Chapter 430: A motley crowd versus a regular force (Part 2)

The magic chariots charged out of the withered grass, pulled by two skeletal warhorses. They followed behind the barbarians, in pursuit of the enemy’s infantrymen.

In Qin, the infantrymen were not inferior to the cavalrymen. Their retreat process was very methodical. In the vicinity of a city, heavy infantrymen were the nemesis of cavalrymen. The pirates’ suppressive fire had lost its effect, a mere one-hundred arrows would not be able to injure many infantrymen. As the injured infantrymen were under protection by the shields, their injured body parts would not even influence the battle.

Saleen did not apply poison on the arrow heads. Poison had a shelf life, and it was more expensive. Other than the ones who were shot in the leg, the infantrymen still possessed more than half their offensive power. If Daniel did not use the barbarians for the pursuit, the enemy would have definitely escaped.

Even though the barbarians were not methodical, the order disseminated was very simple. Not to be separated from the magic chariots. In fact, it was impossible for the barbarians to be disjointed from the magic chariots. A magic chariot could travel pretty quickly. On flat land, it was only slightly slower than a cavalryman.

The low grade mages traveling in the magic chariots had blessed the barbarians with the Potence Spell, Stone Skin Spell, Restorative Water, and the Brightness Spell. Under the influence of the magic chariots, these spells did not deplete much of the mages’ magic chords. The effect of these spells were even amplified several times.

By nature, the barbarians could already sprint quickly, on top of their immense strength. With the blessings of various spells, they were basically flying already.

If the magic chariots were filled with grand mages, and the barbarians were blessed with the Windspeed Skill, the barbarians might be able to catch up to a cavalryman over a short distance. That was the advantage of a magic chariot.

Unfortunately, a magic chariot could only bless a limited number of soldiers. Only two-hundred people could receive the effect. Beyond this number, and a mage would be in danger. Otherwise the empire would have mass produced magic chariots already. Instead, the empire chose to use the war puppets to replace the magic chariots. A war puppet reigned over the battlefield, they possessed a variety of attack methods and could move horrifyingly fast. They were not restricted by terrain. The only flaw was that they had a very high depletion.

When the pikoosi noticed his master charging ahead, he reluctantly went to obstruct the infantryman by flanking from the other side. At this point in time, the swordmasters had lost the motivation to assault the pikoosi already. When they saw two magic chariots approaching, they became despaired.

If the cavalrymen were still around, the situation would not have turned out like this.

The barbarians’ axes soared in the air. Under the effect of the Windspeed Skill and the Potence Spell, the charging barbarians leapt dozens of meters forward, cleaving apart the infantrymen who lagged behind. The wooden shields crumbled under the axes, they could not put up a defense at all. A wooden shield was used to block arrows, and the lightest barbarian ax weighed more than thirty catties. If an ax was lifted up and smashed down, even heavy armor would be useless. It might not be able to break armor, but it could cause the soldier to be dizzy.

Only the barbarians or the Caucasus people possessed the physical attributes to wield such weapons for long durations. If a high grade swordsman wanted to wield it, he would have to store it in a chariot first before wielding it for battle. Unlike the barbarians, who could march while carrying the axes on their shoulders.

The commander of the infantrymen ordered half of his men to conduct a counterattack, while the other half would escape swiftly. He could tell that the enemies on the skeletal warhorses were too exhausted to fire any more arrows.

A massive fireball descending from the skies made him lose all hope. Under the effect of the magic chariot, Francis released a fireball with a diameter of two meters. It struck the formation of infantrymen who were trying to flee. When the fireball exploded, it transformed into hundreds of tiny fireballs. It obliterated everything it came into contact with.

That was Francis’ first time tapping into the amplification ability of a magic chariot, it was as though he was in a magic tower. This giant fireball was a level-6 spell. Be that as it may, only one-sixth of his magic chords were depleted, not all of them were gone.

Dozens of soldiers were incinerated right away. The remaining hundreds of soldiers rolled across the ground, trying to use the snow to extinguish the flames. The magic flames were created by the fire element, it could keep burning even while underwater.

Only about thirty or so soldiers remained unharmed. Francis’ attack had wiped out two-fifths of the enemy’s strength. At this moment, the pirates then changed to longbows and returned with the skeletal warhorses.

If there were as many barbarians as infantrymen, the barbarians would have been slaughtered by them. At that moment, there were six times more barbarians than infantrymen.

Francis did not continue casting spells. He began meditating in the chariot, allowing the low grade mages to continue with the battle. Forty barbarians were protecting the perimeter of the chariots. As long as the enemy did not come close, Francis would be safe and sound.

The pirates outnumbered the enemy while the barbarians were playing bully. Noticing this situation, Daniel cast another series of Death spells. This helped the barbarians to kill the infantrymen at the rear of the formation.

There were no cries on the battlefield. The barbarians were astonished by the power of magic, so they simply swung their weapons about silently.

Even though the barbarians were crude, they were a bunch of prideful people. A huge portion of the enemy, who was almost as powerful as them, got destroyed by a spell. This was not something which could be resisted by their brute strength.

