Castle of Black Iron

On the next day, both wind and snow stopped while the accumulated snow outside the Eschyle City was about 30 cm in thickness. Although it was still cold, the whole Eschyle City gradually boiled like a burning furnace of a steam machine.

100,000 warriors of the huge bear tribe, over 20,000 city guards of Eschyle City, plus 180,000 young adults who had escaped out of Eschyle City started to march towards the core area near the Iron Bear Castle.

After the 5000 xiphodon cavalries of Thor’s Hammer swept over the six main thoroughfares once again and left, 60,000 warriors of the huge bear tribe entered Eschyle City from six city gates to clean the demonized puppets.

The most powerful warriors of bear-killing camp were divided into six parts as the vanguards for eliminating demonized puppets. Each part contained 1500 people. While the rest 1000 people prepared to fight outside the city as the reserved force.

Each one of the 10,000 people was above LV 6. According to Zhang Tie’s requirements, each of them put on a heavy plate armor weighing over 160 kg provided by Spencer clan. Besides, they had to hold a broadsword and huge axe.

Together with the bear-killing camp were hundreds of shield carts, the front of which were two riveted layers of thick steel plates. There were sharp metal spines and thorns. The steel plates fixed in front of the cart were 2.5 m in height and 1 m in width. The cart could be moved by two common warriors. When these shield carts moved in a row, they could form a solid steel shield formation in the streets. Additionally, they could be freely organized according to the width of the streets. They were suitable to both avenues and alleys.

Behind the shield carts formation and the soldiers of bear-killing camp, there were also fully-armored warriors of the huge bear tribe and the former city guards of Eschyle City. These soldiers and warriors held javelins or lances. When they moved, they looked like a wood.

Behind these troops were the young adults that were recruited from Eschyle City temporarily.

When Thor’s Hammer rushed into Eschyle City, the six troops were already ready to set out. When Thor’s Hammer rushed out of Eschyle City, the six troops had already gathered outside the city gates.

At this moment, the huge airship of Spencer clan had already reached above Eschyle City. The three elders of the huge bear tribe, Zhang Tie and the other two elders of Spencer clan were all watching the war situation on the airship.

A huge sand table of Eschyle City was placed in the spacious hall on the first floor of the airship. The advisers of the huge bear tribe and Spencer clan were waiting for the message from below around that huge sand table.

On the deck of the airship, more than 10 people were observing the city below with a telescope.

The light signal team on the airship was ready...

The crystal remote-sensing communication team was also ready...

...

Sitting in the command module on the second floor of the airship, Zhang Tie watched the snowwhite city below through the huge circular glass window.

Thor’s Hammer rushed in Eschyle City and worked as efficient and sharper as before.

After detouring the core area of Iron Bear Castle, the 5000 cavalries of Thor’s Hammer rapidly finished their task, offering a good start for the great battle.

Under the gaze of Zhang Tie, the cavalries of Thor’s Hammer left the north gate of Eschyle City. Before he delivered an order, he had already received a message.

...

Only after 10 more seconds, a voice sounded in the command module of the airship.

"Clan elder, Thor’s Hammer have already completed the first stage of mission and left Eschyle City safe and sound!"

After hearing this sound, everyone in the command module of the airship fixed their eyes on Zhang Tie’s face.

Zhang Tie just nodded calmly before sending the order, "Start!"

...

Seeing the changing light signal on the airship, the six troops below started to enter the city from six directions.

The bear-killing fighters rushed ahead and chopped off the heads of those wandering demonized puppets. Those demonized puppets in the streets could never fight the bear-killing fighters. Therefore, within a few minutes, each troop had already marched forward 100 m in Eschyle City.

Behind the bear-killing fighters were the shield carts.

Soon after the bear-killing fighters cleaned a small section of roads, the shield carts and soldiers with javelins and lances had occupied the area and closed all the entrances in all directions in case of being raided by demonized puppets.

After that, the bear-killing fighters started to rush towards various buildings on both sides of the roads in a group of 10 and started to clean the possible demonized puppets in the buildings.

After the team of bear-killing fighters came out of a building, the young adults being recruited from Eschyle City would rush in at once. They then carried the corpses of demonized puppets or residents out of the buildings and transported them to the outside of the city to deal with them.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people were digging in a pit which was almost as deep as a football field outside the city while oozing sweat like it was raining.

