LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 43 - Alas, the bones by the Unsettled River, still haunt the dreams of those in their spring
The two armies clashed once more, colliding fiercely.
Oliver Sheng led the charge, spear in hand, becoming a killing machine as he cut down Hun cavalry left and right.
He alone was worth a thousand riders.
After several bouts, all the Hun cavalry lay dead. Behind Oliver, only about five hundred riders remained, nearly everyone wounded. If not for the large stockpile of healing pills they had seized, even more would have perished.
The battle was extraordinarily brutal. Oliver was not a god, though he fought desperately to kill the Hun cavalry.
But the Huns outnumbered them, and casualties were inevitable.
On the ground, broken spears and weapons lay scattered. The Drink Horse River ran red with blood.
"Boom!"
Before Oliver's troops could catch their breath, the sound of another cavalry charge came from the distant grasslands.
Seeing the approaching Hun cavalry, everyone gripped their weapons tightly.
Fortunately, they had managed to eliminate the previous three thousand riders. Otherwise, with this new wave joining the fray, their chances of survival would have been grim.
"Brothers, let's kill to our heart's content today!" Oliver shouted with fierce determination.
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
Without hesitation, Oliver allocated points, consuming five hundred Kill Points to push his cultivation to the limit of an Acquired Martial Artist.
He increased his strength to thirty-five thousand pounds, significantly boosting his power.
Only by becoming stronger and killing more Hun cavalry could he ensure the survival of more of his soldiers.
"Kill!"
Oliver led the charge, the remaining five hundred riders following with murderous intent in their eyes.
They were all warriors who had fought their way out of death, the weak already culled.
The opposing Hun army was another force of two thousand ironclad cavalry.
Seeing Oliver's troops charging without hesitation, many Hun cavalrymen felt it was their mission to leave Oliver's forces on the grasslands, even if it meant their own deaths.
No one had ever dared to slaughter their way through the Hun grasslands and return unscathed.
With a death-defying spirit, Oliver's five hundred ironclad riders charged into the formation of the two thousand Hun cavalry.
The enemy commander was also an Acquired Martial Artist at Great Perfection.
He swung his battle blade at Oliver with exceptional ferocity.
"Boom!!"
Oliver's spear strike, powered by over forty thousand pounds of force, sent the commander flying, crushing a large number of Hun cavalry beneath him.
Even in death, the enemy commander couldn't understand how Oliver's spear strike could possess such terrifying power.
That pure force of forty to fifty thousand pounds was unstoppable, destroying everything in its path.
With one spear strike, Oliver killed the enemy commander, becoming invincible in that moment.
He then charged into the Hun cavalry like a fierce dragon, killing dozens of Hun cavalry in mere moments.
His overwhelming power left no one able to withstand him. He single-handedly disrupted the enemy's formation.
Cameron Guo, Wesley Hu, Zane Wang, and others followed closely behind Oliver, slashing and killing countless enemies.
With the enemy's Acquired Martial Artist commander dead, and no high-level combatants left, Cameron and Wesley, both at the early stages of the Acquired realm, also went on a killing spree among the enemy ranks.
With Oliver, Cameron, and Wesley killing the majority of the Hun forces, the death rate of their ordinary soldiers was significantly reduced.
After the battle, only about three hundred riders remained standing behind Oliver.
Even though Oliver alone had killed six to seven hundred Hun soldiers, the sheer number of enemies was an advantage.
A one-for-one exchange still cost them many lives.
These were two thousand elite, fully-armored Hun cavalry. Achieving such a remarkable victory, they had every reason to be proud.
"Brothers, we won," Oliver shouted, his voice echoing across the grasslands.
In this battle, with less than nine hundred riders, they had faced five thousand Hun cavalry and annihilated them. This achievement was a significant victory, not just at Peace Pass, but across the entire Northern Frontier battlefield.
"Victory!"
"Victory!"
The surviving soldiers shouted, venting their boiling blood.
After such a brutal battle, only a third of them remained. Two-thirds of the soldiers would forever rest on these grasslands.
