This made Mier look at his left pauldron with a pained expression; it had been slightly warped by Zat’s imnse strength.
"I want one, too," the Lord, who was discussing specifics with Si Kai, added over his shoulder.
Bowing to the age-old principle that rank has its privileges, and faced with this tyrannical hypocrisy of ’one rule for , another for thee,’ Zat could only silently add another Barbarian Bear to his capture list.
"I just saw the enemy organizing to et our forces. Leading them is a group of Bear Goblins with Wooden Shields, roughly a thousand of them," Si Kai said, gesturing with his hands as he pointed to a spot in the distance where only moving black dots were visible.
"How strong are they?" Levi asked.
As a support squad, they hadn’t followed the main army. Their current position was on a high slope to its right rear.
The line of sight here was excellent. Furthermore, if the enemy forces spotted them and tried to eliminate their squad, the gentle slope before them would drain their montum.
"They’re just wearing simple Leather Armor, and their weapons are simple Long Spears."
"Then what the hell are we waiting for? One volley from the catapults and a few rounds of arrows would be enough to beat those unarmored hicks into submission," the Lord said, his interest waning.
Both sides were still in the probing stage; neither was going to go all-in just yet.
He might have been interested if it were a strong warrior Race like the Minotaurs, Centaurs, or Pign.
But a group of Bear Goblins? They were certainly stronger than Goblins, but the Lord found them utterly unremarkable.
anwhile, Fujero, mounted on a tall steed, watched the Bear Goblins advance on the Thorn Corps. He didn’t let his guard down just because of their crude equipnt.
This war was his opportunity to be promoted to the nobility, so he could not afford a single mistake.
Even though he didn’t really consider them worthy opponents, his deploynts were still solid and prudent.
The Old People, standing Sanren Gao tall and clad in Thick Iron Armor, advanced with their Giant Shields raised upon command, forming a towering wall.
At the bottom of a gentle downward slope, the Steel Shields slamd down, erecting an insurmountable wall of steel.
Countless spearheads, glinting coldly, poked through the gaps between the iron shields.
A simple Spear Shield Array was ford.
This formation wasn’t difficult—nearly every legion knew it—but that didn’t make it ineffective. On the contrary, it was the very definition of simple and practical.
Especially against a band of Wilderness Natives who lacked heavy siege weaponry, it was more than enough to be completely overwhelming.
The natives attacked quickly. In the ti it took to exchange a few words, the Bear Goblins had already advanced to within fifty paces of the Shield Array. The head-on clash had officially begun.
It was as if they could see the dawn of victory. They roared with excitent, bolstering their own courage, but a sky-darkening volley of arrows soon sent them scrambling for cover behind their Covered Wooden Shields.
Although the two sides were engaged in open-field battle, the Thorn Corps could be considered the defenders and thus held a slight advantage. The Archers had already occupied the most favorable positions, and wave after wave of arrows rained down on the enemy, reaping life after life.
Like veteran hunters stalking rabbits, they were silent, drawing their bowstrings with a steady, unhurried rhythm.
If one were to look closely, they would see that with every volley, the timing of each man’s movents was nearly identical.
This was the result of years of training, fostering perfect coordination among the soldiers.
Putting aside the actual casualty rate, a synchronized volley of arrows is often more terrifying than arrows falling sporadically.
Therefore, legion Archers were all required to maintain a uniform rhythm during massed volley fire.
The Bear Goblins finally made it through the arrow storm and charged the Shield Array, overjoyed that they had survived the ordeal. Unfortunately, faced with the unshakeable Steel Shields, they were skewered by Long Spears from two blade-lengths away, their bodies falling to the ground in a final, tragic heap.
This could hardly be called a war; it was nothing short of a slaughter.
Facing these Giant Shields that stood three blades high, the Bear Goblins had no other option but to rely on sheer numbers and charge head-on.
But in the end, all they could do was leave behind corpse after corpse.
Especially when the Giant Shields were lifted and began to slowly advance, the Bear Goblins fell like a line of dominoes, easily cut down one by one.
