Close Combat Mage

Chapter 225 – Two Sided Pincer Attack Pt. 1

It was night. The wind grew fiercer, and the torches on Dawn’s city walls flickered with the wind like will-o-wisps. Although they emitted glows, they were not able to illuminate the surroundings.

Despite the fact that there was a guard stationed every 10 meters on the wall, they seemed to have their backs turned to resist the chilly, night winds. All of Dawn City seemed cold and quiet.

However, this was all just a facade. In reality, this was only a scene that one outside the city would see. If they saw what was going on within it, they’d realize that the situation was completely different. This was clearly a restless night!

The 60,000 slave soldiers and 10,000 regular slave soldiers all carrying bows were tightly packed together inside the passageways along the city walls, waiting for the enemy’s attack. The network of arrows from the total of 70,000 archers was something that even gods couldn’t pass through.

Finally, under the cover of the dark night, the thief army began to rush towards the city walls. When they reached the 100 meters point, they didn’t dispatch any sentries; after slightly organizing their formation, the 100,000 thieves quickly sprinted forwards.

The reason they hadn’t dispatched any sentries was to avoid possibly alerting the enemy. Going onto the walls and checking the movements behind them would definitely alert the guards on the walls. Once that happened, Dawn would be able to set up preparations to counter, and the result would be hard to determine.

In addition, the thieves were rulers of the night. They weren’t at all afraid of their actions resulting in defeat; so what if they lost? With the protection of the night, they’d be able to safely retreat. As for Dawn’s archers, they couldn’t possibly see the thieves in such darkness.

Battles all involved deaths, and the thieves all knew that people would surely die here. However, they strongly believed that these people wouldn’t be themselves. This was their self-confidence that allowed them to look down on Dawn’s archers.

“Shu!” Just as the thieves had entered the 50 meter range, a fiery, scarlet light skyrocketed out from the ground like a fire dragon. After flying up to a height of several hundred meters, it violently exploded in mid-air, bursting into brilliant red clouds of light.

“Creak…creak…creak…” The thieves couldn’t help but raise their heads to look up at the strange flames. Just then, the tell-tale hair-raising “twang” sound of bowstrings loosing made all the thieves immediately pale.

That’s right, while the archers couldn’t possibly aim at the enemy in the darkness, Dawn’s long-range archers didn’t rely on such things anyways. After practicing for so long, they had mastered the skill of attacking by covering a specific area with a rain of arrows.

As per Suo Jia’s command, Duo Mei’s group was monitoring the enemy from various places. As soon as the enemy had entered the 50 meter range from the walls, the girls had immediately made a signal. This single signal had been enough to set off the Dawn Army encompassing shooting attacks from the city walls.

“Wu…” The instant the bowstrings had all thrummed…miserable cries rang out, and the thieves in the front felt as if the darkness had suddenly become deeper. They then felt a fierce pain throughout their entire bodies. By the time they had figured out what was going on, at least 5 refined iron arrows had already pierced their bodies. It was impossible to stay alive after being hit by such an attack.

Every place within 10,000 meters in front of the city had been filled with 70,000 refined iron arrows. Countless thieves in the frontlines had died from the shower of arrows; it was impossible to count the exact number in the darkness of the night.

Despite hearing the desolate wails and howls outside the city, the slave soldiers remained still. All of them had been on a battlefield before; they all knew that it wasn’t some kind of charity. Everything they did to stay alive was a result of their hard work. Being merciful to the enemy was being ruthless to themselves!

Nocking the arrow, raising the bow, pulling the bowstring, and shooting…after this string of actions, the air was filled with arrows. They flew farther and farther, shooting out into the night. Without an exception, every wave of attacks that descended would give rise to pitiful wails outside the city.

Although the first wave of attacks inevitably missed its targets, this wasn’t a big deal. Starting from the 50 meter range all the way up to the 300 meter range, it was completely filled with the thief army. The thieves in the back were constantly entering this zone of death. Although the frontlines were filled with desolate cries, they were soldiers. If they hadn’t received the command to, they could not selfishly retreat!

