Chapter 963 - The Threat of the Skyquaking Giants!
Chapter 963: The Threat of the Skyquaking Giants!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Hahaha, all of you damnable ants, die for me!”
Savage laughter rang out over the army.
Bang! Right after throwing the rock, the giant lunged forward with the agility of an ape, jumping out from the pit. Boom! The steely black arms swept out like a wheel, and before anyone could react, twenty to thirty Tang cavalry were tossed screaming into the air.
And this green-armored giant scarcely paused for a breath. He immediately lunged forward, snatching an enormous green shield as he charged here and there, tossing all the soldiers in his way into the air.
“Form a defense line!”
“Careful!”
“Surround him!”
This attack was so sudden that all the soldiers around the pit were in complete disarray. Countless Tang soldiers, soldiers from Greater and Lesser Balur, and mercenaries from the Western Regions rushed in from all directions, but none of them could take even a single blow from the terrifying giant.
Rumble! Soldier after soldier, group after group, rank after rank… countless soldiers were swept up like dust or withered leaves, tossed about by the eighteen-meter giant. In front of the entire army, the giant was unstoppable, opening up a massacre right in the middle of the ranks.
From the landing of the meteor to now, the Tang had suffered casualties of at least one hundred men. So unexpected was this assault that even Gao Xianzhi, Wang Chong, and Cheng Qianli paled in shock.
“Chen Bin! The ballistae!”
A frantic and furious bellow erupted from the front of the defense line. Wang Chong’s face had contorted into a ghastly grimace at the sight of that giant wreaking havoc in the army, and his heart sank like a stone.
A Skyquaking Giant!
Although the surrounding soldiers and generals knew not the origin of that giant, Wang Chong had recognized it at a glance. These were the renowned Skyquaking Giants that the Arabs had used in the Battle of Talas during his last life.
Wang Chong was not surprised by the appearance of a Skyquaking Giant, but he had never expected it to appear on the battlefield in this sort of way. More importantly, the Skyquaking Giant would not have come alone. After all, it was part of the Skyquaking Army!
This meant…
“Whooah!”
“Look at that!”
“Shit! Get out of the way!”
As if responding to Wang Chong’s thoughts, the earth shook with impacts, rocks and dirt gushing into the air. In the middle of the chaos, more of the blazing meteors had descended from the sky, smashing into various areas of the army.
Roooar!
In the midst of fierce explosions, the towering Skyquaking Giants howled, raising up their arms with a momentum that could push up the heavens as they emerged from their giant eggs to appear before the army.
Their ferocious, savage, and frenzied aura swept through the surrounding Tang soldiers in a storm of intimidation.
“Kill them!”
A fierce bellow resounded within the two steel defense lines, the Skyquaking Giants unexpectedly speaking in Arabic. Boom!This seemed to be some sort of signal, and the Skyquaking Giants scattered throughout the army began to move as one.
Boomboomboom!
The erect and lofty figures of the Skyquaking Giants began to madly assault the Tang soldiers the moment they appeared, striding through the ranks as they rushed toward the same location.
“Ah!”
A Tang cavalryman screamed as a swarthy palm sent both him and his horse flying ten-some zhang into the air and several dozen zhang away. In that moment, everyone could once more see that these palms truly were larger than a horse.
“Get out of my way!”
Another giant kicked out, and in a spray of gravel, ten-some cavalry that were charging at the giant were sent flying.
In a few short moments, these eight Skyquaking Giants had thrown the Tang formation into utter disarray.
Bang!
A massive black ballista bolt howled through the air, swiftly closing the distance with a Skyquaking Giant. But in a flash of light, the ballista bolt that had proved to be such a nightmare for cavalry was blocked by the dark green shield of a Skyquaking Giant.
The Skyquaking Giant stepped on a corpse as he roared, “Careful of their ballista soldiers! Kill them!”
Boom! The giant suddenly lowered its body, grabbed the bulky corpse of a horse, and threw. With a thunderous bang, the corpse struck a ballista several dozen zhang away, throwing both the ballista and the five ballista soldiers around it into the air.
