Chapter 523: Victory in Battle, Continue Acting According to Plan

Facing the enemy's arrogant provocation, Weier gave a disdainful snort and approached the opponent with his sword in one hand. Meanwhile, Aoni held the captured Soldier Shield in one hand and raised his Long Sword high with the other, making a gesture as if he might deliver a Heavy Cleave at any moment to intimidate the enemy.

Don't look down on this move as silly; in battle, it is actually very effective when coordinated with a companion. The enemy must reserve enough energy to guard against Aoni's potential heavy strike, but Aoni only needs to simply raise his weapon to support his companion.

That is the case now. Facing the young Warrior who was closing in but holding his weapon high, this middle-aged Soldier Squad Leader had to shift his feet during the fight to stay away from him. But on the other side, Weier would not let him have his way; a Steel Sword kept thrusting and swinging with his steps, sometimes in a series of quick strikes, sometimes as feints just to attract the enemy's attention.

This allowed Aoni to dash to the enemy's side, swinging his Shield forward, forcing the opponent to temporarily switch his Long Sword to his right hand and hack a Heavy Cleave onto the Soldier Shield in Aoni's hand, which barely forced him back. But then, the Long Sword Aoni held high swung down with force; the opponent could only block this strike by crossing his two weapons together.

Clang—

Amidst the splashing sparks, one person pressed down hard with his Long Sword, while the other used both hands to prepare to push the opponent's weapon away.

But Weier spotted the opportunity—or rather, the opportunity at this moment was created for him by Aoni. The opponent was using both weapons in his hands to block Aoni's heavy weapon strike, so naturally, he had no hands free to parry his sneak attack.

The opponent was troublesome, so Weier did not waste this excellent opportunity to attack the opponent's arm, but instead performed a quick sword swing, attacking the enemy's knee from behind.

Even though the opponent was wearing heavy Armor with dense plates, the knee only had protection on the front; the back only had some extra leather straps that slightly increased protection to account for flexible movement. Facing this deliberate sword strike from Weier, the protection these straps could provide could only be described as better than nothing.

"Hiss—"

The sword tip pierced him, and Weier deliberately twisted his wrist while pulling it out, which made the enemy grit his teeth and let out a cold hiss.

The opponent exerted force to parry Aoni's Heavy Cleave and was about to turn around to give Weier a taste of his own medicine, but Weier retreated two steps, actively opening up the combat distance. Aoni did the same, holding his Shield forward aggressively, but his feet were retreating.

At this moment, this enemy realized that his true enemies were not these two young Warriors who had some coordination, but the angry Agricultural God Priest opposite him.

"Thank you both, leave him to me..."

Bata'er Jiaoshi raised the Wooden Agricultural God Statue gripped in his left hand, aiming the front of the statue from afar at the enemy several meters away.

At this moment, the middle-aged Soldier Squad Leader hurriedly tried to move to dodge, but the wound on his left knee suddenly dragged down his movement speed. He knew he was finished; at this distance, failing to dodge at the first opportunity meant he would only meet the same end as his companions before.

But before he died, he still tried to make a counterattack—throwing the two weapons in his left and right hands at the two young Warriors who had just been fighting him.

Aoni and Weier each used their own methods to block and deflect the Long Sword and Short Sword thrown at them. Then, following a wave of air, a visible Cyan Divine Power Impact surged out from the small wooden Statue of the God, hitting the main body of the Defeated Soldier Squad Leader head-on, blowing him away as if he were a light piece of paper.

The heavy Armor on the enemy's body blocked most of the impact, but this also made the enemy's death less quick, instead increasing his agony.

The enemy blown away by the Divine Power Impact flew backward for more than ten meters, until he hit the wall of a house, where he stuck to the wall for a few seconds before falling down in a heap.

The enemy's hands and feet were twisted from hitting the ground and the wall during the flight, and his torso suffered a heavy blow when he slammed into the house wall, causing his Viscera to rupture and shift. Unless someone could immediately feed him a healing potion, it was impossible for this person to survive.

