Summoning Total War - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Oak (Part 2)

The sky had already dimmed by the time Murphy and the others were able to meet up with the soldiers that had stayed behind to take care of their things.

The current season was slowly turning into summer. The days were gradually getting longer, and the nights were gradually getting shorter.

It was roughly six in the afternoon when the troops started heading back. The sky was stained red, but it was still very bright out. One of the soldiers from the team who had stayed behind was slightly injured because Murphy had forgotten to leave some insect repellent powder behind. He was bitten by a poisonous insect during the night watch, and a very large swollen blister had formed at the back of his leg near his foot.

Because of this, almost all outdoor wilderness adventurers carried some kind of detoxification drug on their person at all times.

The wounded soldier had made a cross on the wound with a dagger and let the poisoned blood out. Then he sprinkled a little Holy Water on it. By the time Murphy and the rest had returned, he had regained mobility in his leg.

The Holy Water in the territory was a strategic reserve resource. Murphy didn’t intend on selling it to anyone from the outside world.

Because they were entering a period of peaceful development, the demand for Holy Water in the territory wasn’t great, and there was a surplus of it each day. But in the event of a large-scale war, the supply of Holy Water wouldn’t be enough.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

There was no need to conserve the horses’ strength on the journey back to town, so the group let the horses go and hurried on through the night.

A brief discussion about the terrain is needed here. Because this was the southern plains, the terrain that was within a 100-kilometer radius was flat. Besides for the occasional tiny hill, the rest of the territory was grassy green plains. But because of the Karazan Mountains, 100 kilometers within the outskirts of the southeast of the territory was a dense forest, and beyond the dense forest was the higher mountain ranges.

The Karazan Mountains were at the front, while the Nidoria River was at the back.

To put it simply, the territory was like an inverted bowl. The top was formed by difficult mountainous roads due to the Karazan Mountains, while the rear was the wide, spacious channels of the Nidoria River.

There was only one exit between the two faults of the mountain ranges. To put it nicely, it was easy to defend and difficult to attack. To put it more harshly, it was difficult to get in and difficult to get out. This was the reason why it was quickly abandoned by the human city-states. Because of the terrain, if a war were to break out, it wouldn’t be possible to mobilize the troops from the rear as support within a short period of time unless there was a fleet to organize the transport of the troops from the Nidoria River.

Because of this, the frontlines would be stretched out, which would cause the human city-state to have to send their soldiers into the inverted bowl and fight to the death with the gnolls.

This was something that the noble council absolutely did not want to face.

This was why when the gnolls invaded a year ago, the noble council of the human city-states had decisively abandoned this area.

The west of the territory was the Nidoria River, and on the other side of the Nidoria River was flat terrain. In the past, it was a barren, rocky highland, which was where the gnome clans stayed. The centaurs lived in the Sharma Basin. The gnomes were cunning creatures that were afraid of being bullied and were hard-working by nature. They were very annoying creatures and far more difficult to deal with than kobolds. As a result, humanity’s steps toward the west had to come to a halt, not because of the gnomes, but because of the humans’ fear of the centaur tribes.

In the face of this type of species that were naturally born cavalries, their archery ability was also not far off from the elves, and as such, humans were still afraid of them.

To have a natural talent for the cavalry and a specialization in archery.

If you were to use the current level of human civilization as a benchmark, they were all basically sitting ducks.

“Your Excellency, there’s someone fighting ahead of us!” said the cavalry who was at the most front in a deep voice. He suddenly turned his horse around and came to Murphy’s side.

“Stop!”

There was the whinnying of the horses, and the team, which had been racing forward, suddenly stopped.

Murphy brought two guards with him and went up the high slope. He looked at the woods in the near distance.

Sure enough, there were people fighting!

At that point, the sky had already gotten dark, and the moon had risen. But as there weren’t many clouds in the sky, it didn’t really affect their ability to see.

The ones being besieged were the humans, and the ones attacking were Murphy’s old nemesis—the gnolls!

“Let’s go over and take a look,” Murphy said. He raised his hand, and the knights of the General Guards immediately followed behind him.

The terrain here was even, and with the advantage of the horses’ speed, Murphy wasn’t scared of being surrounded by the gnolls. At present, only the mercenaries and gnoll clans fought within the territory. Now that they had seen them, he had to go over and take a look.

About 300 meters away from the battlefield, Murphy stopped the knights of the General Guards.

“It’s them?!” Murphy said, a little stunned. He didn’t expect that these people would be besieged by the gnolls.

It was the Psaiyans!

The number of Psaiyans under siege was about 80. Most of them had suffered injuries. The gnolls who were besieging them numbered about 150. Most of them were female gnolls, and Murphy only saw a few tall male gnolls.

The battle was ongoing, and the Psaiyans had shrunk into a circular formation to defend and protect their seriously injured companions in the center of the formation. The gnolls had surrounded them. The Psaiyan tribe was somewhat similar to the barbarian tribe, and everyone in the tribe had the same surname. The soldiers were all from the same clan and were all blood relatives. These kinds of warriors, who were all blood relatives, could depend on each other. They wouldn’t give up on their comrades so easily!

They were just like humans, who didn’t abandon their loved ones.

Because Murphy and the others were under cover of the night sky, neither party had noticed Murphy’s approach.

“Army, take rest,” Murphy said. He had judged the Psaiyans’ current formation and decided to save them.

There were two reasons for this. The first was that they still had more than half of their fighting force, and the second was that the gnolls weren’t strong in numbers, and there weren’t many male gnolls with powerful combat capabilities. The most important thing was that they had the night sky as cover!

The rushing gallop had caused the horses to expend a lot of physical strength, and the soldiers also needed to take a break to regain their fighting power.

Murphy took out a container of water and poured mouthfuls into his mouth.

This time, there was no Greek infantry with him. He only had the thirty-two General Guards javelin cavalry, and their melee combat effectiveness wasn’t as impressive. Without the phalanx’s strong frontline confrontation ability, the only way to break up the gnolls was to rely on the cavalry’s mobility.

When they set out on their mission, each General Guard had carried four short javelins with him.

In other words, after these four javelins were thrown, these cavalrymen would have to engage in melee combat.

To tell the truth, Murphy wasn’t quite sure if they would be able to defeat the gnolls. This was because if you wanted to see a gorgeous victory, you needed to witness the war instinct of these Psaiyan leaders!

They were too few in number.

Murphy could only borrow the night as cover and cause chaos among the gnolls.

If he wanted to break through the gnolls formation head-on, he would also have to make sure the Psaiyans took the right chance and launched a counterattack when the gnolls were in chaos!

Afterward, Murphy would then be able to charge forward with his cavalries!

If the opponent didn’t have a good understanding of war and couldn’t grasp when to launch a counterattack, then Murphy could only say “sorry.”

His soldiers’ lives were no joking matter, let alone his own life.

If up until the moment before the gnolls recovered from the chaos and the opponent still had yet to launch a counterattack, Murphy would immediately take his General Guard cavalries away!

He would have done his best.

That was all he could do.

. . . . . . . . . . . .