By the Drink Horse River, the ground was littered with corpses, the soil soaked with blood, seeping into the river, turning its waters red.
Oliver looked at the bodies strewn across the ground and recalled a line of poetry.
"Alas, the bones by the Unsettled River, still haunt the dreams of those in their spring chambers!"
Nearly six hundred of his men were forever buried here.
They were all young and full of life, with long futures ahead of them. Some might have had wives waiting for their return.
Those women in their chambers would never see their loved ones return victorious.
"Oliver, we need to leave quickly. If we get surrounded by more Hun cavalry, none of the remaining brothers will make it out," Zane Wang said, holding a blood-stained blade and dragging an injured arm.
Their position had been exposed, and the Huns had discovered their intent to return. Staying on the grasslands any longer would only increase their danger.
There was no time to collect the bodies of their fallen comrades.
Oliver had no choice but to order a retreat.
They took three thousand warhorses and left the Drink Horse River.
With so few men, they had to leave behind four to five thousand riderless warhorses, which would have been a burden.
Barely two quarters of an hour after they left, another group of Hun cavalry arrived.
Seeing the bodies scattered everywhere and the wandering riderless horses, Tristan Helan's face turned grim. They were too late.
"Tribuni!"
"Tribuni Tuo Ba, Tribuni Hu, and Tribuni Yi are all dead. Five thousand brave warriors, none survived, all died heroically."
"How many enemies were killed?" Tristan Helan's face was so dark it could drip water.
"About five hundred seventy bodies, less than six hundred."
"With such losses, how strong is the enemy? How many men do they have?" Tristan Helan was bewildered.
These were five thousand elite Hun cavalry, who would dare to charge directly at thirty thousand Great Wei infantry. Yet now, they all lay dead by the Drink Horse River.
A ten-to-one casualty ratio was terrifying. He couldn't fathom the enemy's strength.
Perhaps the intelligence was wrong, and this was no ordinary Wei army.
"Could there be an Innate expert among them? Otherwise, how could three Acquired Martial Artists at Great Perfection all die?" a Tribuni speculated.
Tristan Helan remained silent. Only an Innate Martial Artist could kill three Acquired Martial Artists at Great Perfection.
This undoubtedly indicated the presence of an Innate expert among the enemy.
"Should we pursue?" another Tribuni asked.
If they pursued and the enemy had an Innate expert, they would be marching to their deaths.
If they didn't pursue, they would face the Left Wise King's wrath.
"Pursue!"
Tristan Helan ultimately decided to give chase, but at a slower pace.
...
They rode hard without rest, changing horses when needed. Only by leaving the grasslands could they survive.
Once they entered Great Wei territory and saw no pursuers, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Oliver glanced at his remaining soldiers. Before leaving the pass, they had one thousand and sixty men. Now, only about three hundred remained.
Seven-tenths had died, over seven hundred lives lost forever on the grasslands. Oliver felt a heavy burden in his heart.
The remaining three hundred were mostly Martial Artists.
Only the strong could survive such a brutal battlefield.
Though they were now a remnant force, their morale was incomparable.
Emerging from the blood and corpses, they had undergone a significant transformation.
The survivors were the elite!
With the survivors, they continued towards Peace Pass.
That night, they rested at the foot of a mountain.
Near the border, the area was sparsely populated. With the Hun army attacking, there were even fewer people around.
"Don't blame yourself too much. For us soldiers, dying on the battlefield is our destiny," Zane Wang said, trying to comfort Oliver, who was silent.
"Besides, our achievements will shock all of Great Wei. They will receive the honors they deserve," Zane added.
"I could have brought them all back," Oliver said slowly.
"Everyone has their limits. You're not a Grandmaster or a Great Grandmaster," Zane said, patting Oliver's shoulder.
Oliver remained silent. Their original mission was to attack the Hun supply lines. When that became impossible, he should have led his troops back to Peace Pass, avoiding so many deaths.
"War is cruel. From the day we enlisted, we were prepared to die. Don't blame yourself. Remember this grudge and make the Huns pay in blood," Zane said.
Oliver nodded silently...