Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1171 – Face Off
5th month, 28th day, imperial city drill field.
At 9 AM, under the accompaniment of Du Ruhui, City Protection Legion Corps
Marshal Shi Wanshui and the others, Ouyang Shuo entered the drill field and sat in the middle of the viewing stand. Blood Romance, Xie Siyun, and the other guild leaders were led by the Guards Legion Corps to their respective seats.
The Guards Legion Corps drill field was a military forbidden ground and not everybody could enter it.
On the drill field, flags were on full display, and there would be a guard legion corps soldier who wore Mingguang Armor standing guard every hundred steps. At the center of the drill field, two fighting forces were in place.
Great Xia sent out the 1st unit of the 1st regiment of the 1st division of the 1st City Protection Corps legion. They were personally led by Legion General Zhao Sihu. From their title alone, one would know that this was the strongest unit in the City Protection Legion Corps.
Ouyang Shuo excluding the Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Legion Corps did not mean that he was truly looking down on the elite force.
The 1st unit was a mixed unit made up of sword-shield soldiers, spearmen, and bowmen, which was a common arrangement for Great Xia infantry.
War after war proved that one soldier type was not suitable for the chaotic battlefield. Only mixed units possessed flexibility and adaptability. Only they could truly show off the advantage of the various different soldier types to increase killing strength and survivability.
After everyone was present, the announcer of the battle, Du Ruhui, read out the rules.
“This battle is a fight to the death. The battle will end when one side is totally destroyed or surrenders. The location is limited to the drill field, and the fighting mode is not restricted…”
After reading the rules, Du Ruhui took a look at the king. Seeing him nod, he immediately said, “Let the battle begin!”
‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’
As the war drums rang out, the earth-shattering drum beat slowly raised the hot blood of the warriors in the field.
As this was a battle on the drill field, there were no tricks that could be used. They were using solely their strength, and amongst the drum beats, both sides hollered as they charged forward.
In just a short while, one could see the difference between a proper army and the elite force.
Although the elite force tried their best to control it, after moving quickly, their formation was disorderly and was even started to break apart. On the contrary, the City Protection Legion Corps was like a whole, ensuring the integrity of the formation from start to finish.
When the seated Blood Romance on the stand saw that, he could only shake his head helplessly.
This was inevitable, as no matter how the players trained, without the restraints of military law, they would not be able to develop character. Ever so, Blood Romance was not worried at all.
On the battlefield, one needed to rely on strength and not some formation. As long as one could kill the enemy, who cares whether your formation was orderly or not?
While they moved at high speeds, the archers of the elite force showed their true skill. They could actually shoot and move at the same time. Sharp arrows shot one after another at the City Protection Legion Corps troops, causing much distraction and damage.
In the blink of an eye, three to four people were shot down, and the entire formation was unavoidably affected.
When commander Zhao Sihu saw that, he ordered, “Dang!”
With a ‘Shua!’, shields were either lifted up high or ahead to block the arrows. Although they blocked the arrow rain, the movement speed and formation were unavoidably affected a second time.
In the first round, the elite force held the upper hand.
As they spoke, the two forces were about to crash into one another.
At that moment, the City Protection Legion Corps suddenly changed. The two rows of sword shield soldiers charging at the front changed from a straight line to a curve. In the blink of an eye, they formed a circle together with the sword shield soldiers in the last row.
“Formation!” Blood Romance’s expression instantly became solemn.
This formation was a simplified version of the three thousand rotating wheel formation that Sun Bin designed for the Divine Martial Guards. The outside was defended by the sword shield soldiers, the middle the spearmen, while the archers hid in the center.
Logically speaking, changing their formation while running was a huge worry for military people. If one was careless, the troops might be charged apart by the enemy. Luckily, the City Protection Legion Corps were facing the elite force, where there were no cavalries. Their opponents were all heavy armored forces.
Facing such an iron fortress, the elite forces were helpless. The solution they came up with was to try to spread out on both sides and surround the City Protection Legion Corps.
