"What on earth is Ryan doing? Why is he so slow?!"
On Thundercloud Mountain, Shaya Meyers was like a raging lion. During this time, she had been organizing the nobles of Thundercloud County to fight against the Werewolves army, and she was almost driven crazy.
This is different from her previous adventures; she can't escape, she can't take a detour, she can't avoid the sharp edge; she can only prove that she has to tough it out.
As nobles, they had to face all of this, including the Werewolves attack. It was precisely because of this that the casualties in Thundercloud County during this period were incredibly high.
If Thundercloud Mountain weren't so complex, the Werewolves would have already occupied the Marquis's castle.
Baron Ryan, however, is still arriving slowly and has not yet reached the battlefield at Thundercloud Mountain.
What is Ryan doing? He's still training his troops.
He wanted to give these slave-made armies confidence in victory, so that they wouldn't immediately collapse when facing Werewolves.
This requires the joy of victory to build confidence.
Defeated soldiers are not a cause for concern; a skilled army wins every battle. Only by achieving more and more victories can the morale and combat effectiveness of the army be kept at their peak.
This is still a form of deception, but it can make humans no longer afraid. Fear is the Werewolves's greatest weapon against humans.
As for what happened afterwards...
"They are not that powerful; they cannot stop us from following the light!"
"Once you cross that mountain, you'll see even warmer sunshine."
"No evil Orcs can defeat our Faith of Light!"
As Ryan listened to the 'missionary's' voice in his ear, he looked up at the sky. The Sun was high in the sky, the sunlight was bright, and the golden halo painted the edge of the world. He was unsure whether these beliefs could attract the attention of the God of Light. Without Divine Blessing and Miracle, war would probably not be easy.
At the Thundercloud Mountain, the Werewolves ' fierce attack once again shattered the human defenses. The knights upheld their dignity and faith, vowing to defend the nobles to the death. As another Dawn broke, the knights could not hold out any longer. The Werewolves broke through the gap and charged up Thundercloud Mountain.
There, Shaya held Knight's Greatsword, while Rosalind beside her frowned, trying to pull the woman back, but was angrily pushed away by the latter.
"Do you really think I'm like those women?"
"No, it's not the right time."
Rosalind sighed and pointed to the knights below, who were fighting back fiercely. In the end, the Werewolves still couldn't get close to Shaya.
The Werewolves, panting heavily, finally retreated, baring their teeth and glaring at the nobles on the mountaintop, letting out bloodthirsty roars.
When the Werewolves retreated, Ryan led his army to the camp at the foot of Thundercloud Mountain. The camp was already in ruins, having been ravaged by the Werewolves many times.
The soldiers, numb from the fighting, raised their heads to look at the reinforcements, who were even more disheveled than themselves. Their eyes held little luster; they had experienced the war here and knew what it looked like.
Apart from the Knight, no one can stand up to those powerful Werewolves.
The first thing Ryan did upon arrival was to dig trenches, ordering tens of thousands of soldiers to continuously excavate holes and trenches across the land. He did not go up the mountain, and seeing the arrival of so many human reinforcements, the Werewolves hesitated briefly. Then, thousands upon thousands of wolf howls echoed across the land.
The Werewolves were calling for more Werewolves to come, and finally, on the night after Ryan arrived, the regrouped Werewolves launched an attack.
"Ignition!"
At Ryan's command, thousands of fiery arrows flashed like streaks of light in the night sky and landed in the ravines.
With a rumble, flames burned on the dry grass, the sizzling light illuminating the Werewolves's ferocious face. Then, from the darkness, the howl of a wolf echoed.
"Awooo—"
The bloody wind carried the chill of the Northlands, causing the firelight to flicker. A huge foot stomped down, and a tall Werewolves threw the Werewolves next to him aside. The Werewolves roared and leaped into the air, landing on the other side of the flames.
roar!
The threatening howl instilled fear in the Werewolves, and when it turned to face the humans, its eyes turned bloodthirsty and ferocious. With a shout, it charged toward the humans.
