Chapter 1461: The Final Dawn (Part 1)

Chapter 1461 -1370: The Final Dawn (Part 1)

The rolling curtain of smoke covered the sky; only occasionally did the moonlight pierce through.

But the moonlight that fell on the silver sand hadn’t yet had time to shine before it was shattered under pounding hooves.

Riding at the very front on a dark chestnut warhorse, clad in three-quarter Mithril armor, Jia Li drew her blade one-handed and roared.

Behind her, the cavalrymen also shouted different battle cries according to their enlistment dates.

“The holy grandsons bind us together!”

“Salvation Army, charge!”

“Guards, the peasants are coming!”

Right in front of these nearly three hundred Cuirassier Cavalry was the exposed flank of a battalion of the Second Royal Palace Army, less than three hundred meters away!

The ground was shuddering, not only from the thunder of hooves, but also from the massive iron spheres punching hole after hole through the smoke screen.

Compared to the vampires’ summer pattern of eight-shot volleys, the Holy Alliance’s precise bombardment exploded around the Vampire Army’s battalion, sand spraying high.

“Close up, close up!”

“I said close up, are you all deaf?”

Under the threat of shellfire, the officer in a silk uniform shouted himself hoarse, yet still could not get the panicked line to form a counter?charge formation.

A counter?charge formation meant tight ranks, and tight ranks in front of clockwork guns meant living targets and whole swathes dying in one go.

Closer and closer—the vampire soldiers on the flank had already raised their blood?pact guns and were firing at the onrushing Cuirassier Cavalry.

Whistling lead grazed armor edges; a dozen men around them were already struck down by bullets.

But Jia Li’s charging formation did not halt. She drew a short gun from her boot and fired at a vampire officer twenty meters away.

The night?flare round carved a streak of light through the dark, then punched straight through the vampire’s throat.

“Holy Wind!”

“Praise Holy Wind!”

At the shout, the Cuirassier Cavalry all pulled the clockwork pistols from their boots and loosed a volley into the dense ranks.

The vampire infantry toppled in heaps.

“Contact—quarter turn!”

Jia Li had no intention of stupidly plunging straight into the infantry formation; instead she employed an enhanced, more brutal version of the—angle?cutting attack.

“Close?range fire!”

Scattering night?flare rounds skipped and burst among the vampire soldiers, followed immediately by the urgent drum of iron hooves and the air?rending slash of sabers.

The longer, wider?sweeping cavalry sabers had completely replaced the heavy maces that needed big swings and wind?up.

Industrial decline brought on by political and economic problems, combined with the prewar mass expansion of the Royal Palace Army, meant most soldiers could now only afford a breastplate and helmet.

And the saber, simpler to train with and able to cause serious wounds with a mere dragging cut—once it sliced open a light?shield coat, they’d suffer when the sun rounds rose.

Saber and Longsword clashed, spitting a spray of sparks.

Thunderous hooves trampled through nearly a hundred vampire soldiers on the flank, gore exploding, severed limbs flying.

Long pikes and halberd?axes thrust out, occasionally hooking down one of the slower Holy Alliance Cuirassier Cavalry.

But in the blink of an eye, the nearly three hundred Cuirassier Cavalry who had punched through the formation had already withdrawn, and advancing directly into the gap from the front came a Holy Alliance Corps.

Ranks in disarray, morale plunging; even with their own cavalry already in pursuit, it was too late.

Frowning, Kemyla gave the order, but still commanded this battalion to slowly fall back and rotate with another battalion.

Back on the battlefield, smoke lay in heavy layers, gunfire roared, thick black lines and red lines kept trading volleys.

And between those black and red lines, both sides’ cavalry were clashing again and again.

Whatever else, even though they were being pressed hard, at least this—

“Well?” A familiar voice sounded behind her. Kemyla turned to see Konyaz.

“At least ten thousand on the other side, likely the Holy Alliance’s vanguard,” Kemyla answered at once. “For now, we’ve already managed to pin them down.”

“Likely? You didn’t send out scouts?” Konyaz frowned.

Kemyla shook her head. “They’ve deployed a huge number—possibly several thousand Cuirassiers and Rangers—around the edges of the battlefield. And with all this smoke, visibility is far too low.”

Konyaz knew Kemyla had already done everything possible; after all, she had only five thousand troops.

“There’s one more thing.” Kemyla hesitated for half a second. “I feel like the enemy doesn’t seem very tired. They don’t look like a force that just finished fighting the clan army on the northern line.”

Those clan?army wastes!

The veins on Konyaz’s forehead twitched. “Understood. The Ninth Royal Palace Army under Mang has almost arrived. He’ll attack first from the flank and crush this vanguard before anything else.”

“Understood.”

This band of Angel Envoys under Kemyla didn’t even know how many battles they’d already fought together; they naturally, and very smoothly, cleared parts of the battlefield.

Konyaz did not arbitrarily interfere with Kemyla’s command. Instead, he ran between the various heights, studying the shape of the battle.

In under twenty minutes, with the tramp of ordered marching, the Ninth Envoy Corps had already entered the sightlines of Konyaz and the Holy Alliance Army.

The Ninth Angel Envoy, Mang, spurred his horse, raising dust as he charged at the very front.

Full of high spirits in the saddle, he cracked his whip toward the Holy Alliance Army ahead. “Seize Ackman Village! Cut off their road north!”

This was what Konyaz had pre?assigned him; as long as Ackman Village was blocked, it was equivalent to sealing off the side approach up the ridge.

As for the frontal ascent of the ridge—don’t be ridiculous.

If the Holy Alliance really tried a direct assault on Holy Grail Heights, wouldn’t their Royal Court react?

The broadest frontal route was that relatively gentle slope in the saddle?shaped depression.

That area lay not only under the overlapping fire of two artillery positions, but was riddled with trenches and bunkers.

The Holy Alliance doesn’t have a flesh?and?blood Titan. How could they possibly break through such a line in a short time?