Chapter 161: The Scorching Sun Shines (Part II)

The Bandit Leaders certainly would not let Jier rout them wave after wave like this; although the mounted Bandit Leaders felt they had somewhat misjudged this young Knight's combat prowess, there were many of them, and each one possessed some confidence in their own abilities.

These Bandit Leaders, wearing one or two layers of looted Leather Armor, rode out from the crowd, gathered together, and charged toward Jier while whistling and shouting to intimidate their enemy.

Jier was extremely excited; since arriving in this other world last year, this was his first time engaging in a head-on confrontation on horseback.

The dozen or so people opposite him, all wearing Leather Armor and wielding various weapons, rushed over with wild movements and spirits. The foot-bound Bandits also raised their weapons high, cheering for the heroic bearing of their leaders.

"Roar, roar, roar! Crush that man!"

"Finish him!"

"I want his head as a collectible!" the Bandit Leaders shouted chaotically, loudly venting their true thoughts at this moment.

Jier held the Long Spear in his right hand, gripping it tightly and tucking it under his right armpit. His left hand grasped the Knight Curved Shield, holding it slightly raised to protect most of his body, leaving only his eyes above the bridge of his nose to watch the opposition.

His mind was highly tense, and the surrounding time seemed to slow down all at once.

His previously rapid breathing seemed to become long and steady, and every large stride Tianxuecao took caused a bodily undulation that allowed Jier to clearly feel his body swaying rhythmically up and down.

The noisy shouting of the people around him also seemed to become strange at this moment; their exaggerated, twisted faces, flushed red from the tension of battle, also changed slowly as their mouths opened and closed.

As for the Bandit Leaders Jier was staring at, because both sides were moving toward each other in a rapid cavalry charge, the distance of over a hundred meters would be closed in barely a breath or two. The Bandit Leader in the very front seemed to anticipate being targeted by Jier, so he cunningly leaned to the side, crouching on the horse's back, while clutching the Jiansheng with one hand and holding a Changdao horizontally across the path where he would cross Jier's warhorse.

The Bandits further back used every trick in the book; some stood up using the Stirrups, holding specially made Throwing Spears, and threw them at Jier from a distance as they rapidly approached.

Of course, there were also Bandit Leaders with decent archery skills, continuously drawing their special Hunting Bows and firing, with every Arrow aimed straight at Jier.

But Jier ignored those rapidly flying Arrows, letting them strike him and Tianxuecao at high speed.

Because Jier was enveloped in the light flow of the 【Light Battle Armor】, those Arrows were greatly weakened by the Divine Art upon reaching him, and by the time they struck Jier, they had less than half their power left.

Clang, clang, clang—most of the Arrows struck the Shield covering his front; the curved surface of the Shield deflected many of them, and only a small portion left slight scratches on the Shield when they hit at the perfect angle.

Next came the Throwing Spears. In his slightly slowed perception of time, Jier raised his right arm slightly, meeting the Throwing Spear—which appeared as nothing more than a black dot—with the tip of his Long Spear, which was glowing with runic light.

Even on the jolting warhorse, Jier still found the opportunity to make his Long Spear collide with the incoming Throwing Spear in advance.

With a sharp, crisp sound, there was no doubt: the Dwarf Soldier Spear shattered the incoming Throwing Spear into a large spray of metal and wood fragments the moment they collided.

Jier quickly turned his head, angling the front of his Helmet's Faceplate to the side so that the scattered metal shards would not fly into the eye slits of the Faceplate.

The next moment, a series of clanging sounds erupted on Jier; the scattered metal shards from the Throwing Spear struck his Armor, sparking in a continuous line, while the small pieces of the wooden shaft were smashed into even finer fragments against Jier's Armor.

Jier only felt a slight vibration in his hand and felt nothing more.

After the Life Energy within his body began to circulate, those Life Energy not only provided him with greater strength but also temporarily made his body more robust, thereby preventing him from being torn apart by his own suddenly increased power.

After blocking the Arrows and Throwing Spears in succession, the two sides rapidly collided.

Many people on both sides of the battlefield watched this scene; the archers on the wagons stopped shooting and craned their necks to see the result. The Warriors who were covering each other also turned their heads with a moment to spare to look at the colliding parties, silently praying for Knight Jier to win.

On the Caravan wagons in the rear, the Caravan Stewards were also somewhat panicked because the convoy was surrounded by two groups of over a hundred Bandits; most of them regretted agreeing to the plan of the Da Aokesi, which had caused them to fall into danger themselves. After all, although their own side had many people, the Bandits surrounding the convoy were more numerous, and each one was shouting while fighting, making them look more imposing and terrifying.

