Mythical Three Kingdoms-Chapter 1765 - 1656: Taking the Advantage and Fleeing (Part 2)

"Kill!" Xiahou Dun roared furiously.

At this moment, Qiu Linbei launched a charge at the Han Army with a sneer and sarcasm, believing that killing a strong figure with a legion talent and strength at the level of Inner Qi Manifestation Perfection was worth the loss of two thousand elite cavalry.

Indeed, from Qiu Linbei’s perspective, the destruction of the opponent and the slaying of Xiahou Dun would result in only such losses, no more than that.

However, in the instant of this engagement, Qiu Linbei noticed a difference. Xiahou Dun’s aura was even more substantial, and his Qi power had also increased.

Yet before Qiu Linbei could be astonished, the Han Elite Cavalry and Northern Huns Elite Cavalry engaged in battle. Although Qiu Linbei’s Chaos Formation still had an effect, under Xiahou Dun’s legion talent, each soldier’s strength and speed—their basic attributes—strengthened significantly.

Though they could not completely avoid the Chaos Formation, relying on their instincts and formidable strength, they still exhibited combat power comparable to the Northern Huns Elite Cavalry. From this moment, the fights between the two sides began to change.

This charge saw Xiahou Dun turning around without looking back at the changes behind, launching an attack on the Northern Huns Elite Cavalry. At this time, the entire legion was shrouded in a blood-colored mist, with madness for battle emanating from the soldiers’ eyes.

For the third time they crossed paths, Qiu Linbei even activated another part of the divine within him. Yet, even so, he only barely suppressed Xiahou Dun. Afterward, the Chaos Formation talent once again succeeded, but before the Northern Huns Elite Cavalry could deeply disrupt the Han Army’s formation, Xiahou Dun’s forces, with superior qualities, began to kill off the Northern Huns Elite Cavalry in advance.

Simultaneously, the Northern Huns Elite Cavalry coordinated to kill the Han Elite Cavalry, which had been disrupted into a Dispersed Formation by the Chaos Formation talent. The slaughter between both sides reached its peak upon engagement, but unlike before, the Han troops grew stronger with each ongoing slaughter.

Although often outnumbered due to the opponent’s Chaos Formation talent, relying on their superior all-around qualities, even when outmatched, they could still hold their own enough for both sides to perish together.

Moreover, as casualties increased beyond a critical point, the Han Elite was finally able to vaguely sense the direction of their comrades amidst the initial chaos, even before being further scattered, diminishing the effect of Qiu Linbei’s legion talent significantly.

Even if barely able to grasp comrades’ positions, under the circumstances of all-around superiority, many Han Army soldiers could now coordinate within the Chaos Formation, instantly turning the tide against the North Huns Elite and pressing them hard.

This wave of impact made Xiahou Dun realize the casualty ratio between both sides had begun to decrease. From here on, it was about ensuring the opponent’s demise, and he immediately gave the opponent no time to reorganize the legion, turning and charging again, assured that his soldiers would hold a decisive advantage afterward.

The coordination of the Hunnic Elite Cavalry with the Chaos Formation Talent was indeed powerful. However, to the now considerably enhanced Han Army Elite Troops, who had superior five senses, intuition, and facets enhanced, the ability of the enemy to disrupt formations was counterbalanced by their qualities to reassemble them.

In any case, with Xiahou Dun’s ability, it was impossible to form a perfect military formation in such a short time. Likewise, his elite troops hadn’t reached the level of Xiliang Iron Cavalry, where the Spearhead Formation was ingrained into instinct.

Thus, it’s best not to give the opponent a chance, using the soldiers’ instincts to form a group and clash with the enemy, forming whatever formation they could rely on, as any method leading to victory counted as a good method.

Sure enough, at this moment, even though Qiu Linbei noticed Xiahou Dun growing continuously stronger, he didn’t notice the change in casualty rates between the two sides. Neither had the time to count their dead, but Xiahou Dun could deduce such things by instinct, which stemmed from a deep understanding of his own abilities. Meanwhile, Qiu Linbei hadn’t regained his composure.

