Chapter 297 - [Bonus ] Orders

Brien gave the sign for several units to advance and stop the enemy just before the siege weapons could get close enough to attack the base. Those first units mainly were composed of men armed with swords and spears. Still, soon after they raised enough dust to make it impossible for the enemies to see what was happening behind them, Brien sent two units composed of only archers.

Zaos saw all that happening but waited for a while to see any changes in the enemies' formation. When he didn't see anything, he raised and then pointed to the mercenaries.

"Oh, boy… this sure looks embarrassing… Follow me! Give those bastards hell!" Zaos shouted.

Without wasting any time, Zaos dashed toward the enemies, and the riders of his unit followed his lead. When they got close enough, the enemies pulled their bows and prepared to attack. Even though they had such an overwhelming advantage in numbers, they weren't planning to pull their punches.

"Shields!" Cohnal shouted.

That was another reason Zaos made his men and the recruits grab many shields from the armory because he knew the mercenaries would do anything to win. Some arrows fell on Zaos, but he blocked them with his sword. With their tower shields, the riders behind him also protected themselves and their horses… at least the vast majority.

After the first volley, the enemies pulled their spears. They pointed toward Zaos's unit, but Zaos didn't show any concern towards it. He just held his sword and then made with magic pass through the blade before swinging it. The wind blade cut too many enemies and opened a hole in the enemies' formation. If Zaos used that again several times, he might reach the siege weapons in no time, but he decided not to do that since he had a bad feeling about it.

After Moody jumped over the corpses, Zaos began to swing his sword from one side to the other. Most enemies tried to keep their distance, but those who escaped death still lost their legs and arms since Zaos's sword had a good reach.

Zaos wasn't cutting enemies down as fast as before. Still, his soldiers sure were right behind him, attacking the enemies who wanted to attack his back and spreading the damage. Some enemies tried to stab Moody in the front, but Zaos got rid of their weapons by swinging his sword. However, he also noticed that even though that was the first battalion and it was supposed to be the very frontline, some enemies were only armed with bows, and they pointed their weapons toward Zaos.

That was bad. By moving his sword to one of his sides, Zaos would be able to protect himself and, to some extent, Moody. Still, the other side would be completely unprotected. However, before the enemies could attack, they were hit by arrows coming from above.

Zaos looked behind and saw Melisse leading some archers that were pretty close, and that was weird considering that they were close to the huge melee. Cohnal and Melisse probably brought them for that kind of situation.

Although his soldiers were watching his back, Zaos made sure to advance while keeping his eyes on the diagonals, where those mercenaries armed with archers could be found. Whenever he found them, he dashed toward and split in half. The last thing he needed now was an arrow wound.

When the recruits finally joined the fray, they quickly pointed their spears toward the mercenaries of the first battalion. Zaos gave them the order to stick together and advance in groups of five since the enemies would hesitate in attacking one and getting hit by others. That worked pretty well for a while, but once the first battalion was almost done for, Zaos heard the familiar sound of arrows flying above and coming from the enemies' direction.

"Shields! Shields!" Cohnal shouted.

Even though they knew that they would kill some of their comrades, the second battalion fired arrows toward the first battalion. This time, many soldiers didn't have time to raise their shields, so many of them got hit, and at least fifty of them died.

Zaos clicked his tongue while he blocked the fire arrows around and then prepared to fire another wind blade. Still, then he saw in the distance… something flying in their direction. The enemies were finally using their siege weapons.

The first one fell dozens of meters behind Zaos and hit the recruits. That made him bit his lips so hard that his mouth began to bleed. He couldn't let those hit his soldiers. While that would cost him some mana, Zaos decided to attack those projectiles.

When the catapults fired the next two rocks, Zaos pointed his hand toward them. He couldn't miss it, so he waited for a few moments. When he finally saw the boulders falling, Zaos hit them with his Earth Swords. Much to everyone's surprise, his attacks actually hit and destroyed the boulders. The pieces of the projectiles fell over the second battalion and wounded many of them. For a second, the battlefield grew silent since no one had heard of a single man stopping catapults by himself.

"Charge!" Zaos shouted. "Kill them all!"

The Bloody Knights roared in response to Zaos's words. They felt that they couldn't lose any battle while their Captain stayed with them. Zaos expected that much from his soldiers, but he didn't imagine that the recruits would also fight more fiercely after hearing him.

Using the momentum in his favor, Zaos led his soldiers and attacked the second battalion. The enemies tried to attack him, but since he was faster and his attacks more deadly, they failed at causing any damage. In the end, they started to attack Moody, and while the horse was insufferable, he still was an ally that helped Zaos move around and helped him quite a bit in the last fights.

When Moody got hit in the neck, Zaos decided that it was time to change his tactics a little bit. That would cost some mana, but it couldn't be helped. He enveloped his sword with mana until it became electricity, and then Zaos focused on blocking the attacks.. Thanks to that, he stopped many enemies, and none of them hit Moody again.