Meanwhile, as Xiao Fan was soon to complete the run around the tower being fought for, the two sides fighting each other started to react to the developing situation which was a retreat from the Holy Coalition.
Retreating in this type of combat was hard, to say the least of it. To retreat from battle even when both sides were mortals was hard to pull off without shattering the army, so what happens when the fact that both sides consist of superhumans is introduced into the equation?
Simply spoken a whole lot of stuff.
The most significant being that one can't merely disengage and book it because when one does do that... well, the backs of the runners might start feeling a sharp pain, for when the army books it, the people with the lowest cultivation will be left behind quickly and mercilessly while the opposition gets to slaughter those while moving towards the faster moving elites.
Yet, something like this wasn't in the minds of the Holy Coalition leaders, for every Chief still alive had made this move many times during their life, and so as it wasn't Xiao Fan nor any other beginner leading these troops, they could still pull out of this.
The elites just needed to buy enough times for the others to retreat and then start skirmishing.
In a way, this part tested the loyalty of the troops the most. However, not in this case, since the Holy Coalition was very much so united under the same goal, so, in this case, the stronger people were willing to carry the weight of their weaker kinsmen now retreating.
¨The cowards are running! Chase them down!¨ Wang Geming bathed in blood roared for more battle when seeing that the opposition was trying to retreat back into the forest wherefrom they would be hard to drag out. Of course, he having found new courage tried to rush towards the fleeing opposition, yet he was soon met by a man throwing him to the side.
¨Even if you killed one of us, you are still but a cub¨ The man wearing the wolf headdress was confident in that he could take care of this kid, who had his fancy robes ruined by blood. He might be the strongest of these people, but not a match, not yet.
¨You again!¨ Wang Geming was back up to his feet from the hit in a flash, then ignoring his sentence, he threw his own at him.
These two had met time and time again during the fight.
¨What?¨ The man raised his hands to the side while the blades in those hands dripped blood.
¨Just fight me once, no running!¨ Wang Geming was annoyed by how this guy sporting two one-handed swords acted when he came to contact with him.
¨Wait what? Aren't you the one always running away from me?¨ Now the Chief got a little confused since from what he remembered, it was this, Prince? Always running from him, he hadn't run away. His whole purpose so far had been to counter this Prince running around, ruining plans that he didn't even see when ruining them.
¨Enough talk! Now fight!¨ Wang Geming, still under the Nectar of Haste, was very spontaneous in his actions. For example? Just now, for he didn't talk more, instead of that, he was letting his actions do the talking.
¨Don't you dare to run off this time¨ The Chief seeing that he had gotten this Prince on him didn't complain and welcomed the enemy rushing straight at him, not at his men trying to flee for their lives.
These meetings were happening all along the line now. And while the other Princes might not be as eager to give chase as Wang Geming did they at least pay lip service to the notion and pushed forwards in the spiky area that the Hag had sung up from the ground.
Understanding how the things were proceeding was it conceivable that the Holy Coalition would slip away this time and have the change to regroup, especially so when the reinforcements from the Yi Family were on the other side of the wall. What worse, their appointed leader was having a hard time to execute any decision, though that might be because Yi Lin had chosen the most incompetent person for the job.
She hadn't wanted no one to danger her son's leadership, so the person, who was leading was a young kid from the Yi Family, a person who hadn't any military experience, nor ambition.
It was so bad that when Xiao Fan reached the group, they hadn't moved an inch as their leader had first went into a shock and was only now starting to think of a plan, or he was trying to until.
¨Why are you still here!¨ Xiao Fan, came out from the forest to the path they had been taking, yelling in his frustration.
¨Who are you!¨ However, him coming out like that wasn't the best idea as the men next to the supposed leader were already annoyed enough from following this kid.
¨I'm Mask! The person who requested your aid!¨ Xiao Fan didn't care. He came to the person supposedly leading the group, and while saying this, he pushed away any weapon pointed towards him.
Luckily none of them decided to cut him down for that. They didn't cut him down either when he came to the kid whose height was to his stomach 'Why did the Queen send him as the leader?' At first, he wondered this, but not wasting more time on wondering, he spoke ¨Why aren't you moving to the enemy's rear!¨ He questioned the leader.
The leader was around fifteen, yet that was no reason to save any words or decibels when trying to learn why he hadn't done anything.
The others around him seemed to agree with Xiao Fan. They had all waited for the orders to come, but not having any they could only listen to what was going happening on the other side of this wall and wait.
