Green Monster Epic

Chapter 867: Victory!

“Ha!!”

A High Elf Sword Dancer warrior, knowing full well that he could never match the brute strength of the hulking ogre warrior before him who stood half a head taller, still resolutely raised his two hand swords, bracing himself to withstand the heavy blow of the ogre's warhammer.

Crack!! Crack!!

As expected, the Sword Dancer's arms, crossed in front of him, snapped instantly. The swords, forced back by the warhammer, pierced the Sword Dancer's elaborate chainmail armor. The blades immediately shattered and embedded themselves deeply into the armor, and even the Sword Dancer's chest caved in.

“Barry!!”

Another High Elf Sword Dancer darted out from behind the ogre, thrusting two hand swords into the back of the ogre's neck through the gaps in its heavy armor. With a swift twist, the mountain of flesh that was the ogre immediately lost its mobility and life force, its legs giving way as it toppled forward!

The second Sword Dancer calmly rolled on the ground, withdrew his slender sword, and was about to turn around when a battle axe swept across. Although the Sword Dancer reacted, weaving a web of swords, the High Elf's frail body was sent flying like a cannonball under the cleaving force of the wide, double-bladed battle axe, unfortunately colliding with the axe blade of another ogre nearby.

The ogre who had sent the elf flying, panting heavily with bloodshot eyes, stood in the position of his fallen comrade, resuming the task of intercepting the elves' assault.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Before the newly arrived ogre warrior could even steady himself, several arrows shot from who-knows-where arrived silently. Most were blocked by the heavy armor or deflected by the axe face raised by the ogre warrior, but unexpectedly, one arrow, seemingly about to strike the axe face, suddenly curved, bypassing the ogre's weapon and precisely piercing one of the two eye sockets exposed on his helmet.

“Ah!!”

Although the arrow did not immediately claim the life of this resilient ogre, the pain and the fear of losing his life still caused him to roar skyward and charge forward with heavy steps. However, he only took a few steps before collapsing to his knees and falling face-first to the ground.

With the ogres dwindling in number, the Wildland warriors, lacking their support in the assault, found the elves' offensive against the Wildland lines growing fiercer, and the Wildland warriors' formation was teetering.

Although Wildland powerhouses like Alan and Coeur were constantly roaming the center of the High Elf army, relentlessly applying pressure in an attempt to psychologically break the army, the High Elf warriors' tenacity, courage, unyielding spirit, and dedication ultimately disappointed the Wildland and Drow commanders.

“Kill!!”

In another wave of fearless assault, the High Elf army, after suffering over a thousand casualties, finally tore a hole in the Thorns Legion's interception network. As the first batch of elves broke through the encirclement, they briefly adjusted before charging back, widening the breach in the Wildland warriors' lines.

Some Wildland warriors, intimidated by the grim atmosphere of the battlefield, began to display their inherent bad habits, even turning to flee. Although they were promptly beheaded by the officers guarding the flanks, it still caused considerable turmoil in the minds of many warriors.

Once a breach was opened, it became difficult to close. More High Elf warriors broke through the gap in the Wildland lines and, together with their comrades who had turned back, widened the breach further.

Aside from initially participating in the attack on the High Elf army, Albad had resumed his responsibility as commander as the Wildland army arrived and the fighting intensified.

Orders were constantly transmitted through the trumpets, reaching the mid- and lower-level commanders of the Thorns Coalition, constantly adjusting the army's defensive priorities and formations using the resources at hand.

However, the more he commanded and adjusted, the more somber the halfling archmage's expression became, his eyes filled with disappointment.

It wasn't that his command ability was lacking, but rather that the overall strength of the Thorns Coalition was still lacking. Even though he had created excellent opportunities for them, their performance on the battlefield for the first time was far from outstanding.

Even the 30,000 regular coalition warriors, whom Alan and Albad had placed great hope in and regarded as the Thorns Ring's strongest combat force, had a kill-to-death ratio of only about 2:3 when facing the elves head-on on the battlefield.

For every two High Elf warriors killed, three Wildland warriors, who had undergone more than three years of military and tactical training, had to be sacrificed. The disparity in strength between the two sides caused Albad to feel bitter and flustered.

With such an army, the difficulty of safeguarding the Northern Border was comparable to that of an ordinary warrior trying to advance to the legendary rank.

