Thrilling war cries exploded from the throats of more than two thousand Exeter men, and they rushed towards the Star Man who was like a lonely boat.
Unexpectedly, Thales's first large-scale battlefield experience arrived.
The sword and shield soldiers of the Fury Guard stood in the front row. They held their swords in their hands and formed a sideways formation against their comrades.
Alaka had already dismounted. He raised a terrifying sword nearly as tall as a person with both hands, and strode forward with a burning fighting spirit in his eyes.
The soldiers in the front consciously gave up a space three people wide to their commander.
"The first round of impact!" Alaka looked around and shouted: "Withstand the defense line!"
The enemy is coming like a tide, getting closer and closer.
In the center of the formation, Huaiya immediately pulled Thales off his conspicuous horse, tightly protected him in a ring composed of six soldiers, and then joined Ada, Putilai, and Rolf.
They formed ranks and guarded the four corners of this small battle formation.
"Go help the front row!" Thales urged: "If they collapse, you can't protect me!"
But his heart was extremely confused - he still couldn't figure out how could Exeter face such a situation when he was on a mission?
What happened?
Huaiya and Rolf looked at each other, and with Putilai's nod, they moved towards the front row.
Ada exhaled and whispered to Putilai: "This is a real battlefield, and even extreme masters must be extremely careful."
"And such a disparity in the battle..."
"If you have any way to avoid fighting, please mention it quickly!"
"If not, think about it quickly!"
Thales gritted his teeth and looked at the charging enemies, six groups of Exeters.
The number of enemies... is too many.
Trapped in siege.
We simply don't have enough troops... No, it should be said that we are not ready for war at all!
what to do?
Shout out my identity?
But the other person didn't seem to care at all.
Facing the upcoming battle, many soldiers from the stars exhaled a breath of hot breath, clenched their swords, braced their shields, and looked solemnly at the menacing Exeters.
The first roaring Exeter infantryman came forward.
"boom!"
His shield collided hard with that of a sword and shield soldier.
With the help of their comrades on both sides and behind, Xingchen's sword and shield soldiers gritted their teeth to withstand the impact of this tall opponent, and swung their swords to block the opponent's ax in the air.
However, more Exters came towards the Star Mission's formation.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The Exter soldiers howled angrily and bumped into the Starmen's formation from all directions!
"kill!"
"Hold them!"
Amidst the roars of soldiers from both sides, the sounds of shields clashing and weapons clashing intertwined, like countless thunder exploding on the flat ground.
Jenard stood in the front row with two Fury Guard soldiers, his shoulders straining against his shield.
A swung mace slammed into the shield, and Gennard shuddered and almost fell backwards.
The companion behind held his back and helped him stabilize his body.
Gennard, with a distorted face, resisted the impact.
Damn it, he thought bitterly.
These Exeter people... are much stronger and stronger than the rebels in the southwest.
Gennard let go of a sword that was thrust into his forearm and asked his comrades to deal with him. The veteran himself took away the mace and kicked its owner hard on the knee, knocking him staggering, and then
The sword penetrated his unprotected neck.
Blood spurted out, and the opponent fell on his back while hesitating.
Fortunately... their movements are not very flexible either.
Just as he thought this, a spear grazed his ear and pierced the abdomen of a soldier on the left side of Gennard. The latter wailed and collapsed.
Jarnard roared angrily and took up the position of the dead, chopped off the spear, and withstood a blade that wanted to come in through the gap. A soldier behind him quickly filled the space left by Jarnard.
Scenes like this appear in various places in the front row.
Roars and howls were still mixed in the collision of metal and the exchange of weapons. Exeter's light infantry rushed forward again and again like they were desperate, and were resisted and even killed by the members of the Fury Guards and the Mission again and again.
Corpses were left behind, but people continued to fall on the star side, and blood gradually dyed the snow red.
But the veterans of the Fury Guard in the front row still relied on their rich experience and mature skills to try to maintain the line from being breached.
Thales looked at everything around him with fear, the battlefield where thousands of people were intertwined.
A brutal and horrific fight
Blood splattered everywhere.
A roar that risked life and death.
The number of corpses keeps increasing.
The battlefield in front of him was undoubtedly more shocking than the previous battle with the Holy Blood Corps.
Commander Araka was also in the front row, with a gloomy expression on his face, guarding the space between the three of them alone.
He did not show any fancy and exquisite extreme combat skills, but repeated simple and plain fighting movements.
However, no one can take advantage of him.
In the first round of impact, Alaka's two-handed sword sent a roar of death in the air, and chopped off a head with a horizontal slash.
