Chapter 1083: The Limits of a Traditional Army
As a result, many Blood Hoof warriors from the local towns either did not put in any effort, or they were more wary of Black-corner City warriors than the temple thieves.
Even if they found the temple thieves, they did not have the need to fight them to the death.
Some of the Blood Hoof warriors from the local towns secretly gathered together as well, mumbling about some unknown idea.
The Game of the Brave had just ended a day ago. Between the Minotaurs and wild boar people, between the barbarian elephant people and centaurs, between different families, between Black-corner City and the local towns... with limited resources, there were contradictions everywhere. How could it be so easy to be close and united?
Just when the situation was in chaos, something worse happened.
Whether it was the temple thieves or the Blood Hoof warriors, many people had come into contact with the weapons, armor, and secret medicines worshipped in the temple. They were carried by the powerful totem power and fierce souls of the ancestral spirits. Losing their minds, they turned into Origin Warriors!
It should be known that these ancient weapons, armors, and secret medicines were worshipped in the temple, and not used in actual combat.
It was because they were too overbearing, too dangerous, and too unstable. They were like crystal bombs that could explode at any time.
In order to perfectly control these ancient weapons, armors, and secret medicines, other than being a suitable candidate with an extremely strong will, one also needed to go through many trials, receive the treatment of the Witch Doctor, and receive the blessing of the priest.
Otherwise, if one went mad and became a puppet of weapons and armors, or turned into a beast that only knew how to kill the moment he consumed the secret medicine, it was a high probability event.
When the temple thieves took out the ancient weapons, armor and secret medicine, they were very careful, using secret stabilizing potions and thick totem beast skins to separate them, they would never touch these extremely dangerous ancient weapons and armor.
Their original plan had been to send these ancient weapons and armor that contained terrifying power out of Black-corner City, then slowly activate them and try to control them.
However, when a few temple thieves were surrounded by ten times the number of Blood Hoofs warriors, they were left with no way out.
Other than sprinkling their own blood on these ancient weapons and armors, drinking the secret medicine that was bubbling and crackling in one gulp, their lives bloomed like fireworks in an instant, what choice did they have other than to increase their combat strength by several times?
The same thing happened not only to the temple thieves.
It also happened to the third-rate warriors from the marginal families from many villages and towns.
One had to know that the ancient weapons and armors that contained powerful totem power.
Had an extremely mysterious and strange magnetic field.
It could attract the third-rate warriors from the remote villages.
Perhaps, these third-rate warriors had heard about the terror of the Origin Warriors in the past.
However, when they unintentionally obtained a divine artifact or a bottle of secret medicine that was emitting faint fluorescence and wreathed in light like a whirlpool, their souls would seem to be sucked away.
Before they could react, they would grab the divine artifact, put on armor, and swallow the secret medicine. In the end, they would transform into half-flesh, half-machine, half-human, and half-ghost monsters!
The appearance of the Origin Warriors was not meant to add fuel to the fire.
Now, the battle in Black-corner City was no longer as simple as the Blood Hoof warriors fighting against the temple thieves, or the Blood Hoof warriors suppressing the rat people"s rebel army.
The Blood Hoof warriors were fighting the temple thieves.
The Blood Hoof warriors from Black-corner City were fighting the Blood Hoof warriors from the local towns.
The Blood Hoof warriors and temple thieves who were still rational had to be wary of the distorted, crazy, half-human, half-metal Origin Warriors!
In addition, the fire was still spreading.
The communication and command on both sides had been torn into pieces.
In the eyes of the Blood Hoof warriors, who were nervous and mentally exhausted, the hideous smiles of the temple thieves and screams of the Origin Warriors seemed to be everywhere behind the raging flames before them. All the living creatures that were still moving were enemies!
At this stage of the war, the chiefs and priests of the Blood Hoof Clan, as well as the mastermind behind the Big-horned Rat G.o.d"s arrival, had completely lost control of the situation.
In this extremely chaotic war, where everyone was fighting against everyone, the number and scale were no longer the key to victory. From a certain point of view, they had become a burden.
The side with the least number of people but the clearest mind, and the side that no one knew of, was the real winner!
Meng Chao and Ice Storm held their breaths and restrained their heartbeats to the limit. They curled up in a triangular s.p.a.ce formed by collapsed walls, broken pillars, and the ground before they watched an Origin Warrior silently walk past them.
Before the Origin Warrior transformed, he had suffered a fatal injury. There was a huge, transparent hole in his abdomen, and a large number of his organs had disappeared. Even the spine supporting his upper and lower body had been broken.
No matter how vigorous the advanced orcs" vitality was, after suffering such a serious injury, they would not be able to move in the slightest.
