Chapter 178 - 163: A Dark and Windy Night (Part 2)
Chapter 178: Chapter 163: A Dark and Windy Night (Part 2)
An opportunity for the Beastman Empire to break the stalemate on the central front had finally appeared. Even if it cost him his life, Curry had to help the Beast Emperor complete the southern conquest and reclaim their homeland!
"Tell the other soldiers to head for the mount pens the moment they wake up. Not a moment’s hesitation!" General Curry ordered his adjutant.
"Understood, General!"
...
General Curry acted swiftly, but unfortunately, it was already too late.
The Beastman Army lacked sufficient Thunderhawks and had no air superiority. In this world, that meant they had lost their greatest source of intelligence.
Furthermore, because Robson’s marching speed was so incredible, General Curry couldn’t possibly predict when he would arrive.
By the time the Beastman camp began its preparations, the human cavalry was already less than two miles away. For Extraordinary Cavalry, such a distance could be closed in an instant.
Just as Robson had predicted, it was midnight, and the beastmen, exhausted from their long march, were fast asleep. When a low-ranking noble officer from the Beastman Cavalry shouted at the camp entrance, it had no effect.
Even going right up to a sleeping warrior and shaking him with both hands took two or three seconds to rouse him.
"Get up!"
"The enemy is about to attack!"
"Hey! Kid, how are you asleep again! The enemy’s about to attack, can’t you hear?"
"Can’t the enemy just attack tomorrow?"
This was the scene throughout the Beastman camp. The officers simply couldn’t wake the slumbering soldiers. They hadn’t rested properly for over ten days. Even the most elite veterans couldn’t withstand such a grueling ordeal.
In the end, it was the THUNDERING of hooves that woke most of the soldiers.
Seeing the enemy drawing ever closer, General Curry gave up on the soldiers who were still fast asleep in the camp.
He had no time to react. The humans had descended upon them in an instant. If he sent his few hundred men to disperse and wake the entire camp, then even if they managed to rouse everyone, the army would be a disorganized mob, utterly incapable of withstanding a charge from the human cavalry.
"Everyone, to the mount pens! Everyone! Now! Immediately!" General Curry used his power to broadcast his voice across the entire camp.
General Curry saw the direction of the enemy cavalry’s charge and the griffins guiding them from the sky. In an instant, he understood what this group of humans was targeting.
The mount pens absolutely could not be abandoned. Once lost, all the mounts inside would escape, and the tables would truly be turned.
To be honest, seeing the enemy attack the mount pens, General Curry actually breathed a small sigh of relief.
An attack on the mount pens meant the enemy was aiming for a swift, decisive battle there. They wouldn’t get bogged down in the main barracks up ahead—in fact, they might not even attack the barracks at all.
This way, the enemy’s main force would be attacking his well-prepared Extraordinary beastmen, not the utterly unprepared ordinary Beastman Soldiers in the barracks.
This was also why he dared to abandon the main camp to its fate.
...
"For the King! Charge!" Knight Commander Elon and Viscount Leo led the charge at the very front.
That’s right. The nobles of Qimo Fortress and the Fengman Knight Order were now in the same unit. Together with a mix of other noble knights from various regions, they formed a massive Extraordinary Knight Order of over 600 men.
By now, the Beastman camp was beginning to show signs of waking. Many beastmen rushed out of their tents, not yet understanding the situation and wanting to see what was happening.
Although the Beastman camp was stirring, it was still only a small fraction of the soldiers.
Just as General Curry had predicted, the Human Knight Order didn’t charge into the Beastman barracks. Following the griffins in the sky, they made a beeline for the beastman mount pens.
However, another contingent of cavalry was now charging ferociously toward the Beastman camp itself.
Claude, clad in heavy armor, led the charge at the very front.
"Charge! Three Silver Coins for one kill! One Gold Coin for three! Today’s the day we get rich!"
Just like Valentino, Claude had also given a pre-battle speech. Of course, his motivational lines were somewhat different from Valentino’s.
But this didn’t diminish their zeal for slaughter in the slightest. ’It’s not for the gold, of course. It’s for the glory of the kingdom! To kill the wretched beastmen!’
