Chapter 142: Quick, Let’s Snatch the Bodies!
Chapter 142: Quick, Let’s Snatch the Bodies!
One hundred meters… seventy meters… sixty meters…
The distance was gradually closing.
As the distance shortened, everyone’s hearts were hanging by a thread.
The King of Redwater City’s eyes flashed with cruelty and killing intent. Who would have thought that as the king of a nation, he would be frightened off his horse by a dog’s barking, making him lose face in front of the other kings of the alliance. Clenching his sword tightly, he vowed that once the city was breached, he would chop that black dog into mince. He chuckled darkly. As the hundred-man spear and shield formation slowly approached the enemy position, he seemed to see the ragtag group from Shampoo City wailing as they turned into bloody pulp under the rain of javelins. He imagined the King of Shampoo City kneeling, begging pitifully to offer the royal wealth and his legendary, stunningly beautiful fiancée…
“Archers… ready!”
From the small hill where Sun Fei stood, a red command flag flashed. A loud shout came from the Shampoo City camp, followed by the chilling, creaking sound of longbows being drawn. Fifty archers standing behind the tower shields nocked arrows, drew their bows, and aimed. Their bows were bent like full moons, and the cold, gleaming arrowheads were directed at the charging Redwater City infantry formation.
What puzzled the many eyes watching the situation was that these archers all aimed straight ahead.
“Hahaha, they really are just a disorganized mob!”
Someone in the alliance immediately burst out laughing and began to mock. In the heat of battle, archers’ duels weren’t the main event. In a rapidly changing situation, even the most accurate sharpshooter had limited deterrence. The true terror of archers lay in the indiscriminate area-of-effect damage they could inflict in the few seconds before close combat began, achieving the horrifying effect of “halving the enemy before engagement.” However, to achieve this effect, the arrows had to be shot in a volley, as only that method could maximize casualties when the enemy had shields and were running quickly.
But these fools from Shampoo City actually aimed straight ahead!
So unprofessional!
Aiming straight ahead only threatened the frontmost soldiers. In a rapidly shifting battle, no side would give their archers a third chance to draw their bows. Wasting time and opportunity was like playing with their own lives… Unless… unless every one of these archers was a sharpshooter who never missed. But, heh, how could that be possible?
“Hahaha, victory is already within our grasp. We were overestimating these crude and foolish farmers earlier…”
The King of Shenhua Kingdom laughed heartily.
But the next moment, his laughter choked off like a hen being strangled, stuck in his throat. His eyes were filled with shock.
“Loose!”
Following the angry shout, a rapid series of bowstring twangs rang out. Fifty arrows cut through the air with sharp, piercing whistles, like bloodthirsty locusts. Their white fletchings drew fifty neat arcs parallel to the ground, almost instantly striking the charging soldiers.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
A rapid succession of arrows piercing flesh and the sounds of death echoed urgently. The fifty Redwater City infantrymen at the front fell in unison, like winter wheat under a farmer’s scythe. Their round shields offered no protection whatsoever. The merciless arrows, as if guided, flew straight through the semicircular viewing holes, piercing their heads and instantly snuffing out fifty lives. They didn’t even have time to let out a short cry.
Fifty arrows, fifty souls reaped!
The entire battlefield fell silent instantly, shrouded in a suffocating, eerie atmosphere.
Clang!
The King of Redwater City’s mouth fell open, and his sword dropped powerlessly to the ground.
“Heavens… sharpshooters? They’re all sharpshooters?” someone exclaimed uncontrollably, as if they’d seen the Goddess of Life streaking before their eyes.
“No!!! How is this possible?”
The kings and generals of the alliance felt a chill shoot up from their behinds to their throats, freezing their bodies stiff. Even their warhorses sensed the aura of death and uneasily backed away. It was utterly unbelievable! What could be crazier than this? A poor little country that couldn’t even afford armor for its soldiers actually had fifty sharpshooters? How could this be?
Twang, twang, twang, twang!
The alliance kings were given little time to ponder as another rapid series of bowstring twangs soon woke them from their extreme shock.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump—!!!
Just like the first time, fifty sharp arrows pierced flesh with crisp sounds, as if answering the previous bowstring twangs. The battlefield echoed with the melody of the God of Death, as if Hades were sneering and swinging an invisible scythe, mercilessly harvesting life after life.
