130 - 134

Chapter 130 Troop Deployment Prev ChapterNext Chapter

While using money to wipe out the duke's men sounded rather wasteful, to Lorist, he didn't have much of a choice due to the disparity between his own troops and that of the duke. Additionally, the enemy had the aid of the rebels from Wildnorth Town and it could be said that a disastrous storm was about to descend on the Norton Family.

What Lorist could do now was to muster all his forces to resist the duke's army. For instance, the reason he hired the mercenary crews was so that they could help him wipe out the scouts of the enemy and withhold part of their battle strength by way of ambushes and harassment attacks so that they wouldn't be able to effectively besiege the bastide of the Norton Family.

What Lorist was most worried about currently was whether the duke had already launched his attack against Maplewoods Bastide. Even though it was defended by a company's worth of family soldiers, they only numbered around 600 people and up to 200 of them were injured to some degree. Even if the family had ten times the amount of troops stationed there, it would still find it rather hard to resist the duke's force that numbered among the thousands. The only fact that Lorist could find relief in was that Josk was at the bastide. With a Gold ranked marksman like him there, Lorist was confident that the bastide wouldn't fall to enemy attack just yet.

As the sky gradually brightened during the dawn, Lorist awoke in a rather drowsy state as he had slept rather late the night before.

"Milord, Paulobins has sent someone back..." Ovidis's voice rang out from outside Lorist's room. He had been on night patrol duty since yesterday.

Lorist got out of bed and said, "Ovidis, get someone to bring me a basin full of water that I can use to wash my face with..."

The one who was sent back to make the report was one of the former bandits that had joined the guard squad. Having traveled for the whole night, he looked rather worn out as he said, "Milord, Squad Leader Paulobins ordered me to report to you that the enemy have yet to make their move and they stayed within their camp for one whole day. Yesterday, we also eradicated a group of ten plus enemy troops who were felling trees and caught some of them alive as well. The captives told us that the duke mobilized around two regiments with up to 4000 soldiers to 'punish the Norton Family for their rebellion' with the Gold ranked knight Chevany taking the lead as their commander..."

"Did the prisoners say how they entered our dominion?" Lorist asked.

The guard nodded and said, "Sir Josk questioned them already and I was among the men he brought along with him. The captives said they were not too clear about it as the whole army had been guided by someone else and that they merely followed along. However, they mentioned seeing a white beach as they traveled by the coast and passing through a few caverns with the last one taking them one whole day to traverse. Also, they also said that they crossed a very long suspension bridge. After the journey that took them four days, the worn out soldiers were allowed to rest for two days after they set up their camp..."

"Was Knight Josk with you as well?"

"Yes, milord. When were sneaking around Wildnorth Town, we met with Sir Josk who led his men to spy on the enemy camp, so we simply joined up with him," replied the guard.

"Alright, you should go take some rest. You did good," said Lorist as he tapped on the guard's shoulder in a good mood.

Lorist exhaled and relaxed as he thought, even though what we lack most right now is time, I didn't expect that the duke would allow his troops to rest for two days. This is the best case scenario I can hope for.

"Ovidis, have you finished picking the men for the company I asked you to form yesterday?" Lorist asked.

Ovidis nodded and said, "Milord, the company has already been formed and equipped. I had them finish building the training ground behind the business sector and they can start their basic training drills first thing today."

"Good. During their breaks, don't forget to teach them about how to awaken their Battle Force. Since you have been in the empire's army before, I'm sure you can easily teach them the basic Battle Force technique to help them awaken their Battle Force quickly. I'll be leaving this company to you."

"Yes, milord," replied Ovidis as he straightened his body.

"Alright, that's all. Good work working the night shift since yesterday. You better go get some rest for now," Lorist said.

...

After having breakfast, Shadekampf, Patt, Jim and Waxima arrived at Lorist's room.

"Jim, later during the morning, let the mercenaries enter the castle in small groups to equip themselves before they return to the camp outside. I will be bringing them with me tomorrow morning, understood?"

"Yes, milord. I will start working on it immediately," Jim said before he left.

"Shadekampf, I will leave the matter of the communication with the Kenmays Family about the knighthood competition to you. Supervisor Hansk will also help you out with this. You're clear on what I want you to pay attention to, right?" Lorist asked.

Shadekampf replied, "Milord, don't worry. I will make sure to satisfy your demands."

"Patt, pick one squad from the guard company and two squads of family soldiers later today for Knight Waxima to command. They should meet a few criteria like having awakened their Battle Force as well as knowing riding and archery."

"Understood, milord."

"Also, after I bring the three squads away, the castle will only have two squads of guards and two squads of family soldiers remaining. I will leave these men under your command, Patt. As for Ovidis's newly-formed company, you won't be able to use them as of yet, so let Ovidis train them up first. Four squads' worth of soldiers should be enough to defend Firmrock Castle. However, make sure to be vigilant even during the duration of the knighthood competition lest we get attacked by surprise," Lorist instructed Patt.

"Milord, don't worry. I will definitely keep my eyes wide open," Patt promised.

Lorist patted on his shoulder twice and said, "Alright, I'll leave it all to you. Waxima..."

"Milord, please give me your instructions," said the knight as he stepped forward.

Lorist turned to him and said, "I'm really sorry that you have to accompany me to the battlefield the moment you joined us..."

Waxima interjected, "Milord, the battlefield is the second home of the knight. It is my honor to be able to serve the family. Please don't hesitate to give me my orders."

"Alright, Waxima. Go with Patt to pick the men you will bring to battle. You will be in charge of overseeing the preparations and equipment of the soldiers. For the guards, let them take double-layered metal armor, pikes, riding shields, a quiver of javelins as well as one sidearm of their choosing. For the family soldiers, they will be allocated chain mail, pikes, bucklers, training longbows, a quiver of arrows and a longsword. Every man will have a pair of mounts, three days' worth of food as well as a wool blanket. Begin the preparations today for our departure tomorrow."

"Yes, milord," said Waxima as he clenched his fist and knocked onto his left breastplate in a knight salute.

"Alright, you guys go work on your tasks. Notify the guards at the door to call Butler Boris, Old Man Balk and Supervisor Hansk over."

"Yes, milord."

