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Chapter 241 – Extermination By The Flick Of A Wrist
Zhao Hai looked a bit blank at first, and then smiled, “Thank you, beastman friend, but it’s no longer necessary. I can take care of it myself.” After that, he turned around and faced those incoming jackals.
The jackals were holding their weapons without a look of slowing down. They seemed intent on killing them on the spot.
Zhao Hai let out a cold breath, and with a wave of the Evil Spirit Staff, 100 undead creatures appeared outside the convoy. They weren’t humanoids, but beasts. Instead of zombies, they were all skeletons.
Zhao Hai did this because he didn’t intend to hide his identity. From here on, if he wanted to travel on Beastmen Prairie, it would surely attract the merchants’ attention, and they would look into who he was. Zhao Hai was unveiling his black mage identity in order to let them know that he, Zhao Hai, had arrived on Beastmen Prairie.
These undead creatures had all been kept in the space since yesterday in order to deal with the current situation. As long as a black mage wouldn’t use humanoid undead creatures, one wouldn’t be too reviled, especially on Beastmen Prairie. In here, everything was measured by strength. Beastmen wouldn’t be too disgusted even if one were to raise a large army of undead humans. As long as there was strength, the beastmen wouldn’t care about many things.
Currently, Zhao Hai’s space contained 1000 undead beasts, and it would be enough for just 100 of them to deal with this situation, so he didn’t let them all out.
Even so, the jackals were having a great shock. The undead which Zhao Hai unleashed were very large. The jackals in front of the undead beasts were like a child less than 10 years old standing before a huge man.
These undead creatures were now level 7 in strength, which was stronger than the jackals. With the difference in physical size, the 100 undead had surrounded the 200 jackals. Before other jackals could even react, 2 flanks of the undead creatures eliminated the 200 jackals inside.
Even though humans would be hunted down by beastmen if they killed beastmen, it would be another matter if it were out of self-defense. Beastmen wouldn’t bat an eye at this.
When Zhao Hai unleashed the undead creatures, the herculean bulls’ leading youth knew that Zhao Hai could take out those jackals. But he had never expected that the jackals would be taken out this quickly.
As the prince of the herculean bulls, he knew a lot more about mages compared to common beastmen, but he had never seen a mage showing his hand before. After all, he had always lived on Beastmen Prairie, and humans couldn’t attack freely when on the prairie.
After taking out the jackals, Zhao Hai turned to speak to the herculean bull youth, “Dear beastman friend, let us work together in taking out the enemies and then have a couple of drinks. How about it?”
Zhao Hai had a good impression of this herculean bull, who was willing to offer help when he saw that there was trouble. Zhao Hai harbored gratitude towards him because of this.
The herculean bull did a double take after hearing what Zhao Hai said, and understood what he meant after a thought; Zhao Hai wanted to help him, yet feared hurting his image, which was why Zhao Hai asked if they wanted to work together.
He understood Zhao Hai’s good intentions, but the beastman’s pride wouldn’t allow him to do so. He spoke loudly, “Human friend, Wales of the Herculean Bull Tribe asks you to help him get rid of those detestable mongrels.”
Zhao Hai’s face went blank for an instant before laughing out loud. He liked how frank Wales was. He was afraid that Wales wouldn’t let him help, but he wasn’t expecting that Wales was so proud that he ‘asked’ for help, while not leaving an inch of ground.
Naturally, the conversation between the 2 had been heard very clearly by the jackals. They couldn’t help from panicking, as they had just witnessed the fighting power of the undead creatures. To be honest, they weren’t confident about dealing with this. If the 300 warriors from the Herculean Bull Tribe were added on top of it, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
Just when they were going to readjust themselves, a large quantity of undead creatures suddenly appeared around them. These creatures were different from the 100 that had been unleashed before. Some of them were large beast skeletons. These undead creatures surrounded the 2000 jackal cavalry swiftly.
What’s the most ‘tragic’ situation for cavalry? It’s being surrounded. Cavalry that has lost its space to charge is often not as scary as infantry.
The reason why jackals could become the most famous bandits on the prairie was because of their cavalry. Their mounts were wind-type flash jackals. Flash jackals were the jackal race’s beastkin. Level 5 magic beasts, known for their speed and high mobility. They were the reason why the jackals could come and go like wind on the prairie and let no one track them down.
But now, they had been surrounded. With their proud mobility lost, the thin jackals were now like the ‘tea set’ on the tea table: utterly fragile.
However, they soon discovered that they weren’t the tea set, as using tea set to describe them was a little too inappropriate. They should instead be described as food in a kitchen. When they were surrounded, their outcome was destined to be more gruesome than what gruesome could describe.
The jackals were still in a panic. Zhao Hai had given the command to attack, and the tall undead creatures assaulted the jackals.
Wales was stunned by this display at first, but he soon gave the order to attack as well. Naturally, he wouldn’t let go of this chance to beat the mongrels when they were down.
These herculean bull warriors had been harboring a great frustration in their hearts when they had been surrounded. Now that Wales gave the order to attack, every single one of them was like they were on stimulants. With a shout, they rode on their bull mounts and charged towards the jackals.
The herculean bulls’ mounts weren’t stoneskin bulls. Stoneskin bulls may be powerful in strength and defense, but they were slow, so they weren’t the best choice for cavalry. That was why their cavalry was made up of another kind of magic beast: ground bulls.
Ground bulls were a kind of level 5 magic beast. They weren’t slow, their defenses were good, and their strength was great. Just the most suitable kind of mount for the herculean bulls. Yet ground bulls weren’t the herculean bulls’ beastkin, as they had always thought of stoneskin bulls as their beastkin. In the process of absorbing the souls after killing stoneskin bulls, they had always believed that they were fusing with their own beastkin. This could be regarded as an exception on Beastmen Prairie.
