Chapter 46
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Abel acted as if he was drifting off as he came out from the Blacksmith Guild. As soon as he got out, he sprinted directly towards The Knight Of Marshall's study room.
This was because he wanted to take a look at the map to check to see where he could safely dispose of that super exploding big sword that was inside the Horadric Cube.
For normal exploding swords, even steel of hundred skills couldn't resist its power. Who could've imagined the power of this super exploding big sword? If he wanted to have mutual destruction, maybe even a group of elite knights would not able to hold off the power of this toy. Abel was wondering that if he threw this super exploding big sword on to a commander, how long would his combat qi armor be able to withstand it.
Abel's brain was all gobbled up trying to think of a solution. As he continued searching the map for potential disposal locations, suddenly, he came across a place called the Ansa Valley. The place was perfect, it's distance was around a day's ride from the castle. There were cliffs marked on the map which meant it was perfect to destroy this exploding big sword that he had on him.
After two days' of rest, when Abel's meridian had fully recovered, Abel told the Knight Of Marshall that he would be leaving the castle for an affair. In terms of Abel's safety, The Knight Of Marshall wasn't particularly worried. Abel was equipped with Harry's bow, so everything should be fine as long as he didn't stumble across any intermediate occupation holder.
Besides, Abel was already a Master blacksmith. This meant that he had his own rights in spending his spare time as he pleased. Moreover, there wasn't any information related to any orc attacks during these two days. The attacks had seemed to come to an end. The Knight Of Marshall did not stop Abel from going out on his trip. He only specifically demanded him to be more careful.
For this trip, Abel prepared two horses with him. Abel rode one the war horse and the other warhorse was equipped with all the foods necessary. The horse's food was all high-quality beans and oats.
At the same time that Abel rode out of the castle. An ambush was unfolding in the valley of Neuilly which was in the directions of the Ansa valley that Abel was heading towards.
The Knight of Saroyan was an elite knight and a Lord at the same time. For many years, he had been following and serving under Viscount Dickens, owner of Harvest City and the leader of an elite brigade of 1000. Although he held a royal identity since there were fewer wars these days, it was hard for him to gain any outstanding military service. Therefore, he was only a Lord without fief. This was why he has been extremely eager to take part in wars for more military service.
With Harvest City being the heart of the human world, it was a very safe place. Except for some small battles, it has always held its' reputation of being a peaceful place without fighting.
A few days ago, The Knight Of Saroyan received an order from Viscount Dickens to lead its' troops of one thousand elite brigades towards the Neuilly Valley to ambush and eliminate any orcs that were nearby. Viscount Dickens organized two other Elite Knights alongside with 30 knights to execute this ambush. This made Saroyan extremely excited when he received his orders as it was most likely going to be a substantial amount of enemies in this upcoming fight.
Elite knight Bernard and Elite Knights Hopper were both born in different crumbling royal families. By their generation, their family's inheritance was already too relegated to be inherited. While they still had the talents of a knight, with the glory of their ancestor's shield being extremely dim, their only option was to become a squire to serve under Viscount Dickens.
These inherent knights were paid very generously but their wealth cannot be inherited to their next generations. However, these 2 Elite Knights have both been searching for their opportunity to restore the glory of their ancestors' shields.
When the 3 knights saw each other, they knew their chances of gaining an outstanding military service was finally here. Everyone that was apart of the ambush was all anticipated for the upcoming battle. All 30 knights and the thousand of elite soldiers who were ready to fight with a fire burning in their hearts.
It was now three days since the brigade had arrived in the Neuilly Valley, all the scouts had all been sent out to investigate and explore for any potential incoming orcs. Everything had already been set up, now all they had to do was wait for the orcs to show up.
The Knight of Saroyan was sitting on a rock, looking down at the map of Neuilly Valley map. The location was surrounded by mountains on all three sides, with two of the sides containing an extremely steep hillside. It was very difficult to climb, and also had a large number of thorns as well as the sides being dead ends. Now, all of Saroyan's forces had to do was gathered at the top of the last slope of the valley which had a very gentle and to ambush the orcs when they come.
"Report!" One of the scouts jumped off his horse and promptly gave a military salute.
