Chapter 1055 - Crimson Moon Vanguard!
Chapter 1055: Crimson Moon Vanguard!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Ready!”
Wang Chong’s order unleashed a chorus of groaning gears. At the second line of the Tang formation, the ballista soldiers got down on one knee and began to swiftly load their ballistae. At the same time, the soldiers manning the steel walls began to push arrows into the beehives.
Bang! Bang!
At the very front, the heavy shield infantry leaned forward, propping their left feet against their shields while their right feet braced against the ground. Stellar Energy began to circulate through their entire body as they built up power.
On the other side, there was a metallic clanging as the black storm of the Arab army suddenly began to gleam with red light and the cavalry at the front pulled out their weapons. These were dark red Arabian scimitars, each one more than three feet long, double the size of normal Arabian scimitars, but more than double the weight.
Crimson Moon Scimitars!
These were the weapons that Qutaybah had equipped on his leading group of soldiers, the Crimson Moon Vanguard. The best Arab smiths needed three thousand days of constant forging to create these weapons, and they required many precious metals to forge. They were incredibly heavy and needed incredible arm strength to raise. Moreover, many Arab armies had tried to use these weapons before, but the only soldiers capable of fully displaying their strength, who had made them known throughout Arabia, were the Crimson Moon Vanguard under Qutaybah.
The soldiers of the Crimson Moon Vanguard had been specially selected for their astounding arm strength. In their hands, the heavy Crimson Moon Scimitars were extensions of their body. They were completely in tune with them, and the bloodthirsty nature of the scimitars was displayed to its full and gruesome extent.
It was precisely for this reason that Qutaybah placed great value on the Crimson Moon Vanguard. In every offensive battle, he would always send them in the first wave.
And very few people knew that when the Crimson Moon Scimitars first emerged from the furnace, they were a gorgeous silver like the moon in the night. But as the Crimson Moon Vanguard killed more and more people, their scimitars gained that red hue. Every time they unsheathed their scimitars, the air would be filled with the pungent scent of blood.
This almost suffocating odor could place an immense pressure on opponents with weaker wills!
“Kiiill!”
Bellows shook the heavens as the savage-faced Arab cavalry of the Crimson Moon Vanguard charged at the first defense line.
Three thousand zhang, two thousand zhang, one thousand zhang… The innumerable Arab cavalry were an immense wave set to crash upon the Tang defense line.
Rumble! In that moment, the earth seemed on the verge of sundering apart and the steel walls began to quiver. Even though Zhang Shouzhi had used tens of thousands of jin of metal and stone to firm up the foundations of the walls, they were still shuddering.
Buzz!
Just when this massive wave was about to crash into the defense line, Wang Chong’s eyes flashed and he stomped forward. Boom!This stomp seemed to have the weight of ten thousand jun, making the earth groan and creak underfoot.
Milky-white ripples immediately began to spread from Wang Chong’s feet, rushing toward the Arab army. Time seemed to stop for a moment as that sandstorm that had concealed the Arabs instantly vanished. The dark shadow on the ground that had closely followed the Arabs also faded away.
Brroooom! With an enormous rumble, the halos under the Crimson Moon Vanguard fiercely shook. Their lights began to fade as the effects of the war halos were instantly halved.
The Arab army behind the Crimson Moon Vanguard suffered even greater effects. In the blink of an eye, the hundreds of thousands of Arab cavalry felt their halos becoming like candles in the wind, thrown into unstable chaos by the Bane of the Battlefield Halo.
Neeeigh! Warhorses cried out as the orderly Arab ranks fell into disarray.
“How could this be?”
The eyes of the Arab soldiers in the rear bulged out of their eye sockets. They had never seen or heard of such a thing before.
“It’s that Tang commander!”
Underneath the banner of the black Nile, Governor Osman of Cairo’s expression slightly shifted. His torch-like eyes immediately noticed the problem. All of it had been caused by the young commander behind the steel walls.
“Interesting! To think that there was such an ability!”
After overcoming his initial shock, Mameluke Commander Aybak began to lick his lips in anticipation. The Mamelukes were not only obsessed with defeating the most powerful opponents. They were also extremely interested in enemy generals with unique abilities.
“This ability is very special, but it’s not impossible to deal with. Leave this person to me!”
Osman’s eyes chilled as he exploded with a vast energy that soared into the sky. His pitch-black steely halo spread from under his feet in a mixture of metallic clanging and the rumbling of a mighty river. Soon, it had spread from Osman to every horseman of the Arab army.
