There was still a little time left before dawn.
The army led by Nashat finally passed through Fissure Canyon, left the rushing sound of water behind, and slowly made landfall.
"There's only a short distance left to our destination."
Nashat ordered the army to stop where they were, rest for twenty minutes, and eat something to recover their strength.
After marching at high speed all night, even men made of iron would need rest.
He had to make sure every warrior faced the coming battle in good condition. There could not be the slightest mistake.
"How long has it been since we set out?"
Nashat asked the adjutant beside him.
The adjutant answered, "Seven hours."
"Good."
Nashat was rather encouraged and murmured to himself, "That's even shorter than we expected. Send a few scouts ahead to investigate. Tell them to be careful."
The adjutant accepted the order. "Yes, sir."
Soon, several scouts left the army and set out ahead.
Twenty minutes passed quickly.
Feeling his strength gradually return, Nashat stood, and his confidence in the coming battle rose a little more. With a wave of his hand, he said, "Move out!"
The army picked up speed and advanced. Before long, they encountered the scouts returning the same way.
The scouts reported, "Sir, no trace of the Demacian army was found ahead."
Hearing this, Nashat began to think.
No trace of the Demacian army?
Based on the position they had previously confirmed and their marching speed, they should have been in this area by now.
This was the only route they had to take. A large mountain blocked the middle, unless they chose to circle around the other side.
But the route on the other side was even farther and made no sense at all.
After thinking for a moment, Nashat ordered, "Keep moving!"
He trusted Demir's judgment, and he trusted his own judgment as well. That Demacian army had to be somewhere in this area.
The only possibility was that they had slowed their marching speed.
If they continued advancing, both sides would simply run into each other. Although that would reduce the effect of the surprise attack, it would still be useful.
Even just comparing numbers, he had an army of ninety thousand on his side, and their combat strength was first-rate.
As for whether their plan might have already been exposed, that was not within Nashat's consideration at all.
Because to him, that was completely impossible.
Runeterra had no communication magic. At least, within Nashat's understanding and within the several hundred years of Noxian historical records, no such method had ever appeared.
He did not believe that Demacia, a nation that had only just lifted its ban on magic, could possess such a thing.
One had to understand that information held an extremely important position in battle.
A battle fought with an information gap gave one side an overwhelming advantage.
Demacia was one example, with their extremely fast advance this time and that black powder.
In Noxus's eyes, all of it had been unknown.
That was precisely why, in less than a month, Demacia had broken through several cities in succession, captured more than a hundred thousand people, and inflicted countless casualties.
And this time, Demir's decision was likewise meant to create an information gap.
When Demacia believed Noxus's main army was still defending Brue City, they had already set out at the fastest possible speed to launch a surprise attack against another army.
And the reason Demir dared to make such a decision was precisely because he was certain that even if the prince's army realized what was happening, they would not be able to pass the message to the other army in time.
Even if those flying magical beasts that ignored geographical obstacles came, it would not be enough.
And on Runeterra, that was already the fastest method of transmitting messages.
"We still have the advantage even in a frontal charge. Charge!"
Nashat strengthened his resolve. No matter how he looked at it, the advantage was on his side in this move.
In a war, there were not that many accidents.
The army advanced all the way. As the sun slowly rose in the east, the first rays of sunlight fell, signaling the official farewell to night.
At dawn, a touch of mist appeared among the jagged mountains, but it did not block their vision.
Nashat calculated the distance in his heart. Since passing through Fissure Canyon, the army had probably advanced about three or four miles.
They were getting closer and closer to the other Demacian army.
He raised a hand, signaling the army behind him to slow down and advance at a slower pace. At the same time, he gave the scouts a look, signaling them to continue scouting ahead.
The scouts quickly accepted the order and left.
At this moment, they were in a lower area of the terrain. The mountains around them were silent. For some reason, an uneasy feeling surfaced in Nashat's heart.
If the enemy army had set an ambush here... impossible. He quickly dismissed the thought.
Why would the Demacian army set an ambush here for no reason? There was no reason at all.