One Werewolves after another was thrown over and then charged towards the humans. Just as the Werewolves were halfway through their charge, the ground suddenly collapsed, and then sharp spears pierced through the Werewolves.
The knight looked at the soldiers around him without saying a word, but the soldiers were trembling with excitement.
The Werewolves were oblivious to their surroundings and continued their charge. Ahead, fully armed knights stood at the forefront of the army. Their metal armor covered every vulnerable spot, and their powerful blood and strength supported the large metal shields planted in the ground. Sharp spears protruded from the gaps in the shields, with only the tips showing. The moment the Werewolves colliding with them, the shields tilted, and the spears thrust out in the momentum.
"Attack!!!"
The best defense is offense. From the rear of the Stag Legion, thousands of soldiers rushed out from both sides. They had no more fear of Werewolves. Along the way, they had all participated in killing Werewolves to some extent. Moreover, it was night, and under the firelight, the humans could not see how many of their comrades had died in front of the Werewolves in that instant.
The dead are no longer important to the truth, but those who survive firmly believe that what Ryan told them is true.
Bang bang bang!!!
The Werewolves angrily slammed into the metal shields, but these shields belonged to the powerful Stag Legion knights. They had experience dealing with Werewolves and possessed strength and reflexes far exceeding those of Werewolves, pinning the werewolf to the spot like a nail.
The 2,500 Knight Retainer were all that Ryan had Frozen Earth Territory, but this number was enough to fight against tens of thousands of Werewolves.
How many Werewolves are rushing towards them right now? There isn't that many.
In the darkness, Ryan looked at both sides of the battlefield. The slave soldiers charged out from both sides, but were gradually caught off guard by the Werewolves and defeated. Gradually, the Werewolves began to gain the upper hand.
"Charge!"
Bang!
The great shields fell, but not towards the knights. Instead, the knights deliberately pushed them down, causing them to fall towards the Werewolves. They had been tampered with when they were planted; it was difficult to fall inwards, but easy to fall outwards.
The knights took two steps back, then mounted their horses and drew their Knight's Greatsword, pointing them forward.
"Charge!"
Rumble!!!
The knights rode their warhorses toward the Werewolves army. The Northern Warhorse galloped across the land, and ahead, in the pits, soldiers, led by the knights, lifted wooden door panels, with some soldiers using logs to prop them up.
"Withstand!"
Only the knights knew what was going to happen; the iron hooves of warhorses would sweep over their heads, and if all went well, they would win tonight.
"Kill them all!"
Inside the pit, the soldiers heard roars overhead—the howls of knights from the Frozen Earth Territory, along with the desperate wails and furious howls of Werewolves. The mingled sounds turned their faces pale, especially the door above them, which seemed about to collapse under the weight, with dirt constantly falling from its edges.
The cavalry charged into the darkness, all the horses' eyes covered by strips of cloth. In the firelight, the knights led their horses to turn and gallop to the side in front of the blazing trench.
On the other side of the flames, the tall Werewolves let out an angry howl, and then, in a fit of rage, he lunged directly at the flames.
In mid-air, a knight drew his bow and shot an arrow at the pouncing Werewolves. The immense force sent the Werewolves crashing into the trench, the burning flames igniting the fur on its body.
Hundreds of meters away, the cavalry slowly stopped, turned their horses around to face the battlefield again. At this moment, the burning flames were no longer raging. The Werewolves were in high spirits. The Werewolves, who had been berserk in the flames of war, finally crossed the gradually extinguishing trench. More Werewolves charged towards the human army in front.
"Wait a little longer."
General Mikaela was searching for the location of those pits when he finally saw that among the countless Werewolves rushing forward, some of Werewolves had suddenly fallen down.
"There."
Mikaela pulled on the reins, and the Northern Warhorse galloped once more. He adjusted his direction, leading two thousand cavalrymen to take a different path to prevent the horses from falling into the pits.
