Imperial Crown.

Chapter 504 Bloodbath (5)

Many thanks to QQ Reading's author [秋、殇] for the 100-coin reward!

……

The sky had completely darkened, and light snow was falling. The great battle had been raging since noon until now, but the shouts, roars, and curses from the front lines were deafening and echoed across the land!
Both sides were completely bloodthirsty, and given that it was a war between races, their hearts were filled with endless hatred stemming from a thousand-year-old feud, so they killed each other with almost no psychological burden.

Even the mercenaries began to fight the orcs with fearless courage! Everywhere were severed limbs and broken bodies, pools of blood that had congealed into crimson pools... Burning flames, flags in two pieces, discarded weapons, and ferocious carnage... Under the golden light shield of the Divine Kingdom's Radiant Array, an epic and poignant scene was formed!
From 2 PM until nightfall, Savannah led the Holy Knights in over ten charges across the battlefield, repeatedly piercing through the orc formations! They captured at least 15,000 orcs! A remarkable achievement! But a heavy price was paid: the Holy Knights also lost over 30 Tier 2 Transcendents! Not every Knight of Light can master high-level Light combat skills like Savannah! Not every Knight of Light can adapt to this bloody battlefield, a veritable hell on earth! And not every Knight of Light is as lucky as encountering ordinary orcs every time.

In this horrific, meat-grinding battlefield, death is almost inevitable! It's the easiest and most inconspicuous thing that happens anytime, anywhere!

"Follow me to support the left wing!"

The might of the Holy Knights needs no further introduction, but it also brings some negative effects. As soon as these hundreds of golden-armored knights charge in, the orcs will rush towards the center and left flank like madmen!
The central army was backed by the heavy infantry of the [Sohei Blade Squad], along with the two extraordinary warriors, Donkey Face and Freckles; and led by the veterans Vader and Bobby. Add to that the first echelon of Hervi, Lamb, Pind, and Pip… and the second echelon of Moas, Beta, Solinxi… and many other leaders, a total of nine second-tier extraordinary warriors! Moreover, while the mercenaries were undisciplined, lacked willpower, and were poorly equipped… their proportion of extraordinary warriors was high, although most were first-tier. Therefore, these orcs naturally couldn't break through; at most, they could only push the defensive line wider, rounder, and more concave!
The situation was different on the left wing. The crossbowmen led by Thor and Hoaz had already suffered more than half casualties. If it weren't for the timely arrival of the rear phalanx of horse archers led by Severin and Grand, they would probably have been overwhelmed long ago!
So after Savannah pushed up the visor on her helmet and glanced at the battlefield, she immediately gave the order to support the left flank!

"Lady Savannah, Earl Raven's mission for us is to hold the right flank and wipe out the orcs!" Hume hurriedly shouted from the side. "I don't think we should act on our own. What will happen to the right flank if we leave?"

"Call me sir!"

Savannah coldly retorted, "The right wing still has the heavy cavalry led by Turo, Baido... Boris, and Jacobi, and the light cavalry led by Magd and Henchton! They are enough to hold out until we charge back again! If we don't support the left wing, it will surely collapse! They are all ranged crossbowmen and horse archers, but now they are forced into close combat and being slaughtered by the orcs! Those people are living, breathing human beings, children raised by parents! Not livestock raised by Raven. I will not be as cold-blooded and ruthless as Raven and stand idly by!"

"Little guy, if you're afraid of Raven, then stay here!" Savannah said coldly, removing her faceplate.

"I'm not a little guy! I'm 24!" Hume roared. "Go then! I'm not afraid of Raven!" With that, he spurred his horse and charged ahead towards the left flank.

Savannah's beautiful eyes flashed with admiration, but she didn't dare let this young master of the marquis's family go too far alone, so she hurriedly caught up and protected him.

The golden light of the fifth-tier magic array, radiating from the divine kingdom, surged wave after wave, relentlessly weakening the orcs' strength while providing a healing source for the human soldiers. Thus, even after fighting from day to night, the human soldiers remained energetic, while the orcs were listless and dazed, as if trapped in an endless swamp, severely weakened by a debuff!

On the entire frontal battlefield, as many as fifty to sixty thousand orcs died, and the mountains of corpses piled up were even higher than the breach in the Bloodstone Wall! But for the 20-strong orc ground army, it was still a drop in the ocean! Moreover, the enemy's most elite Bloodswamp Tramplers and several legions of the Khajiit vanguard had not yet entered!
If Savannah were to look at the platform where Raven was now, she would see that Raven, who had been as still as a mountain, had finally moved. His expression was no longer indifferent, and his eyes were no longer calm and still... Instead, he suddenly stood up straight, raised his cane and pointed it in her direction, loudly cursing something.

