Badge in Azure

The expression on Duke Bard’s face was awful. If the first time they injured a knight was to boost morale, then the second time when they butchered the injured enemies just meant that this was what Saleen’s soldiers have been trained to do.

A typical army would not do this because it would incite the enemy to fight to the death.

Saleen’s army clearly did not care about this. They even had soldiers that specifically carried out such a role. Their actions were very much in-sync, which meant that they have been trained for this. Without the appropriate weapons, it would not be easy to pierce through the armors of the heavy-armored knights and kill them.

“Should we stop them!” Duke Bard asked Tiffany.

“Why should we?” Tiffany was confused and replied with another question.

Duke Bard was speechless. Tiffany was a grade-8 sorcerer so she had zero pity for these soldiers. It was foolish to ask a mage whether or not a prisoner should be killed.

One would not end up well by offending mages.

“Bard, we will have even fiercer battles in future. What more are you thinking about at this point!” Stephanie reprimanded Bard.

Realization suddenly dawned on Bard. This attack was not a coincidence. Something has happened in Phoenix. Gathering more than ten-thousand soldiers and three-thousand knights was not something one or two noble families could accomplish on their own.

Bard was part of the war division in the House of Commons and was never fond of the people of Phoenix. He knew the situation there very well. What Stephanie said helped him to link to the cause of this incident.

The knights that have fled in all directions were now being chased by the knights of the royal swordsmen battalion. The latter were shooting long arrows that have been lit up with flames. This was a real magic equipment that was possessed only by the royal swordsmen battalion. The cone-shaped tip of the arrow would pierce through the armor while the flames would burn the soldier from within.

Those that have been trained in swordsmanship would have high tolerance towards pain but the burning of magic flames would penetrate directly into the bones, which was different from normal flames.

The Phoenix knights began to fall from their horses while screaming in pain. They would not survive without any mages to heal them.

There were casualties from the battle between the sixth battalion and the Phoenix knights. The knights of the royal swordsmen battalion were pursuing their enemies purely for massacre. The knights that were being chased quickly drew their short bows and shot behind them. However, they were heavy-armored knights and their archery skills were many times poorer than light-armored knights. They rarely used these short bows so when the arrows were shot, they all failed to pierce through the armors of the royal swordsmen battalion soldiers.

Bard felt a rush of emotions when he witnessed this scene. He had never seen the royal swordsmen battalion in action until today and it made him think about his own private soldiers.

Dukes were allowed to own more than one-thousand private soldiers. These soldiers were the bodyguards of noble families and were all fit and sturdy. Compared to the soldiers of the royal swordsmen battalion, there was still a huge gap.

After a quick battle, all the knights other than the Phoenix knights in the north were exterminated by the sixth battalion and the royal swordsmen battalion. The knights in the north were unaware of what had happened to the others. They only realized the inferiority of their weapons after losing two-hundred men and quickly decided to retreat.

The knights in the south lost more than half of their men when the sixth battalion’s heavy-armored infantry charged out. By the time they decided to flee, the knights of the sixth battalion had also came charging at them. Knights that have lost the advantage of speed no longer possessed the upper hand when facing the range weapons of foot soldiers. They could only depend on their courage to continue fighting.

It was at this point in time that the foot soldiers of the sixth battalion took advantage of the enemy’s loss of speed and pressed on.

The remaining four-hundred over knights were surrounded. The archers and crossbow men began to shoot at the knights with their alchemy arrows.

The number of crossbows that the sixth battalion possessed was far more than what an army should have. There were practically one-hundred large wagons and two-hundred small wagons filled with crossbows and their equipment. Provisions were minimal and the sixth battalion had originally planned to stock up provisions when they entered Phoenix. The Phoenicians that attacked the group of envoys had received inaccurate information. They had thought that their target only consisted of five-thousand soldiers and horses in total, hence the entire twenty-thousand men in Cexing City were activated to exterminate these envoys.

If the Phoenix armies were able to pressurize the envoys into heading towards Huoxing City, the fifty-thousand strong army there would be able to sandwich the envoys in between two armies. By then, the group of envoys consisting of ten-thousand men would surely suffer major losses.

In actual fact, the armies in the north of Phoenix were not considered elite. Out of seventy-thousand men, only ten-thousand were part of the main force. Most were gathered at Huoxing City in a bid to remove Lex from Phoenix.

Due to this failure in strategy, the Phoenix rebellion suffered heavy losses, less than five-hundred knights out of more than three-thousand survived. The foot soldiers that charged next were naturally not very effective. The sixth battalion’s foot soldiers quickly retreated back to their shields and prepared their crossbows.

A normal crossbow required a lot of energy from soldiers. Only an elite soldier would be able to shoot twenty-four arrows consecutively. Saleen did not place such high expectations on his soldiers. A long time was needed in order to train up a crossbow man. However, Saleen had his mages design a type of glove that would increase the number of arrows each soldier could shoot.

