Knights and Magic Wand
Chapter 244 - 244 126 Battle of Longka 2 On the Eve of Battle_2

244: Chapter 126 Battle of Longka 2 (On the Eve of Battle)_2 244: Chapter 126 Battle of Longka 2 (On the Eve of Battle)_2 Although the number was not large, the first volley of arrows still took down several ragtag soldiers, either with exposed legs and feet or without any means of defense.

Listening to the screams behind them, the desperados pulled from hooligans and criminal offenders fiercely quickened their pace, but their uncoordinated temporary companions, with mismatched rhythms of footsteps, only dragged behind.

Several men fell in their run, exposed beyond the boards and shields.

The shooters atop the distant arrow tower had not a shred of mercy; they, who had already become Lord’s personal soldiers, shot at those who stumbled like they used to hunt wild beasts in the woods—taking turns in groups of three or two, they reloaded and fired at the cannon fodder.

Over a dozen men fell in the two waves of arrow rain, either dead or injured, but the Longka archers did not waste their effort and arrows to kill those who were already out of the fight, letting their painful wails echo in front of the enemy lines.

And naturally, the archer formation on the left-wing of the Wolfenhol army did not waste the opportunity.

Under the command of the knight officers, they took advantage of the moment the Longka shooters were focusing on attacking the militia, and, following the soldiers carrying tower shields for cover, they began to move forward.

Attempting to quickly bring the enemy archers on the distant towers into their range.

But the captain of the arrow tower, who had been ordered to keep an eye on the enemy archers, immediately stopped the free shooting of his men.

“Cease fire, tighten the formation!”

The Longka archers watched as the enemy entered the range of another tree marked as the symbol of maximum shooting distance.

Soon, they grouped in fives, raising their bows to lob arrows, aiming to kill as many Wolfenhol archers as possible before the two armies truly clashed.

Though the arrows switched to volley fire, one round after another soared into the sky alternately.

The rhythmic downpour of arrows descended from the sky, their clangs and thuds terrifying as they fell into the ranks of the Wolfenhol archers.

Some with a crack, the arrowheads embedded into the enemy’s shields at the front.

Others were deflected by the thick surfaces of the shields.

But still, an unfortunate few who couldn’t dodge in time were struck by arrows.

The archers from the Gunnar Family quickly dispersed their formation with trained efficiency.

Most archers crouched low behind the tower shields in front for cover, and in the gaps between the Longka archers lobbing shots, they counterattacked from both sides of the shields.

But being suppressed, they dared not aim too carefully, and the arrows flying from low to high had to fight against not just gravity but also against the spring wind blowing from the northeast to the southwest across the Longka hills, resulting in most of their shots not even coming close to hitting their targets.

Even those few lucky enough to reach the arrow towers had lost accuracy and lethality by then, either falling between the frameworks or flying off aimlessly.

Riding his horse under the arrow tower, Leon looked up, listening to the continuous whooshing sound of slicing through the air, his eyes tracking the trajectories flying over his head, his heart steadied.

The days of preparation had not been in vain.

Compared to the battle-hardened Mr.

Brian Sr.

and Sir Redo, he had finally played to some advantages from his systematic education in a former life.

After detailed parabolic calculations and experiments, the arrow tower Leon had set up for his archers, along with the height of the gentle slope underfoot, not only gave his own archers an advantage of more than eight meters above ground level.

But also, taking advantage of the favorable wind at the moment, the combination of augmentations and deductions meant that by test and calculation, his archers now had an effective lethal range about thirty meters greater than that of the enemy outside.

The enemy had to risk slowly closing this thirty-meter gap before they could start causing effective retaliatory fire.

Also, to retaliate against the arrow tower, they would have to continuously risk wasting their arrows and their physical energy.

Meanwhile, his own archers only had to shrink back into the fortifications to rest safely.

When the enemy’s volley ceased, they could continue attacking, depleting the enemy’s living forces.

In terms of consumption, Farolis had transported as many arrows to Longka as needed.

Enough for his archers to shoot until they were exhausted, and likely more would remain unused even when the battle ended.

And those Wolfenhol archers who had not traveled far to this place, how many arrows could they have brought?

Marching, fighting, and shooting, how long could they maintain continuous fire in this battle?

