Within a distance of ten meters, at a height above everyone else, the knights instantly became live targets for the holy guns and the large mortars.

"Ah! Despicable farmers!"

"Damn, damn, damn, let go of me, you bunch of..."

"Bang—"

Broken swords and wood chips covered the ground, shattered armor fragments and bouncing lead pieces flew like steel fleas over people's heads.

From time to time, a knight would fall headlong from his warhorse, only to be immediately speared to death by the war monks around him.

Having lost their speed, the extraordinary knights visibly began to panic. Those near the edges fled directly and easily.

However, the Imperial Knights, having charged the hardest and gone the deepest, found themselves trapped in the encirclement of countless war monks.

The war monks adhered to one principle: first kill your horse, then kill you.

As soon as an extraordinary knight was dismounted and heavily surrounded, he was just a slightly stronger full-armored infantryman.

The low-tier extraordinary full-armored war monks would directly pounce on them and cause an explosion, then the holy gunmen would shoot them at close range, likely taking out a foot knight.

Back then, the Deng Jia'er Array defeated the Leia Kingdom's Imperial Squadron using this tactic.

But at that time, the Falans did not have the holy guns that could penetrate armor in one shot.

Bo Ao Lie, his mind in a fog, led his knights out of the encirclement like he was sleepwalking.

Yet, once they were divided, they could not pick up speed and were obstructed by nearby war monks each time they tried to accelerate.

While contemplating a strategy, Bo Ao Lie felt a heavy pull on his right side; he saw a defensive soldier had dropped his arming sword and was tightly clinging to his leg.

Before he could react, a child soldier somehow climbed along the saddle and strangled him from behind.

"Little devil!"

Unfortunately, Bo Ao Lie was wearing a gorget. He cursed angrily, jerked his shoulder, and directly threw the child soldier over the horse's rear.

The warhorse immediately kicked its hind legs, sending the child soldier flying several meters away.

Having shaken off the child soldier, Bo Ao Lie knew he mustn't linger. He leaned over and slammed his knight's sword down hard, driving it into the head of the defensive soldier.

Whether the sword was blunt, or Bo Ao Lie applied too much force, the blade got stuck in the soldier's skull.

When he tried to pull it out, the blade was accidentally broken by his own hand.

Abandoning the knight's sword, Bo Ao Lie drew his backup side sword, gazing blankly at the stream of people before him.

After the Sixth and Second Black Hat Corps of the rear army joined the left-wing battle, the knights were surrounded by over a thousand men, divided into isolated islands, unable to reach each other.

Though Bo Ao Lie managed to escape the siege and regain his speed, the Temple Knight Commander was not so lucky.

The knight commander, dizzied by long spears stabbing at him, was silently approached by a holy gunman who pressed the holy gun to his waist and fired.

"Clang!"

Spinal fluid and fragments of bone flowed directly out of the small hole in his armor.

The knight commander hadn't even had time to cry out before a halberd hooked his neck from the side.

His body tilted to the right, pulled forcefully off the horse.

Landing on his back, he realized in horror that he couldn't feel his lower limbs, utterly unable to stand.

As soon as his hands were raised, they were pinned down. All he could do was watch helplessly as a dagger pierced through the gap in his helmet and pried open his visor.

Seeing five or six angry and distorted faces, the knight commander screamed out in horror, "I surrender, I surrender!"

Those hate-filled eyes weren't listening at all. A farmer-like man stomped on his chest, looking down at him coldly.

"I surrender..." The knight commander cried out, but his accent was too aristocratic, and these farmers couldn't understand him.

Raising the short spear high, he thrust it down with force, and pinkish blood-foam trickled out from the gaps in his helmet.

Pinned down, the knight commander convulsed and struggled for a few seconds before falling silent after a stench wafted from his trousers.

Pulling out the short spear, the war monks quickly ran to the next target, a Squire Knight trapped under a warhorse.

