Chapter 698
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The sound of the war drums picked up some urgency as the officers of each regiment nervously gave their orders . The foot soldiers behind the formation of wagons suddenly dispersed outwards while the soldiers on both sides of the shield formation advanced with their huge shields . Behind them were the foot soldiers armed with cross spears . The heavy-armored infantry has already rested enough and their magic armors could be used again .
They were as quick as lightning and could attack at the same speed as knights within a distance of five-hundred yards . Their halberts and short spears could destroy all kinds of heavy armors . These one-thousand heavy-armored foot soldiers were the elites of the sixth battalion .
Saleen has equipped these one-thousand soldiers with magic armors and weapons that could destroy heavy armors . These soldiers did not need to care about logistics . For every five soldiers, one of them would be issued with the skin of a purple-gold sea urchin to contain all their necessities and grain .
Saleen intended to use this one-thousandstrong regiment as a test to see if his plans for his armies were on the right track . Although knights were powerful military units, no army has ever relied on knights to build a country .
Usually the keys to victory lied in a powerful army of foot soldiers and mages . The knights would not be in the same category unless Saleen could successfully manufacture enough flying puppets to contain an individual's flying equipment .
Only then would one be considered a real knight, a flying knight!
Flying knights were a unit created in the elf dimension . Back then, almost all humans could fly so there was no need to research into any flying equipment or magic beasts that could save humans from walking . Now, humans could create flying equipment but a lot was required and many materials could no longer be found on other dimensions . For example, thundercloud wood grew only on the trees in giant dimension . It was the most suitable material for flying equipment because it would not be affected by lightning even if the flyer flew amongst the clouds .
The ancient humans merely used such wood to make boats .
After retrieving many sunken ships, Saleen had wanted to use the thundercloud wood to create shields but subsequently discovered metallic steel rocks . Although the latter was heavier, it could be refined more easily . As long as there were enough supplies, he would be able to equip his armies on a large scale .
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Thereafter, Saleen decided to use thundercloud wood to build combat vessels . After all, he could not possibly depend only on winged skull for his naval forces . However, Eleanor had then passed Saleen a pile of diagrams and one of them mentioned about flying puppets that could carry humans .
Saleen was only left with thundercloud wood to create the body of the flying puppet .
With thundercloud wood, Saleen focused more on the infantry . These magic heavy-armored infantry would be used for experimentation .
The heavy-armored infantry of the sixth battalion had regained their strengths . The shield formation on both sides opened up and knocked back the Phoenix rebel army that had been charging towards them .
The shield formation was meant to defend against the knights' charging . In all Qin armies, the knights' warhorses were all clad with armors with a long metal ram on their chest area . When it made contact with foot soldiers, the latter would be crushed .
The giant shields that were two meters tall pushed forward in a line . The Phoenix foot soldiers had nowhere to attack . Both parties were squeezed together . The knights of the sixth battalion and the group of envoys remained still . The best way to utilize knights was to defeat the enemy at one go rather than to be tangled up with thousands of foot soldiers .
The foot soldiers of the sixth battalion that were armed with shields bravely advanced forward while those armed with six yard long spears followed closely behind . Such a long weapon could only be wielded by soldiers with a certain level of proficiency . The Phoenix soldiers were being forced close together and the gaps between each soldier became narrower . This was when the soldiers holding shields dispersed to reveal the long spears behind them .
The Phoenix soldiers that had been wielding war axes and heavy hammers at their opponents were instantly pierced into a stick of bloody calabash .
The Phoenix soldiers had long spears of their own but they were only four meters long . After the spear soldiers had been pushed aside by the shield soldiers, the foot soldiers armed with heavy weapons charged to the front, hoping to smash through the shield formation . Unfortunately, they did not expect the change in the sixth battalion's formation and suffered heavy losses .
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The shield soldiers would not be able to hang on to the giant shield for long if they did not change their formation .
The Phoenicians were also made up of a mixture of military units . When they saw how much damage the long spears inflicted, the foot soldiers armed with heavy swords quickly rushed forward to cut them off . A normal long spear was made of wood and only the tip was made of metal . However, the first two meters of the sixth battalion's long spears were wrapped with a layer of metal wirings so they could not be chopped off so easily .
Such long spears were dispensable to the sixth battalion since the materials used were not valuable . After killing hundreds of Phoenix soldiers, the enemy began to chop off these long spears, rendering them useless .
At this point, one-thousand archers rushed to the front and shot at the enemy's formation .
The shield formation did not vanish completely . Instead, every six shields would form a circle and crossbow arrows were shot out from within . The sixth battalion's handheld crossbows could attack only at a range of two to three meters, which were shorter than bows, but they could shoot consecutively .
These handheld crossbows were unable to inflict a lot of damage but they managed to break down the Phoenicians' attacks successfully . Both sides were tangled up with each other and not before long, the shield soldiers have broken up the Phoenix foot soldiers into small clusters .
This was when the knights of the sixth battalion finally launched their attack .
