Summoning Total War - Chapter 23
Chapter 23: Massacre! (Part 3)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The fire caused fear among the gnolls’ ranks.
Being humanoids, even if the gnolls knew how to harness the power of fire, most of their time was spent eating blood or raw flesh.
The technique of using fire lay solely in the hands of the gnoll shamans, and it was for this reason that the old gnoll shamans’ status was as high as that of the head of an ethnic group’s. Under normal circumstances, the gnoll clan only ate a cooked meal at festivals or important ceremonies. At other times, because it wasn’t easy to build a fire, most of the groups ate their meat raw. If the gnoll group didn’t have a shaman, then the gnolls could only live like beasts.
The gnolls had thick hair, especially below the neck and above the waist.
Basically, as long as the fur was even slightly ignited, a piece of it would quickly burn off.
Compared to the gnolls, humans were less afraid of fire. After all, after entering the age of civilization, humans became familiar with using and controlling fire. Additionally, all the residents of Athens were concentrated in the central town square, which was an empty area, so there was no real need to worry about being burned by the fire. Under such circumstances, mankind was much more impressive than the gnolls.
The flames and smoke dampened the gnolls’ fighting spirit, but their thirst for flesh and blood and the importance of the battle made them unwilling to retreat.
Living creatures instinctively protect their territories.
Unless an enemy was truly unbeatable, a beast would put their all into attacking and expelling those who dared to invade their territory.
The gnolls drove humans out of this land. So, naturally, the gnolls had divided the land as if it was their own territory!
And after living there for a year, the gnolls came to think that this land belonged to them. As for Murphy, who had built a town here, he was their enemy!
To them, he was an invader!
These humans wanted to reclaim the land that currently belonged to them!
This was the reason why the gnolls had gathered in large numbers to attack Murphy’s town.
They wouldn’t have attacked merely to get food, as spring was the time when it was easy to find enough food. As a humanoid race, the gnolls weren’t foolish enough to attack Murphy’s territory at all costs just for food. The reason why the gnolls were attacking Murphy was that they didn’t want to give the humans a chance to survive and flourish on this land that was theirs!
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The number of gnolls was about 3,800. There were nearly a thousand adult males, who had the strongest fighting power, while the rest were merely females or semi-adult gnolls. Murphy’s army numbered about 800, and the number of adult males left battling in the territory was about 1,000. Together, their numbers totaled 1,800, which was only half of the gnolls’ fighting strength. Thus, when the gnolls surrounded them in the square, they were surrounded in all directions.
The sudden burning flames caused a slight commotion among the gnolls.
And the growing light from the fire illuminated their dark surroundings!
“Javelins, throw!
“Foot soldiers, push forward!”
Murphy was clearly taking advantage of the turmoil. He stood on the steps of the square and calmly gave orders. About half a team of heavy Spartan infantry surrounded him, wary of arrows that might come out of nowhere from the dark and hit them.
The eight infantry phalanxes laid out a defensive net about 240 degrees wide. The auxiliary regiments relied on the temple’s 20-foot-high wall to prevent the enemy from coming at them from the rear. This created a combat environment that was spacious for allies but crowded for enemies, causing the enemy’s advantage in numbers to become nothing more than a burden. This was what Murphy had been banking on all along. After creating all these advantages, the only thing left to do was fight the enemy head-on!
The Greek infantry shouted as they charged forward, and what had originally been a tight defensive line opened at the center as they advanced.
At Hamilton’s order, about five hundred javelin throwers fired a dense volley of javelins at the gnolls from the west side! A large number of adult male gnolls were gathered there, and it would pose the biggest trouble for the Greek infantry if the gnolls rushed into their formation. So, their strategy was to immediately use a long-range strike to clear them!
When faced with the rain of large javelins, those male gnolls who were the vanguards had no means of escape! Behind them were the incoming large troops. Because of the limited space on the street, it was difficult for them to use their physical agility to avoid the javelins. The houses on both sides of the street were stacked with a large amount of dried hay that they had ignited after the battle had really begun!
“Kill!!!”
