Nineteenth Chapter: First Encounter with the Enemy

  Arvid stood on the left side of Baron Ifor, a position that allowed him to hand over his pike smoothly. For the first time facing enemies with long spears and shields, Arvid's heart was tense. The baron's soldiers stopped at a distance of one hundred steps from them, because after a period of marching, these soldiers' formation became disorganized, completely different from Arvid's impression of rows and columns. Although in the real Roman Empire era, Western armies emphasized discipline and formation, but after the decline of the Roman Empire, the current Holy Roman Empire was just a collection of Germanic tribes, neither holy nor Roman. The battles between their armies were still using the backward tribal warrior way of fighting.

  "Whoa~~~~." At this moment, the soldiers of Baron Diaphone stopped and brandished their long spears, striking the edges of their shields, roaring at Eve and others, and some even began to curse loudly.

  "What are they doing?" Arvad asked Yifei curiously.

  "These cowards are trying to psyche themselves up and provoke us into attacking first," Yev said with disdain.

  "Oh?" Arwade began to be puzzled, but soon realized that these soldiers had no protective equipment on their bodies except for long spears and shields. In contrast, his own side was wearing chain armor, iron helmets, and riding high and mighty war horses. This psychological intimidation was enough to make these soldiers cautious.

  "Let me go and give them a hard time, hand over the spear." Yifu kicked the horse's belly with his heel, and the warhorse moved forward slowly, but Aruo De did not immediately hand over the spear to his brother.

  "It's too early to rush in now, I'll lead the servants with slings to lure them over, then you can give them a blow on the head." Ahrod said to Eif.

  "Alright, give me the horse spear. You go and lure them between those two trees, I'll wait for you there." Yevhen said in a muffled voice from under his helmet, referring to the two trees between which was a flat grassy area outside the village entrance, where his charge could be most effective.

  "Yes, men, follow me." Arvid handed the rifle to Yves and then pulled out his own crossbow from his waist and said to his household armed servants, who were closest to the Windell family and immediately also took out their crossbows and followed behind Arvid.

  "Everyone keep a tight formation, don't be afraid of them, there are only five of them~~~." The oldest soldier shouted to his companions to boost their morale, he had to motivate his companions to attack the enemy, otherwise after this battle ended, Baron Difoni's whip would not spare him.

  "Whoosh~~~~."

  "Ah~~~." Just as he was raising his long spear to cheer on his companions, a stone flew quickly and struck his head. The soldier, who had no helmet to protect him, let out a miserable cry, and blood flowed from his forehead where the stone had hit him.

  "It's good that these guys didn't wear helmets, if they had helmets, the stones wouldn't have been effective. It seems that in the future, it will be necessary to invent some more powerful weapons." Aruo De held a slingshot in his hand and saw the soldier he hit, feeling a little proud of himself, this was still his first test since coming to this era.

  "Oh no~~~~." The soldiers of Baron DiFoni did not expect the other side to have long-range weapons, and after being attacked by the crossbow, they were first stunned and then angry. Those who could command this small team were usually people with high prestige or rich experience. The elderly person who was ambushed was such a person, which further provoked the backlash of his companions. They had already disregarded everything and shouted loudly, holding up long spears and shields to charge at Aruo De and others.

  "No, don't go, it's a trap!" The older soldier bent over, covering his forehead with his right hand, as bright red blood dripped from between his fingers onto the ground. Despite being worried about his companions, he tried to shout out a warning to others, but the soldiers who were blinded by rage didn't hear him at all.

  "While shooting, retreat in the direction of the small tree." Aruode shouted to the armed slaves while shooting stones backwards. The advantage of flexible shooting with a crossbow was evident at this time. The baron's soldiers wanted to quickly get close to Aruode and others, but the flying stones kept hitting their unprotected bodies. Without armor protection, the human body is very fragile, and every arrow and stone can take their lives. Helplessly, they could only shrink their bodies behind their shields as much as possible, but this reduced their speed a lot. This passive situation made the soldiers' judgment and patience lower and lower.

  "Ah~~~~." Arwade, after shooting the last stone from the linen bag on his waist, heard a armed servant behind him being stabbed in the foot by a long spear thrown by Baron's soldier. The servant let out a miserable cry and fell to the ground, while others looked at the approaching soldiers and didn't dare to look back.

  "Damn it." Arwade didn't think twice, putting the slingshot in his waist and drawing his sword to head towards where the servant fell, while others stared blankly, at a loss for what to do.