Three-hundred alchemy crossbows were dismantled and packed into boxes and the sixth battalion’s main weapon now were heavy crossbows. Heavy crossbows could shoot at a range of two-hundred yards and when set up on a wagon, a good crossbow man would be able to shoot an entire round in one minute. Phoenix’s army of rebels were faced with the sixth battalion’s heavy crossbows.

The heavy crossbows were smaller than alchemy crossbows but the arrows could still inflict damage over two-hundred yards. Nevertheless, even below-average mercenaries would be able to run a distance of two-hundred yards in less than a minute.

More than four-hundred men died when the Phoenix soldiers charged for the first time because they were not led by heavy-armored infantry in front. The heavy crossbows could penetrate cleanly through the enemy and cause multiple deaths or injuries in one shot.

The sixth battalion did not possess crossbows activated by the foot. All of them had to be activated by both arms. Such crossbows possessed a one-hundred yard attacking range, which was further than single-armed crossbows. The only thing was that without wagons to place the crossbows, the crossbow men needed to be even more highly skilled.

With a distance of one-hundred yards, the three-hundred wagons shot out thousands of arrows. The Phoenix soldiers charged forward while holding up their little square-shaped shields. They would all be shot to death if they did not get nearer to the enemy.

The soldiers of the sixth battalion were only average in their archery skills and could not possibly aim for the enemy’s crucial areas at a distance of one-hundred yardsso the thousands of arrows were basically shot randomly and in all directions.

Very quickly, the Phoenix foot soldiers that wielded long swords have already covered fifty yards of distance and the losses they incurred were about the same as the first round of heavy crossbows.

Within this distance of two-hundred yards, there were almost a thousand casualties. The Phoenix officers were shocked.

The soldiers of the sixth battalion were no longer nervous because they could see that their enemies were much weaker than the Holy See’s expedition. Those that have been injured by the arrows basically deserted their weapons and no longer charged forward.

“Get ready, shoot at an angle!”

Orders were given out in every regiment and the soldiers quickly put down their crossbows before picking up their bows and lined themselves up. They would shoot at an angle from the rear of the wagons.

This was when the sixth battalion believed that they had gained the upper hand. This was because the enemy’s attacks in retaliation did not even manage to reach the soldiers behind the wagons. The enemy’s crossbows were blocked by the wagons so they had to shoot at an angle. A high level of skills was required to shoot crossbow arrows at an angle and the damage they could inflict were also lowered.

The armor that they wore could definitely protect them from such attacks.

The knights of the royal swordsmen battalion returned and the knights of the sixth battalion on both flanks did not try to charge into the enemy’s foot soldiers. Instead, they retreated. The knights kept their weapons and reloaded the arrows in the crossbows on their horses.

Although these crossbows only had an attacking range of ten yards, it was further than any long weapons possessed by foot soldiers, including the eight yard long big spears. Facing these big spears actually posed many problems for knights and they would have to rely on their individual techniques to overcome them. Therefore, it was wiser to utilize the crossbows first before charging at the enemy as this would reduce losses.

“Looks like it has been settled,” Bard breathed a sigh of relief. He was not a military general but he has read so many books that he was not unfamiliar with military warfare. If he was given a chance to undergo training, he could very well be a military officer.

The Phoenicians misused their knights. The knights were killed off very early on and the foot soldiers were too late to provide reinforcements, hence they lost all possibilities of victory. The sixth battalion had too many crossbows but this was also the reason why they have managed to keep their losses to the minimum.

Until now, the sixth battalion has yet to incur more than five-hundred casualties.

Dong… dong…

The war drums sounded and the Phoenix soldiers changed directions and began to attack from both flanks again. It was difficult to overcome the formation of wagons head-on. Everyone knew that the defense mechanism of wagon formation employed by Qin was a formidable one. If not for the fact that the group of envoys had so many bows and arrows, the Phoenix army of rebels might have attempted to attack from three sides. However, it was clear that the envoys simply had too many crossbow men.

The wagons could inflict a lot of damage while the soldiers behind them could shoot arrows at will, therefore the Phoenicians had no choice but to attack from the sides like what the knights did previously.

As the war drums changed continuously, the soldiers hiding behind the wagons quietly changed their weapons. one-thousand archers would remain while the others kept their crossbows and took out their weapons that were suitable for close combat.

Bard observed the change in the situation and could not help but ask, “Grand Mage Tiffany, if the enemy possessed large-scale equipment or could unleash powerful magic beasts, how would the Metatrin army react?”

Bard had some doubts. Indeed, the sixth battalion had the upper hand now and should eventually clinch victory. The advantage they held now was due to the lack of preparation on the enemy’s part. If the enemy had large-scale puppets or magic ballistas, such an advantage would no longer exist.

The general of the sixth battalion saw that the enemy has already gotten into their formations and was about to launch their attack. This was when he gave his command.

“Everyone, prepare… attack!” To everyone’s surprise, he gave his order for retaliation even before the enemy has launched their attack.