The Knight Of Saroyan turned his head and looked at the sweaty scout. "What did you discover?" he asked.
"There's a small group of orcs from the south and they're heading directly for the valley. They're expected to arrive in 20 minutes."
The Knight Of Saroyan waved his hand and replied, "Alright then, continue scouting ahead for us." As he then looked back at his lieutenants and ordered, "Get all our men to use the masking powder."
The masking powder was a tool that covered the human smell which was invented during the great war between the humans and the orcs. As the orcs had a strong sense of smell, the human's smell in the air was like the beacon of the sea. After countless years of war, there was a heavy amount of human casualties due to their exposure to the orc's sense of smell. After this painful loss, the human developed the masking powder, which became an essential strategic material for the army nowadays.
The army then began to move methodically, and without saying a single word. They silently dusted themselves and their horses with the masking powder.
"Report!" Another scout spotted the situation and reported, "There's a small group of orcs spotted in the east. ETA (Estimated Time Arrival) is 25 minutes."
"Report! Orcs spotted from the Northside. ETA is 20 minutes."
As the scouts kept coming back reporting more and more orcs sightings. The Knight Of Saroyan began to smile as he looked back at Elite Knight Bernard and Elite Knight Hopper After 3 days of waiting, he smiled and said towards the 2 elite knights, "It's finally here, the city's lord intel was real!"
"Indeed, I can't believe they even found out the location of where these orcs will be gathering." Answered Elite Knight Bernal, smiling with a desire for battle burning in his eyes.
At the mouth of the valley, there was already a party of orcs which consisted of wolf riders. As they arrived around the mouth of the valley, they scouted around and ensured that their surroundings are clear. When their surroundings were cleared, they commanded their allies through simple hand gestures and proceeded into the valley.
At the top of the side of the mountain, the hidden army, soldiers covered with masking powder, held their breath in fear that they might frighten the wolf riders and potentially interfere with their ambush plan. To them, more orcs that entered the valley meant more military service for them.
As time passed slowly, the presence of orcs was gradually increasing in the valley. As more and more parties of orcs entered into the valley, the valley slowly became a sea of joy. The orcs here all thought they were safe. They had already begun in setting up their bonfire and feasting on their barbequed meats while enjoying their stolen wine. Not only so, but they were also discussing their respective tasks loudly and chatting about their successes with their robberies.
When there were roughly 160 orcs gathered within the valley, there were already no sightings of anymore incoming orc parties. It looked to be that the gathering number of the orcs was already at its peak. The orcs suddenly paused their chatting. They discovered that the number of orcs that survived was much less than in previous years. There were around 500 orcs that were deployed here for the annual event. Last year there were around 200+ orcs returning survivors here. But this year, there were only 160 orcs. This was the lowest number of survivors in the history of this event.
A depressing mood began to spread for these orcs around the valley. Many of them began to realize that their friends and brothers did not come back. A valley that was bustling with noise and excitement suddenly a second ago suddenly transitioned into complete silence. But the orcs were a fighting race and the feeling of grief and sorrow only lasted for a short period of time. Afterward, the orcs were gathered according to their parties and waited. When the appointed time was about to come, there would be a flying beast to take them home.
The Knight of Saroyan kept his eyes on the situation in the valley. According to the intel from the City's Lord, this was a gathering point for the orcs. Saroyan then turned his head to his lieutenant and said, "Go and notify the team at the mouth of the valley and instruct them to seal off the valley exit.
"Yes, sir." As the lieutenant took out a piece of sheepskin, wrote the order and finally stamped it with the seal of the battalion. He then sealed the envelope with a block of ciphered wax and arranged for the messenger to deliver the order to the team allocated at the mouth of the valley.
After messenger had been gone for around four minutes, suddenly there was a flock of more than 20 huge birds came flying down from the sky.
When The Knight of Saroyan saw the beasts that were flying in the sky, he couldn't help himself but exclaimed in a low voice, "Sky sparrows? Is that how these orcs return back to their home?"
Then The Knight of Saroyan turned to his lieutenant and asked, "Is there still time to retrieve back the order we sent out?"