Following this Skyquaking Giant’s demonstration, the other giants began to do the same, snatching anything they could get their hands on—stones, human corpses, horse corpses—and tossing them at the ballistae. Boom boom boom! Smoke roiled and debris flew through the air as the vital ballistae of the Tang army were smashed into pieces, the surrounding ballista soldiers also suffering severe casualties.
This was only the prelude. One after another, the Skyquaking Giants, scrunched up into their burning dark green eggs, plunged down from the skies, thrown from the distance by the heavy catapults.
Twenty, thirty, fifty… The Skyquaking Giants crashed down across the entire army.
Roooar! Raaaa!
As the giants bellowed, the situation turned extremely grim for the Tang.
Moreover, as these giants attacked the Tang soldiers, they were all rapidly making their way to the same location.
As the commanders of the ballista soldiers and the de facto controllers of the two giant ballistae, Chen Bin and Xu Keyi had immediately noticed that something was wrong. From their standpoint, they could see that no matter where the giants fell, they would immediately get up and begin making their way to the giant ballistae.
The giant ballistae were no longer simply an important weapon. Despite there being over one hundred thousand Tang soldiers at Talas, these two giant ballistae were the only things besides Gao Xianzhi, Wang Chong, Cheng Qianli, and Wang Yan capable of harming the four Behemoths. From a certain perspective, they were even more effective than the four Great Generals.
Without the two giant ballistae, the Tang would be in terrible danger.
It was obvious that the Arabs had noticed this, so they had thrown the giants over using their catapults to attack the giant ballistae.
“Stop them!”
“Protect the giant ballistae! Don’t let them get close!”
“The giants aren’t invincible! Everyone, take up formation and attack them as one!”
Shouts came from all directions, and the soldiers of various types gradually began to surround each of the giants. Everyone understood the importance of the giant ballistae, so once they realized the goal of the giants, they almost went mad in their attempts to stop the giants.
Although these giants were extremely strong and their palms were large enough to snatch up a horse, they were still within the scope of humans, and all the cavalry gathered here were not ordinary cavalry.
Tens of thousands of cavalry gathered together could deal with even a Great General, much less a few giants!
“Kill!”
The soldiers bellowed as they charged at the giants. Half of the three thousand ballistae turned around with a creak to target the Skyquaking Giants. Boomboomboom! The black ballista bolts shot like dragons toward the enormous Skyquaking Giants.
“Raaa! Defense!” shouted a Skyquaking Giant with a thick red beard, his height nearing twenty meters.
Buzz! The rushing Skyquaking Giants slowed down and began to take up defensive postures. Bangbangbang! The howling ballista bolts were all blocked by the dark green armor of the Skyquaking Giants.
Squelch! On the perimeter, a Skyquaking Giant had been just a little too slow, a ballista bolt finding its way through a chink in his armor and shooting through his chest. But this Skyquaking Giant seemed to feel nothing at all, and pulled the ballista bolt out by its tail, tearing off a large chunk of his flesh with it.
This sort of attack would be fatal to normal humans, but these Skyquaking Giants would only feel a little weaker, the flames of life in their bodies continuing to burn bright.
The vitality of the Skyquaking Giants could not compare to the Behemoths, but it was still extremely formidable!
“Split up! Three groups, deal with the ballistae. The rest of you, destroy those two giant ballistae!”
The red-bearded giant bared his teeth and bellowed out his countermeasure. To the astonishment of the Tang, the seemingly brutish and simpleminded Skyquaking Giants began to split up according to the red-bearded giant’s orders. A group of giants got down on their knees and held up their shields, using their armor to block attacks while throwing stones and corpses at the ballistae, at the same time sweeping aside the Tang soldiers charging at them.
Screams and blood flew through the air. Each Skyquaking Giant was a killing machine grinding away at the surrounding Tang soldiers.
While these Skyquaking Giants were on the defense, another group of Skyquaking Giants began to rapidly make their way to the two giant ballistae, where Chen Bin and Xu Keyi were stationed.