Chapter 323 Before Dawn
South of Qiaoyan Bay.
On a bare, nameless earth slope.
This was a tragic battlefield, with corpses lying all over the ground. A group of remnant soldiers dressed in Lion Followers' uniforms were retreating down the hillside.
Godric stood at the top of the slope, swung his sword and cut off the neck of the last enemy, then sat down on the ground and gasped.
He had achieved another victory.
But he was also covered in blood, his armor was torn, and his sword was blunt, so he was no longer able to pursue.
A Ravenstern lord also came to Godric's side, panting, and sat on the ground with his greatsword.
"How come there are so many Lion Squires? Lord Godric, are there so many people in the Lion Knights? Why do I feel that these people don't look like Knight Squires..."
This is the Lord of Fallen Bay of the Kingdom of Ravenstern, Duke Adarian. He is of the same age as Godric and currently has a similar status.
At present, the two of them are jointly commanding the battle in Qiaoyan Bay.
The combined forces of Ravenstern and Sarleon had already fought several battles with Brennus's forces around Cliff Rock Bay.
Brunus suffered defeat after defeat and seemed to be losing ground, but there were always new troops blocking his way.
Qiaoyan Bay seemed to have an endless force, with large numbers of troops wearing Lion Squire equipment pouring out again and again. Although they suffered defeat after defeat, they successfully prevented the joint forces of the two countries from launching a large-scale siege.
Although the coalition forces have won successive victories, their actual progress has been quite slow - so far, the coalition forces have not even touched the city walls of Qiaoyan Bay.
Up to now, they have only just conquered the village of Amir, which is considered to be the last stronghold outside the Cliff Bay Peninsula, and has completely blocked Brunus' sphere of influence within the peninsula.
After continuous fighting, both the Kingdom of Ravenstern and the Kingdom of Sarleon were exhausted and had to rotate their main combat forces. The joint forces of Gregory IV and Leofric had already fought several battles and were currently resting in the area of Misty Fort.
The Silver Hand led by Klose had been following Godric, but after continuous fighting they had to stay in Amir Village to regroup.
The current main force of the attack has been replaced by Duke Adarian and Godric.
Up to now, Adarian and Godric's troops have faced three rounds of attacks.
The progress made was only to push the battlefield to the small hillside south of Qiaoyan Bay, but it was still twenty miles away from Qiaoyan Bay.
"Of course the Lion Knights don't have so many people... these people are not Lion's followers!"
Godric gnashed his teeth and pulled out a crossbow arrow embedded in his breastplate. "The Lion Knights don't know how to use crossbows... I didn't expect that Brennus would prepare so many weapons and equipment in Cliff Bay... During this period of time, there must have been more than a thousand people who died in battle wearing Lion Squire equipment, right?"
"You mean these people are temporary armed? But where did Brennus find so many soldiers willing to fight for him? And... the Lion Knights have not appeared yet!"
Duke Adarian shook his head, looking somewhat confused.
Godric sighed, "It is because the Lion Knights have been in Cliff Bay that so many people are willing to try their best to stop us, and even die in battle... These people are just poor people wearing Lion Squire equipment. Their families must be controlled by Brennus using the Lion Knights. For the survival of their families and for the lives of their entire families, they can only come out to resist us."
"This kind of coercion...ah..."
Adarian sighed as well.
As a duke, Adarian knew that this method was actually difficult to resolve, because those who came out to resist were fighting for their respective families.
If they didn't fight, their entire family would probably die at the hands of the Lion Knights.
But if they went to war, it would be inexplicable treason, and the Kingdom of Sarleon would certainly regard them as traitors. After all, it is difficult to distinguish who was forced and who voluntarily followed Brennus.
Therefore, they will fight resolutely and will not retreat until the situation is beyond redemption, and they will not accept surrender.
Moreover, Brennus was very organized - he probably secretly organized these troops who were forced to go to the battlefield in waves, five or six hundred people at a time, just enough to block the progress of the coalition forces, but not to the point of causing the people of Qiaoyan Bay to launch a full-scale resistance and riot.
People everywhere have the same bad trait - they won't step forward if it doesn't concern them. Most people will sit back and watch a small number of people being forced into battle, and they will just pray that this won't happen to them.
The few who resisted in advance would naturally be suppressed by the Lion Knights, and then their property would be turned into military expenses for the Lion Knights, and their families would also be turned into military supplies - so that the Lion Knights could maintain their morale.