He then split open the shield, chest and abdomen of the second Exeter, and then, amid the spurts of blood, he quickly deflected an incoming long sword, and pierced the opponent's chest with the sword before he could react.
.
But next door to him, a soldier of the Fury Guard had his skull chopped open with an axe, and he fell helplessly.
Exeter's Bastards.
Araka gritted his teeth and exhaled, with a fierce and ferocious face. He turned around with the hilt of his sword and pushed the enemy to stagger.
"Observe the situation at the rear and wait for an opportunity to break out and return to the fortress!" Alaka, whose face was covered in blood, swung his sword, lowered his head to avoid an ax blade, and shouted an order.
"I'm afraid it will be difficult!" A guard officer struggled to push back a fierce Exeter man and rewarded him: "More than half of the enemies are blocking us behind!"
"Hold on! They are just relying on the morale of the first round of offensive!"
Araka gritted his teeth and kicked down a shield, and stabbed its owner's roaring face with a sword. He waved his left hand at the right time, deflected a spear with his forearm, and wiped out blood.
But at the same time, an ax blade struck at his head. Alaka lowered his head calmly to dodge, and the ax blade took away a few hairs.
Huaiya, who was obsessed with single-edged swords, arrived. He sent out his long sword, activated the irreversible edge, and cut the opponent's throat with his backhand. However, his ribs were scratched by the ax blade, and he groaned in pain.
Beside him, a comrade's head was smashed with a hammer because he rescued him, causing red and white splatters.
"Stop using those boring swordsmanship and put away your beautiful posture!" Alaka blocked a straight blade directed at Huai Ya with his sword and shouted angrily: "On the battlefield, extreme masters are no better than ordinary people.
How many!"
"It's just a matter of standing there for ten minutes longer and killing a few more soldiers!"
"Save some strength for every attack, leave room for dodge, stab and dodge honestly!"
An infantryman was knocked away from his weapon, and he roared and wanted to rush up to hug him. Without hesitation, Alaka held the sword with one hand and punched him in the face. He then knocked him back with a fierce elbow strike, which could be vaguely heard.
The sound of the opponent's ribs breaking.
"Otherwise, retreat to the rear and don't be a burden!"
Huaiya, whose injuries had not healed yet and suffered new injuries, had no choice but to grit his teeth and retreat in shame.
A strange wind came suddenly, blowing snow particles, and several of the Exeter infantrymen who came up couldn't help but raise their hands to protect their eyes.
Araka roared wildly and swung his sword with both hands, cutting open one person's shield and chest at the right time, and then stabbed the other person in the abdomen.
"This power is pretty good..." Araka wiped the blood on his face and frowned at Rolf's one-handed hidden sword: "But that thing can also be used on the battlefield?"
Rolf, a mute with a broken arm, couldn't tell anything, but he did feel the powerlessness of the hidden sword on the battlefield - without a handguard, every time he swung the sword, he might be saying goodbye to his arm.
He can only use his powers to support combat, and his hidden sword is used for self-defense.
On the other side of the formation, Willow Ken hid behind a sword and shield soldier, held a sword strike with his left hand, and shot out of the shield with his right hand, stabbing into the side of the enemy's face.
A soldier had his right hand cut off. He held his shield and gritted his teeth and retreated. However, when he took the first step, he was struck by a flying ax into his chest and abdomen.
Another person stepped forward to fill in.
"You are a doctor, at least do something!" Willow shouted anxiously to Ramon, who was curled up behind him.
"I'm not a military doctor!" Ramon glanced at the enemies in all directions, held his head and shouted: "And that prince didn't say there was this scene!"
"I should have known we should have brought out some pikemen!" Ada sighed as she stood guard around Thales, looking at the situation around her.
Her defenseless scimitar is only suitable for small-scale combat. Unless it hits the vital point directly, the damage on the armor will not be enough, and it is impossible to dodge to the maximum extent on a crowded battlefield.
If I had known better, I should have brought my father's two-handed machete that was said to be able to break armor... It was the standard equipment of the Guards of the Ancient Elf Kingdom a long time ago.
"No one expected this battle!" No enemy had broken through to the second row yet, but Putilai still looked back worriedly, glanced at Thales, and shouted anxiously: "This is unreasonable!"
"There is nothing unreasonable on the battlefield!" At the front of the formation, Alaka waved his sword crazily, with an extra wound on his body: "Surviving is reasonable!"
"Withstand the first round of impact. When their offensive weakens, look for opportunities to break out!"
"Otherwise we will all be consumed here to death!"
