One day after Khojakar Fort sent a signal for help.
The Imperial Air Force in the sky maintained a huge hemispherical battle formation, trying its best to fight against the Orc Alliance Air Force.
The purpose of changing from a dispersed formation to a concentrated battle formation is to reduce the contact area with the enemy, reduce losses, and at the same time create a better output space for the Pegasus horse archers with long-range capabilities.
After a day of fierce fighting, about 20,000 of the 150,000 Imperial Air Force soldiers were killed, which may not seem like a lot, but if the injured are included, the casualty ratio reached a terrifying half.
This situation occurs because the average quality of the Imperial Air Force is indeed much higher than that of the Orc Alliance. Although there are many smaller flying monsters, in the eyes of the Sky Knight, they are no different from birds that peck people more painfully. As long as the formation is maintained , most attacks are non-fatal.
The real lethality of the opponent is the large flying monsters, wyverns and manticores. Their combined number is only tens of thousands more than the Imperial Air Force, so the Imperial Sky Knights can fight hard for a day without losing.
However, the high-intensity air combat left the air knights physically and mentally exhausted. At first, they still had enough energy to organize several waves of charge changes to relieve the pressure on the ground battlefield, but now they can only barely resist and are completely passive.
The outermost layer of the hemispherical battle formation is mainly composed of dragon-taming knights. Dragon-taming knights are different from Pegasus, which has limited load-bearing capacity. They can carry knights wearing medium armor, so the dragon-taming knights have stronger protection than the Pegasus knights.
Moreover, the tamed dragon also has a certain degree of combat effectiveness, and it is no problem to deal with some small flying monsters.
The most elite dragon-taming knight force in the empire is the Dragon Knights. This ace air force suffered more than half of its casualties in the war half a year ago and has not yet returned to its full glory, but they are still the most powerful air force in the empire.
If the empire's 150,000 air force were replaced by dragon-taming knights from the Dragon Knights, not only would the victory be much easier, but there would be no problem in winning it steadily.
However, the Black Dragon Knights have the highest death rate among all the troops, because they have to deal with the most powerful manticore among the enemy.
These more than a thousand manticores are the nightmare of the Imperial Air Force. Every time they attack, if there is no resistance from the Dragon Knights, they will surely take away the lives of many sky knights with their highly penetrating tail needles.
Ordinary dragon-taming knights and Pegasus knights are unable to fight back against the manticore, and must rely on battle formations to barely protect themselves.
But the key to weakening the enemy's strength is to kill as many manticores as possible. This task can only be accomplished by the Dragon Knights.
On the outer layer of the hemispherical battle formation, a team of ten members of the Dragon Knights were hunting a manticore that was separated from the main force at the expense of five people.
The twenty dragon-taming knights all wore hook locks, one end of which was fixed on the dragon-taming body, and the other end was swung in their hands and thrown towards the manticore.
Manticores are not only deadly, but also extremely agile. Its wings opened urgently, and its huge body suddenly stopped in the air. Then it rolled back like a flexible bird, avoiding all hooks.
This is the fifteenth time the knights have failed. After trying until now, the team leader understands clearly that if the hook lock wants to hook the manticore, it must pay a price, just like the price of separating it.
He was about to act as a bait, but a young knight in the team who had a faster brain than him saw his plan and said loudly: "Captain, you can't do this job, I will do it!"
"Nonsense! Why can't I do it? You obey my order and trap it with all your strength!" the squad leader yelled angrily.
"It's too late, haha. Captain, you know that I am the most disobedient soldier in the Dragon Knights!" The young knight punched the dragon taming under him. The dragon tamed in pain, roared, and followed the boy's lead. rushed in the direction.
"Bowen, come back! Damn it, you're running so fast and you're in a hurry to reincarnate!" Bowen is indeed the best shortstop in the team, and the team leader can't catch up with him this time.
"Captain, let Bowen go, anyway... we are on our way!" another team member advised.
"Everyone is [silenced] [silenced] and don't say any depressing words! The gun has not been broken, and the outcome is still unknown! Keep your eyes open and seize the opportunities created by Bowen!"
As soon as the team leader finished speaking, Bowen was already near the manticore. He raised his arm and threw out the hook lock in his hand.
The manticore glanced at Bowen, with a human-like disdainful smile on his face. He slightly raised his body to avoid the hook lock, and stabbed Bowen directly in the chest with a needle.
Bowen sneered, and suddenly pulled the reins. The body of the dragon tamer was raised up, which acted as Bowen's shield.
The clever Bowen was able to figure out such a way to trap the manticore in such a short period of time. He used the hook and lock to pretend to attack and lure the enemy, and then used the life of the tamed dragon under him that had been with him since birth to lock the manticore. The tail needle of a dead manticore.
As for his own life... it would be best if he could save it and still be able to use his remaining energy in this war. If not, he would be buried with his dragon taming companions.
From the current situation, Bowen's life could not be saved. He still underestimated the power of the manticore's tail needle.
The tail needle penetrated the dragon's scales with almost no pause, pierced the flesh and blood, pierced the bones, and penetrated out of the dragon's body. As soon as the manticore succeeds in striking, the manticore's tail will shrink back immediately.
Bowen, who reacted very quickly, turned the lance in his hand and thrust it out of the scorpion's tail. He held the lance with both arms and pressed his body against the scorpion's tail.
