Masked Knight

Chapter 172: Testing the Waters

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Thunder City was located at the edge of the Strait of Thunder. The city wall was only a few kilometers away from the beach. It could be said that Thunder City was a naturally exquisite outpost fortress.

If the people from the Roland Continent intended to disembark on the Radiant Continent, the most appropriate place would be at the northern coastline outside Thunder City.

Perhaps God, in the creation of the world, deliberately gave the Radiant Continent a fine terrain. The coastline of the Radiant Continent at the Strait of Thunder had a lot of whirlpools, reefs and steep cliffs. There were very few beaches. There were even fewer places for landing a big military force. But there is one exception. Thunder City's beach front is flat and large, a perfect landing spot.

The city wall of Thunder City was constructed according to the standard of a first-grade fortress. It was a full military fortress. There were very few civilian residences in the city. The city walls were completely built using special materials from the North. Large and sturdy boulders about twelve meters tall and four meters wide were used to form a circular shape.

Thunder City was not large. It could only accommodate a maximum of two hundred thousand soldiers. At the moment, there were fifty thousand Flame Knights from the God’s religion, fifty thousand Lightning God’s Whip cavalrymen, and fifty thousand elite heavy armor infantrymen from the Northwest Legion.

Tiger coldly looked at the information in front of him. He then walked out of the ship's hold to the deck and gazed into the distance in the morning sun. He could vaguely see Thunder City.

"We must first capture Thunder City." The Supreme Commander of the Roland Continent Southern Expedition Coalition Forces, Tiger, sighed gently. The first step of the crusade would be to capture Thunder City.

First of all, the coalition army of the Roland continent would need a strong base to reorganize their troops. They would also need a strong transit station. For the expedition to the south with a strong base that was near the coastline, supplies from the Roland continent could be sent to their front lines smoothly.

The problem was that the Radiant Empire's ferocity on land was frightening even to Tiger. He was especially afraid of the Duke of the Tulip Family. That family has had military commanders throughout every generation. The Radiant Empire has a large and elite army. Once the Roland Continent's army was ashore, they must immediately build a solid military stronghold. In case their opponents mobilized their soldiers to recklessly attack, then they would need a strong military fortress as a staging and breather area.

Tiger did not want to encounter the enemy cavalry the moment they reached the shore. The soldiers needed to rest for a while. After all, the soldiers felt very tired after traveling across the bumpy waves for approximately ten days.

Another very important point was that Thunder City had a considerable amount of forage, weapons and a variety of military supplies. Capturing Thunder City would provide them with a lot of supplies.

Of course, there was another reason which Tiger did not mention...

Tiger was not optimistic about this crusade. His Knight's Spirit forced him to swear allegiance to his King and the Temple1. However, he still felt uneasy. Would it be wise to fight recklessly on land, against the Radiant Empire? The coalition armies from the Roland Continent may be large, but they were not strong. Could they really make it?

We must occupy Thunder City because this stronghold is closest to the coastline! This is because, in future, if we were defeated, we can use the city to hold off the pursuers from the Radiant Empire. At that time, we can rely on the protection of this rugged military fortress to enable our soldiers to retreat to the ocean.

Tiger also knew that, besides him, his opponent also understood this fact. That was why a large number of troops had gathered in the city. Besides that, the troops were the Lightning God’s Whip led by the Empire’s Duke of the Tulip Family.

Tiger looked, from a distance, at the banner flying above the Thunder City. He could not see it clearly as he was too far away, but he knew that the banner was the Tulip Family's war banner.

After taking a deep breath, the Supreme Commander of the Roland Continent gave an order. "Disembark!"

The morning sun shone brilliantly on the vast ocean. Thousands of large black ships were on the move. Half of those warships were, like what Milo had said, first-grade ships that could accommodate more than a thousand soldiers.

They lowered numerous small boats, densely grouped together like ants. And then they started to swarm to the coast like locusts...

The Imperial soldiers on the city wall of Thunder City looked in awe. After all, they had not fought a war against the Roland Continent in hundreds of years. Although it was a known fact that the people of the Roland Continent were very powerful in the ocean, when they actually saw the huge army, the soldiers of the Empire could only stare blankly.

The beach was noisy as countless soldiers from the Roland Continent disembarked. They then moved a large quantity of materials and equipment into the barracks. When looked from atop the city wall, those soldiers were like busy worker ants.

"Your Excellency the Duke, do we continue to wait?" Sieg could not help but frown.

