.

Kael’s shot had not only destroyed thousands of enemies. It had changed the battlefield.

The trolls could still reach his gate, but they would need to take wider routes around the trench. That delayed them significantly compared to the forces attacking the other three walls, though Kael did not have time to enjoy the advantage. His internal energy remained painfully low.

He opened the defensive interface again and found that more contribution had accumulated from the weapons he had placed on the neighboring sections. He spent it immediately.

Several ballistae on his wall upgraded. Their firing towers rose, becoming large enough to shoot over nearly every obstruction and reach farther into the battlefield. Additional mechanisms unfolded around them, allowing multiple bolts to be prepared simultaneously.

Kael moved through the interface to the other sections and upgraded their cannons. One after another, the thick barrels restructured into the long, twin-railed shapes Kael had seen earlier.

Railguns.

The mage’s wall gained one, followed by the spear wielder’s and then the burly man’s. Electric arcs began forming between the metallic extensions, charging slowly while soldiers stared at the transformed weapons with mixtures of confusion and excitement.

Kael moved to the lightning structures next. The towers grew taller, their central spines extending above the battlements while additional conducting arms opened around their tops. Instead of waiting for enemies to approach the walls, the upgraded structures began reaching beyond them.

A lightning arc snapped across the battlefield and struck a goblin almost a hundred meters from the fortress. The electricity jumped from that creature into another, then another, leaving bodies collapsing throughout the formation.

Kael placed a second upgrade on the neighboring towers and watched their range expand even farther as his remaining contribution rapidly fell. Almost everything he could afford went into the defenses.

The few points he had left were transferred between the other three climbers. The spear wielder received some first, followed by the mage and then the burly man. It would be enough for each of them to repair some damage or make one emergency upgrade if needed.

Kael closed the interface, and the difference appeared almost immediately.

The upgraded ballistae began firing, their massive bolts punching through the troll formations. Unlike goblins, the trolls were thick enough that a single projectile did not always pass completely through them. Some bolts buried themselves deep inside their chests and shoulders, throwing the enormous creatures backward.

The railguns began charging while the lightning towers continued striking the battlefield. Along the battlements, the remaining orcs were finally eliminated. Soldiers dragged the corpses toward the edges and threw them over the walls, though several were too heavy for two men to move, forcing entire groups to push them over together.

The bodies crashed into the armies below, and for the first time since the third wave arrived, the battlements were clear.

The climbers immediately used the opportunity to recover. Potions came out as the burly man drank two in quick succession, one blue and one yellow, then rolled his injured shoulder as the effects spread through him. The spear wielder emptied a smaller red potion over a cut along her arm before drinking the remainder. The mage sat upon an ammunition crate and held a mana potion with both hands, consuming it slowly while keeping her eyes fixed upon the approaching trolls.

Kael remained seated and closed his eyes again. His breathing returned to the rhythm his master had taught him.

In. Hold. Out.

The battlefield did its best to ruin his concentration. Railguns charged with rising electrical whines, ballistae snapped, cannons fired, soldiers shouted, and trolls roared loudly enough for the sound to carry across the entire fortress.

Kael ignored everything he could and slowly rotated his internal energy through his channels. The process remained painful, but another fragment gathered within him, followed by another. His recovery was much slower than he wanted, though at least it was happening.

A strange movement to his left distracted him.

Kael opened one eye and looked toward the puddle that had once been the Reclaimer cannon. The remains had cooled, and the dark metal was no longer liquid. Uneven plates had hardened across the stone, and at first, Kael assumed the weapon had simply solidified into useless scrap.

Then one edge moved.

The metal contracted, and a thin strip peeled itself away from the ground before dragging itself toward the center of the mass. Another followed it.

The weapon was repairing itself, though extremely slowly.

If enough time passes, the weapon could possibly be used again.

A small ray of hope in an endless sea of blood.