They had a couple of hours before the invading army reached their location. Ben had Princess Alessandra follow him everywhere and he would explain everything he was doing. Ben wanted to help teach her a little about strategy and tactics for her future role as Queen.
Ben went before his knights and had them form a shield wall. It wasn't perfect but after a few tries, they could form a decent shield wall on command. He wanted to be prepared for enemy ranged attacks. His knights may be wearing full body plate armor but it was just reckless to not attempt to defend against an arrow barrage.
The archers on the upper wall had a low dirt ledge just in front of them that they could crouch behind for protection.
He had hoped to have trained his troops properly before they were tossed into combat but he couldn't take the chance of letting the invaders through and ruining everything he had achieved in the Aregard Kingdom.
If the capital city was conquered and he lost his store it would be the end of his income. Even worse than that the employees and slaves he was looking out for could be slaughtered like the small town just south of them.
Ben walked around to check the surrounding landscape on the other side of the bridge and he walked along the river to confirm its depth. They needed to be sure there weren't any shallow water fords the enemy could use to flank around them.
The Sandy River ran deep and it was about a hundred yards wide with a strong current. It would take a strong swimmer who wasn't weighed down with armor and weapons to swim across it.
At one point he began to think about using his Lower Earth spell to create a few deep ditches on the other side of the bridge to slow down the enemy but he was afraid if it was to difficult for them to cross they may decide to turn northwest and head straight for the bridge just outside of Goldcrest City. By making ditches he may also inadvertently create swallow trenches for them to use against his troops.
When Ben was finishing his preparations In the distance the invaders came into view. They were stretched out in an unorganized mob and marched forward as if they already owned the land they were trespassing on.
Ben called out that the enemy had been spotted and left the princess and the Royal Cultivator behind to walk out toward the middle of the wooden bridge.
The invaders spotted them on the other side of the bridge and had come to a stop about a half mile away.
Ben used his Enhanced Hearing to try and listen to the enemy but all he could make out were a few muffled sounding orders someone was shouting out.
He did not have to wait long before a mixed group of troops was sent out in a ragged formation without even attempting to march together.
'It is just like you had described Athena. These guys have no organization they are simply marching in a mob. It looks like a herd of animals instead of an army of troops.'
*Ding!* [This is the standard for this part of the world. These people are mostly commoners who have no knowledge of formations or tactics. They will attempt to get close enough and allow their archers to attack your men while leaving the unorganized front line troops out front to defend against any rush attacks you might attempt. If this doesn't work you can expect them to just throw all of their troops at you.]
'I think your right I can see a few people carrying bows in the back of the approaching line.'
Ben walked back to his troops and told his front line knights to prepare to shield wall on command. He walked up the small ramp onto the wall with the princess and told his archers to prepare to attack.
There were stacks of full quivers lying all along the wall in reach for them to restock at any time. Ben continued to talk with Athena about the range of the compound bows and having her figure out the proper trajectories at each distance.
From what they could make out it seemed the enemy was using a short wooden bow with an effective range of around 160 yards to 180 yards. If Ben's archer were better trained they would be able to shoot at four times that range but he settled on waiting until the enemy was within 300 yards.
When over half of the approaching enemies had crossed the 300-yard line on his map Ben told the archers how high to aim above them. Before the approaching mob could even get into range to fire their arrows a few of them on the front line were hit with arrows.
Ben saw that his archer's arrows had landed just short so they readjusted and had them launch another volley. The next barrage of three hundred arrows landed in the center of the partially armored enemy troops.
About 65% of his archer's arrows had caused injuries so he began to have them rapidly fire now that they had the proper range.
It only took about three minutes for his archers to cut down about one thousand enemy troops. Those that had survived the arrow storm ran back toward their lines before they were also shot down.
"Good work archers there are only around two thousand enemy troops left!" Ben called out his praise and all of his troops let out a cheer at their first contact and victory with an enemy.
They had taken out one thousand men but now the enemy was pissed now and they wanted blood. The invaders no longer hung back and they all began to march forward without leaving anyone in reserve.
Ben could only assume that the enemy cultivators and the mage were out among that large mass somewhere but they had not shown themselves yet. This didn't bother Ben and he would prefer they would wait so that he could lead his troops without interruption.
Once the enemy cultivators jumped out Generals Victor and Justinus would assume command of the troops and fight against the approaching enemy troops.
Just like the first smaller wave, the Elven archers began to attack the larger group once they crossed the 300-yard line. The enemy was beginning to lose a lot of men and this had finally brought out the two hidden Royal Cultivators. They ran out on the outer flank of their troops while shrugging off the occasional arrow at impressive running speeds.
"Duke King! Here they come!" Royal Cultivator Duven also spotted the enemy cultivators as they made their move and warned Ben.
