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But what was this strange formation and this extremely dense fire network? The sound of hundreds of muskets firing at the same time was like thunder from heaven!

After one volley, the musketeers quickly reloaded their ammunition. With the benefit of paper-wrapped bullets and hard training, everyone's average firing rate had increased to one shot per twenty seconds. When the crossbowmen entered the effective range of the pulley crossbow at a distance of one hundred meters, the second round of thunderous volleys resounded through the sky again, causing the Venetian crossbowmen to fall in a pool of blood like weeds!

The giant shield crossbowmen began to fight back. They erected the wooden shields in their hands, which were as huge as door panels and could cover their entire bodies, on the ground, forming a long defensive wall. Then the first row shot straight ahead, and the people behind them threw arrows into the sky. After flying hundreds of meters into the sky, the short crossbow arrows fell down under the action of gravity, forming a perfect parabola. More than 400 crossbow arrows fell on the top of the musket position like a storm.

However, after digging out the silver mine, Aenarion was very generous. The musketeers were also equipped with armor. The one hundred meters long projectile had a longer flight trajectory and lost more kinetic energy. Although it caused damage, it was really limited.

"Silsina! Yurielle! Do it!"

Aenarion had 400 musketeers and the enemy had 500 crossbowmen. Their long-range strength was similar, but the Spanish phalanx sacrificed firepower to a certain extent in pursuit of safety. Four musket companies were arranged at the four corners, and at the same time, only two companies could shoot at the enemy in front of them.

But it doesn't matter, Aenarion still has two Gorgons.

"hiss--"

Sisina's dark green little Gorgon rode on her sister's snow-white shoulders, with her cyan-golden tail wrapped around her huge jade arms to keep her balance. Her head of green silk turned into hundreds of elegant, slender green dragon heads.

Euryale's long peach-pink hair moved without wind. Hundreds of hell snake heads with succubus horns were raised high. Hundreds of scarlet snake tongues quietly extended their snake kisses, locking onto the enemy with high-frequency tremors. Hundreds of hair snakes of the two sisters opened their mouths wide and spewed venom into the sky.

Instantly, countless dark green and peach pink venoms spurted out from the hollow fangs like raindrops, splashing on the enemy like a heavy poisonous rain! The moment the venom touched the wooden shield, clothes, and skin, it dissolved and festered with a terrifying hissing sound and wisps of white smoke.

Drops of venom penetrated directly into the human body's circulation along the festering skin tissue. Under the astonished gaze of the Venetian, he watched his rotting and smoking wounds turn from warm flesh to cold stone at a speed visible to the naked eye! And it quickly spread to other parts of his body!

This month, Sisina also learned the standard fighting method of the Gorgon from her sister and Aenarion. They combined the petrifying plague with the corrosive breath of the green dragon, using the dragon breath to corrode the opponent's skin. Then the petrifying poison of the Gorgon could penetrate directly into the body. There was no need to gaze at the enemy. Just a touch of the venom could turn the enemy into stone.

"Yay! The enemy has turned to stone!"

Sisina clapped her hands in joy, her chubby pink cheeks showing joy and happiness.

“These are my first batch of stone sculptures!”

Chapter 178: Spanish Square

Under the double blow of musket bullets and Gorgon poison, the five hundred crossbowmen were gradually defeated. Twenty seconds later, the musketeers launched a third round of deafening volleys, causing more crossbowmen who had not been turned into stone to be blown away like light and fragile garbage, dragging long lines of blood.

At this moment, five hundred spearmen also rushed to the front in neat steps. The spears formed a dense steel forest. The front-row soldiers were all wearing chain mail, and the wealthy mercenaries were also equipped with some additional plate armor pieces. Their defense was not inferior to that of the Athenians.

"First and second musketeer companies, gather! Bayonets! Spear companies! Throw javelins!"

At Francisco's command, the two musket companies, which were arranged in three lines of scattered formation, gradually transformed into a dense square formation during the retreat, sticking closely to the Spanish square formation. They no longer loaded ammunition, but used the matchlock guns with bayonets in their hands as spears, and merged with the three- or four-meter-high spears and five- or six-meter-high spears into a dense steel forest.

