Free Web NovelChapter 202: The Battle for Herald City - Part 7
It wasn’t far from the north-western gate to where the aerial mounts were resting, so it took Celestina less than a minute to reach her destination; however, when she arrived, she immediately noticed an issue.
Vanessa and all of the Aerial Cavalry had already assembled in the open field where the Tartans and Golden Hawks had touched down earlier, but none of them had taken off yet.
Celestina was about to ask what was going on, but upon inspecting the condition of the Tartans, she realized what the problem was.
All of these Tartans had made a non-stop flight from the capital to Redwood Town 8 days ago, then had immediately been put on patrol duty and forced to engage in constant battles.
If that had been all, the beasts might still have retained some combat effectiveness, but over the past 3 days, they had also taken on an entirely unfamiliar task, one that was particularly grueling. freёwebnovel.com
In order to evacuate the less mobile civilians from Redwood Town, these Tartans had been tethered to the Sunchaser and made to haul the Skyship packed full of people and supplies to and from Herald City.
18 Tartans in total had come to Redwood Town, but one of them was borrowed by Allina Crest to return to Misty City to gather reinforcements from the Raging River Legion, leaving 17 Tartans available to use.
12 Tartans were needed to pull the Sunchaser at any one time, so something of a rotation had been set up to try to alleviate the beasts’ fatigue, but that also meant that the Tartans which had been in Redwood Town when word of the Beast Tide arrived were the ones which had been showing the most fatigue earlier today.
It was these exact Tartans that had been forced to fly at top speed to ferry the Spirit Initiates to Herald City when they were supposed to be resting and recovering.
Then, just after these Tartans had arrived, they again had to engage in a brief but highly taxing air-to-ground battle.
In short, it was surprising that these Tartans were even still conscious and not passed out from exhaustion. They were in no condition to fly right now, much less fight.
For a moment, Celestina was at a loss for what to do.
It was still possible to send this group of weary beasts into battle, but in their current condition, their combat capabilities would likely be less than 30% of their peak. The most likely result of sending these Tartans out to fight right now would be grievous casualties both among them and their riders.
A Spirit Initiate might be able to survive a fall from 200 metres up, but the Sea Establishment and Core Formation Aerial Knights certainly wouldn’t.
There was even a slim chance that this unit would be wiped out entirely, which would be an incredible loss not just to Herald City, but to the entire Rockwell Kingdom. Elite Aerial Cavalry were hard to train and expensive to maintain, so any losses among them were always sorely felt by the nation.
If that was all it was, Celestina might still consider giving the order to attack, but the real problem was that she couldn’t be certain this was the only time this beast horde would try to assail the city.
The mastermind behind the stampede was clearly intelligent and had used clever tactics on multiple occasions already tonight. The idea that it would have more reserve forces, or that it could send another wave of beasts in the near future, was not unreasonable.
An unchallenged assault from a few hundred flying beasts tonight would cause massive damage to Herald City; but theoretically, such damage could be absorbed and recovered from as long as the ground defence held.
If the humans lost all their Aerial Cavalry and could not turn back a larger attack from a second wave of flying beasts...
"General," just as Celestina was weighing her options, Vanessa stepped forward with a solemn look on her face.
Looking into her former student’s dark green eyes, Celestina quickly understood what Vanessa was proposing and instinctually wanted to stop her, but knowing what the current situation was, and how dire things could yet become if nothing was done, the words refused to leave her lips.
Closing her eyes, Celestina grit her teeth before nodding, "Go." freēwēbnovel.com
Having received the order, Vanessa whistled loudly before donning her helmet and running off in Starlight’s direction.
Breathing deep to clear her foul mood, Celestina opened her eyes and commanded the rest of the Aerial Cavalry, "Remain on standby. If the enemy fliers reach the town, move to engage them; otherwise, rest and prepare for the next sortie."
With that said, Celestina turned around and headed back to the wall.
There was another Golden Hawk present, the one she had been riding earlier, so if she wanted to, Celestina could have taken to the skies alongside Vanessa to engage the incoming flying enemies, but she didn’t even consider doing so.
For one thing, her presence among the ground forces was critical in maintaining morale. If she were to suddenly disappear, even if she was flying right above them, many of the defenders would likely panic and cause a rout.
