Chapter 1078: A Battle Between Top-Cla.s.s Armies (IV)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
w.a.n.g Chong quietly mused to himself. It was not on a whim that he had personally written a letter to Zhang Shougui for soldiers despite the grudges between the two. Zhang Shougui was a master of acting clumsy, but w.a.n.g Chong would not allow him to keep acting.
Rumble! In the distance, in a churning cloud of dust, the Fearless Army marched onto the battlefield. One thousand feet, five hundred feet, three hundred feet…
“Move out!”
With an earthshaking bellow, w.a.n.g Chong ordered the four thousand soldiers of the Roaring Tiger Army to set forth and enter the battle.
The aura rising from their bodies was about the same as the Divine Martial Army’s or the Iron Wall Army’s. Even Gao Xianzhi couldn’t help but feel a little worried as this army fearlessly marched into the battlefield, but w.a.n.g Chong remained unperturbed and incomparably calm.
Boom!
Suddenly, the vast sea of Arab cavalry parted in a rumbling of horse hooves. Clang! In a cold flash of light, two Arabian scimitars parted and fell to the sides as an Arab warrior charged forward and plunged into the battlefield like a storm.
Raaaa! This soldier of the Fearless Army, wearing the symbol of a pitch-black demon G.o.d on his left shoulder, lunged at a soldier of the Divine Martial Army. Clang! The latter immediately raised his sword to block the scimitar, but the immense power in this scimitar sent the Divine Martial Army soldier flying backward more than one hundred feet.
Besides that, the scimitar also flitted across the soldier’s body. Swis.h.!.+ His armor split open and blood sprinkled the sky.
Buzz!
After sending the Divine Martial Army soldier flying, the stalwart Fearless Army soldier turned his head and lunged at a nearby Divine Prison Army soldier. This soldier showed no sign of emotion in his eyes as he raised his sword and stabbed at the Fearless Army soldier.
Clang! The close-combat scimitar at the Fearless Army soldier’s waist suddenly slid forward and barely managed to stop this simple and yet extremely fierce attack of the Divine Prison Army soldier.
Bang! The scimitars flashed as they revealed their full power. Before the Divine Prison Army soldier had time to retreat, a b.l.o.o.d.y light flashed across his left shoulder and his arm plopped to the ground.
This was actually the first time in this first battle of the Divine Prison Army where one of its soldiers was the lesser and had an arm cut off.
“The Divine Prison Army doesn’t have enough defensive capability!”
Behind the first defense line, Gao Xianzhi’s brow rose as he turned to w.a.n.g Chong, a hint of gloom flitting through his eyes. The Divine Prison Army had an inconceivable offensive power. In terms of pure lethality, not even the Iron Wall Army or the Divine Martial Army could compare to it.
But the flaw of the Divine Prison Army was also very obvious. Although these soldiers had impressive offensive power, their defenses were extremely fragile. In other words, w.a.n.g Chong had sacrificed their defense for their inconceivable killing power.
There wasn’t a problem with this weakness if one’s opponent was on a similar level of strength or attacked slower, but once one encountered an opponent with the same level of speed, like the Fearless Army, with two incredibly sharp scimitars, one for attack and one for defense…
Not only would the Divine Prison Army soldiers not be able to exhibit their lethal killing power, the fact that their attacks had been blocked would force them into an extremely pa.s.sive position.
Clang! Clang!
Upon seeing that the Divine Prison Army soldier had had his arm cut off, two of his fellow soldiers immediately attacked with their own swords, their weapons as fast as lightning bolts. This Fearless Army soldier immediately had his hands full with fending off these attacks, but he showed no signs of backing down versus these two Divine Prison Army soldiers.
The Fearless Army soldier was able to rely on his own ferocity and astonis.h.i.+ng fighting power to simultaneously block the attacks of two Divine Prison Army soldiers.
This sight left countless Tang soldiers stunned and dazed.
“What formidable fighting power!”
Even Li Siye was deeply stunned. This army that had appeared out of nowhere seemed to have been born for the sake of killing. Their techniques were sharp and vicious. Even just watching from a distance struck fear into the hearts of spectators, much less actually fighting these people.
The situation instantly turned against the Divine Martial Army and Divine Prison Army, but w.a.n.g Chong, Gao Xianzhi, and Cheng Qianli did nothing.
In the distance, Qutaybah, Abu Muslim, Osman, and the others also watched. The elite Great Generals of both sides maintained their delicate balance.
Just when the four thousand soldiers of the Fearless Army were about to completely alter the course of the battle, the fifth elite force of the Great Tang finally stepped onto the stage.
