Chapter 540: The Beginning of the Decisive Battle
Early in the morning, both armies kept an effective distance, facing each other far away in the field in front of Town Leith.
The number of these 2 armies was quite large. The dense black patch was divided into several large cl.u.s.ters. If it were not for the vast plains of the Town Leith, it would not be able to contain them.
The birds and beasts that normally lived in the field had disappeared long ago. The intangible suppression made almost everyone’s face appear solemn. Everyone knew that once this terrifying silence was broken, the charged murderous intent would erupt like a heavy storm.
In the central formation of the capital coalition army, Commander Obsidian. Lucifer squinted his eyes slightly and his face was tense. He looked solemn and quiet on the surface, but upon closer inspection, his purple eyes were full of bloodshot tiredness. He obviously stayed up all night.
Opposite the coalition army was the Dark Moon Army. Among them was the Dark Moon’s commander, Shea. Lucifer who was riding a white demonic horse and wearing a silver armor. Although it was only the second time that she actually commanded the army, Princess Royal showed extraordinary calmness compared to the previous time when she faced the 2 coalition armies of the Red Spirit Estate and the Blue Lava Estate.
“Shea. Lucifer!” Obsidian’s voice sounded, overbearing all the noise. “I’ll give you one last chance to surrender! I can give you the position of the empress!”
Shea’s cold voice echoed in the wilderness, “Obsidian. Lucifer! You’re just a usurper who is not recognized by the Sword of Fallen Angel. You are not qualified to call yourself an emperor at all! What’s more, you have lost the capital now!”
Obsidian, whose sore point was stabbed by her words, was finally outraged, “Those who follow me will live and those against me will die! I swear by the surname of the Lucifer Royal Family, all of you will be buried along with this stubborn woman!”
The pressure of the peak stage of the Demon Overlord did not have much effect in this wilderness. However, as the supreme ruler of the empire, Obsidian made a vicious oath by his surname which really made the Dark Moon Army feel a little shocked.
“For the past 300 years, we have lived in the barren Dark Moon, subjected to inhuman sanctions and exploitations. In order to survive, we endured the humiliations and let others trample on our dignity! Finally one day, we use our own efforts and diligence to defeat famine and poverty. We are able to raise our heads with pride; we no longer beg for a leftover meal; we are able to have a happy life and family. However, at this moment, this rebel who usurped the empire, this cruel, greedy, arrogant and shameless traitor who wants to plunder our hard-won results, wants to trample on our bodies and dignity again. He wants to destroy everything we have! Tell me, generals, soldiers, my brothers and sisters, are you willing to let him?”
“No!” The Dark Moon Army’s neat and loud voice sounded. This momentum was completely different from the war of lords back then. It was full of fighting spirit and courage. The negative emotions brought by Obsidian’s oath disappeared immediately.
Shea raised the royal flag high, “Maybe we will sacrifice our lives, but when we meet the ancestors of the Fallen Angel Empire again in front of the Demon G.o.d, we can still hold up our head with pride! The inheritors of the Red Blood Flame Flag, our eyes are burning with b.l.o.o.d.y fighting spirit; our sharp blades are ready to destroy the fragile enemy! The will of the royal flag will guide us forward. The inheritance of the Lord of Midnight Sun will give us the highest glory and courage! Warriors, fight for the Dark Moon, fight for the empire!”
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
The morale of the Dark Moon Army skyrocketed. The unison sound of weapons and s.h.i.+elds made the entire field shake slightly. It also shook the morale of the capital army.
When Shea shouted “Fight for the empire”, the confidence of many soldiers of the coalition army began to shake. Although the Lord of Midnight Sun had died for 300 years, the legend of the Demon Realm’s top powerhouse and the top military G.o.d was still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The coalition army had suffered a losing streak before, and the capital was conquered by George, the first general who supported Shea. The people were feeling insecure. Facing the descendant of Lord of Midnight Sun, Princess Shea, who inherited the Red Blood Flame Flag, facing the powerful momentum of the Dark Moon Army, their fighting spirit was almost suppressed to the lowest point.
Obsidian knew that if this went on, before the Dark Moon’s morale was shaken, his side would be discouraged first. At that moment, there was no more lip service. He ordered the infantry in the front row to attack.
This light infantry unit had about 20,000 soldiers. They were elites selected from the lords’ army. It was commanded by the Green Tree Estate’s Lord Suda. They were equipped with leather s.h.i.+elds and armors. Among them were 5,000 archers with strong overall combat effectiveness. Obsidian obviously was trying to test the situation by dispatching this infantry first.