These knights have long deserted their lances and were wielding scimitars with reversed blades . If the scimitars were curved even more, they would be sickles . The blades of the scimitars were sharp and had jagged edges on the opposite side .
The knights remained aggressive even without their lances . The warhorses were clad with heavy armors at the last minute and they weighed more than one-thousand pounds in total . The knights did not ride straight into the foot soldiers . That would be suicidal . Without speed, knights would not have any advantages over foot soldiers . The warhorses would become burdens instead .
Heavy galloping sounds sounded around the foot soldiers . The knights of the sixth battalion wielded their scimitars and cut down the outermost layer of Phoenician foot soldiers like they were peeling onions . With the help of the warhorses' momentum, the reversed blade of their scimitars could cut through the metallic armors .
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"They are formidable!" Bard could not help himself but to observe the battle from afar by using alchemy binoculars . The three-thousand knights of the group of envoys remained still and waited patiently . They would act as reinforcements if the enemy had backup .
Bard noticed that the sixth battalion's formation had completely changed without his knowing . In the centre were a regiment of heavy-armored foot soldiers and regiments that contained battalion generals . These two-thousand men remained where they were while the other six regiments of foot soldiers formed the shape of a gigantic gear with six pointed edges pointing outwards . They advanced towards the Phoenician foot soldiers in a spinning motion, killing many of them .
Without taking into account the knights, the sixth battalion only held a slight advantage in terms of army strength . However, anyone could see that it was a one-sided affair . The knights were cutting down the enemy foot soldiers from the outside . They were able to leverage their speed to chop off the heads of the enemy with their scimitars .
It was extremely difficult for the Phoenician foot soldiers to cut through the knights' heavy armors with their heavy swords . They could try to pierce through the armors instead, but the foot soldiers would also be repelled back by the impact .
The sixth battalion were having an increasingly easy time . The enemy lost the will to fight very quickly, unlike the Holy See soldiers . The equipment given to them by Saleen was better than the enemy's by multiple times . Even if both sides hacked at each other without any skills, the soldiers of the sixth battalion still had the upper hand . Besides, the sixth battalion kept itself in a formation of a giant gear . The Phoenicians were being dispersed into small pockets and being attacked from both sides as the knights were also inflicting damage from the outer layers .
Phoenix's second ten-thousand strong army had yet to arrive at the battlefield but the battle was almost finished .
Due to some unknown trigger, the Phoenicians began to retreat . If there was one fleeing soldier, there would be a second one . The officers tried to stop the soldiers from fleeing by using bodyguards to maintain military order . A regiment of soldiers tried to reorganize the formation, hoping to hang in there until reinforcements arrived .
Originally, the Phoenix rebel armies were all dressed the same way so the sixth battalion had no idea where the central army was located . Now that the Phoenix rebel army battalion commander has been exposed, the sixth battalion commander immediately gave the command .
The gigantic gear formation began to advance towards the south with increasing speed . As the war drums sounded, the regiment of heavy-armored foot soldiers that had yet to participate in the battle began to charge towards the enemy's central army . When they were two-hundred yards away from the enemy's central army, there was an explosion of magic light from each soldier's thigh .
Once the heavy-armored soldiers gained speed, the amount of damage they could inflict was terrifying .
Duke Bard only saw a wave of black armors drown the Phoenicians' central army .
The Phoenicians completely collapsed under this blow . They still had about five-thousand soldiers remaining but none had the will to retaliate . Most of them fled towards the south while a few escaped towards the east .
The rhythm of the war drums changed once again as the heavy-armored foot soldiers pursued for a mile before returning . Every step they took would use up the magic nuclei on their magic armors .
The knights of the sixth battalion kept their scimitars and took over the bows and arrows from the foot soldiers and gave chase . They never thought of exterminating all their enemies because that might incur unnecessary losses . The soldiers followed the beat of the war drums to determine the mode of their battle . They were already well-trained in this .
The knights approached the fleeing soldiers and shot them down with arrows from behind . They were wearing heavy armors so it was not easy handling the bows . They had no choice but to use the bows because Saleen had yet to distribute to them more suitable equipment .
After everyone has finished shooting twenty-four arrows, the knights returned as well .
Without any instructions, the shield soldiers formed another new formation . The knights dismounted and took off their armors with the help of the foot soldiers . The duration of the battle was short so the warhorses were still very excited . The knights had to remove the horses' armors in order to calm them down .
The sixth battalion's main forces returned back to the rear of the wagons . After that, Bard noticed that a regiment of light-armored foot soldiers took out their demilances and began to clean up the battlefield .
Injured soldiers were groaning in pain everywhere . These light-armored soldiers used their demilances to kill all their enemies one by one . Their actions were steady and familiar . When they fought against the Holy See, they did the exact same thing even as the enemy was shooting arrows at them . If they had not done so, the wounded soldiers could be revived by divine spells any time and hurt you instead .
'Take no prisoners', this was the lesson that the sixth battalion learned from the battle with the Holy See army .