The Athenian spearmen did not take off the spears hanging on their shoulders, but pulled out javelins from their backs. At the moment the enemy rushed over, they threw two rounds of javelins. Each of the extremely heavy javelins, which was 1.67 meters long, whistled, spun, and flew, tearing through the sky, shooting mercilessly and piercing the enemy's limbs and torso.

The chain mail seemed to be OK for chopping, but the piercing damage of this heavy javelin was too difficult to defend against. The piercing damage concentrated at one point could tear apart some of the iron rings of lower quality chain mail. Even if it couldn't be torn apart, those long armor-piercing cones could still pass through the gaps between the iron rings and penetrate deeply into the flesh, killing many spearmen before the close combat, adding a lot of bloody corpses that were still bleeding to the battlefield.

"Fuckin' Greek elves! Why are there still javelins in 1450?"

The Governor of Heraklion cursed as he looked at his own spearmen whose sharp edges were blunted by heavy javelins, but he could do nothing.

At this moment, the enemy finally rushed over, and thousands of spears from both sides collided fiercely in the air, turning into a spectacular, jagged steel forest.

For a moment, the sound of wooden handles colliding, the clanging of metal, and the shouts of soldiers on both sides resounded through the sky!

Aenarion was wearing gold-studded armor and a sun-god helmet. A skeleton giant burning with the purple fire of Sin was holding him in his arms. He stood in the first row of the spear company so that all the soldiers could see him, which greatly boosted their morale. However, many enemies focused their attention on this man who was obviously an officer and noble, and attacked him one after another.

Aenarion stretched out his left hand and raised it. A Venetian spearman's body glowed with a purple halo, and his feet left the ground. With a scream, he instantly flew dozens of meters into the air.

Aenarion swung his left hand downwards, and his whole body fell down like a meteor, screaming, and knocked down three or four Venetian soldiers in one breath. This thing weighing hundreds of kilograms including the man and the armor hit the neck of the friendly soldiers, breaking their cervical vertebrae almost instantly, making these people lose their combat ability instantly.

"Look at this man, he is dressed so luxuriously and can cast spells. He must be a noble! Capture him!"

Just after killing four or five people, six more Venetian soldiers followed the gap in the army formation, stepped on the corpses of their compatriots and rushed towards Aenarion viciously!

He was not in a hurry. Five terrifyingly hot psychic lightning bolts suddenly burst out from the five fingers of his left hand. They roared out with a creepy thunder roar and instantly blasted through the bodies of five of the soldiers. The dazzling purple lightning and the burning psychic current instantly roasted them to medium rare.

They fell to the ground powerlessly one by one.

At the same time, Aenarion raised his spear high into the sky with his right hand, wrapped it with the power of plague, and smashed it down suddenly. With one blow of plague, a huge dent was directly made in his iron helmet! His skull was shattered, and blood gushed out from his eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth. He loosened his weapons with both hands weakly, and his whole body collapsed to the ground like a slender man.

Seeing that Aenarion was in trouble, the new soldiers raised their shields and approached cautiously. Aenarion opened his mouth and took a deep breath. Countless cold and blasphemous psychic magics condensed into a fist-sized, dark green ball of destruction in front of his mouth. The pure energy contained in it was horrifying.

"Roar!!!"

Aenarion roared, and the dark green poisonous ball whistled through the sky, exploding into a cloud of death covering dozens of meters in the distance! The shock wave of the explosion spread the deadly poisonous cloud everywhere, even making the Venetians several meters away unable to stand steadily, and the soldiers farther away were also unable to open their eyes due to the strong wind.

The Venetians who inhaled the petrifying plague had their mouths, noses, necks, and lungs turned from flesh and blood into stone first. The petrifying plague then continued to spread to various parts of the body, solidifying their living flesh and blood into cold, immobile stone sculptures.

Aenarion's heroic performance made the Venetians terrified and afraid to move forward, while the high elves were greatly encouraged. They shouted Aenarion's name and fought forward with spears and bayonets in hand!

