Chapter 156: The First Camp

Under the bright, clear moon, shining iron helmets and gleaming iron armor appeared on all sides of the Easterling camp, illuminated by the moonlight; following behind them were shadowy figures and cold glints of light that looked like stars scattered across the sky.

The Easterling sentry standing atop a wagon was the first to discover these unexpected guests who had suddenly appeared. Having served as a sentry for many years, he immediately turned back and shouted into the camp, alerting his companions to report to their leader.

Afterward, watching the enemy drawing ever closer, the sentry gripped the longbow in his hand tightly and calculated the range, so that he could launch an attack on the enemy at the first possible moment.

He only hoped now that his leader could react as quickly as possible and organize the clansmen to defend the camp, because the number of enemies appearing in his sight was increasing; the figures slowly approaching the camp seemed to have no end under the illumination of the moonlight.

The tense atmosphere of an army pressing down on the border caused waves of fear to surge within the heart of this Easterling sentry. When the cold wind blew across his sweat-drenched face, the icy sweat irritated his nerves, and finally, unable to suppress the thought of fleeing, he turned to jump off the wall constructed of wagons.

"Swish," "swish," "swish."

Several arrows flew toward him with the sound of the wind, pinning the sentry who had just turned to flee to the spot. Before he died, this Easterling sentry was still wondering why the enemy's range could be more than a quarter longer than his own.

It was not just this one sentry who suffered from long-range strikes; every Easterling standing on a wagon was targeted by archers wielding Elven Longbows, and one after another, they let out screams and fell off the wagons.

These people who arrived were naturally the infantry led by Alayen. Before launching the attack, Holimion took all of Allen's horse archers, as well as an "Animal Friend" who had a night hawk companion, and wiped out the Easterling scout cavalry patrolling the perimeter. At this moment, Holimion did not lead the cavalry back to Allen's side, but instead continued to linger in the east of the battlefield; they would kill any enemy heading in that direction.

With no concern about being exposed, Alayen had the Elite Infantry and archers take the vanguard, with the Conscripts who had never truly been on a battlefield following behind, and more than two thousand people approached the enemy camp in neat formations.

Under Alayen's orders, the force of over two thousand was divided into four parts, approaching the four gates of the enemy camp at a slow pace; they needed to maintain good stamina before engaging the enemy in close-quarters combat.

After the archers shot and killed the enemy sentries, they remained in place to suppress the Easterlings constantly popping their heads up on the walls, while all the infantry began to quicken their pace and launched a charge toward the enemy camp. After approaching the camp gates, the Elite Infantry began to split to both sides, revealing a thick tree trunk being carried by dozens of Conscripts working together, and at this moment, the trunk was being smashed fiercely against the gate before them.

There was, of course, more than one sentry on the Easterling side who discovered the enemy's tracks. In a short amount of time, over a dozen Easterling soldiers responsible for keeping watch had passed the news of the enemy raid to their leader.

"Boss~~ Boss~~ there are many enemies surrounding us from outside."

"Damn it, is this your first time? What are you panicking about? Notify all the Captains to organize a defense; I'm coming out immediately."

The Easterling Warlord Rabat, who had been startled from his sleep, was furious. While cursing and blaming his own cavalry for their negligence, he had two slaves serve him as he put on his armor.

Life in the region of Rhun was actually under immense survival pressure. The scarcity of resources, the overcrowding of the population, and their barbaric habits made these Easterlings extremely keen on looting and war. Living in such an environment, being suddenly raided at night was not really anything particularly strange.

It was just that these Easterlings had been living particularly comfortably over the past two years. Being suddenly subjected to a night raid at this moment, although the camp could not be called chaotic, was filled with shouting and the neighing of Warhorses everywhere; most people's nerves were extremely tense at this time.

"Bang," "bang," "bang," "bang."

At this moment, huge sounds suddenly came from all around the camp. The slave who was serving Rabat as he put on his helmet loosened his grip under the influence of the sound, and the iron helmet with three right angles fell directly to the ground, the chain mail used to protect the face making a "clattering" sound.

The sleep-deprived Rabat kicked the clumsy slave into the corner of the tent with a fierce blow. Afterward, his bloodshot eyes glared at the female slave who was curled up in pain, and he lifted his feet and walked toward her. With a "hum," the bright Curved Blade flashed with an eerie light under the lamp, while the other slave had already knelt on the ground in panic.

"Kill them!!" "Ah~~!"

The waves of battle cries and screams that suddenly erupted from around the camp caught the attention of this Easterling Warlord. Unable to care about the slave still slumped on the ground, he picked up the helmet from the floor and hurried out of his tent.

When building the camp, Rabat had specifically chosen a hill terrain and placed his own tent at the highest point of the hill, making it convenient for him to grasp the situation of the camp at all times.

At this moment, the situation on the battlefield was indeed clear at a glance before Rabat, but the large number of enemy troops that had already breached the camp left this Easterling Warlord in despair, along with annoyance toward his own commander. A curse then slipped out: "Damn it, that bastard Ashur set me up."