The Knight Team led by Claude numbered over six hundred men. Nearly two hundred of them were Heavy Cavalry, and with man and horse combined, they weighed over a ton!
Since the Beastman barracks had been set up in a rush, they hadn’t even prepared many defensive stakes. Claude’s charge was incredibly smooth as he trampled over the beastmen’s makeshift barricades.
Claude tore open the tents where the beastmen were sleeping with his lance.
When Claude charged into the tents, many beastmen were still sound asleep.
"Hahaha! Wakey wakey, you animals! Time to taste my lance!" Claude roared with laughter. In a single moment, he struck several times with his lance, taking the lives of many sleeping beastmen.
A few beastmen managed to get up and fight back, but their bodies were so exhausted that one had to wonder if an old farmer from the kingdom with a pitchfork could have sent them to meet their so-called Beast God.
Claude’s Knight Team quickly tore a hole in the Beastman camp. Many Beastman Wolf Cavalry had their lives ended in their sleep.
However, it had to be said that the Beastman Wolf Cavalry lived up to their reputation as the continent’s elite.
Even without their Warg Mounts and after more than ten days without rest, they actually managed to mount a coordinated counterattack under the ferocious human assault.
As battle cries and the pounding of hooves echoed all around, the soldiers in the Beastman camp still managed to form small groups, using nearby slopes, rock walls, and even the wooden poles from their tents to obstruct the charging Cavalry Team.
Many even used their comrades’ corpses as barricades; the beastmen’s average height of two to three meters was proving to be an advantage, albeit a grim one.
...
At this moment, General Curry couldn’t spare any attention for the situation in the main camp. He wanted his Extraordinary Wolf Cavalry to mount up quickly. Only then could they regain the initiative on the battlefield.
But the human Extraordinary Corps was already upon them. If he ordered his Extraordinary Wolf Cavalry to mount their Wargs now, he would be unable to effectively intercept the human cavalry. A full-scale charge into the pens would undoubtedly cause the frightened Warg pack to scatter in all directions.
Of course, they wouldn’t flee in a disorganized panic like horses. Instead, they would disperse across the plains in small packs, in family units.
Beastmen typically tamed their Warg Mounts by using a single, exceptionally powerful Demon Wolf King to gradually assemble a massive pack.
If the enemy charged in, the threat posed by the humans would outweigh the threat of the Demon Wolf King, and the pack’s collapse would be inevitable.
This world was also different from the one in Robson’s past life. Here, the animals that survived—even the herbivores—were descendants of ancient magical beasts. After rigorous human selection and training, the mounts of the human cavalry had no fear of wolf packs.
The area was surrounded by miles of plains, which gave way to mountains. Once the pack scattered into those mountain forests, rounding them up again would be next to impossible.
"Everyone! Find your Warg Mounts! Now! Immediately!"
He didn’t hesitate for long—or rather, time no longer afforded General Curry the luxury of hesitation.
In the end, General Curry’s choice was still to have his Extraordinary Wolf Cavalry mount up.
He understood the situation. His Wolf Cavalry were already exhausted. If they lost their mounts and were forced to fight the human warhorses on foot, it would be a devastating blow to their morale.
Moreover, if he truly ordered the Extraordinary Wolf Cavalry to dismount and fight on foot, even if they managed to delay the enemy temporarily, he would completely lose the initiative.
He had to remember that he was currently in human territory, and his main army was still at least two days away.
General Curry was also wrestling with a massive intelligence gap: how many defenders were at Thermopylae, and what was their skill level?
He had no way of knowing.
If General Curry chose to have the Extraordinary Wolf Cavalry fight on foot, and hundreds more Extraordinary Knights suddenly emerged from Thermopylae, then he would have no choice but to flee in disgrace, dooming thousands of his Wolf Cavalry.
By choosing to have the Extraordinary Wolf Cavalry mount up now, he could at least retain the initiative—the initiative to retreat.
If things truly got that desperate, he could cut his losses to survive and preserve the elite core of his forces—these nearly seven hundred Extraordinary Wolf Riders.