"Trying to escape?"
Achilles' eyes glinted fiercely. The Saint Dragon Shadow took the lead, swift as the wind, charging directly at the Great Qian cavalry.
The Great Qian soldiers turned and fired crossbow bolts, but they had little effect against the fully armored Achilles.
Achilles merely swung his saber, easily deflecting the arrows aimed at his and the Saint Dragon Shadow's eyes, while the rest bounced harmlessly off their armor.
In the blink of an eye, Achilles reached Yue Feng's thousand-man contingent, who were covering the rear. He casually cut a cavalryman in half with his saber.
"How dare you, villain!"
His comrade's gruesome death made Yue Feng's eyes split with rage. Reason told him it was not the time to fight, but the enemy general was already upon him. The enemy's saber, sharp as if it could shave iron, easily pierced the special cotton armor with steel plates inside. Wherever it passed, no one could withstand a single blow. He had no choice but to defend himself with his Water Pattern Steel Spear.
Achilles' mountain-crashing saber swept towards him. Yue Feng's pupils contracted. With keen intuition, he narrowly dodged the blow. His spear tip then aimed directly for Achilles' face, but Achilles parried the spear with a backhand saber strike. The two immediately engaged in a life-or-death battle.
Facing Achilles' storm-like saber techniques and astonishing divine strength, Yue Feng's tiger's mouth was numb from the impact. He also noticed numerous saber marks on his spear, which seemed on the verge of breaking at any moment. Helplessly, he feigned a thrust and retreated on horseback.
"General, retreat quickly!" The personal guards around him rushed to cover Yue Feng, but Achilles, with a single saber strike, annihilated over a dozen guards in an instant and caught up with Yue Feng.
"Pay me no mind! Quickly inform my brother to retreat!!"
The pursuing enemy was close, and many personal guards had fallen. Yue Feng, heartbroken, roared hastily and turned to face the enemy with his life on the line.
The Great Qian soldiers ahead, fighting and retreating, informed the vanguard.
"Crack!"
After more than ten rounds of fierce fighting, the Water Pattern Steel Spear finally could not withstand Achilles' enraged chopping and had its tip severed. Yue Feng's hands also grew numb from Achilles' fierce blows.
Yue Feng had no choice but to wield the spear shaft to strike Achilles, but Achilles flicked the spear shaft away with his saber and then, with a follow-up strike, cut Yue Feng down from his horse.
Alas, a rising star fell by the hand of the Heavenly Sun tribe's war god.
"Little brother!!"
Yue Yun, who had rushed to rescue him, happened to see the tragic scene of Yue Feng's death from afar. He was filled with incandescent rage, but quickly calmed down.
The enemy pursuers seemed to number over twenty thousand. If they didn't retreat now, more and more soldiers would die in vain!
Recalling the soldier's report of Yue Feng urging him to retreat before his death, Yue Yun suppressed the grief in his heart, personally engaged Achilles, and fought while retreating.
"Annihilate this Great Qian cavalry!"
Achilles' voice boomed from atop his horse as he fought with increasing ferocity.
Yue Yun, relying on his Silver Dragon Gold Spear, defended cautiously, using the skill of yielding to overcome strength to mitigate Achilles' fierce attacks as much as possible.
But Achilles was like a persistent scar. Facing the combined assault of Yue Yun and the surrounding Great Qian cavalry, he advanced instead of retreating, suppressing Yue Yun while also easily slaying three cavalry generals.
The Heavenly Sun tribe's pursuit forces had arrived!
In this critical moment, thunderous war cries from the north and the neighing of warhorses filled the air.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Nan Jiyun and Shi Liuyun, leading over ten thousand cavalry, arriving to reinforce them!
The Central Continent cavalry, armed with powerful bows and crossbows, charged into the battlefield, forcing back the Heavenly Sun cavalry. Nan Jiyun and Shi Liuyun, sensing Yue Yun's spear techniques were gradually falling behind, joined the fray without hesitation, surrounding Achilles.
The three contemporary fierce generals of the Great Qian kingdom engaged Achilles in a fierce battle, yet they were still unable to subdue him.
Achilles sustained multiple spear wounds, but due to his full armor, he only felt some impact and was not injured. He remained fearless, fighting three opponents at once.