The heads of corpses of demonized puppets were chopped off. Therefore, the moment they were transported to the outside of the city, they were thrown into the huge pits. After pouring oil on them, people would burn and bury them. Those corpses being killed by demonized puppets would be transported to another place for the recognition of their relatives.

Battle calls drifted in the city while ground-breaking cries could be heard outside the city.

...

"Troop 1 enter 200 m forward Roseville Avenue, Clear..."

...

"Troop 2 enter Gurness Department, shield carts are blocking the crossroads..."

...

"Troop 4 complete the cleaning in Spring Avenue, turning to Buckthorn Street..."

...

"Troop 5 complete the cleaning of 300 m in Harbor Road East, keep going..."

...

"Troop 3 meet over 2000 demonized puppets. Some of the demonized puppets are LV 10 strong fighters, Troop 3 have casualties...demonized puppets clear...200 m in Harbor Road West clear!"

...

"Troop 6 surround D1 residential area...D1 residential area clear. Some residents in D1 residential area have been rescued. We’re heading for D2 along Snowwhite Avenue..."

The shield carts pushed forward step by step. The six troops followed the shield carts entering each street, each building and each residential area...

With constant reports, more and more streets, buildings and communities were cleaned on the sand table of Eschyle City in the hall of airship while more and more blue flags, which represented safety, started to appear on the sand table of Eschyle City.

After receiving each new message, the advisers would push forward the sign cards on the sand table for a distance; meanwhile, they constantly passed the information to the command module on the second floor of the airship.

The six troops pushed forward orderly according to the prefixed routes interdependently. As a result, all the demonized puppets were separated, surrounded and eliminated by the six troops. After that, the corpses of the demonized puppets were soon thrown into the huge pits outside the city by the young adults of Eschyle City.

Zhang Tie constantly delivered his order in the command hall,

"Warn troop 5. They are moving too fast. After cleaning Harbor Road East, they need to stop marching ahead temporarily. They must wait for troop 4 and troop 3 on their left and right flanks to clean up Buckthorn Street and Harbor Road West before moving on. It’s too risky to move alone..."

...

"Warn troop 2. To be ready for over 10,000 demonized puppets who are surging towards them from the west along Thunderbolt Square!"

...

"Notice troop 6, there’s a great batch of residents on the roof of some residential buildings in D2. Some demonized puppets were attempting to break the safety door leading to the roof. The residents are defending them. tell troop 6 to dispatch some elite teams to rescue them. Meanwhile, tell the follow-up troop to cover them."

"Let Thor’s Hammer be ready for the coming enemies. A great number of demonized puppets are forced back in the main thoroughfares. Let them clean there in 5 minutes..."

The orders were delivered down there from the airship through light signal. After seeing the signal, some people started to coordinate and command the actions of the six troops.

At this moment, Zhang Tie was pretty clear-minded. After seeing what was happening in Eschyle City, he instantly delivered orders one after another.

Zhang Tie was not used to command so many people. However, at this moment, Zhang Tie had to take the position of the supreme commander.

At the beginning, Zhang Tie was afraid of making any mistake. However, he soon found that he could easily command about 10 people, who would manage 300,000 soldiers for him. He only needed to command the six troops like commanding six people.

Additionally, based on his experience in fighting demonized puppets, he only needed to take the six people as himself. If he imagined what he would do facing the same situation down there, it would be much easier.

Zhang Tie didn’t know how would others command and deliver orders in his position. Because he had no such experience at all. However, at this moment, Zhang Tie felt that he could see clearly the battle field and the battle situation.

Through such an efficient and steady advancement, only after one morning, the troops had already killed more than 100,000 demonized puppets at a low cost and reached the core area of the city around Iron Bear Castle.

This core area was about 5-6 square kilometers, which gathered over 400,000 demonized puppets. Almost all the buildings in this area had been destroyed by the crazy demonized puppets. Zhang Tie felt goosebumps all over when he looked at the densely populated wild beast-like demonized puppets from the airship.

This place gathered the most populated demonized puppets in Eschyle City.

According to Zhang Tie’s plan, after the six troops reached here, they would not rush forward any more; instead, they would adopt new strategies.

In Zhang Tie’s words, the new strategy was a seesaw battle. To be concrete, it was like how wild dogs drew intestines.

