Chapter 861: The Comical Battle of the Babotali Valley (Part 5)

There was a metallic, bloody taste in Jier's mouth; although the armor had blocked the arrow that just hit his back, the force of the arrow had still given him a fierce jolt.

However, after feeling it for a moment, he felt there was no major problem; his breathing was smooth, and his chest had only hurt for a second before the pain quickly faded.

Turning his head, he glared fiercely in the direction where the Villagers were gathering and closing in, but Jier still intended to first defeat the main hostile force—the group of Dwarves.

If possible, he still did not want to commit mass slaughter among the local Human population and stir up hatred; after all, the Refugees under his command would have to settle down and live here later.

Striking the Dwarves to indirectly reduce the local Humans' resolve to resist was what he considered the correct approach.

Thinking of this, Jier looked left and right from horseback, searching for small groups of straggling Dwarves.

He soon made a discovery; ha, that Dwarf holding two axes was in the distance, merging with other Dwarves who should be in the same squad as him, numbering only four or five—exactly within the range he could handle.

Pulling the Jiansheng, Jier urged Tianxuecao to run quickly toward them. Interestingly, this group of Dwarves also ran straight toward Jier with big strides, full of high spirits.

Jier charged over quickly and took a glance, seeing that walking at the very front of the Dwarf squad was a Dwarf holding a large Crystal Large Wooden Shield, followed by two Dwarves holding a Metal Iron Shovel and a Metal Mining Pick, and behind these three was the Dwarf holding two Single-handed Axes.

Seeing this battle formation, Jier knew he had to take care of the shield-bearing Dwarf at the front first; otherwise, since the enemy was few in number and flexible in turning, they could easily use the shield to block the Knight's charge attack every time in response to his offensive.

And whenever Jier's offensive was blocked during an engagement, the three Dwarves behind would have a chance to counterattack.

Very well, Jier nodded silently; although these Dwarves were few in number, every one of them looked quite troublesome. Not only was everyone armored, which caused his weapons to lose their effectiveness, but they also had very rich experience in small-scale combat.

Especially their experience in facing strong enemies, which did not seem to be in short supply?

"Then, let's see what I'm made of. Charge! Tianxuecao! Charge!"

Jier shouted; as if feeling its master's intent, or perhaps hearing its own name, Tianxuecao exerted itself and galloped to accelerate. The warhorse sped past, and even the wild grass on the ground was torn up into a strip of turf.

On the Dwarf squad's side, the shield-bearing Dwarf was about to move forward to close the distance, but his shoulder was suddenly grabbed by a companion behind him: "Right here! Stop! The opponent has accelerated, prepare to resist the impact!"

Upon hearing this, the shield-bearing Dwarf planted his feet, exerted force with his arms to lift the heavy Crystal Large Wooden Shield, and then pressed it heavily toward the ground. The bottom of the shield had protruding spikes, so with this press, the large shield was stuck right into the ground.

Afterward, this Dwarf stepped back half a step with his right leg, letting the entire shield tilt backward, and he himself leaned in to prop up the front of the shield, holding the metal handles behind the shield firmly with both his left and right hands, even bracing his left arm against the back of the shield.

In this way, the entire shield could not be knocked over even by a cub of an Earth-Violent Bear, giving his companions behind him a safe moment to counterattack.

One must know that when the enemy's offensive is strongest but is blocked, that is exactly when the enemy is most easily defeated.

To attack, one must abandon most of one's defense, and to defend, one can create opportunities for an attack.

After the shield-bearing Dwarf finished this set of actions, his entire line of sight was blocked by the shield, so he spoke up: "It's up to you all, give that guy a taste of our power!"

"Good! Even if he were a Shitou, I would smash him to pieces!" the Dwarf holding the Tiegao said confidently.

The Dwarf holding the shovel did not show weakness: "My shovel isn't bad either! Watch me break one of the warhorse's legs first!"

And behind the two, the Dwarf dual-wielding Single-handed Axes snorted disdainfully: "Watch me, I'm enough on my own!"

