“Archer units, fire!”

Another deadly shower of arrows, and hundreds of gnome corpses lay strewn across the battlefield.

After a moment of mournful wailing, the tide of fearless gnome warriors once again retreated.

“The same plan as before. Let the cavalry pursue them.”

“Yes, sir.”

With the wave of a banner, over a thousand cavalrymen charged after the retreating gnomes. After slaughtering their way through the enemy, the knights returned to the allied camp virtually unscathed, leaving behind a field of dead gnomes.

The two forces encountered each other the next morning on this very plain. The cannibals began with their usual strategy, using gnomes to probe the defenses. Richard, likewise, dispatched a circle of dog lives to warm up his cavalry.

By now, Richard had thoroughly scouted out the composition of this cannibal army: three thousand in total, a thousand elite soldiers in heavy armor, another thousand tribal youths, and the remaining weaker but still formidable veterans.

Aside from these veterans, most of the remaining cannibal forces were quasi-knight level. As for those elite soldiers in heavy armor, they could easily annihilate ten times their number in human soldiers on open ground.

In terms of basic military power, the allied forces had no chance of victory, but they had a significant advantage in the middle and high tiers.

Among the three thousand orcs, no more than a few dozen elite warriors could be expected, while the allied forces boasted nearly forty quasi-knight-ranked fighters.

Without this advantage in the middle and high tiers, Richard wouldn’t be pondering how to win this battle, but how to flee.

“Bang, bang, bang…”

A burst of drumbeats sounded from within the orc camp.

“Ready!”

“Ha!”

As the drumbeats echoed, Richard, who had fought against the orcs many times, naturally understood: this was the signal that the orcs were about to attack.

The spearman in the front line lowered their spears and pointed them at the orcs preparing to charge. “Let our soldiers lead the charge and show these tribal warriors how we fight.”

Hatch wore heavy armor far more elaborate than that of a normal orc and stood at the forefront of the strike team, followed by one thousand heavily armored orc warriors, and after them came the tribal warriors drafted into service. This formation placed their most loyal troops at the greatest risk, but it bolstered morale.

If Hatch had placed these conscripts in front as cannon fodder, even with their fierce bravery, the morale of the entire army would likely have suffered.

If one were to apply Richard’s standards, aside from Grugesh, every single demon soldier could be considered a “fighting bravely” warrior.

After a brief probe, they committed their forces directly, bringing their whole army to bear. Any demon force that bothered to form a formation before charging their opponent could be considered exceptionally meticulous.

They relied on the fact that human soldiers lacked individual prowess, otherwise they’d…

In short, the demons’ fighting style amounted to little more than throwing a flurry of punches at their opponent, hoping to land a lucky blow. Against such an opponent, Richard had no choice but to play his trump cards at the very start.

To stabilize the front line, the system’s soldiers—crusaders and Pikemen—were distributed evenly among the ordinary soldiers. The lords of each faction also took positions within their own units, ready to personally engage any strays.

Richard didn’t dare employ his elite forces in the same manner as before, concentrating them for a focused breakthrough. With such disparity in individual combat prowess, there was a very real chance that even if the system’s concentrated attack succeeded in punching through the demon army, the main force of that army would have already broken through their own lines.

“Ready the bear-hunting crossbows!”

“Ready at eight hundred yards!”

“Seven hundred yards!”

“Six hundred yards!”

“Fire!”

In this battle on the plains, the Hunter family’s bear-hunting crossbows finally saw combat.

The ten machines brought by the Flying Bear Army were lighter than traditional ballista, with wheeled bases that allowed them to be deployed in the field and follow the army into battle.

“Bang…”

After a series of muted claps, ten giant bolts flew from the machines, each two meters long, hurtling swiftly toward the horde of giants.

“Fwoosh!”

A giant bolt pierced through the heavy armor of a giant, slamming it violently to the ground.

Despite their incredible resilience, the giants’ heavy armor could not protect them from these massive bolts. The giants pinned to the ground struggled to rise, but they were quickly stomped into submission and ceased to breathe.

At least four or five giants died in this volley. Although giants had thick skin and wore heavy armor, making them immune to ordinary arrows, they had no defense against these unreasonable heavy bolts, and only giants with the skill of elite warriors could hope to survive such an attack.

“Bang!”

Another ten bolts were loosed, and in an instant, several more giants were pinned to the ground. Some lords who had been holding the line turned around in surprise.

This ballista’s firing rate was unusually high. The participating lords had seen ballistas before, but they usually possessed only a handful, making them more of a deterrent than anything else. The weapons were simply too slow to load, and they could only fire once per battle, which made them cumbersome and fixed as defensive weapons on top of the city walls.

However, the use of a pulley system in the bear-hunting crossbows significantly sped up the loading process, solving the issue of power loss after lightening the weapon. These were unique and formidable weapons in the hands of the Hunter family.

“Bang!”

As the demons closed in at about a hundred paces, another low rumble echoed from the bear-hunting crossbows.

The lords, who had grown somewhat used to the sound, found the mechanical noise unexpectedly pleasing to hear. After all, each arrow loosed toward their enemies was music to their ears—even if it sounded like the pitiful shriek of a pig being butchered.

On the other side, Hatch’s spirits plummeted as the third round from the bear-hunting crossbows took down another ten or so demon warriors. Because Hatch had placed his most elite forces—those clad in heavy armor—in the front lines, those fallen demons were his direct subordinates.

Although this level of casualties wouldn’t yet affect the course of the battle, Hatch couldn’t help but feel pained.

This was unlike any human army Hatch had fought before. If every human army possessed such a weapon, then given the population of demons, they would never have enough lives to lose.

However, this wasn’t the time to consider these things. The distance between the two sides contracted further; Hatch could see the glint of light off the sharp tips of the human soldiers’ spears.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…”

Once the demons had entered the hundred-foot range, the allied army’s archers began to fire. Compared to the deadly hunting crossbows, this volley seemed rather weak, causing only minor casualties among the gnome ranks, and to the giants, it was little more than an itch.

Only the marksmen’s giant arrows, boosted by Richard’s tactical innovation, managed to inflict some damage.

“Fifty paces, fifty paces! Fire!”

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…”

Because they were within close range, this wave of arrows dealt significant damage to the giants, at least ten of which dropped to the ground pierced through with arrows.

The bear-hunting crossbows also synced with the archers for the first and last time, launching ten giant bolts at point-blank range.

“Retreat!”

The archers retreated through gaps in their ranks, and the auxiliary soldiers standing by quickly pulled the bear-hunting crossbows back as well.

“Spears! Attack!”

The demons drew ever closer, and the front-line soldiers began to yell, driving away their inner fear.