Heimarian Odyssey

Chapter 51: Outmatched

"Master Solon, watch out!" Clarion yelled. As he rushed forward, Locke, Karl and the others followed along to put up a defence perimeter around Solon.

Currently, while they only had a third of the whole unit with them, with, hard hitters like Mond and Wyr absent, most of the platoon jarls were here. Among those who were guarding Solon, Clarion, the deputy jarl of 1st Platoon stood at the forefront. Left to him stood the deputy jarl of the 2nd Platoon, Karl, and Jersson, the jarl of 4th Platoon. On the right side was Chris and Dale, the jarls of 3rd Platoon. As for Locke, he stood side by side with Solon, personally protecting him.

Solon himself included, there was a strong lineup of 7 entry-level Knechts. Even the Shalorians that were guarding Farlans did not have so much combat strength. Not to mention, there were nearly two hundred other Faustian soldiers around the seven of them. In terms of numbers, Solon's party outnumbered Blood Redd 20 to 1. In the dark night, the soldiers suddenly yelled, "Kill! Kill!"

Angelina had reached the point where she was completely drained. The Blood Red soldiers behind her were no more than five metres away. As she came to the realisation that she was about to get caught, she heard a Faustain war cry coming from the southeast.

She looked up and saw the appearance of countless Faustian soldiers rushing out from the dark of night. The uniforms of this group of soldiers were quite different from the uniforms of the court guards. In the eyes of the princess, they were mere tattered military garbs. But this time, they shone brighter than court guard uniforms ever could. The princess' hastened her steps. The appearance of the Faustian soldiers had given Angelina hope.

Things were getting worse. The Blood Red soldiers could no longer play catch when they saw the group of Faustian soldiers. They roused their impetus, accelerated, and zipped to Angelina in an instant.

One of the Blood Red soldiers threw his hand past Angelina's ears. When she saw that she was about to be captured in the next second, Angelina's Illuminate, which she had been preparing for some time, was suddenly cast from her left palm. It was like a shining sun in the dark night, blasting straight into the Blood Red soldiers' faces. "Agh!" Unprepared, several soldiers closest to Angelina were stunned. They could not see anything for the time being.

Angelina leaned forward and avoided the grasp of the Blood Red soldier. She then ran towards Solon and his party.

Solon saw that the woman had temporarily escaped her pursuers. Immediately, he sped up his impetus circulation and charged forwards.

The Blood Red soldiers who were not affected by Illuminate accelerated too.

The distance between the two sides was less than 15 metres. They were about to clash.

Solon opened his arms, adopting a very elegant posture as he readied himself to welcome the beautiful caster into his arms. He readied the signature line: "Everything's fine now, you're safe."

However, the situation did not go as Solon expected. Without taking a look at his open arms, Angelina had rushed to the soldiers behind him. When she passed Solon by, Angelina said in a cold voice "Knight! Stop them!" The dismissive tone stunned Solon for a moment, and he subconsciously obeyed the orders. But before Solon could realise what was wrong, the Blood Red soldiers behind Angelina had caught up. Those soldiers did not even spare a glance at Solon and aimed their swords at him, as if they wanted to instantly tear him to pieces.

Solon was taken aback and hurriedly raised his sword to parry them, but that was far harder than it seemed, especially when he was up against a few of them at once. Clang! The swords clashed and sparks flew. Solon felt the sword in his hands to be so heavy that he really could not resist any longer. Solon's eyes widened in shock as his sword flew from his grip.

Seeing Solon about to be beheaded, the surrounding platoon jarls either hurriedly circulated their impetus or used long pikes and swords to intercept the blows the Blood Red soldiers. This was especially true for Locke, who was the nearest to Solon. In the previous exchange, he did not even have time to react before the Blood Red soldiers attacked Solon. This made him very angry. How could he let them kill Solon now?

With a roar, Locke stomped and rushed towards Solon, pushing him away, and together with the other platoon jarls, blocked the Blood Red soldiers' killing blow.

Twang! The longswords clashed and Locke's arm sank. They managed to intercept the few Blood Red soldiers.

Several platoon jarls looked up and glanced at each other in shock. Their enemies were all impetus trained.

Cardoj's troops were considered to have rather high combat power among the private noble armies of 2nd Division. Even so, there were only less than 10 first-rate soldiers with impetus. Who was this group in blood-red armour? Each one of them was at the very least, an entry-level Knecht.

Before the platoon jarls could react, the Blood Red soldiers rushed up again, despite there only being more than ten of them against nearly 200 Faustian soldiers.