The battle lasted for half an hour. Francis did not take any further action, while Daniel decided to control the depletion of his mental strength. Unless his soldiers were in peril, he would not cast any more spells. The Qin infantrymen were really aggressive. In such circumstances, they still managed to kill more than twenty barbarians. The pirates, however, were unharmed. Other than the few who got killed in the beginning, they managed to stay in formation for the rest of the battle.

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Had this been a chance encounter, Daniel’s soldiers would not even die. As long as the mages cast their spells, all the enemies would be exterminated. There were ten mages seated in the magic chariots. They still had to charge into the city later on, so all of them were monitoring the depletion of their magic chords.

Seeing that the battle was about to end, Daniel ordered all the mages to begin meditating in order to maximize their time.

Daniel’s Death spell had killed more than thirty soldiers. Of the dead soldiers, some swordmasters were clad in a low rank commander’s armor. The clothes of those who got killed by the Death spell remained in perfect condition.

Gurney was inactive all this while. Only at the last few moments did he ride on a skeletal warhorse to stab an enemy. Gurney then instructed the pirates to remove the enemy’s clothes, and to seize all their usable armor.

“Sir, how long will all of you take to regain your offensive powers?” Gurney came beside Daniel’s magic chariot and asked softly.

“In one hour’s time, I reckon that Francis will be able to regain all his magic chords.”

“Then I shall seize the city gates in an hour’s time. You will wait at a distance of five miles. Since this is the warring road of the empire, the magic chariot can travel at a speed of fifty miles an hour. I will lead some men to guard the city gates for six minutes. If you do not reach by then, we will be in grave danger.” Even though Gurney was not as educated as a regular soldier, he could still execute a mission to seize the city gates. A pirate did not always rob at sea, they would also go ashore occasionally to harass the smaller towns.

“Don’t worry, I will be there.” Daniel stopped chatting with Gurney, he needed to maximize his meditation time. He knew that charging directly into a city was a perilous task. Since he possessed the magic chariots, he could easily escape if he did not succeed. Before Saleen left, Saleen gave him a piece of Green Spirit, and six skeletal warhorses were sealed in it.

Even if the warhorses pulling the chariots were killed, Daniel could easily summon new ones to escape.

People who were able to catch up to a magic chariot, other than cavalrymen, were naturally mages. If there were too few present, be it mages or cavalrymen, they would not dare pursue a magic chariot. If Daniel fled, the people from Fort Strand would not dare deploy too many troops to give chase.

Over one-hundred barbarians changed into the outfits belonging to the empire’s soldiers. Most of the armor was already tattered and torn, while many inferior horses were dead. The remaining twenty captured horses were assigned to the barbarians who wore the commanders’ outfits.

The barbarians handed over their axes to the pirates to be hung on the sides of the skeletal warhorses. Once the city gates got opened, the barbarians would stand guard there while the pirates would rush in and give them their weapons.

Every soldier drank a cup of the Restorative Water, while the injured personnel used it to wash their wounds. Due to the frigid weather, the wounds would not get infected.

Everyone rode on the skeletal warhorses. When they arrived at a location five miles from the city, Gurney got down from his warhorse. After resting for ten minutes, he then led more than a hundred barbarians towards the city stealthily.

If one was running for his life, a distance of five miles could be covered within half an hour. Gurney estimated that by the time he reached the city gates, Daniel and Francis would have regained all their offensive power.

Gurney was poor in military strategy and tactics, but he knew that the crux of a war laid in the soldiers’ morale. As his team had just achieved victory, everyone was jubilant and motivated. If the rest time was too long, it would actually cause the soldiers to slacken. He rushed to the periphery of Fort Strand without taking any breaks in between because of that.

Fort Strand had focused all its attention on the west gate. In fact, the eastern side was the rear of the city. Two-hundred miles from here was a city stationed with the empire’s troops. When the sentries noticed their comrades, who had gone out for the investigation returning in a wretched manner, they immediately opened the small gate and waved them in.

Strictly speaking, this was not a mistake. There were only about one-hundred people outside. Since the path to the small gate was narrow, it would be difficult for the enemy to gain a breakthrough. As long as a brigade was stationed at this position, the brigade would be able to hold out for at least ten minutes. A duration of ten minutes was already sufficient for deploying the cavalrymen in the city to seal the city gates.

Gurney’s face was smeared with blood as he entered the passageway beyond the small gate. Then he noticed a white-robed mage standing one-hundred meters away and his heart lurched.

In such a tight spot, this low grade mage only needed to cast a few spells to trap everyone in it. A mage possessed impeccable memory. Gurney did not feel that his blood-smeared face could deceive the mage. Saleen had reminded him in the past that a mage only needed to take a look at one’s face once to be able to remember their appearance.

Steeling his heart, Gurney followed Jola’s technique. He inhaled deeply, causing the air in his lungs to expand. He then coughed vigorously, spitting bloody foam, before collapsing onto the ground.

The noise Gurney made attracted that mage’s attention. The mage turned around, but Gurney’s face was hung low as he fell towards the ground.

Gurney was genuinely injured. Even though it was not serious, it was adequate for bluffing the mage.

“Great Mage, please save our captain!” the two pirates beside Gurney hollered. Their acting was proficient. The mage furrowed his brows, but he still walked over. From his perspective, this was an injury which could easily be treated with the Restorative Water.