When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

"Hurry up and go."

Seeing that Hanske was still stunned in place, Pierre grabbed his collar and ran.

Hanske stumbled and ran for a while before realizing: "Why are we running back, shouldn’t we return to the camp?"

"You’re silly, those are the Vampire hunters." Although Pierre was getting on in years, he dragged Hanske as he sprinted, "If you go down the mountain, you’ll enter the combat zone of both sides’ hunters."

Hunters are essentially professional skirmishers, responsible for scouting, covering, and dispersing enemy hunters, as well as seizing key terrains.

During the second battle of the Thousand River Valley at the Dusk Bell Mountain, hunters first emerged as a concept.

When Pierre fired the signal flare, the surrounding hunters would quickly converge in this direction.

Both sides would swiftly engage in fierce skirmish warfare.

Hanske’s group was still some distance from the Castle of Piana, and the new battle group was somewhat lax.

Added to that was the foggy weather, which actually allowed several Vampire hunters to creep up on them.

"Shhh-shhh-shhh!"

Unending gunfire constantly erupted, tearing the thick fog into shreds.

Amidst the dense fog, footsteps came from all directions, and layers of shadows appeared and disappeared behind the mist.

In almost an instant, Hanske forgot his earlier dreams; all he could hear was his heart pounding in his chest.

Even though he followed the Holy Alliance Army, he was a Service Soldier and stayed in the rear during real combat.

This was his first time on the battlefield.

"Bang."

Suddenly a cloud of dust rose at his feet, causing Hanske to swerve in panic, his hands waving frantically.

"Run this way, you little bastard." Pierre yanked at Hanske’s shirt, forcibly trying to drag him.

But in that moment, as if he smelled something, Pierre shouted, "Get down!"

Hanske immediately lay down, and a blood claw large enough to cover a person’s face broke through the fog, sweeping past overhead.

Feeling the bloody wind overhead, Hanske’s hair stood on end, and he lay flat on the ground, almost unable to get up.

He raised his head and found himself face to face with a Vampire.

Unlike the traditional image of a Vampire, this one wasn’t wearing a silk high-collar suit or showing a ghastly pale face.

He wore a short, arm-tight cloth outfit with a saucer-shaped helmet, under which was a raven-beaked mask, revealing only a pair of red eyes.

On his back was a square backpack about thirty centimeters wide, from which an unknown material pipe connected to his raven beak.

What kind of get-up is this?

Before he could figure it out, the Vampire’s blood claw technique swung down again.

Hanske lost control, a warm liquid seeping from his crotch, but he was too scared to move.

"Bang—"

A crisp shattering sound came first, and before Hanske could react, the blood claw withdrew.

The Vampire hunter fell painfully to the ground, blue smoke continuously emerging from the wound on its arm, its body twitching.

Emerging from behind a large rock, another hunter lowered his clockwork gun: "Which corps are you from?"

"I’m Pierre from the Fifth Corps Service Battalion, and this is Service Soldier Hanske, a sergeant." Pierre replied immediately.

The Holy Alliance hunter who had been nonchalant suddenly shivered upon hearing Pierre from the Fifth Corps.

"Cough, cough, then you should hide up the mountain, be careful." The hunter’s voice softened, "Or... never mind, go back on your own."

After speaking, he bent over and moved along the bushes and small woods towards the most intense direction of the gunfire.

Despite feeling something was odd, Pierre didn’t find it unusual and pulled Hanske up the mountain.

Since Vampires had already appeared on the back mountain route, they could only hide on the mountain.

Treading on loose gravel, the two found a low bush where hunters were ambushed and dared to lie down.

With the rising sun, the dense fog had dispersed considerably by now.

But Hanske dared not take off his pants, so he lay wet on the haystack, peering down the hillside.

At this small hill by the camp, near the fences, under the bushes, behind rocks, hunters could be seen freely firing in pairs.

Led bullets danced wildly, breaking branches, etching spider-web cracks on rocks, and occasionally a time-charge bullet was thrown out.

However, as more Holy Alliance hunters and skirmishers arrived, the Vampire hunters were continuously falling and retreating.

The dense smell of blood wafted through the air, even infiltrating Hanske’s nose.

"These Vampires are more elite than we imagined." Pierre, holding a spyglass from somewhere, remarked, "The hunters are all sharpshooters, using helical guns, yet the battle losses are almost even."

"Are Vampires that formidable?"

