Chapter 270 - 39: Heavenly Punishment
Chapter 270: Chapter 39: Heavenly Punishment
"All men! To the west! Charge!"
Seeing his reinforcements arrive, Knight Commander Elon bellowed and took the lead, charging west.
Different races required different tactics. If they were still facing a Beastman Army of the same caliber as the one at Thermopylae, Robson would never have dared to let his Soldiers charge separately.
But the enemy before them was just a mob of weak goblins and Kobolds. If his men stayed put, their only purpose would be to block the path of the Cavalry Team behind them.
This was the wisdom of army maneuvers: how to move thousands, even tens of thousands, of men without causing a stampede, and how to maximize the potential of every single Soldier.
"For Fengman! Long live the Franks!"
"For Fengman..."
Heeding their Commander’s order, the members of the Fengman Knight Order roared and followed Knight Commander Elon closely, charging hard to the west.
After Knight Commander Elon charged, the third wave of the Fengman Knight Order began their own preparations. They simply picked a direction and charged.
It wasn’t that they didn’t know to pick a path with fewer enemies; Robson had gone over all of this before they set out.
However, their charge had taken them too deep. They were completely surrounded by enemy troops, with no opening to exploit.
At a time like this, everything depended on the Knight Order’s faith and training. Fortunately, as one of the top ten clans in the kingdom, the Fengman Clan excelled in this regard.
Even with reinforcements on the way, it was hard for anyone to truly disregard their own life when facing an endless sea of enemies.
This was when faith and martial spirit were needed. The instinct to survive screamed for retreat, but a Knight’s honor is greater than life!
"For Fengman! For the Kingdom!"
"For Fengman..."
Facing the sea of bodies, the members of the Fengman Knight Order in the center of the battlefield charged hard to the east.
Under normal circumstances, even if they managed to break out, they would surely have suffered losses against so many goblins.
But now, with the main force of the Cavalry Team attacking, the goblins were only focused on saving their own skins, completely ignoring the Knight Team in the center of the battlefield.
...
Chief Umm’s expression was absolutely foul, as if he’d just eaten shit.
He couldn’t for the life of him understand how such a large group of humans had suddenly appeared, or how they were so thoroughly crushing his goblins.
Chief Umm stood at the highest vantage point. He could now clearly see that the human cavalry that had charged in was about to punch straight through his entire goblin formation.
Meanwhile, the goblins on all sides were just scattering in a panic. Goblins were like that—quick to swarm and even quicker to flee. When faced with an enemy so powerful it seemed invincible, their choice was always to avoid a direct confrontation.
A small contingent of Kobolds, however, had actually managed to form a phalanx, intending to put up a fight.
Unfortunately for them, the enemy Cavalry Teams roaming through the goblin horde were not to be trifled with.
They were just waiting for such tough nuts to crack. The roaming human Cavalry Teams specifically charged into the most densely packed groups of enemies.
What made Chief Umm despair the most was that the group of Extraordinary Knights from the initial charge was now charging back through their ranks again.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
"Fall back to the town first!"
Chief Umm shouted at the goblins on all sides.
Ancient Dumu Town was built on the Ancient Trade Route, and the Ancient Trade Route was built on the Ancient River Channel.
In other words, the area around Ancient Dumu Town was basically a plain carved out by the river.
Chief Umm was an Extraordinary, after all, and he possessed some common sense. Anyone who tried to fight human cavalry on an open plain at night had to have a screw loose. What’s more, there were as many as a thousand enemy cavalry, including a significant number of Extraordinary Cavalry.
At the very least, they should retreat to Ancient Dumu Town first, and then slowly fall back into the surrounding wilderness.
The density of goblins across the battlefield grew increasingly sparse as many began a desperate flight for their lives.
Of course, having muddled through on the eastern front for a year, even the goblins had developed some basic military sense.
Goblins running towards Ancient Dumu Town accounted for a good half of their forces on the battlefield.
Claude, of course, had noticed this as well. He pulled his horse to a halt and looked behind him.
Once the goblins’ formation shattered, Claude had stopped giving many orders.
