Close Combat Mage

Chapter 214 - Overwhelming Victory Part 2

Following the booming sound of the alarm bell, countless regular slave soldiers appeared from the city walls. According to the messenger soldiers’ orders, they all got onto the walls and began to form a defensive formation like they had in their drills.

This defensive formation was made up of the swordsmen in front, ready to block a rain of arrows at any moment, and to attack any enemies that climbed through the shields’ cracks.

Behind these swordsmen were soldiers that held 4.5 meters long pikes in their hands. Before they got close to the swords and shields, the thief army had to first dodge the pike users’ jabs. If one didn’t want to pay a great and disastrous price, they couldn’t even dream of coming close to it!

Behind the pike users were 10,000 archers. After weeks of training, these guys were pretty good already. Although they couldn’t accurately hit the same enemy alone, they could at least fire the arrows accurately to a set area, and they could precisely hit things within this 10 meter perimeter.

The troops that had originally been at a distance outside the city walls, the Flying Locusts thieves, had already made their way closer. After continuously analyzing the Flying Locusts army, finally…General Jason barked out another order.

“Shoot…shoot! Shoot!” Jason shouted, followed by the voices of the messenger soldiers, as well as the 10,000 archers. The pike users lined up behind them also stood up, chattering. The drawn bowstrings were all aimed at the enemies that had already entered the 100 meter perimeter around the city walls.

General Jason commanded, “Target, 100 paces. Attack!”

As soon as General Jason said these words, the ten messenger soldiers all shouted it out at the same time. These ten loud voices mixed together, and the metal horns in their hands also rang out loudly throughout the entire battlefield. “Target, 100 paces. Attack!”

The thousands of archers simultaneously shot their arrows. Loud shouts filled the air as they loosened their fingers, and 10,000 sharp arrows whizzed off their bowstrings and pierced through the space. In an instant, all the thieves within a 90-100 meter perimeter around the city walls had fallen to the ground. Although the archers hadn’t aimed, the rain of arrows was just too dense, making it impossible to evade.

Seeing the sudden storm of arrows, the Flying Locusts thieves were dumbstruck. During that moment they were frozen in shock, General Jason’s voice shouted out once more, “Target, 90 paces. Attack!”

A rain of arrows filled the air once more. The concentrated attacks shot downwards at all the Flying Locusts thieves at once. Nobody could possibly stay standing after such an attack; even Suo Jia wouldn’t have been able to.

Seeing this, the Flying Locusts thieves finally snapped out of their stupors. They all turned around in unison, wanting to flee. However, they had come back to their senses too late. All the Flying Locusts thieves were already within a perimeter of 200 paces around the city walls, which was exactly the Dawn archers’ optimal shooting range!

“Target, 180 paces…Attack!” General Jason’s voice pierced through the air in such a perilous situation. Following that, 10,000 more sharp arrows whistled through the air above the Flying Locusts thieves. They all watched the sky seemingly turn dark for a moment, then…a sharp, desolate and miserable cry resounded behind them. When they turned around to look, they saw that the Flying Locusts thieves in the hindmost part of the formation had all fallen.

Seeing this, the Flying Locusts army hurriedly began to rush toward the city walls. None of them wanted to face this rain of arrows; it wasn’t something one could go against head-on. However…they had only managed to run a few paces before Jason shouted once more, and another wave of arrows fell 80 paces from the city walls. This caused another section of the thieves to go down.

Just like this, 20,000 Flying Locusts thieves were driven away like a horde of pigs. General Jason’s troops continued to chase them back and forth, continuously running around in every direction. In the end, not a single person had escaped. The bleeding corpses of the 20,000 thief army littered the ground, dying the area crimson.

In the distance, outside the Thief Alliance army’s camp, the commander’s face had turned ashen. He hadn’t imagined that Dawn City would suddenly have long-ranged archers; it was really too terrifying. Exactly what was going on?

Everyone knew that thieves didn’t use shields, and they wore light leather armor. Typically speaking, they’d use assassination techniques, so their weak defenses could generally be overlooked. Their only long-ranged attack was the crossbows. However, the crossbows were small, and their shooting ranges were limited, only around 50 paces. In front of longbows, they couldn’t do anything but fall victim to the massacre.