The interweaving factions began another encounter, this time with Xiahou Dun’s soldiers not only encompassing Qiu Linbei’s elite cavalry in terms of quality, but with more contact with the opponent’s tactical threshold due to their formidable qualities.

Some Han Army soldiers could already pinpoint and kill the opponents with long spears before their own army was disrupted by the enemy, and even with Qiu Linbei’s overwhelming disruption of formation, he couldn’t withstand their immense strength.

Blood gushed wildly as long spears whizzed around. When Qiu Linbei entered the central formation, he noticed the anomaly. As an Inner Qi Manifestation level elite, even individual soldiers without coordination could already harm him.

Though due to the suppression of Cloud Qi, an elite of Inner Qi Manifestation level could only exert combat power equivalent to the Qi Refining to Gang level, this level of Qi Refining to Gang surpassed the limits in vision, experience, and reaction, far exceeding what ordinary soldiers could handle.

Suppose it’s about leading an army at the Inner Qi Manifestation level during close-quarters combat. In that case, even if separated from the guards, ordinary soldiers without deploying powerful single-shot crossbows couldn’t easily deal with such experts.

It means truly capable of destroying an Inner Qi Manifestation elite in a legion battle, rather than conventionally overwhelming them, the personal combat power of soldiers and their qualities had essentially reached a super elite level.

Evidently, Xiahou Dun’s previous soldiers hadn’t fought at this level, but now they could harm him in hand-to-hand combat, indicating that their current combat power had begun to surpass the level of elite troops.

Though they hadn’t reached the level of Xiliang Iron Cavalry Headquarters, perhaps requiring the elimination of two-fifths for Xiahou Dun’s elite headquarters to reach that level, the visible gap in troop quality between the two sides was clear.

Even if they couldn’t reach the Xiliang Iron Cavalry’s level of defeating fifteen with ten or more, a gap clearly appeared, causing a chill in Qiu Linbei’s heart.

"Charge with me, the whole army!" Qiu Linbei shouted loudly, not calling for a retreat but only roaring to charge. At this moment, many of the Northern Huns Elite hadn’t realized it and were not deeply frightened, following Qiu Linbei’s roar and charging towards the south.

Xiahou Dun also didn’t understand Qiu Linbei’s roar, but followed with his own furious shout, "Kill the enemy with me!"

Both elite cavalry squads charged madly, and what originally took a half incense stick time to charge through was cut short by one-tenth of the time.

However, as they dashed out, Qiu Linbei glanced back, roughly assessing the casualties, and continued charging south without looking back. There was no need to fight any longer, or it seemed Xiahou Dun would gain the upper hand.

Xiahou Dun’s forces adjusted course half a mile ahead but halted when they saw Qiu Linbei not regrouping, realizing the distance had stretched to over a mile as Qiu Linbei didn’t turn back. Furious, Xiahou Dun intended to lead a charge,

"Uncle, do not pursue." Cao Xiu, seeing Xiahou Dun’s fury and intent to pursue, advised, "We should focus on collecting our fallen men’s corpses and withdraw south to avoid another such confrontation."

Xiahou Dun paused, took a deep breath, assessed the forces remaining, and found losses of around fifteen hundred. After quickly tidying the battlefield and counting Northern Huns bodies, he realized only about thirteen hundred, causing his chest to tighten.

"[The Northern Huns Elite were so fierce. My legion talent increased noticeably later on; yet there’s still disparity with the enemy. If this were to continue, I might prevail, although the opponent chose to flee after gaining advantage.]" Xiahou Dun felt a pang in the chest, becoming slightly skeptical of the elite under Cao Cao’s command.

Honestly, the current Great Han Dynasty had favorable circumstances, lacking in training fees and provisions, yet while Cao Cao’s soldiers were well-trained, they hadn’t experienced enough real combat, unlike Liu Bei’s troops, which had scarcely halted over the years.