Translator: CinderTL
As the Holy Church's ultimate trump card, the War Elephant Legion began a thunderous charge towards the Gabellan positions.
No one on the battlefield could ignore this formidable force. Had it been the local Gabellan troops the Church had encountered after the Battle of the Usola Plains, their soldiers would have already been trembling and fleeing in terror.
But today's Gabellan army was remarkably different. The soldiers stood firm, rooted to the ground as if their feet had grown into the earth. They swung their arms smoothly, loading bolts into their crossbows, aiming, and then firing in unison.
Under the influence of dark magic, the bolts tore through the air with a sharp whistle, audible even to the Church soldiers. These bolts were faster and heavier than ordinary arrows, their tips glowing with a sinister crimson light.
Some soldiers raised their shields, forming a shield wall in a desperate attempt to block these deadly projectiles. The shields absorbed the impact with dull thuds, and though the high-quality oak shields soaked in tung oil weren't fully penetrated, the arrowheads embedded deeply into the shield surfaces. The powerful impact shattered the hands of those holding the shields, and those behind could smell the scorched wood.
The heavy infantry's armor barely withstood the potentially fatal arrows, but the force of the impact still struck like a hammer to the chest. Those hit staggered back, their ribs cracking audibly under the dented armor. The lightly armored soldiers fared worse, with arrows piercing their leather armor and embedding into their thighs or shoulders, the surrounding fabric curling and blackening from an unknown force.
Screams rose and fell across the battlefield. Some tried to pull arrows from their comrades' bodies, only to feel the heat radiating from the shafts. Others clutched at their pierced arms, discovering the arrowheads were still warm within their flesh.
The most deadly were the arrows that struck necks and joints, their terrible penetration power causing the victims to collapse like puppets with their strings cut.
Blood and sweat mingled in the gaps of the Church soldiers' armor as a new wave of Gabellan arrows swarmed the sky like a cloud of bees.
As a seasoned veteran, Webster remained calm even in the face of such unexpected adversity.
He noticed something peculiar: the movements of the crossbow-wielding soldiers seemed synchronized with those of the robed figures among them.
If one observed the rhythm of their actions, it was clear that the Gabellan soldiers were divided into small groups of five to six, each group centered around a robed figure.
Before each volley, the soldiers in each group would load their bolts, draw their crossbows, and aim. When all members were ready, the robed figure at the center would raise a wooden staff—a necessary step—and after a brief moment, all the crossbows in the group would fire simultaneously. The bolts would then cut through the air with a sharp whistle, striking the Church's formation.
Perhaps those robed figures were Gabellan sorcerers!
"Watch out for those robed Gabellans!" Webster shouted to the army commander, Selwyn Hammond, beside him. "They might be casting some spell to enhance the power of their crossbows!"
"I don't care about robed or unrobed!" Hammond bellowed, his eyes blazing. "Our mighty war elephants will crush them all!"
The bloody sight of his troops being halted in their advance deeply enraged Hammond.
"Great Father in heaven, please protect us, protect our charging warriors, protect our charging elephants!"
Webster silently prayed, hoping their war elephants would unleash their might and crush those evil sorcerers.
But he was mistaken.
Just as the twenty war elephants were about to reach the Gabellan lines, several glowing orbs, or fireballs, rose from the rear of the enemy formation. It was as if a flame had been contained within a transparent glass sphere.
The fireballs shot forward at incredible speed, flying over the Gabellan infantry and heading straight for the approaching war elephants.
By the time the first fireball shrieked through the air, the Church's elephant handlers had no time to raise their whips. Fist-sized crimson orbs swooped down from the Gabellan hills, precisely striking the path of the charging war elephants.
Upon impact, dirt and debris exploded in all directions, engulfed in orange-red flames. Three of the leading elephants caught in the blast reared up, trumpeting in agony.
More fireballs followed, raining down like meteorites and exploding among the elephants.
Burning shards struck the sensitive ears of the elephants, igniting the silk drapes on their backs. One panicked gray elephant thrashed its head wildly, flinging the wooden arrow tower and two archers off its back. Another elephant stumbled and fell when a fiery tongue licked its leg, crushing nearby infantry who couldn't dodge in time.
The once orderly charge quickly turned into chaos as the frightened elephants collided with each other, the blades on their tusks becoming deadly weapons.
The air was filled with the acrid smell of burning hair as the twenty war elephants rampaged through the scattered flames. The handlers clung helplessly to the reins, tossed about like rags in the wind.
One elephant, blinded by the thick smoke, turned and charged back into its own ranks. Its massive legs crushed the spiked barricades into powder. The Church soldiers who reacted quickly scattered to the sides, while those who didn't were trampled mercilessly.
"Those damned sorcerers!" Selwyn Hammond's expression was a perfect depiction of utter disbelief.
He began to curse vehemently, "What have they done! Those are war elephants, our war elephants! Sacred beasts granted by the Lord of Light to his most faithful followers! How dare those bastards do this!"
From the rear of the Gabellan formation, more fireballs continued to rise and fly towards the Church army.
Not every fireball exploded; the chance of detonation seemed to be about one in four.
But the effect was devastating. Each explosion tore new gaps in the Church's formation or worsened the chaos among the war elephants. After several volleys, none of the elephants obeyed their handlers anymore, instead charging wildly through their own ranks.
Faced with such massive beasts, the Church soldiers fled in terror. In just a few minutes, their formation had completely collapsed.
This once formidable army, which had repeatedly humiliated the Gabellan forces, was now being trampled by its own war elephants.
(End of the Chapter)
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