Yu Lin Bloodhawk watched coldly as they formed ranks, in no hurry at all. Those Trolls had fought the Elves for thousands of years. The Elves had never fielded heavy cavalry, or even Warriors for head-on melee combat; they had only Rangers. As a result, the Trolls had never developed troops to counter heavy cavalry. They did not even have wooden barricades made from sharpened stakes as thick as a man's leg to block cavalry charges. With crude equipment like that, they thought they could stop the charge of the Steel Torrent and the Bear Iron Fist?
Because the High Elf Rangers had always emphasized mobility and forest warfare, the Trolls had adapted accordingly. How many of them wore plate armor? Eighty percent wore crude armor made from beast hides and fur. Even if they formed ranks, what good would it do? A Giant Bloodfang Boar alone weighed nearly a ton. Add plate armor, and it easily exceeded that.
With hundreds of these steel behemoths charging at full speed, wouldn't they cut through them like a knife through butter? As he backed away, he told the interpreter retreating beside him, "Tell them to surrender or throw down their weapons and stand beneath the white flags. Anyone who keeps a weapon or stays in the middle of the battlefield will be killed without mercy!"
The interpreter also backed away, shouting loudly in Trollish.
A stir spread through the opposing Trolls. More than twenty Hexers stepped in front of their formation and planted over twenty Earthbind Totems shimmering with green light.
Earthbinding Totems were among the most effective weapons against Rangers, who were renowned for their agility. Any enemy entering a radius of twenty to forty meters around an Earthbinding Totem would have their feet immobilized by roots emerging from the ground.