Their own armored Warriors rarely made a sound during battle, and even if they did, it was only for brief tactical exchanges with the companions beside them. The Dwarves were even more silent, simply throwing their Throwing Iron Hammers one after another, smashing and wounding every Bandit who attacked them.

It should be known that every Dwarf Warrior carried two Throwing Small Hammers on their belt; with their immense strength, the Throwing Iron Hammers they threw at close range almost never missed, and the Bandits who were hit did not even make a sound—they were either killed or fell unconscious from severe injuries.

This was, in turn, even more terrifying.

At this very moment, those Caravan Stewards lay among the cargo in their wagons, and seeing the Knight and the elite Bandits collide not far away, they subconsciously cheered for Knight Jier, fearing that the convoy would be defeated just as the battle began. If the Aokesi did not arrive in time and they were routed by the Bandits, it would all be over. Even if the Aokesi defeated the remaining Bandits later, they, these high-ranking Stewards, would have already lost their lives in the chaotic battle.

So, should they just surrender outright when the Bandits were about to win? At least keeping their own lives was more important.

These people thought chaotically.

The old Dwarf was currently standing on his own ox-cart in the convoy, commanding the surrounding Dwarf Warriors from a high vantage point. To reduce the risk of battle and because he had no doubts about the convoy's ultimate victory, the old Dwarf had loudly instructed all Dwarf Warriors in the Dwarven Language from the very beginning to use their carried Throwing Iron Hammers the moment the enemies engaged, and to only engage in close-quarters combat after these projectiles were exhausted.

The effect was good, or rather, too good; of the forty-plus Dwarves, excluding the five Dwarf Soldier Spear users supporting the Warriors in the front and the Dwarves guarding the old Dwarf with their Double-handed Heavy Weapons, the others—including the two female Dwarf Chef—also wore Armor and threw two Throwing Iron Hammers at the enemy in succession.

This wave alone killed or knocked unconscious nearly seventy Bandits who had approached the convoy.

Saying it this way might be a bit abstract; to put it vividly, the moment the majority of the two groups of Bandits charging the convoy approached, a full half of them were killed or wounded by the Throwing Iron Hammers thrown by the Dwarves.

This made the remaining Bandits afraid to approach at all; even though they saw that the Dwarves had no more projectiles at their waists, they cautiously kept a distance of over ten meters, merely surrounding them and not daring to charge in to fight themselves.

It was during this stalemate that Jier engaged in a head-on battle with the dozen or so mounted Bandit Leaders.

The old Dwarf was very confident in Jier's abilities and did not believe that Jier, a Human who could defeat all of them alone, would be defeated by these soft-handed, weak-footed ordinary Humans.

"Kill!"

Grinning hideously, the Bandit Leader crouching on his horse held his Changdao horizontally, intending to give Jier a vicious blow.

He did not think those flashy, colorful lights on the opponent's body were of any use; the Knight's Armor was likely more troublesome. But when colliding face-to-face, his horizontally placed Changdao alone could cleave through most Armor, making these Noble masters bleed and die!

But the results were often not as satisfactory as one might wish.

The moment Jier crossed paths with the Bandits, the Changdao scraped a spark off the Knight Shield and had no further effect.

Jier's Long Spear, however, instantly swept across the waist and abdomen of a Bandit Leader on his right, directly tearing a huge, palm-wide gash in the Bandit Leader who was wearing double-layered Leather Armor.

As the crossing continued, the Bandit Leaders who were close by struck the surface of the Armor on Tianxuecao with their weapons one after another, creating clashing sounds and slashing marks. More of them aimed at Jier's body, viciously trying to strike him.

But Jier's reaction was astonishingly fast; in the brief moment of the exchange, he could quickly adjust the angle and orientation of the Shield in his left hand, blocking every attack aimed at his body and head. While multitasking, he used his left-hand Shield to block incoming attacks, and his right-hand Long Spear "brushed" past every Bandit attacking from his right side during the crossing.

Because the Dwarf Soldier Spear was too sharp after the 【Sharp】 rune was activated, and the moment of the exchange was too brief, the five Bandit Leaders on Jier's right did not even realize what had happened in that instant; their bodies merely jolted, and the two sides crossed each other with a clatter.

Afterward, Jier's upright body remained steadily standing on the back of his warhorse, while in the group of Bandit Leaders who had passed by, six guys fell one after another from front to back.