Rody looked at the sun in the sky and replied, "We wait! This batch which disembarked was only about one hundred thousand soldiers. I will wait until at least several hundred thousand of their soldiers have disembarked before attacking. I want them to leave their familiar ocean, come onto land and spill their blood dry under our city wall."

A strange scene appeared on the second day of the war.

Large groups of Roland Coalition armies disembarked on the beach in full swing. However, the soldiers of the Empire in Thunder City did not bother about them. Both parties occasionally looked at each other, but they did not fight at all. Not even a single arrow was shot.

The only thing that surprised Rody was the huge fleet in the ocean. The warships had already densely covered almost the whole ocean. A steady stream of soldiers reached the shore and disembarked. Their numbers increased from two hundred thousand until it was over six hundred thousand.

The barracks on the beach, which originally looked huge, now seemed too small to accommodate all the soldiers. The shouts from people and the neighs from horses filled the whole beach. That could even be heard by the soldiers on the city wall of Thunder City, some distance away.

After three full days, the Roland army had finally completed their disembarkation. The huge barracks then looked like a dense forest. The only thing that Rody did, every day, was to stand on the wall to observe the landing of his opponent and then mentally count the number of soldiers his opponent had.

He was slightly surprised with the results of his calculation. There were at least eight hundred thousand soldiers. This was a very large number.

Are the people on the Roland continent mad? They had sent almost half of their soldiers from the Roland Continent here. Did they really think that a mish mash coalition of the armies of the dozen kingdoms on Roland continent could defeat the army of the Radiant Empire?

Rody’s eyes were very sharp. After three days of observation, he could accurately tell the strength of the coalition armies of the Roland Continent.

Out of the eight hundred thousand soldiers, only two hundred thousand or less had reached the standards of the elite army of the Empire. There were two cavalries that looked extremely strong. They were probably the strongest knights on the Roland Continent. However, Rody was not sure if there were any Temple Holy Knight groups among them.

As for the rest of the army, Rody was too lazy to properly gauge them. They were mainly inferior soldiers. There were very few cavalries. They were mostly infantries. However, there was a great difference between these infantries and the elite heavy-armored infantries of the Empire.

Their soldiers lacked equipment. They did not even have good armor. Some of them didn’t even have proper military uniforms. Most of the infantries’ armors were simply a few pieces of scrap iron placed at only several vital parts of their bodies. They also had a variety of weapons such as swords, broad swords, spears, and lances...

There was also a strange army that surprised Rody. It was probably the legendary war chariot army. There were thousands of such two-wheeled chariots. Each chariot was equipped with a horse and three soldiers: a driver and two more holding lances. Two long blades could be found protruding out of the wheels of the chariot. With a glance, Rody could see how terrible that type of weapon was. Those chariots were specially made to kill the opponent infantries.

However, the shortcomings of the chariots were also very obvious. Rody sneered and then ignored it

Other than the unexpectedly large number of troops, Rody did not feel uneasy. Every day, he routinely visited the barracks. After that, he would discuss some issues with Sieg. However, he rarely met with the other commanding officers.

The only thing that disturbed him was the presence of the Bishop Elder.

One day, the Bishop Elder went up the wall. When he saw the huge enemy barracks on the distant shore, he exclaimed and immediately turned pale.

He immediately strongly recommended the Duke of the Tulip Family to request for reinforcements from His Majesty.

That was obvious. The entire war zone in the North only had four hundred thousand soldiers while their opponents had twice that number.

A request to His Majesty the Emperor should be made to gather more reserve soldiers in a major way. Forced conscription may also be necessary.

Rody just looked at him coldly and faintly said, "I know."

Sieg looked at the Bishop Elder, who had lost his wits and left the wall. He then sighed and sneered, "That fool! Can't he tell that our opponent's army force may be large, but they do not really have many elite soldiers? Although most of them were holding weapons and wearing armors, from the way they walked, one can easily tell that they are simply a group of farmers who had just put down their hoes."

Milo lightly said, "There is no need to talk about that garbage. However, the two cavalries over there looked pretty capable. We just need to pay attention to them. We cannot attack cavalries. But we can grind them down slowly.

Rody laughed, "Grind them down? This does not seem necessary. I never intended to fight a decisive battle in Thunder City."

He then smiled and said, "I have decided. We will guard this place for ten days. After ten days, we will give up Thunder City and then retreat internally towards the Northern Province.