...

"Locke... You're far too shameless..." said Telesti with a flushed face while wearing an annoyed expression with hints of embarrassment and anger.

When Lorist went to bid her goodbye, he hugged her the moment he entered the room and gave her a French kiss, causing Telesti to gasp softly as she slumped down powerlessly in surprise.

"My dear Telesti, I will be going on the battlefield soon. This time, the enemy I face is really formidable and I truly feel that this might be the last time we meet. That's why I've decided to bid my farewells in hopes that your kiss will grant me the courage I need to defeat my fearsome foe. When and if I return, I will definitely present my spoils of battle to you..." said Lorist as he read out a classic line from one of the chivalric tales he read.

"Alright, alright. There you go again plagiarizing the lines you read in some knighthood novel. I don't know about the others, but I'm pretty sure that sooner or later you'll appear before me without a single scratch on you. I can only hope to pray for your enemy who have used up all their luck for them to have met you," said Telesti as she interjected in the middle of Lorist's recital.

"As expected, my dear Miss Telesti understands me best. But even though you hold so much confidence for me, this expedition will no doubt be a rather dangerous one as the men of Duke Loggins outnumber ours by two to three times. I have already ordered Patt to notify you to move if the worst comes to happen," Lorist said with a solemn expression.

Telesti fell silent for a while before she raised her head and said, "I believe that nobody will be able to defeat you and that you will return swiftly. You should go now, after all, you've hugged and kissed me already and said all you wanted to, right? What are you waiting for?"

Lorist smiled and said, "I was thinking if I should kiss you once more..."

"You..." said Telesti angrily as she looked around to look for something to pummel Lorist with.

Lorist dashed swiftly out of the doorway and gave Vinny an imperial gold coin when he passed her by. "You did well, this is for you."

Telesti sat down powerlessly on her chair and said, "You darned..."

Upon thinking back on the kiss moments before, she felt her face heat up as her vision blurred for a bit.

"Mistress, look! Lord Locke gave me a gold coin!" said Vinny happily.

Looking at Vinny's genuine smile, Telesti couldn't even get mad at her even is she tried. "Little Vinny, you sold me out for a single gold coin?"

"I didn't, aren't you sitting here just fine right now?" said Vinny with an innocent expression.

"Then why did you close the door just now?"

Vinny replied with a touch of naivete, "Lord Locke said that he wanted to give you a surprise and didn't want anybody else to see it. I thought it made sense so I closed the door and got rewarded by him with one gold coin! Oh, what was the surprise Lord Locke gave you just now? Can you show me?"

Telesti shrugged and buried her head within her arms as she laid flat on the table. Frustrated, she said, "Nothing..."

"Sheesh. Mistress, you're so stingy..." said Vinny.

...

"Milord, it's about time we departed," said Waxima as he showed up in front of Lorist.

Patt brought over a huge Northlander Horse which Lorist subsequently mounted.

"Milord, are you fine like that?" said Waxima in surprise as he looked at the simple chain mail Lorist wore.

"Well, Waxima, even though I'm a knight myself, the techniques I trained in is different from yours and the others. Wearing heavy armor will only serve to limit my abilities instead," Lorist explained.

With an expression of understanding, Waxima got onto his own horse and followed behind his lord.

One guard squad and two family soldier squads were already standing by. All of them numbered to more than 360 fully-equipped men in metal armor who were lined up in three long rows. Beside them were mounts without riders which they could switch to when their current ones tired out. Even though it was a relatively small group, the troops gave off an indomitable feeling, especially when compared to the unorganized mercenaries standing beside them not far away.

"Have the scouts been sent out?" Lorist asked.

"Yes. All 30 plus of them left early this morning. They were split into groups of three with several groups sent in front, to the left and to the right respectively," replied Waxima.

"Alright, let's depart. You'll be leading the march."

"Yes, milord."

"Jim, come here," Lorist said.

"We're going to leave now. Tell the four mercenary crew leaders to follow our troops from behind and organize themselves. When they are ready, bring the four crew leaders to me. I'd like to meet them," Lorist said.

"Okay, milord. I will head there right now."

Among the four mercenary crews, the one with the most members was without a doubt the Nightbat Mercenary Crew. They were the last crew who signed the agreement with Jim as they believed that given that their numbers were the highest, they deserved a pay of at least 150 to 200 gold Fordes. In the end, Jim ridiculed them for ranking only number three among the four crews even though they had so many members and said that they didn't have the right to ask for a raise and were free to not sign the agreement if they so pleased. In the end, the crew leader caved and signed it anyway.

The 260 plus Nightbat Mercenaries didn't seem to have any discipline at all and moved at their own pace. When Jim brought the Nightbat Crew Leader to meet Lorist, he was ordered to reorganize his own men who didn't look the least bit like the rest of the Norton Family soldiers and instead resembled a motley crew of rascals.

The leader of the Nightbat Mercenary Crew, Ulampmaxin, was an old, slick and cunning Two Star Silver ranked mercenary. Having been rebuked by Lorist, he looked at the soldiers of the Norton Family as well as the other three mercenary crews before he returned to his own group in embarrassment and started scolding away. It didn't take long for his men to behave and look more like proper soldiers.

The Cromwell Mercenary Crew was the strongest among the rest due to their leader, Cromwell Richard, being a One Star Gold ranked swordsman. It was rumored that his grandfather used to be a knight who had been stripped of his status for having angered his lord and was chased out of the family to become a lowly mercenary. Even so, he managed to have some fortuitous encounters during his life as one and managed to earn quite a fortune, which he used to form his own mercenary crew which he often employed to explore ancient ruins in search of artifacts. In the end, the grandfather of the current Cromwell leader left behind a will that stated that his descendants had to inherit the crew he had formed. Even if one was a commoner, as long as one was strong enough, one would be able to live the free and unchained life of a mercenary without worries.

The group that ranked number two in terms of strength was the Razorpike Mercenary Crew which numbered more than 170 people. Lorist paid the most attention to that crew as they were formed from retired commoner military officers and soldiers who adhered to standard military discipline and regulations as was seen in the way they marched. Their leader was a Three Star Silver ranked mercenary called Sandro who used to be a garrison officer for a town which had been eradicated during the civil war within the empire. For the survival of his family and comrades, he had formed his own mercenary crew so that they would be able to support themselves financially while not being oppressed by nobles at the same time.

