Volume 4: War of the Gods 125, Countermeasures

  Three great warriors could not defeat or repel Enkidu, who mainly focused on punching Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh, under the cover of two great warriors, relied on his powerful strength to barely hold on until now. Enkidu did not land a single punch on him, but his scorpion armor had multiple cracks, and he gradually felt waves of dizziness, which was a sign that his strength was being pushed to its limits.

  In the intense battle, Amun suddenly came to his senses and wanted to trap Enkido, but in reality, he was trapped by Enkido in the center of the battlefield, unable to command the army as the general. If this chaotic battle continued, Amun would be the first to exhaust himself, using brute force to blast and relying on physical strength and endurance, among these four people, only Enkido could hold out until the end.

  George led the army to fight with great fanfare, but there were some things he couldn't do on his own, such as issuing a retreat order. Moreover, George couldn't mobilize the troops stationed at Red Ridge Town and the mountain defense line. In the first battle, Armon couldn't deploy all his forces outside the defense line, nor could the Uruk army put all its forces into the front line to engage in combat.

  Amon and the other two great warriors did their best to entangle Enqi, but the combat power of this continent's number one warrior was apparently beyond imagination. As long as there was a slight gap in their coordination, they would fall into defeat. If they continued to fight like this, they probably wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. They had to quickly retreat from the battlefield; as the commander-in-chief, he absolutely couldn't fall in battle before the two armies, or else the Egu army would inevitably collapse.

  At this moment, Enqi let out a loud roar and threw a punch that seemed dull and without light, but it directly hit the tip of Ahmon's staff. This great warrior, after a long battle, was still able to suddenly exert his strength, sending Ahmon flying tens of feet away. Then he turned around on the spot, creating a whirlwind, and swung out with both fists, again emitting a golden light, while also blasting Gabriel and Medanzo far away. The shield in Gabriel's hand finally shattered with a loud "crack".

  The resonance between the three was instantly disrupted, Gabriel and Medanzo were already at the edge of exhaustion, but Enkei could still muster a sudden burst of strength. Was he trying to settle the battle at this moment?

  At this moment, something unexpected happened. Amun's left hand loosened its grip on the staff for the first time, with bloodstains in his fingernails, and he drew out something from his bosom and swung it forward. A loud, chaotic noise filled the air as countless boulder-sized rocks suddenly fell from the sky, instantly piling up into a small mountain that buried Enqi alive!

  Amon had mentioned before that Enkido was a pure 9th-level warrior who only trained in martial arts and didn't waste any energy on training magic, reaching an unparalleled peak. Amon knew he would encounter Enkido on the battlefield and had been thinking of countermeasures. The suicidal destructive storm wouldn't work, and face-to-face combat was also difficult to unfold scrolls. Was there another way to win with a clever strategy? As a great magician, he naturally wanted to utilize all his advantages.

  Amon's military tactics were very orthodox, and his command and training of the army were also meticulous, but the martial arts and divine techniques he learned were unconventional and completely different from those of ordinary warriors and divine technique practitioners. Many of his methods were unexpected and even unimaginable, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to do something like sneaking into the enemy's camp and abducting the king of Hatti.

  Amun recalled all his experiences of fighting with others and felt that the only effective move was one trick. He had used it in that bitter battle with the pursuers by the Yu Di River, suddenly swinging out a spatial artifact and smashing everything inside. Almost no great divine master had ever done this in battle, and he also bullied En Qi into not knowing divine techniques, so he thought of this desperate move.

  He loaded the bones with not a mess of things, but a uniform giant stone, almost reaching the extreme of using the bone's power at this time. At this point, it's time to throw it away, and if you continue to fight, you'll be exhausted and unable to use your powers, and the killer move will also lose its effect.

  A whole shipload of massive boulders came crashing down out of nowhere, and Enqi, caught up in the chaos, didn't even have time to react before being buried under a small mountain of rubble. It was impossible to tell if he was dead or alive. Amunak had no expectation that this one move would be enough to take down the greatest warrior on the continent, so with a flick of his staff, all the swirling dust and rocks in the air fell onto the stone mountain, instantly solidifying into a hard outer shell that sealed off every gap.

