Gods, Ashes Descend

Chapter 57 Melancholy and Playing the Victim

There was no pre-battle rhetoric or pre-battle speeches; the battle went straight into a fierce, heated phase from the very beginning.

Once the fight broke out, both sides realized they had been careless.

It's completely different from what they think.

As soon as Li Wei and his men emerged, they found themselves in a flat plain, where thousands of knights led their cavalry in a wedge formation charge.

But when a group charges into battle and faces dozens of rifles, it's no different from suicide.

Li Wei and his men split into two groups to provide continuous suppressive fire, while the others supplemented the firepower with pistols and longbows. Perhaps the knights' full-body armor was impenetrable at a distance, but if the horse was shot over, it would be just as fatal.

They themselves understood that once the cavalry charge stopped, they would be sitting ducks. Stepping over the bodies of their fallen comrades, they mustered their courage to face the barrage of steel bullets they had never seen before.

But courage couldn't close the gap. When the last knight rushed in front of Levi and his men and was riddled with bullets, the old man in charge of the knights had already finished him off.

The pikemen who were preparing to charge behind the knights collapsed and ran backwards after only a few steps. For these soldiers who had never seen such a sight before, it was a terrifying story.

The king's eyes twitched. The cost of creating a full-armored knightly order mixed with anti-magic gold was enough to arm two more divisions, not to mention how many noble heirs were in that order.

The king pointed in the direction of Li Wei and his companions and roared.

"Warlock!"

Seeing the shield soldiers pouring out of the opposite camp, Li Wei realized that the other side wanted to take a defensive stance, so he led his men to rush towards the main camp. Before they even got close, the sky and earth began to change color, and large fireballs with trails of flames fell from the sky and began to bombard them, causing Li Wei and his men to fall to the ground.

In some places, the ground began to churn and boil, like quicksand; if you got stuck, you'd be buried alive.

Li Wei watched as Ken, that unlucky fellow, was blasted away by a falling meteor, and then, to make matters worse, fell onto the rolling ground. Before he could even get up, he was pulled down.

However, Li Wei's side is full of veteran soldiers. It might be a bit difficult for them to coordinate with the legion, but when they are asked to focus on their own interests or to split into small teams, they are all masters of battlefield survival.

When Li Wei and his men rushed out, nearly two hundred people had been killed. As soon as the two sides made contact, the other side was dumbfounded.

With a couple hundred meters to go, the assassins pulled out their pistols and started shooting at the shield bearers who were in formation as they ran.

By the time they entered the range of the enemy archers, more than half of their front line had already been cut off.

A series of crackling sounds followed as people around them fell one after another. The shield soldiers were obviously not using metal shields; they were mostly using wooden shields, and they were in a bad way when they encountered something that could break through the surface from a single point.

If it weren't for the constant reinforcements and the oversight teams suppressing the terrified deserters who threw down their weapons and fled, the shield infantry formation would have already collapsed.

"Longbowmen, fire!"

A dense rain of arrows covered the sky, but because the assassins were so heavily armored, apart from a dozen or so priests and mages with unevenly distributed stats who were shot into porcupine-like shapes, the rest charged forward with their heads down in silence.

Upon contact, it became clear that Li Wei's assassins were incredibly versatile. One second they were holding longbows and pistols, and the next they were pulling out a bunch of random gadgets, with a wide variety of weapons.

Throwing knives, firecrackers, staffs, scimitars, great axes, longswords, sacred artifacts—the battlefield became vibrant and colorful because of magic and miracles.

However, each of them can be described as a weapon master, with every move deadly. If one strike is enough to finish the job, there will be no second strike.

In other words, they were just messing around and fighting a chaotic battle. They were professionals, after all, it was much easier to deal with these ordinary people who were already scared to death than with the zombies who had no morale issues and would stab them twice even if they were crowding together.

The commander of the Blue Iron Guard, Roche, hurriedly found the king standing under the banner and immediately tried to persuade him.

"Your Majesty, please evacuate immediately. They are not knights at all; they are mostly elite warriors composed of sorcerers. We do not know if they possess any large-scale ranged magic."

Looking at the entrance of the camp, golden light and lightning erupted from time to time, along with blue rays of light and exploding flames.

The king asked a question, his voice trembling.

"Were any captured alive?"

If he didn't capture them alive, he wouldn't be able to explain himself to the nobles under his command. If he withdrew and caused a rout, he could expect a rebellion by the resentful nobles.

"...No, their will to resist is too strong, and there are sorcerers among them who know healing magic. It would take dozens of people to take down one of them, and even the stolen corpses will disappear after a few minutes."

It's less about a will to resist and more about these people being madmen. He had never seen anyone who could fight while dragging their intestines or with several swords stuck in their body. Even if their legs were cut off, they would still be determined to kill the enemy while crawling.

Roche had never seen such a crazy person. Even if he didn't die, wouldn't he feel pain?

This answer startled the king, who shouted excitedly.

"We have over 27,000 men, and they only have a few hundred left. My commander, you're telling me to retreat?"

He turned around and roared.

"Warlock, stop hiding in the back! Cast spells towards the battle location to divide and surround them."

"Your Majesty, our people are here too."

The king, in frustration, yanked open his collar.

"Ignore them, or more people will die."

With the warlocks joining the battle, earth spikes, lightning, frost, and fire were unleashed in turn, and the rate at which Li Wei and his companions were killed began to rise sharply.

To minimize accidental damage, the warlocks generally stayed in high places, such as watchtowers.

Since they could see Li Wei and his group, naturally Li Wei and his group could also see these sorcerers.

The popping sound, like popping beans, began again, and every now and then, one after another, lightning spears with extremely strong penetrating power, capable of piercing through dragon scales, and whose power could be described as insane, were shot towards the sorcerers.

Standing on the high platform, Fikat's shield was pierced by a flying lightning spear, leaving a fist-sized hole in his face and the back of his head.

Without the shield of Fikat, Triss was pierced through the body by a bullet from an unknown source. There was a small hole in the front of her body, while the wound from the bullet left a bowl-sized hole in her back. She collapsed and lost her ability to fight.

Time passed slowly, and the noise of the battle gradually subsided.

Finally, the wounded who had not yet died on the battlefield wailed, and there were also cries of terrified madmen.

No one could laugh when faced with the corpses of their own people scattered all over the ground.

Especially since Li Wei and his men were down to their last few dozen, to avoid being captured and imprisoned by the sorcerers, they all slit their own throats. As the soldiers calmed down and faced the dissipating corpses, a silent fear began to spread.

Silently cleaning up the battlefield.

"Your Majesty, the statistics are in. The entire Flame Rose Knights have been wiped out. Of the three warlock advisors, one is dead, one is seriously injured, and one has escaped. The support from the Warlock Academy has also suffered heavy casualties."

The 7th Division was routed, the 8th Division suffered 20% casualties, and the Blue-Clad Iron Guard suffered more than half its casualties.

Although some of the defeated soldiers have been found, the number should not exceed 15,000.

And... there were no prisoners.

The king's face aged ten years in an instant. He waved his hand but said nothing, staring fixedly at the bleak scene before him.

Li Wei, who had been sent back, was pestering the Fire Keeper for a lap pillow, trying to gain sympathy and comfort.