Second Arc (His Art of War) – 16. Attacking Asteria II
Gaia cast Power Boost spell to himself to maximize his strength, then he jumped off his horse and stomped his foot to the ground as hard as he could. The ground around them shook violently. The Asterian troops panicked, their concentration broke, the archers started to lower their bows and held on to the surrounding stone fence. As soon as Gaia saw them off guard, he swung his axe to the ground with all his might while the magic user cancelled their barrier. The ground beneath Euphorion's troops shook violently and formed a stone platform that raised them to the top of the outpost wall. The Euphorion troops quickly rushed in while the magic users who were still in front of the outpost wall headed for the iron gate. They opened some large leather scrolls that contained high-level explosive magic formations and flowed their magic power there.
The Asterian troops did not expect the sudden attack, their formation fell apart so the Euphorion troops could defeat them easily, especially since most of the troops on the outpost wall were archers. General Collett immediately took out his sword and counter their attack as the Asterian swordsmen below went up. While the Euphorion army struggled to break through the archers' line.
Gaia swung his axe to the ground once more, sending more Euphorion troops to the outpost wall, while the magic users kept flowing their magic power to the explosion formation in a race against time. They had to use this opportunity to attack and took down the gate as fast as possible while Asteria's forces were still in a mess.
"Shoot the general!" commanded General Collett to the archers.
Some Asteria archers swiftly raised their bows towards Gaia, but before they could shoot them. Arrows were fired from Euphorion's archers who had just arrived behind Gaia and killed them. A moment later, one of Euphorion's magic users waved his hand, indicating the magic formation was ready to be blown up. Gaia whistled loudly, the Euphorion troops who were on the outpost wall quickly evacuated from the gates. Soon a loud explosion sound echoed in the sky.
-BOOM !!
The gate was destroyed, throwing rocks and people around it in all directions, creating clouds of dust.
"Charge!" ordered Gaia.
Euphorion troops who were in front of the outpost quickly rushed in. The clash between the two kingdoms' troops was unavoidable. The situation turned chaotic, the sound of swords clashing mixed with screams of pain could be heard in all directions, the soldiers' blood-splattered soaking the ground.
Gaia spun his axe with both of his hands throwing the Asteria troops that surrounded him, then he swung his axe at one of them but General Collett and brushed off his attack.
"Go! I will deal with him!" ordered General Collett. The troops quickly back to their feet and ran to gather with the others.
"A brave and compassionate person like you is very rare. But unfortunately, you are serving the wrong king," said Gaia.
"My king is never wrong!" replied General Collett.
Gaia smirked and swung his axe horizontally at General Collett. General Collett dodged down to avoid it as the arrows were fired from the Asteria archers who were lined up behind General Collett. Gaia swung his axe to the ground. In an instant, the ground in front of him turned into a stone wall that blocked the arrows from reaching him.
-Crraakkk!
Gaia punched the stone wall, broke the wall into pieces. Then he swung his axe, throwing the stones pieces in all directions. Some of the stones were thrown at the archers and knocked them down. General Collett parried the stones that were thrown at him and went forward to attack, Gaia swiftly deflected his attacks and countered them.
They struck each other as they clashed their weapons, blow for blow, slash for slash. After a while, they backed away, then as if on cue they dashed towards each other to strike their final blow. A burst of blood spurted from General Collett's shoulder, soon he collapsed to the ground.
Gaia swept his gaze around him, one by one the remaining Asterian troops collapsed, signifying the absolute victory of his troops. It wasn't long after the cries of victory were shouted by the Euphorion's troops when the last group of Asterian troops dropped their weapons and surrendered.
He shifted his gaze at General Collett who had passed out before him in his own pool of blood.
"Since you have compassion for your subordinates, so I will also show my compassion to you."