His lieutenant then shook his head with a bitter smile and said, "The operation should've started by now."
"It would be a tremendous glory for them if they were able to bring down even one of these sky sparrows." The Knight Of Saroyan then looked at the sky sparrows in the skies with excitement and desire. He never knew that the strategy of the orc empire was to use these flying beasts. Even if all the orcs below had escaped, just capturing one of these sky sparrows would've been an outstanding military service.
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Chapter 47
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The sky sparrow was a strategic weapon from the Orc Empire, and it stood out for Its impressive load capacity. Its wide shoulders had the capacity of carrying more than 5 heavy orc cavalry at a time. They were considered as the most valuable transportation assets for the Orc Empire.
Had it not been for the sky sparrow's cowardice, and its tendency to fly around chaotically when frightened, the orcs would've used them as giant flying mounts. Despite that, the sky sparrow played an irreplaceable role in the Orc Empire's army due to its' ability to carry a tremendous amount of weight. Besides, its flying range was also superb.
These flying mounts were pretty much the same as how war horses were to humans.
They were also similar to the wolf rider's mount wolves, which were also important assets to engage in warfare. Unlike regular flying beasts, flying mounts could be used in direct combat, which made it all the more desirable for humans. Unfortunately, however, the only flying mount unit that was available to men was the vulture troop in the Duchy of Saint Alice.
The reproduction of these birds sparrows was extremely difficult. Nowadays, it was very rare to see such huge birds. Any casualties of these birds would be a great loss to the orc empire.
Meanwhile, the team had begun to seal off the valley. They rolled giant boulders down from 10 meters above.
The sound of these giant boulders immediately startled all of the orcs. The joy of seeing the sky sparrow was suddenly interrupted. Then a small part of the orcs began to rush out to the mouth of the valley.
A large amount of wood that was poured with oil, were also rolled down, followed by the boulders. When the orcs reached the mouth of the valley, a rocket set all of the wood on the fire, which completely sealed the mouth of the valley.
The sparrows immediately paused its downward flight path towards the valley, as it saw the situation on the ground. Luckily, the orcs were quite far away from the mouth of the valley. If they were nearer, what would've happened to the sparrows? Would they be frightened? As the driver of these large birds tried to calm them down.
Among the confused orcs, there was a party of 10 wolf riders that had a different reaction from the crowd. One of them stood in the middle wearing black siamese armor, and the other nine in full leather armor.
"Lord, something's not right. I think we've been ambushed by humans." Said a wolf rider with a grim look on its' face.
"Take my token and make everyone listen to my orders!" said the Lord calmly. The current situation did not seem to have much effect on him.
"I hereby present the Woolf family token. Now listen up everyone, gather up by your dedicated party!" As the wolf rider held up the lord's token and shouted.
Suddenly, the restless orcs were all silent. Then, they quickly found their squad and joined up according to their specific race.
"I'm Fowler, the sixth son from the Woolf family, and all the orcs here are by my command. Now all of you, be quiet!" Fowler watched in satisfaction as he witnessed all of the orcs obeying by his orders. "We are the most powerful orcs within our kind and these despicable humans have surrounded us with their dirty tricks… Now, the only option we have is to fight!"
As Fowler looked up at the birds hovering in the sky and yelled, "These flying beasts that will take us home are right over our heads. They can't land until we've defeated our enemies. Do you want to make it back home alive? Then we must fight! May the beast gods be with us! May the orcs be victorious!"
"The Orcs will be victorious! As the spirits of the orcs became extremely aroused with a desire to fight in their hearts. Although there were only 160 orcs, their voices were so loud that the echoes of "The Orcs will be victorious" were heard throughout the valley.
The Knight Of Saroyan carefully assessed the situation in the valley said to the two elite knights beside him, "I thought we'd let them mess around for a while so that our attack would go more smoothly. But who knew they had calmed down so quickly, I thought they were experienced orcs in the battlefield!"
Knight Bernal touched the handle of his sword and his face was brimming with a thirst to fight. "Can we attack them now, my Lord?"
The Knight Of Saryoan then nodded to his lieutenant, who stepped forward and began to shout, "Shield brigade go forward, gunmen follow the shield brigade and archers, prepare to strike."
