Chapter 736 – Adjusting The Army
Zhao Hai nodded and said, "Iron Hammer said that once one reaches God-rank, then their magic and battle qi would transform into a new type of energy. The Divine Race calls this Origin Force. I don't know if it is really called that, but I can confirm that this energy can be used in both magic and battle qi applications. So in this case, why would there be a division between mage and warrior? It is impossible for the Divine Race to overlook this aspect. However, there are people in Mage attire in the Divine Race army. Don't you think that this is strange?"
When Lizzy and the others heard Zhao Hai, they couldn't help but gawk before knitting their eyebrows. They haven't been paying attention when Iron Hammer talked about Origin Force, so this was the first time that they had heard about it from Zhao Hai. If what Zhao Hai said was true, then the Mages in the Divine Army really did seem very strange.
Megan looked at Zhao Hai and said, "Elder Brother Hai, are you saying that these Mages have some special skill? And this was the thing that made you unsettled?"
Zhao Hai nodded, "Right. I suspect these Mages to have something special. Otherwise, the Divine Race wouldn't have given them this much importance. However, what did they have that made them important? The Ark Continent only had magic and battle qi while origin force is just equal to an upgraded version of the two of them. If these mages were only capable of magic, then they wouldn't have been this respected.'
Megan knit her brows and said, "Origin Force is a transformation of battle qi and magic, so there should be no need to have mage training. Right, Brother Hai, can origin force be used to summon creatures for battle?"
Zhao Hai couldn't help but stare at Megan's statement. He really didn't know about this matter. All of his undead were taken care of by the Space, so there was no need for him to expend any energy. Because of this, he paid no attention to matters such as these.
Zhao Hai looked at Megan and said, "What you mean is, those people who look like Mages, are actually Summoners?"
Megan nodded, then said, "It's highly probable. You can look at the Demon Lich, they have their own special summoning spells for battle. These spells would surely be useful when one becomes God-rank. Although most Mages weren't into summoning magic, the Divine Race had fought for a long time, so they should be able to see the advantages of summons. Because of this, I reckoned that those people with Mage clothing were actually the Divine Race's special Summoners."
Zhao Hai nodded, he thinks that Megan's speculation held some ground. However, this was still a guess and wasn't proven, so he said, "That might be true. In any case, we'll find out about them in a battle or two. Right now, we need to spread the word to the leaders of the continent, tell them about the might of the Divine Race so that they can prepare in advance. Have the citizens enter the big cities with magical formations."
Lizzy and the other complied and then went on to do their job. At the same time, Zhao Hai continued to observe the movements of the Divine Race. After the new group arrived, they didn't move immediately. Instead, then occupied the surrounding cities, seemingly taking a break before beginning their conquest.
Zhao Hai wanted to see how they will be arranged. But unfortunately, the Divine Race were careful. Whenever they talk about important things, they would cast isolation magic to cover the place where they would discuss. Even with Zhao Hai's efforts, he still wasn't able to find out about anything.
Although he couldn’t see anything significant, Zhao Hai was still paying careful attention towards the Divine Race. Even if he had limited intel, he could still see when the Divine Race would attack.
But after looking at it for a while, Zhao Hai handed the task over to Cai'er. Then he went out of the villa and continued to load the magic cannons into the undead.
At this point, the magic cannons have become their main weapon against the Demons and the Divine Race. So naturally, these things needed to be carefully taken care of. These days Zhao Hai had been very busy.
Although the Divine Race reinforcement has arrived, they didn't immediately make a move. This caused Cai'er to continue her monitoring while Zhao Hai felt relief. The day after the Divine Race reinforcement arrived, Zhao Hai started to bring the Dwarf Iron Armor Beast Cavalry, the Elven Blood Hawk Cavalry, the Lyon Empire Beast Cavalry, the Beastman Race's Wolf, Dog, Cat, and Horse tribes into his current location. The Rose Empire Heavy Infantry has been brought over as well. The entire city has been transformed into a huge military barrack.
Fortunately, Zhao Hai's prestige was quite high with these groups. There was no chaos when those groups arrived in the city. Zhao Hai also allocated camps for each of them so that he wouldn't worry too much.
However, coordinating them for war has become an issue. The foreign races only listen to Zhao Hai, while the two people sent by the Rosen and Lyon Empire to lead the army both had the same status. None of the two wanted to listen to the other.
