There is not much time left for Xue Man.

And this sentence is also applicable to the Storm Cloak.

If you can't capture the snow in a short time. Once reinforcements from the Imperial Legion arrive, what awaits Uffric's army is a definite demise.

As we all know, the High King of Skyrim Province is not hereditary. Instead, it is decided by the nine lords who rule over the nine main cities of Solitude, Mosar, Morningstar, Winter Castle, Wind Helm, Rift, Snowman, Phocles, and Macas. Generally speaking, the winner will be chosen between Dugu, Wind Helmet, and Xue Man.

In other words, Xue Man has the qualifications to become the third pole of Skyrim Province...... Or rather, potential. Even if Barguv had no intention of standing on his own, his attitude was significant.

Well, the current situation is that most of the forces in Skyrim Province are split in two. The two are evenly matched.

Xue Man, who is located in the center of Skyrim Province and has always remained neutral, is the last bargaining chip that determines the victory. No matter which side it is, as long as it has the support of Xueman. will gain a great advantage in the next strategy.

Both strategically and tactically.

If this balance can be maintained, then the situation in Skyrim Province will also remain in tepid skirmishes. When the turmoil in Sirodil calmed down, peace would naturally be ushered in. Maybe that's what Barguv was up to. Unfortunately, however, a sudden dragon knocked Snow Manling's defenses into a sieve.

This forced the lord to make a decision at short notice. And he also chose to accept the garrison of the Empire. It's almost like standing on Elesever's side.

Therefore, Ufric must take advantage of the turmoil of the Dragon Plague to defeat Snowman. If he can't win, what awaits him will be the double disadvantage of resources and geography!

Snowman City must be taken before the Legion arrives...... If you can't. That's going to ruin her before that, too!

……………………

"Here comes the oil bomb!!"

With countless sharp shouts, a crimson [Meteor] dragged a long gray-red tail flame across the city wall. Exploding in a clearing close to the trebuchet camp, raging flames rolling and burning in a fierce splash of asphalt and fuel...... A nearby bundle of hay was set on fire.

This is the second day of the Acropolis. As on the first day, nothing new.

The commander mixed the conscripted spearmen and the elite legion's sword and shield bearers and placed them on the wall about ten feet wide. The archers were covered by sturdy towers and heavy anticline bunkers. The trebuchets and the fortified crossbows were left entirely to the engineers and miners.

As for the most powerful comrades-in-arms, the two-handed heavy swordsmen were divided into two teams. Team 1 is tasked with fighting fires on the battlefield and ensuring that the Cloaked Warriors mixed in with the Miscellaneous can't break through the lines, while Team 2 is tasked with protecting the fragile Priests so they can accurately unleash buffs on the warriors.

Canonical layout of the city.

It's stiff and old-fashioned, but it's also effective.

There is only one exit from the outer city, and all other walls are attached to the high mountain wall, or are simply part of the mountain. It would take ten times more effort to open a gap from there than a frontal attack. And the rebels did not have so much time.

This allowed them to send their troops to the city one by one, and then kill them one by one.

The numerical advantage is completely unplayable, and the only courage cannot collide head-on with high walls and thick rocks.

The seven-foot-tall rock structures at the lower end of the snow-filled walls had been dyed dark red, and the corpses of the rebels and guards had piled up nearly five feet high.

The battle loss ratio was about four to one. There must have been almost 4,000 corpses under the walls.

[These Storm Cloaks...... What the hell are you thinking? 】

Thanks to the large number of conscripts and miners, Minnie easily blended into the ranks of the defending forces, and after obtaining a set of full-cover guard scale armor, she found a suitable position in the tower near the perimeter to watch the battle.

This observation point was cleverly chosen, with a good view, but it was quite far from the important parts of the city defense. As long as she didn't make some too outrageous and really eye-catching moves, the Overseer team wouldn't have noticed such an inconspicuous corner.

As for the fate of the original owner of the scale armor on Minnie's body, there is naturally no need to say more.

Expecting Minnie to value the lives of others is tantamount to a dream. The exception, of course, is the young, pretty little girl. They're pretty tasty.

This is true in every sense of the word.

Well, Minimenil is a dragon through and through, and Alice is not.

Alice doesn't eat people, so Minnie can't eat people either.

So Minnie pursed her lips and put the unpleasant things behind her for now.

Another series of loud shouts came from the direction of the outer wall. Once again, the Storm Cloak's monolithic golem burst out of the array and slammed into the walls. I don't know where they got so many wizards, with so much magic to waste.

