Chapter 276 - 44: Night Raid
Chapter 276: Chapter 44: Night Raid
CLIP-CLOP...
The sound was like lightning striking the sky, its rhythm like white pearls dancing upon the earth.
Tec’s mind was empty as he practiced his breathing techniques inside his tent, feeling as if he had become one with the earth.
’This sound... why does it sound so much like horse hooves?’
"Cavalry!" Tec’s eyes snapped open.
"How could there be cavalry here?"
Tec burst out of his tent. The area outside was silent. If not for the intermittent tremors running through the ground, it would have been a perfectly ordinary winter night.
To be certain he wasn’t mistaken, Tec pressed his ear to the ground, using his Dou Qi to enhance his senses.
"Cavalry! It’s really cavalry!" Tec’s skin crawled. From the sound, it was definitely horses; wolves would never make this much noise when running.
In other words, this was a human cavalry force.
’How could there be a human cavalry force here? Isn’t Ancient Dumu Town still ahead? Weren’t there supposedly tens of thousands of defenders? Did the humans just blunder their way through?’
"Everyone up! Prepare for battle! Prepare for battle!"
"We’re under attack! We’re under attack!"
Tec roared at the top of his lungs, his voice amplified by his Silver Sixth Tier Dou Qi, carrying in all directions.
Though the Soldiers on watch didn’t know what was happening, they understood the gravity of the situation from Tec’s roar and rushed to wake their comrades.
Meanwhile, ever since taking Ancient Dumu Town and receiving the report from the Griffin Knights, Robson had immediately assembled his army. Led by the Griffin Knights, they rode without stopping toward the Beastman Army’s position.
The military situation was urgent, and Robson could not afford the slightest delay.
Seeing the specks of firelight from the camp in the distance and hearing the rising clamor, Robson couldn’t help but be impressed.
’It seems the Griffin Knights weren’t wrong. This army is indeed an elite force. Even though Lord Robson had his cavalry muffle their hooves the entire way, doing their utmost to remain silent, they were still detected.’
However, at this distance...
Robson looked ahead. The enemy camp was still in chaos. It was obvious they hadn’t even completed a basic formation.
’If that’s all it is, what does it matter if you detected us early?’
’My cavalry is about to be on top of you. Is there still time to form up now?’
Knight Commander Elon had clearly noticed this as well. His expression grew excited as he looked to Robson at his side.
Robson nodded, then looked toward Claude.
Claude understood immediately. He rode off and began shouting orders to the Cavalry Team behind them.
"Everyone, remove the mufflers! Remove the mufflers!"
"Remove the mufflers! Remove the mufflers!"
Then, Knight Commander Elon also began giving orders to the Fengman Knight Order behind him.
Before long, the Fengman Knight Order was the first to finish their preparations. It wasn’t a matter of technical skill; there was nothing you could do when others were using Dou Qi to undo their bindings.
Seeing the army was ready, Knight Commander Elon exchanged a look with Robson. He immediately spurred his horse forward, drew his Knight’s long sword, and pointed it at the sky.
"By the honor of a Knight! For Fengman!"
"Charge!"
The moment the sound of the charge horn faded, Knight Commander Elon flared his Dou Qi, drew his lance, and wheeled his mount to charge toward the distant Beastman Camp.
"For the honor of a Knight! For Fengman! For the Kingdom!"
"For Fengman! For the Kingdom!"
The members of the Fengman Knight Order followed closely behind Knight Commander Elon, brandishing their silver lances.
As a warlike people, the Frankish Nobles rarely feared blood and sacrifice.
Although they had just been through a battle a few hours ago, for most of them, that hadn’t been a real fight. It was a slaughter, a mere appetizer.
This Beastman Army before them now—this was a worthy opponent, a true enemy.
In an instant, the entire Fengman Knight Order was enveloped in Dou Qi of every color, forming a massive beacon in the dark night.
Robson had no intention of having his Soldiers attack in waves. For one, the enemy force was only two thousand strong; there was simply no need.
For another, it was obvious this enemy force was completely different from those goblin dog-headed people in Ancient Dumu Town.
When facing elites, one must naturally use methods for facing elites.
Just as Robson had anticipated, when his army arrived, the Beastmen were still trying to form up, their entire camp a scattered mess.
Moreover, it was the dead of night, the time when people are in their deepest sleep!
Robson’s Soldiers, on the other hand, were fresh off a victory! Their adrenaline was pumping, and every last one of them was fired up and ready to go. In contrast, for that group of Beastmen to even react quickly to an enemy attack already marked them as a rare elite. Never mind that after reacting, they still had to find their officers, and then find their formations...
Kick them while they’re down! That was Robson’s strategy against the Beastmen—go all-in and play all his cards at once!
"Hurry! Form up! Form up!"
Tec anxiously directed the troops around him.
Unfortunately, it was still the middle of the night, a time when any creature would be sleeping soundly.
