dtnovels Chapter 57: The Battle of Four Races
Chapter 57: The Battle of Four Races
More than a million orcs swept in, overwhelming everything in their path.
The war drums sounded again, the horns blew again, and humans unleashed a barrage of crossbow bolts, rockets, and arrows, raining down upon the land.
As the orcs drew closer to the human camp, reaching a distance of seven or eight hundred meters, the orcs at the front fell into the first trench set up by the humans.
The first trench dug by humans was thirty meters wide. Inside the trench, there were many thick, round wooden stakes, which were firmly embedded in the ground. The tops of the stakes were nailed with strong iron spikes, and the sides of the stakes were also embedded with sharp blades and barbs.
The first rank of orcs fell into the first trench, some were impaled by iron spikes, others were stabbed to death by sharp blades and barbs.
The orcs attempted to avoid the trench by following its edge, but the trench was long and appeared to be circular, protecting the human camp.
In the orc camp, the middle ranks provided cover with arrows, forcing the front-line orcs to jump into the trenches and slowly move forward, using their greatswords and sharp weapons to continuously chop at the round stakes in an attempt to remove them all.
When the humans noticed the large number of orcs jumping into the first trench, a barrage of crossbow bolts and fire arrows rained down on them. The fire arrows were particularly dangerous; upon landing, they immediately ignited the wooden stakes, quickly spreading into a large fire pit. Many of the orcs at the front of the trench were burned to death before they could escape. Those at the back tried to retreat, but there were too many of them, and the crowd was too dense; they couldn't find a foothold and fell back into the trench, some being stabbed to death, others burned alive, their screams echoing throughout the area.
The orc troops retreated several hundred meters, avoiding human crossbow bolts and arrows. Seeing the impassable sea of fire ahead, the orcs temporarily halted their advance, waiting for the fire to subside before launching another attack.
Perhaps it was the towering flames of the trenches that attracted the fire dragons' attention. About three or four kilometers away from the Elven Mountain Kingdom, more than 200,000 fire dragons split into two groups. About 40,000 fire dragons left the main force, bypassed the Elven territory, and flew around to the battlefield of humans and orcs. The remaining 160,000 fire dragons rushed directly towards the Spirit Palace.
Seeing some fire dragons detour, the elves unleashed five thousand great eagles, each carrying two elves, swiftly heading towards the human battlefield to form a defensive formation behind the humans and intercept the fire dragons. The remaining sixteen thousand great eagles also immediately took to the air, guarding the spirit palace above.
This great battle was basically divided into three battlefields.
More than 160,000 fire dragons drew closer and closer to the Spirit Palace, and the light from the spires of the square towers surrounding the Spirit Palace grew stronger and stronger. These lights gradually converged, forming a continuous stream of radiating lightning at the center of the Spirit Palace.
Suddenly, the intensity of the lightning in the center of the Spirit Palace increased dramatically, and bolts of lightning struck the oncoming fire dragons. Some of the fire dragons were hit and fell straight to the ground, while others flapped their broken wings violently and teetered in the air.
The enraged fire dragon spewed flames from its mouth toward the center of the spirit tower, but because the distance was still quite far, it did not have a good attack effect.
The fire dragons sped up, quickly dodging the lightning attacks. The elves riding on eagles above the Spirit Palace drew their bows and nocked arrows, shooting silver arrows directly at the fire dragons' bellies. The struck fire dragons' bellies exploded violently, molten lava flowing out, then cooling in mid-air, becoming a black mass surrounded by red rims, which, along with the fire dragon's shattered remains, fell to the ground.
The elves spurred their eagles forward, advancing the formation by seven or eight hundred meters. Each eagle carried two elves, who fired arrows almost continuously. Their archery was so accurate that they could kill a fire dragon with a single arrow.
The fire dragon troops gradually spewed out fire in unison, forming a sea of fire in the sky.
The billowing smoke and flames in the air hampered the elves' archery accuracy. The elven commander spurred his eagles straight towards the fire dragon's ranks, followed by other elves. These eagle-riding elves, like moths to a flame, plunged into the massive dragon formation, engaging the dragons in direct combat.
Relying on the eagle's agility and speed, the elves swiftly weaved through the dragons, wielding golden swords to directly slay the leader of the fire dragons.
The fire dragon camp was thrown into chaos by the eagle-riding elves. After leaving many fire dragons to fight these elves, most of the fire dragons continued to advance, getting closer and closer to the Spirit Palace.
When the main force of the fire dragons was 500 meters away from the Spirit Palace, the rockets and crossbows deployed around the Spirit Palace were fired in unison.
The elves in the Spirit Palace Square intensified their efforts, and lightning crackled across the tip of the square tower, striking directly at the approaching fire dragon.
Behind the human camp, the elves atop 40,000 fire dragons and 5,000 eagles had also begun their battle. These elves were fiercely defending three or four lines of defense, not charging into the enemy camp to engage in combat, but instead using dense volleys of arrows to repel wave after wave of enemy attacks.
Zhou Yuan had already activated the imaging and energy scanning system. To his surprise, he discovered that whenever an orc, fire dragon, human, or elf died, the invisible energy reading in the air would rise. This energy seemed to be converging in the air, and as the creatures died, an invisible energy band was formed in the air, which extended in a westward direction.
"Iron Guard, you take a few flying saucers and see where this invisible energy band is being transported to."
"As ordered!"
Zhou Yuan and the others turned their attention to the holographic screen. Below this fleet space, a fierce battle for survival had been going on for three or four hours.
Seeing that the fire in the trench had almost died down, the orcs moved forward again. The humans, of course, fired their crossbows.
