Chapter 1347: Three-Way Melee

Chapter 1333: Three-Way Melee

“Mount up and prepare for battle.” Helian Chuan commanded. The knights, riding their horses with spears in hand, formed a formidable formation.

Although Wuma Xu was dead, the Wuma family was still no good. Steward Zou cowered on the ground, screaming for mercy.

The leading black-armored knight turned his horse and galloped out of the courtyard. The others followed closely. Steward Zou thought he had escaped. Just as he was about to lie down and sigh in relief, he felt a cold, sharp pain in his neck, and then knew nothing more. Wanqiu Liang pulled his spear back; a string of blood beads dripped from its tip. Dying so quickly was too good for this lackey. He spat on the ground and spurred his horse to catch up with the main force.

As the battle was about to begin, Helian Chuan rode his horse while assigning tasks to his subordinates: “We are unfamiliar with Greenery Villa and have no geographical advantage, so we must try to fight in open areas. From our vantage point just now, I saw the villa guards' torches arranged in a two-wing formation.”

This formation is suitable for outflanking a small number of enemies. Clearly, Wuma Dan already knew the black-armored cavalry were few in number and was preparing to surround them. Helian Chuan had his own corresponding tactical breakdown. He had brought thirty riders this time. Although few in number, their combat power and mobility were very strong. Even if the enemy outnumbered them two or three times over, he was confident he could crush them in one swift blow. In such head-on, small-scale conflicts, it's all about the first wave of attack; whoever can't hold on first loses.

“Wuma Dan also campaigned with his father and is said to have personally slain several enemies on horseback. Don't take him lightly!” Helian Chuan earnestly instructed. “Even a mighty hawk uses its full strength to catch a rabbit!”

Everyone responded in unison: “Yes!”

The black-armored army always acted with extreme caution. About ten zhang ahead was an open grassland. The black-armored cavalry, as per Helian Chuan's instructions, broke formation and instantly dispersed. Around Helian Chuan, including Dong Rui, only five riders remained.

The Wuma clan's torches were already visible. Dozens of enemy cavalry were rapidly approaching, followed by a group of villa guards. After another hundred zhang, both sides would clash. In terms of numbers, they had over 150 combatants, exceeding the estimate. Upon seeing the black-armored army, especially Helian Chuan at the front, they were all stunned. An army appearing out of the darkness, led by such a monstrous, almost inhuman figure, left the Wuma clan unsure of their origin. The villa guards behind them instinctively slowed their pace.

“Within one hundred paces—” Helian Chuan gave the order, “—shoot!”

As the enemy advanced a hundred paces, a flurry of arrows shot from all directions. Several enemy riders and horses were hit, crying out in pain. But most raised their shields to block, at worst transforming cavalry into infantry, but still able to advance. Subsequently, the Wuma clan also returned fire with a volley of arrows, naturally targeting Helian Chuan and his five companions directly in front.

The distance between the two sides quickly shrank to fifty paces. The black-armored knights ambushed on both sides immediately spurred their horses forward, charging the enemy's flanks. Their role was to engage the flank enemies to prevent an encirclement, and simultaneously block the Greenery Villa guards, separating them from the cavalry at the front.

Someone on the enemy side shouted loudly; he looked to be around fifty. Helian Chuan guessed it was the villa master, Wuma Dan. Although many enemies had entered the villa, only five riders were directly in front, so Wuma Dan could infer that the remaining enemies were scattered in ambush. Therefore, his reaction was remarkably swift. The Wuma clan hadn't fought a battle in over a decade, yet Wuma Dan could still pick up his old lessons, proving himself worthy of being a local magnate.

“Whose subordinates are you?!” Wuma Dan's voice came from the formation. “Where is my son?!” He hadn't heard of any new powers emerging nearby, so this group of secretive black-armored cavalry were most likely thugs sent by some rival in the vicinity. However, the dragon-head mask directly in front looked eerily strange.

Before Helian Chuan could respond, several sharp, prolonged howls suddenly echoed from the south! Like night owls, like infant cries, like lion roars, exploding simultaneously—a grotesque symphony. The thundering of the horses was already loud, but it couldn't drown out these roars. Moreover, they came from afar, drawing nearer, and judging by the sound's origin, they were moving extremely fast!

The Wuma clan was somewhat stunned, having never heard such sounds before. Dong Rui gasped, “It couldn’t be that coincidental, could it?” The monsters that Xiao An and the Chen Village locals spoke of, arriving precisely at this moment? But calculating the time, it seemed about right. If something happened to Xiao An or someone near him, these monsters would appear shortly after. Helian Chuan made a decisive decision: “The original plan remains unchanged! Charge into the enemy formation! Quick!”

Judging by the positions of friend and foe, the monsters coming from the south would first impact the black-armored army. This variable would undoubtedly disrupt his original layout. If Helian Chuan didn't want to be attacked from both sides, he first had to divert this trouble into the Wuma clan's ranks. Judging by these monsters' performance in Chen Village, they were exceptionally brutal and bloodthirsty, not minding a general slaughter while pursuing their target.

Helian Chuan nudged his horse's flank, and his mount surged forward. The five men advanced in a V-formation, with him as the arrowhead at the very front! In the blink of an eye, they clashed.