The weakest mercenary crew was the Pentasword Mercenary Crew. As the name implied, the crew was formed jointly by five Silver ranked swordsmen. Even though their numbers were the least at only 132 people, they still looked more disciplined and united than the messy Nightbat mercenaries.

Lorist remained behind his own troops and chatted heartily with the mercenary leaders. Given that he had been a mercenary for up to 6 years back at Morante City, he didn't run out of topics to talk about with the rest of the mercenaries. Lorist also didn't put up any arrogant airs nobles usually did and occasionally even mocked himself just to cause the rest of them to laugh out loud without restraint.

Just when the conversation was getting heated, a mounted soldier rode over from further ahead and said, "Milord, Knight Waxima requests for your presence at the vanguard. Squad Leader Paulobins has returned."

Chapter 131 The Massacre and the Suspension Bridge Prev ChapterNext Chapter

Why did Paulobins return at a time like this? Shouldn't he be spying on the duke's army with Josk? Don't tell me something else happened over there? Lorist had tons of questions as he headed to the front of the troops.

"Milord, I don't know if this is good or bad news. After that incident, Sir Josk didn't know what to do next either and could only order me to come back to make a report and await your decision," Paulobins said with a pale face.

"What in the world happened?" Lorist asked.

"It's like this. Yesterday evening at around 7 o'clock, Wildnorth Town was bustling with noise and many soldiers wearing the attire of the duke's army went inside the town from their camp. Sir Josk secretly sent some men to sneak near the town and after a while, they came back and reported that the people of the town were having a celebratory feast for the entitlement of the four great families as barons. We were all really mad and wanted to cause some trouble so that they wouldn't be able to successfully carry out their ceremony..."

Paulobins looked to the sky as he reminisced and said, "After that, Sir Josk once again brought a few of us to sneak to the enemy's camp. However, the lax security there greatly surprised us as even the soldiers stationed up at the tower outposts focused their attention on what was happening within the town, allowing us to swiftly make our way to the barricade surrounding the camp without too much trouble. Originally, we wanted to set their tents on fire, but Sir Josk stopped us and said that he felt that something was off. So, he ordered us to be patient until we could ascertain what was going on...

"After we passed through the gap in the barricades, we saw that in the middle of the empty space were the people of Wildnorth Town gathered around a huge bonfire while consuming wine and meats. After a while, two metal-armored knights showed up and some citizens of the town dressed in luxurious robes went to greet him. The knight with the long goatee said something as he smiled, which caused the people of the town to all kneel down. After that, the knight said something so terrifying that caused the townsfolk to stand there stunned and unable to move. Another knight who was nearby drew his sword and instantly pierced it into the chest of an old man from the town...

"As we witnessed that from afar, we also stood there completely flabbergasted. We heard a blaring of a horn before fully-armed soldiers emerged from the tents nearby and started slaughtering the citizens of the town. It was a complete massacre and the unarmed townsfolk could do nothing to retaliate at all; even those who had kneeled down to beg for mercy were not spared. Sir Josk said that there were at least 2000 or so townsfolk who had participated in the ceremony and all of them were male. However, not a single one of them were spared, even the elderly and the children were killed off. There was so much blood that it even flowed out of the camp. In the end, around 600 of them gathered up and started fighting back with some flaming sticks that they got from the bonfire. But they only managed to set a few of the tents in the army camp on fire before they were all culled by the Silver ranked knights...

"Quickly following that, the men of Duke Loggins split up into two groups and one of them to launched an attack on Wildnorth Town. It didn't take long for them to bust open the town gates and rush inside to kill, causing cries of terror and agony to resound from within the town. At that time, we were all stunned beyond recognition and didn't know how it came to end like that... In the end, Sir Josk snapped us out of our stupor and led us away from the enemy camp. The next morning, we went back and saw that some of the duke's soldiers had dug a huge pit to toss the bodies of the townsfolk into which they set on fire before they packed up their camp and moved into the town. A little while later, a few other soldiers emerged from the town and started digging another huge pit for even more bodies that were to be burned. Sir Josk with his good eyesight recognized that most of the bodies were that of the elderly and children of the town...

"Milord, right now, the soldiers of the duke have occupied WIldnorth Town completely and Sir Josk doesn't know what he should do next, so he sent me back here to seek your advice," said Paulobins as he finished reporting the incident that happened a few days prior. Perhaps he still hadn't snapped out of the shock from witnessing the massacre firsthand as he had shivered all the while he recalled the incident.

Lorist placed his cape on Paulobins, who didn't know what to say to express his gratitude and merely clasped tightly on the cape.

Raising his head, Lorist looked at the direction of Wildnorth Town and saw two greyish-white pillars of smoke rise up into the sky. Even though hearing about the massacre of the town has greatly shocked Lorist, he couldn't help but feel a trace of happiness from the depths of his heart. Betraying the Norton Family, openly resisting with an army, conspiring with Duke Loggins and allowing the enemy to enter the dominion of the family; the Wildnorth Town had already went beyond all lines of tolerance for any noble family and their untimely demise could be said to be well deserved and not worth anyone's sympathy.

Even though Lorist wanted to laugh out loud in happiness, he resisted that urge. While the list of problems he had decreased by one and even though he hated every one of the Wildnorth Town folk to the bone, given that he had grown up in a relatively peaceful era in his previous life, he would never have been able to kill the elderly and the children of the town even though they were relatives of the enemy.

The family leaders of the four great families were truly spoiled under Norton rule. Did they think that other nobles would be so easy to negotiate with like the Norton Family? The great families of Wildnorth Town had aided the duke so that they would be able to become landed nobles. But they must've forgotten that it was extremely rare for commoners to be elevated to the status of nobility. Having not seen the truth of the outside world, the people of the town actually believed in the false promises of the duke and didn't know that rebelling against one's dominion lord was a huge taboo in the eyes of nobles. The massacre could only be blamed on their own foolishness and were the consequence of their rebellion.