This, however, wasn’t the main reason Celestina remained grounded.
The real reason she chose to leave the skies to Vanessa alone was that for someone of Celestina’s strength, in a defensive fight of this level, it didn’t matter whether she was up in the air or standing on the city’s wall.
As an expert marksman and Complete High-Rank Adept, Celestina was able to shoot down any flying beast below the Fifth Order within 1,000 metres of herself, even if that distance was measured straight up.
In other words, Celestina would be just as, if not more effective on the ground, fighting in the style she was most familiar with.
.....
Out of all the flying beasts on the human’s side, the only ones still in good condition were the Golden Hawks. Starlight in particular was fairing much better thanks to his Peak Fourth Order strength.
Even after making an extra round-trip to the capital, Starlight still had more abundant strength and stamina compared to Sir Green’s Golden Hawk, which was only a Low Fourth Order Beast, and certainly more than any of the exhausted Third Order Tartans.
On top of that, the harnesses designed to pull the Sunchaser were too big for the smaller framed Golden Hawks, so both Starlight and Sir Green’s mount were exempted from that particular duty entirely.
That wasn’t to say Starlight was in peak shape. The past few days had been quite strenuous, so he was naturally tired as well, but compared to the Tartans, the Golden Hawk was much better off. Unfortunately, that also meant he would be taking on an extremely risky mission now.
Leaping onto Starlight’s back, Vanessa flicked the reins of her trusty partner, drawing a sharp cry from him as they ascended into the sky.
Performing a quick check on her own condition and supplies, Vanessa was less than optimistic about the gambit she had just made, My Internal Qi reserves are down to about half, and I only have 342 arrows and 10 javelins left.
Fighting enemies in the air was very different from fighting them on the ground.
In the sky, you and your opponent generally moved much faster relative to each other, and there was basically no concept of holding your ground. Of course, there was also the fact that another dimension of movement needed to be accounted for.
In short, hitting a flying target while you were also moving about mid-flight was hard.
Even an expert archer like Vanessa could at best land 50% of her shots when fighting air-to-air at a distance of more than 500 metres, and given that it was nighttime and she and her mount were feeling fatigued already, 30% accuracy would probably be the best she could hope for without closing to point blank range.
According to General Balfour, a rough estimate put the number of enemy flying beasts at 500; so, realistically, Vanessa figured she could take down about 100 of them from range, while the rest she would have to engage in melee or leave to the others on the ground to deal with.
If she was fighting again a human force, then causing 20% casualties would likely be enough to force the enemy to retreat, but while this Beast Tide was clearly organized, comparing it to a human army would be a mistake.
The beasts on the ground had already suffered about 30% losses, yet the horde showed no signs of giving up.
Whatever entity was commanding or controlling these beasts clearly didn’t care about how many of its subordinates died. This type of enemy was the most difficult to deal with, because there was no telling just how much damage you would need to inflict before it withdrew.
In the worst-case scenario, the enemy leader would be willing to fight to the very last beast, trading the lives of all its soldiers for victory.
The only piece of good news so far tonight was that no Fifth Order Beasts had appeared, and the number of those in the Fourth Order was less than they had originally anticipated.
Either the enemy leader was keepings its elites in reserve, or it had very few of them to begin with and thus couldn’t afford to send them out.
It was for that exact reason that Celestina and the Spirit Initiates were able to blunt the stampede’s advance for so long without suffering any significant wounds.
Even a weak Spirit Initiate could take on dozens of First, Second, and Third Order Beasts without much risk to their life.
Of course, suffering wounds was inevitable, and they couldn’t keep fighting indefinitely, but holding out for a short time wasn’t an issue.
Still, Vanessa knew better than to make assumptions about an unknown enemy. Sending flying beasts to attack after throwing the human defenders into chaos seemed like a tactic designed to end the battle once and for all, but there was no way to be certain this was the only finishing move the enemy had left to play.
As such, Commander Clark focused and didn’t let her guard down, preparing herself mentally to confront anything, even multiple Fifth Order flying beasts. If such a disastrous scenario came to pass, she wouldn’t be able to win, and might not even be able to survive, but she also wasn’t going to back down and surrender.
