640 Collapse Part 1 (1/2)
Saleen experimented a few times and discovered that there were no reactions to the bond between the Three Kings and him. He knew that the constraints of this bond were beginning to loosen. If the Three Kings colluded with others against him, he would not be able to sense it. Saleen was finally determined to eliminate the Three Kings.
It was not easy to take advantage of the rules, they could only use those that were already in their grasp. After being controlled by himself and Aini for such a long time, it was about time the Three Kings would try to break free. They were so strong that if Saleen had been in the death dimension, he would have been killed by Three Kings easily.
The battle was also something Saleen needed to worry about. Many buildings were being constructed east of the temple. These buildings would be used temporarily for Saleen to create equipment.
Although Lex took away many mages, she also left behind many magic apprentices and grade-1 mages because they would not be able to survive on the battlefield. They could still be used to control the magic array and help to refine armors.
Based on power and strength, Saleen's soldiers would lose to the Holy See army so they would have to depend on their equipment. The devil armor could not be worn by humans, but Lex had given Saleen some diagrams which he would have to modify a little before mass producing them.
The objective that Saleen had set for Broken Blade Pass was to hold it for three days. Based on the pass' geographical location, by right it should not be vulnerable to being surrounded from the front and back. Nevertheless, Saleen still deployed his only troop of heavy-armored knights to defend the east of Broken Blade Pass.
Broken Blade Pass was built on a fault that was traveling from south to north in the mountain and almost reached the most northern part of Metatrin City. It was at least more than one-thousand miles away from Metatrin City. If the Holy See army wanted to bypass Broken Blade Pass, they would have to travel for an additional three-thousand miles. Even if they only deployed knights, they would still need more than half a month to travel.
Saleen was only worried about the Holy See's light-armored infantry soldiers cutting through the mountainous terrains and blocking off the route behind Broken Blade Pass. Saleen did not wish to take this risk even though it would be extremely difficult to cut through a few thousand yards of mountainous terrains. The fault was less than fifty miles wide at this area.
A mountainous route of fifty miles could still be overcome if the holy priests boosted the soldiers with divine spells. At most, they would sacrifice some soldiers which was something that the Holy See would not care for. Even if only one-thousand out of three-thousand men survived the terrains and managed to block off the route behind Broken Blade Pass, the operation would still be a success.
For this reason, Saleen sent Cuisi over along with a newly advanced grade-4 mage. A total of two-hundred heavy-armored knights, four-hundred light-armored knights, and four-hundred Caucasus people would also patrol behind Broken Blade Pass. If any enemies were discovered, the light-armored knights would engage while the heavy-armored knights would charge.
The Broken Blade Pass was one-hundred and eighty miles away from western town. As long as there were enough wagons, reinforcements in the form of infantry soldiers would reach in less than half a day. Even if all the wagons had been destroyed and there were no warhorses, soldiers would still be able to retreat fully in a day as long as they would not be disrupted by enemies along the way. The first thing that Saleen's soldiers was trained in was fast marching.
Retreat if there was no chance of winning; that has always been how Saleen managed to conserve his forces.
Saleen's move was ineffective. The battle taking place in front of Broken Blade Pass was fierce. The Holy See's army never planned to cut through the mountains to block off the retreat route. They had always thought that it was only a matter of time before a one-hundred-thousand strong army broke through the city gates.
Saleen's second battalion occupied the most strategic location while the Caucasus people patrolled the mountains on both sides. There were no enemies in sight. The Holy See army focused their forces only through the front gate.
The way the Holy See's army attacked, it was clear that they did not care about how many casualties they would incur. The stepped wagons would not be able to suppress the arrows from the city's watchtowers. The soldiers on the city walls could even shoot down at the stepped wagons easily.
The siege engines had been moved to the city gates many times, but countless soldiers from the city were willing to sacrifice themselves to destroy these engines. Soldiers also pushed big boulders off from the city walls to cause great damage to the siege engines. Both sides suffered major losses.
Broken Blade Pass possessed a more strategic location so they only incurred more than two-thousand casualties while the Holy See's army lost more than five-thousand men. All of them died within a fighting area less than five-hundred yards.
Including mercenary groups, Broken Blade Pass only had about twenty-thousand men. Now that they had lost two-thousand men, they no longer dared to be reckless and charge out of the city to attack. They would now block off the city gates. The Holy See's army responded by using ladders. They city had no other choices. The few times they charged out to attack, they were quickly eliminated by the enemy's heavy-armored knights. If they did not change strategy to focus on blocking off the city gates, they would continue to suffer more losses.
As such, the battle focused on the city walls. Broken Blade Pass had two sets of city walls. The second wall was taller than the first by five yards and they were eighty yards apart. This was within the range of a normal archer. The first set of city wall had to be given up after a day and the army retreated back to the second wall.
The space between the two walls had been sealed off. The Broken Blade Pass army waited until twenty-thousand Holy See men entered this space before releasing the reservoirs on both sides of the mountain, flooding this space that was eighty yards wide and two miles long.
Thousands amongst the twenty-thousand Holy See soldiers drowned. These soldiers died as they were clad in heavy armor and could not float. The other soldiers managed to survive only because they had received protection by the holy priests. The Holy See's army quickly removed all the objects that were blocking up the city gate on the first wall and the water supply subsided so much that it could no longer pose as a form of attack.
The warriors of the second battalion finally understood why Saleen wanted to build such huge reservoirs in such a militarized pass.