The light infantry formed several rectangular formations, marching in neat steps toward the Dark Moon Army. Shea responded quickly. Several rows of soldiers greeted them. The soldiers at the front were the most powerful minotaurs. Both of them held a tall huge s.h.i.+eld together. Due to the height of the huge s.h.i.+eld, it was difficult to see the situation behind them. There seemed to be archers.
Use archers against the infantry? Obsidian sneered and dispatched the capital’s Boulderstone Legion, letting them keep a distance from behind. The Boulderstone Legion was composed of heavy armor infantry and spearmen commanded by General Longbottom. Even if the opponent dispatched the Magic Shadow Cavalry led by the rebel, Nesta, they could also defeat them.
This kind of troops on the large battlefield was not a real-time strategy game that the commander could control freely by drawing a frame with the mouse. Commanding hundreds of people was completely different from commanding hundreds of thousands or a million people. The more troops, the more difficult it was to command. It was often difficult for a commander to do what they wanted. Imagine when many people in front of them retreated and fled, they had no choice even if they didn’t want to retreat. Otherwise, they would be trampled to death. This was the so-called total collapse of the defeated army.
The more elite the troop was, the more they could execute the order, and the more the commander could instruct them as he wished to exert their strongest combat power. This required not only excellent command capabilities but also strict training.
Obsidian and Shea were like 2 chess players. They sent out their own chess pieces, and the chess pieces fight against each other. In addition to the chess player’s own dispatch, the specific troop type and the chess piece’s commander were also very important. To ill.u.s.trate, generally the archers restrain spearmen, spearmen restrain cavalry, and cavalry restrain infantry, but if the general commanded the cavalry properly, he might be able to beat the spearmen.
War was not a simple number game, but the commanders of the capital individual army were mostly famous generals who had experienced many battles. Obsidian himself had more experience than Shea. In this case, the capital army was still superior in number. It indeed had a higher chance of winning.
On the surface, the Dark Moon’s current advantage was just the morale, but morale was a very volatile thing. As long as the battle formation could boost the coalition army’s momentum, the Dark Moon Army’s morale would naturally deplete gradually. Then it would not be difficult to win, at least in Obsidian’s opinion.
The coalition army’s light infantry marched forward in unison while keeping a distance from the heavy infantry of the Boulderstone Legion. At the current safe distance, there was no need to accelerate yet. Obsidian had secretly ordered the cavalry team to prepare to dispatch- With Shea’s command experience, it is certainly difficult to resist the successive charges. When she is fl.u.s.tered, the whole army will charge again. At that time, I only needed to hold the dragons. When the Dark Moon Army is defeated, the overall situation is set.
Facing the heavy infantry legion behind the light infantry, Shea still didn’t send out an army to deal with them, but there were movements in and out of the slowly advancing huge s.h.i.+elds as if they were preparing something. Soon, one after another ballista was pushed out by the goblin warriors. The huge s.h.i.+eld also stopped moving forward.
The ballista has been replaced by the magic crystal cannons due to various defects. This obsolete ordnance is only retained in some backward places. Now the Dark Moon actually uses the ballista that has low killing power on such a critical battlefield. Shea shouldn’t make such a foolish decision no matter how incapable she is. Obsidian couldn’t help frowning.
Suda and Longbottom also saw the ballistae. At this time, light infantry at the front was still a long way from the range of the conventional ballista, so Suda did not panic. He just commanded the army to slow down a bit in preparation to sprint after withstanding the first round of attack of the ballista.
However, it turned out that Suda’s command to slow-down was a typical error of experientialism. The last thing he shouldn’t do was to judge these ballista with his knowledge about conventional weapons. When the infantry was still at a “safe distance”, those ballistae had already begun to shoot. The m.u.f.fled machine clatter sounded one after another, and a whistling sound came from the air.
As soon as the ballistae shot, Suda’s voice finally had a hint of horror, “Spread out!”
As soon as this sentence was spoken, the huge spear-like ballista bolt flew into the dense formation at a terrifying high speed, easily penetrating the fragile leather s.h.i.+elds and armors of the light infantry. Immediately afterward, the huge arrow burst open with a “bang“. Countless short and sharp arrows shot out in the midst of the spreading green smoke. The nearby soldiers, who were caught off guard, were shot by the arrows and screamed.
The green smoke was as poisonous as the arrow. Many soldiers’ bodies had begun to decay rapidly.
When Gerant ambushed Walan Fortress, the poisonous smoke of the ballista had no effect due to the heavy rain. However, it happened to be able to exert its greatest power in the weather today.
Not only Suda and Longbottom, but even Obsidian and others of the coalition army had lost their complexions. They had never seen such a strange ballista with this shooting range and power. The Dark Moon actually has always hidden such a terrifying killing weapon!