"Third! Fourth musketeer company, three lines, fire!!!"

At the same time, the two musket companies at the back also began to change their formation - the four musket companies were located at the four corners of the large spear phalanx. These Venetians only attacked one side of the phalanx, so they just silenced the two musket companies, shrank, and transformed into spearmen to fight the enemy.

The two musketeers at the back could still fire. They quickly changed their formation from a 10x10 square to a 33x3 three-line formation, and pulled the trigger at the Venetians who were attacking the front of the square! They were bleeding and their flesh flew everywhere, and then they fell down like weeds!

Some Venetians looked in horror at the two musketeer companies behind them that were firing, and tried to stop them.

However, they were about twenty men away from the musketeers. All of them were armed with spears and javelins, and were ready to fight on the flanks. Some of the stragglers who rushed over were shot and killed on the spot by javelins! They could only watch the two hundred musketeers calmly reload their ammunition, and twenty seconds later, another volley of musket fire came!

Governor Heraklion was shocked by the formation set up by Aenarion and the poisonous power of the Gorgons. The crossbowmen who were crippled by muskets were suppressed by the venom spewed by the two Gorgons, and his own spearmen were also at a disadvantage in close combat.

Logically speaking, now is a good opportunity to send out a cavalry charge, but this damn formation is surrounded by dense walls of spears on all sides, and I have no idea where to charge!

There was no other way. He waved his hand and ordered four hundred Minotaur to attack the right wing, two hundred Tzeentch pirates to attack the left wing, and three hundred Catholic Knights to attack the rear. Since you have no weaknesses, I will launch a charge from all directions!

Chapter 179: Finger of Death

With a terrifying roar, four hundred minotaurs roared and charged. Each of them was strong and tall, with strange armor tied to their dirty brown fur.

Some minotaurs tied a complete set of Gothic plate armor that had recently appeared, along with the corpses of knights inside, to their chests as protective gear. The stench of the corpses could be smelled from a long distance away.

Some minotaurs sewed together several pieces of old-style armor from hundreds of years ago with intestines and wore them on their bodies.

Some of them were wearing crude and randomly tied armor, even lath armor from the Roman Republic period - these were considered modern times. Some Minotaur were even equipped with bronze muscle armor of the ancient Greeks, just like the armor museum, and they rushed towards the right wing of the army in a mighty manner.

At the same time, the Tzeentch pirates also launched a charge to the left wing. They were all light infantry, wearing dark blue robes and holding a small scimitar in their hands, ready to fight alone, and they did not look threatening.

But behind them, there are nine traitors.

The strange wizards have been deeply infected by the Lord of Change, and their flesh and blood have been severely mutated. Some of them have nine completely different kinds of wings growing on their backs, including feather wings, bat wings, and insect wings. Some of them have densely packed hands and feet all over their bodies like centipedes. Some of them have two heads and two consciousnesses, and can cast spells twice at the same time.

The most terrifying one is their leader. His chaos mutation is so severe that his lower body has turned into a rat with white hair, as big as a polar bear. In the place of the rat's head, there is a fat, bloated human torso, and a rat head with nine chins. Nine skinny arms stretch out from his fat torso, forming a sharp contrast with his bloated abdomen.

Nine wizards stood behind the army, chanting the blasphemous and terrifying Chaos language in unison. For a moment, countless blue and pink Tzeentch flames intertwined together, like a gorgeous and strange wave of flames, covered the heads of the Athenian soldiers.

At this moment, the Doge of Venice, Blind Dandolo, took action. The lich raised his left hand and weaved a series of equally gorgeous and ghostly flame protection barriers to resist and block the spell bombardment of the nine Tzeentch wizards. With his right hand, he took out an elderberry staff that looked like a skull finger from his waist, and drew a lightning of death from top to bottom. His long-rotten throat let out a hoarse roar from hell.

Instantly, a beam of evil green ion beam gushed out from the elderberry staff, screaming and tearing through the sky, instantly blasting through a Tzeentch wizard! Countless emerald green arcs entangled around the beam, forming a series of hideous and twisted death curves like giant snakes, and instantly the entire battlefield was illuminated by the evil green halo! The deep red blood, purple lapels, and golden decorations were all dim in this evil green terrifying electric light, like an old black and white photo.

