Chương 136: Fix Bayonets, Charge!

The troops rested in place for one minute to catch their breath and adjust their ranks before resuming the advance. They quickly penetrated deep into the enemy's core defense zone. Interlocking trench networks grew increasingly dense, and enemy attacks turned progressively more frantic. Human soldiers burst out from all manner of obscure angles to tangle with the goblins in brutal close-quarters fighting, inflicting a small number of casualties.

The enemy had also dug concealed pitfall traps lined with sharpened wooden stakes. Occasionally, a goblin soldier would miss their footing and plummet into a pit. However, these traps caused virtually no actual casualties—the soldiers were clad in either Horned-Crocodile leather armor or full plate armor, and their falling body weight simply snapped the wooden spikes on impact, making it impossible for the stakes to pierce their bodies. Bang! Bang! Bang!

Musket fire echoed continuously through the pitch-black night. The intensity of the enemy's counterattacks gradually withered; already suffering from bottom-tier morale and further weakened by fighting in the dark, the humans broke and fled in panic after watching so many of their comrades get cut down in succession. Dropping their weapons, they turned and ran for their lives.

The soldiers of the Punishment Army pressed their advantage, cutting down every visible enemy in their path before continuing their steady march deeper into the sector. They crossed one trench after another, dispatching wounded enemies as they advanced. The operation appeared smooth on the surface, yet as they marched, soldiers began collapsing without warning. The deeper they penetrated into the territory, the higher the concentration of Light mana became.

The stinging sensation burning across the soldiers' skin grew exponentially worse; some of the physically weaker troops even slumped to the earth, gasping for air as their lungs seized up. Continuing forward meant risking immediate death. They were essentially conducting a full-scale offensive while submerged in toxic gas.

Imagine hundreds of fire ants viciously biting every inch of your flesh while every breath you inhale feels like scalding hot steam, blinding your eyes with sharp pain—and under those exact conditions, you still had to fight off wave after wave of enemy assaults. Li Qinwu led his column another four hundred meters deeper into the enemy lines before the humans managed to organize another major counterattack.

This time, roughly a thousand heavily armored infantrymen accompanied by two thousand militia launched a desperate charge. Under normal operational conditions, an attacking force of that scale would never have breached the line. But the Punishment Army soldiers were severely debilitated by the ambient Light mana, allowing the three thousand human attackers to crash into their ranks and drag them into a chaotic melee.

Li Qinwu swung his greatsword violently, hacking down surrounding human soldiers while roaring at the top of his lungs, urging his men to hold the line with absolute courage. The soldiers fought back with everything they had, maintaining a continuous volley of musket fire. After half an hour of fierce hand-to-hand combat, the enemy broke and retreated once again. However, Li Qinwu's force sustained over four hundred casualties.

Far more lethal than the battle losses, however, was the physiological damage: the intense physical exertion had caused the soldiers to breathe heavily, inhaling massive volumes of concentrated Light mana into their systems. The Light energy reacted violently against their respiratory tracts, inflicting excruciating thermal burns and leaving everyone gasping for air.

Dozens of troops lay prone on the ground, completely incapacitated; others clutched their own throats in agony, squirming violently across the dirt as their airways completely closed. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The heavy-armored goblins were almost entirely wiped out—advancing a single step further meant certain death for them.

The veterans of the original 10th Company fared slightly better; as Tier-3 troops with unbreakable combat resolve, they managed to remain on their feet. Recognizing the dire reality, Li Qinwu made an immediate tactical adjustment.

"All injured brothers who can no longer walk, retreat at once! The 10th Guard Company continues the advance with me!" Every musketeer of the 10th Guard Company stepped forward. Sweat poured down their faces in torrents. Although their bodies were thoroughly slathered in thick mud, the concentration of Light mana grew exponentially denser the closer they drew to the enemy's core position. The crude protection provided by the mud was rapidly dissolving.

Whenever the Light mana breached their skin, the violent reaction between Light and Dark felt as though a thousand fire ants were biting into their flesh simultaneously. Every single soldier gritted their teeth and endured the agony. Had they not been the battle-tested veterans who had followed Li Qinwu through countless bloodbaths, their resolve would have shattered long ago. Li Qinwu led his elite force forward as the trench lines gradually thinned out.

Finally, they reached the outer perimeter of the main human camp. Looking out across the field, thousands of military tents stretched out before them. At the far rear of the encampment—roughly two thousand meters away—lay a small open clearing. Standing in a tight square formation in that clearing were one hundred women. All of them held the teardrop pendants of the Goddess of Life tightly across their chests with both hands, their eyes closed as they chanted a holy hymn with absolute devotion.

Luminous, translucent wings fluttered gently behind every single one of them—the exact same visual phenomenon seen when Leon the Hero activated his inner power, though their version appeared far more sheer and ethereal compared to Leon's solid energy wings. Li Qinwu could feel rolling heatwaves surging toward him directly from those women. They were the sole culprits driving the regional spike in Light mana! Li Qinwu's muscles coiled tight as an explosive wave of murderous intent erupted within him.

He wanted nothing more than to sprint straight into that choir and slaughter every single one of them without mercy! However, blocking the path before the choir stood a massive host of human soldiers. Holding heavy shields, swords, and spears, over four thousand troops stood packed in tight, disciplined ranks, forming a human wall to shield the choir from harm!

Although the human formation appeared exceptionally tight and held a four-fold numerical advantage over the 10th Guard Company, Li Qinwu caught sight of the intense, undeniable dread brimming in the human soldiers' eyes. Furthermore, fully armored elite infantry held only the very front line; behind them stood half-armored regulars and unarmored militia. Li Qinwu burst into a wild, fierce laugh.

He saw through them instantly—these men were at the absolute end of their rope, holding their ground purely on borrowed time. He whirled around and roared to his soldiers: "Honorable officers and men of the 10th Guard Company! Open your eyes and look! Look at the expressions on their faces! They are terrified of you!!" Enduring the agonizing stinging across their skin and inhaling the scorching hot air, the soldiers strained their eyes to observe the expressions of the human army opposite them.

Just as Li Qinwu had said, the human faces were saturated with pure terror. An instant surge of morale surged through the goblins' veins, and arrogant, fierce grins crept onto their lips. Li Qinwu continued his thunderous roar:"Honorable 10th Guard Company! The enemy's expressions are so hideous and fearful because you carved that terror into them with your own blood and sweat!! With your lethal volleys and relentless bayonets, you forced them to view us as invincible devils!

Now, I want you to etch that impression into their souls! All units, fix bayonets!!" Clack! Clack! Clack! Every soldier yanked their long bayonet from their waist, snapping and locking the steel rings securely onto the muzzles of their muskets. Li Qinwu swung his greatsword forward, pointing straight at the enemy center.

"Glorious Punishment Army!! Glorious 10th Guard Company!! Charge with me!! Drive your muskets directly against the enemy's chest before pulling the trigger, and use your most ferocious, unyielding assault to shatter the last shred of their courage!! All units, CHARGE!!!" BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The instant Li Qinwu bellowed the command to charge, the four field artillery pieces loaded with canister shot detonated first, blasting four massive gaps directly through the human lines as soldiers collapsed in screaming heaps. Then came a chorus of bloodcurdling war cries as the soldiers of the 10th Guard Company—enduring the suffocating, agonizing erosion of intense Light magic—launched a fearless charge against an enemy four times their number.