Of course, within this group, there were always some reliable presences.
Those were the knights.
Within the Feudal Legion, these knights, who served as middle-rank military officers and had been carefully raised since childhood, maintained decent combat will.
Under the command and perseverance of these knights, the assault by the Composite Camp inevitably began to slow down, gradually showing signs of becoming bogged down.
After all, their force was a little too small.
The Knight Titan had reacted as well; it stopped fleeing and started using long-range firepower to strike at the Alliance Army.
Casualties began to emerge.
But it was at this moment that the Phoenix appeared.
The characteristic roaring sound of the Wind Falcon arrived first; their initial position was at least a hundred kilometers away, but within fifteen minutes after the battle had started, they had reached the battlefield.
Without missiles—having used up their missile payloads in the previous combat in the suburbs, there was no chance to resupply at the moment.
However, the onboard laser cannons and the real-single cannons still produced very powerful effects.
After a round of ground-skimming fire, the Luman army became even more disorganized.
The starfighters, too, descended from the sky.
They repeated the same old trick. Three Wind Falcons performed a stunt; they lowered their altitude to just over ten meters and slightly reduced their flying speed while firing fiercely at their surroundings.
At the same time, the hatches opened, and the starfighters jumped down one by one.
However, one should never underestimate any enemy, right?
Some of the knights piloting sentinel mechas had experienced the combat in the suburbs. As the characteristic sound of the Wind Falcons appeared overhead, some brave souls among them raised their gun barrels and fired at the Wind Falcons.
Most shots missed.
The swiftly streaking Wind Falcons were not so easily hit.
But the three Wind Falcons carrying the Phoenix faced trouble.
Their lower altitude and reduced flight speed increased their risk significantly.
One of them, while deploying the starfighters, was hit by continuous machine gun fire, taking hits to its wing.
The entire Wind Falcon tumbled down, crashing hard on the ground, smashing the sentinel mecha that had shot it down in the process.
The morale of the surrounding Luman warriors briefly soared.
Taking down a plane, especially one carrying the formidable starfighters, was a feat.
However, this surge in morale was short-lived because it was quickly replaced by panic once more.
Not to mention the ten starfighters who had landed successfully; even the slightly deformed hatch of the downed Wind Falcon was suddenly kicked open from the inside.
A starfighter burst out, his grenade gun firing violently, eliminating the threatening targets around him.
Of course, the so-called ‘threat’ was not that menacing. In fact, when the Luman people saw starfighters emerging unscathed from the wrecked flyer, the only thing on their minds was to run.
Subsequently, more starfighters emerged, forming a five-man squad.
In the event of the Wind Falcon crash, all five starfighters survived without any serious injuries, each retaining their combat capability.
However, the crash had still delayed them somewhat. Their combat brothers had already charged toward the nearby Knight Titan.
Thus, there was no need for these five to join the charge.
They raised their weapons and started clearing the surrounding enemies, mainly focusing on those sentinel mechas with stronger resistance.
Meanwhile, they didn’t neglect their primary target and, unsurprisingly, they witnessed the swift process of their commander eliminating the Knight Titan.
The most important defense of Knight Titan is the Shield Generator it is equipped with, which is ineffective against interstellar warriors — unless they foolishly choose to strike only with ranged weapons.
The shield’s inability to recognize slow-moving targets allows interstellar warriors to walk through the energy shields and attack directly with cold weapons. Having a Shield Generator or not doesn’t make much of a difference in such a case.
Of course, Knight Titan itself also has thick armor. Unfortunately for it, Matins had a power sword in his hand. In front of such a weapon that can decompose matter, ordinary armor is no better than paper-mache.
Just like how he had dismantled that Knight Titan in the suburbs earlier, he did the same now.
And when this Knight Titan crashed to the ground, the already crumbling Luman army collapsed completely. Not only the ordinary Luman soldiers but even the knights piloting sentinel mechas lost their will to fight.
This also made the retreat of the interstellar warriors much smoother, as they easily joined forces with the Composite Camp that had extricated itself from the mire, and retreated without difficulty.
…
On the road from the suburb town to Pincer City, the ground was littered with the corpses of Luman people.
Unfortunately, the main force that came to support didn’t unload quickly enough, and many were still crushing the troops sent to intercept them in a tidal wave of steel. Thus, they failed to engage in a beautiful encirclement battle outside of Pincer City while the enemy was in disarray.
The Alliance’s forces could only use small-scale wolf pack tactics, constantly biting chunks of flesh off these disintegrating troops.
Despite having caused significant casualties to the enemy’s living force and forcing a considerable number of Luman people to desert, in the end, they still let about twenty thousand people enter the city.
While the number might seem significant, in reality, more than eighty percent of the enemy was either dead or fled, no longer organized or a threat.
Moreover, most of those who had fled back to Pincer City were common soldiers.
The Luman Kingdom’s main military force might still exist in name, but in reality, it was finished.
This country, with a population of forty million, supported an army of about five hundred thousand, but most were under the Feudal Lords’ control. The core of the force consisted of about six hundred knights, and at the top were six Ranger-level Knight Titans supported by national resources.
In the political ecology of the Luman Kingdom, there were two great dukes, each possessing a Knight Titan and with more than two hundred knights swearing allegiance to them. Although they were vassals of the kingdom, they had a relatively high degree of independence.
The most core forces at the disposal of King Nes Luman were known as the Royal Knight Order, consisting of two hundred royal knights plus two Ranger-level Titans; plus two earls who were directly loyal to the royal family and their vassals, that’s another two hundred knights and two Titans.
These constituted the overall military force of the Luman Kingdom.
Right from the start, Nes Luman had almost mobilized all his military forces. The gathering of common soldiers was not much, about one hundred and fifty thousand, but the four hundred knights and four Titans were summoned ahead of time in the name of a ‘festival.’ Explore hidden tales at empire
This was virtually all his base being put into play.
And then, all was lost.
The most painful, of course, was the loss of the four Knight Titans.
The damage can’t be viewed solely by the production cost of seven hundred thousand Tax Currency. The maintenance costs of these behemoths were over one hundred thousand Tax Currency each time, and they needed maintenance every two to three years, or else their combat effectiveness would suffer. Over the years, Luman Kingdom had spent untold amounts of money on them.
Now, all was lost.
And of those four hundred knights piloting sentinel mechas, fewer than fifty returned.
In the political ecology of the Luman Kingdom, those knights were the mid-level rulers; the Titans were the high-level rulers.
After a decisive round-up, not only was the military force nearly wiped out, but the kingdom’s political ecology was also destroyed, leaving nothing behind.
In this sense, even if the Alliance suddenly had a change of heart, stopped their offensive, withdrew their forces, and demanded no indemnity, the Luman Kingdom would likely cease to exist.
The other six nations on Heijian Star would not miss the chance to take over such a weakened Luman; even the two remaining dukes, whose power hadn’t suffered much, might also have some plans in mind.
And, of course, Gu Hang would not be so kind-hearted.
The army approached the city.
The reorganized Alliance Army surrounded Pincer City.
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