Until now, most of them were still trying to go through this one area, piles and piles of bodies—some breathing, some not—in front of them.

Few groups tried to enter through other parts of the walls anymore because there were few powerhouses left on Valov’s side, while Alterra’s were all still roaming around.

Instead of going through separate places, the enemy changed strategies and collated all the trebuchets still working near this area, aiming to widen the gap instead.

BOOM!

BOOM!

After repeated hits, the loose sentries next to the fallen ones also fell down, creating a wider area for the Valov forces to play with. Next, the new trebuchets joined in throwing shots to the walls, some accurate, some not, and the powerhouses who assassinated Besston had to temporarily fall back to defend again.

This was only temporary, of course, the powerhouses were all up and about and just needed to rest a bit. The injured ones just had to go to the Healing Sanctuary as well.

For powerhouses, the Healing Sanctuary was the most efficient place to get healed. The stronger one was, the less other people’s powers could affect them. This was usually a good thing, as this meant they had high defense, but it also meant healers would take longer to heal them.

The enemy trebuchet had begun to concentrate on a sector, but Alterra’s cannons were the same. As such, the battle of pure attrition at the start resumed.

On the enemy side, the sentryless areas had widened, and the enemies attacked new areas en masse, with the new trebuchets weakening new parts of the walls adjacent to the already widening breach.

Then—ROARRR!

Seemingly out-of-nowhere, mobs of monsters appeared behind them!

"What..."

They thought they didn’t have to worry about this!

What they didn’t consider was that most of the Valov powerhouses were now injured by the Alterrans.

Further, the attacks on the trebuchets themselves were consistent, with the enemy blowing cannon after cannon towards it.

The powerhouses who were initially assigned to clear mobs now had no time or energy to handle the monsters for others, so the ones the beasts could actually kill were forced to deal with them too.

People did not even realize that the array hadn’t received any new projectiles or people anymore! On the contrary, many people went back to run away, not to come back here!

However, the focus was always to protect and replenish the trebuchets. They were their main damage dealers and the reason why they had not yet lost!

The half-orcs, hiding some distance away, also acknowledged this. To completely turn the tide and control the damage Alterra was continuously receiving, they had to get rid of those trebuchets.

The dwarves tapped them.

"We can do it."

...

Dwarves were not strong nor were they very fast, but they were quite efficient for their speed and could dismantle or decommission tools easily as long as they knew how they worked.

The trick here was that the dwarves had to get very near the trebuchet without being noticed. Their presence was low, and they were small, so the main challenge was to get them there.

They had to time things well, and with the powerhouses and the operators watching closely, there was a lot of damage if they failed.

While Freya looked for a good opening and timing, Nana looked at the cannons, some of which hit the trebuchets. The trebuchets were more or less fine, but the operator got injured.

She looked at the others with a concerned face. "I worry the little ones would get hurt..."

At this, Baku took out an aether letter, sending a message to the Guard Station, stating: Lessen the cannons directed to the trebuchets, target the powerhouses and the mobs instead.

"Will it work like that?" Nana couldn’t help but ask, and the others also showed doubt on their faces. After all, this instruction was a bit heavy and risky, and they subconsciously didn’t think humans would listen to half-orcs.

/Copy!/

They received a reply a moment later and, on cue, the cannons suddenly ’lost accuracy’, missing the trebuchets.

This caused the powerhouses to slightly lessen the guard around the trebuchets and focus more on just taking down the rain of cannonballs.

Nana and the others were startled, but they knew not to get distracted for too long.

Using Freya’s skill, she carried the dwarves and raced to the trebuchets. With three of them working under the trebuchets (even if they were working), they could disarm the array without enemy’s notice.

Disarming the array wasn’t destroying the tool—that was something that would take too long, get too much attention, and make too much noise. They simply turned off the array that injected extra damaging capability into what should be normal elementalist rocks.

The trebuchets still worked, but they wouldn’t cause damage to the walls anymore. It wouldn’t injure people above level 20 anymore, either, and even they could just kick it down.

Those who get crushed underneath wouldn’t die either. Anyway, the people fighting now were at least level 15, so they didn’t have to worry about anyone being smashed to death.

Not that the enemies knew this, of course.

...

Soon, after more than 20 hours of fighting, the scope of the fight finally reduced, with the enemy’s momentum dipping. Hundreds of people had snuck out to the array. Slaves could not do this, but other citizens who had already ’done their parts’ could.

They didn’t know what happened, but the trebuchet projectiles had grown...weaker. No, they became relatively ineffective.

The projectiles became just normal rocks, which, other than their own weight and momentum, did not cause any damage anymore. The walls certainly didn’t get damaged just by this, and the people just had to be careful not to get hit. The high-level ones could even slap them away.

The team captains then received a message—the trebuchet damage has been controlled!

And thus, they didn’t have to bother with the projectiles. The normal fighters could handle them!

The enemies were too busy defending themselves to notice the changes, especially when dozens of powerhouses suddenly appeared, pulling away all the Valov powerhouses.

When anyone noticed the anomalies, it was already too late!