To kill Duncan now, only a volley of arrows, shooting him with chaos arrows directly, would have a chance.
Otherwise, with large engineering weapons like crossbows, bed crossbows, and catapults; in this battle, Duncan was hit by five arrows, which were painless scratches that stopped bleeding right away. Because of the Avalon scabbard, even if Duncan’s blood vessel was cut, it would stop bleeding quickly; it’s not that he doesn’t bleed, but the wound would instantly stop bleeding and coagulate.
Even an arterial wound would only spurt blood briefly before it ceased.
At this point, Duncan didn’t care about the reaction of the British noble riders; he looked at the youthful boy Carl in front of him, and patted his shoulder in praise: "Well done!"
The sixteen-year-old boy slew two armored warriors in battle, worthy of focused training.
The boy looked at Duncan with an excited expression; he didn’t understand before why his brother charged into battle without fear, but now he understood. Earlier, he had no thoughts in his head, just following that master into the fight against the enemy.
Once he realized, he had already killed in two rounds, and all enemies had been routed.
The morale was too high.
The Huns saw a group of people charging fiercely, seeming not to care for their lives, and became faint-hearted before engaging in combat.
Duncan was now looking at his battle gains; he acquired two combat skills in total.
He mentioned he needed to take down some Hun elites; slaying Germanic barbarians daily was turning him into a berserker.
—"Dual Weapon Combat Mastery: Only a very few are warriors proficient in using their left hand. Their left hand is as dexterous as other people’s right hand. You can now use dual weapons in combat without inconveniencing your combat skills; you can perform your mastered combat moves with your left hand."
It seems one of the enemy infantry commanders wielded a battle axe in the left hand and a shield in the right hand, and Duncan converted it into dual weapon combat mastery after seizing it.
Now, in Duncan’s palm, the Frank’s throwing axe was spinning at high speed like a toy pen.
This combat skill is excellent!
Indeed, it’s necessary to fight diverse enemies to broaden the range of combat skills.
—"Continuous Arrow [Combat Skill]: You can shoot arrows at a remarkable speed, firing up to five arrows simultaneously, greatly consuming energy. This belongs to the Hun Eagle Shooter’s combat technique, requiring a strong physique to perform. Continuous use may lead to fatigue. It can be performed while mounted archery, but with significantly reduced accuracy."
Duncan’s current state is about three arrows per second; shooting faster comes at the cost of accuracy, and the bow itself has a maximum shooting speed limit.
This combat skill consumes a lot of energy; continuous bow drawing results in muscle soreness, the more arrows fired, the more energy consumed, akin to continuous hundred-meter sprints.
"Sacrificing some accuracy for the ultimate shooting speed."
"Acceptable."
The initial shooting speed of the bow isn’t fast, hence rapid shooting is described as continuous arrows.
Currently, Duncan’s energy bar allows him to fire about ten arrows; only the Nord Bow can handle it, other battle bows would likely break directly.
The Exile Camp is becoming a bit cramped.
Duncan had to set up another smaller military camp nearby the Bandit Stronghold, deploying a few hundred soldiers there. If the Huns raided around Paris, he could promptly counter-raid.
Fight to sustain the battle!
Now the Huns are looting Gaul, and he leads troops to rob the Huns in turn; he certainly won’t return the spoils to the Gauls since they are won with life-risking efforts.
The day passed quickly.
Just on the following morning, the reconnaissance cavalry sent back news: after the Hun raiders were defeated yesterday, more than twenty cavalry ran to other Hun units, then three groups of Hun raiders converged, totaling an estimate of three to four thousand with vassal army, preparing to exterminate Duncan’s troops near Paris.
This is the Huns’ usual tactic; if they suffer losses, they immediately call reinforcements to surround and hunt them, their troops are very mobile.
"How many cavalry do we have now?"
Duncan pondered momentarily and looked towards Clegane beside him.
Clegane was busy with tasks, he had hired mountain women to make a black dragon head banner for himself. The Great Dragon Head-Uther was a red dragon banner; he followed Duncan’s orders to mark with black banner and black armor. At the moment, he looked up and said: "About two hundred cavalrymen capable of fighting, mainly composed of Sarmatian riders."
"Mounted infantry only counts for fifty to sixty."
"If there are more horses available, we should be able to formally assemble a unit of elite mounted infantry."
Mounted infantry, as the name suggests, ride to the battlefield, dismount, and fight as infantry; this was fairly common in Han and Tang periods.
Duncan contemplated for a moment; he suddenly stood up and said: "Gather the army."
Fight!
It’s not his first time winning with fewer troops.
If this battle is won, the enemy’s plan to harass around Paris will fail.
.........