NOVPUBWith the shrill sound of a conch horn, samurai and militia on every section of the wall suddenly leaned out, releasing their deadly arrows with ferocity. Drawing their modern longbows, they shot sharp copper arrows that pierced the cotton armor of the charging samurai. They fully extended their traditional single-piece wooden bows, unleashing bone arrows with jagged points, penetrating the heads and faces of any samurai who had halted.
Jiowar, holding up his shield and looking up, saw his pupils suddenly contract as his body instinctively crouched down to raise his shield overhead. Thousands of Tarasco archers released their arrows simultaneously, and a deadly barrage showered down from the ramparts, whistling through the air. Jiowar’s shield clanged repeatedly, followed by a sharp pang in his shoulder, clearly having been struck by an arrow. Several of his trusted aides tumbled to the ground like gourds, screaming as they clutched their heads and faces, struggling as they were turned into hedgehogs.
At almost the same moment, hundreds of Tarasco militia half-rose, shouting. Raising their arms for a brief aim, they hurled javelins the length of their arms and fist-sized round rocks down towards the city walls. Blunt wooden javelins descended from above with a dull rush of wind, showing no mercy as they punctured the bodies of samurai, pinning them to the ground, while heavy rocks, picking up speed, slammed into the leather helmets of the samurai with an unstoppable force, knocking them down along with their helmets.
Jiowar crouched on the ground, hiding his body completely behind the great shield, no longer caring to observe the battle. The harsh clanging sounds "bang bang" rang out, cries of agony from the trusted aides were ceaseless yet swiftly weakened. In that moment of siege warfare, his leather armor seemed pitifully thin. Even for the mighty samurai, death could come at any time, and to wither was but an instant.
Not far away, Xiulote watched unblinkingly, seeing the scene even more clearly. This long-prepared volley had immediately cleared a void, nailing hundreds of Otomi warriors to their place!
The young commander quickly waved his flag, and the piercing sound of a conch horn rose again, and over a thousand Mexica archers and crossbowmen simultaneously fired towards the city rampart. Feathered arrows and crossbow bolts, like a surging torrent, knocked over the weeds atop the battlements in an instant.
A fierce Tarasco samurai clutched a longbow, his expression savage. Across a distance of forty paces, he shot an arrow that struck an Ottopan warrior in the cheek and immediately became a target for the archers below. The fierce samurai was about to notch another arrow when his movement abruptly halted, then he let go weakly, his copper arrow falling from his grasp. 𝚗ovp𝚞b.𝚌om
A bone arrow penetrated his unprotected chin with a "plop" sound, skewing through his mouth from below. The excruciating pain hit him instantly, yet the samurai did not die at once, vainly attempting to open his mouth. Then another crossbow bolt whistled in, piercing through the samurai’s chest. He immediately fell to his knees, hands still desperately flailing until a freakishly precise arrow pierced his eye, embedding two inches deep. Only then did he find final relief, falling backward onto the battlements.
A group of four or five Tarasco militiamen stood closely. Wearing cloth garments, they squeezed between the narrow gaps in the shields to shoot arrows, yelling with each enemy they struck down. More than twenty feathered arrows accompanied the yelling, mostly deflected by the shields, producing a continuous "bang bang" sound.
Only four or five long arrows, passing through different gaps, penetrated without hesitation into fragile bodies. At close range, the long arrows held formidable power, unabated by cloth or flesh, piercing straight through and "hissing" as they skewered the militiamen together. Their blood instantly mingled, and the militiamen screamed in agony, struggling fiercely, but could never separate. They only tore their wounds wider, spilling more crimson, then solidified into a silent sculpture group.
Other brave Tarasco militiamen raised their right arms, hurling powerful short spears. As soon as the short spear left the hand, a strong crossbow bolt struck his exposed chest cavity, and he fell silently towards the wall below. In the last moment of his life, he only saw his short spear hit the target, stabbing into an advancing Ottopan warrior. The warrior staggered a few steps and then toppled, burying his face in the mud. Soon after, the valiant militiaman crashed into the dust, just two steps apart from the spear-stricken warrior, head to head, silently perishing together.
Xiulote, expressionless, gave a slight nod. The shooting Tarascans were hard to fully cover, and this wave of close-range arrow rain had taken away nearly a hundred of the defending army. The firepower from the ramparts stalled momentarily, and the archers once again hid their figures, their accuracy greatly reduced.
The intense drumming never ceased, as Ottopan warriors charged forth in roars, finally reaching the base of the ramparts. A dozen warriors desperately set up a heavy wooden ladder, leaning it against the stone wall, nearly ready to scale the city.
The Tarascans on the battlements leaned out again. Under the urgent urging of the militant samurai, militia hurled down ceramic jars of various sizes, along with heavy planks and stones. The jars shattered upon impact, scattering a white powder explosive. The Ottopan warriors underneath erupted into inhuman screams, clutching their eyes and writhing in agony on the ground—that was quicklime, commonly seen in the volcanic regions, used for years in construction and agricultural production.
The warriors below, blinded, loosened their grip and stumbled in confusion. The ladder then tilted, crashing down and crushing two warriors beneath it. The timber and stones from the ramparts followed with a "crash," squashing some warriors into tangled heaps on the ground, which soon turned into a mix of red and gray hues.