After a series of overconfident remarks, the Dwarf holding the shovel looked at the galloping Human Knight, looked at the increasingly close warhorse and Human Knight, as well as the Metal Spear held in the Knight's hand and extended forward, and could not help but feel a bit of trepidation in his heart, but he still spoke toughly: "It's coming! It's coming! Watch for the counterattack! We must give him a taste of our power!"

Jier rode at a gallop; the warhorse clad in Armor was like a tank. To put it in terms the locals could understand, the momentum of Jier's charge at this moment was simply like a mountain torrent after a rainstorm, a giant boulder rolling down a mountain, a massive tree toppling over, and a mudslide pushing everything flat.

Although there was only one man and one horse, the momentum was not weak at all.

The ground was trembling slightly; the few Dwarves were all experts at mining, and their soles were even more sensitive to vibrations. At this moment, in the short time before Jier's offensive arrived, these few Dwarves had no thoughts of bragging or boasting; every one of them gripped their own weapon, holding it tightly.

With a loud "Boom," the shield-bearing Dwarf's body, braced against the ground, was pushed back a small distance, but he firmly maintained his duty, using the shield in his hands to block the enemy's strongest strike.

At the moment the impact occurred, this shield-bearing Dwarf clearly felt the impact force from the shield and the sensation of the shield breaking. But he did not panic at all, because the reason they Dwarves made these Crystal Shields was to have these crystals embedded on the front of the shield, to dissipate the enemy's impact force through fracturing and shattering.

And the crystals themselves were also very hard; ordinary attacks could not destroy them either.

At this moment, shattered crystals splashed across the shield, and some even penetrated the Mudu and hit the helmet of the shield-bearing Dwarf, who had lowered his head.

The shield-bearing Dwarf stabilized his posture and remained motionless.

But what puzzled him was that it was fine for him not to move, as that was his duty after all, but he could sense the vibrations coming from the ground, and the three companions behind him actually didn't take the opportunity to launch a counterattack?

What was going on?

Confusion left him unable to find an answer, but fortunately, the words of his companions behind him resolved his doubt.

"Damn it! What's wrong with that guy? Why did he just poke with his spear from so far away and then leave?"

"Coward! A weakling among Humans! Even the smallest Human child in the village is braver than him!"

"Perhaps this coward doesn't dare to face us head-on? He's scared! Ha!"

The three Dwarves were a bit awkward at first, but they soon 'found' a reason for the opponent's previous behavior, and thus their confidence greatly increased.

As for Jier, after charging past this Dwarf battle formation, he slowed down to a trot for a while, then turned the horse's head, first looking left and right to observe the positions of others rushing over, and after confirming that it would still be a while before others could come to intervene, Jier smiled and tapped Tianxuecao's horse head, making a "bang-bang" sound: "That's about it, let's do it again; I want to see what these Dwarves will use as a shield to block."

Afterward, he began to accelerate and charged back along the route he had come.

On the Dwarf side, the three Dwarves had just finished boasting when they saw the opponent slow down, turn, and then accelerate to continue the charge. Thus, they immediately put away their previous demeanor and turned the direction of their entire formation to follow the direction of Jier's charge.

The shield-bearing Dwarf pried the shield out and saw that the upper half of this shield had already shattered for the most part, and there was an extra large hole broken open in the center-upper position of the large wooden shield that served as the main body of the shield.

Clearly, that Human Knight had just hit this spot; he was not surprised by this at all.

The problem was, why didn't his companions launch a counterattack at the same time?

"What's wrong?" The Dwarf holding the shovel saw his companion's puzzled expression and asked.

Hesitantly looking at the Human Knight gradually accelerating his charge, the shield-bearing Dwarf flipped the shield over, using the still-undamaged lower half of the original shield as the main body for defense, and continued to maintain his duty.

Of course, at this time, because the side of the shield touching the ground lacked the spikes to insert into the ground, and there was extensive damage to the front of the shield, its sturdiness was far from comparable to when it was intact.

After finishing all this, the shield-bearing Dwarf then spoke: "What was wrong with you just now? Why didn't you counterattack?"

Hearing this, all three Dwarves were a bit embarrassed, and then they explained: "It was that Human Knight; didn't we say that guy was a coward?"