In the end, Zhao Hai sent Lizzy to have the job of commander for the unified army. This made people surprised, however, upon thinking of Lizzy's status, all of them agreed.
Lizzy was the Rosen Empire's princess, and she was also Zhao Hai's wife. These two titles aren't simple, especially her being Zhao Hai's wife. This made those present in the city behave.
The thing in the minds of these people was the same in the minds of the Lyon Empire nobles. The reason why Zhao Hai had Lizzy command the war was only for show, and Zhao Hai would still be the person being in command in the background. However, they didn't expect that Lizzy was actually more skilled in commanding a battle compared to Zhao hai.
Although this was the first time that Lizzy commanded a diverse army, she still had an experience in handling a huge army in the past. Moreover, Zhao Hai also had Megan add into the discussion and express her abilities in front of the people. With the Megan and Lizzy coordinating together, it didn't take too long before the whole city got into order.
Zhao Hai didn't dare to spoil the two of them. Although both Lizzy and Megan were beautiful women, they were truly skilled in command, they had a huge potential to become generals. In the past, they were lacking in terms of battle experience. However, after experiencing battles back in the sea as well as in the fight against the Demon Race, Zhao Hai was now assured of the two's ability.
It took two days for the armies to arrive. The reason for their quick travel was Zhao Hai's Space, every minute was crucial. Zhao Hai also wanted the soldiers to be familiar with the surrounding terrain, which would benefit them in the future battle.
Moreover, the Divine Race reinforcement had arrived, and it was possible for them to attack at any time. In this case, Zhao Hai couldn't afford to have the armies arrive in a slow rate.
Back in Demon City, Zhao Hai had the confidence to deal with the Demon Race. Even if he didn't attack on his own, he was still confident in his ability to defend.
However, when he saw the Divine Race Army, Zhao Hai knew that it was impossible to fight with them with his own strength. Average soldiers in the Divine Race army were 9th ranks. At the same time, the numbers of God-ranks that the Divine Race had was much more than the God-ranks in Zhao Hai's side. If he wanted to defend against the Divine Race with his own strength, then he definitely wouldn't be able to defend for several days. All of the undead in his hands were not enough to block the attack of the Divine Race.
In this case, Zhao Hai had to let the other powers into the City to defend against the Divine Race together. This would also awaken the continent, making them aware about how serious the frontline has become.
Besides having them fight in the city, Zhao Hai also wanted to make the various parties see the situation with their own eyes. They needed to see how powerful the Divine Race were.
Ever since the Divine Race arrived in the continent, the powers of the continent haven't really had a proper battle with them. This made the groups of the Ark Continent ignorant to the real strength of the Divine Race. This time, Zhao Hai asked for troops in order to make them aware of the strength of the enemy.
The reason why Zhao Hai thought of this idea was because of his observations in the past few days. In the various territories in the continent, he discovered that although the countries were placed into a state of war, the people had actually turned idle, all of them were thinking that the war was too far from their own place. Because of this, their mindsets had taken a form of distance towards the frontline. Zhao Hai thought that this wasn't a great thing.
Such mentality cannot continue. Zhao Hai knew that if people were to think like this, then the upper powers would surely exhibit it sooner or later. If this was the case, then the future cooperation would slowly crumble.
Zhao Hai discovered that this issue was especially strong in the Rosen and Aksu Empires. The citizens weren't as anxious compared to the residents of the Lyon and Buddha Empire. The citizens of the Buddha Empire were far away from their homes, so it was natural that they felt strong attachment towards this war, and this sentiment was carried over to the Lyon Empire citizens. However, this sense of crisis seemed to be lacking in both the Rosen and Aksu Empires.
Through this matter, Zhao Hai had found out that he was being overprotective towards the people of the Ark Continent. This caused them to forget about how cruel war could be. If they continue to think this way, then the consequences would be disastrous when the Divine Race decides to send small teams to wreak havoc in the backlines of the Ark Continent.
Because of this, Zhao Hai decided to invite large armies into Upper Bank City.
Chapter 737 – The Fight Begins
Zhao Hai was currently standing on top of the city wall. The protective formation was already in place and the army were properly positioned. Everyone present here were looking at the direction of the Radiant Empire.
