Chapter 1898 - Reinforcements! The Aswaran Cataphracts!
Chapter 1898: Reinforcements! The Aswaran Cataphracts!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Bang!
The Lone Silence Ancestor floated in the air, his aura growing stronger and stronger. With a single wave of his hand, a large swath of rain transformed into chilling mist and flew into the distance. There was a hissing sound as those unkillable fire men vanished in a cloud of steam.
Rumble! A bone-chilling wave of water froze and shattered all the lava men within a radius of ten thousand feet. It took only a few seconds for all the fire men to be extinguished by the Lone Silence Ancestor, even those ones Khatabah had recently created with black flames.
And the Lone Silence Ancestor was just getting started. After dealing with the fire men, the Lone Silence Ancestor shot to the ground and pressed a hand against the earth. Cold energy along with pouring rain seeped into the ground, freezing and hardening all the lava flows around the Black Flame Ifrit.
The Ifrit’s high-temperature flames had melted rock into lava, and by absorbing the lava, the Ifrit had increased its power.
The Lone Silence Ancestor controlled all the rain, turning it into frigid mists that hardened the lava, essentially draining the Ifrit’s strength through its foundations. And without the fire men, the Black Flame Ifrit no longer posed a threat to the army at large.
“Wonderful!”
Even Wang Chong was elated to see this. The Lone Silence Ancestor cultivated a Water Element divine art, and few on the battlefield could match him in a battle against the Ifrit.
“Ants, you think that this is enough?”
Khatabah was furious.
The storm Wang Chong had summoned could not threaten him, but the rain pouring down had a suppressive effect on the Ifrit.
As the fire men were incessantly extinguished, the upper hand created by the Ifrit was fading.
Without the endless army of fire men, the Ifrit was simply a larger Behemoth. This substantial decrease in fighting strength was definitely not something Khatabah wanted to see!
“I’ll kill all of you first and then see what you can do!”
Boom! Black flames erupted from the Ifrit’s body, sweeping toward the Tang experts around it.
With one strike, the weakest of the group—Gao Xianzhi, An Sishun, and Xie Guangting—were blown back. Meanwhile, Wang Zhongsi, Li Junxian, and Song Yuanyi grimly unleashed their most powerful attacks before rapidly retreating.
The Black Flame Ifrit was the Ifrit’s strongest form. Not only was it stronger than them, the heat of more than two hundred thousand degrees radiating from its body also posed an enormous threat.
These terrifying temperatures were somewhat unbearable even for Wang Zhongsi, who was already in the Subtle realm, let alone the others.
The only one who could just barely clash with Khatabah was Wang Chong.
Rumble!
The Nightmare Beast’s power combined with the Xuanyuan Sword, and Wang Chong immediately unleashed a massive black sword at Khatabah.
Khatabah’s body swayed, the flames around him growing chaotic.
Even though the Black Flame Ifrit form had increased the Ifrit’s resistance, making it immune to most kinds of damage, Wang Chong’s Psychic Energy attacks were still effective.
More importantly, no matter how strong the Black Flame Ifrit, how hot its flames, or what technique Khatabah used, Wang Chong needed to only slash his sword to strike the Ifrit. Khatabah could not change this no matter what he did.
“Adnan, Abu Muslim, Lucis, and all the other Governors and Deputy Governors, hear my order! All of you, come at once and assist me!”
Khatabah’s voice resounded through the world as he gathered all his flames on his right arm and unleashed them on Wang Chong.
In the face of these frightening flames, Wang Chong was forced to pull back.
Amidst the raging sands and bellowed orders, Adnan, Abu Muslim, Lucis, and all the other Arab Governors and Deputy Governors heard Khatabah’s call and began to converge on the Black Flame Ifrit.
Two fists had it hard against four hands. While Khatabah could suppress Wang Chong and the others, in the face of their endless barrage of attacks, Khatabah was feeling a little hard-pressed.
Only Adnan and the other Arab commanders joining in could swiftly end the battle. More importantly, the handiwork of Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor had made them feel very threatened, and they sensed that they needed to kill this powerful Water Element expert.
Neigh!
