“What happened here?” Head Court Magician Arnold questioned as he scanned through the place.

When he saw the broken Magic Cannons, his rage shot through the roof and he bellowed, “WHO DID THIS?! Who dare destroy the Magic Cannons?!”

“Head court magician… Please forgive my incompetent for failing my task. I'll take all the responsibility." The vice head bowed with a pale face.

“Just tell me, what’s going on here?”

“Hundreds of golems suddenly came out from the ground and ambushed us, causing 15 Acolytes to be killed. There was also a mana interference from the surrounding when that happens. I suspect that the golems might bring a Magic Equipment."

“DAMN THEM!!” Violent burst of mana came out from Head Court Magician Arnold’s body, causing ferocious wind to spiral out around him.

“Please calm down, head court magician.” Sweat trickled down the vice head’s forehead, he didn’t want to add fuel to the fire.

Calming down a little, the head court magician commanded, “In any case, we need to join up with the army and take down those bastards. Follow me!”

““Yes!!””

Razel Army’s Perspective

Clang! Clang! Bang!

An intense clash was still happening between the golems and the army. Despite trying to maintain a certain distance, the knights were still able to get close and destroy the golems. Although they received casualties as time went, it was minimal since Knight Roderic was charging at the front. On the other hand, the soldiers received bigger casualties because they were weaker and not as well protected.

“Attack! Don’t let the enemy seize the chance to counterattack!” Knight Roderic charged at front, swinging his blade and destroying one golem after another with his power.

“Charge, charge, charge! Follow the commander!”

Finally, the army seized the advantage from the golems and got out from the chokepoint of the wall. Regardless of the flying golems and the strange weapons that they used; it was useless in front of Knight Roderic’s Aura power. To pass through the wall, however, it took the army a bit of time since there were still 15,000 soldiers.

Suddenly, when half of the army got inside the city, hundreds of normal golems had blockaded them from all sides and aimed their strange weapons to the army. Without further ado, the golems fired, unleashing a rain of bullets to the unprepared soldiers and knights. The bullets were just too much, even Knight Roderic's Aura power was incapable to stop it all.

““Ack!”” Hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers died in that rain of bullets.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Unexpectedly, explosions appeared as rain of spells bombarded the golems. The spells came from the sky, more specifically the ten official Magus led by Head Court Magician Arnold. Thanks to them, not many more casualties piled up on the soldiers' side.

“The court magicians are here to assist us! Victory is within sight, keep charging!”

““Ooohhhh!!!””

Later, the rest of the court magicians joined the battle and the golems were again pushed back. With the combination of knights and the court magicians — despite having weapons and terrain advantage — the golems were forced to retreat.

"Hmm? Did you think that you can run? Taste my spells!" The head court magician continued to cast destructive spells.

In the end, the golems pulled back and no longer within sight of the vicinity.

Finding that they achieved victory, the soldiers uttered out a cheer, “Ooohhh!! We win! Razel Army is invincible!” But immediately went back to formation with expertise.

“This place… strange…” Knight Roderic observed the foreign place in the surroundings, finally landed his gaze on the tall building behind another metallic wall not far away. “Huh? Is that a Magus Tower?”

“I don’t think so. I couldn’t sense any presence of mana from that tall building.” The head court magician shook his head and added, “Continue to march inside the city with caution! I want that bastard’s head!”

“All right.”

After resting for a bit, the soldiers continued to traverse the city. Initially, there wasn't anything weird happening in the city, just that the buildings were sparse and looked weird. Later, they found that the city was desolate, not even a single mouse could be spotted. Was there anyone here? All the soldiers wondered in their hearts.

“Is this place has been abandoned?” Knight Roderic used his qi enhanced sense to scan through the area, looking for any signs of human but ultimately found nothing.

Unbothered to use any spell, the head court magician snorted, “They wouldn’t be far from here. For now, that tall black building should be our target.”

A cold glint flashed inside Knight Roderic’s visor but he agreed, “Fine. We shall go there.”