"Kill them all!"
The most severe challenge arrived. The cavalry charged into the Werewolves army, their speed slowing down from a gallop. At the forefront, the two generals of the Stag Legion, Mikaela and Harrington, faced with hundreds of Werewolves blocking their way. They had no choice but to pull on the reins, causing their warhorses to leap high on their forelegs before slamming them down. The Knight's Greatsword severed the claws that swung at them, but they still could not stop some of the Werewolves ' attacks from landing on their warhorses.
The horse armor blocked some of the attacks, but blood still flowed from the gaps. From the left and right sides, Werewolves from the darkness leaped up from the ground and charged towards the knight on horseback.
" The Stag Legion can't break through the Werewolves."
This was the first time Ryan had miscalculated. In the past, cavalry could break through enemy lines during their charges, splitting large numbers of enemies into two, then eight, gradually creating chaos on the battlefield and establishing the cavalry's dominance.
However, Werewolves are stronger than any enemy they have ever faced. The cavalry could only penetrate halfway before the Werewolves, driven by their hunting instincts, would launch a bloodthirsty counterattack, slowing down the cavalry. Without the speed boost, the cavalry's combat effectiveness was reduced by more than half.
"Support them."
As soon as Ryan finished speaking, his warhorse charged forward. The servants behind him dared not hesitate and their horses charged forward, their hooves pounding the ground.
The Sky Knight ' power allowed Ryan and Brandt to easily send the Werewolves flying. Their Knight's Greatsword slashed down, and the Werewolves' hard bones were as fragile as paper in the face of the Legendary swords.
"Dismount! Surround your warhorses in the middle!"
Upon reaching the cavalry, Ryan roared loudly. The more than two thousand squires obeyed the order strictly and quickly formed a formation. They were knights and had enough power to suppress Werewolves. Gradually, they finally stabilized the position of this legion on the battlefield.
" Mikaela, lead your army to attack the left!"
Mikaela heard Ryan's voice, roared and beheaded the Werewolves in front of her. Her boiling blood surged towards the Werewolves in front of her. The Stag Legion's defense shrank from a rounded square to a long and narrow one. Werewolves rushed over from time to time, trying to attack Ryan, but each time they were killed by the Knight's Greatsword before they could reach Ryan.
With Mikaela's thousand-strong army forcing the Werewolves formation on the flanks back, a piece of land was finally cleared in the middle.
Ryan dismounted, patted Winter's Chill's rump, and then tore off the cloth strips from the eyes of the warhorses behind him.
"Rush!"
Winter's Chill understood Ryan's words and neighed. It was the Horse King of the plains, and with its call, warhorses raised their heads and charged toward the open space that Mikaela had created.
"Get out of the way!"
Mikaela was the first to react. He caught a glimpse of the galloping warhorse out of the corner of his eye and pulled the knight next to him back.
The warhorse galloped forward again, knocking the Werewolves away. Mikaela hesitated for a moment, then swiftly grabbed the reins, mounted a warhorse, and gradually moved to the front.
Finally, the Werewolves army was breached, but at the cost of the Stag Legion being surrounded, with only most of their warhorses managing to break through.
But Ryan believed in his legion, and that even if they were surrounded by Werewolves in the dark, they would not be defeated.
"Defense! Don't give the Werewolves an opening!"
At this moment, the Stag Legion are like hunters with their backs to a large rock, surrounded by a pack of wolves. Whoever shows a weakness first will have to accept the failure of the hunt.
On the remaining warhorse, Ryan took the Beast Bow from one of the servants, and as the arrow flew, a Werewolves howled in the darkness.
The Stag Legion's formation tightened once more, with hundreds of knights moving to the protected center. They used their Beast Bow to relentlessly attack the Werewolves outside, while the knights holding the perimeter were locked in a fierce and unavoidable battle, facing attacks from Werewolves from any direction except behind them.
