Close Combat Mage

Chapter 213 - Overwhelming Victory Part 1

action

As soon as the enemies appeared, Dawn City immediately spurred into action. The 5000 pike users formed a large defense formation at the city gates, and any enemy that tried to pass through was met with merciless slaughter. These soldiers that were experts in battle qi were the elites of the Empire, and weren’t afraid of any enemy.

Originally…if the Mengma Knights had been available, the pike users would’ve guarded the doors while the Mengma Knights attacked long-range from within the walls so that any enemy invader would be destroyed to the point where not even a piece of their armor remained. However, as the Mengma beasts were currently in the state of evolution, the Mengma Knights were restricted from acting, as they had absolutely no source of strength.

Suo Jia bitterly smiled at the 10 meter long line of city walls. He could only dispatch all the slave soldiers to those walls. Even if they didn’t have weapons, the ground was full of stones to throw. Suo Jia believed that this was still a lot more effective than using them as cannon fodder.

Facing a powerful enemy, the regular slave soldiers in all directions picked up their weapons and equipped their armors. Although they weren’t experts in battles, they had been part of the troops for a long time, and weren’t afraid of battle. All of them held their breaths as they waited for the battle to start.

Outside Dawn City, the Thief Alliance was quickly gathering together. Their numbers reached nearly 100,000. From the distance, all one could see was a stretch of black that seemed to cover the entire plains.

Suo Jia looked into the horizon, and secretly began to worry. Judging by his current circumstances, his and the enemy’s numbers were pretty much the same. Dawn had 100,000 soldiers, as did the thief army outside. However, he couldn’t forget that he had 60,000 slave soldiers who were still bare to their arms, and only had rocks as their weapons!

In contrast, the Thief Alliance was different. Although one couldn’t say they were all elites, they all wore neat armors and held glittering weapons in their hands. This was something the slave soldiers couldn’t currently compare to at all. Although the battle hadn’t yet started, the other party seemed to have already secured victory.

However, Suo Jia knew that they also had something good: the 40,000 regular slave soldiers. These 40,000 soldiers were in full body armor, and held pikes, longbows, swords and shields. Only those 10,000 Knights, because of lack of mounts, couldn’t be used to their maximum potential. However, just relying on their armor and the war blades in their hands was enough to go against elite troops.

Seeing the dense, black mass of the Thief Alliance’s army off in the horizon, Suo Jia knew that he had to push through this battle. Once the opposite party began, they’d definitely try an experimental attack first to verify Dawn City’s military strength. Then, they’d suppress the whole army line. If Suo Jia couldn’t give his counterpart a painful attack in return by this point, the results of this battle would be worrying!

A light bulb flashed in Suo Jia’s mind. He loudly announced, “Send these orders down: The 40,000 regular slave soldiers are all to hide behind the nearest city walls’ construction. When the alarm bell rings, all troops are to charge in. If the bell doesn’t go off, nobody is to move. Anyone that disobeys will be beheaded!”

Following Suo Jia’s commands, the 40,000 regular slave soldiers quickly retreated to the nearby walls’ construction. At the same time, the leader of the thief army outside the city had already initiated a probing attack. Seeing the thief army rapidly approach, Suo Jia roared in anger, “My fellow soldiers, no matter what, we must persevere through this wave of attacks. Go and crush them ruthlessly!”

Although they didn’t know what exactly Suo Jia was planning, all the slave soldiers understood that this wasn’t the moment to shrink back. No matter what happened, they had to attack. If they bravely charged forwards, perhaps there was a chance that they’d survive. On the battlefield, the more one retreated, the faster they’d be meeting death!

In a moment, all the slave soldiers lifted rocks the size of their heads and quickly aimed at the top of the city walls, prepared to attack the thief army outside the city at any moment.

Soon afterwards, the Thief Alliance’s army rushed to the city walls. Although these thieves were wearing leather armor and held sharp blades in their hands, a single glance was enough to tell that the armor was beyond tattered, and the weapons were chipped all over as well. It was clear to see that these were the equivalent to slave soldiers in their army. They were used to test the enemies’ skills and become cannon fodder, which nothing else but slave soldiers could be used to describe.