That was the case now; this Defeated Soldier was bleeding from his nose and mouth, and his ears could not hear any sound. His eyes were almost crushed by the impact, and they were bloodshot, making it impossible to see anything.

He vomited blood, struggling to shake his body with his limbs bent backward, but he could not do it at all.

"He's not dead yet!"

Bata'er Jiaoshi shouted in surprise after walking over. It was the first time he had discovered that someone could survive a direct hit of Divine Power Impact from this distance. Although he was near death, he could barely be considered alive.

"Should we give him another one of those?" Aoni mimicked the Priest's hand-raising gesture, meaning another Divine Power Impact.

Weier shrugged: "Better let Bata'er Jiaoshi save his Divine Power. For an enemy like this, a single sword strike is enough."

After saying this, he stepped forward and accurately thrust his sword, piercing into the enemy's head through the eye socket, avoiding the helmet and the bone structure of the Human skull, easily ending the enemy's life.

Bata'er Jiaoshi let out a breath. He was about to continue dealing with other enemies, but when he looked around, he found that the surrounding enemies were already gone, all having been dealt with one by one by Jier and his men.

Even Tianxuecao had chosen an enemy, coordinating with the Warriors and Mao Mao who were entangled with the enemy, rushing up in one go to knock the enemy flying, and then letting the Warriors swarm up to finish the enemy off.

"Is it over already?" Bata'er Jiaoshi looked left and right, even counting the corpses of the enemies killed on the battlefield one by one.

"Two enemies guarding the Grain Warehouse." He first pointed to the two enemy corpses neatly placed outside the Grain Warehouse, then pointed to the enemy Soldier he had killed with a Divine Power Impact earlier because the enemy was careless: "This is one too."

Then he pointed vaguely at an enemy he had controlled with the Amber Metal Long Staff: "This one counts as a prisoner, not killed, but still counts as an enemy."

He glanced at the Squad Leader who was in charge of the enemy: "This is one too, that's five."

"Jier killed one with a Long Spear as soon as he arrived, six. What? There's another one in that house? That makes seven."

Finally, the Priest looked at an enemy killed by Tianxuecao and the other Warriors together: "This is the eighth! Warrior Jier, do you have any more on your side?"

Jier waved his hand and pointed to the unluckiest enemy on his side, who had been surrounded and killed by him, the surrounding people, and Mao Mao: "There's one here too. About nine enemies, that's not a small number, Bata'er Jiaoshi. Counting the enemies I killed in the Jiedian on the north side of the village just now, and the enemies everyone killed in the wall battle earlier, most of the enemies in Changmai Cunzi have been killed by us."

Pointing in the direction of the Church, Jier said: "Now there are probably only some scattered enemy Soldiers hiding in the village, and the last few enemies in your Church."

"Then now?" Bata'er Jiaoshi asked. Because the result of this battle was so good, a particularly happy smile appeared on his face.

Jier walked over with his men: "That goes without saying. Since the previous battle plan was carried out well, let's continue to act according to the plan."

He looked at the Warriors gathering around, all with excited expressions, and noticed that a few people were missing, so he asked Aoni and Bata'er Jiaoshi: "Where did the missing people go? Are they injured? Or killed in action?"

Bata'er Jiaoshi immediately replied: "Injured. Basically, they are injuries caused by the enemy's bows and Crossbows. I have already temporarily used Healing Divine Art to stop the bleeding for the wounds, but I haven't removed the Arrow from the wounds. That will have to wait until after the battle to be handled carefully. They are all hiding on the road we came from, waiting for us to find them after the battle ends."

Jier shook his head: "We have too few people and can't spare the manpower to transfer the wounded. Next time, if possible, it's best to find someone to transfer the injured Warriors to a safer place further back during the battle, instead of letting them hide on the spot. This is not safe; after all, there are still scattered enemy Soldiers active in the village."

