Chapter 24: The First Battle
The coastline is long, and the blue waters roll up white waves that lap against the beach. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. biquge。 Info Beach is littered with broken crates, half of the exposed cargo ship, and the other half buried in the water, but it can be assumed that the cargo inside has long since been swept away. More than a dozen corpses remained on the ground, some with severed limbs and stumps, some torn apart and inhuman, and others with swords in their hands and their heads missing.
It's a panoramic view, and the sky is clear today, and the view is surprisingly good. The soldiers saw the terrible situation on the beach, some shivered, some fought with their teeth. They lined up in a phalanx and waited for instructions from the captain.
The captain had a round shield tied in his left hand, a short sword in his right hand, and a leather armor, and cleared his throat: "A few days ago, the polar people sneaked up on our coastline, they attacked cargo ships and stole a lot of supplies. These bitche-raised monsters, since the end of the one-year war, have only done some things like stealing chickens and dogs. ”
The wind blew on the sea, and the wind blew to the shore, and the soldiers heard the captain's impassioned pre-war speech: "Today, we have gathered 600 men, and half of my corps is here, so that they will not return!"
"There's no return!" shouted a soldier, emboldened.
"For the glory of the Empire!"
"For the glory of the Empire! May Thor bless us!"
Takehito stood at the back of the line, watching the soldiers raise their short swords, cheering each other up. After the large-scale war stopped, the area along the coast was still harassed by the polar people. Lieutenant General Dyken attached great importance to it and assigned Captain Houghton to be in charge of the defense of the coastline. In the absence of a navy, the captain could only use infantry to prevent the polar people from approaching the coastal city after landing.
In the Empire, the Captain could command 1,800 men, including logistical supplies. Today, Captain Houghton, who received the intelligence, dispatched 600 men and waited on the coast for the arrival of the polar people.
"They lined up in a phalanx, and it was spectacular. Isn't that right, Vice Captain Takehito?" Miller asked with his hands on his chest and a strange look.
Wu Ren was silent, his hands were clenched into fists, and his palms were sweaty.
"Vice Captain Takehito, we await your instructions. Miller continued to make a provocative noise, winking at his companion from time to time.
Lieutenant General Dai Ken directly appointed Takehito as the vice captain of the magician squad of the Army's 101st Legion, and Miller as the captain, which made Miller very unhappy. Takehito knew why, Olaf's letter worked, and the magicians who were sent to the front were not convinced.
"Listen to the captain's orders. Takehito took a deep breath, his heart beating faster and faster.
In the distance, small black dots appeared on the surface of the sea, at first they were just like the origin, and then they got bigger and bigger.
"Polar ships!—they're coming!" someone shouted. There was a commotion in the crowd.
Black arrows appeared in the sky, and the archers drew their bows and fired arrows at the ships at sea. The sea breeze blew harder, and most of the arrows from the sky fell on the nearby sea, and a few hit the deck.
"The wind isn't in the right direction!" Captain Houghton reacted, "Wait a minute, get closer and let the arrows go." He looked up and saw huge stones falling from the sky, as well as burning oil drums.
Stones and oil drums smashed into the phalanx, and the soldiers were in a mess, some of them were smashed into pulp in an instant, some were set on fire, screaming and running towards the crowd, the wind blew fiercely, and it blew towards the beach, and the flames instantly surrounded the entire human body.
"Damn, they have a dropper on board!" Captain Horton shouted at the top of his voice, "Stand back!"
The crowd rushed to the dunes like a wave, pushing and trampling people, and some of the recruits in Horton's troops were trampled to death by their companions in the retreat before they had even engaged the enemy.
Takehito was pushed and shoved, and he froze when he saw the stones falling from the sky and the burning oil drums. This is the battlefield, a living life, turned into a corpse in an instant. He looked at the unrecognizable soldiers, and his legs did not obey. He let the crowd push the dunes like waves. No one paid attention to him, no one pulled him along, and as he retreated, Miller commanded the other 4 magicians to run to the dunes, leaving him alone.
The polar people landed on the shoal under the cover of rocks and fuel drums, and they disembarked from the huge black boats, howled, and rushed towards the human formation.
"Steady, steady!" Captain Houghton, having lost some of his men, finally managed to retreat his soldiers to the sand dunes 1 kilometer from the beach, where the soil was solid and suitable for positional warfare.
The polar people are getting closer. Takeren's eyes widened, and he finally saw the real polar people. They were huge, each more than 2 meters tall, some of them were wearing thick leather armor, some were covered with black animal skins, and they could not tell what kind of animal fur they were, some of them were holding axes made of stones, and some of them were holding hammers made of stones, and they swarmed here.
"Shoot the arrows!" Captain Houghton ordered from the center of the line, and the archers were in the second phalanx, firing arrows into the sky, and arrows rained down. Because of the large pace, the polar people advanced quickly, and they braved the rain of arrows, some were shot in the shoulder, some in the chest, but they didn't care.