To Lorist, Paulobins's report on the massacre of the town was indeed a piece of good news and the duke's men had actually helped him solve one of his problems. Otherwise, Lorist would still have to wonder how to deal with the town who exploited their own noncombatants for defense; he couldn't kill them outright as that would affect his reputation given that many people at the Maplewoods Bastide had familial relations with the folk at Wildnorth Town. Then again, he couldn't just let them be as they would propagate their hatred for the Norton Family in the following generations to come and allow the town to become a hidden landmine within the Norton Family dominion that would become a huge source of uncertainty that could severely undermine the security of the dominion.

Even though Lorist felt that half his burdens had lifted, he still didn't understand why the men of the duke did something that irrational like massacring the folk of Wildnorth Town. Not only did they remove a formidable ally, that also put themselves in a precarious situation in the dominion of the Norton Family. Lorist had already intuited numerous methods he could use to overcome the men of Duke Loggins now that Wildnorth Town was out of the picture.

Don't tell me that the duke's men thought that their victory was secured the moment they made their way into our dominion? Otherwise, why would they decide to wipe out the people of Wildnorth Town who had conspired with them in the first place? If that were really the case, Lorist couldn't wait to give Duke Loggins a lesson he would never forget.

From Lorist's point of view, that massacre brought the Norton Family many advantages. If that hadn't happened, the rebellious soldiers of Wildnorth Town would be able to act as a firm supporting force for the duke's men and manage their supply lines and even guide the duke's soldiers to attack the more weakly defended places of the Norton Family. For example, Lorist was worried that the security of the Maplewoods Bastide would be compromised from within due to the people who were related to the Wildnorth Town residents causing sabotage.

After the massacre, there was little doubt that the rest within Maplewoods Bastide would hate the duke without question and resist his forces all the way. Also, given the things that happened to Wildnorth Town, they would understand that rebelling against the Nortons would only lead to their demise anyway. Given all that, there was little possibility that the duke would be able to take over the bastide within a short period of time. And the longer Lorist would be able to resist the enemy, the more chances he had to secure his victory.

From a military standpoint, the duke would actually disadvantage himself if he killed all the townsfolk who were originally willing to help him. That was the most frustrating part that Lorist didn't understand. Why didn't the duke placate the people of Wildnorth Town temporarily? The least the townsfolk could do with their 1000 or so men would be to defend Wildnorth Town itself and manage the logistics and supplies of the duke's army, allowing all 4000 men of the duke to attack the Norton Family without having to worry about their rearguard. Now that the townsfolk had been completely eliminated, at least 1000 of the duke's soldiers would have to be stationed at the town just to protect it, leaving only 3000 plus to attack the Norton Family. And if the assault on the Maplewoods Bastide span a long period of time, more men would have to be allocated to handle the logistics. At that time, Lorist would definitely jump at the chance to wipe out the defenseless supply transporters.

The more Lorist continued to think about it, the more excited he got. At that time, he felt rather confident that he would be able to beat the duke's army as opposed to the 'cross the bridge when he came to it' mentality he held earlier in the morning. He looked forward to his arrival at the bastide dearly.

...

It has already been 3 days since Lorist arrived at the bastide, but he didn't receive any news from Josk about any attacks breaking out. Lorist didn't understand what the duke's men were delaying for. Don't tell me that they plan to secure the place and wait for more reinforcements to come? That way, the family will be in real trouble and we must be prepared to face long days of war and conflict.

Just as he was about to head to Wildnorth Town himself to take a look, a guard came in from outside and reported, "Milord, Hausky has returned."

The busy-looking Hausky was dressed rather shabbily as he came in with a tired look. After saluting Lorist, he brought out a beastskin map and said, "Milord, I found the route the enemy used to enter the dominion..."

Opening the map, Lorist saw a curvy line drawn by Hausky using a charcoal block.

"It's here..." said Hausky as he pointed at the Bladedge Mountains. "We followed the trail left by the enemy's forces and arrived at the mountains where we found a cave through which we discovered a valley. After another half a day's travel, we discovered another dark tunnel which took us around one day to pass through. Beyond that, we found ourselves at the edge of the cliff that had multitudes of vines growing downwards and to the opposite of it was another cliff. The people of Wildnorth Town had managed to use the vines to make a suspension bridge that was around 200 meters in length and 1 meter in width. However, it was exceedingly stable and it could even allow passage for four-wheeled carriages.

"After crossing the bridge to the cliff on the other side, we found a path that lead to a huge beach where we rested. However, we were attacked during our rest but we managed to fend off our enemy while taking two of them alive. After questioning the prisoners, we found that they were the men of a nearby dominion lord, Maillard, who noticed Duke Loggins's men using this path and also wanted a piece of profit for themselves. Maillard sent up to 300 men to follow the duke's troops from a safe distance and the ones we defeated back then were part of their scouts. Thinking that we were only 2 to 3 mercenaries, they wanted to kill us for our spoils, but little did they know we had another 20 plus people resting at the beach not far away and ended up being wiped out by us instead."

As Hausky reported, he started to snicker. "Then again, we didn't fare too well either. After the scouts went back to make their report, the remainder of the 300 men came forward to seek vengeance for their dead comrades and among them included 3 Silver ranked knights. We could only retreat hurriedly while the enemy chased us frantically, causing us to lose 4 men of our own in the process. By the time we reached the suspension bridge, I opened a few oil jars and poured their contents all over the bridge as I crossed and set it on fire when all of us made it to the other side, burning it down completely. Fortunately for the enemy, half of their men managed to run back to their side of the cliff before the bridge collapsed completely, but only 1 Silver ranked knight among the 3 managed to escape the fate of falling to certain death. However, even he was set on fire and even if he didn't die from the burns, he would be severely injured. It truly is unfortunate for him to have been among the ones who were chasing us at the very front."

Lorist said delightedly, "So you're saying that the bridge is already burned down and the route is no longer usable?"

Hausky gave it some thought and replied, "That should be the case. The bridge was up to 200 meters long and there is virtually no way for anyone to cross the cliff other than using it. Well, unless they wait for another 4 years for the vines to grow back and make another bridge to cross with..."