If this stalemate continued, a rout was the only possible outco for the Bear Goblins.
...
「Wilderness Alliance Camp」
"If Leiden doesn’t attack soon, we’re going to lose!"
The Pigman Leader growled, watching the Bear Goblins get routed in the distance.
He tapped his enormous cleaver impatiently on the ground.
Behind him stood five hundred Pigman Warriors clad in a layer of Iron Armor, with only their crimson eyes visible.
These Pigman Warriors were silent as stone, only the hot breath huffing from their snouts proved they were living beings.
"Tikli, be patient. We’re not fighting one of the great Tribes of the Wilderness. This is a proper human army. One careless move and we could lose everything."
Leiden, the Giant Goblin in command of the army, was also anxiously wringing his hands, his eyes glued to the battlefield before them.
As a Giant Goblin who had grown up in the Wilderness, he possessed an incredible talent for military matters.
Just after coming of age, he had organized a group of Goblins and routed a force of Kobolds.
Later, he led Goblins and Bear Goblins to victory after victory deep in the Wilderness, further proving that his military genius was unparalleled in these lands.
Facing a proper human army this ti, he was overjoyed, eager to test himself against the human commander and see who was truly superior.
Leiden knew that trying to crush this human army with sheer numbers was a fool’s dream. Therefore, certain strategic deploynts were crucial.
Like right now...
With a shrill whistle, a troop of two hundred Centaurs, who had sohow bypassed the main battlefield, suddenly appeared on the Thorn Corps’ left flank.
Normally, the thundering of hooves from such a large cavalry force would be impossible to conceal, audible from two or three miles away.
Yet this group of Centaurs had managed to get to a position less than a mile from the Thorn Corps before they were spotted.
A closer look revealed that their hooves were all wrapped in thick Cotton Cloth.
This allowed them to move in complete silence.
"Well, now. The other side has a master strategist," Levi said, watching the suddenly-appeared troop of Centaurs through his binoculars with a look of excitent.
The technique of wrapping hooves in Cotton Cloth might seem simple, but soone without military knowledge would never think of it.
’For a bunch of wilderness hicks to pay attention to such details is truly comndable.’
Unfortunately for them, as an experienced commander, Fujero had already anticipated this. With a series of commands, a waiting contingent of shield-bearers and Long Spear Soldiers pivoted to face the Centaurs. If the Centaurs dared to charge recklessly, they would be skewered by the Long Spears and turned into pincushions, leaving behind nothing but corpses.
"The enemy may have a commander who knows a little about military tactics, but that’s the extent of it."
Fujero smiled confidently. This tactic of tying up the main force while sending cavalry to strike a weak point was sothing he often did himself.
It was more than enough against a band of undisciplined rabble, but against a highly disciplined and obedient legion, it was re child’s play.
"Tikli, you’re up next."
Watching the human army redeploy in the distance, Leiden smiled faintly, a sense of ease settling over him.
’This human commander may be proficient in military matters, but he is definitely not my match.’
It was as if their gazes crossed the sea of people and clashed violently.
...
"Tsk, tsk. These Pign really are fierce and unafraid of death," Levi marveled, holding the binoculars.
With the Pigman Warriors joining the fray, the pressure on the Thorn Corps increased dramatically. What began as a one-sided slaughter against the Bear Goblins had now escalated to the point where they were beginning to take minor casualties.
It wasn’t many, but as everyone knows, the step from zero to one is the hardest. As soon as the defensive line was no longer an indestructible wall, the feeling of impossibility was replaced by the sense that victory was within reach. This greatly inflad the natives’ desire to attack.
"Brother-in-law, is it my turn yet?" Mier asked pitifully from the side.
He had crafted these binoculars with his own two hands, yet the number of tis he’d actually gotten to hold them could be counted on two hands.
"In a minute, in a minute," the Lord replied dismissively, with no intention of letting go. He even had the leisure to scratch his ear. "I’ll give them to you in a second... Wait a minute..."
The Lord’s face suddenly stiffened. His expression was one of pure horror, as if he had just seen the Undead, and he couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. "HSSS."
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