Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1330  Brutal Siege Warfare

The column rolled forward.

Dwarven boots struck the earth in a steady rhythm, each step heavy enough to send a dull vibration through the ground. Wagons followed, reinforced frames creaking under the weight of steel and stone. Siege engines moved piece by piece, pushed and pulled by teams that knew every lever and chain by memory. Wheels cut deep tracks into the soil. Roots snapped. Pebbles jumped with each passing rank.

Quinlan walked alongside it all, watching the machines advance.

This was what he had been missing.

The memory of noble estates rose unbidden. Those same barriers that ruined his plans for a quick and successful night of conquering noble estates would not hold long against this. Not against rams plated in runed iron, towers built to swallow arrows, and artillery designed to tear fortifications apart layer by layer.

Ahead of the main force, elven scouts flowed through the terrain. They moved fast, passing signals without stopping, vanishing into the brush and reappearing further on.

Behind the dwarves, other elven units took position in loose lines. Every role was clear. Every gap filled.

The road narrowed, then widened again as the forest thinned.

Structures appeared in the distance. Stone homes reinforced with dark timber. Watch posts cut into the surrounding hills. Banners bearing Ravenshade colors hung stiff in the still air.

The first settlement.

Commands passed down the line. Dwarves slowed, then stopped with mechanical precision. Elven scouts melted back into formation, pointing out angles, sightlines, and weaknesses.

Quinlan looked ahead, eyes settling on the walls.

This time, he felt that he'd found worthy allies to help achieve his goals.

At his side, Kitsara slowed. Her foxkin ears twitched once, then her eyes narrowed.

"Something's wrong."

She was not the only one.

A few steps closer, and Quinlan felt it too. A pressure was settling over his body like damp air before a storm. Not heavy enough to pin him down. Not sharp enough to wound. Just present. Persistent. His mana circulation resisted it without effort, but the intent behind it was obvious.

Suppression.

He reached into his coat and pulled free a communication artifact. Power flowed in as he called his newest lover, the sexy tomboy elf who should be drawing blueprints in her sexy pajamas. Liora has cleared Kaelira to join the battles after today.

As for the call…

Nothing.

No response. No echo. Not even interference. Just dead silence.

"So that's it," Quinlan muttered. "They cut the lines."

Whoever had set this up - the undead, if the experience of the adventurer was anything to go by - never intended the settlement to call for help.

Seraphiel stiffened a heartbeat later.

"That's not all."

Then they heard it.

A sound that did not belong among stone homes and timber roofs. High, raw, and ragged. It rolled over the walls in waves, layered voices tearing at one another in hunger and rage.

Undead.

The noise came from inside the settlement.

Ayame's steps faltered. Her face lost a bit of color as the ramifications of this development hit her.

"They're already inside…" she whispered. "They entered a fortified settlement just like that…"

Quinlan did not look away from the walls. He reached out and set a steady hand on her shoulder, grounding.

"From my understanding, they've been planning this for longer than we can even conceive."

The meaning was clear. This was not sudden. This was not improvisation. She did not have to worry about the undead suddenly appearing in their lands like this overnight.

Iris scoffed. "With their tunnels beneath the earth, it's possible. They could dig a little at a time, doing so for tens of thousands of years while always masking the work using veiling artifacts, doing so slow enough that no one notices the change."

She looked up at the walls.

"That kind of patience is something only the undead have."

Quinlan nodded once.

That was their true advantage. Not numbers. Not terror. Time.

While kingdoms rose and fell, while bloodlines thinned and memory blurred, the undead endured. Waiting. Scheming. Preparing.

And now, the bill had come due.

They were cashing in on the fruits of their due diligence.

A dwarven voice cut through the rising noise.

"Artillery crews, stand by! Wind adjusted. Elevation confirmed!"

Quinlan turned.

Behind this dwarf stood Thorga, marking him as her boss. Considering Thorga's already high rank, Quinlan could guess that he was the leader of this army, its general.

Elvardia fielded multiple armies at once, attacking a dozen settlements together. Quinlan and co were witnessing one of them.

This dwarven general had not bothered with banners or ceremony. Reinforced armor layered over reinforced armor, plates thick enough to turn arrows into suggestions. Runes were set deep into the metal rather than etched on the surface, glowing with force. He looked less like an officer and more like a walking bastion.

The dwarf raised a gauntleted fist.

"Fire!"

The world answered.

The first volley thundered.

Dwarven artillery discharged in sequence, not all at once, but in a rolling cadence designed to keep pressure constant so that the barrier could not recover. Stone shot wrapped in steel bands tore through the air, followed by mana-packed shells that left ripples behind them. The ground shook under Quinlan's boots. His teeth clicked together before he realized it.

The barrier around the settlement tried its best.

Light flared across its surface as the first impacts struck. The magic bent inward with lines warping as if dragged by invisible hooks. The sound that followed was wrong. It was akin to a strained, keening noise. Quinlan and the girls had already experienced a professional siege by the large Fujimori army, but their siege efforts created no such noise, nor did they make the barrier look as if it were outright crying.

More shots followed.

Reload teams moved with brutal efficiency. Empty housing dropped. Fresh ammunition slid into place. Levers slammed. Runes cooled and flared again in seconds. The second wave hit before the barrier could settle.

The defense cried out again, brighter now with uneven patches flickering where the structure struggled to redistribute force. Each hit drove the sound deeper, harsher, as if the spell itself protested being asked to endure this much weight.

This was not a siege meant to test walls.

It was meant to erase them.

Compared to the Fujimori engagement, this was another tier entirely. Bigger frames. Denser cores. Smarter designs. Faster cycles. Where Fujimori relied on mass, this relied on certainty.

Nothing here was wasted motion.

As soon as the first shot thundered, Blossom suddenly bolted.

She skidded to a stop in front of Quinlan and grabbed his hands, pressing them flat over her ears with great urgency while sporting needy tears in her big eyes. Her tail went limp, and her ears flattened tight against her head.

"Too loud!" she yelped.

Another volley fired.

She squeaked and shoved herself against him, sliding her face into the gap between his chestplate and shoulder. Her arms wrapped around his torso, fingers clutching at the edges of his armor as if it were the safest place in the world.

Quinlan adjusted without thinking, bracing his stance all the while covering the girl's ears just as she asked him to. Then, he leaned down and pressed a calm kiss to her forehead.

"It's alright," he said quietly. "Give it a moment. You'll adjust."

Blossom whimpered anyway, burrowing closer, her voice muffled against him. She hugged tighter, clinging with great need.

Quinlan already knew this siege weaponry was different from what the Fujimori wielded, but now, this was just another perfect example. Blossom fought in that battle with no problem. She had strong senses, but making said senses become a drawback like this was a hard feat to achieve.

The dwarves managed to reach that level of brutal engineering.

Another thunderous impact rolled through the air.

Quinlan felt it vibrate through his armor and into her, felt the tension ease by a fraction as she steadied against him. Seeing it, he released her ears, knowing she needed to get used to them. At first, she resisted and quickly placed his hands back on her ears while looking at him with eyes of betrayal.

But after a lot of headpats, kisses, and whispers of it being okay, he was allowed to release her ears so she could begin adjusting properly. All the while, he kept stroking her hair until her breathing smoothed.

He smiled.

Ahead of them, the barrier sagged under the next wave of fire.

As soon as it fell, it would be time for Quinlan to make his move and finally begin his push for level 50.

All conditions were favorable.

It was time to go full steam ahead.