"The wind is rising."
Shen Mu stood on the balcony, slowly extending a hand and letting the breeze drifting from behind sweep across his palm.
Brought within that cool breeze was also a special scent of wheat.
It belonged to the Suno Plain, to those continuous, boundless, and vast wheat fields currently maturing and awaiting harvest. The refreshing breeze with the scent of wheat blown from them happened to brush past this apartment building!
Or rather, it brushed past the range that the Swadian Stronghold belonging to Shen Mu could influence.
It also included the tops of those 45 Swadian Footmen who had re-formed into a spear phalanx before the castle gates and had begun to meet the enemy head-on.
What it brought was not just the coolness of the breeze and the familiar wheat fragrance of the Suno Plain.
There was also a morale surging forth from within the chest!
"Charge! Kill! Kill!"
Uniform shouts of killing rang out.
These 45 Swadian Footmen, tier-4 troops, all stood in place and aimed the fine infantry spears in their hands at the oncoming orcs, beginning to thrust like waves!
Matched with those thick fan shields, they directly seemed to transform into the hardest reef, standing amidst this 10-meter-wide central long corridor and remaining completely unmoved!
"Oink, oink!"
To those orcs surging forward, the reef transformed by these Swadian Footmen was overly solid.
The spears over three meters long seemed to transform into a giant iron thicket before them.
It was even serial thrusting, retracting and extending back and forth like venomous snakes.
It caused the front-row orcs to instinctively halt their charging steps.
They raised the flail hammers in their hands high.
Hesitant and fearful expressions appeared on those originally excited orc faces at this moment.
They were not stupid.
When the Spirit Realm had not yet shattered in the past, they had also seen such spear phalanxes and pike squares among the human forces.
As long as they charged in, they feared the flail hammers in their hands would not be able to swing a few times.
Several bloody holes would appear on their own bodies!
Even though they all wore leather armor.
However, the leather armor only covered the torso parts like the chest and abdomen.
Their faces, necks, arms, thighs, and other limbs still lacked leather armor for protection.
In case those human spearmen thrust fiercely at these unprotected parts of theirs, wouldn't they die miserably here and completely say goodbye to a wonderful life?!
"Oink! Can't charge! Stop!"
Thus, the front-row orcs already wanted to stop their still-approaching steps with all their might.
Looking at the spears already close at hand, along with those sharp spear tips and points, the orc faces now lacked much arrogance and cruelty, replaced instead by a look of terror.
"Oink! Stop! Oink! Don't rush!"
Even more orcs turned their heads out of fear to hurl curses at those same-race peers behind them.
Because they could not stop.
More and more orcs behind squeezed into this narrow corridor, knowing only that a fierce battle was to be fought next and all humans were to be killed.
Therefore, what they thought of in their minds were the tender flesh of the humans and the wonderful brains mixed with blood.
They drooped with saliva, which stained from the corners of their mouths down to the plump abdominal leather armor.
They were dying of craving!
Therefore, they simply could not see that right in front, amidst their own excited and impatient crowding forward, pushing had caused the front orcs—even if they wanted to kick back with the hooves under their feet—to move closer and closer to the human spear phalanx due to this force pushing forward, watching the spear tips grow larger and larger!
Then, amidst the excited gazes and tightly clenched teeth of these Swadian Footmen, they completely entered the attack range of the spear phalanx.
Thump, thump, thump, thump!
Next came the sharp spears, making consecutive and continuous thrusting attacks!
The spears, carefully forged by the town blacksmiths of the Kingdom of Swadia, played out their added professionalism and high quality during meticulous crafting at this moment.
Wielded by the Swadian Footmen, those strong ones who had experienced blood wars and physical body training on Calradia.
Even the use of polearms had reached a proficiency level where they could truly pierce whatever they wanted to hit!
A single exchange.
These tricky spearheads either pierced through the necks of these orcs or forcefully struck their faces.
The spears following up behind aimed precisely at the arms and thighs exposed outside the leather armor to thrust.
"Aah, aah, aah, aah!"
It directly caused every single orc squeezed into the front row to emit painful wails.
Then, before these orcs could collapse from the instantly suffered heavy trauma—just as they exposed flaws and waved their flail hammers wildly due to the pain to knock away the thrusting spears—these tier-4, elite-worthy Swadian Footmen's eyes lit up.
The strength of their waists and abdomens instantly transmitted to their arms.
Matched with the opportunities spotted by their eyes.
Thump!
Just a single spear thrust out.
Instantly, as an orc wailed from its mouth opened wide in pain, the spear tip was stabbed into its throat, and then pierced completely through from the back of the head with a bit of tofu-like matter!
This was not even an isolated case.
Within a mere dozens of seconds of contact between the two sides, more than a dozen orcs fell to the ground with a crash.
The smell of blood began to permeate.
As the breeze from the Suno Plain swept past, it began to blow through the entire corridor.
It even stimulated those orcs who, upon catching the rich scent of blood, crowded forward even more frantically, howling angrily from behind as if angry at missing out on the upcoming human-meat feast.
Yet they happened to push the orcs in front—who had become the new front row—right back in front of the spear phalanx, turning them into new pieces of pork on the chopping block!
Swadian Footmen were already the main infantry troops of the Kingdom of Swadia.
Let alone the tier-4, even stronger Swadian Footmen!
Perhaps in field battle or siege battle, these Swadian Footmen could not match the defense power of the peer Rhodok Veteran Spearmen, nor could they match peer Vaegir Footmen who used war axes, spears, and shields to fight and endure, nor could they match Nord Warriors reputed as the strongest infantry attack power, nor the cost-effectiveness of Sarranid Footmen.
However, in a narrow environment and a confined space, these Swadian Footmen possessing the best armor and polearms of the same tier...
Were truly extremely qualified line-holding heavy infantry capable of resisting the enemy's unceasing onslaughts!
If it were the conventional tactics of the Kingdom of Swadia.
Now, it would be time for the heavy cavalry units of Swadia to start dispatching some to attack the enemy's ranged shooters, while another part charged like a giant hammer to smash and completely shatter the enemy line that had been stalled in place by the infantry troops.
However right now, in this narrow space of the apartment building, Swadian heavy cavalrymen were not yet the protagonists.
Because appearing next were those ranged crossbowmen on the balcony and in the tower who had already prepared themselves.
They all held war crossbows and light crossbows, poked their heads out through the firing ports, looked at the hundreds of orcs surging over like a towering wave, and placed their fingers on the triggers to play their part!
"All forces! Free Fire!"
Shen Mu spoke in a deep voice.
Before you continue