"That guy had no intention of fighting us head-on at all; I saw it clearly, he held the end of the Long Spear and poked at the shield from a distance."

"It was simply too late, really; just when I wanted to rush out, I found that the distance between me and the opponent exceeded my combat range for that charge. And didn't these two guys not move either? Once I hesitated, I didn't move either."

The two Dwarves in the middle wanted to say something more, but Jier did not give them time to chat and charged over at high speed.

"Defense! Stop talking, defense!"

The shield-bearing Dwarf lowered his head, and then his whole body was forced back a full half-step on the ground by the sudden impact, barely avoiding bumping into the other two Dwarf companions behind him.

Moreover, this time, the shield-bearing Dwarf discovered again that the three guys behind him actually didn't strike again—no, perhaps they had done so once just now, and they also felt embarrassed, so they at least rushed out of their positions, attempting to attack Jier.

But this guy Jier, just as the Dwarves said earlier, held the end of the Long Spear, and by the strength of his palms alone, he held the tens-of-kilograms-heavy Quanjinshu Changqiang in his hands. Relying on this extra bit of distance, Jier deliberately did not let the warhorse get close to the Dwarves' defensive position, only poking at the shield in the Dwarves' hands from afar when he reached them.

He could see that these few Dwarves had no means of throwing or long-range attacks; unless they were willing to give up the weapons in their hands, they wouldn't be able to reach him just based on the length of the spear in Jier's hand.

Especially since he was still maintaining a galloping state on horseback, the window for combat engagement was a fleeting moment of less than a second; relying on the short legs and short arms of the Dwarves, even with the length of their weapons added in, they could not reach Jier.

Since that was the case, if he didn't use this advantage to defeat these Dwarves, then he wouldn't be himself.

The shield-bearing Dwarf looked up, and what naturally entered his vision was the now tattered Crystal Large Wooden Shield used with both hands; the crystals on it had naturally shattered upon impact while absorbing the shock, and the body of the shield itself could not block the opponent's full-force strike at all; that it hadn't been pierced through to break his head was only because the shield itself had elasticity, absorbing and deflecting some of the opponent's Long Spear.

He turned his head to look and discovered that his companions were not unable to launch attacks, but their counterattacks had all missed; at this moment, they stood awkwardly in place, having lost all the demeanor they had when boasting and disparaging earlier.

"That guy is just bullying us because we can't reach him!"

"Yes, yes, yes, I see it now, this Human is truly full of tricks!"

"He has no Yongqi for a frontal battle! Cowardice and baseness wrap around him, used by him as armor."

The shield-bearing Dwarf sighed, threw the tattered Large Wooden Shield, which could no longer provide any more protection, onto the ground, and said, "What do we do now? My shield is broken, and I think this is the result he wanted."

The Dwarf with the Iron Shovel and the Dwarf with the Tiegao looked at each other, and finally, the Dwarf dual-wielding Single-handed Axes said, "What is there to fear! Isn't it just death? Honestly, when we were forgotten here, I felt that everyone was already dead. What is alive now is perhaps just our bodies; our Spirits and such were long ago like a furnace without fuel, completely extinguished."

"What do you mean?" the shield-bearing Dwarf asked, taking a deep breath.

"I mean, if we are to fight, then let us fight, even if the result of the battle is death. Since death has long since swallowed us all, why fear it? Come, companions, let us fight bravely, fill our empty bodies with passionate battle, and welcome and accept every result of the fight!"

Having said this, the Dwarf dual-wielding axes struck the two Single-handed Axes in his hands together, producing a loud clashing sound and sparks that flew in all directions.

He licked his lips and looked with burning eyes at the other three companions around him.

Perhaps infected by his words, his companions did not let him down; everyone took a step forward, the four of them standing in a row, facing the Human Knight who had turned his horse around again.

"I have no weapon, lend me one!" the shield-bearing Dwarf said.

His companion was not stingy and tossed the Single-handed Axe in his hand over, but the shield-bearing Dwarf rarely used this kind of Single-handed Weapon and wanted to catch it stylishly, but in the end, he still had to clumsily use the armor on his body to catch the thrown axe with his arm before gripping it in his hand.