Then Jier said to everyone who gathered around: "Next, I will ride a horse to patrol and block outside the village, trying my best with the drivers to not let a single enemy escape the scope of Changmai Cunzi."

"And you, under the leadership of Bata'er Jiaoshi, first bypass the troublesome Crossbowman on the clock tower from the outer side, occupy the enemy Jiedian in the north of the village, and rescue the female Villagers in the enemy Jiedian."

"Yongqi Maomao, you take your people, divide into two balanced groups, roam and check every house in the village, and kill other living enemy Soldiers in the village."

"In the end, I want everyone to gather all the manpower, and under my leadership, first surround the Church area in the middle of the village, and then charge into the Church with me to annihilate the last enemies in the Church."

"Do you all understand your tasks?" Jier asked.

"We understand, Warrior." Bata'er Jiaoshi replied.

"Jier, Mao Mao, sure, complete, hunt!" Yongqi Maomao shouted loudly. Behind it, the other Warrior Mao Maos nodded one after another. Just now they needed to coordinate with other Human Warriors, and because they had no experience in coordination, it was a mess, so they didn't have much of a kill harvest. But now it was different; with only themselves, they could instead unleash the combat power of the Mao Maos.

"We will definitely kill all those enemies! Don't worry, Lord Jier!" The Warriors spoke one after another. Although everyone couldn't change into the enemy's Soldier Armor for the time being, the enemy's weapons had been picked up and used. The old weapons previously captured from the Bandits were finally replaced with the standard equipment of the Defeated Soldiers.

Jier nodded: "Pay attention to protection during the battle, prioritize protecting yourselves, so you can defeat more enemies. Remember this point. Alright, then I'm leaving, you should set off immediately too!"

After Jier finished speaking, he jumped onto Tianxuecao, took the Dwarf Soldier Spear that a Warrior was trying to hand to him, and Jier spurred the horse's belly and ran toward the east side of the village.

Yongqi Maomao meowed a few times, divided the Warriors under its command into two groups, and specifically gave a few instructions to prioritize hunting enemies rather than being busy picking up various metal items of the Humans in the village, before the Mao Maos scattered one after another.

Bata'er Jiaoshi let Aoni reorganize the team, and then immediately led the team according to Jier's instructions, taking a larger circle to avoid the enemy Crossbowman on the clock tower, and moved toward the enemy Jiedian on the north side of the village.

The Warriors were able to walk a little more neatly at the beginning, but after walking for a while, the team inevitably became disconnected. Bata'er Jiaoshi was anxious about the safety of the Villagers, so he walked fast, and only Weier, who followed him closely, was by his side, while everyone else was slowly left behind.

Because Aoni had to command the entire team, after discovering that the team had lengthened, deformed, and become disconnected, he immediately ran backward to the very end of the team, shouting to keep the Warriors close to the team while paying attention not to let some Warriors fall behind or be attracted to the side for other reasons.

And when the Warriors were walking north on the dirt road closer to the wall, in a seemingly empty Villager house nearby, a hiding Defeated Soldier was secretly observing the team below.

"Is it really all over? I knew it. That damn Captain calculated the appearance of today's scene, so he arranged all the people he hated, offended, didn't listen to his command, and weren't loyal to him into this hateful village. And he himself took the people loyal to him, holding the seriously injured Knight Hate and the Adjutant, as well as those captured Villagers, and hid in that Mine where he had his fantasy dreams of getting rich."

"Ha, still dreaming of getting rich. Those stupid guys, we are used as shields in this damn village, and how much better can you be? Aren't you also a dirty rag that will be discarded after being used?"

This Defeated Soldier was someone who had guessed that Changmai Cunzi was not a suitable place to stay; he was the type of person who, in his own words, was not loyal to the Captain of the troop, and naturally, he was also not loyal to that Knight Hartna in the troop who acted strangely and was currently in a state of serious injury.