This wasn't a practice run, they were now in full preparation to resist the incoming army. Cai'er already told Zhao Hai that the Divine Race army had started to make their move. This time, the Divine Race placed both of their cavalries up front, supported by their infantry and Mage corps. They were preparing to rush straight into the city and break through it in one go.
It was because of this that Zhao Hai's side had started to behave like this. It has been three days since all of the Ark Continent's powers had sent their troops over to the city. To be honest, the Divine Race refraining from making their attack had made Zhao Hai quite worried. It was only now that they made their move did Zhao Hai felt relief.
If the Divine Race didn't attack, then it meant that they had a bigger plot in their hands. If they attacked, then it meant that there weren't any sneaky plans. It seems like the three days were used in pure recuperation.
In Zhao Hai's side was a Dwarf, an Elf, a heavily armored man, a cavalry soldier, some Beastmen, as well as Lizzy, Megan, Berry, and Shue.
These people were the city's management staff. Zhao Hai wanted them to see how fierce the Divine Race looked.
On the walls beside them were the Rosen Empire's heavy armor infantry. Although these troops were used generally for field battles, they were still able to defend a city comfortably. After all, they were Rosen Empire's elite. At this moment, magic cannons were strewn all around the city's walls. Zhao Hai didn't make the undead control these cannons, instead, he handed them over to the heavy armor infantry.
Zhao Hai stood calmly on the city wall, although the army had yet to come, the whole city was full of anticipation. There was a sense of breathlessness emanating among the troops.
The Dwarf standing next to Zhao Hai muttered as he stared at the Radiant Empire's direction, "Why haven't they appeared yet? I can't wait all day."
Zhao Hai turned his head to look at the Dwarf. This Dwarf wasn't an elder, he was a General of the Dwarf Race, the commander of the Iron Beast cavalry. This time, the Dwarves had sent over a hundred thousand iron armor cavalry, this wasn't a small number.
Moreover, after arriving at the city, the Dwarves started to make their move. In the plains outside the city, they had made a lot of tunnels. These tunnels would allow ordinary troops to pass through safely without any issue. However, once the Divine Race's Heavy Cavalry walks on top of them, they would immediately collapse, and the Dwarves would be waiting underground to ambush them. As long as they go under, the Dwarves, in their natural habitat, would gain absolute advantage.
Zhao Hai smiled and said, "Baker, no need to be anxious. They will arrive soon."
The Dwarf Baker smiled faintly and said, "I'm quite anxious to see how formidable those Divine Race fellows really are. For me to be able to help the elder is a great blessing. You might not know, but when the clan voted me to be sent over, the other Generals almost fought with me over it."
Zhao Hai laughed and then replied, "Are you sure you won't regret it? You're going to battle right now, but I don't want you to die. Baker, remember to have safety as your utmost priority."
Baker nodded and said, "Elder, rest assured, we've already prepared for it. The Dwarves wouldn't die so easily."
At this moment, a Beastmen inserted, "We aren't afraid of death as well. Prince, when will you send us out to attack?"
Zhao Hai gave a slight smile and said, "Don't worry, you will have the chance to fight. Even if the main actors this time are the Dwarves and Elves, you should still prepare yourselves for battle. All of you, remember to make ranged attacks as much as possible. Especially the Elves, the enemy's cavalry isn't weak."
Standing on the wall was a male Elf, he had a handsome but messy face. He always had a cold expression but when he heard Zhao Hai he gently nodded and said, "The elder can rest assured, the Elves aren't afraid of death as well."
Zhao Hai sighed and then said, "I know that you don't fear death. However, I didn't take you here to die. You could be said to be the continent's first batch of troops to fight against the Divine Race. As long as you survive, then you would understand the attack patterns of the Divine Race. Their tactics cannot be understood in just one or two days. You must keep on living and teach the others about how to resist against the Divine Race. I hope that we can repel the Demons and the Divine Race with as little losses to the continent as possible."
The group nodded, then Zhao Hai continued, "This war isn't going to good for our side. Both the Demon and the Divine Realm is much larger than the Ark Continent. And their residents are leagues stronger than us. Because of this, we cannot have the mentality of sacrificing ourselves in battles. It's not that I'm afraid of death, I just don't want unnecessary deaths. Do you understand?"