As Bernal announced the orders, the 800 soldiers that were stationed in the valley quickly began to form a battle formation. 150 shield hands who were all equipped with tall shields firmly pressed their shields onto the ground and held them with their arms. They were positioned in the front and were considered as the front line of defense
Behind the shield hands were two hundred rifle brigades, these soldiers were equipped with a five meters long rifle. Their rifle contained a sharp, slender gunpoint that was crafted from fine iron that could've easily pierced through any light armor. The rifle brigades carried a gun on one hand and had the tip facing outwards with the tail of the gun resting on the ground with their feet.
When you first see the brigade in the front line, all it looked like was a turtle who had grown spikes. However, the main attack in this formation was the archers, who used a longbow, which was a simple and practical weapon for all purposes.
By this time, the orcs had already organized themselves into a charging formation of 160 which were all level 6 and above. At the front line were the thick-skinned bear men who rode on their gigantic bear starting with the rough-skinned bear men on the bear. Then there was the Tauren who rode on their raging inferno and there were the wolf riders, who surrounded Fowler to keep him safe.
When the orcs' charging formation reached the humans' defensive formation within 150 meters. The deputy had already raised his left hand, and the archers automatically split into three lines and kneeled to load arrows into their bow.
"First row, fire! At the command from the lieutenant, 150 archers in the first row stood up and shot their arrows into the sky.
"Second row, fire! As soon as the first row of archers had fired their shots, they crouched down to retrieve more arrows for their next shot their quivers. Immediately, the second row of archers stood up and shot their arrows into the sky, then crouched down.
"Third row, fire! The third row of archers rose to shoot their bows and crouched down.
Just like this, the three rows of archers were able to fire their arrows simultaneously. There were barely any intervals between these arrows as the arrows were like rain.
As the arrows rained down onto the orcs charging formation and their toll began to rise. There were constantly orcs falling off their mounts and ended up being trampled into mush by the mounts that followed. Now, the only chance that the orcs would be able to win was if they increase their speed so that they could get closer to their enemies.
Within a short distance of 150 meters to 50 meters, the team of orcs had left behind more than 40 members. As the orcs came closer, the rifle brigades in the front row could already begin to see the sharp teeth from the orcs. The collision between the two teams was about to begin.
"Combat Qi!" Said Fowler. As he and the rest of the orcs drank it, they began to glow white.
The two sides finally collided. The humans' main focus was to stab the orcs with rifle point into the orcs body. Some rifles were broken into pieces due to excessive force.
The first line of shield brigades took the most damage. Since the orcs already possessed good charging power, many shield brigades had been knocked flying away by the rebound of their combat qi.
At that moment, the scene of the battle was a bloodbath. It looked just like hell. There were orc blood and human blood interwoven together. With orcs howling, humans shouting and also a variety of screams and groans coming from both sides.
The orcs rushed directly into the defensive formation. Although they had made significant progress, they lost more than 30 orcs already. In this kind of short distance battle, the orcs had an immensely more powerful advantage. Their strength and speed, as well as their ranks, were much higher than humans. This made the next part of the battle almost a complete one-sided slaughter. Under the command of Fowler, the orcs rushing out from the siege. They did not stay for long, but instead, they quickly moved forward and kept pushing.
The lieutenant stood on the left of the three rows of archers as he watched the battle in front of him without any emotion on his face. Suddenly, with a wave of his hand, he shouted, "Change to the knives!"
The archers then proceeded to drop their defunct bows and arrows and drew their swords from their belts. They had the look of certainty of death in their eyes as their main task was to use their lives to exhaust the orcs' fighting power.
The lieutenant took out his military saber from his waist. At this time, the orcs had already broken through the first line of the defense formation and were charging directly towards the archers.
The orcs were stimulated by the blood, their natural fighting instinct was fully incited. Their eyes highlighted their strong desire for blood. The archers in their eyesight were like lambs for slaughter. Their eyes shone with a strong desire for blood, and the archers before them were like lambs for slaughter.