Bang! As the twin scimitars of a Fearless Army soldier wreaked havoc through the battlefield, a black sword bearing the fierce image of a white tiger slashed down like a blazing flame.
Bang!
Both scimitars immediately swept up to block this heavy strike. Not only that, the Fearless Army soldier wielding these two scimitars waved both arms and exerted tremendous strength to jolt this Roaring Tiger Army soldier back.
Similar scenes occurred all across the battlefield as the more than four thousand Roaring Tiger Army soldiers were thrown back by the Fearless Army.
Gao Xianzhi shot another glance at w.a.n.g Chong, his eyebrows rising, but he remained silent. w.a.n.g Chong had said that the Roaring Tiger Army could stop the Fearless Army, but it now appeared that the Roaring Tiger Army was at about the same level of strength as the Divine Martial Army and Iron Wall Army. It was simply incapable of overcoming the higher-level Fearless Army.
“w.a.n.g Chong, should we… send in another army?” Gao Xianzhi hesitantly asked.
“That’s not necessary. Believe in them,” w.a.n.g Chong said lightly.
As if in response to w.a.n.g Chong’s words, the Roaring Tiger Army soldiers once more lunged forward and began the second round. But the results of this clash were completely different.
As the four thousand soldiers of the Fearless Army gripped their scimitars and went to meet them, a cracking and groaning began to rise from the bodies of the Roaring Tiger Army soldiers. As others looked on in disbelief, the bones of the Roaring Tiger Army groaned, their energy swelled, and even their bodies grew larger.
Bang!
A heavy black sword once more slashed at the two scimitars. The same technique and same attack resulted in a completely different result. Bang! The scimitars blocked the black sword, but the tremendous power within the sword had the Fearless Army staggering backward several steps.
“Impossible!”
In the distance, Aybak’s eyes went wide in shock. No one understood the power of the Fearless Army more than he did. He had once personally witnessed the four thousand soldiers of the Fearless Army use their dual scimitars in the capital of the Sa.s.sanid Dynasty, carpeting the grounds of that city with the strongest soldiers of that ancient empire and drenching the streets in their blood. The last bits of courage in them had been utterly annihilated.
The strongest warriors of the Sa.s.sanid Dynasty had been filled with despair.
Aybak had never seen any force in the world that was able to drive back the soldiers of Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army.
But now, everyone had seen Abu Muslim’s strongest soldiers being sent staggering back by these infidel warriors. A second ago, the Fearless Army soldiers had been wreaking havoc through the battlefield, suppressing the strongest soldiers of the enemy army, but in the blink of an eye, they were now being pushed back.
They still didn’t even know what had happened.
How had those soldiers wielding black swords been no match a second ago and then so powerful in the next moment!
Abu Muslim said nothing, but his complexion was extremely gloomy. He had already sent the two strongest forces under his command, the Ironblood Army and the Fearless Army. He had no more elite soldiers to dispatch.
……
“Hahaha…”
No one was happier than Gao Xianzhi at this moment. After overcoming his initial shock, he immediately understood what was going on.
“Prefectural Duke of Nanyang, you truly are a deep schemer. Gao Xianzhi truly admires this clumsy act of yours!”
The Prefectural Duke of Nanyang was a n.o.ble t.i.tle that the Sage Emperor had bestowed upon Andong Protector-General Zhang Shougui. Gao Xianzhi had never interacted with the Andong Protector-General before, as the two were on opposite ends of the empire. In addition, both of them were border commanders who needed to preside over their garrisons, making a meeting even more difficult.
In the court, Gao Xianzhi had once heard that this influential figure of the Great Tang, the number two figure of the military who was only second to Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian w.a.n.g Zhongsi, was an extremely shrewd and farsighted man. Gao Xianzhi had never understood what it was about, but now, he finally understood.
In this clumsy act, though perhaps it was done to protect himself, he had placed a seal on each soldier of the Roaring Tiger Army that restricted their cultivation. At a glance, the Roaring Tiger Army appeared on par with the Divine Martial Army and Dragon Stallion Army.
But once they encountered danger or an opponent that was hard to overcome, such as Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army, the soldiers of the Roaring Tiger Army could unlock the seals on their own and reveal their powerful cultivation.
This was the elite force trained by Zhang Shougui. It wasn’t just on par with Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army, but even a little stronger.
Boomboomboom!
The heavy black swords hacked and slashed with astonis.h.i.+ng speed at Abu Muslim’s Fearless Army. Explosions rang through the air as the bright Arabian scimitars were wholly suppressed by the black swords of the Roaring Tiger Army.