The four stood in a row, and as if that weren't enough, they actually took large strides forward; the Dwarf with the Iron Shovel sniffed and said with some hesitation, "He is only one person, we have four! There are more of us!"

"Right! Don't be afraid, one person will risk their life to block the opponent's Long Spear, and the others will block the opponent's warhorse from the front; I want to see if he is tougher or if we are tougher."

"Pah, he's just a base guy who relies on the convenience of a riding beast to act fierce. If only our mine's Captain was still here, and if only he hadn't taken the only fierce war sheep in the mine when he left."

"Don't bring up that liar and coward at a time like this; that guy's martial arts were high, but when real danger came, would he really have stood out to block it for us?"

The Dwarves stopped speaking and silently launched a charge in the direction Jier was rushing from.

Although they were already very exhausted, they had at least rested in place for a while between the two previous battles, so it was still possible to trot again and launch a wave of charges.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

"Fearless and brave!"

At the final moment, the Dwarf who had been dual-wielding axes let out his loudest battle cry.

Two axes, one Tiegao, and one Iron Shovel headed toward the rapidly charging Knight.

Jier did not expect that these guys would actually give up on themselves after their shields failed, completely disregarding defense and without any reasonable formation, charging straight at him in a row.

"Are they crazy? Or..."

Jier did not dare to underestimate these iron-headed ones; to be able to maintain themselves for nearly a hundred years after losing the support of their nation's power in the mountains, these people must have some tricks up their sleeves, otherwise, they would have long been swallowed by the Monsters and Magic Beasts in the mountains.

"Then, I should..."

Jier hesitated, not knowing which Dwarf in front to choose as his opponent, or rather.

His eyes rolled, and considering his state at the moment, he slowed the horse down to give himself more time to think; as his thoughts raced, Jier put himself in the shoes of the opposing Dwarves, considering how to fight in a situation where they could not defend against a Knight's frontal charge.

He narrowed his eyes and immediately knew the method he would use to deal with himself, and thus had some certain guesses about the intentions of the four Dwarves in front.

They intended to risk their lives to injure his warhorse, thereby fundamentally changing the huge difference in mobility between the two sides.

If Jier lost his warhorse, he would still be very powerful, but even a fool could understand that he would no longer be able to overcome the strength of dozens of Dwarves, not to mention that there were dozens of Human youths and three powerful archers lining up on the side.

"Play to one's strengths and avoid weaknesses, play to one's strengths and avoid weaknesses."

Jier muttered twice in the language of his previous life, having figured it out.

So he saw the four Dwarves in front exert themselves to run and conduct a combat charge, but he pulled the Jiansheng, making the Tianxuecao turn, avoiding the trajectory of the Dwarves' charge from afar.

"%%￥%￥%%!"

Discovering that the Human Knight had turned to avoid the battle, the Dwarves cursed something; Jier couldn't understand it well, but he figured it must be very nasty, as these few Dwarves all had their eyes reddened by rage at this moment, and they followed by changing direction to chase after him.

Jier only wanted to laugh when he saw this; did those on two legs really think they could outrun those on four? In their dreams.

Sure enough, as he expected, these Dwarves had already been led around by him for a long time, their physical strength nearing exhaustion; the combat charge just now had already been their last bit of stamina. And the pursuit after discovering Jier was avoiding battle had exhausted even the combat stamina of these Dwarves, who were blinded by rage.

"Ha! A victory for ancient wisdom!"

Jier was smug, turned his horse's head again to approach the four Dwarves, and after testing them, discovered that these iron-headed ones indeed had no strength left for mobile combat; at this moment, they were either tripping on the grass or struggling to support their bodies with their weapons, essentially just being stubborn to the death.

Jier looked around at the situation in the distance and found that the others would still have to wait a while to get over, so he boldly approached on horseback, jumped off the horse's back, left the warhorse a bit further away, and approached them at a trot.

Holding the Metal Spear in his hand, he laughed out loud.

And the four Dwarves in front of him all revealed looks of despair at the same time.