Before the orcs rushed up to them, the archers in the front had already rushed directly towards the orcs. As they held the orcs' legs with their bodies which would slow down their charging speed as well as allowing other archers to attack them.
The lieutenant had also rushed up, he was followed by the last two rows of archers. However, the archers' frantic war rage did not stop the pace of the orcs. At last, the human defense was completely penetrated by the orcs.
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Chapter 48
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The orcs cheered with excitement as they penetrated the defense line of the humans. However, as they ran towards the direction of the sunset, the team of 33 knight brigades had already begun to increase their speed the team had reached their peak speed.
As the arrowhead of the knight brigade charging formation, the Knight of Saroya was at the very forefront. The Elite Knight, Bernard, and Elite Knight of Hopper closely followed behind.
The Knight of Saroya shouted "LOYALTY!"
A white glow of combat qi began to rush out from the body of the Knight of Saroya. Soon, all the knights who were following closely behind also began to unleash their combat qi.
The Knight of Saroya then shouted "HONOUR!"
This large amount of combat qi began to merge. Even the 30 lesser knights at the back were trying their best to unleash their combat qi.
"SACRIFICE!"
More and more combat qi shifted from the back of the charging formation towards the forefront.
"COURAGE!"
Now, a large amount of combat qi was concentrated on the bodies of the 3 Elite knights.
"HUMILITY!"
A combat qi armor that was exclusive to head commanders began to appear on their bodies
"SPIRIT!"
As the knight brigade continued to accelerate. The white color combat qi armor on the 3 elite's body knights had shone even brighter. At last, they had merged, forming an arrowhead.
"HONESTY!"
The 30 lesser knights at the back continued to supply more and more combat qi towards the forefront. The arrowhead became bigger and bigger.
"JUSTICE!"
At last, a gigantic arrowhead had formed at the forefront of the charging formation, shielding the 33 knight brigades.
The Knight's charging formation were some of the most powerful force humans could create in this world. It congregated the spirit of knights. In order to achieve a knight charging formation, it required a minimum of 10 official knights. However, if more knights were in the formation, the more powerful it became.
The holy contention had a legend. It states that when the words, "Loyalty", "Honour", "Sacrifice", "Bravery", "Mercy", "Spirit", "Honesty" and "Justice" were collectively being said together, the knight brigades would become unstoppable.
As described by countless enemies, The only way to defeat a team of knights brigades in a charging formation was to wait for it to stop charging.
Actually, it was planned all along. Those warriors who were initially in a defensive formation to withstand the orcs. They were only there to create extra time for the knight brigade to complete their charging formation. Although the charging formation was very powerful, it could only be used in an actual battleground. Since the formation would often take a long time to complete if they've been spotted during the process. The enemy would gain enough time to plan a response.
"It's the knight charging formation. Run! Quick!" Fowler loudly warned the other orcs. His calmness completely vanished. He was frightened by the most powerful attacking formation of humans.
The orcs had already been slowed down by the human defense formation. There was no way they could escape this already formed knight charging formation. The giant arrow of combat qi rushed towards the frightened orcs, like a sickle about to harvest its crops.
"Protect the Lord!" Since the wolf riders were near the back end of their formation, they preserved most of their fighting power. They madly rushed towards the front, using their bare body to protect the escaping Lord Fowler.
Fowler had already lost 2 out of 9 personal wolf riders in the previous batter. The 7 that remained were closely guarding Fowler by his side.
"For the glory of the Woolf family!" A wolf rider roared as he directly rushed towards the knight brigades. Although is sacrifice had made no difference, there were still many wolf rider shouting, ATTACK!
"Go to hell, humans. One day, I will call my lead troops to kill you all". Fowler swore, but it couldn't change the reality.
The orcs were different from humans. For human royals, the oldest son would inherit the family's assets. While for the orcs. The most powerful son would be the inherence.
Fowler was the 6th son of the Woolf family. In order to gain a chance to inherit his family's assets, he had to work very hard. That's the reason he had decided to join this new member trial.
Every year, the orc empire sent a large number of young soldiers to the human world. If they could survive for more than three months, they would be awarded. The main reason was that the orcs were too good at reproducing, and the orc empire doesn't have enough resources to meet up the demands. Especially for these orc soldiers. Therefore not only could the orc empire gain more resources by sending these troops to steal, but they could also minimize their population. That's why "the trial of death" was created. Of course, it had a better sounding name "the new member trial".
