“Gallop, gallop!”

Veru led the thousands of cavalrymen of the Northern Expeditionary Army around several circles within the slovenly camp of the cannibals, but they found no suitable opportunity to strike.

If their opponent had been a human army, Veru would have likely seized an opening and led his troops in a charge, given the disorganized and full of flaws nature of the camp. But cannibals were different.

The cannibals at the periphery held logs with a thickness of a man’s leg, sharpened on one end, and aimed squarely at the cavalrymen of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

A few cannibals over two meters tall standing with their large wooden stakes made for a formidable defense. After all, hurdles would not move, but these cannibals could.

Veru shuddered at the thought of his precious cavalry crashing into those thick, sharp logs. It was too risky an endeavor, even just thinking about it, and Veru had no intention of experimenting with his valuable cavalry.

After launching a few rounds of arrows as a test, Veru turned his cavalrymen back amidst the roars of the cannibals. The effect of these volleys was underwhelming; the cannibals had a thick layer of skin, and ordinary arrows could not inflict significant damage upon them.

Only a few knights’ use of compound bows managed to kill some cannibals, but this was not enough to make a dent in their ranks.

Even more unsettling, there were even dedicated shieldbearers in the horde, raising their large shields to defend against the arrows. Though these shields were made of shoddy, crudely pieced-together wood, their sheer size and thickness made them surprisingly effective defensively.

The fact that the demons had begun using human weapons like shields and pikes, as well as improving their own wolf-tooth clubs, indicated that they were learning—and this was not a good omen.

As the Northern Expeditionary Army’s cavalrymen turned back, the demons responded with nothing more than a few roars. Even if they were quite stubborn, they knew they couldn’t outrun these four-legged warhorses.

After retreating, Veru did not withdraw his cavalrymen all the way to their encampment, but instead kept them poised on the edge of the battlefield, ready to enter at any opportunity.

Veru was indeed a capable cavalry commander. The greatest strength of a cavalry lay in its short-distance mobility and powerful impact charge; attempting to ram head-on into a phalanx of infantrymen prepared for battle would be the height of folly.

Veru waited for an opportunity. Once the Northern Expeditionary Army engaged with the demons, there would naturally be an opening in their ranks.

Marquis Wade did not disappoint Veru, and soon ordered the Northern Expeditionary Army to initiate a probe attack.

“Horn, take the First Flag Group and test their mettle. Use your own judgment.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Northern Expeditionary Army’s military structure consisted of five hundred men per battalion, and the battalion commander was typically a peak-rank quasi-knight or a freshly knighted officer. Ten battalions formed a flag group, commanded by a peak-rank knight, and four flag groups formed a legion, commanded by a grand knight.

The Northern Expeditionary Army had five great legions and one cavalry flag group. In this battle, Marquis Wade had brought four full legions. The First Flag Group, under Horn’s command, belonged to the First Legion and was undisputedly the army’s elite force.

In the other flag groups, some battalions were commanded by quasi-knight officers, but all ten battalion commanders in the First Flag Group were uniformed knights—its proportion of quasi-knight officers was terrifyingly high.

With such a powerful army, it was only natural for Marquis Wade to place it at the vanguard. A fighting force was meant to be used, and hiding it away would render its potential meaningless.

“Uh, ha!” Under Captain Horn’s leadership, the soldiers of the First Flag Group marched forward with a chant, stepping in precise unison toward the horde of giants. The weapons wielded by those in the front rows struck crisp, metallic rhythms against their shields, creating an imposing atmosphere.

In response to the movements of the First Flag Group, nearly five hundred giants emerged from the horde camp, accompanied by ten times that number of dog-headed people.

In contrast to the Northern Expeditionary Army’s neat formation, the orcs’ ranks appeared somewhat disordered. Most of them had rushed out with wooden stakes, their battle lines a shambles.

The dog-headed people fared even worse; if the orcs could at least maintain some semblance of formation, the dog-headed people were a mere heap of fighters charging en masse.

They didn’t dare encroach on the orc ranks, but bunched together amongst themselves, and by the time they made contact with the First Flag Group, they’d already trampled several of their own comrades to death.

Though the orcs lacked discipline and structure, their individual strength was formidable. Putting aside the worthless dog-headed people, these five hundred orc warriors were all quasi-knight material, and rather strong ones at that. The entire First Flag Group only boasted around fifty quasi-knight candidates.

If the battle began, the First Flag Group would be at a disadvantage.

Horn recognized this, but the military command was firm. Without direct orders from Marquis Wade, he dared not retreat an inch. The First Flag Group continued to advance valiantly toward their enemies.

Fortunately, Marquis Wade noticed this as well. This group of orcs was acting rather strangely, for they had committed almost one-third of their forces in their first probe. It seemed they were prepared to engage in a decisive battle right away.

“Lyle!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Take the First Legion to support them.”

“Second and Third Legions, prepare to assist.”

The situation on the battlefield could change at any moment, so there was no time for Marquis Wade to ponder the peculiarity of the man-eating demons. He made the most prudent deployment in accordance with standard procedure.

If a final battle was to be fought, the Northern Expeditionary Army stood ready to meet the enemy head-on.

“Ready, aim, fire!”

Ahead, Horn’s First Flag Group had reached fifty steps from the enemy vanguard. The stench of the man-eating demons’ foul odor was nauseating. The dog-headed people of the vassal army bared their teeth at the soldiers of the First Flag Group.

Although they were not strong fighters, they fought fearlessly, making them a formidable opponent and a significant headache for the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Yet the dog-headed people who charged ahead fastest were instantly felled by a rain of arrows from the Northern Expeditionary Army. Horn knew that ordinary arrows would not significantly harm the man-eating demons, so he opted to target the dog-headed people instead.

The first sounds on the battlefield were howls of anguish as many of the dog-headed people who had been shot but not killed struggled and screamed in the middle of the battlefield. Yet their cries were soon silenced.

The demons and dog-headed people in the back ranks mercilessly trampled over their fallen comrades, thereby definitively ending their suffering.

“Spears!”

“Hah!”

As the Northern Expeditionary Army’s elite, the First Flag Group swiftly adjusted their formation. After the giants closed in, the archers fell back, and the pike men swiftly moved to the front.

Their weapons pointed straight ahead, the tips of those long spears aligned as one. To increase their killing power in the first round, the pike men of the First Flag Group even charged a few steps forward, increasing the penetrative force of their weapons.

“Bang!”

Just like a wave crashing into a rock, the two forces collided, sending sparks flying. The dog-headed people were impaled on the long pikes like so many skewers of candied fruit, and some giants didn’t even have time to swing their log palings to block before they were run through by the charging pikes.

Some of the First Flag Group’s soldiers were struck by the giants’ wooden clubs and sent flying. Against such absolute strength, a single strike from these clubs could easily maim or kill, and the powerful giants put immense pressure on the First Flag Group from the moment they engaged.