Chapter 405
Standing in the midst of the skeletons, Daniel observed the situation up ahead . The enemy's formation was still several miles from the sea, but they could not retreat anymore . In such a situation, where the soldiers had no more room for retreat, they would fight with all their might .
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Subconsciously, Daniel began tapping his toes gently, causing the pikoosi's heads to sway about . The pikoosi could feel his owner's cowardice and became annoyed . Daniel snapped out of his thoughts abruptly, "what was I afraid of?" Even if the enemy fought desperately, Saleen did not give Daniel the order to fight until death . It would suffice to just kill a certain number of enemies . Saleen did not even allow Daniel to deploy every single skeleton .
At this point in time, Daniel took the mini binoculars hanging around his waist . He had been tampering with them for a long time . Even though it did not have a range like Saleen's, the enemy was only a short distance away . He could still use it to observe the enemies' expressions .
The Eastern Sea Allied Army's formation was not very neat and complete as many low ranking commanders did not manage to escape . The soldiers could only gather . Those high ranking commanders could not command so many soldiers . They were also waiting for orders from the general . As a result, this ten-thousand strong team had very poor morale . They did not even put away their dead comrades, simply allowing these corpses to lie on the ice haphazardly .
Through the binoculars, Daniel noticed that the soldiers' faces were filled with anxiety, dread, hunger, and confusion .
Daniel might not have learnt any knowledge regarding command and control in a battle, but he was a death mage . He had some knowledge about human emotions . Seeing that the enemies were having such emotions, Daniel immediately took out a small drum which was only a foot in diameter . Then, he took out a piece of bone and began striking the drum with it .
Dong! Dong!
The beating of the drum gave off an empty and desolate feeling as it spread across the ice layer, rousing all the skeletons . It was the Death War Drum . It could stimulate combat awareness in a spirit . Under the urging of the war drum, three-thousand skeletons began striding forward with bone spears in their hands . They began charging towards the allied army's position .
The allied soldiers were feeling cold and hungry . As their teeth chattered, a trembling sound was given off . It was similar to a skeleton grinding its teeth .
Most of the soldiers did not even have a lance, they only had long knives . The knives only had a one-meter long blade, it was not advantageous for large-scale battles . A skeleton's offensive power might not be strong, but in order to make them lose their offensive abilities, the best solution would be to use a heavy weapon .
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These soldiers did not even bring along their heavy weapons, all these weapons had already sunk with the warships .
The general gave the order to attack calmly . Finally, the commanders urged the soldiers to sound their horns . A thousand man team charged head-on against the skeletons . Both armies clashed into each other ruthlessly, no fuss, no frills . The bone spears of the skeletons thrusted forcefully into the soldiers who did not have any shielding other than their own leather armor . The soldiers had no way of withstanding that attack .
The allied army swiftly organized two thousand man teams . They approached from both sides . A head-on conflict was definitely disadvantageous to the allied army since they had insufficient equipment . Even though the skeletons were of a low grade, the soldiers were still highly vulnerable . The eastern sea states did not experience such a harsh climate . Some high altitude regions had snow, but the terrain was flat, it was almost as if it was springtime all year round . In such an environment, a soldier's equipment would definitely have some special style .
In order to grip onto a weapon tightly, a pair of gloves was a necessary piece of equipment . In the gloves owned by every soldier from the eastern sea states, the palm area was made of leather and sewed onto linen . This type of linen was very thick and sturdy . It was even waterproof, but it could not resist the cold . After a long time loitering by the seaside, the soldiers had lost all feeling in their fingers a long time ago . Now during battle, their weapons simply slipped off their hands during the battle .
The soldiers were not peasant soldiers, they were a real army with at least five years of training . They had actual combat experience too . These elite troops were thoroughly dominated in the clash with these skeletons who were of the lowest grade .
Three-thousand skeletons held onto their bone spears and charged forward, unfazed by the two prongs of soldiers . Under of the encouragement of the Death War Drum, the vitality of the skeletons was boosted . Without the presence of magic weapons, they could fight all the way to the end unless they were sliced into pieces . Spirits were not fearless, it was just that they were not afraid of the people in front of them .
Daniel ignored the two-pronged attack, because a spirit was not human . Since these skeletons were not summoned by him, he had no control over their formation . This two-sided approach would not be fatal as the enemy did not have cavalrymen . Since they only had infantrymen, the crux of the battle ultimately laid in the offensive power of each individual .
The skeletons would never panic . No matter what sort of advantageous position the enemy had, the skeletons would still continue soldiering forward with their bone spears . They would either kill the enemy, or be killed by the enemy .
The barbarians at the back of the skeletons were very agile . They did not charge forward blindly like the skeletons . Instead, they rode on skeletal warhorses and fired arrows . As the two-thousand soldiers executed the two-sided assault, the barbarians simply harassed them with arrows . The barbarians neither escaped nor reinforced .