Afterward, this Easterling Warlord turned his head and said to the guards beside him: "What are you standing there for? Organize the War Chariots to go find Bamonde for reinforcements; hurry, be quick about it."

When Ashur dispatched the mission, he had briefly described Allen's strength to Rabat and Bamonde, telling them that the enemies they needed to face were only two or three hundred Light Cavalry and over a thousand human militia wearing simple armor. The Elves of the Woodland Realm would not leave the forest to attack them, and as for the Dwarves of Erebor, there was even less need to consider them at such a distance.

At the same time, Ashur also told his two subordinates that this human power had only been established for ten years, so it could not be considered a threat at all. Having them watch Heidelberg was merely to prevent these human cavalry from being unable to endure the loneliness and harassing his own territory on a large scale, thereby affecting his next plan.

In some respects, what Ashur said was not wrong at all. He only hid a tiny bit of information from Rabat and Bamonde, which was that he had been beaten to a pulp by the enemy in terms of cavalry, but he had not hidden any other news at all, and he truly believed that Allen only had this much power.

Because through Kurda's account, as well as his own observations and analysis, Ashur inferred that of the alliance between Humans, Elves, and Dwarves, the strongest should be the Woodland Realm, followed by the Dwarves of Erebor, and finally the small rabble of Humans. Although the opponent was indeed very strong in terms of cavalry, he had an army pressing down on the border, building camps wherever he went; how much could two hundred Light Cavalry really do?

As for the human infantry, how many warriors could a farming city with a population of only twenty thousand produce? Not to mention that a portion of them were the old, weak, women, and children snatched from his own hands, and the time since its establishment was so short? How much wealth could they have to purchase expensive weapons and armor from the Dwarves? And even if they had money, they didn't have the time; could the Dwarves really ignore their own affairs and go all out to craft weapons and armor for a human?

Therefore, Ashur guessed that the strongest force in Allen's hands should be that unit of a few hundred Light Cavalry; it might be more than two hundred, but it wouldn't be too many, otherwise, there wouldn't just be this little bit appearing before him.

If a head-on conflict really occurred, it wouldn't be impossible to trade lives with the opposing cavalry by sacrificing some of his own clansmen. In any case, the opponent couldn't outlast him. Moreover, Ashur also knew that while Humans, Elves, and Dwarves claimed to be an alliance, their thoughts were actually different; otherwise, after the Battle of the Long Lake back then, the enemy should have pressed their advantage and pursued.

At that time, he had lost his two arms, Kurda and Hamish, and Baal and Akad were extremely far away from him. Coupled with the fact that the troops were still in the midst of a hurried march, his situation could be said to be extremely poor. If the opponent had launched a decisive battle against him at that time, he would never have been able to block the surprise attack of thousands of elite Dwarves and several thousand Elves. If so, where would Kurda's life and these few years of stable life be now?

Moreover, news obtained from other channels further confirmed Ashur's thoughts.

As an Easterling commander, Ashur really had no intention of setting up his own underlings at this moment. These underlings were not Baal; he could manipulate small tribes of one or two thousand people at will, and there was really no need to do so.

However, what appeared before Rabat at this moment were hundreds of elites wearing gleaming Iron Armor, as well as countless Spearmen. A simple glance was enough to see that these enemies were more numerous than his own clansmen and slaves combined. What was the point of fighting this?

Rabat sent his guards to seek reinforcements, hoping that Bamonde could send troops as quickly as possible, pinning his hopes on this reinforcement being able to punch a hole through the enemies besieging him, so that he could drive a War Chariot and take his elites to run away. The elite warriors of the two tribes combined, plus the War Chariots that could gallop across the plains, could barely manage to have a go at the enemy who only had infantry before him. But Bamonde had to be fast; if he was late, he would have nothing left, and even Bamonde's soldiers might not be able to leave here.

Rabat could no longer care that his actions were actually dragging his colleague into the water; this was his only lifeline, and he had to grasp it no matter what. Moreover, he couldn't run now, and he couldn't even show a hint of cowardice. He needed his men to hold off the enemy until Bamonde's rescue arrived. After all, the current enemy had only breached the camp gate. Breaking free from despair, Rabat felt that he might still have a tiny chance.

At this time, the infantry force led by Alayen had already breached the four gates, but the number of troops in this unit on the north side was not large, and the number of archers was even greater than the infantry. After smashing open the gate, the infantry did not enter the camp, but stood in front of the archers to protect their comrades, so as to avoid being ambushed by the enemy's cavalry or War Chariots.

And although the other three directions had already breached the gates, it was only a show of force, and the pace of the advance was actually very slow, because most of those engaging the enemy at this time were Conscripts holding spears. They did indeed have a huge advantage in numbers, but most of them were rookies who had never been on a battlefield; their sweat-covered, tense faces and trembling legs formed a sharp contrast with the screeching and jumping Easterlings opposite them.

However, the dense spears still very dutifully protected the open space in front of them, and the crooked corpses of Easterlings also proved that these Conscripts had put in a great deal of sweat during their training.