"That’s not necessarily so. Free shooting doesn’t count as a skill; it’s only on the battlefield that true abilities are shown."

As if he had seen something, Pierre suddenly stopped talking, merely frowning tightly while looking down the mountain.

Hanske could see nothing clearly; he only anxiously and fearfully peeked out from the haystack, looking towards below.

The gray fog, without anyone noticing when, started to carry a faint pink hue, and in the morning light, it shimmered with a faint purple glow.

The Vampire Army hadn’t arrived, but the blood mist had already come ahead.

"Let me see, let me see."

Because he usually had a good personal relationship with Pierre and was truly curious, Hanske couldn’t help but plead.

Pierre, with a good temper, handed the binoculars to him.

Below, squeezed between two mountains, was a battlefield with pools and shrubs, where some villages composed of civilian houses also stood.

This was the current battlefield. At least Hanske knew that their side’s strength was 5,500 men.

An infantry regiment, along with 300 cuirassier cavalry deployed to cooperate.

Of course, service soldiers like them were not counted.

In the distance, the Vampire Army could only be seen as a rising blood mist slowly approaching.

Outside the camp, the soldiers who had been sitting by the bonfire drinking coffee like grandfathers seemed to have turned into different persons.

They formed a column quickly exiting the camp and immediately changed from column to row once reaching the designated position.

Row after row, column after column, in an instant, two intersecting battle lines, two hundred meters apart, were arrayed on the battlefield.

Hanske counted twice, on the Holy Alliance’s side, each row had 100 men, each column had 6 men.

Six hundred men made the number for a corps post-reform.

The left 300 men were commanded by the Left Vice Corps Commander; the right 300 men by the Right Vice Corps Commander.

This 300-man formation is sometimes called a half-corps.

It’s convenient after piercing the enemy lineup, to turn from row to column, launching an attack simultaneously from left and right.

This kind of horizontal formation was the smallest infantry combat unit of the Holy Alliance.

The current clockwork gun already has the basics of Napoleon-era three-row lines, hence it isn’t impossible to adopt that line tactic.

But Horn insisted on using six rows because the three-row formation was too thin for Extraordinary Knights.

If it were cavalry from Horn’s original world, three-row formations were entirely sufficient.

Because cavalry in that world were mortals, only charging when infantry formations were unstable.

Otherwise, it was courting disaster, unless it was at the level of a ’Iron Buddha’.

But in this world, knights who drink potions and use divine art rush straight into intact phalanxes in a fit of passion.

Judging by Horn’s personal understanding of their charging force, they truly possess a strong formation-breaking capability.

So, for elite cavalry units in this world, especially those above Square Banner Knight, three rows are a bit too thin.

Horn couldn’t assume every encounter consisted only of Squire and Square Banner Knights, hence adopted the six-row formation.

The first five rows are clockwork gunmen; the last row comprises Long Halberd Soldiers and Ax-Gunners armed with short guns.

They scarcely engage in gunfire exchange, merely used for defense against enemy Extraordinary Knights and tearing open defenses when entering bayonet combat.

Hence, they are also called assault soldiers.

In different regiments, different Extraordinary individuals serve as assault soldiers.

For example, Wild Wolf Soldiers from the Wild Wolf Battle Group, Shadow Crow Soldiers from the Shadow Crow Battle Group, armored monks from the Chongxin Battle Group.

Of course, they are occasionally dispatched to carry out special operations in the form of small squads.

However, since these are new regiments, they haven’t formed their own characteristics, or simply lack special Extraordinary soldier types like the Black Crown Battle Group.

Once the Holy Alliance’s new regiment formation was completed, the Vampire Army also appeared within sight.

Compared to the Holy Alliance’s six-row formation, the vampires confidently employed a four-row formation.

Despite being exposed to sunlight, they wore black clothing, hoods, compressed helmets on the hoods, and masks.

It can’t be said that the sunlight didn’t affect them at all, but at least the vampires could function normally, fire guns, which was already quite remarkable.

When both sides entered the battlefield, the Holy Alliance’s cuirassier cavalry were in position, and the Royal Court’s Imperial Knights galloped out.

Even though it was an encounter battle, both sides immediately chose to engage without hesitation.

"Woo woo woo—"

"Boom, boom boom, boom, boom boom!"

War drums and horns sounded simultaneously, dust rose from the ground, and battle lines began to slowly advance.