"That's wonderful. Hausky, you have truly did a great deed for the Norton Family. Now, I no longer have to worry about Duke Loggins sending more reinforcements into our family dominion. As for his troops at Wildnorth Town, they have nowhere else they can escape to. Hahaha..." Lorist said as he patted on Hausky's shoulders heartily.

"Oh, Hausky, do you want anything as a reward for your accomplishment? If you want, I can even make you a family knight of our family and promote you immediately," Lorist said.

Hausky made a forced smile and said, "Milord, I think you should forget that thought. This achievement wasn't accomplished through my personal effort alone; my 24 other comrades also played a huge part with 4 of them even dying in the process. If I become your knight now, it would be like I've betrayed them instead. Another reason for my refusal is my age. I'm already 45 now and am far too old to be your knight. Having been a mercenary for 20 years already, I also feel rather worn out from all my ventures and feel like retiring sooner or later. Before, I dreamed of forming a mercenary crew which I will pass to Jim when I reach the age of 50. However, now that he has decided to follow you instead, I think I should forget that and start working for my retirement."

Lorist nodded and said, "Alright, Hausky. Even though I think you're young enough, I respect your decision on this matter. I will present every person who accompanied you with a reward of 10 gold Fordes and the families of your dead comrades will receive 20 gold Fordes each. What do you think?"

"Milord, thank you for your generosity and understanding," Hausky said as he bowed deeply.

"Also, after this conflict, I plan to build a few towns in the family dominion. If you're willing, you can bring your family members to live within the dominion and I will even let you be a garrison captain at one of the towns. As for your other mercenary comrades, if they want, they can join the forces of my family as well. I believe they will have bright futures there with us," Lorist said.

"Thank you for your kind intentions, milord. I will relay your offer to the rest," Hausky replied.

Chapter 132 Josk's Fire Arrows Prev ChapterNext Chapter

Another two days had passed and the soldiers of the duke that occupied Wildnorth Town started making their move. The town gates were opened wide and about a hundred light cavalry scouts poured out of it and split into groups of ten before they spread out in all directions. Following, that, 500 or so leather armored riders arranged in four neat rows rode out of the town gradually and behind them were three companies of foot soldiers with the first company being sword and shield infantry, the second being pike infantry and the third being longbowmen.

After the three companies left the town gates, they were followed by about 50 four-wheeled horse carriages which carried various goods like tents and some other supplies. The group of carriages also seemed to be ferrying a company's worth of soldiers. Apart from two soldiers driving each carriage, around 8 more could be seen seated within them.

After the convoy exited the gates, a company of pike cavalry troops followed behind. What made Lorist wonder, however, was that the company of pike cavalry troops didn't seem as disciplined and orderly as the leather armor-wearing cavalry company that came before. The soldiers were not in proper formation and they were even chatting and laughing out loud on their mounts.

The town gates finally closed up after the cavalry company exited the town. A row of soldiers carrying blow horns showed up at the walls of the town and started blowing the tune of deployment. A few men within the last pike cavalry company seemed to turn back and curse at the soldiers at the walls before they followed the troops that were marching in front of them.

About an hour after the deployment of the troops, the town gates of Wildnorth Town remained tightly shut and the security on the walls seemed rather thorough. Lorist lightly leaped off the tree he had been on and said to Reidy, who was holding the horses and waiting for him further ahead, "Let's go back to our camp."

The two of them only mounted their horses after they left the forest grounds. Before they traveled far, they saw 6 riders rushing in their direction from a mound nearby. Upon seeing Lorist and Reidy, the riders raised their pikes and shouted, "Slay them!"

At that moment, tens of other riders revealed themselves from beyond the mound. At the sight of those new riders, Lorist smiled: the 6 riders were actually running away from the mercenaries he had hired. However, Lorist didn't expect that the mercenaries would be so aggressive and would start hunting down the duke's men at an area that is not even 500 meters away from Wildnorth Town.

Six javelins flew through the air and slaughtered the 6 bloodthirsty light cavalry scouts in cold blood. The mercenaries who chased them from behind got off their horses and saluted Lorist before they returned to staring at the dead scouts with a yearning gaze.

"Reidy, go and check what the corpses have on them..." Lorist was a little bothered why the mercenaries stared at the corpses with such hungry gazes.

Reidy returned quickly while holding the reins of 6 horses and retrieved 6 longswords and a few throwing axes and flails as well as 6 money pouches that seemed to be filled to the brim.

Upon opening up one of the money pouches, tens of silver coins as well as more than 10 imperial gold coins could be seen within. There were 2 to 3 gold Fordes within each pouch. After a moment of thought, Lorist finally came to a realization: the folk of Wildnorth Town were actually rather wealthy, but had nowhere better to spend their money on. That was why their money only piled up within their households. Now that the duke had massacred all the citizens within the town and took control of it, the soldiers naturally ransacked every building they could find and each of them earned quite a bit from the spoils. No wonder the soldiers that left in the morning didn't look too enthusiastic about being sent to battle as they were hoping they would be able to spend their newfound wealth as soon as possible. It was quite possible that after being deployed, they might not survive long enough to be able to enjoy their spoils.

That also explained why the mercenaries were so persistent on chasing down those scouts. Perhaps in the eyes of those poor mercenaries, each of the duke's soldiers was nothing more than a moving coin chest. Lorist smiled and felt quite confident that he would be able to defeat the duke's troops this time around.

"Which mercenary crew are you lot from?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, we are from the Nightbat Mercenary Crew," replied the leader of the group. Given that he recognized Lorist as the rich person that hired their crew as well as having witnessed the scene of him killing off the six soldiers with the javelins, the mercenary had no choice but to admit that even he wouldn't necessarily be able to take that javelin head-on given the force at which it was thrown.

"You did rather well. I'll leave the corpses here for you to handle," Lorist said as he continued to ride away with Reidy.

Even though Reidy took the money pouches, mounts and weapons of the dead soldiers, the mercenaries were still rather happy as the armor, boots and other accessories on the bodies were still untouched and they were worth quite a good sum. Other than that, the bodies might also be hiding other surprises waiting to be discovered such as rings or necklaces. The heads of the six bodies could also be exchanged for one imperial gold coin each as per Lorist's promise.

