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"So that's it, no wonder the previous assault by the Tiele forces seemed too hasty. The real commander wasn't with the army, probably coordinating with the Yellow Dragon forces behind them. But even if he's here now, what can he do to counter my Eight Trigrams Formation?" I locked onto the Tiele youth in the distance with my gaze. The boy seemed to have sharp instincts as well, and although the Great Labyrinth Formation had illusionary coverage and prevented him from seeing me, he still looked deeply in my direction, which surprised me. "Hmm? A talented young man who has already reached the realm of Sword Master at such a young age, he would be considered a genius even among our orcs. With such instincts and the courage and determination essential for leading armies, he might have a chance to ascend to Sword Saint in the future. So, should I eliminate this potential threat now, or let him grow and see what he becomes?"

Chapter 101: The Blood Thunder Ice Thorn Magic Ring Unleashed

As I pondered, changes occurred again within the Tiele army formation. The front row of tens of thousands of knights began to shift positions frequently, and half of the knights behind them also moved continuously, making it hard to discern their plan. Knowing I couldn't allow the enemy to set up their formation at their leisure, I immediately waved my hand. The 10,000 Snow Wolf Knights hidden inside the Great Labyrinth Formation split into eight teams and charged out from the eight gates of the formation, directly at the opposing Tiele army.

The Tiele knights, well-trained as they were, became even more efficient with the return of the commander. Instantly, 40,000 knights also split into eight teams to meet the Snow Wolf Knights. Once the two sides began to engage, the remaining 20,000 knights quickly charged out of their position and launched another assault on the Great Labyrinth Formation.

Watching the oncoming enemy, I was quite puzzled. Hadn't they learned their lesson yet? However, just as the enemy was about to reach our position, the Tiele knights displayed riding skills that even our wolf knights found impressive. Half of the 20,000 Thunder God Knights jumped off their horses, which were galloping at nearly 60 kilometers per hour, and swiftly mounted behind the remaining knights who had not dismounted. In an instant, the charge towards us consisted of 10,000 riderless horses and 10,000 knights riding double. In my moment of astonishment, the 10,000 horses carrying two riders decelerated due to the change in weight. The riders controlling the reins used their incredible riding skills to quickly break formation and spread out to the sides. The 10,000 riderless horses, meanwhile, continued straight into the Great Labyrinth Formation.

"It's a trap! Change the formation!" Although I couldn't guess the enemy's plan, I knew that these oncoming horses couldn't be anything good. I immediately gave the order to change the deadliest gate facing the enemy into the more defensive Rest Gate. The Eight Trigrams Formation, based on the Bagua, had the Rest Gate in the Kan position, representing water, which excels in defense, using softness to counter hardness. It was the formation's best defensive gate.

"Boom—boom—boom!" My command came too late. As the formation was only halfway through changing, the Tiele horses surged into the Great Labyrinth Formation. Immediately after, these horses, mixed with magical bloodlines, began to explode one after another, setting off a chain reaction. The 10,000 horses all blew up, causing blood-red flames to soar into the sky and flesh and bones to fly everywhere. The power of each exploding horse was equivalent to a fourth or fifth-level spell, and combined, it was as if over a hundred ninth-level spells had been unleashed simultaneously.

"What... what the hell is this?" I had never imagined that ordinary warhorses could be used as bombs with such terrifying power. Even though the formation's magic absorbed some of the blast, it still destroyed half of my Eight Trigrams Formation. Fortunately, the Minos bull-headed warriors were of excellent quality, possessing innate totem powers that halved damage. The formation and thousands of heavy stone pillars also provided protection. Although more than half of the warriors were affected, only over 800 bull-headed warriors in the explosion's center died. Another 3,000 warriors were severely injured and couldn't fight for a while, but the remaining 8,000 were still lively and not significantly diminished. In fact, their comrades' deaths only fueled their fighting spirit.

However, the humans had used 10,000 horses to take out 4,000 of my elite warriors, gaining a significant advantage. This showed that the young human commander's military tactics were indeed remarkable. Much later, I learned that the enemy's tactic was one of the rare war magic techniques of the Tiele Empire, called the "Blood Thunder Seal," which was a top secret alongside the "Force Beast Tattoo." The cold and resource-scarce Tiele Empire, lacking support from the Radiant Temple, had developed many secret techniques combining elements of dark witchcraft and necromantic magic to counter the vast and populous Yellow Dragon Empire. These techniques aimed for simplicity and ruthless effectiveness. The "Blood Thunder Seal" involved injecting a potion mixed with a sorcerer's essence into magical horses. When the horses reached their target, the sorcerer would activate a secret spell, causing the horses' magic and essence to explode together. The principle and effect were similar to the necromancer's famous spell "Corpse Explosion," with only minor differences. However, for the resource-poor Tiele, that attack had exhausted all the magic and potions of the accompanying sorcerers, and even if they wanted to launch such an attack again, it would be impossible. The young commander showed remarkable boldness by using all their resources in one decisive strike. If they had divided the attack into two, the defensive power of the Minos Great Labyrinth Formation might have reduced the damage to less than one-tenth.

Our side suffered heavy losses, and the humans who escaped didn't have it easy either. The Snow Wolf Knights, who were entangled with the human knights, immediately followed my order as soon as the formation was blown open, abandoning their current opponents to strike at the Thunder God Knights who were escaping back in pairs. The wolf knights could jump off their mount wolves at any time, doubling their combat effectiveness, while the enemy's mobility and combat effectiveness decreased instead. Only a few thousand Thunder God Knights managed to escape back to the human lines after the Snow Wolf Knights' fierce counterattack.

This unexpected move threw off my strategy to use the formation to hold back the enemy without suffering significant losses. The humans also lost nearly 40,000 Thunder God Knights and temporarily lacked the strength to attack again. At this point, half of the original 4,096 pillars had fallen, leaving the formation incomplete. I ordered the injured warriors to take cover among the remaining pillars while I led the 8,000 remaining Minos warriors out of the shattered formation, setting up the Minos Great Labyrinth Formation again in front of the original site.