Chapter 589 - 360: Anti-Aircraft Guns Laid Flat (Part 2)

Chapter 589: Chapter 360: Anti-Aircraft Guns Laid Flat (Part 2)

To be honest, the formation they’d arranged was less orderly than high school students doing calisthenics. You could barely tell that different types of soldiers were assigned to different positions.

Of course, Zog wasn’t just here to watch the show. After all, Deepwater City was his city, and relying entirely on Figxin’s soldiers to defend it felt a little embarrassing.

So he brought a contingent of Dragons, the melee-proficient Beastman Warband, and some Devil Warriors hired from Asmodis—who fought purely as a hobby—to serve as reinforcements.

This was because Figxin’s legion was not skilled in close combat. They had very few Transcendents among them—fewer than thirty in their two-thousand-strong force. Their levels were not high, and they were mostly Priests tasked with acting as field medics.

If—and Zog stressed, *if*—the enemy broke through to close range, the forces he brought would be enough to hold them back, allowing Figxin’s Ordinary soldiers to fall back and regroup their defenses.

Figxin was grateful for Zog’s support but stated very seriously that it was impossible for the enemy to reach close-combat range.

According to her, when that cobbled-together Alliance Army, completely lacking any military discipline, charged down from the highlands, their chaos would be little different from a band of robbers. Once they were caught in a crossfire, and their few Transcendents fell like blades of grass, their morale would instantly shatter, and they would flee in a panic.

An army that attacks without discipline will inevitably flee with even more chaos. The crowding and trampling would just turn them into pitiful living targets.

This matched Zog’s impression of Feilin’s armies. Although he had never commanded a war, he had faced small military units many times.

Most of them had been sent to vanquish him.

In all those years, he’d never seen one fight to the death; he’d only seen them get trampled by their own men while routing.

So, strictly speaking, while the Alliance Army claimed to have a force of one hundred thousand, the real number was indeed close to that.

But fewer than thirty thousand were actual combatants, and of those thirty thousand, you only needed to deal with four or five thousand before the rest lost all will to fight.

On paper, it looked like two thousand against one hundred thousand. In reality, it was more like two thousand against five thousand.

The gap wasn’t so large after all.

On the highlands, the Alliance Army had already been arranging their formation for over an hour.

Their marching column was so long that after the head of the army arrived, they had to wait a long time for the tail end to catch up.

Watching them made Zog anxious. If he had brought the cannons, he could have fired a few rounds at them by now. They might have routed immediately, skipping the charge altogether.

After they finally finished their preparations, there was still no sign of an attack.

"What on earth are they doing?" Zog finally couldn’t help but ask Figxin.

Figxin appeared calm. She was all too familiar with traditional methods of warfare. "They’re adjusting the order of their charging units."

"Huh?"

"If I’m not mistaken, the noble acting as commander-in-chief probably arranged for his own Knight Order to be in the second wave initially, to minimize his losses. But after arriving and seeing how few troops we have, he now thinks this will be an easy victory. So he’s moving his Knight Order to the first wave to claim the primary credit."

"..."

Zog was speechless. ’What kind of Alliance Army is this?’

"Once they finish repositioning, it will still be a while before the battle starts."

"Still a while?"

"Yes. The commander-in-chief still has to give a pre-battle speech. It’s usually written for him by his family’s scribe. This is a very important step for nobles—partly to boost morale, and partly for their reputation. Their speeches will appear, word for word, in the historical records of this war."

"Written for him? I thought they were improvised on the spot." Zog recalled the classic scenes he’d seen in movies.

There were certainly plenty of rousing pre-battle speeches.

"Improvise? There aren’t that many nobles with literary talent. Some of them do memorize a few common phrases, though. After the speech, their tactics won’t be complicated either, because they’re completely incapable of complex coordination."

Figxin seemed to see right through the Alliance Army. "The only thing they can think of is to drag this into a close-quarters fight. They’ll try to reduce our firing accuracy, probably with something like smoke or flash Magic. Then, their Mage Corps will cast temporary defenses on the cavalry—it should be a Magic Resistance type, since the guns we sell are Magic Guns. After that, they’ll just charge down all at once."

After listening, Zog said, "If they do that, won’t they be completely helpless?"