Lorist was currently heading towards the camp at a small hill within the forest. That was the location where he was ambushed after his first visit to Wildnorth Town during which he retrieved Belnick. The reason he chose that place was so that he could isolate the troops that were just deployed from the town with the rest that were guarding it.

That place was also the midway point between Wildnorth Town and Maplewoods Bastide and it was well hidden thanks to the small forest around it as well as the hills in the area. Even if Lorist were to intercept the messengers that passed through the area and be discovered in the process, it would take well over 20 minutes for reinforcements to be sent over and that was more than enough time for Lorist and his men to make it to safety.

Waxima came over as Lorist got off his horse. Upon seeing the relatively empty camp of the mercenaries, he asked, "Where is everybody?"

"Well, milord..." Waxima replied, "Early this morning, the Pentasword Mercenary Crew set out on their patrols and happened to bump into tens of the duke's scouts. They managed to take them all down with 7 of them getting injured in the process and discovered that the scouts all carried huge sums of money on their persons. When they came back and told the rest about it, the mercenaries all went out on a hunt for more enemy scouts."

"Sigh, nothing moves the hearts of people more efficiently than money. If I were to order them to rush at the vanguard of a charge, they would all scramble to be placed at the back of the formation. However, now that money is in the equation, they rushed forward without even thinking twice," Lorist said as he sighed.

"Milord, mercenaries are fickle people who can't be trusted: they only care about their own lives and interests and don't hold loyalty and honor in high regard. We shouldn't have hired them in the first place," Waxima said. As a knight, he was naturally quite prejudiced against mercenaries.

Lorist shooked his head and said, "The disparity between our forces and the duke's is truly too large. With these mercenaries, we can at least make up for the staggering difference in numbers. Even though they're a rowdy and unorganized bunch, they are still pretty useful against the reconnaissance troops of the enemy. Also, the experience and ability each of their men far exceeds that of our own soldiers. For now, we have not choice but to rely on their help to be able to stand a chance against the duke's army. By the way, did Paulobins leave as well?"

"Yes, milord. He is currently monitoring the soldiers the duke deployed and he will return after they finish setting up their camp," replied Waxima.

"The duke's men finally emerged from the town. It has already been five days since they occupied it. Now that they've shown themselves, we just have to find the right chance to strike. I really don't know how much longer this conflict will last though," Lorist said as he sat down within his tent.

"Milord, we will definitely be victorious over the duke's army," Waxima assured.

...

The attack the duke's men launched on Maplewoods Bastide went on with a fair share of trouble.

On the first day, the soldiers left Wildnorth Town at nine in the morning and only arrived at the bastide after two hours of marching before they began to set up their camp after having their afternoon meals. One Silver ranked knight who was sent to the bastide to shout for the Nortons to surrender. However, he was killed on horseback near the drawbridge from an arrow fired by Josk who was standing atop the castle walls, thus painting the duke's campaign with an ominous start. Now that the enemy soldiers knew that the Gold ranked marksman was within the bastide they were about to besiege, all of them prayed to the war god so that they wouldn't be the ones to die from the marksman's terrifying arrow.

During the night, only 14 of the scouts returned and they reported to their commander, Knight Chevany, that the other scouts have all fallen under the attacks of the Norton Family's light cavalry troops. Chevany furrowed his brow and wondered how the Nortons managed to get so many light cavalry troops to the point that they were able to cause more than 80 of his scouts to be wiped out. It was not until one of the scouts reported that even though the light cavalry troops were wearing leather armor bearing the insignia of the Norton Family, their behavior somewhat resembled that of mercenaries, that Chevany understood the situation and conjectured that the young family leader of the Nortons must have hired mercenaries to do battle for him. That theory wasn't too far fetched either since he had also gained the hidden personal sum of gold belonging to Viscount Kenmays.

On the second day, Chevany split his soldiers into two divisions: one company of leather armored cavalrymen led by ten Silver ranked knights was sent to sweep the surrounding area for enemy troops, especially the mercenaries that the Nortons hired. The other division was to be commanded by him to attack Maplewoods Bastide.

However, even after one whole afternoon of searching, the leather armored company didn't find a trace of the mercenaries. That was due to the fact that they traveled in a huge unit: no mercenary would be stupid enough to run straight into the group and most would sneak around and observe them from afar. In the end, the company rested by a stream for two hours only to discover when they were regrouping that tens of their own comrades have vanished. Judging from the trail, they appeared to have been forcefully abducted by the enemy. The Silver ranked knight who led the group was infuriated and he rallied his men to follow the trail, only to stop when they noticed that they had almost been lured into the Blackmud Marsh. Had the other Silver ranked knights not noticed that fact, the consequences of venturing into the marsh would have been unimaginable.

On the other hand, the group that attacked the bastide didn't fare too well either. Back then, Knight Chevany had ordered for the three ballistas to be brought out. Even he didn't expect that the town would've been able to procure three of those war machines which he found convenient to use during the siege as an added support to their assault. Little did he know that before the ballistas even fired a bolt, one of them was destroyed by an arrow shot by Josk from the walls of the castle. Fortunately for Chevany, the other two ballistas were retrieved rather swiftly and didn't suffer the same fate of destruction.

Greatly enraged, the knight commander ordered his longbowmen company to rain arrows on the castle. Naturally, the Norton troops were ready for that and they brought out their wooden boards and quickly set up a few parapets. Josk also took the chance to shoot from the cover of the parapets at the soldiers beyond the wall. After a long while, he managed to take out 53 foes while he didn't even get so much as a scratch.

Having had five days to prepare from the safety of Wildnorth Town, Chevany had already tasked someone to prepare some siege engines for his perusal, such as two mobile bridges and one mini battering ram, all of which were disassembled and shipped over the night before with their assembly being completed just that morning. The mobile bridges we actually flat pushcarts with a long wooden gangplank installed on it which could be extended outwards. Upon being pushed to the edge of the moat, the gangplanks could be extended to reach the other end of it so that soldiers could cross it and start attacking the main gates.

However, the terrain around the Maplewoods Bastide was rather hazardous as most of the land around the bastide aside from the two main walls were sloped and there was no way to launch a full-on attack from those sloped sides. Knight Chevany commanded his men to attack the main gates of the bastide three times already and lost up to 200 soldiers without achieving any significant results. The two mobile drawbridges and mini battering ram have also been set aflame with the help of incendiaries used by the Norton Family soldiers.