The light had not yet gone out, and deafening thunder sounded, making the air of the entire battlefield tremble in the thunderous roar, making the atmosphere of the battlefield even more terrifying. The Tzeentch wizard, who was pierced by the evil green ion lightning, turned pale and bled from all seven orifices. The whole person was like a kite with a broken string, and was blasted away by the electric current, and smashed heavily on the ground several meters away, without any sound.

Astariel looked in awe at the lich who had ruled Venice for more than two centuries. He had just used the seventh-ring necromancy spell: Finger of Death, a simple one-hit kill magic. The spell was also very simple - "Avada Eats the Big Melon".

"Third and fourth rifle companies! Attack the flanks!!!"

Francesco immediately adjusted his strategy and stopped attacking the weak Venetian spearmen in the front. He ordered the two musket companies that could still fire to attack the enemy troops approaching from both wings.

"Everyone, turn left! Form three lines and fire!"

"Everyone, turn right! Form three lines and fire!"

After receiving the order, the two company commanders also gave orders separately. The moment the Tzeentch pirates and minotaurs rushed over, they first fired a volley of muskets at them, beating the monsters in the front into a bloody sieve, making them sleep forever on the bloody battlefield, and then quickly withdrew to the team.

Seeing that there was not enough time to reload and fire a second time, but enough time to retreat, they even tried the alternating formation that had not yet been trained. The musketeers outside retreated back into the phalanx, leaving the spearmen to stand in the front line.

Hundreds of spearmen did not take the spears hanging on their shoulders, but first pulled out their javelins and threw three at an extremely fast speed. After cutting off the opponent's sharp edges, they took out their spears one after another and formed a dense and terrifying spear wall.

The Tzeentch pirates fought very smoothly here. Those pirates had no habit of equipping armor, and they were holding pirate scimitars that were less than one meter long. Facing the dense wall of spears of the Spanish phalanx was simply courting death. Relying on the length advantage of their weapons, the spears of the second and third rows of soldiers could pass over the shoulders of the first row of soldiers and attack the enemy at the same time. Behind them were more than five or six meters of extraordinary guns to besiege them.

The brothers beside them could also use their spears for support. If the battlefield was broken down into individual scenes, a pirate holding a one-meter-long knife would have to face the thrusts of fifteen spears in three rows and five lines! Their nine mage captains were about the same in ability as the Slayer Warband, but they were blocked by the blind lich alone, and even had the upper hand.

The Tzeentch pirates on the left wing didn't have to worry, but the minotaurs on the right were quite capable. After several rounds of concentrated fire from muskets and javelins, these fat and strong monsters received considerable damage, but few of them died. The minotaurs, who were beaten to a bloody mess by muskets and had five or six javelins stuck in their bodies, still roared and charged forward, crashing hard into the dense forest of spear phalanxes!

The action of force is mutual. The harder they rushed, the stronger the force they hit the spears. In an instant, more than a dozen spears pierced through their bodies that were not protected by armor, and the bull-headed monsters were bleedin' and their flesh flew everywhere. However, these monsters still did not die after being continuously shot by muskets, javelins, and pierced by spears!

One by one, the seriously injured minotaurs even grabbed the spears that had pierced their bodies, and with a sudden force, threw the soldiers on the other end of the spear handles high into the sky! Then, they fell to the ground fiercely with screams, crushing a large number of comrades and destroying the entire formation!

"Moo!!!"

With the thunderous roar of a bull, another minotaur raised his big black hoof and stomped the ground fiercely. The battlefield was immediately shattered by the power of this hoof, and lines like spider webs appeared one after another.

The hideous cracks spread in all directions with his hooves as the center. The whole earth was shaking under the trampling of war. The nearby Athenian soldiers could not stand steadily, and he took the opportunity to rush into the formation, waving two battle axes and killing people!

