Record of Solcomm's Attacks on the Astral Tower 4

Content

The area containing Astral Tower and the lake was later designated as under Schaffenstar's jurisdiction, but the people have been living there before that.
Rather than the immediate area surrounding the tower, where battles could happen at any moment, people lived above the lake, which was fairly distant from the tower.
Some parts of the village were built above magical levitation stones, which were placed by Schaffenstar, and other parts were built above boats and wooden structures.{np}These people were Solcomm's next target. He was certain that Schaffenstar would never let these people suffer. Based on recent battles, Solcomm figured that most ranged weapons in Astral Tower could not reach the lake village, and even if some magic attack reached the area, its effects would be greatly reduced. {np}After some sieges and scouting attempts, Solcomm learned this: Astral Tower is equipped with weapons that can strike down enemy ships. In order to make such defense possible, the lake was carefully divided into areas that have magical levitation stones to allow passage, as well as areas that were empty.
Due to this, attacking the tower with ships was close to suicidal. It didn't matter whether the ships were filled with demons or humans. The ships would be destroyed.{np}To Solcomm's surprise, no one seemed to know how deep the lake was. If any of the demons were to touch its water, they would melt and burn like acid.
Solcomm previously sent his beast monsters and captured humans to scout underwater, but none returned. Finally, Solcomm decided to dive under the lake himself.{np}However, even after swimming downward for five hours, he had to return without seeing the lake's bottom.
The further he plunged, he encountered stranger and more aggressive creatures.
When the armor he was wearing was punctured, the lake's water, which was fatal to demons, came pouring in. Solcomm almost died before coming ashore, and he had to give up scouting underwater. {np}It is a surprise that fishermen living above the lake paid taxes to Schaffenstar, the governing body of Astral Tower, and received protection in return.
Although it wasn't designated as such by the king yet, Lydia Schaffen and her Schaffenstar were basically the rulers of the lake.
The people living above and around the lake were proud of serving Lydia Schaffen, a legendary hero, and the Schaffenstar members were fair and just in their ruling. Other than some big cities, no place was safer than this lake.{np}Whenever there were monsters near the area, the Schaffenstar members were immediately deployed to shoot them down.
However, with a large demon army such as Solcomm's, things went a bit differently.
Without full-on battles outside the tower, the area's villagers couldn't be protected.
Also, even if the Schaffenstar members were all elite marksmen, fighting in the open is nothing like firing arrows from an impregnable tower.{np}Generally speaking, archers need either distance or height to gain a combat advantage. Otherwise, they become easy targets for enemy infantry and cavalry. Solcomm knew that even the famous Schaffenstar wouldn't be able to overcome these limits.{np}The problem was luring them out. Solcomm's plan was to attack the lake village to force Schaffenstar to come out of their tower.
Right after Solcomm began his attacks, the entrance to the village was shut tight.
Although it wasn't much, it was enough to make it very inconvenient for demons to approach though the lake's fatal water.
However, tearing down its wooden barriers would be a simple task with enough ships.
Solcomm was certain that Schaffenstar would have to come out if that happened.{np}However, it never happened.
In fact, there was no need.{np}Tornadoes suddenly appeared.
It was merely a lake, but the tornados' scale was overwhelmingly huge.
Solcomm couldn't help but stare at it.{np}Although the lake was considerable large, and tornadoes can occur on land, the occurrence itself was quite baffling.
When tornadoes appear precisely above attacking ships, this doesn't happen by chance.
Frankly, these tornadoes were so precise in their positioning, that they kept circling the village.
Whenever these tornadoes barely touched Solcomm's ships, they were overturned, throwing helpless demons into the lake in the process.
Although some ships managed to avoid these tornadoes, the lake's fatal water was sprayed all over the ships.{np}This didn't happen when the demons were attacking the tower itself.
It could be deduced that Schaffenstar wasn't trying to hide their capability of summoning tornadoes, but rather, built villages in places where tornadoes could be summoned in the first place.
Sadly, for Solcomm, this deduction was correct.
Solcomm had to retreat without getting to see a single arrow, let alone Schaffenstar members.