Tec’s coarse voice woke several sleeping Dwarves. They stumbled out of their tents, their steps unsteady, a few of them yawning.
"Goddammit, what are you standing around for? Get ready to fight!" Seeing the Dwarves, Tec fumed. He wanted to go and kick them, but then he realized his own short legs couldn’t reach.
"Sir! Sir! It’s bad!"
"Sir, it’s bad!"
Just as Tec was berating the Dwarf Warriors, an earth goblin warrior from the rear rushed forward to report.
That was right. Although Tec’s army was an elite force hand-picked by Prince Odoruo, it still contained goblins.
In this world, anything associated with the word ’goblin’ couldn’t possibly have high combat effectiveness.
The so-called earth goblins were only about 1.6 meters tall. Thanks to the existence of Magic, the average human in this world was also around 1.6 meters. Furthermore, since goblins were generally frail, an earth goblin might not even win a one-on-one fight against a human of the same size.
There was no helping it. The truly elite forces had all been transferred by the Beast Emperor to the more critical Central and Western Fronts. Besides worthless races like goblins and Kobolds, Prince Odoruo had no other troops to command.
As if in response to the earth goblin’s words, the tremors in the ground began to increase exponentially. Even those who weren’t Extraordinary could hear the rumbling.
The number of cavalry in this wave was definitely not small!
General Tec’s expression was as foul as if he’d eaten something rotten. This wave of enemies had come too suddenly; he was completely unprepared.
"All Extraordinary! Gather on me! All Extraordinary, over here!"
Tec commanded in all directions. It wasn’t that he only wanted to gather the Extraordinary, but at this hour, only the Extraordinary could remain clear-headed and quickly join the battle.
The current situation put Tec in a very passive position. If he didn’t organize a large-scale counterattack, the entire camp would be a chaotic mess, and the battle would be over the moment the enemy cavalry charged in.
But he couldn’t organize a large-scale resistance in such a short time, so his only choice was to have all the Extraordinary gather.
Even if they couldn’t hold, retreating with the Extraordinary would at least preserve the core of his army.
Looking at the Extraordinary gathering around him, Tec’s heart sank. He felt a bone-deep hatred for the commander of Ancient Dumu Town’s garrison.
Although the Extraordinary could gather quickly, in Tec’s army, ’Extraordinary’ was basically a synonym for ’Officer’.
In other words, if he, Tec, couldn’t hold back this cavalry wave, the rout of his main army would be all but certain.
"Everyone, over here! Fall back to the very center of the camp! Everyone, retreat to the rear of the camp, prepare to enter the forest!"
"For the Kingdom!"
"For..."
Just as Tec was getting his troops in order, the shouts of the Human Knight Order could already be heard. Tec immediately began commanding the Extraordinary Soldiers around him.
"Everyone here, get ready to... So many!" Tec’s gaze flickered, and he saw the Human Knight Order charging toward them like a landslide. The Knights’ bodies were each shining with the glow of Dou Qi, like giant headlights in the night.
Normally, a battlefield veteran like Tec should have been able to discern the enemy’s numbers just by the sound of their hooves. But Robson’s army had appeared too suddenly, and Tec was too busy trying to organize a defense to have time for that.
The human army in front smashed directly through the camp’s barricades—or rather, the camp had no barricades to speak of.
This was the advantage of a surprise attack. The enemy had no time to prepare; everything happened in an instant.
"Sir, how do we defend now?" his second-in-command, also a seasoned warrior, asked. But the scene before them had still given him a terrible fright.
There were at least four or five hundred humans in front of them. Of course, the second-in-command didn’t have X-ray vision. If he could see past the front ranks of the army to the Cavalry Team of over five hundred more behind them, who knows what he would think.
"Defend?" Tec looked at his second-in-command.
"What’s there to defend? Scatter! Everyone scatter! After you scatter, run for the forest to the east!"
Tec had originally thought there would be two or three hundred of them at most. In that case, using the tents as makeshift cover, his two hundred-plus Extraordinary could have held them off for a while.
But not only were the enemy’s numbers more than double his own, in terms of quality, there wasn’t a single weakling among them.
Tec instantly understood the origin of this force: the Northern Raptors, the Fengman Knight Order of the Fengman Clan, the leading power of the Frank Kingdom’s northeast.
In the past, Tec had only heard about this group from other Beastman officers. This was the first time he had truly witnessed one of the top ten Knight Orders of the Frank Kingdom.
Compared to this terrifying force, the other armies Tec had encountered on the battlefield were nothing!
After saying his piece, Tec was the first to turn and run.
Tec knew in his heart that without an Extraordinary Infantry Corps, it was nearly impossible for manpower alone to resist an Extraordinary Army of this scale—unless he also had an Extraordinary Infantry Corps of Dwarves.
No one was a fool. And even a fool could see the strength of the opposing Knight Order.
Hearing Tec’s words, the Beastman Extraordinary immediately scattered, running for their lives toward the eastern forest.