The chaos caused by the weakened halos was swiftly pacified and the army regained its initial appearance.
“Hmph, it’s just a measly trick!”
Osman’s eyes were tinged with disdain and scorn, but he had barely spoken when another invisible ripple of energy swept through the battlefield. The army that Osman had just pacified once more fell into disorder. With no warning whatsoever, the energies of all the Arab generals plunged, weakening the army even more than the first ripple of energy had.
Everywhere he looked, the halos of the Arab generals were rapidly weakening. Without the buff of these halos, the tens of thousands of Arab cavalry were also weakening. The sandstorm that had only just re-manifested disappeared once more.
The Bane of Generals Halo!
Seated upon the White-hoofed Shadow, Wang Chong observed the battlefield with bright and awe-inspiring eyes.
The Bane of the Battlefield Halo was possible to nullify, but only through the actions of a Great General. The Bane of Generals Halo was not as easy to neutralize. Even Great Generals would find it difficult to completely counter its effects, and both the Bane of Generals Halo and the Bane of the Battlefield Halo required the opposing Great General to expend a significant amount of energy.
Let me see just how powerful you all are! Wang Chong mentally challenged the opposition.
……
In the Arab camp, Abu Muslim, Osman, Aybak… all of them were keeping a close eye on the battlefield. While the first halo had been of little concern to Osman, the second halo had been a vicious slap to his face.
“Damned thing!
Osman’s face turned savage as he clenched his teeth. Without the slightest hesitation, a dark red halo as thick as blood erupted from his body and swept over the battlefield in a bloody storm.
As one of the strongest governors of the Arabian Empire, Osman rarely boosted his army with two halos unless he personally entered the field. Even for Osman, unleashing two powerful halos was no small burden. But Osman had a proud personality that did not permit him to lose to some eastern infidel commander.
But Osman was stunned to see that his second halo was only able to give a small boost to the Arab generals. They had still not recovered their original strength.
“This is impossible!”
Even Aybak was rather taken aback.
He had known Osman for many years and knew how powerful he was. Osman might have been weaker than the Governor of War and the Governor of Iron and Blood, but he was basically unmatched amongst the other governors. That Osman had been forced to unleash two halos and yet still could not completely nullify the burden on the soldiers meant that this young Tang commander was far more powerful than all of them had imagined.
“Osman, I’ll help you.”
Aybak’s eyes coldly glimmered as he suddenly intervened. His body paused for a brief moment, and then there was an explosion of light as a silver halo swept over the battlefield like liquid mercury.
The combined strength of Osman and Aybak was just barely enough to nullify the negative effects on the Arab generals, but their halos were still substantially weakened.
Wang Chong’s clash between Aybak and Osman seemed to last a long time, but all of this had elapsed in the blink of an eye, and it was only at this moment that the two armies finally clashed.
“Release!”
A young and cold voice rang out over the battlefield. Chen Bin’s erect figure, standing on a supply carriage upon which a ballista had been placed, swung down his sword.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Black ballista bolts, wrapped in destructive energy, thundered toward the Arab army like roaring dragons.
Thudthudthud! The sounds of ballista bolts crashing into flesh rang through the air. Each ballista bolt unleashed a chorus of Arab screams and the whinnying of horses. A single volley immediately caused six to seven thousand cavalry to drop to the ground along with their horses. Behind them, the dense flood of Arabs rode over their bodies.
Some Arabs who were still clinging to life immediately had their lives snuffed out by the stampede.
In the first phase of this battle, the Great Tang had emerged victorious, but it had come at a heavy cost. Tens of thousands of soldiers had died, and countless weapons and equipment had been destroyed, including the pride of the Great Tang, the ballistae. The more than three thousand ballistae had been whittled down to a thousand-some, and this was after Zhang Shouzhi and his men had done their utmost to repair whatever they could.
The severe loss in ballistae had forced Chen Bin to alter his strategy. He had waited to fire off this volley for a very long time, intentionally choosing not to fire beforehand as he usually did. Instead, he had waited until the soldiers were the most concentrated and the angle was the most ideal to finally fire.
Neeeigh! As the seven thousand Arab cavalry fell to the ground, the cavalry behind them were carried along by their inertia into the bodies of their comrades, immediately throwing their ranks into chaos.
Although Chen Bin’s volley had only killed seven thousand, he had lined it up in such a way that it had done far more than just kill seven thousand enemy soldiers.