At the same time, the clash between the two mercenary legions had also reached white-hot intensity. The Wolf Moon mercenary legion's cavaliers had been surrounded, but their exceptional fighting abilities were holding them in good stead. All of them were skilled martial artists in their own right, and they were all notorious bandits and convicts, so they were naturally very capable when it came to battle.

Almost every single Wolf Moon mercenary was able to take on two or three Heavenly Star mercenaries on their own, so they were able to hold their own quite well despite the severe numbers disadvantage.

Thankfully, the mercenaries of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion all possessed a wealth of battle experience, and they immediately changed their plans, splitting up into groups of five or six mercenaries with each group ganging up on one or two Wolf Moon mercenaries.

The mercenaries of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion were used to fighting on their own, so it made no difference whether they fought alone or in pairs. Thus, in the face of these groups of five to six enemy mercenaries, the Wolf Moon mercenary legion was beginning to suffer casualties.

As for the Heavenly Star cavaliers that had been scattered by Talan's mighty blade, even though there were still 800 to 900 of them left, they had been swept up into the narrow-eyed melee tactics, thereby preventing them from uniting into one cohesive unit again. The number of mercenaries led by the narrow-eyed man was less than half of the number of enemy mercenaries, but all of the Wolf Moon mercenaries were using either spears or bow and arrow to prevent the Heavenly Star cavaliers from moving freely, and as a result, the cavaliers were forced to engage in close-quarters combat with the opposing Wolf Moon mercenaries.

In the face of all of the spear and arrow attacks coming from around them, the cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion had no effective ways to escape from the enemy, and they were slowly being picked off one after another.

"It looks like this is quite a fierce battle," Chase remarked as he observed the battle taking place at the foot of the mountain while hiding behind a certain bush.

After hearing about the battle between the Wolf Moon mercenary legion and the mercenaries from the Skycourt Kingdom, Erwin and his friends had detached themselves from the rest of the mercenary legion to ride on ahead and assess the state of the battle. Meanwhile, the rest of the mercenary legion was being led onward by Sherry and Lanyon.

"I can see that the foot soldiers in this mercenary legion from the Skycourt Kingdom are able to work together quite effectively, but their cavaliers are downright terrible at what they do," Kaiba remarked with an amused smile.

"What I want to know is why neither side has any magicians," Erwin said with an intrigued expression.

"That's easy to explain for the Wolf Moon mercenary legion. Most of its members are bandits and convicts. Have you seen any magicians who've dared to pursue such unscrupulous career paths? They'd be rushing headfirst toward an early death," Larwood said with a smile.

Magicians were quite lackluster when it came to individual fighting ability. Their mobility in battle was lacking, as were their stamina and physical conditioning. This was a common consensus among everyone. Thus, magicians who dabbled in unscrupulous lines of work generally didn't live for very long. Of course, Erwin was an exception to this general stereotype due to his space split technique.

"Then what about that mercenary legion from the Skycourt Kingdom? Why don't they have any magicians, either?" Erwin asked with a perplexed expression.

"Indeed, that is quite strange." Larwood also began to ponder this question with slightly furrowed brows.

"Let's think about that another time. Where are our men? Why have they still not arrived yet?" Chase asked as he cast his gaze toward the dense forest where they had come from.

"Don't get so agitated. Have some patience, they'll definitely make it here in time," Larwood said with a reassuring smile. 

"We'll wait until the battle is nearing its end, then swoop in to claim the spoils, so there's still a long way to go. What are you doing getting so worked up now?" Erwin asked.

"I'm worried that the mayor of Haggardy will charge out with the city's soldiers and claim all of the spoils before us," Chase sighed.

"I don't think that's going to happen. In this situation, it would be the perfect opportunity for the mayor of Haggardy to lead his soldiers out of the city to eradicate the mercenaries from the Skycourt Kingdom. The fact that he hasn't done that means that he's most likely a spineless coward who doesn't want to take any risks with his own life. Do you think someone like him will be capable of taking our spoils?" Larwood gave a dismissive wave of his hand, then continued, "Our top priority here is to find an opportunity to completely wipe out both of these mercenary legions, particularly everyone from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion."

While the battle continued to rage between the Wolf Moon mercenary legion and the Heavenly Star mercenary legion, Lanyon and Sherry finally arrived with the rest of the Four Winds mercenary legion.

Erwin and his friends were closely watching the battle unfolding at the foot of the mountain, and upon seeing the cloud of dust rising up in the distance, they knew that their forces had arrived.