Sieg and Milo looked at each other. Milo then showed a strange expression and coldly said, "Seth, you are really cunning. You are afraid of them running away, so you intend to lure them deeper into the continent?"

Rody nodded and said, "Thunder City is too near to the coastline. They can immediately escape unless they were lured deeper into the continent. I want to eliminate their eight hundred thousand soldiers in the Radiant Continent."

Rody sighed and whispered, "This way, there should be a few decades of peace for the Empire."

The calm ended on the eighth day of their disembarkment.

The Roland Continent Coalition Army’s Supreme Commander, General Tiger, gave the commander of Thunder City, the Duke of the Tulip Family a letter of challenge. The letter said that the two sides would have their decisive battle below the city walls on the afternoon of the next day.

When they saw the letter of challenge, Rody and Sieg looked at each other and started to laugh.

Milo also had a strange expression. "If these Roland heathens want to fight, then go ahead. Come and attack us. Why do they need to write us a declaration of war?"

Rody thought for a while and said, "Well, let’s just fight. We have not fought against the Roland army for a hundred years. It is good to test their strength, first. Tomorrow, General Milo and I will lead the soldiers out and fight them below the wall."

Sieg wanted to say something, but Rody shook his head and said, "The Lightning God's Whip is our trump card. We cannot take them out first. Tomorrow, General Sieg, you just watch the battle from above the wall."

The prelude to the war.

The afternoon sun was dazzling, and there was a dull sound of intensive drumming. The coalition armies of Roland, a team at a time, slowly left their barracks and formed a huge battle formation in the wilderness, below the city wall. The infantry stood in a phalanx formation in the middle while the cavalry formed two lines at the side. However, the strange war chariots did not appear.

The gate of the Thunder City opened. Fifty thousand infantries, wearing strong armors, marched out neatly. They held swords and shields in their hands as they formed a phalanx formation below the city wall.

The sea breeze was humid and salty. The afternoon sun caused the soldiers to sweat. Rody and Milo stood in the middle of the formation and coldly looked at their opponents.

"Looks like our opponent's commander is also very cautious. He sent out so many people, yet he is only just testing us." Milo whispered as he looked at Rody with the corners of his eyes.

Rody did not say anything. He looked at the enemy in the distance.

A person, who was more than two meters tall, appeared from the middle of the battle formation. He was as big as Randt and had a huge horn in his mouth. He then blew the horn.

Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!

"For honor!" One knight pulled out his sword.

"For honor!" The others also started to shout into the sky. The front row of the Roland army then began to move. Initially, the soldiers moved slowly forward. After that, they started to run faster and faster. Finally, those soldiers who were running in front raised the weapons in their hand. After a roar, they charged at the soldiers of the Radiant Empire.

Sieg, who was on the walls, sighed and shook his head. "Downright inferior!"

He ordered the archers on the wall to shoot. The archers pulled on the bows and shot their arrows forty-five degrees into the air.

When the first batch of the Roland infantries was still rushing forward, they suddenly heard the sound of arrows coming from the sky. Some of the soldiers had collapsed before they had a chance to raise their shields. Even for those who were holding their shields, in the face of the dense arrows, they were also hit by the arrows. However, most of the Roland soldiers continued to scream and rushed forward.

"Fortify the shields!" Milo raised his voice and shouted.

The front row soldiers of the Radiant Empire fiercely slammed their huge shields into the ground. The sharp shields embedded their edges into the ground and became a solid shield wall.

"Ready…"

"Ready… The back row, push forward."

"Ready…"

The officer shouted loudly as he looked at the enemies getting closer. The rapid steps seemed to rumble.

Finally, the surging wave of Roland soldiers fiercely rammed into the shield wall.

The sound of clashing continued as one army fiercely rammed into the other. Some parts of the shield wall had immediately gapped opened. However, when the gaps were opened, the Roland soldiers who fell into the gaps were desperate to find themselves facing numerous sharp swords. These soldiers were immediately cut into pieces. The first wave of the attack all hit the shield wall and were severely injured. Not only did they fail to break through the shields, but they had also obstructed their allies behind them.

"Remove the shields!" Milo shouted loudly. Kaka! Kaka! The shield wall suddenly split from the middle. The huge shields of the Radiant Empire were linked together as one long piece. As long as some iron chains were pulled apart, the shields would split into two.

After a cry, the Empire’s heavy-armored infantry then rushed forward and fought directly with the enemy soldiers.

