3 The Fall of the City of Toom

In 1799 of the Imperial calendar, at the beginning of the Djinn Crisis, humanity was in complete panic, and these dark-skinned, tall creatures appeared out of nowhere, as if they appeared out of thin air, and began to attack the humans they encountered wildly. Due to the lack of warning and warning, a large number of djinn appeared on the southwestern coastline of the Spoulet Empire, near the Qibo Snow Mountain in the north, and in the west and east of the Aube Empire, and groups of djinn of different sizes also appeared scattered in many places on the Nameless Continent, and began to launch a crazy attack and slaughter against humans. For a time, the smoke of gunfire was everywhere, the refugees fled, the devastation was full of corpses, and the lives were devastated...... Wherever the djinn passed, humanity was largely extinct, villages were burned, forests were cut down, and the djinn devoured human territory and resources like a plague of locusts, killing unarmed and powerless humans. What's even more terrifying is that the scattered djinns begin to assemble like the more densely populated megacities in the interior, faster than humans can imagine.

Humanity with the consciousness of death and destruction did not sit still, and the three great powers quickly reached a consensus to suspend all internal conflicts between humans, gather forces, and begin to resist the invasion of the djinn. When the human beings organized themselves and officially began to fight with the djinn, they were pessimistic to find that the djinn was superior to humans in size, physical strength, and strength, and they could easily kill the approaching human soldiers by only hand-to-hand combat, collision, and trampling. Even if you rely on powerful cavalry to charge, you can be resisted and swept by the djinn, and you can only rely on long-range weapons such as crossbows and muskets to attack from a safe distance, and once you are close, it is also a dead end. The desperate human army had no choice but to fight and retreat, holding on to the fortress and passively facing the battle.

As most people believe, the physically strong djinn does have an advantage in strength, but the level of intelligence is not developed, and some battlefields have used lure enemies to depth, ambushes, traps and other ways to win battles, which has rekindled the hope of the human army. Spreett's military commander devised a bold plan to deal a heavy blow to the Djinn's main force in the largest city in the southern part of the empire, Tum City.

"At that time, there were more than 20,000 djinn besieging the city of Toom, and the djinn from the southern part of the empire were gathered here." Captain Charlie began to describe the situation, recalling the battle that he would never forget more than two years ago. "It was December, and it was colder than it is now." After speaking, he rubbed his hands and exhaled a breath, as if he had returned to the biting winter. "Whew...... At that time, the Imperial Army gathered more than 100,000 people, which is probably the number. By the time the army had gathered outside the city, the river outside the city froze. So at that time, after discussion, those leaders let more than 20,000 people go around the rear of the djinn from the ice at night to raid them, and then the main force on the side of Toum City will take advantage of the time when the djinn is disturbed to launch a general attack, to put it bluntly, it is a flanking attack! ”

"It's not right to divide the troops, right?" "What a risky plan." Several young recruits sighed, as if they were standing next to the commander-in-chief and strategizing together.

"Who knows," continued the captain, "that in some battlefields such plans are said to have worked. But here...... Alas, when 20,000 soldiers crossed the river on the ice, they had to reach the other side to find that the djinn was waiting for them! At this point, the soldiers who listened to the story hung their heads, because what happened next had made them all feel horror and despair.

"The 20,000 men were so blocked by the djinn that they could not get to the shore, so they threw huge rocks at them, smashing many large holes in the ice, and some soldiers were killed directly, and some fell into the water—either drowning or freezing to death. The rest of the soldiers wanted to run, but found that the retreat had long been cut off by the giant spirit, and in this way, the original sneak attack became surrounded and annihilated, and they listened to the cries, helps, and wails on the river. As soon as they saw the failure of the plan, the noble officers and soldiers were frightened, alas, the worse is still to come, the main force of the djinn suddenly launched an attack on the city of Tum, the so-called defeat is like a mountain, the main force of more than 100,000 people fled faster than they gathered, and why fight for honor, life matters. Alas—" Captain Charlie sighed several times in a row. "I wasn't the captain at the time, but I was in charge of evacuating the crowd in the city, and as soon as I heard the sound outside, I quickly climbed up the city wall and saw that the river was frozen with the corpses of soldiers, like ice sculptures. Within a day, the city of Tum had completely fallen, and there were still more than 10,000 people who had not had time to evacuate at that time, and the result can be imagined. The captain said so much in one breath, and his expression and tone were also very excited. The others were silent, and silence became their spokesperson again.

After the fall of the largest city in the southern part of the empire, the Spreite Empire counted the losses: more than 20,000 troops were killed, countless wounded, more than 10,000 people were killed and wounded, and the strategic city of Tum was captured and reduced to ruins. Judging by the losses alone, this is acceptable to the Empire, but the impact of this battle has exceeded everyone's expectations. In a short time, "the djinn saw through our plan", "they are wiser than us", "we can't promise them", "the main force is all scattered, and we have no soldiers...... Similar panic spread like a plague everywhere, and people began to be disappointed, panicked, desperate...... More people began to flee, running around like headless flies, riots began to erupt in the big cities, frenzied people began to indulge themselves, law and order deteriorated, crime rates remained high, and even more so they simply ended their lives in various ways. In the army, the hopes that had been ignited were like being extinguished by the cold river water, turning into ice sculptures and melting into the remains of soldiers in the river outside the city of Toum, often appearing in people's nightmares, fear spread, morale was low, deserters were increasing, and the defense lines collapsed without a fight. "It's over, it's all over......" Even the commander of the Imperial Army of Sprelet let out such a desperate sigh. In the midst of internal and external difficulties, the Emperor removed the commander of the army and replaced the noble lord in the southern part of the empire, the Marquis of Risson, as the commander of the imperial army. After that, the war between the djinn and the humans entered a long stalemate.

"That's them." Captain Charlie spoke to the soldiers again, gently pointing to Milo and his squad behind him, and saying the name that made countless people shudder-

"The undead of Toom City."