"Alright cross the bridge and fight them out on their flank do not engage them near the bridgehead! Follow me!" Ben warned Duven not to fight near the mouth of the bridge because he wanted to set up a trap after the two of them had passed through the area.
Ben activated his Whirlwind technique and flew across the bridge at an incredible speed that shocked both Duven and the enemy cultivators. They were not sure who this small group of troops was blocking their path and they never thought a cultivator would be among them.
The invaders had thought it was a small force that happened to be in the area and they would drive them off without too much trouble. When they saw the distance the enemy archers were hitting their troops at the two cultivators decided to step forward before they lost any more men.
They had both stopped to evaluate Ben who was now on their side of the bridge and was soon joined by Duven. When Duven was clear of the bridge Ben secretly cast a Reverse Gravity spell right at the mouth of the bridge.
With his trap now in place, he turned to nod at Duven and activated his Whirlwind Maneuver technique again and charged the two stationary cultivators. Duven took off right behind him but he did not have a fast movement technique so he could only move as fast as he could run which was still much faster than an average man.
Ben continued his charge and stopped around thirty yards from the two cultivators who now began to move forward. Without any gestures or repeating magical words, he cast Lightning Bolt on both of the cultivators who were charging at him with plans of killing him before Brom Duven could intervene.
His spell had the same effect as seeing a person hit with a taser the enemy cultivators fell face first onto the ground from a full sprint and began to twitch and jerk. While they were down Ben tossed out a firebolt that struck them and began to burn the clothing off their bodies.
They both got up with burned clothing and hair looking like they had crawled out of a burning building. While they were stunned from the magic that struck them from out of nowhere Ben continued his attack.
[Enhanced Form!]
[Mana Shield!]
[Barkskin!]
[Aura Assault!]
[Whirlwind Maneuver!]
Ben cast three spells and activated two techniques and shot off to cover the final few yards between him and his enemy. He threw out a glowing fist from his Enhanced Form and bowled over the nearest cultivator who was struggling from the pressure of his Aura Assault.
When Ben saw his Aura Assault was affecting one of the cultivators more than the other he went after the weaker one. Ben knew this Royal Cultivator had a lower cultivation if he was struggling to move from his Aura Assault so he chose to try and eliminate the weaker cultivator first.
While Ben began to press his attack a great cry came out from near the bridge. The advancing enemy army had made it through the Elven archer's arrow barrage and were grouping up to squeeze across the bridge a few hundred enemy troops all ran into the Ben's Reverse Gravity Spell and were thrown up one hundred feet into the air.
It suddenly looked like it was raining enemy troops who plummeted to the ground from the sky. It was as if every one of them had just jumped off of a ten story building together. The majority of the enemy troops who fell into Ben's trap were killed upon impact and those who lived through the fall were in no shape to fight anymore and would also die of internal injuries.
With the combination of the skills and spells Ben had it wasn't difficult to defeat a weaker cultivator who was only strong due to cultivating. These cultivators were not like the ones in his novels who had a list of techniques to fight with. They were lucky if they had a cultivation technique that would not injure or cripple them when they used it let alone offensive and defensive techniques.
With a combination of lightning bolts and glowing punches, Ben continued to attack his foe until he no longer stood back up. The weaker cultivator of the two was either dead or unconscious.
Ben did not stop to check and turned around to join the fight between Duven and the stronger enemy cultivator. Ben struck the remaining enemy cultivator from behind with another surprise Lightning Bolt and drove an Enhanced Form glowing fist into his spine.
The enemy cultivator wasn't prepared for the ambush attack and even if he was the lightning bolt had made him lose control of his muscles. Ben heard a crunch of bones breaking and before he could continue his attack Duven slid around behind the injured cultivator and twisted his head to snap his neck.
There was no doubt this cultivator had died from a broken neck. Ben thought about turning around to check on the other enemy cultivator when he noticed columns of fire being shot out of the enemy front lines.
His Fairy magi did not hesitate and had run forward to toss out fire and lightning into the area where the rogue mage was hiding among the enemy troops. Ben charged forward and began to pound his way through the remaining mob enemy troops on clogging the bridge. By the time he was near the front line, the enemy mage had already been killed by his Fairy magi who had obliterated the enemy front line with a destructive bombardment of mixed spells.
Ben took out his sword when he saw the main enemy characters had now been dealt with and called out to Princess Alessandra from below the dirt wall. Ben told her to jump off the wall and to follow behind him into the remaining enemy troops.
There were around seven hundred plus enemy troops left on and around the bridge. Ben screamed out over the cries of battle before plunging back into the fight.
"Knights mount up in teams and attack!"
Half of the knights broke off and ran around behind the earthen walls to mount their armored horses and came out to plunge into the enemy lines. Once the mounted knights were engaged with the enemy the remaining knights ran off to mount their horses and charged into the enemy lines to join the first team of knights.
The enemy was pushed from the bridge or trampled under the horse's hooves from the sudden collisions. The large armored horses tossed the enemy troops around like bowling pins.
