Chapter 363 - 363. Endurance Contest
The orcs that were rushing forward were too fast to halt their advance. They soon crashed into these walls, which then tightly bound them and held them in place. The others at the back continued to crash forward, but the wall held on. It was bulging forward due to the forward pressure, but more and more vines came out to hold and bind the orcs.
The eight soldiers that had used the magic scrolls immediately mounted up and chased after the human army once their tasks were done.
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The orcs army at the back tried to circumvent the long wall to continue their chase, but they had lost their momentum. The human army had gone far away.
Jack and Jeanny continued to urge the troops to go at high speed. Ignoring the fact that they kicked up a large dust cloud that exposed their positions. It was difficult to hide in the desert anyway. Their footprints on the sand made them easily tracked by the enemy. Unless they had decided to divide into many teams and made their enemies confused about which track to follow, like what the cavalry reserve troops had done when they tried to flee.
Jack continued to give direction to the troops. He watched on his radar if any enemies were approaching, and took a different direction. Many small squads started chasing them already, but Jack snaked around with the help of his radar. Their pursuers soon bundled into a large group that combined with the still-chasing left-wing of the orcs army.
Getting back to the main army might be difficult, but not impossible as long as they could continue to avoid any hindrance and put their pursuers at their back. Even if the orcs formed a barricade, it will be a thin one since they would need to cover a long line. They were only expecting the prince to be in a small splinter group. If they charge through with their current three hundred man army, that barricade was as good as none existent.
He contacted John to ask for an update on the situation of the main army.
John told him that several of the cavalry troops that separated had joined back with them. The enemy was now trying to copy their tactic and aiming for their supply carts. They were now forming a turtle-shell formation encircling their supply carts and were just playing defense.
From the clash at the start of the war, the orcs had suffered many casualties due to their disadvantageous position. And later they lost many of their mage and healer units again due to the charge executed by the cavalry reserve troops. If not for the prince's presence being exposed within that cavalry troops, the human army would have reaped more. However, due to the orc's main army shifted their focus to chase after the prince, their main army instead received a heavy blow and suffered even more casualties.
In total, the orcs had lost close to half of their army at around 3000 casualties. While the human army lost almost 1000. The humans who were now defending the supply carts were around 1500, the ones with Jack numbered 300, the rest were scattered around the battlefields. The orcs that were sieging the human main army numbered over 2000, while the ones chasing after Jack's group were around 1000, with the others roaming around the battlefield looking for stragglers.
John said by his estimation Jack and the others had managed to destroy around 70% of the orcs' supply carts. They would not be able to maintain a prolonged battle. He was confident that the orcs would just insist on this war for another one day before they had to retreat, two days at most.
He also told Jack that he better not tried to reconvene with the main army at this time. The orc's main army was currently encircling them. Even if Jack could charge his troops through these orcs, they could not break their defensive formation to let Jack's troops in.
"So what do you suggest us do?" Jack asked.
"Keep running," John simply answered.
"Ugh… what about if we harass the orcs encircling you? We attack their main army from outside while you attack from inside. We should be doing enough damage to them."
"Well, if we both attack, that might be the case. But it will most likely be you attack, we still defend. We can't afford to break our defensive formation just for you. The goal now is not to trim their numbers, it is to last longer. So stop trying to be a hero and go play tag with those orcs chasing you."
'Play tag your *ss!' Jack cursed in his mind. Did he just expect them to continue running for the whole day and the whole night?
Yet, that was exactly what they did. They continued to run. The players were less troubled since their game bodies were less affected by physical fatigue, but they still felt mentally tired and sleepy. The NPC soldiers were the other way around. Their regular military training allowed them to stay focus even if they forgo sleep the entire night. Their bodies, however, were prone to tiredness, as with the case of their mounts. A constant fight and running the entire day had sapped their stamina.
Jeanny could see through their tiredness, even though their pride as a soldier prevent them from showing it. She discussed this with Jack quietly. They saw that the orcs were also affected with the same problem, they could not continue to chase after them non-stop, hence their chasing speed was slowing down. They adjusted the soldiers marching speed to match with their pursuers, so they slowed down as well when the orcs slowed down, to preserve stamina. Jack made sure though, that their distance would always be outside the range of that fearsome giant crossbow.
Another thing that they noticed was the number of the orcs chasing them had reduced. Probably to only twice their size. The others had broken off to another place.
The fact was Hubesi who led the main army had sent a messenger to Jomo to call the left-wing to return in aiding the siege on the enemy's main army. If not for the prince who was right ahead of him, Jomo would have led all his troops back. He kept 600 units in the chase, twice the number of their preys, while the other 400 he sent back to aid the main army.
Jomo had tried to use a trick to get to his prey. When they arrived at a landscape where there were large sand dunes, he had instructed a part of his troops who still had enough stamina, to break away to behind the sand dunes and attempted a flank.
In order to mask a part of his army breaking off, he had his army made a mad dash which kicked up a large dust cloud. The cloud masked the platoon which had separated. Jomo then had the main army go at an angle that forced the human troops in a direction that would have them closer with the platoon that was creeping behind the sand dunes.
But Jack laughed at the attempt, all because he could see their movements easily from his radar. He simply led the troops at an angle away from both the orc forces.
Jomo was morose, he had tried several other maneuvers, but the opponents continued to move in the direction away from his expectation. In the end, he could only chase after them in a straightforward and unambiguous manner.
Jack continued to have the troops matched pace with their pursuers. If they stopped to rest, they stopped as well. It was not like he was trying to lose them. They could not get too far away from the main army as well, after all. So they just went in a large circle around the desert with the main army at its center, all the while playing a cat and mouse game with the orc pursuers.
This continued until the next day. Both the humans and the Orcs were unmounted now, most of their mounts were too tired to move already. They walked slowly with blank expressions. Their eyes were listless as their feet continued to move like an automaton. Viral Cora who had been constantly complaining the whole night had also stopped chattering, she probably was too sleepy to talk now.
Jack was still fine since he was used to spending a day or two without sleep playing games during special occasions where the developers handed out quests or rewards for a limited time. The others though, were not faring so well. By the look of it, the players might succumb to their mental fatigue before the soldiers.
Now it was just a contest of endurance with their pursuer. Who gave up first would be the loser.
Before noon, Jack finally received the message he had been waiting for.
"Hey, expert. I see that you are still alive? Come back to the main army," John's message said.