"How is it?"
"The injuries are too severe." The high-tier cultivator helplessly drew a character on his forehead, "Lord Alfus has been called by the Master, we can't do anything."
Lying face up on a large green stone, the shadow of a sand dune covered Alfus's vacant face.
Once a favored child of heaven, the Champion Decree Knight now had a slanted eye and crooked mouth, with a dented neckguard and a broken neck; his high nose almost touched his chest.
Before dying, he still stared with open eyes, as if unable to believe he would die like this.
With a flash of uncontrollable sorrow in his eyes, Prince Kongdai reached out to close those dim blue eyes for him.
Turning his head and standing up, the Prince looked at the continuous waves of banners fluttering on the distant hills.
Since Alfus fell, the rcenaries' offensive had noticeably weakened.
Even with orders pushing them to supervise and chase down deserters, they still showed signs of war-weariness and dread.
Their training and battlefield experience far exceeded that of the Salvation Army, but in terms of morale, they were no match.
Initially, they could still push the frontlines forward, but as ti went on and casualties mounted, they long lost confidence as victory seed indefinitely out of reach.
It was around 4:00 PM now, nearly 3 hours since the battle began.
Back and forth they went, although each side had more than a thousand casualties and each rcenary corps lost nearly a fifth of its personnel, teetering on the brink of collapse.
As for those guards and soldiers, with over a hundred casualties, they had already retreated from the dune and began fleeing.
Even Prince Kongdai couldn't give orders for the remaining infantry to continue attacking.
To prevent a rout, Lakunio had even sent the Knight Order led by Edmund to help stabilize the situation for Prince Kongdai.
At the sa ti, Edmund brought back a harsh ssage from Lakunio: "This battle can't continue, we must withdraw the troops."
Amid a swirl of dust, Prince Kongdai faced the returning Edmund, "How are our knights faring?"
"We have over 250 knights remaining in our unit."
Prince Kongdai slightly closed his eyes. By gathering the remnants of knights from the previous battles, he had brought over 1,300 knights from four Decree units.
But now, according to Edmund's numbers, they had barely over 1,000 left fighting on the battlefield.
The rest were either gravely injured or had beco cold corpses.
"Your Highness." Hurrying over, Ailard dismounted and saluted Prince Kongdai with a hand over his chest, "The third Decree unit of Alfus has been reorganized and stands ready."
Looking over the temporarily calm battlefield, Prince Kongdai asked seemingly casually, "Ailard, do you think we can still fight?"
"We can fight, but... it would be hard." Ailard grasped the character pendant, "The Saint Master stands with us, victory is not urgent."
"You're slippery like an eel, aren't you?" With a casual jest, Prince Kongdai gazed at the proudly flying black and red sun banner, yet his heart was filled with unending humiliation and anger.
Prince Kongdai had already realized Lakunio was right, this battle could not continue.
The Horn's side had lost no more than a tenth of their forces and were filled with high morale, while they had lost more than an eighth of their soldiers.
With Alfus's death, this gap continued to widen.
Most importantly, it was a contest of will, where in battle, morale and determination were crucial; they had fallen comprehensively behind.
Grinding his molars, Prince Kongdai felt a bit dazed for a mont, facing a defeat at the hands of soone who was a re farr one and a half years ago, bested by a group of short-haired rebels who were farrs and petty citizens just half a year ago.
Closing his eyes and opening them again, despite an extre sense of discomfort, Prince Kongdai could only issue the difficult order: "Retreat, have the knights cover the rcenaries' withdrawal on both flanks."
"Retreat now?"
The faces of the surrounding knights all showed expressions of humiliation.
They were Decree units, the most elite knights of Leia Kingdom, unlike the Falan Royal Knights, each one of them was a strictly selected, rigorously trained elite knight.
Not attacking the car formation was one thing; now face to face, they were supposed to retreat directly.
Could the Decree units still claim to be the invincible units of the Empire?
Several Decree units had already fallen into Horn's hands, originally said to be Salvation Army trickery.
But now, if they retreated, wouldn't that prove the Decree units were indeed not a match for the Salvation Army?
"Your Highness, actually, I've been observing from the high ground for a long ti, and I've already figured out their defense rotation and gaps." From the high ground supporting Prince Kongdai, Edmund couldn't help but speak, "The enemy's right-line Spring Gunners have been moved to the high ground, using those big guns far more frequently than on the other two lines.
They can't do that without limits, so the right line must be weak.
Let Galian pin them down on the high ground, and we can take advantage of their movent, quickly charge from the low ground to that slope, and then instead of descending, follow the saddle-like passage to the third slope, where we rely need to pass through a hundred-ter corridor to..."
"Give it a rest, His Highness the Prince and Lord Lakunio have already decided, and such a strategy, if careless for a mont and hit by a big shot, can you guarantee His Highness won't end up like Alfus?" With a frown, Ailard cut off Edmund, "I advise you to be pragmatic!"
Edmund held his chest and bowed before His Highness the Prince; after a minute of prolonged silence, he still heard a profoundly conflicted sigh: "Since the order to retreat has been given, then let's retreat."
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