Not all of these Conscripts were rookies who had never been on a battlefield; there was still a small portion who were once fierce Woodland Residents. They had spent most of their time fighting Orcish in the Misty Mountains until Allen's arrival brought them a stable life.

It was just that these people with higher combat power were currently standing at the back of the formation holding Hunting Bows, keeping a close eye on whether the enemy had any archers, and would launch concentrated fire once discovered.

It was a pity that the enemy's archers had probably been killed off by their own elite archers in the first wave of the offensive, and the orders they received were to target the enemy's archers, while the enemy's infantry was left to those rookies who were on the battlefield for the first time.

As for those elite infantry wearing Iron Armor, they had actually charged bravely into the camp holding machetes and Shields the moment the gate was breached, engaging in fierce slaughter with the enemies stationed inside the gate. In that instant, the sound of battle cries rang throughout the entire camp.

They were all veterans who had participated in several battles. Not to mention the battle at the Lonely Mountain, before that, they had often fought against the Great Spiders in the forest, and their combat experience was extremely rich. At this moment, coupled with their fine equipment and years of training, they gained the absolute upper hand the moment they made contact with the enemy, killing two hundred of the opponents in a very short time and occupying a huge area of the camp.

And most of the Easterlings, looking at the broken corpses on the ground and the blood-covered enemies with ferocious faces opposite them, stopped their advance one after another. Allen's elite infantry also took this opportunity, under the orders of their officer, to orderly yield their positions to the rookies following closely behind them.

Alayen naturally had his reasons for doing this. Before the battle started, Allen gave him two orders: the first was to surround on three sides and leave one open; once the northern gate was smashed open, they were not to worry about it. If things didn't go smoothly, the fully prepared cavalry unit would charge in from there. The other was not to push too fast, giving the enemy leader enough time to seek reinforcements. Yes, Allen hoped that Rabat would go to seek reinforcements from Bamonde.

Under such orders, Alayen followed Allen's plan and simply trained the combat ability of these new recruits, letting them adapt to the battlefield where life and death were at stake as soon as possible. In any case, a few days ago, with the help of the birds, they had figured out the strength of this Easterling tribe clearly. Except for the three War Chariots which were a bit of a threat, there was nothing else that needed attention. Moreover, this camp was on hilly terrain with winding roads everywhere, making it actually very difficult for the enemy's War Chariots to pick up speed, and what threat did a War Chariot without speed pose?

After all, this was just a very weak tribe, with fewer than one thousand males capable of fighting on the battlefield, and those warriors with fine equipment were currently surrounding Rabat, protecting their leader's life. And Rabat, under layers of protection, looked at the battle situation in his camp, and a deep doubt appeared in his heart.

Because Ashur's duty for Rabat was to monitor, he intended to lead his clansmen to be stationed here for a long time. In addition to the land at the gate, Rabat also required his men to dig trenches outside the walls and plant wooden spikes, making many defensive preparations.

After learning of this situation, Alayen gave up on letting his own warriors climb over the walls and instead concentrated most of his forces on the east, west, and south gates. At this moment, the two sides were in a tense standoff, and it had been almost half an hour.

How could such a scene not make Rabat suspicious? He had already gathered all his elite troops by his side, ready to defend the last line of defense. The two War Chariots that went to seek reinforcements had also rushed out of the enemy-free north gate toward Bamonde's camp a quarter of an hour ago. Although only one chariot actually escaped, it still gave Rabat the confidence to continue defending.

As for the cannon fodder guarding the gates, Rabat had initially only hoped they would be slightly tenacious and be able to buy him time to gather his soldiers, but they hadn't been wiped out after so long, and were actually able to stand off against so many enemies? This exceeded Rabat's imagination. Could Rabat not know what kind of goods his own men were?

Just as Rabat was suspicious, Cress, wearing a Chainmail Hauberk and riding the Giant Bear that Grim had transformed into, arrived at Alayen's side and said excitedly: "Fatis has already taken the cavalry and left. The boss said there's no need to wait; let's end the battle quickly. If we're fast, we might even be able to help Bandak."

After speaking, Cress tapped Grim's big head, and the two quickly rushed to the east gate of the camp. At this moment, Cress raised the Heavy Cavalry Lance in his hand and shouted loudly to the warriors beside him: "His Majesty the King has ordered us to end the battle quickly. Hey, hey, hey, people in front, move aside, move aside, I want to be the first to charge."

Feeling the aura of the big bear beside them, the Conscripts who had been in a standoff with the Easterlings for a long time, prompted by their companions, very tacitly cleared a path for Grim in the middle of the formation, while the Easterlings opposite, watching the Giant Bear gradually approaching them, retreated step by step.

"Awoo~~~"

Following Grim's bear roar, those Easterlings who were still retreating turned and ran directly.

"Charge!!"

Cress brandished the lance in his hand and rode Grim into the enemy formation, while the Conscripts behind him, amidst shouts, raised their Spears and quickened their pace to follow the figure of the Giant Bear.