He was only loyal to himself.

That was why, when the battle first began, he did not heed the alarm signals for assembly, but instead hid by himself.

He noticed a squad of Soldiers departing from the Church and engaging the enemy near the Grain Warehouse in the south. But he noticed even more that those who eventually passed right under his nose were the enemy.

And the number of enemies had not decreased by much.

This showed that even if they, as Soldiers, were better equipped with weapons and armor, judging by the results of the battle, their strength was not equal to the enemies who had come to attack this time.

Also, if the enemy did not have the strength to defeat them, why would they launch an attack against them?

Being able to launch an attack was enough to explain everything.

"Fine, I will hide first. Once the enemy takes the village and thinks they are safe after their victory, that will be the best time to sneak away!" This Defeated Soldier who was only loyal to himself thought very highly of his plan; he had previously been a hunter in a village and considered himself different from his companions who could not survive in the uninhabited wilderness. Give him a Short Knife, a Hunting Bow, and some Rope, and he could live freely in the uninhabited wilderness.

He would not go near the surrounding villages, but he had once found a simple map of Sasi County in the village Church. With this map, he could bypass the surrounding villages that were on high alert and unwelcoming to strangers, and go directly to a place called Yemei Town in the north. There, he could disguise himself as an outsider looking for work and hitch a ride with some outside Caravan to leave this place.

By then, he would just drift in any big city for a year or two until the war ended. It did not matter if the Southern Province was ultimately victorious and reclaimed the lost territory, or if the army of the neighboring southern country crushed the Southern Province and completely occupied the vast Southern Mountains region, seizing the rich mineral deposits and the population of the territory in these areas.

None of it would have anything to do with him anymore; he would just slowly head home when the time came.

He believed that nothing should have happened to his hometown; after all, it was a remote village in the border region, a small place that even a war would not pass through.

But this Defeated Soldier thought too well of things, to the point that he ignored some of the dangers around him.

Just then, a Mao Mao acting as a Scout passed by this house. It first sniffed the several entrances and exits of the house, smelled some scents, and then it carefully probed inside and heard the Defeated Soldier talking to himself.

Although it was unclear what this Human was muttering about, this Mao Mao did know that at this moment, Humans wearing a full set of enemy metal fur were the targets they should hunt.

So this Mao Mao carefully retreated, then quickly notified its squad of Mao Mao. Four Mao Mao Warriors surrounded the entire house together and, without the enemy Soldier inside knowing, secretly crept outside the other's doors and windows.

They moved quietly and used movements that Humans and most animals and beasts would not notice—gently tapping things around them with their claws to make soft sounds—to communicate with each other.

After all the Mao Mao were in position around the Defeated Soldier's house, they jumped out together. Using clods of dirt thrown by the ranged Mao Mao as the opening move to blind the enemy's eyes, the ranged Mao Mao then used their tails to strike the walls and floor hard, making noise to attract the opponent's attention.

Subsequently, the melee Mao Mao nimbly climbed in through the windows, relying on their smaller size and footsteps that made no sound while moving, to sneak behind the Human Defeated Soldier.

Gently drawing the Human's Dagger, the melee Mao Mao gathered their strength for a strike; two Mao Mao pierced the Defeated Soldier's two knee pits respectively, forcing him to kneel on the ground.

Then they dodged away, letting the ranged Mao Mao strike and project lethal Iron Nails, severely wounding this Defeated Soldier who had fallen into chaos.

At a close range, the Iron Nails fired by the ranged Mao Mao, with their precise accuracy, accurately hit the Defeated Soldier's eyes and throat. With these places injured, this Defeated Soldier did not die immediately and went crazy, bumping and slashing around the house, but the Mao Mao had long since slipped away. After this Soldier lost too much blood and completely lost the ability to fight, they hopped and skipped back into the house to kill the dying enemy Soldier.

Today was truly a day of a great harvest for the Mao Mao!

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