Some clutched their missing waist and abdomen in a daze, watching helplessly as their Viscera and a large amount of blood poured out, their eyes quickly dimming. Others had their heads wobble, and as the horse ran and jolted, their heads suddenly flew off from their necks and fell to the ground, while blood sprayed in spurts from the neat, severed neck.

There were also Bandits who wanted to wave their right hands, only to realize that their entire right arm and half of their right shoulder had been sliced off and knocked away; turning their heads to look, they could even see their own lungs expanding with their breathing through the wound.

They either fell from their horses or hung from the horses' Jiansheng, being dragged along the ground as the horses walked.

Only then did the remaining ten or so Bandits realize what had happened.

Not only had their round of attacks been useless, leaving only a few scratches on Jier's Shield, but they had lost a third of their leaders in an instant.

The moment they saw this scene, the fighting will of both sides on the battlefield shifted dramatically.

The Warriors under Jier's command let out a collective cheer of victory; as expected, Jier was truly reliable as their leader.

The old Dwarf stroked his beard and nodded, feeling it should be so. In fact, letting a full-power "Shishou" face these Bandits could achieve the same results as Jier. But "Shishou" was their final trump card for this trip; every full-power battle consumed the Divine Power arduously accumulated through the favor of the gods, so it was best not to use it if not necessary.

As for the Caravan Stewards, seeing Jier knock down a third of the mounted Bandits in one encounter, they took a deep breath, feeling that many things they had heard were indeed not as shocking as seeing them with their own eyes. If they had known Knight Jier was this powerful, they would not have easily agreed to the Oakes Brothers' plan yesterday.

Now it seemed that their plan was problematic in every way.

As for the bandits, they were on the verge of collapse. Some of the Bandit Leaders who had never wanted to fight in the first place immediately began to consider retreating, while the other bandits swallowed their cheers, like roosters caught by the neck, their crowing cut short because they were being dealt with for making a racket.

The expressions on many of the bandits' faces were extremely ugly; some hesitated, looking left and right at others, trying to gain some sense of security from them.

Jier did not give the bandits any more opportunity to think. He did not slow down, instead circling back directly. While circling, he stowed his Shield and Long Spear, and once again took out his Soldier Bow to fire a quiver of Arrow.

This time, the group of bandits closest to Jier suffered. A full twenty bandits in the front row were struck in the chest by arrows and fell to the ground.

This gave the bandits in this group signs of breaking down.

Subsequently, Jier stowed his Soldier Bow, picked up his Long Spear and Shield, and charged straight toward the Bandit Leaders who had just slowed down to turn their horses around.

These men panicked. One Bandit Leader at the very back of the group immediately fled, but Jier did not want to let a single one go. He stood up in his Stirrup, threw the Dwarf Soldier Spear with his right hand with great force, and it traced a smooth, low arc through the air from afar. It accurately predicted the fleeing Bandit Leader's escape route, piercing the man straight through from his horse's back and pinning him to the dry, barren ground.

This scene was a heavy blow to everyone watching from afar; the spear that flew over a hundred meters seemed to pierce through them as well, pinning them fiercely to the ground.

The Bandit Leader whose torso had been pierced was not even dead yet. He woke up after a brief period of unconsciousness and tried to pull out the Long Spear that had gone through his body to escape, but no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible to pull out the spear that had been driven several dozen centimeters deep into the ground.

Seeing Jier throw away the Long Spear in his hand, the Bandit Leaders, who had previously been trembling, suddenly became excited again.

"Good chance! He has no Long Spear! He has no weapon!"

"Charge, charge, charge! Kill him! Go up and don't engage him in a head-on charge, surround him and hack at his whole body! I don't believe his whole body is that hard!"

"Right! This is the best chance! Ha, thanks to that cowardly 'Huai'erduo', he traded his life for the stupid Knight's Long Spear!"

The bandits grinned hideously and spurred their horses to charge up.

Jier raised an eyebrow. He had been worried that he was killing too ruthlessly and too quickly, scaring these bandits away, but it seemed they thought he was like a tiger with its teeth pulled just because he lost his Long Spear?

With a light chuckle, Jier casually drew his Hunting Sword, squeezed his horse's belly hard, and let Tianxuecao charge head-on into the fray.

This time, the bandits no longer approached quickly, but controlled their speed as they closed in. Jier also intentionally adjusted his speed; he even had time to glance at the fighting elsewhere.

One look was all it took; he discovered that at this moment, the eyes of everyone on the field were almost all looking this way, whether it was the remaining hundreds of bandits gathered in a group, or the bandits and Warriors locked in a stalemate over at the caravan.