Watching one extraordinary knight after another fall, Bo Ao Lie finally panicked. He rushed to a small mound, shouting to the remaining knights:

"Regroup, regroup, fight your way out!"

Slaying a child soldier who threw a short axe at him, Bo Ao Lie dashed down the small mound rapidly, regrouping with a few Imperial Knights, and charged towards the outside.

"Fight your way out!"

"Stop them!"

At this moment, Bo Ao Lie still did not feel he had failed; he could still turn things around.

In fact, he hadn't really lost yet.

The recent wave of Imperial charge had nearly crippled Horn's most elite First Imperial Guard Corps.

Now, there were over sixty Imperial Knights on the battlefield, the soul of the Imperial Squadron. Once regrouped and fighting out, they could initiate another Imperial charge.

Bo Ao Lie didn't believe those war monks could fend off a second wave of Imperial charges!

There's still a chance, there's still a chance!

"Sir! The Night Guards and other knights are collapsing!" A guardian knight pointed fearfully to the rear, shouting.

Bo Ao Lie whirled around.

Thousands of Night Guards fled chaotically over hills and fields, crying and discarding their weapons and armor.

Among them were also those Ibe Knights and Temple Knights!

This couldn't be; Bo Ao Lie almost thought it was an illusion. How could they run away at a time like this?

"Damn it! You cowardly scoundrels!" He cursed furiously at their retreating figures, but quickly suppressed his anger, returning to reality.

Without the distraction from the other extraordinary knights and Night Guards, surrounded by over two thousand armor-penetrating low-tier extraordinaries, even the Imperial Knights would lose over a third in battle before escaping.

That was a generous estimate.

Though Bo Ao Lie was unwilling to concede, he had to face the reality: this was indeed a minor defeat.

The only current choice was to escape before they could complete their encirclement.

After all, few Imperial Knights had truly fallen, and given their recovery rate, they could soon rebuild a lance squadron of seventy knights.

At this point, the Falan Royal Knights were likely to side with him.

After all, smallpox cannot be treated like acne; if it spread, everyone would suffer. Monte Yac is, after all, part of the noble society.

After cooperation with Monte Yac, as long as they could hold the inner castle of Joan of Arc Castle for a year or so, reinforcements would surely arrive.

Holding Joan of Arc Castle, he would remain undefeated in the end.

With this decision made, Bo Ao Lie resolved: "Go, break through, fight your way out! Return to Joan of Arc Castle!"

Taking a deep glance at the sun flag, Bo Ao Lie silently chanted in his heart, we'll meet again.

Soon, with a dozen or so Imperial Knights, Bo Ao Lie successfully broke out from the flank. He rushed towards the main camp, ready to replenish supplies.

He hadn't even gotten close when a dazzling white light flashed before him, illuminating the scene. The guards who were left behind with the fifty knights were non-existent.

"I don't know... Ah!"

"Crying like a ghost, what?"

"Sir, look quickly, the Blessing is disappearing!"

Prompted by the guardian knight, Bo Ao Lie glanced down at his hands, pale flames flickering in the air, left afloat. The monks who bestowed the blessing must be utterly dead.

He looked mournfully at the hill where the main camp was, where rows of orderly Salvation Army soldiers, holding long spears aloft, surged towards them like a flood.

Bo Ao Lie finally understood why the Night Guards had scattered.

Leading the charge, Jeska hoisted Algang's lance and let it point at Joan of Arc Castle!

"Surrender or die! Surrender or die!" The war monks of the Black Hat Third and Fourth Legion shouted in unison.

The twenty or so Imperial Knights who escaped were being chased down by Jeanne and the Holy Gun Cavalry, pathetically.

With each flash of lightning, three to five knights of the Imperial Order would fall.

Bo Ao Lie chuckled bitterly twice, the corners of his lips dropping instantly.

"Defeated, my army is defeated—" he collapsed from his steed as if his spine had gone, pounding the ground and crying out in anguish.

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