Nan Jiyun and the other two secretly marveled.
They were all using Silver Dragon Gold weapons, yet they couldn't easily break through his defenses!
This meant that Achilles must be wearing White Dragon Gold armor!
As the two sides engaged in a fierce battle, the Central Continent cavalry and the Heavenly Sun cavalry also began a full-scale engagement, with arrows and bolts flying and sabers and spears clashing.
Just as both sides were locked in intense combat, Heraclius arrived with another cavalry force of five thousand, charging onto the battlefield.
Achilles, using the higher ground and his superior eyesight, saw Heraclius from afar. His heart skipped a beat. From his horse, he swept his saber in all directions, forcing back the three Great Qian generals. He then turned his horse and led his troops to charge into the fray.
The four Great Qian generals, leading twenty thousand Central Continent cavalry, faced the enemy reinforcements. After a prolonged engagement, they eventually gained the upper hand with their bows and crossbows, temporarily halting the fighting.
Under Yue Yun's furious gaze, Achilles thrust his saber into Yue Feng's severed head and lifted it, laughing heartily.
Yue Yun felt his chest about to explode, but he heard the rumbling of approaching hooves in the distance, guessing that the Heavenly Sun elite cavalry were close. He gritted his teeth and said, "The enemy reinforcements are approaching. Retreat to our main force first!"
Even Yue Yun, who had lost his beloved brother, tried to maintain his composure. The other generals could only place the bodies of their fallen comrades on their horses and retreat quickly.
Yue Feng's remains were missing a head...
"Lord Achilles, the main force has arrived. Why don't we pursue?"
The Heavenly Sun cavalry generals eagerly requested to give chase, but Achilles stopped them.
"Liang Xiao himself is not here, and he might personally lead the main army to intercept us. This man is full of cunning, and we must be wary!"
"But we have only killed two thousand of the enemy, far fewer than our own tribesmen lost to the enemy..." The Heavenly Sun cavalry generals were all enraged.
Achilles sneered, "There will be more days. First, send scouts to investigate the enemy's movements clearly, and avoid falling into an encirclement. Then, we can use our cavalry to raid the enemy's rear, making them flee in exhaustion!"
"As for this person." Achilles glanced at Yue Feng's head in his hand, "Take it outside Yuzhang City and display it! I refuse to believe that General Tian would remain indifferent to this battle!"
Inside the Yuzhang military camp, Liang Xiao counted the losses, his expression unusually solemn.
The vanguard of five thousand for this battle had lost two thousand two hundred, with the remaining soldiers all wounded. They had only managed to kill about fifteen hundred of the enemy and destroyed a large amount of enemy provisions. By all logic, the losses should have been equal.
But this was a rare defeat and casualty ratio for the Great Qian cavalry since the reform of the military system. Moreover, the bodies of over a hundred soldiers had not been brought back.
The young general Yue Feng, whom he had personally cultivated, had been beheaded by the enemy.
The Heavenly Sun cavalry's speed had exceeded the Great Qian soldiers' predictions.
Or rather, this was perhaps a normal battlefield engagement, with victories and losses on both sides, as the Heavenly Sun cavalry were not weak in themselves.
"Marshal, our army should temporarily change its strategy and advance steadily to avoid being surrounded. I beg for punishment!" Yue Yun knelt before Liang Xiao, his expression filled with grief. Liang Xiao helped him up.
"This battle is my responsibility. You all go rest first. Our army will avenge our fallen soldiers as soon as possible," Liang Xiao comforted him.
"For the next major battle, I request to be the vanguard!" Yue Yun stated with conviction.
The generals looked at Yue Yun and then came forward to comfort him.
Yue Yun, enduring his grief and hatred, still reminded Liang Xiao not to rush into revenge, which was truly commendable.
Less than two hours after Liang Xiao had appeased the generals, an urgent report from a scout arrived.
"The enemy is outside the military camp, beheading our soldiers' corpses for amusement and desecrating their bodies!"
Upon hearing this, everyone, including Liang Xiao and Gongsun Ye, slammed the table in anger and climbed to a high vantage point to look.
"How dare the White Ghosts desecrate our Great Qian soldiers!!"