484: Swordfish vs. Archers

The reason Teng Yi insisted on waiting for the Sea Race to attack before launching a counterattack was primarily to establish the fact that the Ming Army was engaging in a war of self-defense. For a nation like the Ming Dynasty that claimed to be a Celestial Empire, holding the moral high ground was essential; otherwise, it would be easy to give others a handle against them. As the saying goes, one must have a legitimate reason to dispatch troops. Only an army of benevolence and righteousness could occupy the moral high ground, allowing the army to psychologically occupy the side of justice!

This was, of course, also the instruction from the higher-ups. As a garrison general, Teng Yi naturally had to implement this spirit. At this moment, after the Swordfish Clan launched their water-line attack, the Ming Army's counterattack immediately followed. The long-prepared archer squads fired a rain of arrows from all directions at the incoming Swordfish Clan. The arrows flew with fierce momentum, covering an area of one mile outside the city, forming a curtain of arrows within this range, intertwining with the Swordfish Clan!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Squeak, squeak, squeak...

A large number of swordfish were hit by the arrow rain before they could even fly near the city. These flying arrows were shot by the Xuan Practitioner squads, and some were even shot by those Xuan Practitioners who possessed archery talents. The lethality was extremely high. In an instant, many swordfish were hit and fell to the ground before they could even react, their formation thrown into chaos!

The Swordfish Clan's ability to conduct aerial attacks was thanks to their pair of wings. Naturally, as their level increased, they would add one or two more pairs of wings, allowing them to fly for a certain distance. However, for them, aerial flight was not their primary skill because their living environment was still in the ocean. Therefore, their flying ability was significantly inferior to that of avian species; they could only stay in the air for a short period before needing to rest and recharge to fly again. At the same time, their agility in the air was far less than that of birds, and many subtle aerial techniques were hard to compare with avian species. Consequently, the difficulty for them to dodge the arrow rain became immense, because their targets in the air were actually quite large. Even if the arrows didn't hit their bodies, as long as they hit their wings, it could cause damage to them!

After one round of arrow rain, a large swath of the originally dense Swordfish Clan in the air had been wiped out. This left both sides dumbfounded. The Ming side was excited, while the Sea Race side was somewhat caught off guard. They had originally held the Human Race in extreme contempt, especially after they had easily wiped out the Fusang Country. In their eyes, the Human Race was simply a group of weaklings that could be slaughtered at will, but now they finally realized they were wrong, and terribly wrong at that!

The Ming garrison was a completely different matter from the Fusang People. Just from this one round of arrow rain, it could be seen that their weapons were fine, they were organized, and their combat power was extremely strong.

Arrow Soar's face was grim. He immediately let out a sharp whistle again. After hearing the order, the remaining Swordfish Clan immediately dispersed their formation, and the distance between them increased significantly. At the same time, many swordfish learned their lesson, and their flight paths in the air became circuitous, unlike the straight and direct paths from before. These maneuvers immediately increased their safety, making them less easily targeted by the opponent.

Moreover, most of those shot down in the first round of arrow rain were Elementary swordfish. Such fodder existed in large numbers within the Swordfish Clan, so they were not afraid of attrition at all. The swordfish army still stubbornly attacked the pass, with a menacing Aura, truly fearless of death.

"Second round, Elite Squad, fire!!!" Teng Yi ordered fiercely.

From his observations, he saw that the Swordfish Clan army was quite strong, and ordinary archers would find it difficult to pose a threat to them, so he sent out the elite squad. These elite squad members were all carefully selected. Every one of them possessed archery talent. Regardless of the level of their talent, arrows shot by those with talent could not be compared to those of ordinary archers. Their arrows not only had a longer range but also higher accuracy and greater lethality.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Arrows were shot out like raindrops again, and the curtain of arrows streaked across the sky. Squeak, squeak, squeak, another large swath of swordfish was wiped out. The remaining ones had become somewhat sparse, and the sky did not look as terrifying as it had at the beginning!

"Hiss—" Nian Kuo, Yokota Ichiro, Ingen Takashige, and others who were watching the battle from the rear gasped in cold air. They hadn't expected the Ming archers to be so formidable. The Swordfish Clan had truly started their campaign on the wrong foot this time!

Nian Kuo's face was grim. He stood stunned for a moment, then suddenly reacted and turned to Ingen Takashige, saying, "Send your squad to attack the city!"

"What?!" Ingen Takashige shuddered upon hearing this and exclaimed.

"Didn't you hear me? Send your squad to attack the city immediately! Regardless of whether you can get up there or not, you must fight to the death for me!" Nian Kuo roared fiercely.

"This... Brother Nian, the Ming archers are very powerful. If we force an attack on the city, I'm afraid the losses will not be small!" Ingen Takashige said, biting the bullet.

"How can there be no losses when attacking a city? It's just losing some cannon fodder. Rest assured, I will have Brother Arrow cooperate with you from the air, and besides..."

"And besides what?"

"Brother Eel is launching an attack from underground and should be arriving soon. As long as you and Brother Arrow keep pinning down the Ming Army, Brother Eel might successfully launch a surprise attack and enter the city. When the time comes, with an attack from inside and outside, this city will surely fall!" Nian Kuo said triumphantly.

"It's like that?!" Ingen Takashige and Yokota Ichiro were both stunned; they hadn't expected Nian Kuo to have this trick up his sleeve.

"Haha, didn't expect that, did you? How could you trash compare to us, the Sea Race? Our squads not only have those that fly in the sky, those that run on the ground, but also those that advance underground! If not for the Whale and Shark clans being deployed to attack Snow Eagle Country and Flying Lion Country, our strength would be even more unimaginable to you!" Nian Kuo laughed loudly.

"Good heavens, so the Whale Clan and Shark Clan were transferred away?" Ingen Takashige and the others suddenly realized.

"The strength of Snow Eagle Country and Flying Lion Country is much stronger than that of the Ming Dynasty. Dealing with the Ming Dynasty is enough with us medium-sized forces! There are dozens more medium-sized forces coming behind us; we are just the advance squads. Now do you understand? If you want to earn merit, hurry up and charge for me, otherwise, when our main army arrives, there won't be any share for you, and don't blame me for not protecting you then!" Nian Kuo shouted coldly.

Ingen Takashige exchanged glances with Yokota Ichiro, Takahashi Tokki, and Koyama Hanako, all of them nodding slightly. They knew they had no choice; if they didn't risk their lives now, they were afraid they wouldn't have the chance to do so later.

And if they couldn't establish war merit, the possibility of them becoming agents for the Sea Race would be very small. Therefore, this was a pledge of allegiance; if they couldn't deliver it, the outcome could be imagined.

"Both of you take a squad each and attack the North City and the South City! I will be responsible for the East City!" Ingen Takashige gave orders to Takahashi Tokki and Koyama Hanako respectively.

Takahashi and Koyama looked at Yokota Ichiro upon hearing this. Yokota Ichiro pondered for a moment and said in a low voice, "Attack from a distance first. Do not scale the city too early. Wait until the Swordfish Clan and the Eel Clan attract the Ming Army's combat power before attacking the city. You must preserve your strength!"

"Yes! Sovereign!" Takahashi and Koyama replied and went to organize their squads...