Arthur was reluctant to deploy his elite legions. Every elite force he had spent a fortune building was gathered beside his castle, perfectly serving as his strategic reserve.
Sent to the front lines, stretched out in a messy single-file formation for over fifty miles, were five newly formed recruit legions under his command, cobbled together from hunters, lumberjacks, and street toughs. These men were sturdy and powerful, and they had plenty of combat experience. Their fighting strength far surpassed that of units made up of ordinary townsfolk.
All the hunters served as archers. Their families had lived by hunting for generations, so their skill with the bow was exceptional.
The lumberjacks were powerfully built, with arms several times stronger than those of ordinary people—strength that even rivaled that of common Human Rank warriors. They were thus issued heavy shields and weighty steel blades, organized into heavily shielded saber troops with formidable defensive power, and stationed at the very front of the formation.
As for the street toughs hardened by countless brawls, their weapons were much more varied. Long spears, short lances, crossbows, throwing knives, javelins—every kind of strange and unusual weapon imaginable. No one knew where Arthur had managed to gather them all. Some of the former toughs even carried heavy shoulder poles, their loads packed with quicklime powder!
One could well imagine the havoc that would result when handful after handful of lime powder was scattered amid a melee. If three or five street thugs had mastered this special combat technique, they could effectively strip several times their number of enemies of all ability to fight. Among Arthur's five legions, there were more than ten thousand such "warriors" equipped with large quantities of quicklime powder!
All right, these were the five most combat-capable legions among Arthur's newly formed recruit