Next, the army went towards the place where there were lots of buildings to get into the inner wall. Since the place was a bit cramped for the less than 15,000 soldiers to pass through, they were forced to split into three. Naturally, they first dispatched scouts to check the area for any kind of ambush but didn't find anything of the sort. Thus, without dawdling further, the soldiers continued the city-traversing.

The soldiers warily passed through the area but didn’t see any enemy. The knights that were leading them also tried to scan the place and hadn’t found anything suspicious. This continued until a certain soldier stepped on a certain ground.

Boom!

The ground that the soldier stepped on exploded and killed the surrounding soldiers within 5 meters of him. As for the soldiers near the parameter, some lost their limbs and other luckier ones suffered moderate injuries.

“Ah!! My leg! I couldn’t feel my leg!”

“Everything’s black! And my arms are gone! Help!”

“A-Argh…”

“What’s going on here?” A leading official Knight frowned; a bit unbothered upon seeing such a sight.

“S-Sir knight… it’s like this…” The soldier beside him continued to report.

“Hmm…? I shall report this to the commander. Just help the slightly injured, ignore the one that lost limbs. We didn't have a place for dead weight!"

““Y-Yes sir!””

Later, explosions after explosions kept appearing one after another as the soldiers continued to march. They started to lose the will and courage to advance any further. They were scared to step into a ground that would suddenly explode and kill them.

“What are you doing? Keep advancing!”

“S-Sir… but…”

“This is a command!!”

““Yes!”” Unable to retort the command, the soldiers could only follow suit.

All of a sudden, a rain of bullets came from the surrounding buildings. Not mistaken, they were ambushed by the golems.

“Shit! The scouts said that there was nothing in here! Useless trash!” The leading knight gritted his teeth, but he couldn’t do anything since he was also scared for the exploding ground.

Looking at the sudden ambush, Head Court Magician Arnold creased his brows. He couldn’t see where the golems were as if they were invisible. “Heh… using a Magic Tool imbued with invisible spell, huh? This is tricky but it just so happens that I've got the solution.”

Head Court Magician Arnold flew into the air, started chanting a spell, “{Darkness Illumination}.” Hmm… my spiritual power is a bit exhausted. Luckily, I brought some potions with me.

As the spell was cast, darkness encroached the invisible golems hidden in the surrounding buildings. Now they were emitting darkness to the surrounding, making them visible to the normal soldiers. Still, since the ground that they stepped might as well explode and most of the golems were hiding, the soldiers couldn't go there.

Finding that this was the chance, Knight Roderic led the other knights to take down the golems. However, the rain of bullets from all directions incapacitated them to do much and limit their movement to avoid the ground.

“Guess, this leaves the court magicians to handle this.” Not wasting any time, the head court magician notified the other court magicians to start firing spells and constructing defensive lines.

It took them half an hour to destroy all the ambushing golems. Thousands of soldiers died in that ambush, leaving less than half of the original army — around 10,000 — left alive. Evidently, this would leave a wound on the Dukedom's manpower.

The outcome of this ambush filled Knight Roderic with rage. The soldiers that the Grand Duke had entrusted to him died without being able to do much. He swore that he would chop the perpetrator’s head himself.

“Let’s continue to advance. They might appear anytime soon, better avoid this terrain,” Head Court Magician Arnold advised.

Subsequently, the soldiers finally reached the inner wall and rested their bodies to the ground. Although they knew that this place still wasn't safe, the previous few battles had exhausted them dead tired. This patch of empty land was just like heaven to them.

Hmph. A bunch of useless dead weight. Hmm…? This wall… they’re coated with electricity. Is it a Magic Array? But I don’t see any sign of so. The head court magician frowned, confused for the cause of this electric wall.

He gazed around to observe more, only to find that the soldiers, knights, and even the court magicians were looking up at the sky with a stupid look. Curious, he looked up and saw a black dot was approaching his direction at an insane speed. He enhanced his vision with magic and realized that it was a 20-meters-tall golem flying to his direction.

“A-A golem?!” A bit restless, the head court magician and the other court magicians started chanting up spells to fight it.