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The efforts of the barbarians should not be underestimated . Even though they were using the softer bows which had no effect against metal armor, they could still cause damage against the enemy's soft leather armor . Using such bows which required little strength to pull the bowstring, the barbarians could fire hundreds of arrows without getting fatigued .
Of course, all this credit went to Saleen because he had stringent standards for his soldiers' equipment . Even though the barbarians had only submitted to Saleen recently, each of them had already received a metal launcher blade . With this item, one would not hurt their fingers during the firing process . The main source of propulsion came from the arm . It could increase the archer's offensive power .
The sole flaw of a launcher blade was that it caused more wear-and-tear to the bowstring . Usually, if a normal bowstring was pulled using the fingers, it would only wear out after firing at least two-thousand arrows . When a launcher blade was utilized, the damage would be twice as much . In order to reduce the abrasion, one could either add grease or improve the quality of the launcher blade . These two things would increase the cost .
Every soldier under Saleen had two launcher blades . One was made from alchemy to be used in bows which were extremely expensive . The other one was a normal launcher blade, to be used in training or with a normal bow .
Saleen had insufficient manpower, which did not require him to differentiate the arms specifically yet . He had learned one thing from Lex; the quality he would receive from his soldiers would be equivalent to his input into them .
As the general viewed the battle from afar, he had no hope of achieving victory . At this point, he could tell that the spirit army had no intention of extirpating them . They were just here to damage his remaining forces . Once his forces were deteriorated to a certain degree, they would not be able to invade the city anymore . By then, the enemy would only need to guard the port in order to freeze or starve his people .
If the general's warships were still around to enable his soldiers to be equipped adequately, these three-thousand skeletons would be no big deal at all . He only needed to set metal shields at the front, coupled with the two-pronged attack, to tear the spirit army to shreds .
At that moment, all his soldiers were using sabers . There were no hammers, poleaxes, or halberds of any sort . The soldiers had no tools to protect against the cold, causing their limbs to go numb . If they used a standard longsword, which weighed about two catties, they would only be able to make a faint graze on a skeleton's body . That way, several slashes would be needed in order to cleave a skeleton . No matter how strong their command abilities were, it was useless . Unless they could make their warships float up, to distribute the heavy equipment to his troops .
As three-thousand soldiers and three-thousand skeletons were slaughtering one another, there were about seven-thousand more soldiers at the rear without any weapon in hand . They could only look on .
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Suddenly, the general sighed . He told the mages around him, "Leave . Use the Windspeed Skill to escape, the other party will not pursue mages . "
"General, we will not go . Mage Youxi Maso is not back yet . " A few grey-robed mages began panicking . Even though the sorcerer and the grade-6 mages had left, a few of them here could still be a decisive force in this battle .
"Can you catch up to a skeletal warhorse?" the general said as he pointed to the barbarians who were firing away .
The grey-robed mages were left speechless . Even with the Windspeed Skill, it would take some time to catch up to a skeletal warhorse . While a warhorse's physical strength would deplete over time, a skeletal warhorse would not . At the very least, they would not be able to catch up before those people could escape .
"Do you see that spirit in their army?"
"Yes . "
"That is a grade-8 spirit, a pikoosi . " The general's voice was icy as he continued, "That death mage's grade is probably lower, but that spirit's offensive power will not be lower than that of grade-7 . Even if all of you are around, you wouldn't be able to help me . Don't even start on Youxi Maso, he might not even return anymore . All of you, just go . "
"But, Sir!"
"Our main fleet has gone to Lianyun City . All of you shall go to Lianyun City . Once you locate them, continue the battle . The situation here is irreversible already . " As the general spoke, he removed his strange-looking helmet and threw it on the ground . He then told the trusted soldiers surrounding him, "This time around, you don't have to protect me . Just try to kill more enemies . "
His helmet held a larger significance . By wearing it on his head, it would actually affect his field of vision . The general never expected this day to come, whereby he would need to go forth and kill the enemy personally .
As the remaining commanders heard their general's words, their gazes became void of life .
"Why are you all looking at me like that? You are dying on the battlefield as a soldier, are you all not satisfied?"
"It's all your fault, why do you have to plunder the warships? Those warships were more advanced than ours . Naturally, the enemy would be very powerful . If it wasn't for your order, we wouldn't have been reduced to such dire straits!" One of the commanders could not help but vent his rage on the general .
The general sneered, "When we first looted it, all of you were still discussing about the distribution of the loot . Now you are blaming me?" With an icy gaze, he stared at everyone, then continued, "We are here to conquer . Do we still have to do business with them?"
"But, we have the right to surrender!"
"No, at least not for you . " The general suddenly wielded his longsword, and took a step forward . He strode over five meter, then he pierced his longsword directly into the mouth of that commander who had offended him . The longsword withdrew in a flash, drenched in scarlet blood .
"Anyone else want to surrender?"
The surrounding commanders dared not make a single noise . Among these commanders, many of them did not become a general based on valiance . Since the general had the power of a grand swordmaster, he alone could kill all of them easily . The general still had almost one-hundred trusted soldiers beside him .