They even deliberately maintained their distance from the fighting, each of them turning their heads to look here. Even the archers on the wagons, including the Tusi Brothers, stretched their necks to watch the engagement between the Knight and the mounted bandits.

Jier was somewhat dissatisfied. This was clearly a great opportunity, right? Why was everyone watching the outcome of the battle here?

He did not realize that because the two sides engaged on horseback were actually the leaders of their respective groups. Jier was the main backbone of the caravan side; although his victory or defeat would not affect the final result of the entire battle because of the presence of the Dwarf, it would still greatly affect the combat will and morale of the Warriors.

And it was even more so for the bandits. The mounted bandits were all leader-level figures of various Bandit Groups, with each leader having twenty or thirty subordinates under them. At this moment, everyone was watching this side. Every time a Bandit Leader was killed, the morale of the subordinates belonging to that killed Bandit Leader would drop significantly, and some had even begun to slow their pace or even turn around and leave.

Of course, there were also those who wanted to rush forward to take revenge, but these hot-headed guys probably hadn't considered their actual combat strength compared to Jier's.

This time, both sides intentionally controlled their approach speed. The bandits attacked first, those with Short throwing spear throwing them, and those with bows firing arrows.

But Jier did not need to use his Long Spear to shatter the Short throwing spear; he simply used his Shield to block them, easily deflecting the somewhat powerful spears. The arrows were even less effective against him; after hitting him, the Divine Art effect of the 【Light Battle Armor】 would greatly reduce their power. The result was that arrows that could have pierced a person would only leave small dents on his Armor, shattering the arrowheads and falling off Jier's body.

The Bandit Leader firing arrows even shifted his target to shoot at Jier's warhorse, but the thick and sturdy Plate Armor could only leave a few scratches, and the arrows were defeated.

There was no help for it; although it was an improved Hunting Bow, it was, after all, a bow with shorter limbs for convenient use on horseback, so its power was inevitably inferior to a Large Bow or longbow that was as tall as a person.

That this Bandit Leader could hit Jier's body and his warhorse with every arrow was already a sign of remarkable skill; if he didn't work as a bandit and went to join the army, he could have secured a very good future.

Two breaths later, the mounted Jier and the bandits were locked in close-quarters combat.

But Jier was not someone who fought honestly with others; he was a thorough pragmatist. If he could use various means to defeat the enemy in battle, he would use them.

Immediately, a burst of intense white light erupted from Jier's Luminous Longsword, illuminating this small area of combat as if the sun had fallen to earth. Even the others watching from afar had to close their eyes in slight pain or turn their heads away.

And the ten mounted Bandit Leaders at closer range were directly blinded, temporarily losing their sight!

What even Jier and these bandits who could not see anything did not know was that ever since Jier had been subjected to the 【Sun Child】 method by a Priest of the Sun God Church, he had a core of the Priest's Divine Power and Faith within his body, and the Blinding ability of the sword in his hand had received a necessary enhancement.

Nowadays, this blinding white light did not just obscure the enemy's vision with Divine Power for a short time; it could also directly damage the enemy's eyes, causing permanent loss of vision. And those blinding white lights also had a slight bit of damage, which could cause significant harm to Monsters whose main composition was dark energy.

Taking advantage of these people being blinded in the first instance, Jier used his left-hand Shield to block a battle-axe being swung wildly by a bandit, while his right-hand Sword whistled through the air, severing the head of a bandit on his right.

As his warhorse moved in small steps, Jier delivered a fierce thrust into the abdomen of another bandit passing by, piercing the Sword straight up from the opponent's stomach through their chest. With a flick of his wrist, Jier used the Sword to flip the bandit over with one hand, tossing him toward the most ferocious bandit among them.

That bandit using the battle-axe had some skill; he used the sound to identify the position and swung his axe, hitting the unlucky bandit thrown by Jier. However, although this man had great strength and his arms were as thick as an average person's thighs, the bandit Jier had tossed over was wearing two layers of Leather Armor. The axe strike only sent the person flying like a ball, landing on the ground.

The unlucky Bandit Leader died on the spot, which spared him further suffering. Because the surrounding horses were panicked and could not see clearly, they were walking back and forth; standing on the ground now meant being trampled to death by the horses.

Jier did not say a word, fearing that the other bandits around would calmly discern his position, and continued to launch attacks at the next bandit.

The next Bandit Leader was that annoying guy who had been throwing Short throwing spear at Jier. Jier had seen this guy when he was scouting with the Shadow Bird last night, and before the two head-on engagements, this guy had been the most troublesome.

