Chapter 444: 442 Trial_1
When the Huorong Army realized the Blood Knight Army was nearby, the latter was also aware of the former’s location.

Between the two armies, a brutal battle had already been started by their scout cavalries even before their main forces engaged each other.

Clearly, the scout cavalry of the Blood Knights held a significant advantage, scattering the Huorong scouts.

Eventually, Count Brugen didn’t dare to send out more scouts to probe their surroundings.

In terms of indivdual bravery and small-scale battle coordination, the Huorong Army could hardly match the Blood Knight Army, seasoned through years of fighting with Trolls on the Sky Ice Plain.

Without their scout cavalry, the Huorong Army was virtually blind.

The soldiers knew the enemy is nearby, but they didn’t know exactly in which direction, nor could they predict where and when the enemy would suddenly attack.

This fear of the unknown was the most tormenting.

Count Evan, who had not much experience in battles, was getting a little agitated. Fortunately, Count Brugen was still keeping his cool.

Regardless of how strong the Blood Knights were, their main forces were not here.

The Huorong Army still held an absolute advantage in numbers.

This advantage allowed Count Brugen to remain calm, issuing orders patiently and directing the Huorong Army into a defensive formation. He even managed to comfort his somewhat agitated son-in-law:

“There’s no need to panic. I don’t know what Colin Angler is thinking, choosing to flee south. But just with his few thousand cavalries, if he truly dares to charge at the formation of the Huorong Army, I’m going to make sure he doesn’t come back!”

Seeing the orderly and well-segmented formation of the Huorong Army, Count Evan also began to calm down and smiled in response:

“My dear father-in-law, do you think Colin Angler might be bluffing?”

“Bluffing?”

“Yes,” Count Evan, now calm, had regained his clarity of thought, “He has seen the impeccable formation of the Huorong Army. Could he have intentionally left some scouts to blind us, while he led the army past us to attack Huorong City?”

“Attack Huorong City?”

“Yes!” Count Evan’s face changed, he exclaimed, “The entire Huorong Army has already been brought out by us, isn’t the city very defenseless at this moment? No wonder the Blood Knights chose to break through southwards! They are trying to lure out the Huorong Army and bypass us, directly attacking Huorong City!”

“It’s possible,” Count Brugen nodded, before dismissing the idea, “But how easy is it to take down Huorong City? Despite having led out the Huorong Army, there are still tens of thousand troops left in the city. Relying on the strong and towering wall, it’s definitely not a problem to hold off the three thousand Blood Knights.

Once Colin meets a setback under the walls of Huorong City, we will return and besiege on both sides, completely annihilating this Blood Knight Army, leaving them buried at the foot of Mount Althus!”

Only then did Count Evan heave a sigh of relief. As he was about to praise Count Brugen, a rapid galloping sound was fast approaching.

Clip-clop, clip-clop…

The color of Count Brugen’s face changed, he immediately ordered loudly, “Get in formation! Prepare for the enemy!”

In fact, without his order, on seeing the approaching cavalry, the soldiers of the Huorong Army were already on high alert.

A circle of giant shields was raised on the periphery, turning the Huorong Army’s formation into looking like a tortoise shell in an instant.

The long spears poking out between those shields made the tortoise shell appear particularly ferocious.

This was infantry’s best strategy when dealing with cavalry in the open field – the shield and spear formation.

As the Blood Knight Army got closer, Count Evan couldn’t help but hold his breath.

He initially thought he had figured out Colin’s plan. However, reality quickly slapped him in the face.

The Blood Knight Army had not bypassed the Huorong Army to attack Huorong City. From the looks of it, they were actually planning to forcefully attack the Huorong Army’s formation?

Yet soon, Count Evan noticed he was wrong again.

At least this approximately thousand-strong cavalry unit wasn’t here to charge the formation. Their initial charge, though fierce and kicked up a lot of dust and momentum, abruptly pulled their reins and stopped at a safe distance outside the Huorong Army’s formation.

During the process of turning their horses around, they drew their bows and loaded the arrows, and began to fire.

Countless arrows rained down like a storm, causing stir in the Huorong Army’s formation.

However, due to the presence of shields and well-equipped armor of the Huorong Army, the arrow rain didn’t cause much casualties.

But this unit of about a thousand Blood Knights charged back again, still maintaining a safe distance to perform the volley.

The bowmen within the Huorong Army also began to counter-attack, but a moving enemy is obviously a more difficult target to hit. Therefore, the casualties on both sides were minimal.

However, this kind of counter-attack was still necessary. Otherwise, if they only received attacks without reciprocating, the morale of the army would quickly fall, and the psychological pressure on the soldiers would rise.

Count Evan looked at the Blood Knights riding back and forth, noticing they weren’t as terrifying as he had imagined, and couldn’t refrain from laughing:

“It seems that the Blood Knights are not as big a deal as they’re made out to be.”

Count Brugen shot him a glance, realizing that the man had little experience on the battlefield and patiently explained, “They are probing.”

“Probing?”

“Yes. Just like an experienced hunter looking for an opening in its prey, once they find it… they will strike with thunderous force!”

Count Evan flinched, but continued with an attempt at nonchalance, “But faced with the Huorong Army’s shield and spear formation, even the Blood Knight Army could hardly find a viable strategy, right?”

Count Brugen didn’t respond.

Laymen watch for excitement. Experts watch for the nuances.

Just through the few probing attacks launched by the Blood Knight Army, Count Brugen already knew that the opponents were the strongest cavalry he had ever encountered!

No wonder they could fight so fiercely against the Trolls on the Sky Ice Plain.

In fact, after the annihilation of the Pegasus Army in Silver Moon City, the nobles in the East Territory were all on high alert for this formidable cavalry from the North Territory.

As the “Strongest Army in the East Territory”, Huorong Army immediately geared their daily training towards dealing with cavalries, or specifically, dealing with the Blood Knight Army.

But no matter how targeted the training was, no matter how well-prepared, when Count Brugen truly faced the Blood Knight Army on the battlefield, he finally felt such a substantial oppressive force.

Although the opponents hadn’t begun their fiercest charge yet, Count Brugen was already starting to worry whether the Huorong Army’s formation could withstand the Blood Knight Army’s onslaught.

Feeling the oppressive atmosphere, Count Evan prudently shut his mouth.

Not long after, the Blood Knights hovering around the Huorong Army suddenly retreated, and the battlefield bizarrely regained its calm in an instant.

This made many of the Huorong soldiers very uncomfortable.

“Is it over?” Count Evan asked doubtfully.

Count Brugen’s face remained tense. He slowly shook his head and solemnly replied,

“No. The real fight has only just begun!”