Translator: Zen Translations Editor: Zen Translations
In any war, the most horrifying part was when both sides were fully embroiled in hand to hand combat. Once that happened, it was usually a matter of only one side surviving. Furthermore, the Kalise armies had expended so much to actually charge up the city walls, and this was their greatest chance. If they actually retreated to recover and try again, wouldn’t that mean an even greater loss? As such, the Kalise Empire commander had given the death order. No matter what the cost, they had to take the Crescent City today!
In a full scale, mass battle, Zhou Weiqing’s combat effectiveness was definitely terrifying. No one would believe he was just a six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master from all he had done.
It could be said that for the entire section of the wall, nearly a third of it was covered by Zhou Weiqing alone. The dual Legendary Hammers in his hands were like cannon turrets, constantly spitting out large amounts of lightning pearls, which spread out to knock down countless of enemies.
With the Six Ultimate Godly Light Formation, Zhou Weiqing could maintain such attacks for a long time, but the Kalise army would not give him the chance to keep doing so. In that moment, more than a dozen figures appeared on the city walls like the wind, all directed at Zhou Weiqing. All of them could tell how important Zhou Weiqing was to the Heavenly Bow Empire, and as long as they could kill him, there would be no longer any suspense about the outcome of the war. Even if they could not kill him, they could at least prevent him from attacking their ordinary troops.
When the over dozen figures appeared on the city walls, the pressure the frontal wall was under increased greatly. The reason was simple, the Bai Da Regiment had finally joined the battle. They had treated the Kalise soldiers like cannon fodder, and now that they had reached the city walls, they had also begun their own attacks.
Although the Bai Da Regiment had lost their Heavy Cavalry soldiers and a large number of Heavy Infantry soldiers, their ordinary infantry soldiers’ fighting capabilities were already far beyond that of the Kalise Empire soldiers.
Even for their ordinary light infantry soldiers, these Bai Da Empire fighters had a full set of leather equipment and helmet, even their left hands had a small round shield buckled on.
This allowed them to have a greater survivability on the battlefield, not to mention their better training. Furthermore, the officers of the Bai Da Empire were all Jewel Masters, and for their Company Leaders and above, they had to be at least a two-Jeweled Physical Jewel Master or higher. Battalion Commanders and above had to be Heavenly Jewel Masters.
With these powerhouses joining the fight, the pressure the Peerless Regiment faced instantly increased.
Firstly, the fresh recruits of the Heavenly Bow Empire were being injured or even killed rapidly. Although they had been given basic training, and with Zhou Weiqing’s actions and words inspiring them to bloodlust and they were just giving it their all, but they were still fresh recruits with no real combat experience. Unfortunately, facing the crazed onslaught of their enemies, these fresh recruits were the first to perish.
On the frontal wall, there were only a total of a thousand fresh recruits, and under such a circumstance, the injury and death toll began to rise. Only those luckier ones who were right beside the Peerless Regiment warriors were saved.
At this moment, the rest of the Peerless Regiment soldiers also showed their considerable fighting abilities.
By now, the two hundred Peerless Regiment archers had morphed into close combat fighters. Not long after this bloody battle began, they started to truly feel so much gratitude for their beloved drillmaster Shanggaun Fei’er. It was her merciless training and spurring that had given them their current skill in hand to hand combat.
All of the Peerless Regiment soldiers were dressed in titanium mail, light, flexible but extremely tough. Ordinary arrows, swords and sabres could not harm them easily. This allowed them to fight on without too many distractions. Furthermore, all of them were Jewel Masters. To be able to enter the First Main Company, they were at least four-Jeweled Physical Jewel Masters or higher. Even if a lot of their Heavenly Energy had been expended earlier with their Consolidated Wings and Consolidated Bows, as Jewel Masters their physique, physical attributes and even toughness were far beyond any ordinary soldiers.
In the hands of the Peerless Regiment soldiers, the long spears thrust, pierced, flick, dodged, all the various simple yet effective techniques working wonders in their hands. Even for the Bai Da Empire soldiers, none could last around them. Almost every time they took action, the Peerless Regiment soldiers could severely injure or kill an enemy, and already a large number of enemy troops had been sent off the wall.
Melee combat had barely started for more than fifteen minutes, and the Peerless Regiment soldiers, including the Heavy Cavalry soldiers were all drenched in blood. However, none of them were injured yet, and they even had to intervene or take blows to protect the fresh recruits beside them. It was their powerful presence and performance that kept the Crescent City from falling there and then.
Without a doubt, the pressure that Zhou Weiqing was under was the greatest. Lin TianAo and Xiao Yan had both been dispatched by him to protect the other sides of their wall. Currently, more than a dozen Bai Da Empire Heavenly Jewel Masters were surrounding Zhou Weiqing on his side of the wall. This was a war, not an arena fight, and there was no such thing as being ‘fair’ on the battlefield. As soon as these Heavenly Jewel Masters appeared atop the wall, they instantly surrounded Zhou Weiqing and began attacking crazily together.
*BANG*
The crying-face hammer savagely smashed one of the Bai Da Heavenly Jewel Masters into meat paste, but at the same time, Zhou Weiqing had took take blows from two enemies at his back.