"First phalanx, steady! Prepare for close combat!" Captain Houghton finished the order, turned to the magicians and said, "Magicians, you show your skills!"
Takeren's eyes widened as he watched the polar people break into the first phalanx, and the infantry swarmed, brandishing short swords, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the polar people. One polar man wielded a battle axe and split a human infantry at the waist, one polar man swept through with a war hammer, and one human infantry was knocked out. 3 infantry besieged 1 polar man, the polar man smashed the head of 1 infantry with a hammer, the other infantry slashed his left arm, and the remaining 1 infantry went around the back of the polar man and inserted the short sword into his calf, the polar man screamed, and then turned into a roar, with a wave of his left arm, he swung down the infantry on the left hand side, turned around, and the war hammer smashed at the infantry behind him, the infantry blocked it with a round shield, and was still knocked out, and the broken left arm was deformed.
"Steady, steady!" roared Captain Houghton, the archers shooting the three polar men into hedgehogs, and before they fell to the ground, the polar men swept down the two infantry with a single hammer. The first phalanx was almost overwhelmed.
"Magicians, think of a way!" Captain Houghton nudged Miller, who watched blankly as the polar men crushed the human infantry, bewildered.
"I knew it, I knew it! There is no difference between a mage and a recruit!" Captain Houghton gritted his teeth, "I can't count on you at all!
There are only about 50 polar peoples, and they are gradually showing signs of retreat in the face of the overwhelming number of human armies.
"Victory is at hand! Rush, brothers!" Captain Horton drew his dagger and gave the order to charge as the Polar Men retreated to the beach.
Takehito's mind went blank, and the magicians were mostly overwhelmed, allowing the ordinary soldiers to push them away and rush forward.
Boulders and flaming oil drums fell from the sky again, and the charging human infantry drove the polar people away in a rain of stones and flames, trying to drive them back to the sea once and for all.
"Look! " shouted someone, and when they heard the sound, they saw dozens of warships appear on the sea, one of which was four stories high, and compared to it, the others were like toys.
"Reinforcements!" The human infantry screamed, and the Polar Pioneers, who had retreated to the beach, regrouped and slashed hard.
Reinforcements from the polar lands from the beach, they are better equipped than the vanguards, some even wear iron armor, there are more than 60 of them, axes and sledgehammers wielded, and the human infantry, although the majority of them, are leather armor, and cannot withstand axe slashing and sledgehammer smashing.
"Let's run. Judy was the first to react, "We can't beat them!"
"Magicians, what are you doing?" an archer shot an arrow out of his hand, ran over, grabbed Takehito's robe, and shouted, "We're all counting on you, you've been watching the battle?!"
"Kill, brothers!" Captain Horton slashed his sword into the knee of a polar man, and the other party swung a hammer, he abandoned the short sword, rolled forward, went around behind the polar man, jumped up, and hit him on the head with his shield, and another infantry rushed and plunged the short sword into the chest of the polar man, the polar population vomited blood and fell to his knees, Captain Horton drew his short sword and plunged it into the polar man's eye, and finally killed him.
At this time, everyone was stunned, a polar man who was 6 meters tall, he was wearing thick plate armor, holding a giant sword in one hand and a giant hammer in the other, and the ground shook with every step. He slashed a human infantry at the waist with a single sword, and smashed a human infantry away with a single hammer. The archers shot arrows, but the arrows could not penetrate the plate of armor.
"Monsters, monsters!" the human forces began to crumble.
"Don't run away!" shouted Captain Houghton, to no avail. Those who fled died faster, and those who were polar like wolves into a flock of sheep slashed and smashed.
"Can't stand it, they can't stand it!" said Judy and ran.
The archer who held Takehito caught up with Judy, drew his bow and arrow, and plunged the arrow into Judy's abdomen: "You cowards! We believe in you, and we will be killed!"
Miller's eyes widened, he pulled out the sword at his waist, stabbed it into the archer, and roared, "You dare to kill Judy!"
The archer spat out blood and smiled, and that smile was full of sarcasm: "What kind of imperial elite are you? Why do you want us to be cannon fodder for you?
The archer's shouts woke Takehito. He saw the 6-meter-tall giant leading a group of more than 50 living polar people, chasing down the deserters of the humans. His voice trembled, but he came to his senses, shouting, "We retreat to the grove!"
Miller yelled, "What are you?"
"None of us know sand magic, it's far from the water source, and there is no medium for water magic. Takehito shouted, his words echoed by Kevin, "Go to the grove and we'll fight them off with wood and fire magic!"
It was wrong in the first place. Captain Houghton's entire battle plan is to use the mage squad as an uncertain factor, fighting positional battles on the dunes, which is to use the mage as an archer with fireballs. Takehito reacted and took the path that no one had taken before, and the magician was the core of this battle.