Chapter 443

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Chapter 443: the Great Contrary Wind

"Feeling nervous?"

"A little bit."

"Are your hands shaking?"

"They’re trembling a bit."

"Are you tired?"

"I am tired, I am tired!"

"Can you move your hand off my bottom?"

"I wanted to touch it earlier, but never had the chance. Now it’s almost gone, I must…"

"Go away!"

It’s normal to have some small conflicts within the mercenary group. Tanis also turns a blind eye to them, because if she doesn’t, her eyes might hurt.

Everyone lurked in the narrow mountain pass, which is like the neck of a gourd. It’s wide on both sides, but narrow here. Standing here is like being in a dangerous area, perfect for an ambush. The mercenaries have set up landmines and tripwires in advance, waiting for the enemy to launch a strong attack.

The tripwires are set at a distance of 100 to 500 meters, while the landmines are even closer. Once triggered, the horses will either die or be crippled, which prevents them from stealing the horses. This limits their actions more, but there are fewer landmines.

"Leader, I see cavalry!"

"I heard the sound too," said Tanis as he activated his eagle eye. The eagle shared its view between the trees. With a quick glance, he couldn’t make out how many people were there, but it seemed like there were fewer than before, maybe they had split up.

"Can’t worry about that now, load the bullets!"

"My big gun has been craving action for a while now!"

"Tonight, let’s have a satisfying shot!"

The mercenaries cheered each other on when suddenly they saw a large cloud of smoke rising in the distance. Dust was swirling, obscuring their view to about a hundred meters away. A gust of wind blew fiercely towards them, bringing the wild wind closer.

"Damn it!" exclaimed Tanis. "These people know battlefield spells too?"

Sandstorms, war fog, and other spells were commonly used in the Europa battlefield. It was common knowledge to create a fog before firing a gun. However, it could be broken by using thermal imaging night vision goggles, but unfortunately, they didn’t have that equipment as it was confiscated earlier. Only a few people had it, but luckily, there was a way to make up for it.

"Keep an eye out!" shouted Tanis as he turned around.

One person in the group pulled out something resembling a glowstick and threw it into the smoke. Instantly, a storm spread out, continuously blowing away the dust.

The eye of the storm can scatter sand and fog.

Just as everyone was starting to breathe a sigh of relief, they suddenly heard a sharp sound, getting closer and closer.

Before Tanis could say anything, he heard someone shouting a warning, "Incoming spell!"

She was knocked down to the ground and saw giant rocks and flames flying through the air, cutting through the smoke, and heading straight towards the crowd.

Tanis stared with wide eyes. What… cavalry?

Magical cavalry?

Before anyone could say anything, the rocks and flames smashed into the narrow pass of the mountain road. Fortunately, their positions were relatively spread out. Even though the raging storm made it difficult for them to lift their heads and they experienced ringing in their ears and a sense of weightlessness, no mercenaries died at the moment. Only one unlucky guy got caught in the explosion and lost half his arm.

Tanis shouted angrily, "Return fire! Open fire!"

Without her having to say anything, people had already started firing because the enemy cavalry was charging towards them.

This type of long-range attack is not something that the light cavalry is skilled in. These falling rocks and fireballs are actually special abilities of the supernatural beings.

Just like the mages among humans, they belong to a minority. Most people are happy to be simple-minded warriors, wielding two large swords and charging forward with repetitive moves.

Mages attack from a distance, and need to be cautious of their position and wary of surprise attacks. Ever since the appearance of the cannons, the large nations no longer want to treat mages as stationary artillery. They want to unleash the unique abilities of this special troop. For example, "The Sacred Religion" has a group called the "Chanting Choir" consisting of five hundred to a thousand people. They chant for an entire day and launch strategic-level holy judgments… the power equivalent to one-tenth of a space-based weapon.

The long-range weapon of the Ten Thousand Demon Kingdom is the bed crossbow, which has a touch of antiquity. They also have artillery. They use whatever is appropriate.

However, it is clearly impossible to equip the light cavalry with such weaponry. These few instances of long-range attacks were all unleashed by elite monsters among the awakened light cavalry who possess special abilities.

What is truly deadly is the cavalry’s charge.

Even if tripwires were set up, it is not completely safe. The mercenary group didn’t have enough materials for iron wire fences, so they only set up less than thirty. It is easy to discover their location and bypass them for a breakthrough. Other than a winding mountain road, the surroundings are mostly forests. It is indeed inconvenient for cavalry movements, but it also hinders them from firing guns indiscriminately since there are plenty of cover and hiding spots.

In fact, these trees make the mercenary group’s accuracy rate lower, but they cannot stop the advancement of the light cavalry. Some of the light cavalry ride not horses, but more agile wolves or bipedal lizards. They swiftly maneuver like nimble velociraptors between the mountains and forests.