Taming a dragon is like a keyhole, and Bowen holding the lance acts as a lock, locking the key of the scorpion tail in the keyhole.
However, this key is fatal, and the fatal part is right in front of Bowen.
The needle at the tip of the scorpion's tail hooked back and instantly penetrated Bowen's abdomen!
Bowen spat out a mouthful of blood and held a hand around the tail needle. The paralyzing toxin on the tail needle took effect quickly, and Bowen could no longer feel the pain in his abdomen. At the same time, the two key organs of the heart and lungs were about to shut down under the influence of the toxin.
Bowen summoned all the energy in his body, regardless of damaging his meridians, and rushed his heart and lungs to prevent himself from dying on the spot. The young man drew out a standard long sword, stabbed it into the scorpion's tail with all his strength, and nailed it to the dragon's back.
The scorpion tail just "tied a knot" on the dragon's back, and could no longer pull away.
The manticore roared repeatedly, and the knights in the Dragon Knights team could hear the pain in it.
The manticore's tail is very strong and deadly, but it is also the weakness of the manticore. The nerves there are very sensitive. Bowen's sword and shot can cause the manticore to suffer a lot.
The knights would not waste the opportunity gained by their teammates at the expense of themselves. When Bowen locked the manticore, they immediately threw out the hook lock and fixed the manticore in mid-air.
The squad leader roared and led the charge, one shot, two shots... the sharp lance penetrated the manticore's body, and the sharp sword cut off the manticore's tail at the root!
"Go to hell!" The team leader charged forward and stabbed the manticore in the head.
The manticore just screamed weakly, not as ferociously as when its tail was cut off, and then its eyes lost their luster.
The team leader looked down. Bowen, Taming the Dragon and Scorpion Tail had not yet landed together. The dead boy had his eyes wide open and his body was tense as if he was afraid that Scorpion Tail would slip away if he relaxed.
"Bowen, you are the pioneer of the team's pathfinding. Let's help the brothers explore the road below first. [Silence], why are there so many damn manticores? Brothers, there is another one over there, this time I’ll go first!”
The team leader led the remaining dragon-taming knights to besiege the next manticore.
The record of hunting down a manticore at the expense of one person can be said to be a huge profit, but this manticore is only the weakest of the batch, and is only in the strong body level, otherwise it will not be induced and separated by the main force of the Dragon Knights. .
Most adult manticores are at the War Regret level, and a team of more than a hundred people is needed to deal with them. As for the Beast King level Manticores, only the leader and deputy leader of the Dragon Knights can fight them with a team led by a few strong warriors at the King level. anti.
The problem is that there are more than ten beast-king-level manticores, and there are only four king-level strongmen in the knights. The gap can only be filled with human lives.
…
The hemispheric battle formation of the Imperial Air Force was like a protective umbrella, blocking the sky above the Hojakar Fort, but this umbrella had already developed a loophole, and many flying units got out of the loophole and launched air attacks on the ground troops.
This was nothing short of adding insult to injury for the imperial soldiers who had barely resisted the onslaught of the orc warriors. Soon, a unit that was fighting bloody battles in the ruins of the city wall was killed and injured by both the ground and the air, and the orc army rushed through the city wall.
While Eddrache was breathing heavily, he ordered: "Archers stop shooting on the ground and use all their strength to eliminate threats from the air! Don't waste time on the Abyssal Beasts of the magician troops. Target the Thundertusk Beast and the Stonehorn Beast for me! Heavy!" The cavalry goes out and crushes the orcs who cross the wall!"
Orders were issued and executed one after another to maintain the battle situation from quickly collapsing. Eddrache poured several bottles of various potions in succession and finally regained some form.
He fought hard with the Abyssal Beast for nearly a day, his armor was broken and stained with blood, and finally he couldn't hold on any longer. Brandon ignored his instructions and replaced him, and was fighting fiercely with the Abyssal Beast.
Eddrache looked at the fierce swordsmanship of his apprentice who was still satisfied with him, shook his head and sighed: "You are really old, even worse than that brat. But Brandon is not the opponent of the Abyssal Beast, so this is troublesome. Now." Qishuwu
Of course, this was not the only thing that troubled the old marshal.
The three imperial saints who faced the giant three martial saints were actually beheaded by the formation!
"Small" Regur, this mutated giant who is only half the height of an ordinary giant is very powerful. He finds opportunities while deliberately hiding his strength and kills with one strike.
With no opponent to stop him, Regur rushed left and right on the battlefield, as if in a deserted land, and even crossed the city wall several times to attack the fragile magician troops and mechanical troops in the rear, extremely arrogant.
Fortunately, perhaps out of the pride of the giant family, he did not join forces with other giants to attack the empire's saint-level powerhouses, otherwise Erwin and the others would have to retreat and expose the city wall to the powerful giants.
Eddrache raised his head and saw that the crimson manticore and the black-brown dragon were still entangled. Calkas's plan to directly take over the coach was not going smoothly.
"boom!"
The half of the city wall that was still standing collapsed due to the ferocious impact of the Stone-horned Beast King who was not restrained by the Holy Level. Several giants rushed up, swung their giant sticks, and completely opened the gap.
The situation is getting worse and worse. The empire's combat power really can't keep up. If we continue to fight like this, it will collapse in just a long time.
Even if the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are used to trade for time, it will only be delayed for a few days at most. After all, there are more orcs.
Edlache decided to take the initiative and make a change.