However, a totem armor with thousands of years of history was tightly wrapped around his incomplete body, deeply embedded in his flesh and blood. Part of the armor even turned into a support pillar similar to bones, and the hole in his abdomen was barely filled up. There were also plenty of sharp needles poking out from his white flesh, making him look like an oversized steel hedgehog. It looked both comical and ferocious.
Even his eyeb.a.l.l.s were replaced by two sharp cones that poked out from his eye sockets.
The sharp cones were covered with dense cuneiform characters that flickered with a dangerous red light. They scanned the surroundings like two fire snakes.
There were a few times when the Origin Warrior"s gaze was about to reach Meng Chao and Ice Storm"s toes.
Fortunately, he was ultimately attracted by the commotion between the walls. He howled and crashed into the already crumbling wall.
The three Blood Hoof warriors were searching for the temple thieves.
The moment they saw the Origin Warriors, their muscles stiffened.
However, faced with the Origin Warriors who were lunging at them like demons, the three Blood Hoof warriors had no chance to retreat. They could only brace themselves and fight the killing machines that had lost their mind.
The two sides fought until the sky and earth became dark. They gradually walked farther and farther away.
Meng Chao and Ice Storm breathed a sigh of relief and crawled out from the depths of the ruins.
Although they were not afraid of the Origin Warriors or the three Blood Hoof warriors, they did not want to tangle with these guys. They did not want to leave too many traces of their presence behind.
"I really didn"t expect the magnificent Blood Hoof Army and majestic Black-corner City to become like this!"
Looking at the battlefield filled with smoke, raging flames, and murderous shouts, Ice Storm sighed with heartfelt emotion.
While she did not have a good impression of the Blood Hoof Clan, she had lived in that place with them for two years.
When the legions of Blood Hoof warriors had gathered in an orderly square formation and marched toward the Blood Hoof temple outside the city with deafening footsteps, she had been deeply impressed by the awe-inspiring scene. It had been full of killing intent, leaving a very deep impression on her.
She did not expect the mastermind to not reveal his true face at all. Just by relying on the temple thieves and the rat people"s rebel army, he had put the magnificent Blood Hoof Clan in such a sorry state.
Meng Chao had a deeper understanding of the chaos before Black-corner City.
In a sense, the warriors of the Blood Hoof Clan were not defeated by the methane explosions, the Rat People"s rebel army, or the temple thieves.
Their greatest enemy was none other than themselves.
The size of any traditional army had a limit.
This was because the size of the army was not only limited by population and logistics, but it was also closely related to organization, communication, and command. It even had a lot to do with the culture and education of the soldiers.
A feudal dynasty, even if it had hundreds of millions of people, would not be able to a.s.semble a true million strong army in one go.
Due to the limitations of communication, organization, logistics, and command, even the most brilliant generals could not effectively command all or even most of the people in the army.
Before the entire civilization evolved into an industrial society or Information Society, one hundred thousand soldiers and hundreds of thousands of servants were the limit of the traditional army.
The Turan civilization was far from being feudal.
Their civilization level was between "clan" and "nomad."
It was already not bad to be able to effectively organize and command an army of tens of thousands of people, or at most hundreds of thousands of people.
However, due to their unique history, the Turan civilization had the ability to rely on the blessings of the mandrake fruit and ancestral spirits to gather an army of over a million soldiers around Black-corner City in one breath. It would have been beyond the limit of the entire civilization, otherwise.
If they followed the steps and went through a series of practical combat drills, the army would slowly get used to each other.
They would also use slogans such as "supreme glory" and "the ancestral spirits are waiting for us on the Holy Mountain" to unify the will of the million-strong army.
In that case, the army could barely maintain the organization.
At the very least, it would be able to rush toward the land of Holy Light like a swarm of bees.
However, when the army was formed in a hurry, it encountered such a troublesome situation and was forced into an extremely chaotic street battle.
The Blood Hoof Army was destined to be crushed by its own weight.
The chaos within the Blood Hoof Army was not bad news to Meng Chao, though.
Nevertheless, he still frowned.
Meng Chao remembered clearly that in his previous life, the Chaos faction"s failure in the great war between worlds had to do with help from the Holy Light faction"s "true G.o.d."
However, it also had a lot to do with the lack of organization and discipline of the Chaos faction itself, or to put it another way, the level of its civilization had been too backward.
The great war between worlds was bound to break out.
Moreover, Dragon City could only choose the Chaos faction because of its geographical location and the need for social as well as economic operation.
Under such circ.u.mstances, how could Meng Chao be happy when he saw the main force of the Chaos faction, the advanced orcs" iron-blooded army, actually look like that?