The Greek infantry stepped forward and lined up in a gun formation when the gnolls were close to 30 feet away, ready to launch a charge!
The Greek infantry’s military qualities weren’t at the level of the heavy Spartan infantry’s, so the maximum distance of their charge was only 30 feet. If this distance was exceeded, it would cause chaos in their formation.
With the 30-foot charge, after deducting the length of the spear and the distance the arm extended to attack, the actual distance they had to run was only 23 feet. Based on the calculation that one step was one foot, the short-range charge only needed a total of 14 steps!
Fourteen steps. That was all it took!
The distance allowed the Greek infantry to gain the upper hand because of the inertia of their bodies during the charge.
The fourteen-step charge enabled the soldiers to pierce straight through the gnolls with their spears, whereas before they could only stab them. The strongest soldiers, who were at the front of the phalanx, even managed to pierce through the bodies of the gnolls with their spears and stab the enemies behind them!
The traditional fighting style had undergone a small change!
And this small change was the result of Murphy’s improvements and had greatly enhanced the explosive power of the phalanx.
After the first strong charge, dozens of gnolls were penetrated by the long spears and instantly lost their ability to fight.
And at that moment, the disadvantage of using long spears was demonstrated.
If the long spear managed to pierce through the enemy, it required some time to pull the spear back out. In a realistic battle, the long spear was bound to get stuck in the enemy’s bones.
If you didn’t have extraordinary fighting power like the people in stories, much more strength was needed to pull the spear out than to penetrate the enemy’s body! Because the spearhead was shaped like an inverted triangle, if the spear penetrated a person’s ribcage, it would easily be caught in it. At that point, if you wanted to pull the spear out, you’d have to break the enemy’s ribs and then tear through their flesh!
If the spear could pierce straight through the enemy if enough force was used, then one could imagine how the spear could pierce through the stomach and go right out the back, resulting in the inverted triangle getting stuck in the flesh! When a person was injured, their muscles tightened reflexively, so it would require a lot more force and a lot more time to pull the spear out.
And the time it took to do so would be enough time for the enemies in the second row to rush up and close the distance between them.
When the long spear formation pulled closer, the length of their weapons became a burden!
Western spears weren’t like those of the Orient, which were capable of many different moves.
The spears in the West were only capable of one move!
Pierce!
From the front!
At 90 degrees! Pierce!
The West only had this one move, and that was to stab the enemy, pull out the spear, and continue stabbing the enemy.
If they were forced to fight in close range, they had to put down the long spear, pull out the short sword, and use the round wooden shields to block. In melee combat, the short sword could only pierce the enemy’s body from beneath the shield.
In fact, the moment before the spear was pulled out was when the spear soldiers were at their weakest.
This was the only flaw in Murphy’s reformulation!
After the first row stabbed forward with their long spears, they immediately threw them aside and raised their round hoplons in front of them and squatted down.
And right after that, the second row of soldiers shouted, and they thrust out their spears in-between the gaps in the first row!
Dozens of adult male gnolls fell to the ground after being pierced by the spears.
At that moment, the second row of spearmen started to pull out their spears, while the Greek infantry in the first row, who were crouching, stood up. If you looked closely, you would find that the round shields of the Greek infantry in the first row were larger than the ones carried by the soldiers behind them, and the weapons they were all equipped with weren’t short swords but long swords!
These few actions occurred within a moment, and a second wave of javelins was thrown!
At the same time, a group of gnolls was pierced by the javelins, and the gnolls at the front were pinned to the ground.
In a mere two to three minutes’ time, nearly 300 to 400 adult male gnolls had been wounded, and most of them had lost their ability to fight.
The series of blows caused the gnolls at the front to enter a state of confusion.
But the gnoll commander standing in the back saw everything clearly. He didn’t care about revealing his location and howled. He ordered the gnolls in the front line to retreat and commanded the rear to press in on the enemy. Subsequently, the head of the gnolls, who was ten feet tall, roared, and the gnolls that were at the front immediately split to the sides and left a passage between them that was about 30 feet wide.