Leon was not sure about the training level of the enemy archers, but all the preparations he had made were now increment by increment tipping the scales of battle in his favor, accumulating advantages wherever possible for his own side.

…

Seeing that his archers were struggling to retaliate against the distant arrow towers, Canis did not want to waste his precious ranged strength on protecting those cannon fodder, so he ordered the man beside him, “Enough, have the archers pull back and stand by.”

The archers, who had not advanced far, heard the command from behind and immediately, dragging a few comrades who had been shot and wounded, calmly retreated under the cover of the shield bearers.

Canis then turned his gaze to the right wing of the military formation.

Looking into the distance, unlike the northern ditch and wooden wall under the protection of Longka’s arrow towers, the southern section of the wooden wall was undefended by archers.

The militia responsible for that area were already sweating profusely as they gradually filled the ditch in.

Soon, conscripted soldiers carrying fuel climbed over the pit and began the ignition to burn the wooden wall.

The blazing flames rose and quickly spread.

In the blink of an eye, it engulfed the nearby wooden stakes, and the fire spread slowly and steadily.

The militia hurried to retreat backward, avoiding the ignited flames.

…This was the natural disadvantage of wooden fortifications.

Even if their surfaces were smeared with mud clumps and mortar, these measures could only slightly delay the speed of burning.

In the face of a prepared army, this wooden wall could only stall for a little time.

“Sir, the fire in the south has started, should we also pull back the militia squad that went up on the left flank?” Knight Yom suggested from the side.

He looked solemnly at the ditch outside Longka’s walls, the angles of which were very tricky, arranged in conjunction with the height of the wooden wall and the top layer of the distant hill’s arrow tower to form a long diagonal.

The archers atop the arrow tower could shoot unobstructed at those who, in their efforts to fill the ditch, inadvertently exposed their bodies beyond the wooden boards and shields.

Continually, people hit in the body and limbs by arrows fell to the ground crying out, and the morale of the already demoralized temporary conscripted soldiers had dropped so much that some cowered behind the shields and stopped the soil-filling work.

“Dragging these wretches here is for this very purpose, how long do we have to wait just to burn the southern section?

Who knows when the reinforcements from Wacht Castle will arrive.”

Canis then continued to command, “Let the Ascofo squad press the people on the left flank over there, and speed up the efficiency together, I want to see the entire wooden wall ablaze within a quarter of an hour.”

The Wolf Family Young Master’s order was executed, and a Wolfenhol infantry squad of fifty men, relying on armor and shields, herded the unprotected militia in front of them, running towards the nearly collapsed soil-filling team.

The Longka archers at such a great distance had a hard time threatening those well-protected by armor.

Before long, the second group to reach the ditch was forcibly ordered by the Wolfenhol Soldiers acting as military governors to continue their work.

Ultimately, the twenty archers atop the arrow tower were still unable to prevent so many enemies from advancing.

As Leon and his soldiers, ready for battle within the walls, saw the northern section of the wooden wall also ignite, the Longka archers, with no more targets in their range of sight and reach, ceased firing and seized this precious time to rest and recover their strength.

Beyond the wall of fire.

The crumbling militia pulled back to the front of the battle line was reorganized by the military officers of the Wolf Family and forcibly incorporated into the other intact militia squads at the front.

However, it was hard to say how many of these men, who had fled back amidst cries of agony, still had the courage to fight.

Before their eyes, some of the conscripted soldiers who had been shot and not killed were still crying out in pain, some limped back to the army formation, and some lost the ability to stand, having to desperately drag out trails of blood as they crawled on the muddy ground.

Just to burn down the outer wall of Longka, more than thirty conscripted soldiers had been killed or injured.

The original four fodder squads in front of the formation were now recombined into three; the Ascofo Soldiers, along with the Wolf Castle Soldiers who had originally been at the rear, filled the gaps on the left flank, also to maintain the morale of the remaining militia.

Leon silently gazed at the distant roaring wall of fire.

The fire had burned for more than forty minutes, and even as the wall charred to a crisp collapsed, revealing the military force of the Wolfenhol Soldiers behind it, it still had not been extinguished.

The real test for Longka came as the first batch of the enemy army crossed the remnants of the smoldering wooden wall, finally arriving.