But just when Adnan and the others were rushing toward Khatabah, the neighing of horses resounded through the air, penetrating through the sandstorm.
A few moments later, the earth rumbled, and everyone could sense a non-Arab army of more than one hundred thousand soldiers plunging into the rear of the Arab army like a sharp blade.
Turmoil and chaos erupted through the ranks.
Numerous Arab horsemen were instantly slain by this unknown force of cavalry.
“!!!”
Adnan and Abu Muslim both turned their heads in shock.
With this massive storm raging, none of them had expected another force to attack from the rear just when they were going to Khatabah’s aid.
More importantly, this force was well-trained and well-equipped, maintaining formation in the middle of this sandstorm. Meanwhile, the Arabs had been completely scattered by the sandstorm and were thus unable to fight back!
“The Sassanids! It’s the Sassanids!”
“The Aswaran Cataphracts! Run!”
Panicked shouts came from the rear, but their voices were quickly drowned out by the sand. On the front line, Adnan, Abu Muslim, and even Khatabah all grimaced.
Bahram!
And his Aswaran Cataphracts!
They had realized from the very beginning that Bahram and his Aswaran Cataphracts were nowhere to be found in the Tang ranks, but at that time, both armies were already ready to fight. Moreover, the Arabs had the absolute advantage in numbers, so they had not put much attention onto finding these missing soldiers.
But nobody had expected this army to be hiding behind them, waiting for the chance to attack the rear and deal the Arabs a lethal blow!
“Kill!”
At this time, the Tang army also heard the turmoil coming from the north. Reinvigorated, they charged at the Arabs, joining the Aswaran Cataphracts in attacking the enemy from two sides.
Boomboomboom!
Ballista bolts howled through the air, shooting toward the northern battlefield.
Screams and the thudding of bodies could be heard through the raging sandstorm. In that moment, numerous Arab horsemen had been slain.
Su Hanshan and the ballistae under his command had been the first to strike from the Tang side. Su Hanshan had ordered his soldiers to crouch down before the sandstorm had come, but the Arab soldiers did not have it so easy.
Moreover, Su Hanshan had specifically positioned his men so that they could use the northern steel walls to shelter from the sandstorm.
On the other side, Li Siye didn’t have as many apprehensions, simply leading his Wushang Cavalry fearlessly through the sandstorm and into the Arab ranks.
Consecutive explosions rang out in the sandstorm. The rigorous training of the Wushang Cavalry and the tacit understanding they shared as fellow villagers was on full display. Even in the sandstorm, the Wushang Cavalry maintained orderly ranks. In comparison, the Arabs were in complete disarray under the assault of the sandstorm.
The Arabs had soon suffered massive losses. Seven thousand, eight thousand, thirteen thousand, seventeen thousand, nineteen thousand… tens of thousands of Arab horsemen were being cut down like they were stalks of wheat.
“Attack!”
Cheng Qianli and Xi Yuanqing seized the moment, joining together with Wang Chong’s subordinates Xue Qianjun and Kong Zi-an to lead their army in charging toward the north.
Cavalry were far more effective as a killing force than infantry, a fact which was acknowledged by all the countries of the world. Otherwise, the Arabian Empire would have never been able to rely on purely cavalry to conquer so many countries and begin considering the idea of uniting the entire world.
But nothing was absolute. Cavalry was king because its charge was unstoppable, but a group of cavalry in disarray, milling about like headless flies… was even less than infantry.
“Kill!”
The units of the Tang army advanced like a moving wall.
The infantry formations also began to display their power. In the sandstorm, the Arab cavalry were lost and fighting their own battles, and so when the Tang forces came upon them, they were basically doomed. Even when several dozen cavalry were gathered together, they had no formation or any sort of charging force, and it took only a few seconds for the Tang infantry to finish them.
“Kill!”
War cries came from all sides. For the Arab cavalry, it felt like the Tang soldiers were everywhere. Even more terrifying was that there was also a force of Tang cavalry riding through their ranks, constantly attacking different locations and impossible to pin down.
No one knew how many soldiers this force consisted of or when it would strike. The Arabs didn’t even know if the soldiers right next to them were these Tang.
The Arabs had never before been so panicked and fearful.