The group nodded once more. Although these people wouldn't generally listen to other race's words, it was a different matter when it came to Zhao Hai. Zhao Hai's influence had been spread out to all of them. At the same time, their groups were also grateful to Zhao Hai. This was the reason why there were no problems when it came to him making the decisions.
At this time, sound of rumbling was suddenly heard in the distance while the earth shook at the same time. As long as one had experience, then they would surely know that this was due to the movement of Heavy Cavalry. The charge of a heavy cavalry unit was the most imposing thing that one can see in the battlefield. Their movements alone could make the earth shiver, if any other troop dared to clash with them at this state, then they would certainly get crushed.
Every person on the walls were attracted towards this rumbling noise. Before long, a silver film had started to fill the grounds in the distance. This silver film approached quite quickly, and their imposing aura could be felt as they kick up dust while they approach.
Zhao Hai turned his head to Baker and said, "Baker, you go. Remember, the number you kill doesn't matter. Just make sure to protect your lives. It still isn't time to go all out against the Divine Race." Baker gave a nod before he turned back an entered the tunnels.
Then Zhao Hai turned to the Elf and said, "The Divine Race's light cavalry should be arriving soon, you should prepare yourself as well. Remember, just like what I said to the Dwarves, the kills doesn't matter. Just make sure to protect your lives. The Blood Hawks are fast, take good advantage of this." The Elf gave a salute before he turned around and left the wall.
Then Zhao Hai turned his head towards the group of Beastmen and said, "You go prepare as well. Head outside the city using the back door. Coordinate with the Dwarves. Although the cavalry speed of the Divine Race isn't slow, they still couldn't catch up to your troops. Don't think of going all out, just fight with the intention of finding out about their strength."
The Beastmen nodded then they gave a short bow before leaving. Zhao Hai turned his head to Lizzy and Megan, "The undead command will be handed over to you. Cai'er, come out and help. Berry, Shue, let's go." Then Zhao Hai summoned his bone dragon as he flew out of the city. At this time, Cai'er appeared in Lizzy's shoulder. Cai'er waved her hand as a screen appeared in front of Lizzy and Megan. This will help them facilitate the battle more conveniently.
Lizzy and Megan looked at the projection and saw a group of green lights approaching. They were already aware that the green lights were the enemies while the red lights were their allies. Since they had yet to release the undead, the red lights this time were only composed of Zhao Hai's group as well as the Dwarves in the field.
Zhao Hai was also starting to see the other party's light cavalry. The horned pegasus were flapping their wings as they flew forwards. All of them flew with grace, but were not so fast. However, Zhao Hai didn't dare look down on them. These horned pegasus naturally weren't using their maximum speed. When the battle starts, their actions certainly wouldn't be like this.
However, Zhao Hai's main attention wasn't in these flying cavalry. Instead, he was focused on the Mage corps behind the light cavalry. Although Megan speculated them to be Summoners, nobody knew for sure whether this was correct. This compelled Zhao Hai to pay more attention to their group compared to the others.
When the horned pegasus were several kilometers away from Zhao Hai, a clump of red cloud suddenly appeared behind the city. Naturally, this red cloud was the Elven Race's Blood Hawk cavalry.
After the Blood Hawk cavalry flew out of the city, they immediately dashed towards the Divine Race's light cavalry. This made the horned pegasus cavalry stare. The Divine Race were aware of the races in the Ark Continent, therefore, they certainly had some understanding regarding the Elves. However, they didn't know that the Elves had managed to have their own aerial troops.
To be honest, nobody could blame the Divine Race for this. After the Radiant Church suppressed the Elves, their understanding of the race had become too few. Although they had sent some spies towards the Elven Forest, their main purpose was to control the race and not to report back on their findings. Since this was the case, the spies didn't go out of their way to exit the forest. This also made it possible for the Elves to hide their aerial troops.
However, even if they were discovered, the Elven Race's original aerial troops were composed of soundless soundbirds. But the voiceless soundbirds had no fighting prowess, they were completely herbivorous. Because of their docile nature, it would be impossible for the Elves to teach them how to fight.
But now, the Elves had the Blood Hawks. These were phantasmal beasts that were made by Zhao Hai's Space. Their fighting strength were very strong. Even if the Divine Race were aware of the Elves' aerial cavalry, they still wouldn't be aware of the Blood Hawks.