Rows of orcs leaped into the thirty-meter-deep trench. Once across, the front rank of orcs, upon reaching the ground, immediately raised their vine shields to protect themselves from human arrows. They then moved forward step by step, with the orcs following behind also raising their shields. Approximately two hundred thousand orcs crossed the first trench erected by the humans. The orc ranks had moved forward one hundred meters.
Just as the 200,000 orcs were gloating, a sudden scream came from ahead. Rows of orcs had fallen into a deep ditch. This was the second line of defense set up by humans, a ditch ten meters wide and fifteen meters deep, filled with the sharp tips of tree trunks.
The orc was caught in a dilemma, simply raising his vine shields and pondering how to cross the deep ravine. There were no trees to cut down for building a bridge on this grassland, and climbing the mountain was too high and would take too long.
The fire dragon army attacking the Spirit Palace seemed to know about the orcs' predicament, and immediately dispatched more than a dozen fire dragons to support the orcs from different directions.
The elves had to split into more than a dozen groups, each group dealing with the corresponding fire dragon forces.
The elves were already outnumbered by the fire dragons, and the fire dragons' strategy of providing support in batches greatly reduced the effectiveness of the elves' teamwork in combat. As a result, the number of elf casualties skyrocketed.
Finally, three waves of fire dragons broke through the elves' defenses and stormed in from the right rear of the human camp.
Panic immediately broke out among the human forces, who hastily changed formation. The crossbowmen, archers, and rocket launchers quickly moved to their right and unleashed a barrage of arrows at the fire dragon unit in front of them. However, the human arrows were far inferior to those used by the elves, and their accuracy was also poor. These arrows seemed to only tickle the fire dragons, falling off their hard scales as soon as they hit them.
Three waves of fire dragons rushed straight towards the human army. After determining that they had reached the effective range, these fire dragons spewed out intense flames, sweeping low over the human army. The humans could not withstand such fire, and screams filled the air, throwing the ranks into chaos.
Taking advantage of the chaos in the human army, the orc army actually carried the corpses of their fallen comrades to a certain place in the second trench set up by the humans, and threw the corpses down. The corpses piled up higher and higher until they were almost level with the ground.
The orc army trampled over the corpses of their comrades, swarming across the deep trench laid out by the humans with ease.
By the time the human army recovered, the orcs were already upon them. The humans quickly changed formation, reverting to their original formation designed to counter the orcs.
The fire dragon forces, probably considering that it would harm the orc army, did not continue attacking the humans, but instead retreated to support their comrades in the Spirit Palace.
As the orcs and humans drew closer, the humans grew increasingly tense. The orcs seemed to have gone mad, as if they wanted to vent all the humiliation they had suffered. These orcs charged forward recklessly, brandishing long swords and other sharp weapons, and swarmed towards them in a massive attack.
Humanity beat drums again, horns sounded again, and all was silent. Human warriors roared with a spirit of fearlessness, as if facing death without fear.
In an instant, the orcish army arrived. The human iron shield formations were layered upon each other, and spears protruding from the top of the shields pierced through rows of orcs. These spears were quickly pulled back from the orcish corpses, then thrust out again with force. However, under the rapid charge of the orcish army, several spears were impaled on corpses. Before the spears could be quickly pulled back and thrust out again, the orcs had already reached the iron shields. The orcs raised their swords and hacked wildly at the shields. The orcs were incredibly strong, and the wrists of the soldiers holding the shields went numb from the force. Some orcs even used the iron shields as stepping stones to leap directly into the shield formation, where they were wiped out by the human heavy armored troops. However, around the human positions, large numbers of orcs had already entered the iron shield formation.
The human cavalry on both sides had already engaged the orcs. The cavalry charged through the orcs, hacking and slashing. However, the orcs were too numerous. Some orcs noticed the approaching warhorses and directly bent down to cut off their horses' legs. The warhorses threw the human soldiers off their horses. These fallen soldiers fought against the swarming orcs, fighting ten against one, and were quickly and brutally killed.
On this battlefield between humans and orcs, there were severed limbs everywhere, and rivers of blood flowed.
The five thousand eagle elves who were supporting the human rear have also been completely wiped out.
The orc army had already routed the human forces, and the remaining human soldiers were still struggling to hold on, with the human population dwindling.
Above and on the ground of the Spirit Palace, the elves continued their battle against the powerful fire dragon army. The nine elders constantly summoned lightning, while the other elves, in groups of three or four, also summoned lightning to launch fierce attacks on the fire dragons in the sky.
"Dean Zhou, this is Tie Wei. We've found the destination of the energy belts; they've converged on a colossal tree a thousand kilometers away. This colossal tree is guarded by countless terrifying insects, and fire dragons are also protecting it from the sky! Over a hundred kilometers away from this tree is a massive volcano, where many fire dragons reside!"
Zhou Yuan and Wei Shan were taken aback. Zhou Yuan couldn't help but recall the results of the planet's three-dimensional deep scan last night. The enormous tree should be the green protrusion, the red one should be the volcano, and he wondered what the blue and the other six protrusions were, as well as the huge sphere encased in the planet's core. This "superpowered planet" was indeed full of strange things.
While Zhou Yuan was pondering, Yang Suo, who had been dispatched the day before, entered the communication channel.
"Dean Zhou, I am Yang Suo. This planet has nine protrusions on its surface: one is a gigantic tree, one is a gigantic volcano, one is a large palace with a blue halo belonging to the Elven race, and the other six are huge launch towers set up on the sea!"
"A launch tower?" Zhou Yuan was somewhat surprised. The technology of the native creatures on this planet was obviously backward. Could it be that there was an extraterrestrial civilization involved?