Seeing the already crimson, blood-covered city walls around Dawn City, the Thief Alliance’s leader’s face seemed to turn the color of dirt. It had only been an hour since the battle had begun, but he had already lost 60,000 soldiers. The 40,000 slave soldiers in front were still easy to handle, but he had lost the 20,000 Flying Locusts thieves, the elites of their side!

The Alliance army’s commanding officer knew that originally…he wasn’t supposed to lose so badly. This time’s loss was because of their miscalculations. He hadn’t expected that Dawn City, which always only had pike users and Mengma Knights, would suddenly have so many long-ranged archers appear. As a thief, one couldn’t charge in front of an archer, that was just seeking death.

“Bang!” The Alliance’s commanding officer fiercely smashed the wine glass in his hand onto the ground. The opposite party had been too cunning. If they had dispatched the long-ranged archers from the start, they wouldn’t have been crushed that badly. What made him depressed was the fact that despite clearly having longbow users, the other party hadn’t used them in the beginning. They had waited all the way up until the Flying Locusts army had appeared before acting. Those 20,000 elites had died in vain. This was the commanding officer’s greatest regret, as it was the fault of him, the commander, for having fallen into another’s calculations.

In reality, although the thieves didn’t use shields, they still had armored chariots. These armored vehicles covered with a huge line-up of shields. The thieves could hide behind the shields first to dodge the rain of arrows. However, the shields could only block arrows, not the smashing of rocks. Also, everyone knew that it was because the shooting range of rocks was clearly much lower than that of crossbows that the commander had dispatched the Flying Locusts thieves. But if he had known earlier that there would be archers, this scene wouldn’t have occurred.

If they had just blockaded off the archers and stayed behind the armored chariots, they would’ve been able to use the crossbows to snipe at the slave soldiers tossing rocks. After getting rid of them, the long-ranged archers wouldn’t have needed to be feared either. As long as they charged up the slopes of the walls, they could’ve seized Dawn Fort.

But now, although they still had 40,000 people remaining, the Alliance’s commanding officer knew that this battle had been their complete loss. Up until now, the opposite party hadn’t suffered a single loss. In contrast, the thieves only had 10,000 armored chariots left, 10,000 secret raid soldiers, and 20,000 conventional soldiers. They didn’t have any long-ranged attack abilities. If they charged forwards like this, it wouldn’t be a battle, but a suicide.

“F*ck…” Cursing angrily, the Alliance’s commanding officer bellowed, “Everyone, heed my command: immediately retreat. Armored chariots, stay in the back, and prepare to intercept the Mengma Knights!”

Hearing their leader’s orders, all the thieves immediately turned around. The back group went to the front, and began to rush along the path they had come from. At the same time, the 10,000 armored chariot soldiers had already propped their chariots up. They knew that they’d probably be the sacrificial lambs this time. For the sake of covering the majority of the army as they retreated, they had to lay down their own lives.

Seeing the soldiers shaking as they hid behind the armored chariots, the Alliance’s commander couldn’t hold back the shining tears forming in the corner of his eyes. He knew…that under the Mengma Knight’s bombardment, they couldn’t even imagine thinking of leaving alive. But their sacrifices wouldn’t be in vain, because…they would come back. They would definitely seize Dawn City!

Before, the thief army hadn’t dared to attack Dawn City because it was equivalent to offending Holy Light Empire, and they hadn’t had such capabilities. However, they knew that the current Dawn was no longer the Empire’s border station, but Suo Jia’s private enfeoffment. In that case, nobody could possibly complain if they attacked it.

Once they managed to occupy a city like that, the Thief Alliance would have an inaccessible stronghold as their base of operations. After developing for several years, they’d definitely become a beyond terrifying existence. Most importantly, this location was a zone that bordered all six countries. If they operated it well, their income would absolutely explode!

Suo Jia bitterly smiled as he watched the thief soldiers quickly disperse off into the distance. If the Mengma Knights were still here, then not a single one of them would be able to think of escaping alive. However, the Mengmas were still evolving, so they could only watch the thieves run away. With the thieves’ speeds, there was no way they could possibly catch up.

Finally, all the thieves had disappeared, including the 10,000 armored chariots. When they had returned to the thieves’ military station, the Alliance’s commander had been greatly shocked. He just couldn’t understand, why hadn’t the Mengma group chased after them? After thinking about it for a bit, he realized that he’d received some wrong information. The Mengma group was the Empire’s most powerful corps, so the Empire had surely taken them away. How could they possibly give such formidable forces for someone’s private use?