However, the main reason why Zhao Hai was confident in sending the Elves to deal with the Divine Race's light cavalry was because he had given the Elves a secret weapon. As long as the Elves us this, then they would become much stronger than the Divine Race's light cavalry. They light cavalry unit would surely suffer heavy losses in the Elves' hands.
Chapter 738 – The Dwarves' First Accomplishment
Secret weapon, but in fact, it wasn't much of a secret. What Zhao Hai gave the Elves were actually blood lightning beads! The bow and arrow that the Elves use were generally based on shooting stone beads. Zhao Hai doesn't know how they do it, but not only could they shoot round objects, they can shoot them extremely accurately. It can be said that they are the most skilled archers in the entire Ark Continent.
Because of this skill, Zhao Hai prepared a lot of blood lightning beads for the Elves to use. The might of these beads, when used on a bow and arrow, certainly wouldn't be small.
The blood lightning bead that Tiger Huan had before definitely wouldn't work in this manner. His blood lightning beads needed to be activated using spiritual connection. On the other hand, Zhao Hai's blood lightning beads would produce an explosion on impact, which was more convenient to use.
The beads were the reason why Zhao Hai was confident in having the Elves face the Divine Race light cavalry. He didn't only give the beads to the Elves, he gave some of them to the Dwarves as well. However, because of the Dwarves' battlefield, Zhao Hai gave them instructions to not use the beads wantonly. If necessary, not use them at all.
Conversely, Zhao Hai gave the beastmen a big supply of blood lightning beads. The Beastmen were mounted warriors. Since they cannot use magic cannons, their second best choice would be the blood lightning beads.
Although Zhao Hai didn't stop upgrading the strengths of the major races, time was still quite limited. Therefore, the average strengths of the races still weren't up to par. To combat this disparity in strength, Zhao Hai can only provide them with blood lightning beads.
One must say that Zhao Hai was really thankful towards Tiger Huan. If it weren't for his blood lightning bead, then Zhao Hai wouldn't have known about this magic. They were the most efficient things to have in dealing with the Divine Race.
The Elven Blood Hawk cavalry slowly approached the Divine Race. Naturally, horned pegasus cavalry also noticed the approaching enemies. They immediately separated a small group in order to meet the Elves. The Elven cavalry quickly performed a retreat, but not before sending a barrage towards the approaching horned pegasus group.
The Elven Race's beads were also special since they held a magic formation within itself. Although its strength was inferior to the blood lightning bead, their might was still formidable when fired towards the enemy.
However, it soon become obvious that those beads were ineffective towards the Divine Race. The horned pegasus cavalry immediately hoisted their spears as they held their shields in front of them, easily blocking the incoming attack. Zhao Hai paid attention to the shields and saw Divine Race formations engraved on them, no wonder they were defensively effective.
The Elves didn't use their blood lightning beads yet. Zhao Hai understood their decision, they wanted to wait until the Divine Race lowers their guard before they give them the full brunt of their attack.
Zhao Hai stopped thinking about these as he released large quantities of undead. At the same time, he moved the undead mobile cannons in front, meeting the Divine Race advance.
While waiting for the enemies to get closer, Zhao Hai turned his attention towards the heavy cavalry on the ground. These Divine Race heavy cavalry naturally weren't expecting an ambush. They were just simply and uncaringly charging towards the city.
Zhao Hai looked at the heavy cavalry and silently calculated their strength. When he came to it, Zhao Hai discovered that this heavy cavalry unit wasn't very strong. On average, they only had 8th rank strength. This made Zhao Hai surprised.
These heavy cavalry seemed to be the worst of the Divine Race army. At first, Zhao Hai didn't understand what was going on, but after looking into it and asking Cai'er, he finally understood.
These heavy cavalry weren't actually completely composed of the Divine Race. Them and the Divine Race had some differences in their appearance. It seems like this heavy cavalry were completely different people!
Their foreheads were low, their mouth was slightly protruding and looked like a monkey's mouth, completely unlike a human's. Their body hair was also very thick. However, their bodies were big and strong, it wouldn't be a good idea if one were to provoke them.
The weapon in their hands were also special. It was a weapon that Zhao Hai hadn't seen before, it looked like a long sword but was actually a hammer.