At this moment, Albad was somewhat grateful that his clan leader had always been so rational, unmoved by immediate interests, and had insisted on cooperating with the Drow to complete this plan. Otherwise, if they had listened to the opinions of the other clan representatives, sitting idly by while the Drow suffered heavy blows and then retreating to Bornhold to provide support, then the Northern Border would probably have to act according to the High Elves' wishes.

Without the powerful force of the Drow holding the line, the various clans of the Northern Border could only rely on the fortresses at both ends of the Catoel Gorge for passive defense, and would basically be unable to pose much of a threat to the High Elf army.

“Order!”

“Open up the defensive lines on both sides and retreat one mile to reorganize the formation.”

“The Heavy Cavalry Battalion and the Wolf Rider Battalion, prepare to attack!!”

As the Thorns Coalition fell into a disadvantage, Albad keenly sensed the emergence of disunity in the massive army. The weakness of a new army unable to fight against the tide was now fully manifested in this force.

Rather than waiting for the coalition warriors to be forced to collapse, it would be better to proactively open up the passage and let the High Elf army break through, which would reduce the Thorns Coalition's losses.

Thump! Thump!!

The war drums beat on the backs of the kodo beasts accompanying the army. The Thorns Legion warriors, who had long been panicked, now displayed excellent hearing and agility, immediately withdrawing and running to the periphery. If they hadn't been loudly stopped by the officers in the army after running a certain distance, many of them would probably have run dozens of miles away.

Of course, the most important factor that allowed everyone to stop was still the elite assassins and rangers who patrolled the periphery as a supervisory team. When they discovered someone continuing to flee against orders, they unceremoniously chopped off their heads from behind, finally rallying the troops with hundreds of corpses of deserters.

“Beat the drums!!”

“Heavy Cavalry Battalion, attack!!”

Albad couldn't care less about the situation of the withdrawn troops at this time. He had been flying high in the sky, overlooking the movements of the High Elf army on the ground. When hundreds of thousands of High Elf main forces withdrew from the gap they had opened, and about forty to fifty thousand rearguard troops were fighting and retreating, he decisively sent a signal to the ground.

Although they couldn't swallow the main force of the High Elves, there was no problem in tearing off a piece of fat from them to reward their own troops for their hard work in traveling thousands of miles to Coldwind Ridge.

Moreover, after seeing the problems of his own army clearly, Albad also hoped to use this opportunity to hone this army well, after all, only actual combat is the place where truly excellent troops can be cultivated.

The heavy cavalry brigade, which had been waiting for a long time, received the order and finally charged out from the rear flank. The surrounding wilderness troops made way for them, watching with envy and anticipation as they continued to accelerate, then plunged headlong into the elven army's formation.

It still didn't have the swift and decisive feeling he had expected, only the slow and torturous feeling of a dull knife cutting flesh. Albad still carefully surveyed the arrow formed by the three thousand heavy cavalry. Although it did tear another gap in the elven formation that had been so painstakingly arranged, the further forward they advanced, the slower the cavalry's progress became, and his heart couldn't help but rise to his throat.

"Pass down the order!!"

"Wolf cavalry, attack and take over the gap torn open by the heavy cavalry!!"

"Heavy infantry legion, follow up!! Be sure to cut a gap in the elven ranks!!"

"Reorganize the legions, prepare to engage in battle!!"

After hurriedly flying down to the ground and giving several instructions to the messenger in a deep voice, Albad flew high again to continue monitoring the overall battlefield situation.

Far away, deep within the elven army, the heavy cavalry brigade, attempting to cut them in half, finally received assistance. Allen, who had been rampaging and wreaking havoc in the elven army, had also been paying attention to the overall battlefield situation. Although Allen felt regret that the Thorns Coalition had taken the initiative to abandon the encirclement and open up the defense line, he still trusted Albad's command ability and did not interfere.

When he saw the heavy cavalry brigade suddenly attack and enter the elven army, the clever bear goblin demigod keenly realized Albad's intention and couldn't help but applaud him in his heart.

Subsequently, when he saw that the heavy cavalry brigade's penetration tactics were encountering difficulties and the speed of the spearhead was becoming slower and slower, Allen charged over without a second thought, taking the initiative to bear the brunt of this cavalry brigade's attack!