  This is the intermediate earth element defense technique - Firm Wall Technique. Ah Mon is currently displaying it not for defense, but to solidify this stone mountain and seal En Qi inside. If it were an ordinary great warrior, they would have been smashed to death by now; even if they weren't smashed to death, being injured and pinned down below would have crushed them to death; even if that didn't kill them, the suffocation would have!

  However, Ah Mon Kuo was not confident that he could subdue En Ki Tō, and immediately shouted "Withdraw!" He led the two great warriors to charge out of the battlefield, knocking down enemy interceptors along the way, and returned to their own army's formation.

  Amun's personal guard approached the place where several great warriors were fighting, and now seeing their commander escape, they also retreated from the battlefield, escorting Amun back to the formation. George looked clearly in the sky and immediately shouted: "All officers and soldiers, Amun has beheaded Enkeido, and returned triumphantly!"

  His voice was immediately drowned out by a loud roar, and on the small hill, a burst of golden light erupted, and among the flying boulders, a sturdy figure jumped out, landing on top of the stone heap, pointing at the army array of Egu and cursing loudly: "Amon, you despicable coward!"

  A burst of loud laughter was the response, Ah Mon had already sat on his own chariot, surrounded by his guards, and replied with a laugh that spread across the battlefield: "Oh, it's En Qi Duo, how come you're not dead yet? Sorry sorry, I thought you were already defeated, stopped too early!"

  After finishing this sentence, he coughed twice and covered his chest, feeling dizzy and weak all over, almost unable to muster the strength. The distant battlefield transmitted the mournful sound of bugles, Gilgamesh ordered a retreat. Ahmon also raised his left hand, palm facing backwards, and the military formation of Eggy also transmitted the sound of bugles, low and long, also a command for the entire army to retreat.

  Today was just the first battle, since neither side could break through the other, regardless of who won or lost, it wasn't the final result. Both armies needed to regroup and fight again. The commanders of both sides simultaneously gave the order to retreat. Retreat didn't mean running backwards, the phalanx formation with long spears and large shields surged forward like a tide, the sturdy shields tightly packed together, ten men in a row forming a wall of shields, with the spear tips pointing outwards from the shield wall like a porcupine.

  The soldiers who were fighting to the death retreated back to their own army formation through the passage left between the shield walls under the command of the squad leader, and then the shield wall closed in, the large array retreated in an orderly manner one after another, not giving the opponent a chance to take advantage of the situation.

  Ah Mon sat in the chair with his eyes closed, breathing evenly and deeply, but he didn't say a word or get up. After returning from the intense battle to the rear, once his mind relaxed, the fatigue and weakness were indescribable, and all he wanted to do was lie down and sleep for several days and nights. Unfortunately, as the commander, he couldn't relax, and he was carried into Hongjia Town on a chair by four of his personal guards, just like Gabriel and Medanzo who were also supported by others as they entered the city.

  After Amun opened his eyes, he gave an order to let the chief priest of the Horus Legion, Li Kuide, and the chief priest of the Isis Legion, Wode, these two ninth-level great divine spell casters take turns casting healing and blessing spells to help him and the two great warriors recover their strength and relieve fatigue.

  Li Kuide was the High Priest of the Temple of Horus, and Wode was the High Priest of the Temple of Isis. Both were elders of the Egu Theurgical Academy. There were only six 9th-level theurgists in the entire Egu Empire, so their status was extremely honorable. But now on the battlefield, Ahmon, as the commander-in-chief, had the power to give orders and actually made these two great theurgists take turns treating him and praying for his blessings like ordinary priests.

  Exhausted Ah Mon didn't care about anything else at this moment, he just wanted to recover as soon as possible. In his opinion, wasn't this the purpose of divine techniques? The higher the achievement, the greater the use, so why not use it now?