But the instant he put that thought aside, a loud shout suddenly rang out from above.
"Fire!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Deafening cannon blasts rang out one after another. Nashat looked up, and his pupils instantly shrank, his face filled with disbelief.
In his eyes, cannonballs the size of human heads rained down from above.
"Enemy attack! Spread out!"
He instinctively roared behind him, while he was the first to move.
The army of ninety thousand fell into chaos at once. But by now, the cannonballs had already fallen and smashed into the formation.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Continuous explosions, accompanied by surging flames, echoed throughout the mountains in that instant.
Everything happened far too suddenly, leaving everyone completely unprepared. Just this first wave of attacks had blown up an unknown number of Noxian soldiers.
Some people saw their companions swallowed by fire with their own eyes, then saw fragments of their bodies blasted out.
In an instant, a person was torn apart. Just the first wave of bombardment had already left broken limbs, blood, and organs scattered everywhere. The sight was enough to leave a person traumatized.
Before they could even recover, "Boom! Boom! Boom!" rang out again as a second wave of cannonballs fell like rain.
This was an overwhelming attack from high ground down to low ground, and all of them had fallen within the firing range of the cannonballs. Even though the ninety thousand soldiers scattered at once, such a large number of people greatly increased the cannonballs' hit rate.
Nashat felt his heart shake violently. The thunderous blasts of exploding cannonballs rang in his eardrums. He saw the Demacian army occupying the high ground, along with cannons that had already been arranged in position.
How was this possible?
Why had they set an ambush here?
"Charge! Get past the gunpowder and force close combat!"
Several thoughts flashed through his mind, but he had no time to think deeply about any of them.
Nashat's mission was to salvage this battle. He raised his weapon and roared out the order.
If they continued to maintain this distance against such terrifying gunpowder, then no matter how many people they had, they would be blasted clean away.
He understood immediately that at this moment, only charging, only rushing toward the high ground, would give them a chance to fight this Demacian army.
Under his command, the Noxians began their charge. When life and death were at stake, the power people could unleash was difficult to predict.
Every black-armored soldier charged upward with no regard for anything else. Around them, companion after companion was blown down, some without even leaving bones behind.
Even if their hearts wavered, they still advanced without hesitation.
At the high point, every white-armored soldier watched all of this coldly and expressionlessly.
"Fire!"
At Lev's command, what shot out this time was not only cannonballs.
Nashat, charging at the very front, saw rapid flashes of fire flickering again and again. Accompanied by a burst of rattling sounds, countless bullets shot toward them.
Not arrows, but bullets!
They formed a dense rain in midair.
"Guns?!"
Nashat's eyes widened, filled with shock.
Demacia not only had cannons, they even had guns?
He had seen guns before. This was also a type of weapon Noxus was currently developing. Some warlords had already found sources from other places and kept them by their sides as collectibles.
But the guns Demacia was using were different from the ones in his memory, and there were many of them.
Weapons this well-made were equipped almost one per person.
Those bullets flew extremely fast, but as a deputy general, Nashat naturally had a certain level of strength.
He instinctively dodged left and right, and when he truly could not dodge, he raised his weapon to block.
He actually forced his way forward through the hail of bullets.
But his eyes were fixed on those Demacian soldiers, and his mind imagined the scene of fighting them in a moment. He had to carve out an opening for his soldiers.
Only then would they have a chance of victory.
Just as these thoughts surfaced in his mind, a bullet struck the armor over Nashat's chest. The powerful impact forced him several steps back.
His sturdy armor blocked the bullet, and the hail of gunfire seemed to pause for a brief instant.
Nashat could not help turning his head to look back. He was thinking that perhaps at this moment, ten thousand people, or five thousand people, had charged to this point with him.
However, the instant he turned back, Nashat froze.
There were only a few hundred people, not even a thousand. They held shields and advanced with great difficulty. Behind them, soldiers kept trying to fill the formation, but it was useless.
Shields could block the bullets, but they could not withstand the bombardment of cannonballs.
When a cannonball fell into a shield-bearing formation, it meant an entire line would be blown apart.