’Reducing accuracy is pointless. Our heavy guns don’t need to aim; you just sweep them across the field. As for Magic Resistance, the heavy guns fire super-heated Elemental Streams, not Magic.’

"Trust me, that’s exactly what they’ll do," Figxin said confidently.

—————————

On the highlands, Sir Willy wiped the sweat from his brow. The formation was finally set.

It had taken a great deal of effort to move his Knight Order to the very front of the formation.

The enemy’s numbers were now clear: two or three thousand at most. With such a huge disparity, victory would be even easier than he had imagined.

As an outstanding Lord, he should always be thinking about securing benefits for those loyal to him.

Therefore, the great honor of being the first to break the enemy’s lines had to belong to his Knight Order.

The army had already rested once before forming up, so the Warriors were full of energy, even excited.

They too could see that this was going to be a great victory, and so they were all getting impatient.

In the distance, they could see the silhouette of Deepwater City. Its tall, exquisite buildings were the riches they were about to plunder.

It was so tempting.

Their excitement was a good thing. Sir Willy was very pleased with the legion’s current state.

’It’s time for a rousing speech.’

He quietly pulled a piece of paper from his saddle—his cheat sheet. Although he had already memorized it, he was worried about making a mistake, so he wanted to review it one last time.

He cleared his throat—a cracking voice would be terrible during a speech—and then cast an Amplification Technique. It wasn’t like he could give a speech with a microphone and speakers.

"People of Sutton, my brothers!

"In your eyes, I see the same fear that I feel."

In reality, there was no fear at all; they could hardly wait.

"But the enemy’s fear will surely be far greater than ours!

"They are cowardly rebels, while we are Sutton’s bravest Knights!

"Forward, and bring them blood and fear!

"Forward, and bring them destruction and doom!

"Forward! The glory of victory will be ours!"

The passionate speech ended, and the Knights were more impatient than ever.

Glory and riches were beckoning to them.

With the order to charge, tens of thousands of Warriors surged down from the highlands like a flood.

Sir Willy had made thorough preparations to ensure victory this time.

The Mage Corps cast a Magic Resistance Protection Technique on the first wave of charging Knights.

The Zog Group’s firearms were all Magic Guns, so a simple Magic Resistance spell would provide the Knights with effective Defense.

Immediately after, the Alchemists’ Smoke Bombs were hurled into the center of the battlefield.

According to their prior research, the Zog Group’s guns either had a very limited rate of fire that required aiming or were like shotguns, only effective at close range.

And close range was the domain of Knights.

As long as the smoke prevented the first volley of shots from inflicting precise damage, that would be enough time for the Knights to charge into the enemy’s formation.

After that, it would be a simple slaughter.

’What an easy victory,’ Sir Willy thought, feeling pleased as he sat atop his warhorse.

He didn’t forget to keep shouting slogans: "Charge! Warriors of Sutton—"

He hadn’t even finished shouting when he felt a violent jolt and was thrown from his warhorse.

’What happened?’

He looked at his horse. Two of its legs had been severed. The cuts were blackened and smoking, and he could smell something burning.

’What kind of attack was that?’

Before he could even think, the warhorse collapsed heavily onto his leg. Thanks to the protection of his Plate Armor, he wasn’t badly injured, but he couldn’t pull his leg free.

"Help me!" Sir Willy screamed hoarsely.

But no one answered.

Flashes of reddish-purple light flickered through the smoke, forming what looked like a net that covered the entire battlefield.

Every Knight who charged into this net collapsed with agonizing screams.

’What about the Magic Defense?’

Sir Willy panicked.

The Magic Defense was still active, but... but...

Wherever the reddish-purple light touched, armor melted and limbs were severed. There wasn’t even any blood.

There were only agonized screams and the THUD THUD of bodies hitting the ground.

Yet the beams that reaped lives were so quiet, making only a barely audible VSHHH sound.

He could faintly see someone try to open a Magic Barrier, blocking one shot, only to be hit by countless more.

Sutton’s elite cavalry fell worthless, like wheat being reaped.

’It’s too terrifying. The smoke they deployed has become a Hell that traps them, and the flashing lights seem like the eyes of demons.’

They didn’t even know which way to run to escape.

’The Teleportation Talisman Stone... yes, the Teleportation Talisman Stone.’

Sir Willy finally remembered...