Chapter 763: Heavy Units

With the Northern Mountain Raiders in the area wiped out, Agnico leads the Mixed Army Group onward.

The mounted scouts report that large numbers of enemies are still gathering ahead.

The earlier encounter was only an opening skirmish. The real battle is still to come.

To secure favorable terrain, the army must quickly reach a cluster of low hills fifteen kilometers away.

Stronger and more defensible ground is available, but the Vorry army's bitter experience has proven that mountain fortifications offer no advantage against the Northern Mountain Raiders.

The enemy moves swiftly through the mountains, and steep cliffs present no obstacle to the raiders.

Human defenders, on the other hand, are vulnerable to surprise attacks and can easily have their retreat and supply routes cut off.

The best way to stop these enemies is therefore to rely on fortified positions.

Without fortifications, an army can only deploy in the open and meet them in a field battle.

Vorry's attached military officers cannot understand Agnico's choice.

Low hills with only a few dozen meters of elevation pose no obstacle at all to the Northern Mountain Raider army, whose soldiers excel at climbing.

Agnico sees it differently. He needs high ground for Peace Haven's ballista units.

The intelligence says the enemy possesses heavy units. Peace Haven needs a clear field of fire to keep damaging them as they approach.

The two garrison warbands now serve as the entire army group's ranged fire-support units.

Each warband fields nearly two hundred ballistae of various types, giving them terrifying firepower.

The army finally reaches the chosen battlefield before evening.

Using the six surrounding hills, the troops begin to deploy.

Once the calculations are complete, ballistae are positioned across the hills.

The two main-force warbands establish defenses around the low heights.

Supply convoys begin arriving in a steady stream.

The Northern Mountain Raider army does not launch a night raid. No one knows whether it is unsuited to night fighting or has simply not finished gathering.

With nearly twenty thousand raiders destroyed earlier, the whole region behind the army remains secure.

Supply convoys can travel through the night to the front, continually strengthening the defenses.

A day later, the mounted scouts report that the enemy has completed its assembly and is advancing toward the position.

Its vanguard is expected to arrive around noon.

Agnico immediately orders the supply troops to withdraw and clear space around the battlefield.

The two warbands that fought two days earlier also reach the camp, accompanied by researchers from Peace Haven.

Their fields include metallurgy, forging, medicine, pharmaceuticals, weaponry, and more.

After two tense days of research, each team submits a report.

The Northern Mountain Raider army is far from poorly equipped. By some unknown method, the raiders fuse wood, mountain stone, and other materials into composite armor.

Its protection is no weaker than steel, it does not burn, and it weighs less than steel armor.

The metallurgy and forging researchers place the enemy's weapons and armor one level below Peace Haven's.

Even so, they surpass the equipment of ordinary noble private armies and are not much worse than that of the modern Vorry army.

The medical and pharmaceutical researchers have dissected more than ten subjects, some dead and some alive.

From them, they compile a comprehensive report on the raider soldiers.

The strength of their muscles and bones exceeds the kingdom's average.

Their internal organs resemble those of humans, but function more efficiently than the kingdom's average as well.

More importantly, the raiders grow much thicker body hair. Even the fine hair on their faces is plainly visible.

Their skin is also tougher and less sensitive than human skin.

Combined with armor, this makes blades even less effective against them.

Spears and other piercing weapons are still needed to inflict the greatest damage.

Research into poisons effective against raiders and mountain beasts has produced no results so far.

The teams consolidate their findings, marking weak points in the armor, vulnerable areas of the body, and the likely result of striking each one.

Every officer receives a copy and returns to drill the information into the soldiers.

By noon, the mounted scouts have been pushed back until they have no choice but to return to camp.

More than one hundred thousand Northern Mountain Raiders approach along several routes and close around the position.

They make no attempt to communicate and charge directly into battle.

Only then does everyone see the five-meter giants wielding tree trunks as weapons.

Their bodies are covered in long hair, making them look like enormous wild men.

Each carries an enormous basket woven from vines and filled with stones the size of washbasins.

Vorry's military officers explain that the giants hurl the stones into army formations from as far as three hundred meters away.

Agnico immediately designates the shaggy giants as priority targets.

There is also a rhinoceros-like beast more than four meters tall, with a horn on its head and heavy armor covering its body.

Each of these enormous creatures, designated as war rhinos, carries three people.

One is a handler, while the other two are pikemen.

They are the Northern Mountain Raider army's heavy cavalry. They are not fast, but once they charge, almost nothing can stop them.

The Blood Lion Knights had suffered their losses while intercepting war-rhino cavalry of this kind.

In that battle, two thousand Blood Lion Knights charged more than four thousand war-rhino cavalry.

Even with a fighting-spirit link, they lost a quarter of their knights.

Those were astonishing losses, and the battle was precisely why the kingdom's nobles began taking the threat seriously.

On this battlefield, the shaggy giants and war-rhino units stand out above everything else. They are the obvious priority targets.

After several rounds of improvement, the Mighty Crossbow can now reach beyond one kilometer.

The two garrison warbands have brought forty Mighty Crossbows to this battle.

By the time the shaggy giants move close enough to threaten the front line with their stones, they will be just inside the Mighty Crossbows' range.

War rhinos and shaggy giants are clearly formidable units, but their limitations are equally obvious.

Their enormous, heavy bodies slow them down and make them highly dependent on suitable terrain.

If they encounter mud or soft ground, their maneuverability will fall even further.

The Northern Mountain Raider army advances quickly and soon surrounds the Mixed Army Group among the low hills.

More than one hundred thousand raiders stretch beyond sight.

The looming giants and enormous beasts add to the pressure. Even Peace Haven's battle-hardened elite soldiers cannot entirely suppress their tension.

A horn sounds like a beast howling through the forest. The Northern Mountain Raider army surges into a full assault.

There is no main axis of attack. The enemy simply closes from every direction and bears down on the Mixed Army Group.

A main-force warband defends each side of the low hills, while six cavalry battalions range farther out to maneuver and respond.

Eight thousand-strong infantry battalions form an octagonal defensive system, each backed by another infantry battalion in the second defensive line.

Four additional battalions stand ready to reinforce any weakness, while the final four serve as massed crossbowmen providing short- and medium-range fire suppression.

The two garrison warbands also detach four battalions to the heights, where heavier Recurve Crossbows provide supporting fire.

From the first clash, the battle becomes a meat grinder.