Chapter 430
The magic chariots charged out of the withered grass, pulled by two skeletal warhorses . They followed behind the barbarians, in pursuit of the enemy's infantrymen .
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In Qin, the infantrymen were not inferior to the cavalrymen . Their retreat process was very methodical . In the vicinity of a city, heavy infantrymen were the nemesis of cavalrymen . The pirates' suppressive fire had lost its effect, a mere one-hundred arrows would not be able to injure many infantrymen . As the injured infantrymen were under protection by the shields, their injured body parts would not even influence the battle .
Saleen did not apply poison on the arrow heads . Poison had a shelf life, and it was more expensive . Other than the ones who were shot in the leg, the infantrymen still possessed more than half their offensive power . If Daniel did not use the barbarians for the pursuit, the enemy would have definitely escaped .
Even though the barbarians were not methodical, the order disseminated was very simple . Not to be separated from the magic chariots . In fact, it was impossible for the barbarians to be disjointed from the magic chariots . A magic chariot could travel pretty quickly . On flat land, it was only slightly slower than a cavalryman .
The low grade mages traveling in the magic chariots had blessed the barbarians with the Potence Spell, Stone Skin Spell, Restorative Water, and the Brightness Spell . Under the influence of the magic chariots, these spells did not deplete much of the mages' magic chords . The effect of these spells were even amplified several times .
By nature, the barbarians could already sprint quickly, on top of their immense strength . With the blessings of various spells, they were basically flying already .
If the magic chariots were filled with grand mages, and the barbarians were blessed with the Windspeed Skill, the barbarians might be able to catch up to a cavalryman over a short distance . That was the advantage of a magic chariot .
Unfortunately, a magic chariot could only bless a limited number of soldiers . Only two-hundred people could receive the effect . Beyond this number, and a mage would be in danger . Otherwise the empire would have mass produced magic chariots already . Instead, the empire chose to use the war puppets to replace the magic chariots . A war puppet reigned over the battlefield, they possessed a variety of attack methods and could move horrifyingly fast . They were not restricted by terrain . The only flaw was that they had a very high depletion .
When the pikoosi noticed his master charging ahead, he reluctantly went to obstruct the infantryman by flanking from the other side . At this point in time, the swordmasters had lost the motivation to assault the pikoosi already . When they saw two magic chariots approaching, they became despaired .
If the cavalrymen were still around, the situation would not have turned out like this .
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The barbarians' axes soared in the air . Under the effect of the Windspeed Skill and the Potence Spell, the charging barbarians leapt dozens of meters forward, cleaving apart the infantrymen who lagged behind . The wooden shields crumbled under the axes, they could not put up a defense at all . A wooden shield was used to block arrows, and the lightest barbarian ax weighed more than thirty catties . If an ax was lifted up and smashed down, even heavy armor would be useless . It might not be able to break armor, but it could cause the soldier to be dizzy .
Only the barbarians or the Caucasus people possessed the physical attributes to wield such weapons for long durations . If a high grade swordsman wanted to wield it, he would have to store it in a chariot first before wielding it for battle . Unlike the barbarians, who could march while carrying the axes on their shoulders .
The commander of the infantrymen ordered half of his men to conduct a counterattack, while the other half would escape swiftly . He could tell that the enemies on the skeletal warhorses were too exhausted to fire any more arrows .
A massive fireball descending from the skies made him lose all hope . Under the effect of the magic chariot, Francis released a fireball with a diameter of two meters . It struck the formation of infantrymen who were trying to flee . When the fireball exploded, it transformed into hundreds of tiny fireballs . It obliterated everything it came into contact with .
That was Francis' first time tapping into the amplification ability of a magic chariot, it was as though he was in a magic tower . This giant fireball was a level-6 spell . Be that as it may, only one-sixth of his magic chords were depleted, not all of them were gone .
Dozens of soldiers were incinerated right away . The remaining hundreds of soldiers rolled across the ground, trying to use the snow to extinguish the flames . The magic flames were created by the fire element, it could keep burning even while underwater .
Only about thirty or so soldiers remained unharmed . Francis' attack had wiped out two-fifths of the enemy's strength . At this moment, the pirates then changed to longbows and returned with the skeletal warhorses .
If there were as many barbarians as infantrymen, the barbarians would have been slaughtered by them . At that moment, there were six times more barbarians than infantrymen .
Francis did not continue casting spells . He began meditating in the chariot, allowing the low grade mages to continue with the battle . Forty barbarians were protecting the perimeter of the chariots . As long as the enemy did not come close, Francis would be safe and sound .
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The pirates outnumbered the enemy while the barbarians were playing bully . Noticing this situation, Daniel cast another series of Death spells . This helped the barbarians to kill the infantrymen at the rear of the formation .
There were no cries on the battlefield . The barbarians were astonished by the power of magic, so they simply swung their weapons about silently .
Even though the barbarians were crude, they were a bunch of prideful people . A huge portion of the enemy, who was almost as powerful as them, got destroyed by a spell . This was not something which could be resisted by their brute strength .