With the wings behind his back, Zhou Weiqing’s speed was extremely fast. However, amongst the surrounding Bai Da Empire Heavenly Jewel Masters, two of them were at the eight-Jeweled cultivation level, while the rest were at least four Jewel or higher, with some six and seven Jeweled respectively. This force gathered together was definitely a formidable one.
Despite his speed and agility, Zhou Weiqing could not dodge everything and still go on the offensive. As such, he had done his best, accepting the hits from the weakest four-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters, while forcefully killing one of the six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters.
At this point, Zhou Weiqing’s tremendous physique and constitution proved its true use in actual combat.
As the two four-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters struck Zhou Weiqing, they felt as if his body was just like a tough and flexible rubber. Not only did their attacks seem to lose strength immediately, there was a return counter-force.
Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing’s body was surrounded by lightning, and his Dual Legendary Hammers continued to constantly spit out large amounts of lightning pearls which spread out in the area, causing the Bai Da Empire powerhouses to have to react to them. This barely allowed him to hold his on for now, but Zhou Weiqing had definitely been contained by his foes, and would not be able to affect the rest of the battle.
More and more enemies climbed up the walls, and the stacks of corpses piled up there was already so much that there was barely space for more to stand.
The Bai Da and Kalise soldiers that climbed up the walls after were forced to actually clear some of their fallen comrades before they could continue fighting.
The intensity and viciousness of the fight far surpassed the expectations on both sides. For Zhou Weiqing’s side, he had never imagined that the Kalise Empire would be so resolute in their efforts to take down the Crescent City, and to bring so many forces into play now. There were no probing attacks or exploratory moves like he had expected, instead this all-in attack with more than fifty thousand soldiers. The sheer amount of resources and powerhouses channeled into this was astonishing. Although Zhou Weiqing knew that the frontal assault was the toughest, he could imagine that the other three walls were also facing their own uphill battles.
At this point, there was no time for regrets, nor was there any meaning in doing so. All they could do was to fight, to put everything on the line and fight. There was no chance left to retreat, as everyone was full of bloodlust. Now, it was kill or be killed.
As for the Kalise Empire side, they had never imagined that this tiny force of Heavenly Bow Empire soldiers would actually cause them so much trouble, so many casualties. Unlike the various other Heavenly Bow rebellions that they had quelled, the Peerless Regiment’s terrifying combat abilities had just caused them far too much death and losses.
…
The battle raged on from dawn all the way to high noon, and the city walls were bathed in a river of blood.
The Peerless Regiment soldiers were still hanging on. However, even their titanium mail was mostly in tatters, not a single piece of their armour was fully intact. Although their wounds were not serious, the remaining fresh recruits by their side had dropped drastically.
Of course, the death toll on their enemies were far greater, and none of the Peerless Regiment soldiers actually knew how many they had killed. All they could see before them was a spread of blood red.
The Peerless Regiment soldiers might have the best training, the best equipment, being powerful Jewel Masters… but they were still human, not machines. They could still feel exhausted; by now all the Heavenly Energy in their bodies had long been used up. Even for the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribe warriors, with their powerful physiques and constitutions, they were barely even able to hold their massive weapons any longer. Luckily, their armour was just too thick and strong, for the moment no matter how their enemies struck at them, they were unable to break through their defense; otherwise they might have already suffered casualties.
After these several hours of fighting, there were still seven powerhouse enemies surrounding Zhou Weiqing. They were the strongest of all the Heavenly Jewel Masters who had come from the Bai Da Empire. All of the others had died to the Dual Legendary Hammers. With his own six-Jeweled cultivation level, to have done so much up until now, that was already close to the limit for Zhou Weiqing.
The Six Ultimate Godly Light Formation was indeed powerful, especially in terms of sustainability. Even so, an entire morning of constant high pressure fighting had pushed Zhou Weiqing’s body to the limit.
By now, he couldn’t even maintain the Dragon-Tiger Transformation. All about his body, where the ‘Hate Ground no Handle’ Legendary Set did not cover, countless wounds covered him. If not for the fact his constitution was so strong, with the bloodlines of the dragon and tigers mixed within him, perhaps he would have fallen by now.
No! I can’t fall here. I mustn’t fall here! At this point, all that held Zhou Weiqing up was his own willpower. He was no longer able to use any Skills, just using the strength that was brought to him by the ‘Hate Ground no Handle’ Legendary Set to keep fighting… fighting. He was extremely clear that if he fell down now, then the war would be over, and all would be lost.
He had long since witnessed many of his Peerless Regiment soldiers wounded, but these soldiers who had come from the Ruffian Battalion had a strong sense of survival, able to cover and protect each other as best they could. All of the injured Peerless Regiment soldiers gathered together in a defensive bunch. Zhou Weiqing did not know if any of them had died, or if so, how many. However, he could see that barely a third of them were still able to continue fighting.
As for the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribe warriors, they were now just resorting to using their weight to shove enemies down the walls. Most of them could not even lift their weapons anymore, let alone fight.
For a battle to reach such an intense, horrifying state, one could use the word ‘meat-grinder’ to describe it.