The Noxian army before him was already full of gaps under this relentless bombardment.
At this moment, a feeling of sorrow and powerlessness surged in Nashat's heart.
In this moment, he witnessed what war looked like when the difference in firepower was vast.
Ninety thousand people. A full ninety thousand people. At this moment, they were being bombarded like a defeated remnant army.
And by now, the Demacian army had not even lost a single man.
The Noxian army that made all of Runeterra afraid was now like a toy before the Demacian army.
Continuing the charge would only send more people to their deaths.
When Nashat realized this, he had already roared aloud, "Retreat! Send word to the general, Demacia has mastered an extremely fast method of communication! We have lost this battle!"
The soldiers who received the order immediately turned and withdrew.
Some people saw Nashat choose to continue charging, stubbornly killing his way toward the high ground.
At this moment, being hit by several bullets no longer mattered to Nashat.
He raised the battle-ax in his hand and continued charging forward.
Now that things had reached this point, he no longer had the face to return and meet General Demir.
From the certainty and confidence he had before setting out, to now fleeing in such a sorry state before even truly clashing with the enemy.
Nashat's heart was filled with sorrow. He knew that this time, Demacia had come with preparations far beyond anything they had expected.
General Demir had miscalculated. He had miscalculated as well.
There was only one possibility for them to have set an ambush here, this Demacian army already knew the news that they were coming to launch a surprise attack.
This also proved that Demacia had mastered an extremely fast method of transmitting messages.
This point was extremely important.
If this information was not passed on, Noxus would suffer losses because of it again in the future.
At this moment, Lev looked at the fleeing Noxian army and directly ordered, "Pursue them! Kill as many as you can!"
Because of this order, the hail of bullets stopped, and Demacia's cavalry charged out on horseback.
They swiftly passed Nashat and chased after the fleeing army.
Nashat raised his battle-ax and swung it at the nearest cavalryman.
But in the next second, a figure blocked his path. A standard Demacian steel blade stopped Nashat's strike.
Lev looked expressionlessly at the general before him. His wrist suddenly exerted force, knocking away Nashat's battle-ax. Then, without the slightest mercy, he stabbed through Nashat's armor and pulled the blade back out.
Blood spilled across the ground. In the last few seconds before death arrived, Nashat collapsed with extreme unwillingness in his heart.
This battle lasted less than half an hour.
The cavalry soon returned. There were still some fleeing soldiers left who had escaped quickly, so they had not been able to catch them.
However, Lev was already very satisfied with the result of this battle.
His side had not lost a single person, while Noxus had traded that for the deaths of tens of thousands.
Even in history, this was something that rarely happened.
One had to remember that this was the Noxian army, whose strength was not weak. Even so, before gunpowder weapons, they were this fragile.
After such an overwhelmingly one-sided ambush, he had to admit it felt rather good.
At least Lev had never fought such a comfortable battle before.
The soldiers began cleaning up the battlefield, while he took out the Secret Key, edited a message, and sent it to Luke.
Brue City.
Luke and the army had been stationed in the city for one night, and they had rested quite well.
Just as the army began organizing itself and preparing to continue marching out, Luke's Secret Key received a message.
"As expected, Noxus sent troops to attack our other army."
Looking at the message, Luke was not surprised.
He had to admit that the opposing general's idea was quite bold. If this had been a conventional war, they might really have suffered a loss here.
They had used the prisoners of war as cover, making them serve as the force shown on the surface, while in reality, they sent out their true army at high speed. They used the three-hour opening in the middle to achieve a speed comparable to flying magical beasts.
When Luke discovered their intent and sent out Dragonbirds or flying magical beasts to deliver the message, they would have already been halfway there.
By the time the information arrived, they would have already reached their destination.
Without preparation, even with Lev leading the army, they likely would have suffered heavy losses under a surprise attack from an army of such scale.
Unfortunately, this was not a conventional war.
Noxus did not know that for Luke to transmit a message through the Secret Key, it took less than a second.
After this move, they should also understand that they should not casually fight an information-gap battle against Demacia.
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