The platoon jarls who had been on the battlefield for so long would never be found drunk on heroism. Those that did were long dead by now. Several platoon jarls quickly went to protect Solon from the flank. The young master, along with Angelina, hid in the battle formation. Fortunately, Solon had a body of sturdy chain mail on the outside and gambeson on the inside. It had not been cut through and had held out until the platoon jarls arrived.

The formation composed of a ten-man squad. It was different from the standard battle formation of Falcon corps. Many of the tactics they used were added in by Cardoj himself. Cardoj, who had studied in the Aomar Empire, possessed vast knowledge.

However, when the two groups came into contact, the battle swung heavily in favour of Blood Red. Nearly 10 ordinary soldiers were instantly chopped to death with impetus. Shortly after, the casualties continued to increase. Every second or two, a few more soldiers died. Fortunately, there were enough Faustian soldiers, and there was a steady stream of them coming along.

The Blood Red soldiers were different from ordinary impetus fighters. They were a group of Knechts who were organized and excelled at teamwork. Even ordinary members in their ranks were stronger than first-rate soldiers with impetus in the general armed forces. There were more than a dozen Blood Red soldiers in front of Locke and the others. Not only that, more followed behind them from the woods. The only thing they were inferior at was their numbers.

Although the Blood Red soldiers were temporarily blocked by the Faustian soldiers, the tragic casualty rate was horrid. Most of the Faustian soldiers rushing to the front were from 1st Platoon. Since Jarl Mond was with the baron, Clarion was now their immediate commander. Of course, Clarion could not just stand and watch the soldiers under him be slaughtered by these reapers. After an angry bellow, he roused his impetus and rushed forward with longsword in hand.

Locke and others were also not willing to be left out. This was the first time Locke had faced an enemy on his own level. He had just blocked a blow from a few Blood Red soldiers with the other platoon jarls. This made Locke curious about the origin of this group of enemies. Locke clashed with several Blood Red soldiers a few times. Their strength shocked him. Though both of them were entry-level Knechts, Solon's total impetus capacity was more than Locke, but their strengths were not that different since Locke's actual combat ability was greater. However, not only did the Blood Red soldiers have more impetus than him, they also had better combat skills. If they were fighting one-on-one, Locke felt that he wouldn't be able to match any of them.

Unexpectedly, the killing in front of them established an eerie balance despite the huge disparity in numbers. One side relied on having more people, while the other relied on their own strength. The two groups of people were intertwined, blood splattering, heads and severed limbs flying. Horrible howls and angry roars filled the bloodscape.

When Solon saw such a scene, he felt extremely regretful. He obviously underestimated the strength and number of this group. By the looks of it, they all seemed to be entry-level Knechts who had impetus. Even if they could block those soldiers with two hundred plus people, the loss was still too painful to bear. He shouldn't have been so nosy. Between the lives of more than a hundred soldiers and an unfamiliar entry-level Lehrling, Solon was under no illusion as to which was more valuable. These were the elite soldiers from Cardoj Domain which they trained over four years of battles. Cardoj's territory was merely a barony, and the male peasants within it were limited. Solon believed that his father, Cardoj, would make him pay for his reckless decision that caused such a huge loss.

The Blood Red soldiers were not limited to the dozen in front of Solon. There were two Blood Red Blood units here, with a total of more than 40 people. How could ordinary Faustian soldiers with only more than 200 people stop 40 Knechts? It might still be possible if their numbers were doubled, but now...

If father and Herr Wyr hadn't divided their troops, it would have been so much better, Solon thought desperately.

The killing continued. Locke and the other platoon jarls couldn't afford to have the same pessimistic mindset as Solon. They were the backbone of the current team. Nearly two hundred soldiers were being held back by a mere dozen Blood Red soldiers. They could not imagine how severe their losses would be. There were no more than 50 Blood Red soldiers, right? They can't all be that strong! thought the platoon jarls.

They had lived on the battlefield for so many years. Although most of them had come to cherish their lives more and became more, it did not mean that they were soft. For them to stand out among hundreds of ordinary soldiers, they had to be extraordinary! Clarion was holding a spear with both hands, and with the help of some ordinary soldiers around him, he thrust it through the throat of a Blood Red soldier.

Dale rushed forward as a Blood Red soldier was being held back by an ordinary Faustian soldier. He bear hugged the soldier and crushed the soldier alive with his impetus-charged muscles.

The clash was still ongoing. Both sides suffered losses, but it was heavier on the Faustian side.