Since he was leading the charge, he would bear the brunt of the attacks. In that instant, five or six long weapons lunged at Helian Chuan, aiming to create multiple blood holes in him and his mount. Helian Chuan's left arm flicked, and the Soul-Gathering Mirror transformed into a giant square shield. He swung it diagonally forward, and three long spears from the front-left hit the shield, their force dissipated, one even having its tip shattered. The recoil force took effect, sending the unlucky spearman directly off his horse. Just as he fell, the cavalry behind him also charged forward, and so the unfortunate man died miserably under his comrades' iron hooves without a sound.

Facing two long spears from the right, Helian Chuan, wielding the Soaring Dragon Spear with one hand, parried. The first spear was directly swept aside, colliding with the second. Having dealt with the spear trap in front of him, he continued his momentum, directly crashing with his horse and body into the cavalry in the back row. The Soul-Gathering Mirror unleashed its power again. As both sides were about to collide, it reflected an arc of light at a cunning angle, directly piercing the opponent's eyes.

The current environment was relatively dim, with the Wuma clan only having torches for light. This person, suddenly struck by a strong light in his eyes, instinctively turned his head and closed them. His momentary pause prevented him from seeing the giant shield suddenly enlarge before his eyes, and then— With a bang, he was smashed away.

Helian Chuan's momentum was unstoppable, piercing through several people. Four black-armored knights followed closely, like a sharp dagger, plunging into the enemy formation. The Wuma clan's vanguard crumbled like falling building blocks. This was not only because Helian Chuan and his men charged like tigers descending a mountain, but also because the fear aura emanating from his Roaring Dragon Armor caused enemies within a zhang radius to tremble. Within this range, if the black-armored leader's enemies were not resolute enough, their fear would be immediately amplified. War is fought with courage and morale; if one's heart is filled with apprehension, how can soldiers dare to charge forward? Thus, the fiercer Helian Chuan was, the more his enemies feared, creating an intractable cycle on the battlefield.

Logically, as his five men charged forward, the enemies on the flanks would move to encircle them, trapping them in the center to be annihilated. However, Helian Chuan's other two black-armored detachments had already charged out from the sides, firmly engaging the Wuma clan's flanks, thus preventing the encirclement from forming.

Wuma Dan, not far away, showed a look of shock. The Wuma clan had trained four hundred cavalry using their inherited training methods, making them invincible in the region. Wuma Dan could even guarantee that even government troops didn't possess such high quality. This was one of the main reasons local officials had always been polite to the Wuma family. Although only dozens of cavalry remained at the villa today, where exactly did this black-armored army come from? Why did they tear through Wuma's elite cavalry as if they were tearing paper figures?

Many thoughts raced through Wuma Dan's mind, but his hands were not idle. He ordered the villa guards from the rear to move forward and reinforce. Although the enemy cavalry were fierce, their speed would decrease once they entered his formation, and their destructive power would decline. As long as they could be quickly divided and encircled, there was still hope for victory.

However, just then, several large trees in the southern forest suddenly swayed, and two monsters grandly appeared! They had previously roared in warning, but this time, upon seeing the dense crowd, they charged without further hesitation. Two against two hundred, they showed no fear. Their size was far from comparable to the war elephant cadaver puppet Helian Chuan had captured in the Cotton Village battle; they were only slightly larger than a warhorse, making them less likely to become targets on the battlefield.

One of them resembled a fierce tiger with bright yellow fur. If it weren't for the lack of distinctive vertical stripes, Helian Chuan would have thought Jiao Yu had arrived. But its tail was not a stick-like tiger tail; instead, it was a segmented long fork! This thing was dark, its length even exceeding the tiger's body. At first glance, it resembled a scorpion's tail, but its tip was not a venom sac and sharp hook, but a sturdy pair of scissors!

Just as two villa guards blocked its path, everyone had a chance to observe this monster's combat. Its speed was very fast, its explosive power immense. With barely a short growl from its throat, it pounced on a man, biting his throat. Neck blood spurted out with a gush. The man hadn't even died yet when the yellow tiger clawed, directly disemboweling him with its sharp foreclaws, and began to devour him. The victim's throat was torn, so he couldn't scream, only kept twitching.

A companion nearby roared to embolden himself and lunged a spear at the yellow tiger. Unexpectedly, the latter didn't even raise its head or retract its claws. The scorpion-like tail behind it, as if it had eyes, swiftly struck his spear away. This tail was exceptionally nimble. Before the man could run away, it stabbed back, its scissor-like tip directly piercing his lung! The man surprisingly still had some strength, pulling the scissor-tail out to escape, but the tail moved upward, clamping around his neck. With a snap, the man's head fell to the ground!

Helian Chuan had never seen such large scissors sever a head before. The surrounding villa guards exclaimed in horror, retreating two zhang away. Such a ferocious monster attacking people was even more terrifying than the black-armored leader. The latter, however powerful, killed one by one with a spear, unlike this monster, which caused blood to fly everywhere, creating an extremely disturbing scene.

The dark shadows surrounding the Roaring Dragon Armor became even denser. Although half of the enemies' fear was due to the newly appeared monsters, it also fueled the Roaring Dragon Armor's fierce aura. While everyone was still observing the monster, Dong Rui exclaimed, “That's a Highland Tiger Demon, fitted with a Scissor Scorpion's tail!”