Each hammer looked like it wouldn't weigh less than fifty kilograms. Even average 8th ranks wouldn't use such weapons for battle. An 8th rank's battle qi would allow them to carry a 10 jin sword and fight for several hours. However, if they carry a 100 jin(50 kgs) hammer then they can carry them for an hour, at most. Aside from innately strong people, nobody would use such heavy weapons.
The Divine Race heavy cavalry seemed to be wild men. Each and every one of them were wearing heavy full body armor. They were brandishing their hammers as thought they were light. One couldn't help but recognize their strength upon seeing such a display.
As the heavy cavalry were charging through, the ground under them suddenly collapsed. Moreover, it wasn't a small hole, it was big enough to swallow about a thousand heavy cavalry soldiers.
Zhao Hai knew that this was the move of the Dwarves. One must say that when it came to digging, the Dwarves were the supreme masters of the art. The holes that they dug were enough to support a number of troops. But when that capacity reaches the target, then the ground would immediately collapse, eating up the unfortunate victims. This tactic had been effectively used by the Dwarves in their previous battles against mounted armies.
As the first batch heavy cavalry fell into the pit, there were also troops from behind who weren't able to stop in time, which also caused them to fall into the pit.
The hole was actually filled with numerous stone spikes. If these spikes were used normally, then they wouldn't have been very effective. But in this occasion, their lethality had increased by many folds. When the heavy infantry units fell into the hole, they were immediately killed by those spikes.
The Dwarves didn't even appear from beginning to end. When these cavalry soldiers died, they immediately vanished from the pit. Those who looked into the whole only saw bloodstains, nothing else.
The remaining heavy cavalry unit couldn't help but be surprised. But at this time, a shout can be heard behind them, compelling them to move around the pit and continued to charge forward, gradually approaching the city. However, as they went around the pit, they were once again met with a pit that was filled by stone spikes. But this time, aside from the careless ones, the hole had been rendered completely useless.
At the same time, a bunch of yellow light appeared in front of the cavalry unit, allowing them to step across the hole without falling into it.
Zhao Hai made Cai'er look into this situation. It seems like the Divine Race had used earth element magic which was evidently better than the ones used by the Dwarves. At the same time this magic also killed about a hundred Dwarves while injuring dozens.
Zhao Hai frowned, it seems like the Divine Race were quite experienced about these types of arrangements. They were very efficient in their ways of countering the Dwarves. The fluidity in their action wasn't something that can be practiced in such a short time.
Then Zhao Hai changed his mind as he guessed the reason. The Divine Race surely had their enemies in the Divine Realm. Perhaps it was against foreign gods that used the same tactics as the Dwarves. Or perhaps they themselves were using such tactics. This explains why they were able to deal with it very quickly.
Zhao Hai didn't actually care about this. The heavy cavalry units wouldn't be a huge threat to the city. Additionally, with the Beastmen in coordination with the Dwarves, the situation should be placed under control soon.
Zhao Hai turned his focus to the other enemies in front of him, the horned pegasus cavalry and especially the Mage corps. He wanted to see what they would bring to the battlefield.
The horned pegasus cavalry were still gracefully flying towards Zhao Hai's direction. The light cavalry unit numbered in the hundreds of thousands, much greater than the about hundred thousand Elven cavalry. The horned pegasus cavalry didn't even chase the Elves. In their minds, sending a small team over should be enough to deal with them.
The Divine Race were really arrogant, but they would surely pay the price for this attitude. Zhao Hai coldly snorted, he had more than 1 million undead behind him, several hundred of which were equipped with magic cannons. Moreover, these several hundred undead didn't carry only one magic cannon, they had multiple inside of them. Their killing power wasn't something to be underestimated.
It was quite obvious that this horned pegasus unit was much stronger than the heavy cavalry. Although they were composed of mostly 9th ranks, they also had God-ranks among them.
Before long, the horned pegasus cavalry stopped a kilometer away from Zhao Hai. They just stood in place as they looked at his direction. They didn't move and they didn't speak, it seems like they were waiting for something.
Zhao Hai didn't speak as well. He looked as the infantry behind the light cavalry arranged themselves. Then the Divine Race mages started to fly towards him.
Zhao Hai looked at these people, he didn't know what they wanted to do. However, Zhao Hai made up his mind and decided to cope with the events as they happen.