In a corner of the battlefield, another minotaur held up a huge customized wooden shield with a thick layer of iron on the surface. Dozens of spears could not penetrate it, so they could only use the spears to wrestle with the minotaur.

But the strength of dozens of soldiers was no match for a minotaur, and the entire formation was pushed back by him!

The battle against the Minotaur on the right wing was tight, and the battle against the cavalry in the rear was also a bit uncomfortable. Although the dense spear phalanx could restrain the cavalry to a certain extent, it also cost their lives. The spearmen, who were not very valuable and easy to train, were fighting a high-intensity exchange with the excellent knights who took decades to train.

There was no choice. Aenarion made urgent adjustments and ordered the two Gorgons to stop spraying poison on the collapsed crossbowmen, and to attack the knights with all their strength. Artemisia, the Slaanesh Paladin, and Astariel, who was playing as the Dossier, turned into ruthless BUFF machines, some activated haloes, some added buffs, and circles of magical halos, some of which were lustful, some of which were lewd, some of which were thorny, and some of which were shining with holy light, spread out in all directions, barely covering the soldiers fighting against the knights and minotaurs.

Artemisia's triple Slaanesh aura increases the soldiers' attack speed and movement speed, making their attacks more fierce and swift.

Astariel focused on defense. Soft vines covered their bodies like poisonous snakes and woven into chain mail, followed by a layer of magnificent holy light shield. Then their fragile flesh and skin turned into solid rock, greatly improving the soldiers' survivability.

Before that, the Minotaur could split the enemy's chainmail and torso in half with one axe! But now, with this axe, facing the three layers of super armor woven together by magic, it became extremely difficult to break through the defense.

What was even more difficult for Governor Heraklion to accept was that the ordinary positions had been broken down by the charge of his own knights and minotaurs, and then they were in disarray.

The Spanish square was frontal on all four sides, and the soldiers were attacked from all directions, so they could only retreat to the center! The harder their own people charged, the tighter their formation became as they retreated.

Facing the soldiers on all sides standing back to back and shoulder to shoulder, no matter how many charges the knights and minotaurs launched or how many people they killed, they could not break through this damn phalanx!

Chapter 180: Mongolian Shangdan

Aenarion's soldiers formed a big circle inside, and Governor Heraklion's soldiers formed a big circle outside. For a while, neither side could do anything to the other, and the fighting lasted from noon until dusk. The Italian knights from Crete launched thirteen consecutive charges, but were beaten back thirteen times by the Gorgon's petrifying poison and the dense spear wall of the Athenian soldiers.

On average, for every spearman that Aenarion took four months to train, a knight that the governor took more than ten years to train would be killed. This high-intensity way of dying made the nobles extremely painful.

The Venetians were surrounded on all sides. The Italian spearmen in the front were gradually defeated, and the Tzeentch pirates on the left were also retreating step by step under the advancement of the spear wall. Only when the few mages united could they barely compete with the blind lich. Victory for both sides was a matter of time.

Only the tauren on the right and the knights at the back could bring pressure to Aenarion, but their attacks were slowed down by the layers of magic that enhanced the soldiers' armor and attack speed.

After the two sides delayed for such a long time, the five hundred Mongolian orcs who went to burn, kill and loot returned.

"Oh? The financial sponsor is surrounded, guys! Show off all your skills and charge! Otherwise, no one will give you money!!!"

Walter blew the battle horn, and these green-skinned Mongolian men jumped off their Mongolian horses, which were already very tired after running all the way, and jumped onto strong war horses, which had also run all the way but at least did not carry any heavy objects and were in good physical condition.

And the two hundred greenskins wearing Chinese armor rode on war boars - a kind of strong beast that is bigger than horses. It looks like a wild boar and weighs between 800 kilograms and one ton. It eats everything and is very easy to feed. It has six fangs that look like six scimitars in front of its mouth, which is very scary. Its endurance, protection and impact force are very good, but its speed is a bit slow. It is better for archers to ride horses. Only heavy cavalry for assault formations ride this.