After a round of shooting, about 2,000 soldiers had collapsed due to the dense formation. Those ballistae were quickly reloaded with new huge bolts through an item similar to a small winch. Even the goblin warriors with weak power could use it. There were no weaknesses such as the slow loading and difficulty to operate like the traditional ballista.
The second round of bolts were shot again, and they claimed nearly 1,000 lives. The soldiers in the light infantry line already looked fearful, but they were not allowed to back out unless they had received an order to retreat. Otherwise, they would be directly beheaded by the military law enforcement team. Under Suda’s order, the light infantry began to charge forcibly. Longbottom who was behind them also issued an acceleration command. The power of the ballista was far beyond imagination. Even the Boulderstone Legion that was equipped with iron s.h.i.+elds couldn’t defend against the huge bolts with the terrifying power. Compared with the huge bolts, the poisonous smoke was more terrifying.
After dispersing, the effect of the heavy crossbow carriage really weakened a lot, but under the precise control of the goblin warriors, it still exerted a decent damage. Every round of shooting could cause considerable damage.
As the distance between both sides narrowed, the archers behind the huge s.h.i.+elds began to move. The arrows all over the sky shot toward the light infantry at the front. The skillful triple shooting and the sharp arrows gave the light infantry a heavy blow. Before both sides came into contact, Suda’s infantry casualties were already more than half.
Although the heavy infantry in the back were attacked by the ballistae, the bursting arrows caused much less damage to the heavy infantry who were covered in iron armor. It was the poisonous smoke that caused a lot of trouble.
The number of light infantry dropped sharply after the arrow shots. All Suda could do was barely use his strength to protect himself. As a Great Demon King lord, he could rely on his strength to behave unscrupulously on his own estate, but he was just a cannon fodder on this battlefield.
The death of the light infantry was not in vain as the heavy infantry behind had already approached. The lethality of the Dark Moon’s arrows was weakened by a lot. At this moment, a large amount of smoke appeared behind the rows of huge s.h.i.+elds with the vague sound of horseshoes. The Dark Moon should be dispatching their cavalry now.
The Boulderstone Legion’s commander, Longbottom, quickly ordered the dispersing team to gather in a formation and slow down. He arranged the spearmen at the forefront. The long spears in the hands of these spearmen were specially made. They which could withstand the huge impact without breaking off. For the sprinting cavalry, the high-speed charging could increase the speed and lethality, but it would also bring greater reaction force to become a skewer on the long spear.
As for the defense against the ballistae after the soldiers formed a concentrated formation, Longbottom knew how to deal with it. The enemy’s cavalries are about to engage in close battle. If the ballistae or arrows shoot rashly, it is easy to accidentally injure their own army. Regardless of this, the cavalries are much superior than the infantry in terms of training difficulty and “cost”, so the enemy will certainly not be so stupid.
Nesta, who surrendered the Dark Moon, was an old friend and opponent of Longbottom. He was defeated by Nesta’s Magic Shadow Legion in the previous martial arts compet.i.tion. Now he could show his newly trained spear formation and destroy Nesta’s cavalry in the real battlefield.
Sure enough, a large number of cavalries rushed out from the center and both sides of the s.h.i.+eld formation. Longbottom, who had been ready to compete with Nesta, couldn’t help but gasp when he saw these cavalries. The Boulderstone Legion and the light infantry in front of them all showed a horrified expression.
This is not the Magic Shadow Legion of Nesta!
The hands holding the rein was not flesh, but withered bones. The horse underneath was composed of bones except for a few key parts.
Undead! Not the kind of cannon fodder skeleton, but the undead cavalry!
If it was just a few terror knights, it would be fine, but the number of cavalry rus.h.i.+ng out in front of them had exceeded 10,000. They were led by dozens of terror knights who were riding phantom war horses. They were all in black armor, holding a spear, and leading the undead cavalry to charge toward the phalanx of the Boulderstone Legion.
There was a commotion in the coalition army. When does the undead also have a cavalry legion? How profound is the undead magic knowledge that is needed to achieve this? When did the Demon Realm have such a powerful undead magician? And it is even on the Dark Moon’s side!
Judging from the number of cavalry, these undead cavalry must have existed for a long time. Otherwise it would be impossible to gather so many corpses. Neither the ballista or the undead cavalry have appeared in the battles of the Moonlight Fortress or Town Dico!
“Those d.a.m.n intel agents!” Obsidian gritted his teeth and squeezed the reins in his hands, “First Coalition Legion! Dark Incubus Cavalry Legion! Dragon Rider Legion! Dispatch immediately! Goblin squadron gets ready to set up the catapults!”
Dark Moon is just winning the few rounds by surprise, but will they still be able to turn the table with the absolute number disadvantage?