Chapter 98
The orcs ran back to the top of the slope after picking up the hand axes. They waited for Xiao Yu’s commands.
The commander’s face was ugly. He knew about Xiao Yu’s duel in the colosseum in the Bengal city. However, he had thought that it was a coincidental victory. He didn’t think that 500 orcs could beat 3000 light cavalry.
Moreover, he didn’t think that there would be so many twists and turns before he would be able to find Xiao Yu and his troops. Unfortunately for the commander he couldn’t find a way to attack when he had finally found Xiao Yu’s location.
“Sir I’m afraid it would be hard to go up in this manner.” The aide who was standing by the commander’s side said.
Commander asked in a cold tone: “What advice do you have in mind?”
The aide looked at the fortifications in front of them: “The obstacles have completely restricted the advantage of our cavalry. The best option is to give up on horses and make small teams of ten to attack head on. We have usually exercised this ten men formation against orcs and powerful warriors. Moreover, if we go up right now we can use small shields and obstacles as a cover against those hand axes. The fortifications are obstacles but we can use them to our advantage as a cover. All of our soldiers are elite so I don’t think there is anything to be afraid of just 500 orcs!"
The commander nodded as he listened to aide’s advice. He was aware that the horses were useless in this terrain. But he wasn’t willing to give up on horses as they were cavalry units! Nevertheless, as elite soldiers he believed that his troops would be fine even on foot.
He had lost 500 soldiers but they had another 2500 ready to fight. The enemy had only 500 orcs! He decided that five elite soldiers were enough to beat an orc!
Moreover, their usual small formation of ten soldiers a team would be the arch-nemesis for orcs.
Commander would have delayed time in here and wait for Xiao Yu to finish their food and make him attack down the slope. However, he knew that if he did siege the hill then Xiao Yu would also have a lot of ways to deal with him. As a result, commander ordered all the troops to dismount. They were going to use their small shields, spears and dagger to fight the orcs.
The orcs had hand axes and they had spears!
Xiao Yu narrowed his eyes when he saw the enemy soldiers get off their horses.
“Direct battle? Prepare the ballistas!”
The cavalry units turned into infantry units. They had shields on their left hands and spear on their right hands. The daggers were hanging from their waists. They could throw spears to kill the orcs within the right distance and then charge up for a close combat!
The infantry scattered around because of the last experience. They didn’t want to concentrate together and suffer the same result as the last time.
Moreover, they had chosen to go by the fortifications. In case, the hand axes were thrown then they would use the obstacles to hide.
The first party of the infantrymen came to stop by the fortifications. They drilled under them in protection.
The enemy thought that the orcs would start to throw the hand axes but they found that orcs had withdrawn. They slightly hesitated but still went upwards. Soon they found out that a row of orcs holding huge crossbows had appeared on top of the slope.
The next moment spears were thrown from the giant crossbows. The spears pierced the air as whistling sounds echoed out.
Pop~ Pop~ Puff~ Puff~
The thick long spears thrown from the giant crossbows penetrated through the body of the first soldier and went past to hit few more before coming to stop. The spears were able to kill dozens of soldiers in one shoot.
“Charge! Rush up! Cut off those crossbows or all of us will die!” 100 men commander shouted out! Actually, his judgment was correct as if they didn’t deal with the giant crossbows then all of them would die. Moreover, if the closed the distance then they could prevent the attack of orcs through those giant crossbows.
But the firing speed of the orcs was much faster than they thought.
The first row of orcs grabbed the huge crossbows and moved from the side to the back while the second row of orcs who held the giant crossbows came up to shoot.
Pop~ Pop~ Puff~ Puff~
The shields of the infantrymen couldn’t withstand the spears thrown from the ballistas. Of course, there would be cunning enemy soldiers who hid under the obstacles but orcs didn’t care about them. In fact, they weren’t even aiming accurately. The orcs were following Xiao Yu’s order to scope the shoots within the biggest coverage. As soon as they shoot the spear they would run back to fill the ballista once again.
A normal ballista would be too troublesome to operate. Two orcs would be needed to push it forward. The flexibility and mobility of such a machine was low. However, the orcs were holding the giant crossbow and could easily take it back.
Xiao Yu had made five rows where each row had 10 ballistas. The first row would immediately go back to fill the giant crossbow with a spear while second row shoot. The second row would go back and give its place to the third and fourth and so on. At the end, the original first row would shoot again.
The accuracy of the shoots weren’t high but within minutes 50 spears would be shot and each shot could penetrate dozens of enemies.
“Ah … How many ballistas do they have?” The enemy soldiers were in panic too. They hid under the obstacles and tried to retreat from the range of the crossbows.
The psychological state of enemy soldiers had collapsed once more. The giant crossbows were more effective than just hand axes!
The speed of the shots was fast. The density of the shots were a lot too. As a result, even the fleeing soldiers were killed too. About 500 enemy soldiers died until they reached out of the range of giant crossbows. At the same time Xiao Yu ordered the orcs to rush down and kill every enemy soldier that hid under the obstacles.
As a result, the enemy soldiers were killed once more. In the blink of an eye, two waves of attacks had happened. The enemy had lost more than 1000 soldiers in both attacks. They would be decimated if they continued twice more with the same type of attacks.