When Governor Heraklion was observing the battle situation in Aenarion and thinking about how to break this strange formation, he suddenly heard the sad and high-pitched grassland throat singing in the distance, mixed with the majestic and sharp sound of the horn that resounded through the sky! Then came the five hundred Mongolian cavalrymen, and the earth trembling under the hooves of the war horses and war pigs!

Three hundred horse archers were divided into two teams, making a detour, encircling the two wings of the Italian knights and shooting deadly arrows at their horses - the armor on you knights is really awesome, I can't shoot through your armor, but can't I kill your horses that are not equipped with iron armor?

The knights panicked. In front of them was the Spanish phalanx, and on both sides were the archers who suddenly rushed out. Before they could react, the War Pig Heavy Cavalry rushed over from behind! Two hundred Mongolian warriors in armor shot three arrows quickly during the charge, killing and disrupting the enemy with a heavy rain of arrows.

Afterwards, it was like a devastating metal torrent that slammed heavily into the bodies of these knights!

Instantly, countless arrows tore through the armor, creating a large number of bright sparks, and countless scarlet blood drilled into the flesh. Countless Eastern lances, Western lances, or Central Asian lances tore through the enemy's body like thunder. Nearly one-ton war pigs used their noses to knock over the knights and horses, and used their fangs to leave hideous scars on their armor and flesh!

A horse was shot dead, and a knight on foot was even pushed up three or four meters into the air by a wild boar! The boar's tusks had six dents on his solid armor. When he fell down screaming, his limbs were tilted and bent at abnormal angles, and blood flowed out through the gaps in the armor. It looked like he had already seen God.

These three hundred heavy cavalrymen were already exhausted and suffered heavy losses after fighting the thirteen charges of the spearmen. Their organization was completely destroyed. The five hundred Mongolian orcs completely defeated them with just one cavalry charge.

Walter blew the horn. He had a keen insight into the battlefield and realized that Aenarion's greatest threats were the knights and the minotaurs. After dealing with the knights, he immediately led his troops to charge towards the minotaurs!

The minotaur beasts found something wrong. They had been suppressing the elves the whole time. Victory was a matter of time. Why did someone come from behind and try to surround them? Where were the friendly forces? Could they help them?

Governor Heraklion was also panicking. He had already sent all his reserve troops forward. At this moment, he only had 100 guards left. He had no way to deal with the 500 orcs' fierce charge. At this moment, the musketeers hiding inside the square also came out from the back and began to shoot at the Tzeentch pirates on the left in three lines. The explosion of gunpowder was deafening! The soldiers on the left and right were completely defeated by the impact of the elf muskets and the Mongolian cavalry!

At this time, the five hundred Italian spearmen who were entangled in the front also found that the situation was not right, and the soldiers in the rear began to flee. This seemed to be the first domino to fall, and the entire army began to disintegrate. Countless soldiers threw away their weapons and armor in panic and fled!

Aenarion's infantry could not pursue, and could only fire a few rounds of muskets and javelins from a distance.

However, facing this kind of defeated army with no fighting spirit and abandoned armor, the cavalry was able to exert incredible advantages. They were like wolves hunting sheep, using spears and scimitars to easily harvest the heads of the defeated soldiers who had neither morale nor weapons, charging left and right as if they were in an empty space! The roar of muskets, the roar of war pigs, and the roar of soldiers intensified the fear of the Venetians, causing them to flee in droves in the sunset, making Aenarion truly understand what it means to be defeated like a mountain.

At this moment, the remaining captains of the Tzeentch pirates also panicked and fled. The blind lich waved his staff again, and his right hand drew deadly lightning patterns from top to bottom in the air, while his left hand assisted in casting spells.

A beam of ion lightning, like a giant python coming out of a cave, or a dragon hunting, screamed and instantly pierced through a pirate. And like a chain of lightning, the dark green beam wrapped with thousands of arcs instantly jumped to the second, third, fourth, and fifth pirates! Chain kills, taking the enemy's life!

Governor Tzeentch, whose lower body and head had mutated into a giant white-haired rat, also fled in panic among the chaotic army. His magic power was completely exhausted in the battle with Dandolo. At this moment, he was really unable to fight anymore and could only retreat.