With such a demigod and idol leading the way for everyone, the cavalry warriors, who were originally a little panicked and deeply trapped in enemy territory, were immediately encouraged. Negative emotions such as fear and timidity were thrown to the back of their minds, and endless power was reborn in their bodies. Along the path Allen had cleaved for them, their speed, which had already slowed down, now accelerated again against common sense in the enemy's army.

"Kill!!"

In the end, three thousand Thorns heavy cavalrymen tore the elven army, like a giant python, in half from the rear, separating about forty thousand elven rear troops from the main force of more than one hundred thousand.

The combination formed by the dwarf goblin warriors and the dire wolves made up for the lack of individual strength and flexibility of the dwarf goblins with the dire wolves' own combat power. Now, it was actually being tested on a large scale on the battlefield, and the results finally made Albad's indifferent face relax slightly.

Following the passage broken through by the heavy cavalry, a group of swift wolf cavalrymen took over and interspersed through it. The dwarf goblins' cleavers, the dire wolves' bloody mouths, and sharp claws swept across like a hurricane, leaving behind corpses of elven warriors along the way, cutting off the opponent's illusion of wanting to regroup.

Following the five thousand light cavalry, the formation of twenty thousand elite goblins and gnolls, originally serving as reserves, followed closely like a wedge. Almost eighty percent of them were berserker warriors, with the rest being bloodletters. When they collectively activated their frenzy skills and were simultaneously blessed with bloodlust by the shaman priests interspersed in the ranks, their overall lethality suddenly increased greatly, forcing even the elite elven warriors to temporarily avoid their edge.

Many times, a brief hesitation and stalemate ultimately lead to unimaginable consequences. The main force of the elves who broke through the encirclement originally planned to turn back and rescue the forty thousand compatriots who were being intercepted, but when the Thorns Legion's twenty thousand elite infantry launched a counterattack in a frenzy and bloodthirsty state, the existing elven command was somewhat hesitant.

The hesitation of the command was reflected in the grassroots soldiers, turning into sluggishness. Not only did their attacks become hesitant and weak, but even their morale was somewhat diminished.

By the time the subsequent commanders reached a consensus and prepared to increase their offensive, the tens of thousands of troops of the Thorns Legion, who had withdrawn to the east and west sides to reorganize, had finally regained most of their combat power, and under the leadership of their respective legion commanders, they regrouped and flanked from both sides.

The main force of the elven army that broke through the encirclement was far stronger than the Thorns Legion, but they had to consider more issues, such as the drow main force that was swallowing up the elven legions that had not withdrawn in the south, and how to deal with the joint forces of the Northern Territory and the drow after this great defeat.

In the end, after determining that it was impossible to break through the wilderness army's defense line in a short period of time, the surviving elven command had to dejectedly issue the order to withdraw.

When the loud bugle call drifted open, the main force of the elven legions slowly withdrew to the road they had come from in the north, and the elven rearguard soldiers, who were still sandwiched between the drow and the wilderness warriors, also understood the deep meaning contained in this bugle call. Each and every brave elven warrior continued to fight hard, but their eyes could not hide the desolation and sadness.

The commanders of the drow legions were now in high spirits. Although they were still somewhat dissatisfied, if the Thorns Legion had not taken the initiative to open up the encirclement passage, or if they had persisted for another magic hour, perhaps their setup this time could have achieved even more brilliant results.

However, dissatisfaction was dissatisfaction, but they would not easily let go of the prey that was already at their mouths. If they could swallow this nearly forty thousand strong remnant of the elves in one go, coupled with the attrition from the previous siege, the elves' southern expedition plan should be considered a failure in the short term!

Although the drow army also suffered considerable losses, the strength of the main drow army was still relatively well preserved, and the strength of the invading elven army had returned to equilibrium.

As long as the elven kingdom does not add more troops to the Northern Territory, then the existing main force of the drow preserved by the Hochia Federation, combined with the fortifications of Bonn City, is basically enough to compete with the elves invading the wilderness.

As for Coldwind Ridge, it does not seem to be a big problem to recover it based on the current situation, but if you want to rely on it to defend against the elves' invading army, it would be a bit difficult.

City defense fortifications are destroyed, and it takes enough time and a lot of resources to be invested before they can be restored. Otherwise, the function of a ruined city may not be as useful as a carefully selected geographical environment in the wilderness.

Want to see a direct pot end is still very difficult at present, the overall strength gap is obvious, I still want to follow the relatively logical line, do not want to open a big hook