Soon, the first cavalryman broke through the tripwire. The straight-line distance was less than forty meters. As his horse landed with all four hooves, there was a resounding explosion. A landmine detonated, and the resulting steel pellets instantly killed the horse. However, the monster soldiers who relied on the horse as a buffer defense were completely unharmed. With the help of the recoil, they leaped up and moved through the rain of bullets, using the trees on both sides to bounce around like agile apes.

This creature approached a shooting spot directly, pulled out a curved sword, and made an unfamiliar and scary sound in the local language of the Ten Thousand Demon Kingdom.

It pounced towards a mercenary, swung its sword and cut him in half, causing blood to spray out. Even though the mercenary was severed, he didn’t die immediately. He pulled out his dagger and stabbed the monster in return, exchanging a life with each other.

Less than three minutes later, the first casualty appeared.

The brutal battle began between attackers and defenders.

The lieutenant held the reins of his horse, waiting. He waited for more than ten minutes, but his patience started to fade away.

Why hasn’t the flanking team arrived yet? They have been waiting for over an hour, they should have been here by now!

Several of his subordinates’ horses were lost, and the mercenaries suffered casualties of eight or nine. But there were not many landmines left, and a few roads were cleared.

"Sir…"

"No more waiting!" The lieutenant completely lost his patience, grinned maliciously, and drew his sword, "Charge forward, kill them all! Every severed head counts as military achievement!"

The remaining thirty riders mounted their horses and charged towards the narrow pass, stepping on the bodies in their way, with a fierce determination.

Compared to the group of monsters, the mercenary group that held the advantage of firepower and height suffered even more casualties.

"Boss! Can’t hold on anymore!"

"Medic, I need treatment! I’m still bleeding!"

"My buttocks hurt… my buttocks are stuck on a tree, who can help me get it back, thank you…"

Tanis heard the chaotic sound and looked at the charging monsters. Her lips turned bitter, there’s no way to fight back.

Several monsters used their horses as shields before abandoning them, showing no intention of leaving any behind. Even if they won, it would be meaningless!

"We need to retreat, or else we’ll all die here."

Chao Lu supported an injured mercenary and pushed him through the narrow pass, while Dundun stayed by her side, afraid to move.

She greeted the mercenaries and urged them to quickly pass through the narrow passage. The bombs set here could collapse the passage, hinder the enemy, and ensure a retreat.

Among them, three injured mercenaries knew they couldn’t escape, so they frantically shot to buy time for others to flee.

Tanis glanced at a few people, clenched her teeth, and passed through the narrow passage. She turned back and saw one of the mercenaries had already twisted the safety pin of a grenade, while also giving a thumbs-up to the others.

Tanis jumped up, pressed the detonator. The narrow passage exploded, rocks and soil collapsed. The violent heat and shockwave hit her back, and even the strong female mercenary spat out blood and flew more than ten meters away, caught by the crowd.

The people who were closer surely vanished, including the first few enemy soldiers who rushed over to snatch military honors.

"Let’s go, hurry!" Tanis shouted weakly, clutching her chest.

"Where to?"

A louder cheer came as the collapsing rocks and soil piled up more than five meters in height, but the collapsed passage didn’t cause much obstruction. The agile cavalrymen stepped on the shattered rocks and crossed the passage, standing above and looking down from a higher position.

The cavalry charging from above was a nightmare for the infantry below. Even if they set up a square formation, they could not withstand the impact force of the cavalry in enhanced terrain. The inevitable result was instant collapse.

The lieutenant grinned and instead of rushing, he slowly surveyed the crowd below, deciding who to kill and who not to kill.

Although the Ten Thousand Demon Kingdom had been at war for a long time, the Xiangliu country hadn’t seen a major battle in years. The military merits weren’t easy to obtain, so many demon soldiers were waiting for promotions. Some of them turned to evil ways and went to eradicate "bandits" in remote villages, which actually meant slaughtering them. But this time was different, the military merits were being handed to them for free.

He raised his sword and the remaining thirty cavalrymen lifted their horse hooves.

This battle had no difficulty from the beginning. The loss of these soldiers was insignificant; their lives were worth less than those of their horses.

He didn’t use any tactics either. If the cavalry arranged behind had already approached from the rear, it would have been a face-to-face massacre, and they wouldn’t have lost more than twenty riders.

But it didn’t matter, everything went as expected.

The lieutenant licked his teeth and was about to swing his sword. The mercenary group below was also prepared for a desperate fight.

Just then, the lieutenant suddenly felt a palpitation… He heard a tiger’s roar.

In the midst of this group of straw that was about to collapse, where one charge would lead to extinction, came a roar that made both demons and humans tremble in fear.

In the dark forest under the moonlight, a beautiful and giant tiger slowly walked forward. It was so big that it easily surpassed a height of three meters.

The tiger had a black fox and wolf in its mouth, with fresh blood dripping from its teeth. It patrolled the mountains and walked against the wind.