The first wave of the attack lasted from morning until noon.
The area below the city walls was piled with corpses, and the flames and black smoke gradually dissipated. Only sporadic fighting remained around Meereen, with three siege towers halting a dozen meters away from the gates. The soldiers pushing them were all dead, and the exhausted defenders were on the verge of achieving their first victory.
In the distance, the long horn sounded again, signaling the second wave of slave soldiers advancing toward Meereen, forming their battle formation.
This group of slave soldiers was smaller in number but better equipped and stronger. Each soldier wore some form of metal armor. The wealthier slave masters had their soldiers wear full-length breastplates, while the less wealthy provided them with heart armor, and their shields were no longer purely wooden but reinforced with iron.
They lifted their ladders and charged forward, aiming to launch a second attack while the defenders were fatigued. The quiet Meereen erupted into chaos once again, with the slaves charging through a hail of arrows, leaving a trail of corpses, and quickly reaching the foot of the walls.
The defenders, who had fought continuously all morning, were now exhausted. After a brief rest and rotation, the commanders forced them back onto the walls. This wave of attack did not even reach the walls, but it was more intense than the last. Soldiers were already close to scaling the walls.
Bang~~~
Suddenly, a sharp, explosive sound echoed from the top of a wall section. Crystal-clear ice shards exploded from the top of the wall, freezing everything in front of it. It looked as though a massive ice flower bloomed in front of the parapet.
The ice explosion enveloped the ladders and the soldiers on them, immediately followed by the delayed explosion of a lightning magic array.
A huge and deep buzzing sound drowned out all other noises around the walls. Everyone's attention was drawn to the flashing, bright electricity. The attacking slave soldiers, despite using all their strength, couldn't make a sound as the violent current entered one soldier's weapon, coursed through his body, and charred all of his muscles and organs. The current then jumped from his chest armor to another soldier.
The magical currents unleashed by the magic array were numerous, and they wreaked havoc around the ladders. The slave soldiers didn't even have time to flee. Every one of them was struck by the electric current, resulting in countless casualties. Some lucky ones were only injured in their limbs and could still fight. They pushed past the bodies of their comrades and continued to climb the ladders, using weapons to break through the ice.
Wright had set up magic arrays around the entire perimeter of Meereen's walls, which were now triggered one after another as the attacking forces made their move, causing explosions all around.
The siege tower was now only three steps from the gate when a loud explosion rang out, and a massive fireball shot up from the ground, instantly engulfing the siege tower and the soldiers around it. Only a few wood fragments and severed limbs were blown into the air, flying hundreds of meters high.
"Oh! Long live the mages!"
With the most threatening siege weapon destroyed, the defenders on the walls erupted into cheers.
The ice crystals blocked the attacking path and also stopped the defenders' downward assaults, allowing both sides a brief respite, during which they focused on dealing with each other's archers.
The second wave of the attack was shattered by magic, stalling the offensive from three directions. However, they had already anticipated the magic; they just hadn't expected it to be set up as traps on the walls.
"The magic arrays can only be used once! The defenders are exhausted, and the main force is ready to attack!" The generals of the attacking side began to issue new orders. Now, the defenders had casualties too, and their own slave soldiers had lost over ten thousand men, but they still had enough troops.
The main assault force was better equipped, and the ladders were no longer carried by soldiers but dragged forward by a few armored horses. Two heavily armored knights formed a group, pulling a ladder to the walls. After cutting the ropes, they would retreat. With no soldiers holding them back, the knights could reach the walls faster.
The attack horn sounded once more, and countless soldiers, braving the hail of arrows, charged to the foot of the walls. Taking cover beneath the ice crystals, they continued to hack away with battle axes and war hammers. The defenders kept throwing stones soaked in burning oil down onto them, and thick black smoke rolled in all directions, almost shrouding the entire city of Meereen.
"The Golden Company has finally appeared!" Wright, standing at the top of the pyramid, rose to his feet. He clasped his hands together, twisting them, then pressed his legs and did a few deep squats.
The Golden Company's banner didn't appear, but Wright saw numerous fully armored war elephants in the far northern part of the city.
According to intelligence about the Golden Company, they were always boasting about their war elephants.
Horses had been domesticated by humans for a long time, and it took years, even decades, to train a knight. Elephants, on the other hand, were wild by nature. It would be more accurate to say they were tamed rather than domesticated. To involve elephants in combat, they needed far more training, alongside humans, and it was clear that no one could be quickly trained to fight with them. Of all the forces attacking Meereen, only the Golden Company had a sizable cavalry of war elephants.
The journey from the third day had yet to see Odahviing's arrival. Now, with the war elephants appearing and all the magical traps detonating, once the elephants reached the gates, the defenders of Meereen would stand no chance. The city gates would be breached quickly.
Wright now needed to leave the city alone and deal with these troubles. Grabbing his giant sword and glancing at the ten dark rings on his fingers, Wright assessed his power. In a world without the true gods' protection or divine strength, the ten rings only reduced the consumption of destruction-type magic by 81%. With eight rings, it was 80%, and the two rings on his little finger, enchanted in the same way, only gave a 1% boost.
Without the 100% reduction, his dragonbone armor's second enchantment offered only 80% resistance to fire, and 60% resistance to ice and lightning. However, with some defensive and healing spells, Wright wasn't worried about elemental resistance.
His strategy was to quickly kill the war elephants, then target a few selected enemies and return to the city as soon as possible to avoid being overwhelmed by the cavalry's arrows. After all, he was human, not a god, and both his magical power and stamina would eventually run out. Taking on 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers—especially if they stood still and let him kill them—would still tire him out.
This strategy had been discussed with the commanders defending the city beforehand: Wright would eliminate important and high-threat targets, and intervene when the defenders were at a disadvantage to turn the tide and boost morale.
Concentrating a large amount of magic in his hands, Wright brought them together. Bang! A gold-red fireball shot from his hands, leaving a red trail as it sped toward the sky.
"Mu~~~Qah~~~Diiv~~~!"
On the terrace, Daenerys heard several incomprehensible words in High Valyrian. She turned just in time to see Wright, clad in dragonbone armor, his body glowing with vibrant magical light in three colors, surrounded by flames. He was holding a massive ice pillar the size of a person.
"Ah~~hah!" With a roar, Wright bent his knees to gather strength, then hurled the ice pillar toward the northern army outside the city. He then used a mage hand to pull himself onto the ice pillar, standing firmly on it.
Fully armed, Wright held his giant sword in his right hand, with his left foot forward and his right foot back, standing atop the flying ice pillar. As he passed above Daenerys, he lowered his head and exchanged a glance with her.
Daenerys, watching Wright fly toward the enemy army, saw his dark, jagged helmet, beneath which his eyes gleamed like those of a dragon. For the first time, she felt that, compared to herself and her nephew, Wright was the true Dragonlord.