In the center of the formation, Thales was lying on his back hiding among the soldiers, breathing rapidly.
He was in a state of panic.
Thales wanted to calm his hands buried in the snow so that they would no longer tremble.
But amidst the deafening shouts and collisions of thousands of people, his forearm was like an out-of-control wild horse, trembling unsatisfactorily in the endless sound of fighting, regardless of the owner's will.
Damn it.
Thales trembled his teeth and lips, feeling ashamed of his first battlefield performance.
Calm down quickly.
But no one seemed to care about his appearance. The soldiers around him looked around nervously, fearing that the layers of defense would be suddenly broken through from any direction.
A miserable howl came out - it was the sound of a star soldier being cut in half.
Thales shrank and closed his eyes.
Calm down!
At this moment, the familiar wave spread from his heart.
The world around me seemed to have quieted down.
Thales instantly grasped the situation all over his body, and he clearly realized which muscles were trembling.
With the help of that wave, he took deep, rhythmic breaths.
He soothed those muscles and finally calmed down the involuntary tremors.
My heart and breathing calmed down.
But this is not enough.
Thales turned his head extremely slowly, thinking desperately while time seemed to have slowed down countless times.
How to get out of the current predicament?
No, I don't understand military affairs at all, that is Araka and Sonia's expertise.
I can only think from a more comprehensive and fundamental place...
For example.
Why, why did Rumba kill me?
No.
I should think the other way around.
I die here... What is Rumba's purpose? What are his interests?
Think clearly about his motives and interests.
impossible.
The mission that robbed and killed the stars, the successors of the stars.
He has no benefit at all!
So what is Rumba for?
Did someone bribe him?
At this moment, long-lost memories of past lives resurfaced.
[War is a highly complex and changing form of social conflict, but it has long been ignored in our discipline...]
[The research results of many scholars are in response to Clausewitz’s classic discussion...]
[Male?evi? proposed that structure, organizational capabilities and legitimizing ideology are both prerequisites for large-scale collective violence...]
[Weber never explicitly included war as a social phenomenon in his theory, but he mentioned in his definition of the modern state that state power monopolizes the legitimate use of violence in the territory it claims...]
Thales struggled to resist the flashbacks of memories and the emergency situation in front of him.
hateful.
In its claimed territory…
etc!
Thales's pupils shrank.
Maybe it's not that complicated.
War is never about killing.
territory……
Lombard's original intention was to capture the North.
so……
The fluctuations passed away, time seemed to return to normal, and fighting and death returned to my ears.
Thales lay on the ground sweating profusely and breathing heavily.
He found the source of the conflict.
Now.
Gotta fix it!
"No!" An Exeter infantryman watched in horror as Alaka cut his throat: "You are... you are..."
But he could no longer say the rest.
"Fill my position!" Araka gritted his teeth and struck out with his sword again, knocking down a rough-skinned man with a hammer and retreating angrily. Two sword and shield soldiers filled up his defense line with firm faces.
"The momentum of their charge this round has been almost exhausted by us," Alaka panted, dragging his sword to the center of the formation, and said to Ada: "Leave the people behind and pack up the prince. I'll do it."
Fight your way back to the fortress!"
"Wait a moment!"
Thales couldn't care less about rest. He raised his head anxiously and shouted, attracting the attention of Putilai and Alaka: "Rumba!"
"Rumba's Army!"
"They sent no heavy infantry, no cavalry, not even crossbows and archers! Just these temporary light infantry recruits," Thales nervously recalled his only military knowledge: "They did not intend to defeat us in an instant.
!”
"So you want to stay and repay him?" Araka turned around and said sarcastically: "For Lumba's kindness, you let us live an extra quarter of an hour?"
"What he wants is to drag us here for this quarter of an hour, not to annihilate us quickly!" Thales refused Ada's support and stood up with difficulty: "Rumba is betting on the opponent's choice!"
"Our choice?" Waiya on the side thrust his sword out from behind the shield, forcing back an axe.
Before Wyatt was hit in the face by a long sword, Rolf dragged him back in time. Wyatt gasped and said, "Bet on us breaking out or holding on?"
"No," Thales opened his eyes and stared at Alaka: "Rumba is not betting on us."
"No!" Putilai understood instantly and turned pale: "He would never dare to use your life to..."
Thales said anxiously: "The Duke of Lombard is betting on the Broken Dragon Fortress behind us!"
"The bet is on the choice of Lord Sonia Satherley."
"Bet on whether she will send troops to rescue us!"
Alaka's pupils shrank suddenly.
"His bet," Thales shouted, "is my life and his future!"