Chapter 787 - A Bitter Struggle With No End (1/2)
Chapter 787 - A Bitter Struggle With No End
Panicked horses dashed around the beach shores. I led Matcha, Wang Jian, and the other Steel Blade Horsemen in a charge against the Sea Walrus Knights. I had long lost count of the number of monsters that my Dragon Reservoir Sword and Zhen Yue Blade had cut down. Fresh blood covered my entire body. Throughout this long battle, my Hidden Dragon armor collected dents and slashes, until almost every inch was covered. My Ruler’s Cape was even more tattered and stained with blood.
……
“Ka Cha!”
I swept my blade forward, splitting the head of one of the Sea Walrus Knights. He cried out and fell to the ground. His body jerked a few times before he slumped over and dropped a steel spear. I tossed the spear over to one of the Steel Blade Horsemen and he looked over at me, “How long have we been killing these Sea Walrus Knights? It feels like a lifetime has passed…”
I nodded, “A whole six hours!”
Qing Qian cleaned off her bloody dagger as she walked over and said, “Brother Xiao Yao, [Zhan Long] is taking enormous losses. We only have 10,000 men left. I don’t think your Royal Army is any better off, either…”
I couldn’t help but feel my heart tighten as she said that. I had practically watched this Royal Army grow from the bottom up. They’d taken far too many losses in this battle. It couldn’t be helped that I would feel for them.
Wan Er glanced across the horizon as she blocked the sun out with her Iron Umbrella, “Just how many more Sea Demons are there in the Sea of No Return? Logically speaking, over twenty thousand should have died on the shores. There shouldn’t be too many more, right?”
I walked over and gave her a hug and smiled, “Wan Er, you’ve worked hard. Looks like you’ve hit sixth place in terms of achievement points!”
Wan Er grinned, “I couldn’t have done it without [Zhan Long] holding off the Sea Walrus charge… That’s right, [Wrath of Heroes], [Thousand Burial], [Valley of the Gods] and several other small guilds were all but decimated within three hours. They’ve taken quite a few losses…”
I hadn’t paid much attention to the situation with the other guilds, but I never would’ve imagined the losses to be so great. I furrowed my brow and said, “It’s actually turned into this…”
Wei Liang picked up an equipment drop from the ground and blinked a few times, “[Thousand Burial] is a guild that holds 30,000 Greedy Wolf Raiders, and yet even they weren’t able to stand against the Sea Walrus Knights. How strange…”
Wan Er wryly smiled, “Not particularly. The Greedy Wolf Raiders are heavily reliant on their attack power and their speed. Their defense, on the other hand, was far lacking compared to the Steel Bladed Horsemen. On top of that, [Thousand Burial]’s player turnover was just too high. There were good and bad players mixed in, so their teamwork was not up to standard. On top of that, they took up an enormous amount of space next to the Harvest Army, making their density too low. It was only natural that their defenses should fall.”
Li Mu replied, “Nevermind, either way, we managed to make it through this wave of Hybrid Demons!”
I nodded, “Yup. Wan Er, you take charge of preparing the defenses. I’m going to head over to the Royal Army and take a look!”
“Got it!~”
……
With my bloody swords in hand, I rode over to the Royal Army formation. All along the way I could see the injured soldiers crying out in pain. Han Yuan, Long Xing, Xia Ye, and Xiao Lie all had solemn expressions. When they saw me, they each paid their respects. “Commander!”
I nodded in acknowledgement and slid off my horse, “How’s the situation?”
Han Yuan’s eyes were red, “I led eight thousand new troops, and after that fighting, only four thousand are left… There are two thousand survivors from the Blade Shield Camp and the Cavalry. After that last battle, we took heavy losses. Around seven thousand of our men have died, and another nine thousand are injured. We have less than ten thousand who can still fight. And that’s an optimistic estimate that includes the lightly injured soldiers.”
I took a deep breath and put my hand on Han Yuan’s shoulder, “Have Ming Fu escort the injured soldiers back to Tian Ling City for medical care. The rest will stay and continue on to the next battle. The Hybrid Demon Army will not let us off easily. Now that the Empire’s armies have taken such a big hit, they will definitely launch another attack.”
I could see a sliver of despair in Han Yuan’s eyes, “General, are we all really going to die here? The Sea of No Return is a cursed land. We… if we die here, will our country actually fall into enemy hands?”
I clenched my teeth, “Don’t worry. We still have the adventurers helping us fight. The empire will not fall into the hands of the Hybrid Demons. While our damage is great, the Sea Demons have suffered far more. Do not forget, their armies have been practically annihilated. Besides, there’s a limit to the number of soldiers that the Revered One can bring on those boats. I refuse to believe that Luo Lin was able to save a lot of his ships from the attack we inflicted on him at the beginning.”
A ray of hope appeared in Han Yuan’s expression. Not only him, even Xiao Lie, Long Xing, and Xiao Ye’s faces showed a little more hope. It seemed that my words had raised their morale somewhat and gave everyone a little bit of hope. Yup, it was much more important for me to give them hope than anything else in a situation like this.
Right then, a messenger raced over and shouted from a distance, “Is the commander general of the Royal Army, Li Xiao Yao, are you still alive? If so, please report back to the Center Tent for a military meeting!”
Han Yuan jerked his horse over and said, “You f*cker, what did you say? Would our commander die so easily? Haha, our general is talented in both strength and brains. He won’t die in a battle like this!”
The messenger was stunned. He gave Han Yuan a strange glance, as though he thought he were crazy. But, Han Yuan was ranked well above the messenger, so he didn’t dare say anything else. I, on the other hand, felt some emotions well up in my throat. It looked like Han Yuan really thought of me as a brother. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten so worked up by a small thing like this.
……