On the prairie, beastmen’s beastkin were commonly their mounts. There were seldom cases where they were like the herculean bulls, who treated their own soul beasts as their beastkin.
Zhao Hai had to admit when watching the herculean bulls, that they had a powerful charge. It was several times more powerful than cataphracts on Earth. You can imagine what the process of over 200 kilos of heavy axes in action was like.
There is a saying in Chinese martial arts, ‘When a weapon is swung, a tael can scale a kilo’. In other words, when you swing something weighing a kilo in your hand, you can unleash up to 10 kilos of force. Ancient Chinese cavalry would not be able to swing their swords. Their blades were gripped horizontally next to their saddles, and horsepower was used to kill enemies. That was why ancient Chinese prairie tribesmen would use curved blades. More damage could be done if they were used in a cavalry charge.
Yet the herculean bull cavalry’s weapons weren’t unmoving. They actually swung their heavy axes. Adding the charging force of the ground bulls, how many kilos of force would it be? Zhao Hai couldn’t really calculate it.
Zhao Hai was a military aficionado, so he knew that the reason why ancient cavalry wouldn’t swing their weapons was because it would easily lead to shoulder dislocations. Hence, when they were charging with long weapons, they weren’t held, but supported under the armpit between the forearm and torso.
Back then, common cavalry would use pikes. They wouldn’t really stab enemies. Instead, they would raise their pikes the instant they struck their enemies. Not an actual stab; just a point, and they would immediately pull away. Otherwise, their shafts would snap.
That was ancient China’s cavalry, and the cavalry of other countries was another thing. They wore thick and heavy armor, and used lances. But one had to pay attention, for the lances they used were made of a kind of very brittle wood. In the process of charging, the moment the lances struck, they would shatter. If a cavalryman was skilled, then only the frontmost part of the lance would snap, and the other parts could still be used.
When the Chinese were making their pikes, this problem had been put into consideration, so instead of being made of whole pieces of wood, they were made of strips like modern steel industrial cords. Not only were they firm, but they had a certain hardness as well. That was why when attacking enemies, there was a certain delay. Cavalry could use this force to pull their pikes away and avoid snapping their shafts.
It could be said that Earth’s cavalry didn’t utilize human power, but horsepower. But the Herculean bulls’ charge didn’t just use the ground bulls’ power, but also their own. With both of them together, their might was even greater.
Of course, it also had something to do with the fact that the health conditions of people on Ark Continent were much better than those on Earth. Plants here had sufficient magic elements, and the air here had a lot more elements than the air on Earth, so under these circumstances, living things on Ark Continent were more powerful than Earthlings. If Zhao Hai had to describe the charge of the herculean bulls’ cavalry, he could only think of one word: beautiful. It was a kind of beauty; of cruelty, power, and slaughter.
The battle was basically over after the charge of the 300 ground bulls cavalry. It wasn’t to say that they had eliminated all of the jackals in one go. Their charge had eliminated more than 400 jackals, while the rest were taken out by Zhao Hai’s undead creatures.
After that, the cavalry of 300 returned to the camp and watched the corpses of the jackals outside idly.
It wasn’t as if they had never seen corpses before. Any single one of the warriors who had been tasked to ensure Wales’ safety had been through a lot of battles. They were simply awestruck that nearly 2000 jackals had been eliminated this way.
Just then, a sudden cloud of black mist shrouded the battlefield. By the time the black mist dispersed, nothing remained. If it weren’t for the trampled grass, no one would believe that it had just been a fighting ground.
Just then, Zhao Hai’s wagon slowly entered the campsite, stopping 20 meters away from Wales. Zhao Hai, Laura and the others got down from the wagon and walked towards Wales slowly. The cavalry wanted to stop them, but Wales shouted at them to stand aside.
Zhao Hai led the 3 people with him and stopped 2 meters away from Wales. Zhao Hai performed a standard chest salute, “My brother Wales, greetings. Zhao Hai sends you the most sincere of blessings.”
Wales returned the chest salute, and then hugged Zhao Hai while laughing loudly, “You are an amazing mage, brother Zhao Hai! Just a single spell, and you have defeated the jackals. From today onwards, you are my closest friend.”
Zhao Hai wasn’t used to Wales’ sudden passionate display. He barely managed to get out of Wales’ hug and panted, “My brother Wales, don’t hug me like that again. I almost suffocated.”
Zhao Hai’s words made every beastman on the spot laugh out loud. They found out that they had started to like him, because he said what was on his mind, and was very sincere, unlike how falsely the humans they had seen before behaved.
Laura and the others had also laughed. She noticed that when Zhao Hai was facing beastmen, he was much more open and free compared to when he faced humans. This was something she and the others had never expected.
The lances thing is not entirely wrong however the author is using the wrong scenario for that sort of lance and also the reason that they broke easily. Lances were more commonly used for jousting than in the battlefield and were designed to snap easily to prevent 1. injuries in jousting and 2. being knocked off the horse as a result of the lance hitting something with too much resistance.
Lances were never really designed to be used in long skirmishes though, only in the initial clash so no matter how skilled you are at making sure the lance doesn’t shatter completely, it would be pretty useless when you are in a skirmish due to it’s length and lack of any real damaging areas, it’s main use was to knock over enemies using the horse’s momentum.
The furfag comment was the best
not a “furfag”. He mentionned previously that he liked beastmen because they were direct and honest, compared to the humans.