Badge in Azure

The Tanggulasis attacked like locusts. If both sides had one-thousand soldiers each, Saleen’s swordmasters would have won. The Holy See’s soldiers did not care about their own injuries or casualties so even if Saleen won, he would suffer many losses as well. Now that the enemy outnumbered his own by many times the two regiment leaders were decisive and gave the order to retreat.

Fortunately, the crossbows could unleash arrows very quickly. While the one-thousand men retreated into the forest, those armed with crossbows would shoot at the enemies’ thighs or warhorses. The Tanggulasis soldiers that stayed on their horses had a difficult time advancing so they got down to give chase.

In the forest a warhorse provided its rider a height advantage at the expense of a loss of speed.

Saleen’s men were all well-trained in retreating. This forest was originally a very wide one, but before they carried out the ambush, the two regiment leaders ordered the soldiers to cut down a patch of trees at the back and the skeletal warhorses and death mages were supposed to stay put there. Judikaka was no longer there as he had left with the injured soldiers long ago. The only death mages left were those that had been placed there.

The purpose of the forest was to stop the enemy’s knights. If the forest was too wide it would be difficult for Saleen’s men to retreat. Speed was the priority so none of the one-thousand men were wearing heavy armor. Only one-hundred were wearing light armor while the rest were clad in leather armor. If the Tanggulasis caught up with them, these armors would be useless against the knights’ heavy machetes.

Even though the crossbows had already shot down a few hundred men, more and more Tanggulasis continued to give chase. Although the terrain was flat, it was still a mountainous area. The skeletal warhorses were not able to run at top speed and the soldiers were not very good at riding either.

Once they reached an empty space, the one-thousand soldiers automatically split into five groups and retreated in different directions. Although there were some slight grievances from not having fought the enemy properly and losing two-hundred large crossbows, they still managed to kill three-hundred enemy soldiers. Another six-hundred were also injured by the crossbows, but that would only use up some of the holy priests’ energy.

The two regiment leaders each led a group and escaped towards the east. Both of them regretted not asking Judikaka to stay behind. If only they had known that the enemy would not retreat and instead would forcefully give chase into the forest.

They also thought to themselves that the spirit of the dead might not obey them. It was already commendable that he was willing protect those that were injured. If not for Judikaka, they might not have been able to inflict so much damage on the Holy See’s army. They managed to kill and injure so many enemy soldiers only because Judikaka had kept a large group of holy priests engaged. If they wished to ask Judikaka to bring up the rear, perhaps only Master Saleen would be able to give the command.

The Holy See’s soldiers charged through the forest quickly to see the Qin riding away on their skeletal warhorses. The Tanggulasis that were extremely strong tried to shoot them down with their large bows, but the swordsmen were too agile and managed to dodge the arrows.

“Stop chasing. Let’s go back.” The officer from Tanggulasi Empire saw the situation and gave the order.

“Officer!”

“Don’t say anymore. The enemy has death mages. There is no way we can catch up with their skeletal warhorses. Humph, we shall go forth and flatten their city. We shall see if they will escape into the sea by then.”

An ambush of more than one-thousand bows and arrows only resulted in such minimal damages. The Holy See’s army managed to find a shorter route to continue towards the east and cut down on a few hundred miles of traveling.

Behind the vanguard was a ten-thousand strong regular army, followed by the army in the center. The troops that were bringing up the rear had already merged together with the logistics troops. Saleen’s attempt to disrupt their logistic troops was quite effective. The Holy See’s army was now traveling at full speed. They needed to reach Metatrin City before they ran out of food.

Saleen’s last two regiment leaders were quite fortunate. They managed to flee in time to avoid encountering the ten-thousand strong army.

The Tanggulasis were traveling along the borders of west of Phoenix without too much trouble. They would eventually need to turn towards the east and would have to travel on more than two-thousand miles of narrow routes without any big cities though. Riots had occurred in Phoenix in the past so the cities at the borders had been left empty. When the Holy See’s army passed through, there was nothing left for them to loot.

After killing the residents of a few sporadic villages, the Tanggulasis lost interest in robbing. They realized that turning an entire village upside down would only get them a few hundred pounds of low-grade flour in return.

Saleen’s sixth battalion had almost returned to Metatrin City, thanks to Judikaka’s escort. Only the remaining two regiments with more than one-thousand soldiers were still riding on their skeletal warhorses and were rushing back. The distance between them and the Holy See’s army widened. By the middle of June, they reached a small town in the north.

This small town had already received news that the demons of the Tanggulasi Empire would be coming to slaughter the city. Everyone, regardless of residents that has permanently settled down or merchants that were there for business, were advised to leave as soon as possible. The battle at Luolan had already proved that Tanggulasis killed with no regards, they even killed innocent people.

The eighth and ninth regiments bumped into the fifth battalion who had come forth to assist in the retreat. Traveling at full speed had tired out the death mages in the two camps. They changed onto normal warhorses and assisted the residents in fleeing.