Fifty meters!
That distance was an impassable thunder line.
No one could get within fifty meters of the Shampoo City formation.
At the fifty-meter mark from the Shampoo City position lay one hundred corpses in neat rows.
Every infantryman was pierced through vital spots like the throat, eye sockets, or forehead—all killed with a single shot. Although these were areas their round shields couldn’t protect—since they needed to observe the enemy while running—in many past battles, leaving such palm-sized unprotected spots had reduced the threat from archers by ninety-nine percent. But who would have thought that these tiny, exposed areas would cost the soldiers their lives.
Looking at the hundred corpses lying neatly on the ground, the alliance side erupted with gasps. Many rubbed their eyes, as if what they were seeing was an illusion. How was it possible? Fifty archers, with just two volleys, had completely wiped out one hundred elite spear and shield infantry. Even though the alliance had many battle-hardened veterans, they couldn’t help breaking out in cold sweat. Such a feat was less like a dream and more like a nightmare—utterly terrifying!
The King of Redwater City’s heart was bleeding.
And it was bleeding heavily, in unending streams.
He couldn’t help but feel the pain. A whole hundred elite spear and shield infantry—his pride and joy, his main battle formation! Originally, he had thought the Shampoo City formation was disorganized and pitifully small, so he confidently sent his infantry charging in. On one hand, he wanted to show off his army’s strength to the other nations in the alliance; on the other, he wanted to secure more say and loot when dividing Shampoo City after the war. But who would have thought that a full hundred elite soldiers would turn into cold corpses without even completing a single charge or throwing a single javelin?!
The feeling was like someone had taken a sharp knife and carved out a piece of his heart.
“Argh… I’m so angry!” The King of Redwater swayed unsteadily, feeling a surge of blood rage and dizziness. He nearly fell off his Blaze Beast.
Sharpshooters!
A full fifty Zhebie-level sharpshooters.
Shampoo City actually had fifty Zhebie-level sharpshooters?
Looking at the fifty shabby archers in the Shampoo City formation—who didn’t even have the simplest armor—no one could laugh now. It was too shocking. Any Zhebie-level sharpshooter was a treasure that every vassal state of the Empire would compete to recruit. Who would have thought a tiny Sixth-Class Vassal State would have a whole fifty? It was simply unheard of. For a moment, no one dared make a sound, afraid that any noise might attract the attention of those fifty killers. Then, with a twang of their bowstrings, they’d be turned into kebabs.
Almost instantly, the various nations in the alliance began to think of retreat.
Facing fifty Zhebie sharpshooters, their mere two thousand troops weren’t enough to play with. If the archers shot twenty or thirty times, most of them would be sent straight to the depths of Hell, without any chance to struggle.
Sun Fei, riding on Big Black Dog, was so happy he could hardly contain his grin.
It was worth using six whole bottles of Hulk Potion mixed into the fifty archers’ food and drink. He had controlled the dosage, slowly transforming them over half a month, greatly improving their physical condition. Then he had them learn archery from the summoned Rogue Mercenaries, secretly training a force of fifty strong bow archers. Today, they showed their might in one battle, instantly stunning the aggressive Nine-Nation Alliance.
“You idiots, why are you still standing there? Quickly, follow me to snatch the bodies and equipment!”
Sun Fei, riding on Big Black Dog, shouted cheerfully and dashed out first. The fifty-plus scattered Urban Management infantry of Shampoo City, who had been stunned by their own archers’ performance, suddenly woke up as if from a dream. Without a second thought, they threw away their cleavers and wooden sticks, cheering as they charged toward the distant corpses. They were like a pack of big gray wolves spotting little white rabbits, running so fast that smoke rose from their feet, closely following Big Black Dog.
“What are they doing?” someone asked foolishly.
“Damn it, charge! Stop them! They’re looting…” The King of Redwater was furious. He instantly understood Shampoo City’s intention—these poverty-stricken riffraff were going to steal the shields and armor from the bodies! How despicable! So despicable that they wouldn’t even spare the dead! Trembling all over, he shrieked, “Argh… shoot arrows! Quickly, shoot arrows! Kill them all!”
The alliance members finally snapped back to reality and immediately ordered their soldiers to shoot arrows.