As dawn broke, the bloodthirsty Werewolves still couldn't accept the failed attack and continued their frenzied assault on the Stag Legion' location.
As dawn broke, the battlefield gradually became clearer, with corpses of both Werewolves and humans scattered everywhere. It was impossible to say who outnumbered them. All the remaining Werewolves gathered around the Stag Legion. No matter how much the slave soldiers had been brainwashed, a night of fighting had left the surviving soldiers with little strength to provide support.
Fortunately, Mikaela, leading her warhorses, charged forward again from the edge of the battlefield, crashing into Werewolves Werewolves in one direction. Thousands of Werewolves were routed, and the knights mounted their horses, their strength gradually returning from their exhaustion.
This was the power of the Blessing of the Horse Spirit, which brought their blood and energy into a certain harmony with that of the warhorse.
The knights, slowly recovering their strength, launched another fierce attack on the Werewolves. As the sunlight shone down, the Werewolves retreated unwillingly.
In the afternoon, Ryan, battered and bruised, finally reached the Thundercloud Mountain.
"Only three thousand Werewolves were killed below. The Werewolves ' regenerative ability is too strong. Many Werewolves left with wounds, while our soldiers have lost more than five thousand."
Of the three thousand Werewolves who died, more than eighty percent came from the Stag Legion, meaning that the tens of thousands of slave soldiers killed less than six hundred Werewolves.
Of course, this is not the actual battle damage, but only an approximation. For example, when Ryan went up the mountain, he saw Werewolves corpses on it. Obviously, last night, many Werewolves bypassed his army and rushed towards Thundercloud Mountain.
However, the number of combatants lost by humanity is not just five thousand.
"You're too slow."
Shaya complained, but she felt much more at ease when she saw Ryan arrive.
"I arrived too early; I couldn't stop this war."
Ryan turned to look down the mountain, where the army was cheering and celebrating their victory.
It was too dark last night, and humans couldn't see what was around them, so they didn't know that most of the time, Werewolves were killing humans indiscriminately.
Ryan wouldn't tell them about the casualties or the devastation, but instead shared the joy of victory to keep morale high.
This was the result of his preparations along the way, but overall it was still not satisfactory.
" Count Winter, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Northwind War, issued orders for Thundercloud County and Dragon Mountain County to hold off the Werewolves attack and await an opportunity to counterattack."
"What's amazing is that the Flying Wolf Cavalry were able to issue this order to all the nobles, even those whose castles were already surrounded by Werewolves."
Ryan smiled, not caring.
"The orders were secondary; he wanted the nobles to understand who was making the decisions in this war."
"I wonder if the Werewolves knows this."
The first battle in Thundercloud County ended briefly, and the army's task remained the same: digging pits and trenches.
"Are you going to completely destroy my farmland?"
Shaya cried out in dissatisfaction, but Ryan didn't care about the woman's wishes.
"We must hold off the Werewolves attack. You don't think a battle like last night's will continue, do you?"
"Do you know how many of my knights have died?"
Ryan glanced coldly at the woman. Ridiculous. Last night's brief victory was based on the fighting strength of his 2,500 Baron Ryan, plus the knights under the command of the nobles of Zero Crossing Prefecture and Iron Mountain County, bringing the total to over 3,200. And this number...
The entire Thundercloud County couldn't muster two thousand knights.
The effects of Count Weiss's defeat had not yet disappeared, and the military strength of Thundercloud County was pitifully weak. Of course, three thousand knights was a frightening number in itself.
The battle last night cannot be replicated because Werewolves change, and humans change too. In the daytime battle, humans were at the greatest disadvantage because the slave soldiers could clearly see how the Werewolves killed them, and how weak their strength was in the face of the Werewolves.
Just like the original soldiers here, they understood very well that Werewolves were far stronger than humans, and only knights could fight against Werewolves.
While the soldiers were digging trenches, Viscount Hogg of Silver Stream County arrived late. He had been waiting for news from Ryan, and only Viscount Hogg after Ryan arrived.