Volume 11: The Cursed Hammer Witch Chapter 16: Army (Part 2)
The Border Province used to have a nice name, Emerald Bay. It was once the richest province in the Elf Empire. There were all kinds of rare and exotic animals in the countless woods. The vast forests and mountains became the most powerful barrier of the entire Elf Empire and the best outlet for the Elf Empire to attack humans.
Through hundreds of years of conspiracy and trickery, humans defrauded the elven empire, which was in chaos at the time, of the right to garrison this province, and then blatantly tore up the treaty and dedicated all the elves of Emerald Bay to the human gods. Although the human gods were too satisfied and did not send down even one oracle, the great power at that time shook the earth veins and forcibly bonded the entire Emerald Bay to the human territory.
The forest was completely burned to charcoal overnight. The originally warm spring-like climate became extreme and dry with the change of the landform. A large number of deserts and magical chaos areas appeared in the interior. Only some border towns of humans and the Elf Empire were across the sea, controlling the only entrance to the human hinterland. If the border provinces fell, then along the gap left by the human main god at that time, the enemy army would rush into the six provinces and three duchies in the belly as if entering an uninhabited place. The Luna Plain where the six provinces and three duchies are located is the area with the most humans on the entire planet, and it is also the area with the most biological gatherings. Obviously, no problems are allowed here.
Otherwise, as the gap in the border province is breached, 20 million people will be trapped in a terrible situation where they are left with no defenses and at the mercy of the enemy. This densely populated area only accounts for 7% of the planet's land area, but it accounts for more than 60% of the planet's population. There is no room for error.
Therefore, no matter whether it is a plague or an enemy offensive, any disaster that occurs in the border province will be contained to the smallest state. Even if there are villages disappearing in other wilderness areas, it is not as terrifying as the news of a plague in the border province. Even if it is really just a simple plague, it cannot break through the Hengduan Mountains defense line of the border province, and no problems can occur.
When the dragon army was dispatched, the king's heretics and the criminals who were dissatisfied with the kingdom's rule gradually gathered outside the city-state and began to prepare to resist the unknown attack from the border province. Compared with the greatest strategic army in the kingdom, the dragons, the slave army composed of the kingdom's criminals did not know what was going on. They were just driven out of the cellar, squinting their eyes and not yet adapting to the sunlight, they were forced to match a crossbow and a short sword, and confusedly followed a large group of people to march to the predetermined location.
They needed to walk to the city wall of the three passes in the border province within ten hours and resist the enemy troops that came from nowhere.
Theoretically, it was unlikely that the criminal army gathered from the hinterland of the empire or the messy prisons and cellars could be assembled in just ten hours. However, the genius magic emperor had created a demon king system. Through the connection of slave collars and magic networks, slaves throughout the empire could be blessed with various states without limit. Even making a skinny man instantly turn into a muscular giant and run for twenty hours would be no problem.
Under this extreme oppression, the criminals ran wildly across the empire. Their lives had been shortened to just one week, but as compensation, within this week, everyone would reach a limit. They would run almost as fast as horses, and their movements would be as agile as monkeys. Even the breath of a dragon could not burn these monster-like humans to death. These monsters, with their muscles bursting and blood flowing on their skin, howled and ran wildly towards the predetermined location, constantly enduring the whipping of the supervisors.
Occasionally, the sinners could not bear the pain and suddenly jumped up to attack their supervisors. However, such behavior was meaningless in the eyes of the slave collars. They could only be quickly drained of blood and sacrificed to the gods, and then exploded into a ball of blood in the air.
However, the slaves were running with their heads down and had no idea what was happening. The overseer riding on a tall horse had a stern look on his face, knowing what a tragic situation was happening in the distance.
Because his magic web was flashing frequently, conveying bad news to him.
"Ten minutes ago, the provincial capital's walls were breached, but the plague monsters were not weakened at all. On the contrary, their intelligence was strengthened accordingly. In order to break the joint defense of the magic network, these monsters found a virus infection authority in a satellite city, turned him into a human pig, and projected his limbs and body into the magic network, causing a large-scale infection on the city wall. The entire provincial capital lasted less than 30 minutes before it was declared defeated. It was already a living hell. Before the news came, the entire provincial capital had been burned down by the fire, and the pale flames could be clearly seen even in the small fortress city ten miles away."
"The person in charge of the fortress city has activated the emergency blockade mode. Those monsters don't have any special means to break the magic in the short term. But from the visual effects, those plague beasts are building magic-breaking cones in the provincial capital and have begun to perform blood rituals. We are fighting a group of well-trained monsters that are stronger than us. Their ability to infect and resist attacks is really too strong. Even women can drag their bodies to fight."
"But they seemed to be fighting in a strict order. They swept all the way from South Town in just eighteen hours, and the time was almost just running. It only took them a few minutes to attack the city, but there were always times when they stopped and then started again."
"This kind of behavior cannot be done by a mindless beast, nor can it be done by an ordinary monster. I think there is a high possibility that a leader will appear here."
"His target has not yet been determined, but according to visual reports, there seemed to be a white light in the open space before the provincial city wall was breached."
"I hope this news will be helpful to the criminal army."
“…”
How much help is this going to get? Is there any other way to describe it except to say how powerful the enemy is?
I am just a nobleman who came here to gild himself. I have six beautiful women waiting for me to favor them. Why should I come here to risk my life?
But since I'm here, I should make some achievements. Otherwise, how can I live up to my title as the most dissolute young man in the Holy City? Although the second awakening is very easy to achieve, achievements are still the most obvious.
"Leave that leader to me!"
The demon prince grinned grimly, spewing out streams of blazing red clouds, and then he whipped the six-legged dragon horse under his crotch hard, galloping quickly towards the border province.