Maybe the rebels wanted to use the remains of the giant stone statue to cushion the snowy city?

But this is nothing but futile.

A dozen bronze heavy crossbows on the tower ensured that they would be shot to shreds as far as two hundred feet outside the city gates.

Sure enough, after the circle team of the comrades-in-arms restrained the footsteps of a stone statue at the forefront. Immediately, there was a series of thuds at the top of the tower. Several pitch-black, one-and-a-half-foot-long steel arrows pierced the air, carving out several large holes in the stone statue. A well-eyed archer could even see the glow inside the huge wound.

The huge humanoid lost its support and fell with a thud, and the cheers of the soldiers defending the city rang out.

The morale of one side is up, the morale of the other side is down, and the only role played by these big guys is to block the roads. On the city walls, the warriors are still fighting bloodily.

[I always feel that something is wrong...... There seems to be something in those stone statues...... What is it? 】

Minnie Mouse kept looking at the yellow-gray wreckage, trying to find something out of the ordinary. However, how could she see more clearly from such a distance than the soldiers standing on the first line of walls? Her quest was doomed to fail.

This ineffective tactical rebel has been in use for days on end, and anyone with a bit of a brain can guess that there must be something wrong with the megaliths. However, the rebels' offensive was so fierce that even at night they kept the trebuchets and archers at range. The guards in the city didn't even have time to collect the corpses of the dead, let alone study the peeling boulders.

Aside from the magical fluctuations on the wreckage, the Snowman's army knew nothing about those things. However, it is not uncommon for casting remnants to be detected on an alchemical artifact.

[There must be something missing.] 】

[Forget it, what do you care about so much? It's not that I'm going to defend it. 】

She then looked away, nonchalantly surveying the fierce fighting at the edge of the city walls. Neither the fanaticism of the rebel fighters nor the fortitude of the main city guards could attract Minnie's attention. Just watching, watching these strong soldiers fight you to the death for those few feet wide stones, dyeing the gray-white stones with blood and internal organs a crimson color.

Two groups of bugs are fighting, no matter how brave the bugs are, they are just a joke in the eyes of the beast.

However, this indifferent gaze immediately shifts when it sees someone. From calm quickly became angry.

[This idiot! Distracted on the battlefield! 】

The magic in his palm quickly extended out of his body, penetrating a small piece of iron and quickly twisting it into a flat cone. Then, it's time to throw hard!

The archers in the city happened to be at this moment to shoot a rain of arrows, and with a large number of projectiles as cover, the small cone reached its destination smoothly, and the hit guy let out a muffled snort, and the axe that might have killed a centurion slammed into the ground, and the strong Nord warrior was stabbed into a hedgehog by the rushing legionnaires with several standard daggers.

[The crisis is over, let's change places.] 】

She was about to leave when several footsteps came from the lower end of the tower. One of the voices was solemn and calm, at least a centurion's combat power. But that didn't bother Minnie Mouse much.

[Count you unlucky, actually standing in my way at this time...... Damn it! Another one that can't even be touched! 】

Minnie Mouse frowned slightly.

………………

Franster quietly changed his right hand, which rested on the hilt of his sword, from a pressing position to a holding position. Just now, he seemed to hear something unusual.

He glanced at the middle-aged officer beside him, and then cautiously walked over to the pile of wooden boxes that stood near the lookout. With a sudden push, the fragile wooden structure in front of me collapsed into a mess. A large pile of historic cobwebs was lifted by this air current, flying everywhere.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with being careful." He knocked on the helmet on the door of his head, and the crunch of steel echoed through the small corner.

It seems to be an illusion, there is nothing here. Well, this is a good place to talk.

"Are all the preparations ready?"

"My lord, all the arrangements have been completed, just waiting for the final order." The middle-aged officer behind him bent down slightly and said respectfully.

"That's good." The heavy swordsman's gaze travels across the battlefield filled with gunpowder. Finally frozen somewhere outside the city walls. "Xueman's only reliance is on the sturdy façade. If the outer walls are lost, the Stormcloak's strength advantage will be fully exploited. And the defenses of the inner city are not enough for such a huge number. ”

"But the façade is strong enough." The middle-aged officer said in a timely manner: "For hundreds of years, no army has been able to cross a snowy outer wall." ”

"yes. Never. Franster muttered, "Until the dragon strikes." ”

His gaze casually swept over somewhere near the city gate, where the masonry seemed to be a little darker than the adjacent walls.

"Never."