There were two elite wolf riders beside Fowler. These elite orcs were an important asset of the orcs empire, and they would rarely appear in these new member trials. However, since they needed to ensure the safety of their lord, they had also traveled to the human world.
"Wooo…" an elite wolf rider viciously howled towards the sky. Under the influence of combat qi, his voice was clearly heard by a sky sparrow just flying above them. The driver of the sparrow understood the message. He knew that he need to pick up an orc that was very high status within the orc empire. It was commanded that no matter what happened, this orc had to return safely. The driver then lightly padded the neck of the sky sparrow. The sky sparrow then took a turn in the sky and began to lower itself to around 20 meters above the ground.
The two elite wolf riders tightly held on to Fowler's arms, one on each side. In a count of three, they unleashed all their combat qi and threw Fowler towards the sky.
"I will take good care of your families!" Said Fowler in mid-air to the two elite wolf rider on the ground. Soon the sky sparrow swooped from below, catching Fowler with its giant body.
Meanwhile, the knights charging formation was rushing directly towards the two elite wolf riders. The two wolf riders were flashing with intense combat qi. They felt gratified, at last. Their lord had been saved, and the Lord said he would take good care of their families. Everything was worth it.
Just like sand being swallowed up by a powerful wave, the great charging force of the knights had soon turned the two elites wolf rider into smoke of blood. Since the 2 elites wolf riders also possessed great power, they had an even more tragic death under the rebound power of the knight charging formation.
This scenery had frightened the sky sparrow which Fowler was on. It soon began to immediately accelerate towards the sky.
The Knight of Saroya realized that sky sparrow was still in reach, so he once again gathered knight brigades, and unleashed a beam of combat qi towards the sky. Although the sky sparrow could accelerate very fast, it was nothing compared to the speed of the knight brigade's beam of combat qi. Soon it had began caught up with the sky sparrow.
Fowler sensed that he was in danger once again. He took out a rune sign from his chest pocket and smashed it. The rune sign turned into a white shield. However, the beam of combat qi produced by the 33 knights was still too strong. After a while, it had penetrated Fowler's shield.
Although Fowler's shield could not stop the beam of combat qi completely, it still absorbed most of its energy. The beam only made a small cut on the sky sparrow's body and vanished.
The injured sky sparrow was traumatized. No matter how hard the driver tried to calm it down. It flocked around frantically and did not follow it's an initial path at all.
At the time, most of the sky sparrow drivers had realized that the orcs they were supposed to pick up were killed. Since their sky sparrows were also getting more and more irritated, they began to retrieve.
"Damn, we let him got away," the Knight of Saroya said with an annoyed tone.
That orcs must be very high status. All the wolf riders had gone crazy to protect him earlier, even 2 elite wolf riders had sacrificed themselves. Moreover, it was unusual for a sky sparrow to take a risk flying at such a low altitude. All of these things just add up, that orc must be someone extraordinary.
"Let's clean up the mess", said the Elite Knight of Bernard from the side.
We had killed 160 wolf riders with rank 6 and above, two of which were even elite wolf riders. The military service we achieved today was already very outstanding.
The 200 soldiers who were guiding the mouth of the valley had all been called back to clean up and give first aid to other injured soldiers.
No matter dead or alive. Let's chop off the heads of all the orcs. They represented our outstanding military service.
"Master, the result has been calculated", a lieutenant came out with a bandaged arm and said with a heavy tone. "Out of the 1000 warriors, other than the 200 who were guarding the valley mouth. We have 302 dead, 54 in critical condition, and 5 lightly injured."
"Ah, report it anyway. We'll give a part of the spoils of war to their families", the Knight of Saroyan helplessly said. People die in battles, this fact was unavoidable. These were all the bright soldiers that trained under the Knight of Saroya for many years, fighting against normal orcs should be a challenge. However, all the orcs in this battle were rank 6 and above. Since all they wanted to do was to penetrate our defense line, the result had to be like this