Chapter 148: Horde Part 4
There was a small open tent above the city wall to provide cover from the constant rain. Under it was Hao Xuan, the four guards, and Ensis. Black and White were on his shoulders, playfully fighting with his hair and ears, sometimes sending small sparks of fire flying towards one another.
Zhurong was fast asleep in Mia's arms who seemed to be the happiest person in the entire city right now, lovingly patting his pure white fur.
Hao Xuan was sitting down on a chair while the rest were standing behind him, staring down at the beasts. He was at the highest point on the wall so not only the beasts but almost everyone from the city could see him as well if they wanted.
At the start of the fight, he used the Trebuchet sent by the military in Fortuna to thin out their numbers. Out of the ten thousand or so beasts currently attacking Galena, only three thousand were left. The leaders, two Malevolent Scaled-Rhinocerous beasts had still not made a move. They both stood a few dozen meters behind the range of the trebuchet's and in relative safety, staring at the massacre.
Their eyes were red with anger but still, they did not rush in and get themselves killed and only observed from afar.
"That's enough. Save the rest for the main horde. Send in the newbies according to the plan," he said to Aria who relayed his message to Kuo and the others.
The explosive barrage stopped. The ground was littered with pieces of beast corpses with large craters every few meters where the rocks landed. The main gate opened and about three hundred soldiers covered from head to toe in armor stormed out.
They all had the same mounts, red-scaled Jadeblood Stallions. These stallions were almost twice as big as normal horses with thick scaly hides, sharp teeth and deadly claws that dug into the ground with every step. (Reference image in author notes)
These horses had been made on order by the Beast hall by combining jadeblood horses with Earless Earth dragons. And although these beasts had the word dragon in the name, that was only because of their appearance not any actual relation to the dragon kind.
Dragons were divine beasts and every race with the smallest dragon blood in them were overlords of their respective regions. There was no way a lowly grade-2 kingdom would be able to get their hands on some actual dragon blood.
They formed two groups of 150 soldiers each with one going from the left and the other from the right.
The Malevolent Scaled-Rhinoceros saw the artillery fire stop and let out a deafening roar. Finally, they would be able to get some action. They both stomped their feet and started running towards the city gate. The rest of the beasts followed after.
Hao Xuan saw the incoming beasts that looked like moving pieces of flesh and skin and relayed his orders, "Tell...."
The beasts completely ignored the three hundred soldiers and came straight towards the gate. When they were about a hundred meters away, Hash and Maddy who were standing above the gate suddenly shot forward like cannonballs and connected with the Rhino's head-on.
The three hundred soldiers that were following the beasts from the sides suddenly turned towards them and like a hot knife through butter, separated the horde into two. They then started running in circles around them and attacking from every side.
The rhinos saw this and tried to help, but Hash and Maddy were sticking to them like flies. Unless they unleashed everything they had, there was no way to kill these two rhinos easily. So they took the easier and safer path and avoided any direct engagements, wearing them down slowly.
Within 30 minutes or so, all the other beasts were dead. The two rhinos had expended copious amounts of Qi and could barely move. They were killed easily as well.
Hao Xuan sat in his chair and looked down upon the battlefield with myriad thoughts going through his mind. It truly was different being in command. With one word he could lay waste to hundreds, thousands even. But it 'felt' better to be down there himself, fighting in the mud.
"Guess I'm not leadership material huh?" he muttered under his breath absentmindedly.
"Open the gates. Let the town guards go out and scavenge beast cores and any materials still left in one piece. Bring those two rhino's inside as well. Don't waste their materials," he passed the orders and everyone started moving.
The newbie soldiers didn't suffer any serious injuries either and did better than expected. None of them lost their cool and acted according to their training.
Kuo walked up behind Hao Xuan and stood there silently.
"How long till the actual horde arrives?" Hao Xuan asked lightly while playing with Black and White. They were twirling around his fingers and bitting down playfully.
"About an hour so. But sir, we are still not ready to take on a horde of that size. Even a grade-2 town would be hard-pressed to handle it without any help from outside," Kuo said worryingly.
"How many explosives do we have left?"
"Nowhere enough to kill a few hundred thousand beasts," he shook his head.
"Any response from Fortuna? The Legion?"
"None."
"....."
"What choice do we have? Let the soldiers rest. Tell the guards to get ready, they will have to participate as well in the upcoming battle. Recruit a few civilians with some experience and have them man the ballista on the walls."
"We will do everything we can and if it doesn't work, make some preparations just in case. We will hold off the horde until civilians can escape towards the nearest settlement and then follow after if possible, otherwise lead them elsewhere," he gave multiple orders that affected the lives of hundreds of thousands with a complete nonchalant smile.
****
Authors Notes:
Imagine the horses like this, but with claws instead of hoves, no whiskers or horns and in dark red color:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/91/ec/b9/91ecb96a640fb705edb71e7fdf4f287f.jpg
Short url: https://urlzs.com/SohgZ
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