  Arvid saw the fastest running baron's soldier had already reached the fallen servant, the soldier sneered and raised his own spear to stab the armed servant of his family. However, it seemed that the soldier's spear was of poor quality, the tip was not sharp enough, and it did not pierce through the servant's body. The Windrunner family's armed servant wailed as he grasped the tip of the spear with both hands, using all his strength to try to stop the opponent from stabbing him in the chest. Two strangers, one trying to kill the other with all his might, and the other struggling desperately for his life.

  "Die, you pig!" The soldier cursed at his troublesome opponent in a rage, throwing away the shield on his other hand and grasping the long spear with both hands, exerting himself to stab at the person on the ground. His originally sturdy arms bulged with veins.

  "God, save me." The armed servant of the Wendel family was named Yves, who was only about twenty years old. He was a serf of the Wendel family. If taken literally, modern people often think that his situation must be very bad, but it's not necessarily so. Becoming a serf of a powerful nobleman would mean losing freedom, but at the same time, he would gain the protection of the nobleman and wouldn't have to worry about being exploited by other nobles. If he encountered a relatively kind lord, his situation as a serf might even be better than that of a self-cultivating farmer.

  Sir Wendel was a traditional and kind lord who upheld the chivalric virtues of taking care of the weak, and Yvain's family had also received his care. Therefore, when Sir Wendel was ordered to go to war, Yvain took his place in Sir Wendel's army instead of his aged father, but he did not expect that he would lose his life in this unrelated place. Looking at the ferocious-looking Saxon standing before him, Yvain begged incessantly, and it had nothing to do with honor or shame, only a yearning for life.

  "Halt." At this critical moment, Arvad rushed forward with his sword in hand, remembering the swordsmanship taught by Yves. With both hands gripping the hilt, he used the ox horn stance to launch a fierce thrust from above at the spear-wielding soldier. However, it was possible that he underestimated the enemy on the battlefield, and the sword's attack range was insufficient, only lightly slashing the opponent's arm.

  "Ugh... despicable." The soldier, holding a spear in his right hand and covering the wound on his left arm with his left hand, retreated several steps back. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yevgeny retreated to behind Arvid's back, crawling through the mud without hesitation.

  "Roar~~~." Aruo De concentrated his attention on the spear-wielding soldier, adjusting his feet into a stable T-shaped stance. The soldier retreated several steps to create distance and immediately used his long spear to aim at Aruo De, fully utilizing the advantage of his long-handled weapon.

  The soldier's body arched slightly, like a lobster about to burst forth with force, he let out a loud cry and used all his strength to thrust the long spear towards Arwod's chest. This was an exercise he had done hundreds of times in daily training, so familiar that it couldn't be any more familiar, but he forgot one very important thing.

  "Whoosh~~~." Ah Ruo De adjusted his pace, dodged to the side and avoided the opponent's spearhead. Then he raised his sword high and chopped down at the soldier's spear. Instantly, the spear snapped in two, and the soldier holding the spear widened his eyes in shock, not daring to believe that his opponent's weapon was so sharp.

  "Ah, what a fine sword." Arwade gazed at the iron sword made by quenching and tempering, its blade emitting a faint chill. The sword of Woodrow Knights represented the advanced technology of this era's forging, effortlessly cutting through birch wood spears. However, this manufacturing method was not widely popularized. Arwade recognized it because before crossing over, he had joined a cold weapon enthusiast QQ group where he saw enthusiasts who made their own quenching and tempering swords, identical to the one in his hand.

  The weapon in his hand was broken into two pieces, and the face of the spear-wielding soldier showed an extremely terrified expression. Such a hard birch long spear was broken into two pieces, if it were chopped on his own body, he would be finished, he thought that the next moment would definitely flash with cold light, and he would be splattered with blood in five steps. However, Arwade did not kill him.

  "Shoo!" Arwade waved his hand as if shooing away flies, shouting at the spear-wielding soldiers, then turned around and grabbed Yifeli from the ground, supporting him as they walked towards the gathering place.

  "Hmm." Ahuo De was too naive, as a traverser from a peaceful era with rule of law, without the bloody killings of sword lights, he didn't understand that in this era, people on the battlefield usually fought to the death. The halberd-wielding soldier saw Ahuo De exposing his back to him without any precautions and was momentarily stunned, but soon his face turned ferocious, he bent down, grabbed the broken long spearhead and charged at Ahuo De.