On the third day, Chevany did not continue his assaults on the bastide and instead sent a huge group of soldiers to fell some trees to start constructing more siege engines. In the afternoon, he received a report that the woodcutting soldiers were attacked and the casualties numbered below the hundreds. Having no other choice, Knight Chevany led a company of leather armored cavalrymen to guard the woodcutting soldiers and escorted them back to the camp when they were done.

After a whole day of work, just when the duke's soldiers were about to get a good night's rest, they were greeted by a surprise attack and lost another 100 or so of their own. That was mainly due to the separated attacks that were spread out throughout the night. The worst part of the attacks was that the wood that they had cut down during the day had been set aflame and rendered useless.

Knight Chevany was a resolute knight who followed his orders down to the last letter and he had promised his lord, Duke Loggins, that he would make the Norton Family submit and surrender. That was why he definitely wouldn't give up just because he suffered some initial setbacks. He believed that the fact that the Norton Family had to resort to guerilla tactics was due to them having been forced to their wits' ends and it represented their fears of being severely outmatched in terms of numbers to the point that they had to resort to underhanded methods like that to extend their numbered days.

That's why on the fourth day, Knight Chevany brought another group of soldiers to fell more trees and fortified the defenses of his camp when he returned before he was comfortable enough to relax and rest up.

However, not long after he laid down, he heard voices outside his tent calling out 'enemy attack' or something along those lines. Getting up from his bed and opening his tent, Knight Chevany thought, can you call this an enemy attack? He could see a flash from the distant walls of the bastide before a flaming arrow landed straight on the ground with an audible thump with the soldiers looking expectantly in the night sky while wondering where the next arrow would land.

This all stemmed from Josk's boredom which was in turn a result of the lack of attacks from the duke's men, causing him to have tons of unexpended energy which he didn't know how to use. Yesterday night when Lorist set the timber on fire, Josk was reminded that using his Battle Force and his specialized longbow, he could fire an arrow up to thousands of meters away. Naturally, the arrows were far from accurate and Josk himself wasn't aware of how much force the shots would possess. However, given that the camp of the duke's army was located around 1 kilometer from the bastide, Josk only needed to know the general location of the camp to be able to shoot some fire arrows there and if he was lucky, he might be able to set a couple of tents on fire as well. It was also quite a good idea to cause the enemy to be unable to rest well during the night, so Josk decided that he would fire ten fire arrows every night and see the extent of the damage he could cause.

By the time Josk finished firing, Knight Chevany could no longer go back to sleep peacefully as he had been left with a dull feeling of hopelessness that stemmed from things not going well for his expedition.

On the fifth day, the duke's men didn't attack the bastide either. Despite having dark eye circles from lack of rest, Knight Chevany mainly watched over the soldiers who were busy constructing siege engines.

On the sixth day, the construction of the siege engines continued. Due to the fact that the Northland Army was a proper army unit, the soldiers within weren't willing to use simple and improvised siege ladders. The siege engines they were trying to construct were basically siege towers that were equipped with gangplanks which could easily be laid onto castle walls to allow their men passage when the tower was close enough to the walls. Usually, soldiers would have to be stationed on top of the towers to defend it from enemy fire as it was pushed towards the walls before the gangplank could be lowered.

Knight Chevany was prepared to have four of those siege towers constructed as the castle walls had enough space for four of those at once. He believed that at least one of those towers would be able to successfully reach the walls and he would definitely be the first one to rush up to take care of that darned Gold ranked marksman that gave him so much trouble all this time.

That night, Josk fired 10 arrows at the same time to the enemy camp as usual.

On the 7th day, the construction of the siege towers were complete and the soldiers only went to rest after seeing all 10 of the arrows fall within their camps, feeling assured that there would be no more heading their way.

On the eighth day, Chevany decided to let his men take a good day's rest before tomorrow's full-scale attack on the bastide.

At the same time during the night, all the soldiers looked towards the sky and started counting.

"One arrow... two arrows... three arrows... four arrows... five arrows... six arrows... Here comes the seventh..."

Suddenly, Josk felt bored for no apparent reason. Seeing that the enemy had mostly finished the construction of their siege towers, he reasoned that they would be attacking the day after and thought that it was better for him to stop firing any more arrows and get some good rest for the ordeal that was to come the next day without bothering to complete his usual routine.

The soldiers in the enemy camp, however, continued to look up at the sky in stupor as they mumbled, "What about the 3 remaining arrows? Why hasn't he fired it yet? When are they going to come?" They continued to wait like that for two more hours...

Chapter 133 Rolling Boulders Prev ChapterNext Chapter

Knight Chevany was feeling incredibly frustrated as he thought, how infuriating! How could he be like that? As a knight, especially a Gold ranked one, how can he stop doing something halfway without finishing it? He's been shooting ten arrows every time during the past few nights. He should've shot ten yesterday as well! Why did he stop at seven? That even caused the men in the camp to stupidly wait for two whole hours before I had to order them to get some sleep... and even then, they were worried that the shots would continue on later...

Had it not been for his position of authority as the commander of the army, Knight Chevany would have went to the bastide walls and challenged the Gold ranked marksman to a one-on-one death battle. Even though he had participated in many battles before, he had never once encountered something so extraordinary like three unshot arrows causing a whole army to lose sleep for the night. It truly was exceedingly humiliating for him. What can I do now... thought the knight as he looked at the tired soldiers and felt that they weren't in good shape to attack the bastide that day either.

After giving it some thought, Knight Chevany finally made up his mind to move the camp 200 meters away where the marksman of the Norton Family would not be able to fire his arrows. It was also better that way as it would allow the soldiers to rest unworried. They might as well do some work to move the camp away since they were not attacking and make the Nortons pay after they were properly rested up.

Josk, Belnick and Pajik were currently standing atop the castle walls and looking towards the camp of the duke's army. They expected a bloody battle to commence on that day given that the enemy had finished constructing their siege engines and already had a whole day of rest.