When the six troops reached here, they encountered a greater resistance from demonized puppets. They then stopped moving forward; instead, under the protection of the shield carts, they started to retreat.

Of course, the demonized puppets who only knew about killing wouldn’t let go their preys. Therefore, they chased after the retreating troops.

When a number of demonized puppets left the Iron Bear Castle, the six troops launched an counterattack and killed them all. After that, they repeated the series of movement——move forward, retreat, move forward again. Like a seesaw battle, they gradually cleaned all the hundreds of thousands of demonized puppets.

By then, they didn’t need any command anymore.

If demonized puppets were a bit smarter or they might have a commander, this tactic would be ineffective. All the demonized puppets could bring a big trouble or a miserable loss to the troops only by attacking the troops in one or two directions. However, they were only using their instinct to kill just like a worm. They were even more primitive than wild beasts. It was too difficult to let these demonized puppets to move in an organized way. However, it was not impossible. These demonized puppets could only respond to certain stimulations.

Sitting in the command module of the airship, Zhang Tie watched that fiery battle on the ground as his blood gradually boiled. The powerful battle intention of iron-blood fist that was deeply rooted in his blood, flesh and soul started to explode.

"If not practice in such a great battle, how could I improve my iron-blood fist? How can I have a bright future?"

"Isn’t the battle field down there the real trouble-reappearance situation?"

"Aren’t those fighters on the battle field as average as me? How can I just sit here and watch them fighting there?"

"Am I more advanced than those fighters or have I already forgotten about my former status as a commoner after enjoying the privilege for a few days? Have I forgotten that my real name is Zhang Tie and started to belittle these who are same as me in a vain, arrogant and lofty manner? "

After closing his eyes for a long while, Zhang Tie opened his eyes. With a wisp of smile, Zhang Tie lifted his hands and put them in front of him carefully...

"If not for this pair of hands, how would you create any miracle?" Zhang Tie mocked himself inside...

After that, Zhang Tie stood up from the high, gorgeous chair and delivered one order which shocked everyone at present.

"Move above the Iron Bear Castle, I will go down..."

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, the whole command module became silent. Everyone stared at Zhang Tie, including the three elders of the huge bear tribe, Turin and Rodolfo from Spencer clan and some Spencer women who served as female servants in the command module.

Since Zhang Tie boarded on this airship, he had already found some Spencer women in the command module, some of whom were familiar such as Matias and Beryl, some of whom were strange yet delicate faces. Their age ranged from 16 to 20-odd. It was said that Spencer clan always trained these women outside the city; therefore, these women escaped from this catastrophe.

Spencer clan seemingly intended to arrange Spencer women to contact Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie didn’t care about it. In Zhang Tie’s eyes, the alleged Spencer women were nothing different than those women in Rose Association at all. They were just a bit better than those girls in Rose Association as they could contact better people and knowledge. It was not improper to treat them as advanced girls in Rose Association. Zhang Tie didn’t refuse to find a smart and beautiful mom for his kids after 10-20 years. Because this was also one of his humble dreams.

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, a Spencer woman who was adding an expensive tea water into Zhang Tie’s cup was instantly stunned. As a result, the tea water even flew out of the tea cup.

"Lord, the battle below has not ended yet. It’s very dangerous for you to go down there just now. Especially in the ruins of Iron Bear Castle, there were the most populated demonized puppets!" breaking the silence, elder Gouras stood up as he told Zhang Tie respectfully.

"I want to join the battle. It would be meaningless for me to go down there after the battle. Additionally, I know how to survive there."

"If so, Lord, you can choose any one of the six troops. After knowing that Lord is going to join them, they would be greatly spirited. All the fighters have been sincerely respectful about the military exploits and braveness of the Thor’s Hammer under your command!" Elder Toles stood up from his chair.

"Each troop have their own commander. If I join them, I would make the commander embarrassed. I don’t want to show something. Don’t ask me why. I just want to fight with my fighters in the most dangerous place..." seeing that Elder Gouras wanted to say something, Zhang Tie raised his hand, "This is not my request. This is my order. As the clan elder of the huge bear tribe and the owner of Eschyle City, I hope this is the last time I interpret the reason to you. I don’t want to repeat my order for the second time!"

After saying this, Zhang Tie looked at the coxswain, "Move it above Iron Bear Castle and drop the wire cable!"

...