Everyone knew that this was Brennus's final madness.
But no one could do anything.
"Enemy attack! Sir! It seems that there are more enemies coming from the bottom of the mountain!"
An archer who was observing the situation nearby interrupted their conversation by reporting the military situation loudly.
The two tired leaders sighed and stood up.
"It's really endless... They won't force all the men in Cliff Bay to go to the battlefield, right?"
Adarian pulled out the greatsword from the ground, shook his head and sighed: "Such an Order of the Lion Knights is indeed not worthy of being called a Knight Order!"
"From the beginning, they were not worthy...especially not worthy of being called Lion Knights..."
Godric put on his helmet: "Prepare for battle!"
"Wait... Godric, something seems to be wrong..."
Adarian stared down the mountain and said, "Why do I feel like those people are the Lion's followers who just left?"
"My Lord, be careful! These corpses... are the Fallen!"
The archer who brought the news pounced and knocked down a bloody Fallen behind Godric, then drew his dagger and stabbed the Fallen through the chest, nailing him to the ground.
Adarian and Godric turned around at the same time and shouted in fear at the same time: "Cut off its head!"
These two lords have seen the world...
But this reminder was too late. The sword piercing the chest failed to make the newly fallen one lose his fighting power, but instead caused the brave archer to lose his life.
The Fallen One grabbed the archer and broke his neck easily, then pulled the dagger from his chest and stood up again.
Adarian swung his two-handed sword with all his strength, but the Fallen One blocked it with a single-handed dagger. This block required no skill at all and sparks flew everywhere, but Adarian's sword flew out of his hand - the power gap was too great, and it was equivalent to hitting a wall.
Godric swiftly moved around and with one strike of his sword from behind barely managed to cut off the back half of the Fallen One's neck.
The sword was indeed blunt, and even with all his strength he failed to cut the throat.
But fortunately, the sword was struck from behind, and at least the Fallen's cervical vertebra was broken.
The Fallen One staggered and fell, shaking his bloody head.
Next to this fallen one is a nearly complete skin.
At this moment, Godric heard the chanting that he remembered vividly - the prayer of the goddess of justice.
"Three Prophets!... Retreat! Retreat the entire army!"
Godric turned around, took a look, shouted "retreat", then pulled Adarian and ran towards the place where the horses were tied at the foot of the mountain.
All around them, in various places on the hillside, bodies that had just died stood up again.
There were corpses of enemies and corpses of our own people.
All these corpses began to tear their own bodies apart frantically and silently!
"The entire army retreats to the village of Amir!"
Godric shouted as he ran.
He knew that the Silver Hand was resting there.
But Godric's heart had completely sunk, because Cloze had sent someone to give him a message before. He knew that Leon's troops would not be able to come to the Cliff Bay area in a short time, and a large number of Fallen appeared in Lion Lake City.
And now, Qiaoyan Bay has also appeared...
…
In the forest east of Guihu Town.
Sir Roland led a team of about two hundred men and walked silently through the woods.
This was the army that Roland had trained in Dark Falcon Castle, and most of them were recruited by Roland in Stern Crow Territory.
This doesn't look like a top tier force as they aren't well equipped and don't look very strong.
But they could indeed be considered well-trained—two hundred people moved through the dense forest without making any sound.
Roland was a strict man. His subordinates all lived a poor life in Dark Falcon Castle, so their equipment was naturally not very good.
Moreover, Roland mainly considers people's character when recruiting. He will not recruit just anyone like Andongjia does.
So his troops were not numerous.
At the same time, Roland is a person who always leads by example. He is generous, upright, fair and selfless. He always takes the lead in charging in a war and always puts himself last when sharing supplies.
Such a person will naturally win the respect of his subordinates.
Therefore, the actual combat effectiveness of Sir Roland's troops is far from being measured by their equipment and physique.
At this time, Roland was thinking about how to deal with Frey's Oswood.
Roland had fought with Oswood's troops a day ago. The two sides had equal numbers and were evenly matched in the brief confrontation. Oswood then retreated into the woods - this was a unit whose combat effectiveness could not be measured by equipment or physique.
Perhaps justice and evil can bring people equal faith...
Sir Roland already knew that Oswood had committed countless atrocities in this area. When he met up with Godric before, he learned about Oswood's habits from Cloze.