Dawn City’s walls were actually just large piles of rock that were 4-5 meters tall. They slanted at a 60 degree angle, and it was clear to see that one could easily jump onto the rocks and race up. At that point…one needed to consider defensive abilities. The slightest hint of retreat would cause all the enemies to advance. Then…the enemies would all enter without stopping, and this Holy Light would fall into the enemy’s hands.

Finally, after some hesitation, the thief soldiers all walked up to the precipitous rock slope, and began to climb up. Seeing this, General Jason finally gave orders.

“Charge…charge! Charge!” Following General Jason’s lingering shouts, the dozen or so previously idle and bored messenger soldiers all began to shout loudly as well. Hearing this, the 60,000 slave soldiers strained their throats to wildly join in. They raised stones high above their heads and began to wildly jump up onto the walls.

In that moment, all the thieves were shocked to discover that densely packed figures had appeared on the long city walls. Each of the bodies held a rock about the size of one’s head, towered high in the air and aimed at them. It looked as if the stones would be smashed down onto the enemy at any moment.

“Shoot…shoot! Shoot!” In that instant, General Jason, as well as the messenger soldiers, once again cried out. Hearing this, all the slave soldiers shouted in unison and began to initiate their attack on the thieves below the walls. Using all their strength, they smashed the rocks in their hands downwards.

The walls that were 10 kilometers long had 10,000 slave soldiers on top of them. They each threw their stones down as hard as they could, then turned around and left the wall. Behind them was a second line of slave soldiers that threw down their stones as well. Then there was a third, a fourth…

Every meter of the wall had 6 slave soldiers walk up one after another and toss the stones in their hands. They would then turn around and continue to grab another rock. Over the past few days, they had excavated enough rocks to last them an entire week!

Without rest, a rain of rocks continued to fly down. The people near the wall became badly mangled. Only the ones that were somewhat distant were able to avoid the attack. For a moment, the thieves all began to retreat in face of such a dense rain of rocks. This was even more frightening than the earth-type magic: Flaming Stone Purgatory.

Just like this, the area along the walls as well as in front of them were covered with over 40,000 thief corpses lying around in a miserable state, which were pitifully collected back. Due to the lack of long-ranged attacks, the enemy’s losses had been extremely great. A single clash had injured 40% of their forces! This was something that the thief army couldn’t have possibly ever imagined.

Actually, it wasn’t only the thief army. Even the ones that had planned this operation, Suo Jia and General Jason, hadn’t expected such a result. The battle just now had resulted in zero losses on Dawn City’s side. There were only a few hundred slave soldiers that had lost their balances and tumbled down the walls. However, they only suffered from light injuries, and as of now, not a single person had left the battle due to injury.

Having suffered so much, the Thief Alliance’s army head of command probably felt extremely ashamed. The army split to reveal a team of strong and healthy thieves wearing yellow leather armor. After organizing their formation, they emitted burning, murderous auras towards the direction of Dawn City.

Seeing the thief army in the distance, General Harvey’s expression suddenly changed. He shouted, “Majorly bad news. That’s the Flying Locusts thief army. They all have crossbows in their possession, and can kill any enemy within 50 paces of them. That means that once the slave soldiers appear on the city walls, they’ll have difficulty avoiding death!”

“Crossbows!” Suo Jia’s expression drastically changed. He looked at the 20,000 men or so in the Flying Locusts army and gritted his teeth. Now that matters had reached this stage, he could no longer hide anything. It was time to show his real character now.

Suo Jia declared, “Immediately sound the alarm bell and order the swordsmen, as well as the longbow users, to immediately come to walls and welcome the enemy. As long as we can get rid of the Flying Locusts thieves, it’ll be our victory!”

General Jason was stunned for a moment, but he then hit himself in the head and laughed, “Look at me, I even forgot that we still had 40,000 soldiers. Those longbow users are especially important. Although their level of accuracy isn’t good, their shooting range already surpasses 200 paces. They can definitely suppress these Flying Locusts thieves. After all…their crossbows’ ranges are only 50 meters!”