Ben and Alessandra fought back to back in the center of the bridge. Royal Cultivator Duven drove the enemy toward the center from the south and the mounted knights drove the enemy toward the center from the north.
The enemy knew they were finished and began to throw themselves into the river to try and flee but they were only dragged down to the bottom by the current and their armor. Those who made it to the southern shore began to frantically run towards the Trareniel border.
When the remaining enemies on the bridge were killed or rode down by the cavalry while they attempted to flee Ben led Royal Cultivator Duven and Princess Alessandra over to the enemy cultivator he had defeated.
Ben asked how they wanted to deal with the invader. He was an enemy cultivator so it would be difficult to imprison him. If they shackled him he could break free and escape so they chose to kill him while he was still unconscious and couldn't create any more problems.
With his Hemic sword in hand, Ben gave a few chops at the solid neck of the cultivator and took his head. They also took the head of the enemy cultivator who Duven had killed along with the head of the enemy mage.
Normally enemy officers or cultivators head's were taken so they could be turned in for promotions or rewards from the kingdom but Ben and Brom were not interested in rewards. They took the heads for the king to do with as he pleased. It would not be uncommon to hang them at the city gates to boost public morale or to send them back to the enemy as a boast and create panic.
Ben left them to take care of the heads and went to check on his troops. He was soon enraged when he found out that they had lost nine knights and three archers. His men had held up against the enemy attack and their armor was flawless until the enemy mage suddenly began casting columns of fire at his men. The flames and heat were strong enough to kill a few of the closer attackers. They were roasted alive inside of the armor that had protected them throughout the battle.
Before they prepared to leave Ben purchased twelve body bags from the System Store and had his dead men placed into the bags and loaded onto one of the carriages. He wasn't going to leave his men behind to rot on the battlefield after they had fought like lions for him.
He had removed any trace of the H shaped earthen walls and made a huge pile of wood planks from his Warehouse. His uninjured troops piled the enemy bodies on top of the wood planks and Ben cast a few Firebolts into the lower wood planks to burn the bodies.
The bodies were burned for two reasons one he wanted to prevent diseases from spreading around the kingdom and he wanted the Trareniel Kingdom to wonder what happened to their cultivators and troops. When they found out that they had all vanished after they crossed the border it would scare the crap out of them.
What type of hidden force existed inside of the Aregard Kingdom that could make three thousand soldiers, two cultivators, and a mage vanish to never be found again?
It was already nighttime by the time they had begun to burn the bodies so Ben circled the carriages far from the burning pyre and had his injured troops line up before him so that he could heal each of them.
Princess Alessandra and royal cultivator Duven sat off to the side eating their dinner while watching Ben heal his troops. The two of them began to quietly talk about everything that had happened today.
They were both looking at Ben like he was an advanced life-form. The magic spells they had seen today were obviously from him and the Reverse Gravity spell had sent a shiver down Alessandra's spine when she saw hundreds of enemy attackers tossed through the air and slammed to the ground.
Duven had guessed Ben could use offensive spells but what he has seen today scared the living hell out of him. The sheer power of every spell Ben used was enough to kill or dominate a fight even among cultivators.
Most fights between cultivators could last hours or an entire day when Ben had taken out one of the enemy cultivators in only a couple of minutes and turned around to help eliminate the other Duven couldn't believe it.
The last fight he had with a cultivator had left him severely injured after a long drawn out battle where he eventually killed his opponent but today they had killed two cultivators within five minutes of engaging them.
It wasn't only Ben but his troops were also incredible when he said they were elites they had expected maybe they would be on the level of the Goldcrest palace guard. These troops were monsters in human form. The strange bows the archers used to hit their target at incredible distances and the men in the suits of metal armor could take hundreds of enemy blows without wavering for a second.
Alessandra watched as the enemy near the end was pounding on the lower line of knights who would simply shrug off the blows and strike out to kill an enemy with every slash or thrust.
What was truly astounding was when the twenty beautiful women who remained quietly near the back had sprung forward into the fight and began casing fire and lightning spells. There was no hope for any of the enemy troops who tried to stand against those spells. The group of enemy troops who were shielding the rogue mage were decimated so quickly that he never had a chance to retreat and was killed along with his human shields.
Alessandra was glad that she had decided to come along, she had learned a lifetime of battle experience by following Ben who had patiently explained everything he had planned and how he wanted his men to respond to certain situations.
Before she fell asleep she could only wonder what if Ben had as many troops as the enemy had? If he had three thousand troops like those under his command right now who could stop him? If he wanted too, it wouldn't be an exaggeration for him to conquer the entire continent.
'I wonder where he had kept these troops and how they were trained to be this deadly?'
Princess Alessandra fell asleep in her tent next to Ben's tent while reliving the battle and wondering where Ben and his troops had come from.