"That damned Savannah! I'll teach her a lesson she won't forget!"

Raven roared furiously, "Get Eric here!"

Savannah's disobedience to military orders caused Raven's army formation to immediately change shape, and the bait that had been painstakingly created was destroyed in an instant, forcing even Eric to be exposed prematurely.

Clad in heavy armor, Eric quickly arrived at Raven's platform. "Go! Charge in from the left flank and tell that foolish woman, Savannah, to go back and guard her right flank!" Raven ordered, a cold glint in his eyes. "If she disobeys orders, kill her without mercy! Have her adjutant lead the knights back to the right flank!"

The orcs' elite troops haven't even been deployed yet. Once they are, Savannah's actions will leave both flanks of the entire army vulnerable, causing the Double Crescent Moon Formation to fail completely!
"Yes!" "Your will will be carried out!" Eric knelt on one knee, pounding his breastplate as he shouted.

He then mounted the Clawed Yellow Flying Lightning and charged toward the left flank.

Eric, at the fourth rank, was like a war god. Wherever he went, the orcs were reduced to dust, their armor and bodies shattered. Whether they were extraordinary or not, whether they were first-rank, second-rank, or even third-rank extraordinary, none of them were a match for him! Wherever his spear went, men and women were turned against him! He was like a blood shark released into the deep sea, terrifying and horrifying!
In just over 40 minutes, Eric rushed to Savannah's side. "Sawana, the patriarch orders you to return to the right wing now, or you will be punished according to military law!" Eric's voice was filled with a clear chilling killing intent as he stared intently at Savannah's figure. If Savannah refused, he would kill her without hesitation!
Eric's killing intent was so intense and obvious that not only Savannah, but also Thor, Hoaz, Hume, and the rest of the Holy Knights beside him couldn't help but change their expressions! None of these people were fools; they could all guess that Eric must have been sent by Raven specifically to deliver military orders! He was essentially a warlord sent by Raven, and Eric would likely slaughter not only Savannah, but also anyone else in the Eagle Army without hesitation!

"What about the left wing?" Facing Eric, a fourth-tier fighter, Savannah would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous! Eric's aura was just too powerful! He had fought his way through, and the killing intent around him was so thick it was almost tangible! But with so many people watching, Savannah was also a little embarrassed and could only ask in a low voice.

"The head of the family has made arrangements, so you don't need to worry about it! Just go back and hold the right wing!" Eric explained patiently, as they were one of his own.

"Arrangements? What nonsense!! I don't see any arrangements at all!" Savanna sneered, her anger rising. "The left-wing crossbowmen are almost wiped out, and I haven't seen any backup plans. On the contrary, I just arrived to support the left wing, and you, a fourth-tier transcendent, were sent out to stop me!"

“Since its inception, the Eagle Army has been guided by the principle of obeying orders!” Eric’s patience had run out. “This is my final warning! Return to the right wing and obey the patriarch’s orders!”

"Yeah"

Hume hurriedly shouted from the side, "Actually, we were just planning to return to the right wing! Commander Savannah just gave the same order! Now that Lord Eric is here, we don't need to worry about the safety of the left wing! Let's go, Commander Savannah!" Thor also chimed in, trying to smooth things over, "That's right! Even if you hadn't come, Knight Savannah was already planning to go back, Father."

Savannah snorted and charged toward the right flank with Hume and the others.

Seeing Savannah and the others leave, Eric breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced back at Thor, who was already wounded, and then at Hoaz, who was also bleeding profusely. In the end, he didn't say a word, spurred his warhorse, and charged towards the gap! He still needed to find the fifth-tier Broken Tooth; otherwise, if Broken Tooth charged in, the entire army would surely collapse!

"Are you alright with your injuries?" Heaz pointed to Thor's left shoulder. If he remembered correctly, a few months ago, during the final battle with Jing Ge, Thor was shot in the left scapula by a stray arrow from Jing Ge.

"It's been fine for a while," Thor said, shaking his head dismissively. With a flick of his wrist, Thor tossed a coin, which was caught by Heyaz. "Here you go, kid." He knew why Heyaz had asked such a pointless question. Having been in the Orc Empire for so long, the healing potions made from the Essence of Life had long been exhausted, and even the healing potions made by Bigenbao were running low. Just now, while fighting the Orcs, he had touched his left shoulder, and this kid had noticed it immediately.