Unlike arrows, which he could easily defend against relying solely on the Divine Art and the protection of his Armor, when facing Short throwing spear that were ten times the weight of an arrow, Jier either had to intercept them in advance with his Long Spear or defend against them head-on with his Shield.

The Hunting Sword severed this man's right arm from the weak point at the elbow of his Leather Armor with one strike. Subsequently, Jier followed through with a thrust, stabbing the Sword into the man's wide-open mouth. His right hand nimbly caught the opponent's severed right forearm, as well as the Short throwing spear tightly gripped in the right hand, and with a backhand flick, he threw the spear, along with the arm, toward the Bandit Leader using the Hunting Bow.

As his horse moved, Jier twisted his body to pull his Sword out of the Bandit Leader he had just pierced. The Short throwing spear with the arm he had just casually thrown pierced straight through at least two layers of Leather Armor on the Bandit Leader using the Hunting Bow at close range, striking him right in the chest and shattering his heart.

His warhorse moved again, catching up to the bandits who were still waving their weapons in panicked confusion. His Shield deflected the Wolf-tooth Club in the hand of a nearby Bandit Leader, and his Sword hacked off half the body of this bandit, who was only wearing a single layer of sleeveless Leather Armor.

Jier casually threw his Hunting Sword, killing another Bandit Leader who was trying to flee in his blinded state from behind. He then jumped off his horse, picked up the Wolf-tooth Club still tightly gripped by the upper body of the bandit who had fallen to the ground, and with a small hop, leaped several meters away. With a forward thrust of the club, he poked the most troublesome Bandit Leader off his horse.

That man was wearing several layers of Leather Armor that were hard to count; at the very least, it was not easy to pierce through the armor to kill him with a Sword.

But it didn't matter. No matter how many layers of Leather Armor he wore, this Bandit Leader was only wearing an Iron Helmet on his head that he had gotten from who knows where, and this helmet was also tattered and had been repaired.

After Jier poked the man off his horse, he stood still on the spot, even stopping his breathing for a moment, and his entire presence vanished from the perception of these blinded bandits.

The bandit who had fallen to the ground used the battle-axe in his hand to hack wildly, missing repeatedly, but he dared not stop because others around him were dying one after another, and he himself sensed his own impending death.

"Sir Knight, Sir Knight, can you accept my surrender? I have great skills, I don't want to die yet."

This Bandit Leader shouted for mercy and surrender while waving his battle-axe in desperate confusion.

Jier crouched slightly, then jumped toward the direction of the opponent, making only a slight sound that no one could notice in the noisy environment of people shouting and horses neighing.

Don't look at it as just a slight jump; Jier still jumped over two meters high and five meters away. While in the air, he swung the Wolf-tooth Club in his hand in a full circle and smashed it heavily onto the Bandit Leader's head!

Bang! Crash—

The entire head of this Bandit Leader, along with the sturdy Iron Helmet, was smashed by Jier into the opponent's chest cavity, as if Jier had made the opponent's head disappear in an instant.

"I do not accept your surrender."

Jier landed, looked at the Wolf-tooth Club in his hand which had already deformed, and knowing that these weapons made by ordinary means could hardly withstand his use, he threw it at a bandit not far away.

This Bandit Leader was knocked off his horse instantly. Although he was wearing a layer of thick Leather Armor inlaid with iron plates, being struck by the Wolf-tooth Club thrown with such force by Jier, his entire chest was still caved in.

Jier whistled, summoned Tianxuecao, mounted it, and gave chase to the last Bandit Leader who was trying to flee despite being blinded.

He first took a detour to grab the Dwarf Soldier Spear stuck in the ground not far away. The bandit who had been pierced by the spear was not even dead yet at this moment. Jier snorted coldly, taking the opponent along with him, and then with a forceful swing of the spear, he flung the man over twenty meters away, where he landed and died with his body broken.

The last Bandit Leader kept fleeing, but the Tianxuecao that Jier rode was faster, far faster than the Nanyangshandima that the opponent had plundered and failed to care for properly; in less than a minute, he caught up, thrust his Long Spear into the opponent's back, pierced through the opponent's two layers of Leather Armor, and killed this Bandit Leader instantly.

The battle, which seemed to last a long time, actually did not even take two minutes; most of the people in the distance had their eyes flashed by the intense white light, and by the time they rubbed their eyes and looked over, Jier had already killed more than half of the Bandit Leaders.

Then, under the gaze of everyone, the last few mounted Bandit Leaders also died quickly.

?? A seven-thousand-word long chapter. Happy Labor Day to everyone; by the way, does writing this novel count as labor? Haha. Finished writing, off to work I go!