Wherever this army went, they did things even worse than the heretics—almost everyone, male, female, old or young, was tortured and killed.
So, he took the initiative to take over the task of hunting down Oswood.
In the past few days, Roland has witnessed countless tragedies in the surrounding villages.
All the female corpses were naked and covered with signs of torture; and all the male corpses were mutilated.
This behavior deeply angered Roland.
He found it hard to understand why a human being would have such a perverted hobby.
Roland is a paladin. He will not participate in any war related to the struggle for power. He does not intend to interfere in the battle of Cliff Rock Bay, but he will never let Oswood go.
Even if he had to abandon his horse and venture into the jungle to fight, he was determined to kill Oswood.
In the eyes of this paladin, humans committing such evil deeds because of personal preferences or desires are far more evil than heresy.
Because these are anti-human thugs who specialize in tearing down the ladder of the goddess of justice.
Roland led his troops to search forward slowly.
"careful!"
A female warrior walking beside Roland suddenly grabbed Roland and said, "There's a trap here!"
Roland didn't see any trap here at all, but he trusted his companions, especially those he recruited in the Raven Stern.
One meter in front of him, there was a small vine lying across a tree.
The female warrior squatted down and cut the vine with her spear.
“Whoosh…thump!”
From a tree on the side, two sharp wooden spears flew out from the dense leaves and pierced into the ground where the vine was with a whistling sound.
"Elanor, thanks for your carefulness..."
Sir Roland looked in the direction of the wooden spear, then pointed to a big tree in front of him and shouted, "You are from Oswood, right? Don't hide like that! Come down and fight me! I am Roland!"
Although he couldn't see the trap, he could see the people in ambush - Roland was best at dealing with those villains hiding in the shadows.
The troops began to move quickly and surrounded the big trees quickly. Their efficiency was amazingly fast.
The female warrior named Ilano also raised her crossbow, but she did not aim at the big trees. Instead, she turned around and aimed at another place several dozen meters away.
"Sir Roland? Are you the Paladin Roland?"
A voice came from the tree: "This is a misunderstanding! Don't do it! It's a misunderstanding!"
Then, a man in black slowly climbed down from the tree.
This person had his back to Roland and was deliberately crawling very slowly. After landing on the ground, he stretched out his hands and raised them above his head. It was obvious that he had no hostility.
Roland put down the sword in his hand and said, "Who are you? Aren't you from Oswood?"
"My name is Reynald... from the Firdsvain. We have actually been looking for you, Sir Roland."
The man in black slowly turned around and said, "My partner and I were once members of the Knights of the Dawn."
As he spoke, he slowly reached out and untied the straps of his black hoodie, revealing the white knight robe underneath.
This was indeed the cloak of the Knights of the Dawn, but it was slightly different from the one Roland was wearing. This was a new style that appeared after the Knights of the Dawn settled in the Howling Bay of Lights in the Firdsvain.
In the past, the Dawn Knights of Barkley Continent wore black and white plaid robes;
After the Dawn Knights were expelled from the Barkley continent, the Dusk Knights separated from them. Since then, the Dawn Knights have used pure white robes and armor, while the Dusk Knights have used pure black equipment.
Five other men in black also slowly climbed down from the other trees. One of them was even outside Roland's team. He was dozens of meters away and was not discovered by Roland's large army. Only the female warrior named Ilano pointed a crossbow at him.
"We heard that there were many tragedies here, so we came here specifically to deal with Oswood. But I didn't expect... Ha, we almost hurt him by mistake - Sir Roland, you came here to deal with him too, right?"
Leonard explained awkwardly: "You are indeed a true Paladin!"
"No, it's not just Oswood, there's also the more terrifying... 'Devourer' Aigram."
Roland nodded. "But we must deal with Oswood first, otherwise Aigram will continue to receive evil spirits and corpses."
"Wait, sir... I don't believe he is a Dawn Knight like you..."
Ilano suddenly spoke up.
This female warrior looked very young, no more than twenty years old, but the look she gave Reynard was somewhat stern, or even cold: "I think you smell like a thief!"
"You have good senses, ma'am...I have certainly stolen things."
Reynard looked at Ilano in surprise, then slowly knelt on one knee facing Roland, and even more slowly took out an object from his arms and handed it to Roland: "I stole it, Your Excellency the Paladin, please allow us to follow you!"