In the chaos of a rout, even elite units would inevitably break formation to chase down fleeing enemies and claim personal glory.
Claude looked behind him. There were still a little over three hundred cavalrymen. This was already a very impressive number.
Claude didn’t say much. He pointed his longspear to the north.
"Charge! For the Lord!"
"For the Lord!"
Soon, groups of cavalry followed Claude, charging into the fleeing goblin horde.
The other scattered Fengman Knights seemed to have noticed this as well. Numerous Knight Teams, in groups of dozens or even a hundred, began to charge the fleeing goblins.
"AHH!"
"The Chieftain! Where’s the Chieftain?"
"These humans... they’re devils!"
The Knight Teams charged into the goblin horde from all directions, one after another, in an orderly assault. What remained of the goblin formations was once again shattered into pieces.
Claude watched this scene, his blood pumping. He wanted to charge one more time, to vent all the pent-up aggression from the past few days, but just at that moment, the sound of a horn echoed from the distance.
Claude froze for a moment when he heard the horn. He looked at the enemies before him, and though he was reluctant, he chose to obey the command.
The Knight Teams on all sides, large and small, all heard the call. Like Claude, many of them felt a pang of reluctance.
But it was Robson’s command, and they had to obey.
...
Chief Umm and his personal retinue scrambled and clawed their way to Ancient Dumu Town.
Looking at the tribesmen behind him, Chief Umm felt a despair so deep he couldn’t even cry. They had set out with hundreds, but now only a few dozen had managed to escape with him.
They hadn’t all necessarily died at the hands of the humans. They could have been trampled, gotten lost, or even... killed by their own kind.
These were all uncertainties, but the only thing Chief Umm was certain of was that these tribesmen were gone for good.
Reaching the edge of town, Chief Umm glanced back. The once dense, swarming sea of goblins was now a scattered, fleeing mob. He wondered if there were even two thousand of them left.
Chief Umm could even hear the sounds coming from Ancient Dumu Town: smashing, looting, and utter chaos.
Just as Chief Umm was contemplating his next move, he was shocked to discover that the charging human cavalry were actually withdrawing from the battlefield.
’What’s going on? Why did they suddenly stop fighting?’
Just as Chief Umm was racking his brain, something strange emerged from the distant cloud of dust and smoke.
’What is that?’
’Carriages? Why are they so big?’
Chief Umm was filled with questions, but no one was there to answer him. The only answer he received was a series of whistling sounds as a volley of arrows suddenly launched into the air from the distant cluster of carriages.
The arrows were densely packed, like a rain of iron falling from the sky.
"Look out! Take cover!"
Chief Umm’s eyes widened instantly, and he quickly called out to his last remaining group of tribesmen.
In the entire Beastman Empire, goblins were at the very bottom of the pecking order.
Although the Beastman Empire didn’t lack beast hides, it wasn’t as if every goblin could have a piece of leather armor. In fact, most of the pelts were smuggled to the Frank Kingdom.
What’s more, this rain of arrows from the sky—even leather armor couldn’t possibly defend against it!
Chief Umm’s warning managed to snap some of them to their senses, but it was too little, too late.
The rain of arrows began its descent. The goblins before Ancient Dumu Town could do nothing but cover their heads; most just stood frozen in place, unsure of what to do.
They had already missed the best chance to take cover. Next, Chief Umm witnessed the most unforgettable scene of his life.
The arrows rained down relentlessly, with no break in the deluge. Their sheer number was enough to make one feel as if they were trapped inside an iron net.
The endless stream of arrows was truly like a rain made of steel.
As the arrow rain fell, the air filled with the heart-wrenching screams of goblins as they collapsed to the ground, never to move again.
"This... this is definitely Magic... No! It’s divine punishment! This is divine punishment! We’ve angered the gods!" Chief Umm had rarely seen Magic Crossbows in his life; to him, this scene was truly no different from a punishment from the heavens.
He didn’t know how long it lasted—a few seconds, or perhaps a few centuries—but the rain of arrows finally stopped.
When Chief Umm looked out from Ancient Dumu Town again, where thousands of scattered goblins had stood, they were now all sprawled across the ground.