The small town was not far away from the borders of Phoenix, but was more than one-hundred miles away from Phoenix itself. It was a small town that Saleen had built on the western edges of his territory. Merchants used to pass through the town and it was beginning to prosper. Once there was news that a big army was heading there the residents had no choice but to uproot themselves and leave their homes.

To the Holy See, war was a method for the spreading of faith. To the average person, war would always be terrible.

This small town was the first stop after leaving Phoenix and was a few times bigger than other small towns. There were three-thousand inhabitants. Fortunately, Saleen had sent two battalions that possessed a good mixture of mages there. They could fully utilize the military equipment to help the residents transport their household items.

This small town had stored more than one-hundred-thousand pounds of their crops so transporting them without the help of any grand mages would have been troublesome. The army helped the residents to register their items and transport crops along with other valuable items. Their homes would have to be deserted. The residents only prayed that the Tanggulasis would not burn down their houses when they passed by.

After two days, the army of Metatrin City has already finished packing most of the items and were prepared to transport the residents. Once they have left, the soldiers bringing up the rear burned down the entire small town.

This was an order from Saleen. They would just have to rebuild the entire town. If they left behind houses the Holy See’s army would be able to take advantage and set up camps there. Even if Saleen’s armies were to defeat the Holy See’s armies, the Tanggulasis could still make use of these small towns to stop Saleen from giving chase. To avoid all these regrets, the best way was to burn it to the ground.

After two days, the army of Tanggulasi Empire reached the small town. Upon seeing an empty land and burned city walls, the officer was furious. He knew that being upset would not solve anything so he gave the order for the troops to set up camps outside the town. This acted as a preventive measure against running into any traps within the town.

The one-hundred-thousand strong army was giving chase behind Saleen’s army and were heading towards the east. Along the way, Saleen ordered the armies bringing up the rear to burn down all the towns that the enemy might make use of to set up campsites and left no grains behind. Tanggulasi Empire’s commander was raging. Saleen had burned down too many of their baggages so they were only left with grain stored in the red Bishop’s space equipment. A one-hundred-thousand strong army required a large amount of grains and supplies. They could still resupply if they were within the boundaries of Luolan. Now that they were in Qin Empire territories, they could only depend on the resources that they have brought along.

Most of the lands in Metatrin City were deserted and there were no nature villages between the sea and the first small town in Phoenix. All the villages were within close proximity of Metatrin City. The seeds in the west have only just begun to grow this season. Surely the soldiers could not feed themselves on seeds.

Saleen’s soldiers were unable to become stronger within such a short period of time, but were able to carry out procedures for retreats very well. The entire small town that was one-thousand miles in circumference was burned to the ground. There was nothing left behind for the Holy See’s army to take advantage of.

The Pope had given orders not to trespass and loot Phoenix. It would take up too much time. The borders of Phoenix were also very poor. The chaos caused by the black magician and the invasion by Qin has left Phoenix in a very poor state.

As such, the vanguard of the Tanggulasi army charged ahead and finally reached a mountain pass that was slightly more than two-hundred miles away from Metatrin City. Whoever wanted to reach the plains of Metatrin City would have to pass through there. As Saleen had poured all his resources into Metatrin and had not expected any invasions via land, the mountain pass was not properly secured. Within two months’ time the city wall at the mountain pass has been built up to more than thirty-yards. By leveraging the mountainous terrain, the pass could now be considered as impregnable.

Saleen’s second battalion was stationed here along with a few small mercenary groups. The entire second battalion and their auxiliary soldiers were only twenty-thousand men. Saleen did not have enough auxiliary soldiers. In addition, there were many Caucasus people located at both sides of the mountains to prevent enemies from infiltrating through the mountains.

There were no residents in this militarized city pass and its name was filled with a murderous aura; the Broken Blade Pass. The amount of grain stored there could only last five days and the mission given by Saleen was to hold the pass for three days.

The purpose of these three days was to force the Holy See’s armies to use up the last bits of their remaining grain. If the enemy’s attacks were not powerful enough and they could hold on for another two days, it would be an impressive feat.

There were ten forts within Broken Blade Pass that would be used for big crossbows to stop the enemy’s holy priests from flying in.

Anyone below grade-9 would not dare to risk flying past such big crossbows. They would fall to their deaths if they were hit by alchemy crossbows.

Knights would not be able to attack the city walls and would have wait for the soldiers to arrive. There were close to thirty-thousand men in Broken Blade Pass. By right, they should be able to defend against one-hundred-thousand men. Since this was a mountain pass, attacks would only come from one side. There should be enough men to defend it. The only thing was that there were no magic towers so it would take a lot of effort to defend it.

The catapults in the city were only sufficient to destroy the enemy’s catapults, but not enough to kill large numbers of enemy soldiers.

Saleen could have let the Tanggulasis pass since he was confident that Metatrin City would definitely be able to defend against the Holy See army. He has been deserting many small towns along the way and this might have a negative impact on morale though. If they could contain the Holy See army for a few days, it would demoralize the enemy.