Yi Lin had truly picked the most incompetent person, for her pick was from the very highest order of incompetency, noted by how the supposed leader just cried?
Yes, he started crying.
Xiao Fan seeing this, couldn't believe it, his hand going over his forehead while his brain was trying to figure out things 'Argh! I have to do this myself!' He decided that it wasn't worth his time to reason with this kid.
And so he turned around to look at the other people who were somewhat ashamed when seeing their higher up crying ¨As I said, I'm Mask. You know me right?¨
¨Of course¨ One of the people not caring if the boy was crying next to them replied.
¨Good, good¨ Hearing conformation Xiao Fan sighed before continuing ¨Now half of you go towards that direction where you will meet the enemy fleeing the battle. You can't miss them as they all look like barbarians¨ Xiao Fan took command just like that.
It wasn't the correct way to do it, but the situation being like it is, none questioned his order or authority. And so right after him ending the sentence half of the men in front of him disappeared with half of the soldiers in the long line behind them.
¨What about us?¨ One of the minor leaders who stayed asked the obvious.
¨We'll go and help out the Second Prince. Follow my lead!... Someone stay here and take care of him¨ Of course, he was taking half of them to cement the position of Wang Geming as the top dog while, at the end of his sentence, he said that someone should stay and take care of the displaced leader of theirs.
He might be someone he shouldn't totally sideline; however, the situation had called for a strong leader, making quick decisions, not a crying child.
When he was beginning to run towards the same direction as the other group had gone before, he heard some shout confirming the order 'Good, that was easy. Thanks, Yi Lin' He knew that him taking over these reinforcements would have been impossible if Yi Lin hadn't made some things on her side.
Soon.
One could see from a bird's eye view how on the other side of the wall, the side between the wall and the tower how the Holy Coalition was still performing their retreat while being pressured by the Bald Eagle Dynasty troops. Yet now that scene came to an abrupt end as from the side where the Holy Coalition was running towards a new group emerged.
The Yi Family troops began swarming onto the battlefield in two snakes. One snake continuing to push into the forest, cutting down the weaker and exhausted troops of the Holy Coalition by the hundreds while the other snake led by Xiao Fan rushed towards the members of the Holy Coalition keeping the Bald Eagle Dynasty at bay.
'This is going to be slaughter' Xiao Fan saw that the Holy Coalition might be crushed. Yet now thinking more of it and considering what Cao Cao had said earlier, he realised that this might be bad.
He might want to see the Holy Coalition Live through this.
Why would he want to keep the barbarians alive? Well, they wouldn't be his enemy anymore, they would be every other Prince's and Princesse's enemy. In a way doing their job for them free of charge and free of any quilt.
However, at this point, he couldn't change the momentum of their side, yet it quickly came to him that he didn't need to since someone else did that for him. More specifically, the Hag still had tricks up her sleeve.
Last time Xiao Fan had seen her the Hag might have been a total wreck of a human, but faced with the current situation, she had pulled off something that must have taken a toll on her body, again.
He didn't know exactly, but seeing that the trees were starting to move in the forest where the other group was going towards he knew that this was her performing some serious spell. Though he didn't mind this because this trap would make sure that the Holy Coalition wouldn't be crushed today, and so they would continue their fight.
Everything was proceeding as he wanted again. The past might not be so good, for there he had lost Fei Sun for god knows how long, but looking forward to the future he was sure that he could come back here and rescue her in no time. Nevertheless, now that they were upon the men running away from the main fight, Xiao Fan in the tip of the wedge moving towards the front line forgot those things and began to cut down the barbarians trying to flee.
Surely the Holy Coalition hadn't had any notion of the Yi Family coming, for every man coming towards them was shocked to see such a sudden force coming at them, but that was only for a while before they were cut down.
'One' He killed one barbarian 'Two' A few steps later another one was sliced into two by his sword coming at him while the victim ran, looking backwards at the front line 'Three' There were even women in this group, yet they were the same as men to him.
There were no women cultivators and men cultivators in war, anyone in the battlefield was a combatant, and so they were treated the same, well, not really, a woman always had it worse when captured.
Nonetheless, when Xiao Fan saw a woman realising that her doom had come, Xiao Fan like with men, blinked before cutting open the body and then moving ever forwards until he met the shield wall.
When crashing at the shield wall, Xiao Fan focussing too much on killing didn't notice that he had met friendlies.
He kept on swinging at the wall he had met.