Dominic split the next one into three balls, each with a third of the spell’s power.
The explosions were still five metres wide, but the result was much more gruesome, and not an instant kill. Scorched flesh peeled from the exposed areas, as scorching armour set cotton padding on fire.
Two at a time, that should be the answer.
Dominic could activate [Fireball] twice a second, and the barrage of flaming explosions had completely collapsed the enemy charge everywhere within fifty metres on either side of his position.
The Dagos Army was spreading to the sides, taking their chances with the cannons and the riflemen, just to get away from Dominic.
Dozens of bullets shattered against the [Area Barrier] in front of Dominic before it collapsed, and a single round pinged off his armour. Dominic frowned, distracted from the tunnel vision of burning the infantry.
He put the barrier back up as more bullets rained down on him, then he began targeting the soldiers further back in the charge.
The ones at the front were more likely to be the expendable militia members. The officers should be further back, and Dominic had no real grudge against the commoners. They just followed orders, it wasn’t their idea to be here in the first place.
They just waited, attacked and died.
The officers had to stop to shoot, and that marked them as targets not only for Dominic but for the Natural Sons’ Regiment.
One after another, they fell. But in return, the riflemen lost very few.
The mages behind the wall couldn’t do much but fill the cannons, but they did try to keep up a basic [Area Barrier] over the wall’s upper ridge, to prevent the riflemen and cannons from taking return fire.
The western edge of the North wall had soldiers near it now, so Dominic began jogging down the wall, firing into the infantry as he went.
They had crowded together to get away from him, and now they couldn’t avoid his attacks as Dominic hurled fire into their ranks faster than even the riflemen could fire.
"Keep up the charge! He can’t keep it up for long. Cygnia’s Mage Lord is bluffing. Once he collapses, he will be out for weeks." Dominic heard a Dagos Commander shouting through a bullhorn.
So he hit him with a fireball.
This spell was even more satisfying than [Arcane Blast].
At either side of the North Wall, the Dagos charge had made it to the wall, and ladders were being tilted up, some with shock troops at the top to be hurled into combat with the wall defenders.
Dominic ran along the ramparts so he could fire straight down into the breaching teams, but even the fireballs were not enough to deal with the entire horde of soldiers who had reached the walls.
"Advisor, retreat!" The Royal Guard announced.
Dominic returned to the walkway and attacked sporadically as he jogged back to the Princess, who was preparing to retreat to the elevated roadways, as Dagos soldiers were reaching the top of the wall, and the fight was turning into a confused melee.
In that situation, they couldn’t see to give orders, they had to retreat to get a proper view of the fight.
"The eastern and western flanks have fallen in, and joined the assault on the north wall. The city’s reservists have been called to duty, and the halberds have been deployed to push the ladders back." She explained when Dominic returned to the command group.
"The western flank has been thinned, but they are still going to reach the top of the wall." Dominic agreed.
Princess Alexis nodded to the Royal Guard, and a set of horn blasts echoed over the north wall.
Vats of Oil were rolled up the ramps, and then dumped over the walls and set on fire.
That would slow the approach for a while, and it greatly reduced the number of Dagos soldiers in melee at the top of the wall. Not enough to completely stop them, but it was a start.
The flames spread all along the city wall and out into the defensive trench behind the bulwark, which had previously been filled with oil.
That stopped the advance entirely, but left thousands of soldiers trapped between the flames and the wall. It wasn’t a new strategy, and the Dagos army was already working to put out the flames by the wall.
Then, the infiltrators that they had been looking for in the city made their move.
Hundreds of them, all in yellow and blue Dagos armbands, charged down the elevated walkways, surrounding the Marquis and the Royal delegation.
The Royal Guard swapped their rifles for pistols, which had a much higher rate of fire, and began blasting the attackers.
Dominic joined the defence with fireballs, and then Arcane Blasts as the enemy approached, and area spells were no longer safe.
The distance made the Guards switch to swords and shields, while Dominic relied on his magic, a somewhat nostalgic situation that reminded him of the second time that he went to fight Goblins with Elanor, the youngest Princess, and her guards.
The two forces crashed together, and the Marquis pushed forward, joining the Royal Guard.
Then, the Marquis was suddenly falling sideways, and Dominic turned just in time to see one of his guards raise his sword, tip down, intending to impale his Lord.
An Arcane Blast hurled the traitor off the walkway, but the Marquis grunted as a spear impaled his arm. The Royal Guard killed the spear wielding infiltrator a second later, but the damage was done, and the Marquis was heavily wounded, out of the battle.
"Keep fighting, I will treat his wound." Princess Alexis announced.
Dominic put an [Area Barrier] over the two of them as she worked to staunch the bleeding with a Paladin’s healing magic. Not perfect, but safe enough that he could focus on taking out the attackers.
They were all trained soldiers, but no match for the Royal Guard.
"We have a clear path away from the intersection. How long until he is stable?" Colonel Wilkes called.
"Ten seconds." Princess Alexis called.
"Friendly Riflemen coming." Dominic informed them.
The Natural Sons had retreated from the wall to the roadways, giving them room to shoot, as a rifleman lost most of his worth in close combat.
But that also put them closer to the attack on the Royal Entourage, and they were quickly cutting down the attempts to reinforce the assault on Dominic’s position.
"There is fighting in the streets. It’s going our way, but we will have to stay on the upper levels." Dominic informed the Princess as she finished tying a bandage around the Marquis’ arm and feeding him a potion.
She was a Paladin, with some healing skills, but she had only used the minimum to stabilize the Marquis. It wasn’t hard to guess what she was thinking. She was going to need that energy later, and the Marquis wasn’t a great fighter to start with.