  These two great mages did not go to the front line today. Amun's battle plan was to rely on Hongxia Town to defend, but he couldn't let the enemy attack recklessly, so he would set up a military formation to fight back. He didn't expect this battle to repel the Uruk army, whether his formation retreated or was defeated, there must be a defensive line behind to support and cover, so he still left enough troops to defend the castle and fortifications.

  The most unexpected thing in this great battle during the day was that Julian, the great god of magic, was the first to die, and he died protecting Amun. No matter what kind of feud this great god of magic had with Amun before, now he has sacrificed his life for the country on the battlefield. The people of Amun sent back his remains and wrote a letter to Pharaoh praising his achievements. The Empire of Egypt will also hold a special memorial service.

  Ahmon sat in the chair with his eyes closed and was directly lifted into the conference hall of Hongxia Town. Before he opened his eyes, several main generals of the legion had gathered here. George told the two 9th-level divine magic users in the rear about the details of what happened on the battlefield. There were also special divine officials recording information on the battlefield. Li Kuai De and Walde watched the scene of Julian's fall, and they were shocked for a long time, unable to speak. George sighed: "If I were standing in Julian's position at that time, there would be no way to defend against it, and it would be hard to escape death!"

  Wald said with a frown, "If I had been on guard, I might have been able to block that punch, but I would also have lost control of my body and fallen from the sky. If there hadn't been an expert to catch me, it's likely that I would have fallen to my death."

  "Julian is indeed a lifesaver, Enqi didn't even fall behind the rear guard's team. I reckon he must have been shaken by Enqi too. This great warrior's first three punches were incredibly fierce, clearly well-prepared. The third punch was obviously intended to kill General Amun on the spot. Fortunately, the general is also a strong one among the strong, and didn't let him succeed, otherwise this battle would have been lost before it even started."

  The commander of the Isis legion, the 8th rank great warrior Ryuteng exclaimed in shock and awe: "I am known as the chief warrior of the Isis temple, but I couldn't even throw a punch like that. Just imagining his power is terrifying! This is the strongest explosive impact, extremely exhausting physically, after three punches he was already tired, yet he still fought against three great warriors for an entire day and could suddenly burst out with force at the end, it's simply too frightening!"

  Rodick's eyes widened: "I have seen Gabriel, the great warrior, take action, and I thought that was almost invincible. Unexpectedly, today I saw the horror of Enkidu. There are many more warriors on the mainland than divine spellcasters, but it is extremely difficult to cultivate martial arts to the highest level. Throughout history, there have been fewer ninth-level great warriors than ninth-level divine spellcasters."

  At this time, Amun, who had been silent, suddenly opened his eyes and said: "This battle has already achieved the best result we expected. Although our casualties are nearly 40% more than those of the enemy, we have not collapsed. Gilgamesh has tested our strength, if he wants to fight again, he can only launch a fierce attack on our defense line. If we want to hold on, we must fight a war of attrition."

  Rod Dick reminded: "We rely on the domestic rear to fight a war of attrition, of course, it is beneficial. But don't forget that the Uruk army has occupied a large area of land and fields, if we drag on for too long, they can also establish a base, and even manage the occupied area as their own city-state territory, at that time our advantage will not be great."

  Amun nodded: "This war can't end in a short time, but if it's dragged into next year, we'll be even more passive. So we need to not only defend, but also launch exploratory counterattacks, making Gilgamesh unable to focus his main forces on managing the rear territories... If Geb's army can also make it to the Red Cliff defense line, this battle will be a bit easier to fight."

  Rod Dick smiled wryly: "It will probably take another half month for the Gaber Legion to arrive and gather here, but Gilgamesh won't wait for us, he will soon launch an attack on Red Ridge Town."

  Amon looked at Roddick and said slowly, "As far as I know, the city-state of Cape has accumulated a batch of scrolls. This time, they are all allocated to the front line for distribution to combat personnel."

  Nero, the most outstanding scroll maker in the history of the Empire of Aegina, became a great divine magician after his ascension and served as the chief priest of Cape City for over 40 years. The scrolls he made were either given away or sold at high prices. After Rodick took office as the city lord, he sealed up the scrolls left by Nero in the temple and deliberately collected other relics, waiting to be used in the future.