The gnolls’ successive attacks after entering the town had made this wise gnoll leader realize that it would be difficult to break the humans’ defenses if they depended solely on these adult male gnolls.
As a member of the Kazats Gnoll Tribe, he was a superior gnoll who had experience battling humans.
Zamos had finally decided to break through these d*mn human formations through his own means.
That’s right. Within the gnoll tribes, there were a few groups that proclaimed themselves as “superior gnolls.”
. . . . . . . . . . . .
“Hong! Hong! Hong!”
Footsteps that seemed to shake the heavens rang out, and the humans couldn’t help the frightened expressions that appeared on their faces.
As the earth shook, a group of elite gnoll guards with an average height of more than eight feet came out. They were wearing a modified half-armor!
And walking in front of this group of elite gnoll guards was a huge gnoll that was ten feet tall. He was wearing the same half-armor, and he had veiny, bulging muscles.
Ten feet!
That meant he could climb straight up to the second floor simply by raising his hands!
. . . . . . . . . . . .
“Oh, sh*t! I didn’t think there’d be such an elite troop within the gnolls’ ranks!” Murphy thought. He felt his heart drop, and he suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
These gnolls were much taller than their counterparts and were all donning half-armor while wielding heavy weapons that weighed more than 50 pounds. The half-body armor they wore was obviously based on the design of human armor, and even though it was worn in a nondescript manner, its defense capabilities were by no means weak! Just looking at the elite gnolls, these mini giants, made everyone feel intimidated!
“We can’t allow these gnolls to rush into our formation!” This was Murphy’s first thought!
If he let these gnolls rush into their formation, then the Greek spear phalanx would be messed up by the gnolls! At that point, everything they did would be useless.
The one thing he was thankful for was that the elite gnolls’ numbers were small. There were only twenty of them.
Clang!
Murphy pointed his long sword at the elite gnolls that were approaching, his eyes fixed on the Spartan heavy infantry. “Sparta!” he shouted.
At that moment, he could only rest all his hope on the Spartan heavy infantry! In that era, they were one of the most elite groups of warriors on Earth!!!
“SPARTA!!!”
When this word rang out, a fanatical atmosphere filled the battlefield!
It was as if this one word had given the soldiers boundless courage and strength!
The Greek infantry at the front automatically gave way and opened a passage!
Subsequently, the Spartan heavy infantry, wearing their blood-red cloaks, stepped out with big strides into formation. They looked resolute and had a brave and fearless attitude. They formed a neat formation as they approached these elite gnolls, who were much stronger than them.
Their long spears stood upright, and their bronze hoplons shimmered and reflected the golden light of the fire. Their bright crimson cloaks were like blood gloriously shed on the battlefield!
The Spartan heavy infantry faced these elite, more powerful gnolls in front of them.
They raised their spears high!
They moved forward without looking back!!!
This was because they knew they were the most powerful fighters of the Greek city-state! Faced with these enemies, they were the ones who would achieve victory!
And behind them were the townspeople, so these Spartans were left with no other choice but to move forward, even in the face of death!
Because at that moment…
The Spartan heavy infantry represented the courage and bravery of the entire Greek civilization!
. . . . . . . . . . . .
A solemn atmosphere blanketed the battlefield, and Lady Elizabeth, who was an outsider, felt her eyes become slightly moist. She was shocked by the courage of these soldiers!
At that moment, something unexpected happened!
The new general, Hamilton, who was Murphy’s first general, got off his horse and turned back. Armed with a round shield and a long spear, he stood side by side with the Spartan heavy infantry.
The general’s expression was one of unmatched resolution. It was as if he’d been born with a general’s might and power!
He looked at the Spartan heavy infantry around him and said in a steady, even voice: “Spartans don’t ask how many enemies there are. They ask where the enemies are!”
“Sparta!”
“Sparta!!”
“SPARTA!!!”
Amidst the roars that could shake the heavens, Murphy heard a system prompt.
“The Spartan heavy infantry has gone into a frenzy!”
“The Greek infantry has gone into a frenzy!”