The battle lasted for half an hour . Francis did not take any further action, while Daniel decided to control the depletion of his mental strength . Unless his soldiers were in peril, he would not cast any more spells . The Qin infantrymen were really aggressive . In such circumstances, they still managed to kill more than twenty barbarians . The pirates, however, were unharmed . Other than the few who got killed in the beginning, they managed to stay in formation for the rest of the battle .
Had this been a chance encounter, Daniel's soldiers would not even die . As long as the mages cast their spells, all the enemies would be exterminated . There were ten mages seated in the magic chariots . They still had to charge into the city later on, so all of them were monitoring the depletion of their magic chords .
Seeing that the battle was about to end, Daniel ordered all the mages to begin meditating in order to maximize their time .
Daniel's Death spell had killed more than thirty soldiers . Of the dead soldiers, some swordmasters were clad in a low rank commander's armor . The clothes of those who got killed by the Death spell remained in perfect condition .
Gurney was inactive all this while . Only at the last few moments did he ride on a skeletal warhorse to stab an enemy . Gurney then instructed the pirates to remove the enemy's clothes, and to seize all their usable armor .
"Sir, how long will all of you take to regain your offensive powers?" Gurney came beside Daniel's magic chariot and asked softly .
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"In one hour's time, I reckon that Francis will be able to regain all his magic chords . "
"Then I shall seize the city gates in an hour's time . You will wait at a distance of five miles . Since this is the warring road of the empire, the magic chariot can travel at a speed of fifty miles an hour . I will lead some men to guard the city gates for six minutes . If you do not reach by then, we will be in grave danger . " Even though Gurney was not as educated as a regular soldier, he could still execute a mission to seize the city gates . A pirate did not always rob at sea, they would also go ashore occasionally to harass the smaller towns .
"Don't worry, I will be there . " Daniel stopped chatting with Gurney, he needed to maximize his meditation time . He knew that charging directly into a city was a perilous task . Since he possessed the magic chariots, he could easily escape if he did not succeed . Before Saleen left, Saleen gave him a piece of Green Spirit, and six skeletal warhorses were sealed in it .
Even if the warhorses pulling the chariots were killed, Daniel could easily summon new ones to escape .
People who were able to catch up to a magic chariot, other than cavalrymen, were naturally mages . If there were too few present, be it mages or cavalrymen, they would not dare pursue a magic chariot . If Daniel fled, the people from Fort Strand would not dare deploy too many troops to give chase .
Over one-hundred barbarians changed into the outfits belonging to the empire's soldiers . Most of the armor was already tattered and torn, while many inferior horses were dead . The remaining twenty captured horses were assigned to the barbarians who wore the commanders' outfits .
The barbarians handed over their axes to the pirates to be hung on the sides of the skeletal warhorses . Once the city gates got opened, the barbarians would stand guard there while the pirates would rush in and give them their weapons .
Every soldier drank a cup of the Restorative Water, while the injured personnel used it to wash their wounds . Due to the frigid weather, the wounds would not get infected .
Everyone rode on the skeletal warhorses . When they arrived at a location five miles from the city, Gurney got down from his warhorse . After resting for ten minutes, he then led more than a hundred barbarians towards the city stealthily .
If one was running for his life, a distance of five miles could be covered within half an hour . Gurney estimated that by the time he reached the city gates, Daniel and Francis would have regained all their offensive power .
Gurney was poor in military strategy and tactics, but he knew that the crux of a war laid in the soldiers' morale . As his team had just achieved victory, everyone was jubilant and motivated . If the rest time was too long, it would actually cause the soldiers to slacken . He rushed to the periphery of Fort Strand without taking any breaks in between because of that .
Fort Strand had focused all its attention on the west gate . In fact, the eastern side was the rear of the city . Two-hundred miles from here was a city stationed with the empire's troops . When the sentries noticed their comrades, who had gone out for the investigation returning in a wretched manner, they immediately opened the small gate and waved them in .
Strictly speaking, this was not a mistake . There were only about one-hundred people outside . Since the path to the small gate was narrow, it would be difficult for the enemy to gain a breakthrough . As long as a brigade was stationed at this position, the brigade would be able to hold out for at least ten minutes . A duration of ten minutes was already sufficient for deploying the cavalrymen in the city to seal the city gates .
Gurney's face was smeared with blood as he entered the passageway beyond the small gate . Then he noticed a white-robed mage standing one-hundred meters away and his heart lurched .
In such a tight spot, this low grade mage only needed to cast a few spells to trap everyone in it . A mage possessed impeccable memory . Gurney did not feel that his blood-smeared face could deceive the mage . Saleen had reminded him in the past that a mage only needed to take a look at one's face once to be able to remember their appearance .
Steeling his heart, Gurney followed Jola's technique . He inhaled deeply, causing the air in his lungs to expand . He then coughed vigorously, spitting bloody foam, before collapsing onto the ground .
The noise Gurney made attracted that mage's attention . The mage turned around, but Gurney's face was hung low as he fell towards the ground .
Gurney was genuinely injured . Even though it was not serious, it was adequate for bluffing the mage .
"Great Mage, please save our captain!" the two pirates beside Gurney hollered . Their acting was proficient . The mage furrowed his brows, but he still walked over . From his perspective, this was an injury which could easily be treated with the Restorative Water .