Chapter 1840 - Battle in the Air! (I)
Chapter 1840: Battle in the Air! (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Creee!
A shrill screech came from the rear of the Arab army, so sharp that it could almost pierce through eardrums.
A moment later, in a fierce gust of wind, the sky dimmed as a moving shadow like a dark cloud began to move toward the Great Tang camp.
“What’s that?”
“How could there be such a massive bird?”
“Wait! There’s someone on the bird!”
“Everyone, be careful!”
Emerging from the rear of the Arab camp were countless massive birds, all of them moving as quickly as lightning toward the Tang defense line.
Giant birds… true giant birds!
Whether it was the Great Tang, Arabia, the Eastern and Western Turks, or even a small country like Goguryeo, all countries raised large numbers of birds to gather information. On Wang Chong’s side, he had extremely talented bird trainers in Old Eagle and Zhang Que, and a special eagle team.
When it came to birds used, they ranged from as small as sparrows, which were only about the size of a fist, to as large as rock eagles and golden falcons, which had shocking wingspans of more than a meter.
But no matter how great the wingspan of a bird, their bodies would not be very large. At most, they would be about the size of a cat.
Yet the giant birds flying out of the Arab camp had bodies larger than human adults, and their wingspans were four to five meters in length. They were like fierce beasts flying through the skies.
They had savage and fierce visages, seeming like miniaturized Behemoths that had grown wings.
Even more strange was that these giant birds even had black armor that protected their weak points.
Just what are these things?
Everyone stared in shock at these giant birds, even Gao Xianzhi.
Amongst the commanders, he and Wang Chong had the most experience fighting with the Arabs, but not even he had ever seen this sort of monster before.
The strangest of all was that each flying monster had an Arab on its back.
“Watch out! They have something in their hands!” At this moment, Chen Burang urgently called out, his voice ringing across the army.
As the commander of the army’s master archers, Chen Burang possessed extraordinary sight and had immediately sensed something odd about the giant birds.
“For Arabia!”
“Divine Emissary Army, move out! Slay all the infidels!”
“Attack!”
The Arabs brashly called out, and the flock of giant birds swiftly covered more than half the battlefield and arrived above the Tang camp.
Boomboomboom!
The moment they arrived, large ‘steel balls’ began to drop down from the skies.
“Not good! Bombs!”
Upon sensing that faint, but familiar, energy in the air, Chen Burang paled.
At this moment, one of the ‘steel balls’ smashed into a steel wall and instantly exploded into a blazing flame.
This was the signal for hundreds more steel balls to howl down. Amidst fierce explosions, the Tang base was turned into a sea of fire.
The outer surface of these balls was made of steel, under that was a layer of fragile tiles, and farther inside was viscous black oil.
The King of Foreign Lands had by now spread the reputation of Arabian oil far and wide. Everyone knew that this sort of object was extremely flammable. Anything that it touched, whether armor or weapons, would fiercely burn with flames that were difficult to extinguish. Only using dirt to completely bury the flames could put them out.
“Careful!”
Everyone began to move away from the fire bombs dropping down from the sky.
“Shoot!”
The master archers instinctively began to shoot at the steel balls. Ping! Ping! Boom! The steel balls exploded and ignited in the air.
And as these steel balls erupted, the black oil within them was scattered over an even wider area, and it seemed like the heavens themselves had begun to burn.
At this moment, thick clouds of dust engulfed the steel defense line.
“Fools!”
Atop his elephant Behemoth, Khatabah faintly smiled, a cold light in his eyes.
Oil was a massive advantage that Arabia uniquely enjoyed, just like the ballistae for the Great Tang. If those eastern infidels thought that shooting down the steel balls would be enough, then they were truly simpletons. The burning oil could consume the air in the area and kill his opponents all the same.
Moreover, attacking the steel balls would spread the oil over a greater area and cause his opponents to die even faster.
“Master archers, listen here! Target the giant birds! Shoot!” Chen Burang suddenly called out. Creeeak! The bowstrings of more than six hundred master archers were pulled back, and they targeted the giant birds and began to continuously loose arrows.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
With piercing whistles, the arrows sliced through the air and engulfed the giant bird army. Plaintive shrieks came from above as several of the giant birds plunged to the ground. But at this time, the armor worn by these giant birds showed their use. As this armor protected their vital spots, simply striking the birds with arrows was not able to deal lethal damage to these tenacious birds. Seven or eight, or even more than ten arrows were needed to kill each one.
Chen Burang’s heart sank at this. If they couldn’t deal with these giant birds quickly, they would be able to turn the entire army into a sea of fire with those steel balls.
Before one wave could settle, another one stirred. As the giant birds were throwing down their steel balls, the earth suddenly began to shudder. The ground cracked open, and several steel walls were suddenly flung more than one hundred feet into the air by a force originating from under the ground.
Raaaah!
With a frightening roar, a giant sandworm with a diameter of seven or eight meters, hundreds of times larger than normal sandworms and with a mouth ringed with sharp teeth, burst out of the ground.
“Ah!”
Four or five Tang soldiers were caught off guard and swallowed whole.
Boomboomboom!
This was merely the beginning. Not far away, the ground cracked open, walls toppled, and several more giant sandworms charged out of the ground.
These giant sandworms had come without warning, and their immense strength scattered aside all the steel walls around them. Wang Chong had established the City of Steel on a layer of hard bedrock that was impossible to dig through, but this hard stone was essentially slurry to the giant sandworms.
Boom! Boom! Boom! One giant sandworm after another appeared, working together with the Behemoths to throw the central Tang force into chaos.
“Shoot!”
Sharp arrows howled through the air, each one loosed by a Tang master archer whose every arrow could shoot through stone.
But when these arrows struck the giant sandworms, they all bounced off. These giant sandworms had a dense and tough outer skin that was also extremely flexible. Swords and sabers also seemed useless against them.
Rumble! The monsters did not stay for long. A few moments later, they had burrowed back into the earth, leaving behind pitch-black holes. A few moments after that, they reappeared at another location.
“Careful!”
Gao Xianzhi, Abusi, and the other Great Generals grimaced. The Arabs’ Behemoth Army was easy to deal with through the giant ballistae and Behemoth Slayers, but these giant sandworms could move around as they pleased. If they were allowed to continue charging in and out, the defense line would utterly collapse.
Whoosh!
In the distance, Khatabah and the High Priest watched and subtly nodded.
The giant bird army and the giant sandworms were the first instance of cooperation between Khatabah and High Priest. These actions, coupled with the assault of the Behemoth Army and the two hundred thousand Arab cavalry, had succeeded in causing chaos in the Tang base.
Now they needed to see how the Great Tang dealt with this.
……
Rumble!
In showers of rock and clanging steel, the giant sandworms burrowed in and out. Meanwhile, the giant bird army continued to hurl down their steel bombs. As the chaos spread, a cold and collected voice rang out.
“Li Siye, Young Master Qingyang, I leave those giant sandworms to you!
“Old Eagle, mobilize the eagle army and kill those giant birds!”
Wang Chong’s voice was calm and cold, like an ancient pool of still water.
Buzz!
This voice at this moment rapidly calmed the Tang army down. For these soldiers, Wang Chong’s voice was the pillar that propped up the world, taking all their worries off their shoulders.