Heyaz looked down and saw the gold coin with Raven's image on one side and the red-haired goddess of fortune on the other. "Isn't this your lucky coin? You're willing to part with it?" Heyaz grinned. He understood Thor's intentions. Giving up one's most prized possessions was a common practice in the Nord Province, akin to a blood oath! It was equivalent to surrendering one's loyalty! The weakness of the left-wing crossbowmen was obvious to everyone, and Thor and Heyaz understood that this was bait deliberately thrown out by Raven! That's why the two of them had both chosen to become leaders of the crossbowmen! Because if the bait was too obvious, it wouldn't be bait anymore! But the two were actually leaders of their respective factions, representing different interests. Thor's actions were clearly showing Heyaz that he trusted him enough and entrusted him with his "loyalty," so that Heyaz could also trust Thor with peace of mind.

Even serfs, after raising several children, would fight over the family property, and the fight could become even more intense and brutal because the family property was too small!

Besides, Raven is an earl who owns a large territory!

But this does not affect the trust and loyalty between Hoyaz and Thor, who share life and death on the battlefield! Especially when facing orcs, enemies who are not even the same race!

Watching Eric charge ahead, carving a bloody path through the orc army, Hoyaz sighed, "I wish I could be as strong as your father someday." Hoyaz was only at the second tier, second star, and breaking through to the third tier seemed a long way off.

Thor smiled enigmatically. "You're stronger than me? I wouldn't even dare to dream of it." Let alone fourth rank, even third rank is the limit for 95% of the knights on the Middles Continent!

Even figures like Margot and Solling, who were mercenaries from childhood and later became Grand Masters, were only at the peak of the second tier. Even at their forties or fifties, they still couldn't become third-tier transcendents! If Thor remembered correctly, even a cultivation prodigy like the family head Raven was only a third-tier transcendent who could condense battle qi armor but hadn't yet awakened his martial soul!

So, if Thor could reach the third rank in this lifetime, he'd be laughing in his sleep, let alone the fourth. Thinking of this, Thor suddenly felt a little envious of Simon. After Simon devoured the angel's essence, he jumped from the first rank of transcendent to the fifth rank. Although he could never advance or break through again in this lifetime, he became the ultimate goal that 99% of knights could only admire for their entire lives.

Savannah's support greatly relieved the pressure on Thor and Heaz, so much so that after they left for a while, the two were able to chat for a bit, but soon, countless orcs swarmed in again.

……

At the same time, a glint of light flashed in the eyes of an orc in the corner. "Found it!" he shouted in his heart, his excitement making his armor tremble.

This person was Jing Ge, who had been hiding since he entered in the afternoon until nightfall. He had been silently observing the battlefield and finally found the weakness and gap in the human army's formation.

That's the left wing!
At first, Jing Ge also suspected that this was just a decoy, but when he saw Savannah on the right wing supporting the left wing at all costs, he realized that the left wing was not a decoy, but a real weakness!

"Haha, in the end, Raven only has 3 soldiers. No matter how capable he is, he can't cook without rice!" Jing Ge muttered to himself with glee. "Raven, Raven, this time I'll show you how I crush you!"

With a wary glance at the bloody path Eric had carved out, Jing Ge walked towards the outside of the gap.

Once outside, he found the leader of the tiger-men vanguard and said, "Lord Baggins, I have found a weakness in Raven's army formation and need your help!"

"Oh?"

Withdrawing his gaze from Eric, Bagginban looked at Jing Ge, responded softly, and then asked suspiciously, "There's a fifth-order human magic array inside the breach. Even a hundred thousand orc soldiers couldn't break through the defenses. How did you find the flaw?"

As the leader of the Tiger-Man Vanguard, Bagginban possessed peak third-tier strength. Jing Ge dared not be presumptuous in his presence and, upon hearing this, recounted his observations from the entire day: "If the left flank is bait, then the knights of the Cult of Light wouldn't need to support them. Furthermore, Eric, after breaking out from the left flank, immediately went to confront my father, presumably fearing he would discover something amiss!" Jing Ge stated confidently, "I guarantee with my own head that the left flank is definitely the weakness of Raven's formation, because he doesn't have enough soldiers! If Lord Bagginban is still worried, I will bring my Blood Swamp Tramplers Legion and my father's Fang Slaughtering Battalion, along with your two Tiger-Man Vanguard Legions! We can absolutely crush the human army in one fell swoop and capture Raven alive!"

Jing Ge looked up at the dark night sky: "Let's not wait for Lord Silvermane anymore! Raven's cunning is notorious. I think the Lord must be trapped by his trump card. Perhaps even those magic crystal cannons were bait that Raven deliberately threw out to lure Lord Silvermane! Lord Silvermane hasn't been able to come down since he went up. He's probably waiting for us to settle the score and rescue him!"

……

(End of this chapter)