"Roar! Ha! Roar!"
The Rapid Infantry let out a mighty roar as they charged forward, carrying their ironwood-tipped tower shields and gripping their pike-like halberds, swiftly advancing towards the vulnerable flank of the combined forces of the Morgul and the Grombad orc armies.
"Formation! Rise!" Lance assessed the distance to the orc army in the distance, mentally calculating the range. When they were about a mile away, he issued the command.
One by one, the halberds were raised by the Rapid Infantry, each gleaming tower shield supporting a five-meter-long pike, glinting menacingly in the biting northern wind!
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" The chilling sound of arrows slicing through the air rang out as the meager ranks of orc archers lifted their small horn bows.
These short bows, which could only launch arrows a few hundred meters, had long been rendered obsolete within the coalition forces.
"Raise shields!" Lance's expression changed; no commander would command their troops to endure a rain of arrows, even if these arrows were weak…
"Thud, thud, thud!" The sound of arrows striking the raised tower shields was dull and resonant, causing the Rapid Infantry holding the shields to feel a numbing sensation in their arms.
"Hold strong! They can't pierce our tower shields!" Feeling the vibrations in his hands, Lance was reassured. How could the orcs, without longbows and sharpshooters, pierce their shields?
"200 meters! First rank, lower shields!" Lance accurately gauged the distance between them and the orcs.
At 200 meters, the orc shortbows could reach the Rapid Infantryn, so the first rank of infantry had to prepare for incoming arrows.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Iron boots hammered against the ground, and a wave of halberds surged forward with the force of thunder towards the orcs.
"Last 50 meters! Rapid Infantry! Charge! In the name of the Rapid Infantry! Long live the Zaltarion Empire!"
Lance raised his halberd, fiercely charging alongside all the Rapid Infantry towards the terrified orcs.
The air was filled with piercing screams as over a hundred orcs were impaled by the incoming halberds. But that was not the worst!
The well-trained, strong Rapid Infantry did not stop; their bloodied halberds lunged again at the orcs behind, and then the second rank of Rapid Infantry thrust their long pikes through the orcs that had been lifted by the first rank.
Countless convulsing bodies dangled in mid-air, and a pool of crimson blood spilled below...
...
"...So brutal," Rynar observed quietly from his horse, watching the Rapid Infantry slaughter the orcs. Now, he truly believed the rumors that these Rapid Infantry could take down knights.
"Because... They are Rapid Infantry!" Reynard gazed at the courageous Rapid Infantry in the distance, an unknown light shining in his eyes.
"We should move too!" Rynar remarked, looking at the agitated orc army.
"Not yet; the water isn't murky enough... Let Lance and the others hold out a bit longer! We won't act unless we must; when we do, they'll have no chance of turning the tide!" Reynard's calm words carried an unmistakable aura of malice.
"Then let's wait. The orcs haven't reacted yet. Let Lance keep the pressure on them for a while!" Rynar nodded, while the knights of the Order stood silently in the falling snow, only their breaths and that of their warhorses revealing they were alive.
"Your Majesty, I will add some fire to the mix. We can't just let the front-line orcs take the beating; it's unfair to them," Radir approached Rynar on his lean horse, swaying slightly as he leaned on his staff.
"Aivy, follow Radir and stay safe!" Rynar softly instructed them before they departed.
"After this battle, we need to recuperate properly. The strings of Riverguard are stretched too tightly; they can't cope with the next war," Reynard finally advised Rynar after a moment of silence.
"Are you suggesting we don't intervene in the dwarves' Moria expedition?" Rynar chuckled.
"Your Majesty..." Reynard opened his mouth; as a subordinate, he hoped Rynar would steer the ship more steadily.
"Hmm, I will consider it," Rynar responded vaguely; he couldn't refuse the allure of dragon riders.
After all, the system offered authentic Zaltarion Empire dragon riders, trained and passed down as the ultimate military force—not something a half-baked noble like Elandorh could compare to.
...
"Advance! Advance! Don't stop! You are the children of River Running! You are Rapid Infantry! You are unstoppable! Kill!"
Lance roared, wielding his halberd and piercing the chests of four orcs before him.
He flipped his right hand, powerfully tossing the four twitching corpses away, and then thrust his halberd again into another orc.
Warm blood sprayed as the Rapid Infantry stabbed with their halberds.
"Thud, thud!" A third-tier orc berserker, who had just cleaved through a Rapid Infantry tower shield with a heavy axe, was mercilessly ground to death by dozens of Rapid Infantry.
The corpse was riddled with holes from halberd strikes and missing its halberd head; its skull bore the marks of having been smashed by a hammer, now grotesquely deformed.
"Ugh..." A Rapid Infantry soldier with his chest torn open weakly clutched his spilling entrails, desperately yearning for life...
...
"The orcs have reacted!" Rynar anxiously observed the Rapid Infantry that was subtly being encircled by the orc army.
"Wait a bit longer! Loshanier should be reacting now!" Reynard calmly surveyed the battlefield, hoping the Holy Radiance Order would appear at the time and place the orcs least expected!
"Bang!" The once-locked gates of Loshanier burst open from within, and a tide of elven forces poured out like a wave. Elenthor, wielding her curved blade, led the charge, her extreme agility granting the elves remarkable mobility.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
Arrows arrived before the elves did! A volley of rapid-fire arrows thoroughly disrupted the orcs, who had just managed to form some semblance of a line.
Many of the orcs fell in the barrage, and the few lucky ones who survived scrambled for cover against the rain of arrows.
The psychological trauma inflicted by elven archers left the orcs with no opportunity for a counterattack, as the elves seized this precious gap and advanced.
The encirclement of the Rapid Infantry crumbled on its own; with the threat from behind gone, the Rapid Infantry now found themselves in the lonely battlefield of Lonely Mountain... unstoppable!
"It's time, Your Majesty; we can let the knights move!" Reynard smiled at the coordinated elven forces, appreciating the elven commander's timing.
For the first time, Reynard felt confident about completely annihilating the orc army!
"Clop, clop, clop~" The crisp sound of hooves echoed, a weak but undeniably fierce iron tide advancing unnoticed toward the orc's flank!
"Whoosh~" Countless two-meter-long spikes suddenly covered the area within a hundred meters.
Every orc within the magical range was impaled by the spikes, while only a few lucky ones managed to shatter the spikes and escape.
The war mage Radir quietly revealed the prowess that came with being a war mage!
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