The enemy was too great, too concentrated. Dawn’s long-ranged archers were basically shooting randomly. So what if they couldn’t see? Even if they shot wildly, they’d be able to hit their targets; Dawn had nothing but arrows. Each person would have to shoot 1000 arrows to use up all their arrows. The problem was that if 10 million arrows were shot within that perimeter, there would be enough to stack up several layers of them on top of the ground. It would be to the point where the arrows would basically bury the enemy.

Finally, after Dawn’s long ranged archers had shot out 20 waves of arrows, there were no sounds but miserable howls and moans to be hard. Because it was night, nobody knew the exact results of the battle; they would have to wait for daybreak for the exact statistics.

When the last cry gradually faded out, the sky had already begun to brighten. The break of dawn lit up the area before Dawn City, revealing a ground full of black corpses soaked with dark blood, like a scene from hell. The area before Dawn City was completely dyed scarlet, and a pungent smell that made one vomit permeated the air.

Suo Jia calmly sat within the city lord’s mansion, listening to Duo Mei’s report. They had encountered 100,000 thieves during last night’s attack, and only 30,000 had successfully run away. The other 70,000 thieves were laying in eternal rest outside Dawn City.

Suo Jia was quite satisfied with this outcome. Although they hadn’t completely annihilated the enemy, having such results was quite good already. After such a long period of war, Dawn still hadn’t lost a single soldier!

Up until now, during this second Dawn war, Dawn Army had already destroyed 100,000 enemy men. Amongst these were 10,000 armored chariot soldiers, 20,000 swordsmen, and 70,000 thieves. This was already one third of the enemy’s total forces.

However, Suo Jia didn’t dare relax. He knew that these people that had died in the battle were just the enemy’s ordinary troops. Suo Jia was still afraid of Oz City’s main force, which hadn’t moved at all yet.

After last night’s battle, the Thief Alliance army had pretty much been destroyed. From the beginning, the war had basically been between Dawn and Oz City. After losing 70,000 men from their main force, the Thief Alliance was not only powerless against Dawn’s might, they had also raised Dawn Army’s guards and motivation. Now, the Thief Alliance army could only pray that Oz City’s main force would be able to seize Dawn.

Inside their army camp, Karuda and the Alliance leader were sitting, ashen faced. Karuda was still okay in comparison, but the Alliance leader had already lost all energy, his expression disheartened and at a loss. He just couldn’t understand how the enemy could be so dominating, to be able to ignore the 100,000 thieves even in the darkness, and utterly defeat them. The Thief Alliance would most likely even break apart now.

However, although their main forces had suffered many losses, they definitely wouldn’t admit defeat. As long as Dawn was destroyed, everything would be alright. After obtaining the territory and rebuilding a large army, they’d quickly develop and expand.

Most importantly, the Thief Alliance’s real experts hadn’t acted yet. The 180 thief groups each had recommended a single expert to join the battle. These experts could definitely stand on their own, and were extremely powerful people. Right now…was probably the time for them to act.

The Alliance leader slowly lifted his head and said in a heavy voice, “City Lord Karuda. I think…that we shouldn’t continue attacking them straight on like this. Dawn Army’s defense is just too powerful. If we continue to charge like this, it wouldn’t matter how many more troops we get, Dawn would still be able to kill them all.”

“Mm…” Karuda nodded in agreement, “That’s right, we should still try to trap them first, then combine that with provocations and lead the battle. As long as Dawn City relaxes their guard, our large group of experts can charge onto the city walls and take control. That way, we’ll win the battle!”

“That’s right…” The Alliance leader’s eyes shone coldly, “Starting from tomorrow morning, we’ll dispatch groups of the main force in rotation to challenge them, wearing them down over a long period of time. Once Dawn loosens their guard and is unable to move, we’ll send out our absolute experts and take control of a section of the city walls, and then attack and occupy Dawn through these openings!”

The Alliance leader smiled coldly, “In addition, while normal people only know that our Thief Alliance has 180 thief group members, with a total force of 200,000 men, Dawn will make be making a fatal mistake if they believe that our strength is really that little. Within the six countries’ common zone, we still have two alliance groups in strategic cooperation with us, for a total of 500,000 more men.”