  Amon, of course, was well aware of this. For now, let Roddick bring these scrolls onto the battlefield. Roddick hesitated and said: "The scrolls are consumable items that can only be used once, so we must choose the right moment carefully."

  "Alas, now that the army is at our gates, Enkidu's prowess will be all too evident. If he leads a contingent to attack Red Chasm Town, do you think those twenty-foot-high and eight-foot-wide walls can withstand him? If he breaches our lines and opens a gap for the Uruk troops, the consequences are unthinkable. What use are these scrolls now, if not at this moment?"

  Rod Dick nodded: "Okay, I'll immediately bring all the scrolls collected in the City-State Temple to the front line. I've been collecting Nero's relics and various scrolls, which is also for today's preparation."

  Amon added, "Not just the scrolls in the Cape Temple, you must have a private collection as well, including those obtained by the Lingdon family. All of them will be requisitioned, even if it means going into debt with the Eguchi Military Department and the Cape City-State."

  "Does the Commander-in-Chief plan to use the scroll to deal with En Qi? But the scroll is for the dead or the living, how do you know which line of defense En Qi will break through?"

  Amun shook his head and said, "I'm not sure, so we need a lot of scrolls. On the front wall of Hongqiao Town, send a group of people who can use these scrolls. Every three people form a team at intervals, don't ask to kill Enqi all at once, just to temporarily block him and dampen his spirit. The nearby defenders can then gather to attack."

  "Commander wants to distribute the scrolls to what kind of people for use?" As he spoke, he glanced at the two great divine masters beside him with a hint of intention.

  "Amon pondered, 'I want to find a group of warriors who have undergone the second awakening of power and deploy them on the city walls at the front line. Having seen Enkei's daytime punch, our army's great mages must be on high alert.'"

  Long Teng and others looked at each other in dismay, Ah Meng asked: "What's wrong, is there any trouble?"

  "General, according to your requirements, we can't find that many qualified warriors," Long Teng said with a bitter smile.

  In theory, a mid-tier warrior can undergo a second awakening of power. If successful, they will have mastered the basic divine technique of meditation and grasped magical powers. Once they reach a certain level, they can use intermediate scrolls. If it's a high-tier warrior who successfully undergoes a second awakening of power and masters divine techniques to a certain stage, they can use advanced scrolls.

  But this is only in theory, and in reality, the second awakening of power is not easy to succeed, and a grand magician must hold a special ceremony. The ceremony for Amun's second awakening was held by Saint Maria herself, and such an opportunity is too rare for ordinary warriors.

  The dignity of a great warrior is noble, and if one wishes, they generally have the opportunity to experience this ceremony. However, how many great warriors can there be? Ordinary mid-tier warriors, especially those from among the common people, how could they possibly invite a great divine magician to hold a special ceremony for themselves? Moreover, the number of great divine magicians is even smaller. For example, in the city-state of Haicheng, since Nilu's death until Julian's arrival, there was not a single great divine magician present for thirty years.

  For a mid-tier warrior, unless they are of particularly noble birth and have the qualifications and face to invite a great divine spellcaster to hold a ceremony, ordinary civilian warriors rarely have such an opportunity. Moreover, even if there is such an opportunity, it's not necessarily successful, so the proportion of warriors who successfully undergo a second awakening through power is relatively small.

  To use the advanced scroll, one must be a great warrior who has undergone the second awakening of power, and there are only a handful of people in the army. Only a few dozen middle-ranking warriors have learned low-level divine techniques, and they can only use mid-level scrolls, which may not be of much use either.

  Amon realized that this plan was a bit too hasty based on his own habits, so he said: "It seems that we still need to dispatch the divine masters to the city wall, and set up defenses at intervals of three people. In case of an emergency, they will unfold the scrolls, one attack scroll, one defense scroll, and one scroll with spatial locking effect. Enkei's speed is too fast, and only with spatial locking magic can we possibly hit him."