Chapter 466 - 214: Contest of Elites

Chapter 466: Chapter 214: Contest of Elites

Robson stood at the front of his army, watching the dust kicked up by the Beastman Army.

A Beastman Corps of several thousand soldiers broke away from the main force of the Beastman Army. The main army’s retreat, however, was somewhat slow.

Robson didn’t need to think twice to know what they were up to.

The Beastmen opposite had surely heard of Robson’s fearsome reputation, but the two sides had never truly clashed.

’They’re probably thinking of testing the quality of my army before deciding whether to retreat.’

After all, their main camp was retreating far too slowly.

’It can’t just be that the retreat is slow because the elites are serving as the rear guard, can it?’

Seeing this scene, Robson had to admit he was a little nervous.

In the past, whether on the Western Front or the Eastern Front, Lord Robson had always preferred to pick on the small fry.

The few times he did fight against elites were almost always out of necessity, and even then, Robson had held every advantage of timing, terrain, and popular support.

This was the first time Robson was truly pitting his army in a head-on clash with one of the Beastman Empire’s ace units...

But Robson had already made all the necessary preparations.

He, Lord Robson, trusted his troops.

....

Meanwhile, on the other side, the Beastman General, General Oles, was leading six thousand elite Beastmen out of the Beastman Camp.

What Robson didn’t know was that General Oles, as he watched the opposing human army, was also filled with doubt.

As a battlefield veteran, General Oles had only two words to describe the human army opposite him.

An Elite Army!

Robson had placed his first through third regiments at the very front. Forget Tier Four; in those three regiments, wasn’t the percentage of Tier Five troops upwards of eighty percent?

Their formations were disciplined, their presence overwhelming. Such was General Oles’s assessment of the human soldiers.

After they had advanced some distance, General Oles ordered the entire army to halt.

There was little General Oles could do against such an Elite Army.

Fortunately, his mission was merely to hold back the enemy and buy enough time for the main army.

Since he wasn’t required to defeat the enemy, General Oles could choose to form up and fight a war of attrition.

’No matter how elite they are, their formation is bound to fall into disarray when they charge, right?’

....

"Quick! Where are the Mages?!"

"Faster!"

This wasn’t the first time Bo Yang had taken command of the Magic Crystal Cannon Platforms.

In fact, the previous few times he had commanded troops, he’d grown fond of imitating Robson’s tactics.

And he had made one discovery: the Magic Crystal Cannons were truly a godsend!

If the enemy dared to turtle up or mount a stubborn defense, he could use the Magic Crystal Cannons to give them a taste of what’s what.

"Lord Baron, we’re ready."

Robson now had a large Mage Corps on the Eastern Front. These Mages had followed him through campaigns far and wide, and had basically figured out exactly what kind of Magic Robson required.

Before long, Magic Crystal Cannon Platforms had been erected one after another.

Bo Yang looked around, and once he confirmed everything was in order, he turned his attention back to the battlefield.

The human Soldiers and the Beastmen were still about a kilometer apart. At this distance, friendly fire was basically impossible, unless it came from the Beastmen’s own Magic Crystal Cannons.

Bo Yang didn’t know the name for this tactic. According to Viscount Robertson, it was called something like... coordinated warfare?

"Once you’re ready, open fire. Aim for the previously designated positions..."

At Bo Yang’s command, the Magic Crystal Gunners began to adjust the targeting of their cannons.

After just a few battles, these Magic Crystal Gunners were the ones who advanced the fastest.

A single shot, if it landed well, could kill hundreds. It didn’t matter if you were an elite or a civilian—all were equal under the gaze of a Magic Crystal Cannon.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A dozen or so Magic Crystal Cannons seemed to fire at once. In a flash, over ten Energy Balls launched into the air, soaring toward the Beastmen on the other side.

General Oles’s face turned ashen at the sight.

He was a fool. A real fool.

He knew the enemy’s elites were difficult to match, but he had forgotten that their Magic Crystal Cannons were also world-class.

In truth, General Oles couldn’t entirely be blamed. When the Centaurs had shared intelligence, they had mostly talked about the Gnolls; no one had mentioned that the enemy’s Magic Crystal Cannons were this outrageously powerful.

’What to do? Scatter or not?’

General Oles watched the dozen or so crystal balls arcing through the air. If they landed a direct hit, a dozen new craters would instantly appear in the Beastman formation.

’But, if we scatter...’

General Oles looked at the human army, now less than a kilometer away.

’If we scatter now, our formation will fall into disarray. The human army is already an elite force; if they charge us then, what chance will I have of winning?’

’Never mind...’

"Break formation! Break formation! Evade the Magic Crystal Cannons!"

He had no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils.

If the Magic Crystal Cannons landed a direct hit, his formation would be annihilated anyway. It was better to scatter now and at least allow some of his men to survive.

This army was truly worthy of being called the elite of the Tiger Race Royal Court. Upon receiving General Oles’s order, several units immediately broke away, managing to maintain a degree of stability in their formations even as they scattered.

This feat alone surpassed what the vast majority of armies were capable of.

The Magic Crystal Balls streaked through the sky, their friction with the air creating a piercing shriek.

Although General Oles reacted quickly, the human Magic Crystal Gunners weren’t all firing at designated locations.

Advanced Magic Crystal Gunners would choose firing coordinates that would hit enemy troops no matter how they tried to evade.

And Robson’s gunners were precisely this skilled.

Just as some Beastman units moved out of a cannon’s trajectory, another group would happen to move in to take their place.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Several explosions rang out, and the fluorescent blue light from the Magic Crystal Cannons flashed across the entire battlefield.

"Aaargh..."

Many Beastman Soldiers had their limbs blown clean off. The even more unlucky ones, caught at the epicenter of a blast, were snuffed out of existence in an instant.

"Rally the formation! For the Empire! Charge!"

At this point, General Oles couldn’t care about anything else.

As elite as the human army before him was, they were far less terrifying than the distant Magic Crystal Cannons.

General Oles knew that if he couldn’t close the distance and engage the human army in a brawl, the human Magic Crystal Cannons would completely redefine his understanding of war.

In fact, his understanding needed no redefining. General Oles had just retreated from the central front, where he had witnessed firsthand at the hands of Marshal Grantham what a hundred Magic Crystal Cannons firing in unison looked like. It was no less than the end of the world.

"Charge! Victory to Affleck! Victory to our Lord!"

At the same time, the opposing human army, apparently wanting to seize this opening, immediately began its own charge.