At this moment, Luphen and Talan were locked in a fierce battle. Luphen was beginning to come into his own as the battle wore on, and initially, Talan couldn't even be bothered to unleash his full power against Luphen, but the situation was becoming more and more perilous for him. On several occasions, Luphen's whip almost came into contact with his heavily scarred face.

"Take thith! Shooting Thtar Moonwheel!" With a flick of his wrist, Luphen sent his whip flying viciously through the air like a dancing silver snake. Looking down at the attack from above, the whip resembled a rising new moon, as sharp and lethal as it was cold and forbidding.

Talan's brows were tightly furrowed as he watched the approaching silver whip, and in retaliation, he slashed his blade through the air with unbridled killing intent.

From his vantage point atop the mountain, Erwin could clearly see that this was the first of Talan's three killing strikes.

"Is that the three killing strikes?" Larwood asked as he took a glance at Erwin. "It looks pretty strong."

"You don't seem to be taking it very seriously. How about you challenge Talan to show you his three killing strikes later?" Erwin challenged. It was clear that he was of the opinion that "pretty" strong was a severe understatement when it came to describing Talan's three killing strikes.

Luphen's flailing silver whip met the first of Talan's three killing strikes.

As soon as the two weapons clashed, Luphen's silver whip wrapped itself around Talan's blade, upon which Luphen immediately felt a tremendous burst of force jolt through his whip-wielding hand, causing his hand a great deal of pain.

If he hadn't immediately grabbed onto the handle of his whip with both hands, he would've most likely already been disarmed.

That familiar derisive sneer reappeared on Talan's face as he held his blade in one hand while taking a step forward, then slashed his blade horizontally through the air, upon which a section of the silver whip was instantly sliced off.

It was clear that if Talan were to go all out, then Luphen would no longer be a match for him.

After this, the battle between the two became a completely one-sided affair with Luphen fleeing for his life, while Talan gave chase in hot pursuit. For Luphen, it was quite unfortunate that he had run into a mercenary legion commander as fearsome as Talan. Even as he was being pursued by Talan, he was still cursing profusely, but due to his lisp and accent, no one could tell exactly what he was yelling.

Meanwhile, the state of the rest of the battlefield ran directly contrary to the state of the battle between Talan and Luphen. The cavaliers of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion had been gradually worn down by the Heavenly Star mercenaries' superior teamwork, and at this point, less than half of them still remained.

As for the Heavenly Star mercenary legion's cavaliers, even though they initially fell prey to the narrow-eyed man's strategy, they enjoyed a significant numbers advantage, and Talan was no longer able to participate in the battle as he was busy dealing with Luphen. Thus, the losses suffered by the Heavenly Star mercenary legion's cavaliers were nowhere near as severe, and there were still close to 1,000 of them left.

Luphen wasn't the clearest of speakers, but he was far clearer of thought than he was of speech. It seemed that he was recklessly charging into battle against Talan, but in reality, he was making an effort to keep Talan occupied in order to minimize Talan's impact on the rest of the battlefield.

At the same time, the battle was quickly transforming into a massive nightmare for the Wolf Moon mercenary legion.

The Heavenly Star mercenary legion's cavaliers were beginning to gradually escape from the enemy mercenaries' encirclement. At this point, they were already close to 20 meters away from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion's footsoldiers, and they would be able to reorganize their formation once a bit more distance was opened up, thereby allowing them to unleash a second assault.

Meanwhile, on top of a certain mountain near the battlefield, Larwood was inspecting the battle taking place down below as he said, "We should begin making preparations. The Wolf Moon mercenary legion isn't going to last much longer. Sherry, instruct the close-range combat martial artists to adopt their formation. The cavaliers will lead from the front, while the footsoldiers will follow along behind them. Kaiba, Chase, the three of us will charge together. Erwin, you'll be in charge of the magicians and archers. Find a suitable place where you'll be sufficiently sheltered, but can still effectively attack the enemy down below. Once all that is done, I'll give the order to strike when the time is right."

The Four Winds mercenary legion quickly carried out Larwood's instructions, and all that was left was an order from Larwood to join the battle.

…

After chasing Luphen for a while, Talan began to realize that something wasn't right. He sprang up into the sky in a few steps, then carefully inspected all parts of the battlefield, upon which a grim look appeared on his face.

At this point, the realization had already dawned on him too late. The cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion had already left the Wolf Moon mercenary legion's pursuing footsoldiers far behind, and they arranged themselves into a strong formation before turning around to face their pursuers.

Luphen cast his gaze toward the west, and a triumphant smile appeared on his face.

Having been chased by Talan for so long, it was finally time for him to launch his retaliation. He raised his silver whip high above his head, and the Heavenly Star mercenary legion's cavaliers began their second charge.