The Empire's heavy-armored infantry had all undergone strict professional training. These soldiers ability to fight and their ability to fight together as a team of three to five were much more superior than the soldiers from the Roland army.

Often, a Roland army's soldier tried to fence off the Empire soldier's slash. However, his head would be sent flying into the air by another soldier instead.

The moment they made contact, many people immediately howled tragically.

Rody swung his Dragon Fang sword. A golden fighting energy burst out from the sword. Those Roland soldiers who rushed towards him and came into contact with his golden fighting energy immediately broke apart into a mass of broken and bloodied flesh.

Milo’s swordsmanship was much more elegant. His swordsmanship was like a dance that took a life with every move.

The heavy-armored infantries had excellent equipment and were skilled. That caused huge losses to the Roland army. A lot of Roland soldiers had successfully struck their opponents but found that they could not cut through their hard armor. They were then cut down while they were still in a daze.

"Your Excellency Tiger, please let us go!" Seeing the massacre in front of him, one of the knights told Tiger, who was beside him. The Empire's armored infantry was like an insurmountable metal wall. A big knight said to Tiger in a low voice, "Let my knights charge into them. No matter how powerful they are, they are just infantries. I am confident that I can get rid of them!"

Tiger looked indifferently at the knight, beside him, and said, "No." He then paused and slowly said, "Have you seen their city gate? Their Lightning God’s Whip must be waiting behind the city gate! I already said, today is not the day for the decisive battle! This is just to test them out! I just want those arrogant people in our army, who think that the Radiant Empire is vulnerable, to know clearly what kind of enemy we are facing!"

He paused for a while and his tone turned milder. He looked at the tall knight and whispered, "Your Excellency, your knights are an indispensable force for me. I will need you to deal with the Lightning God’s Whip! Please be patient!"

Tiger immediately commanded for the second and third wave to rush up. They were like a fierce tide that crashed onto the heavy-armor infantries of the Empire. They knew that there were only fifty thousand opponent soldiers but they were unable to break through their formation. Wave after wave, they attacked. However, they were running straight into a wall and their infantries were merely courting death.

"Gordon’s2 Infantry Regiment, Seer’s Infantry Regiment, Slavic’s Infantry Regiment…" The knight muttered. "Can’t these three regiments break through? The enemy only has fifty thousand soldiers…"

Tiger sneered and said, "Weren’t the Gordon Kingdom, Seer Kingdom and the Slavic Kingdom acting crazily in the camp last night? So today, let them personally test the sharpness of the enemy’s blades and the hardness of the enemy’s armors." He then looked at the restless knight, beside him, and said, "I do not want any disobedience in my barracks. I know you want to rush forward but our opponent is supporting their formation below the wall. Do you want to let your knights be live targets for the archers? Can you see those boulders on the walls? Do you want your knights to withstand those boulders when they dropped them?’

Rody’s armor was already stained red with blood. Naturally, all the blood belonged to the enemy. After bathing in the blood of the Mystic Dragon, the ordinary weapons of the soldiers could not harm him.

A golden light appeared and another head flew off. At the same time, the light slashed another Roland soldier into two halves before it disappeared.

Rody was somber and looked coldly at the enemy collapsing like the retreating tide.

Although the heavy-armor infantries were much more powerful than the opponent's army, after numerous waves of attacks they also suffered substantial losses and the soldiers were exhausted. Rody looked at Sieg who was on the walls. He then watched his opponents slowly withdraw. He coldly said, "The first assault... It looks like they were just testing us."

At night, the soldiers reported that the Roland army’s reinforcements have arrived.

Rody immediately took Sieg and Milo up the city wall. Under the moonlight, they could vaguely see a white colored, medium-sized warship approaching.

Milo looked at the banner on the warships and frowned. He then whispered, "It's the sorcerers of the Roland army. Their sorcerers are here!"

Rody shrugged his shoulders and looked at the Flame Knights below the city wall. He then lightly said, "Sorcerers? It looks like those people from God's religion will soon be useful."

Translator's Notes:

1神殿 shéndiàn actually mean 'shrine'. It is translated here as Temple. Both continents might or might not have the same God. If they do, then they differ only in name. Temple refers to the religious body of the Roland Continent. (I wrongly referred to their religious body as 'Church' much earlier.) Church refers to the religious body of the Radiant Continent. As for the Gods, whether they are the same god or not, it would be Protoss for the Radiant Continent and Kara in the Roland Continent.

2 Yes. It says 'Gordon'. Probably someone else with the same name.