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This idea seemed good, but they committed a common-sense mistake. The art of war said that one needed 10 times the number to surround. The elite force was like the City Protection Legion Corps with 500 fighters, so how could they surround them?
Zhao Sihu stood in the center of the circular formation. When he saw the enemy split up, he ordered, “Stab!”
“Kill!”
In an instance, hundreds of spears stabbed out from the spaces between the shields like lightning. The attack range of the entire formation was instantly extended.
Some of the elite force troops misjudged the range of the spears and stood too close, instantly being hit. These players were skilled too, using all their ability to twist and turn in the forest of spears to try and avoid each and every one of them.
There were some strong ones who even tried to counter attack. With a flash of light, some spears were cut in half.
In terms of personal ability, the elite forces were a level higher than the City Protection Legion Corps soldiers. All of them had their own skills, speed, and dexterity, which were all above average. Moreover, they had a variety of cultivation methods, which gave one a headache.
When Blood Romance on the stand saw that, he nodded his head in satisfaction. He had his reasons for being confident.
“Stop!” Zhao Sihu was unfazed.
With a ‘Shua!’, the spears were pulled back. When the adventure gamemode players saw that, they heaved a sigh of relief. The bold ones even wanted to take the chance to attack the sword shield soldiers at the outer circle.
“Stab!”
Less than 10 seconds passed, and the spears stabbed out once more; their moves were still as fast as lightning.
This time, the elite force players had misjudged the situation. In the blink of an eye, five to six of them were stabbed, falling to the group and bleeding out. Some of them could not help it and cried out.
To prepare them for challenges on Planet Hope, the pain index in the game was 50% at the lowest. Elite players would even just adjust it to 70%, and some maniacs would even choose to experience the full pain.
People like Ouyang Shuo adjusted upward slowly from the start. Last year, he had already reached 100%. The adjustment was also really good for cultivation.
Players crying out was a normal matter, and no one would despise them because of that.
Seeing that, there were medics who rushed up to carry them out of the battlefield to tend to their wounds.
Ouyang Shuo’s goal was to recruit them, not to kill them off.
Even if it was a life or death battle, they would try to save those that could be saved, which was why there were paramedics on standby. When Blood Romance saw that, a complicated expression flashed across his face. He did not know that there was such an arrangement prior to this.
The killing on the battlefield continued.
The elite players were indeed strong individually, but the City Protection Legion Corps troops were not weak either. Their moves were simple, but each was practiced tens of thousands of time.
Just like the stabbing of the spear, they practiced day and night in the camp, and the movement had become embedded in muscle memory. Under Zhao Sihu’s orders, they were like a machine, stabbing out accurately with no mistakes.
Such an attack was something that adventure gamemode players did not possess.
The proper army and the elite forces displayed all their skills in this battle. If they merged all their pros to cover up their weaknesses, meshing it all together, it would be a really terrifying prospect.
Blood Romance was a smart person. Seeing all this, he fell deep into thought. Maybe the real reason Ouyang Shuo agreed to this battle was for them all to see this point.
Elite forces joining the army looked like they were being restrained, but in truth, it was to establish a firm foundation for the future on Planet Hope. Be it for the elite forces or the players themselves, there were more pros than cons.
Even though he thought about it, Blood Romance still wanted to win this battle.
At this very moment, the battlefield welcomed a new change. Facing the formation of the City Protection Legion Corps, the elite force thought of a way to break it.
They moved grouped up as fives, lifting one of them up and throwing forward. That person was like superman, flying over the outer and middle circle and right into the core area.
This could be considered another form of a general killing operation.
The elite force players were all skilled. While in the air, they were already prepared to strike. Like a flying fish, they charged at the core region in an unstoppable manner.
“Shoot!”
Although Zhao Sihu was a little surprised, his orders were not slow at all. On the battlefield prior to this, Zhao Sihu had indeed not faced such special tactics. Proper armies did not do such things.