It could be said that the Maplewoods Bastide was situated at a rather advantageous location. The whole bastide was built upon a hard rock mound and the area surrounding it was mostly flat and level. Aside from using a 200 or so meter long slope which was only tens of meters wide, there was no other way the enemy could attack the bastide because the cliffs of the mound was easily near 20 meters in height which couldn't be reached even with the aid of siege ladders.

Apart from the main drawbridge, the walls of the castle do not have any large openings or windows. However, they were laden with firing holes which could be used by defenders to shoot at enemies from the safety within. The first assault of the duke's army failed because of that: the jars of oil that caused the siege engines to burn them were also thrown from the firing holes.

"That's weird, it's already ten but they aren't making any indication to attack... They really like the dawdle, don't they?" Pajik said.

"That's right. Are they planning to come in the afternoon?" Josk also felt that something was off. Even though they have finished making their defense preparations, the enemy was still lumbering about slowly without a hint of urgency.

Belnick looked at the enemy camp and said, "Don't tell me they're doing this on purpose? Are they planning to make us let our guard down before they attack us? That shouldn't be the case though, pushing the tall siege towers should take quite some time and we would've finished our preparations by then."

"Who cares? No matter how many comes, we'll just kill them all. We only have to focus on the four siege towers. Also, those towers would block the line of sight of their bowmen, so that would work to our advantage as well," Josk said. As a person who specialized in longbows and archery, he knew the extent of the capabilities of the longbowmen unit of the duke. Even though he managed to kill 50 or so of the longbowmen during the last skirmish, he was left completely tired out by the end of it.

"The enemy commander really has a good eye: he managed to discover the weakness of our defenses after just one attack. The top of the castle is indeed our weak point. That's where they plan to aim using their four siege towers that would allow them to evade any damage from the firing holes that are only at the lower section of our walls; firing arrows at their towers are pointless with the huge wooden boards they have in place. We won't be able to toss our oil jars over the moat either as the tower wouldn't need to approach the walls that much to lower their bridges for their soldiers to cross. Currently, they have around 3000 men which is five to six times that of ours. Even if we manage to kill three for every one we lose, we still won't be their match. I only hope that the morale of their soldiers right now is not high so that they don't try so hard during the actual attack. Otherwise, we might find it exceedingly hard to overcome this obstacle today," Belnick said.

"The only opportunity we have to retaliate is the moment the siege towers lower their gangplanks. If we manage to toss one of our oil jars into the opening and have Sir Josk shoot a flaming arrow into it, then the whole siege tower would be rendered useless. If we manage to do that to two towers, we will be able to severely lessen the burden on our men as well. With that, 400 or so family soldiers might be enough for us to defend the top part of the castle," said Pajik as he looked at the bundle of oil jars beside him.

Supervisor Spiel and Pesha got out of the stairwell while breathing raggedly at that moment.

Pesha asked, "The enemy still hasn't attacked?"

"That is the case, mistress," said Pajik as he saluted Pesha. He had no choice but to do so as his wife who had birthed him a son had been 'given' to him by Pesha.

Belnick merely nodded to Pesha as he was only acquaintances with her. On one hand, he knew that Pesha was the fiancee of the late First Young Master. On the other, he understood that Lorist didn't like her that much.

Josk, however, didn't pay her any heed and pretended he didn't notice her arrival at all. After hearing about how Pesha had taken Lorist's weapons without his permission to melt them down to fashion a weapon for herself from Reidy, he grew to have a really bad impression of her.

"Mistress, why have you come here?" Pajik asked.

"Is there anything wrong with me being here? I'm a knight of the Norton Family as well. It's all Little Locke's fault for angering the Duke of the Northlands. Just look at this, the duke can easily send thousands of people over here without breaking a sweat. Is that a foe that our family can afford to anger? They even managed to kill off the people of WIldnorth Town. I was right all along when I told Grandpa Gleis that he shouldn't have let Little Locke return here. He's not fit at all to become a dominion lord," said Pesha as she started complaining about Lorist in front of everyone present.

"What did you say?!" roared Josk as he turned around to glare at Pesha with a furious expression.

"Did I say anything wrong?! Didn't all this start to happen after he returned to the dominion? If he didn't go and rob the Kenmays Family of their gold, would the duke have come to our doorstep? Had he not changed the regulations to anger the people of Wildnorth Town, would they have bothered to guide the men of the duke into the dominion? If Little Locke didn't become the dominion lord, then we wouldn't have to dip our hands in conflict either and the folk of WIldnorth Town will be respectful to us as always like the old times... And they wouldn't have been massacred either..." argued Pesha, obviously satisfied with her own reasoning.

Caught off-guard by the inane statements Pesha had just uttered, Josk was so angered that he was left completely speechless.

Belnick shook his head and thought, I've heard that the mistress was a stubborn person, but I didn't know that she would actually say something that ridiculous. Then again, she's been spoiled by the old butler ever since her childhood, so I think we know who to thank for her haughty behavior... Belnick didn't feel like debating her either as he believed that Lorist's eventual victory would make it even harder for the mistress to retract the statements she just made.

"Don't bother with her. She's just letting her mouth run even though she knows little about the whole situation. I'm sure that milord will teach her a lesson when he gets back," advised Belnick as he held onto Josk's arm to stop him.

"She really doesn't know what's good for her... I don't understand why milord didn't punish her for her transgressions back then. She should've lost her status as a family knight from that so that she wouldn't cause trouble for anyone else in the future... I really wanted to beat her up for talking bad of milord behind his back..." said Josk angrily.

Pajik on the other hand was put into an awkward position. He didn't expect that Pesha would actually dare to say something like that. Beside them, Supervisor Spiel made a bitter smile and said, "Mistress, how can you say things like that when our enemy is just about to attack? Milord will definitely not be happy to hear about it when he gets back..."

Upon the mention of Lorist, Pesha humphed with dissatisfaction before she quieted down and headed for another spot on the walls to continue to look towards the enemy camp.

"Supervisor Spiel, why have you come here?" Belnick asked.

"Oh, it's about this... Old Butler Gleis heard that the enemy had built four bridged siege towers and wanted me to remind the three of you that you can use the rolling boulder tactic as a countermeasure for that," Spiel replied.

"Rolling boulders? Are you talking about the 8 huge spherical boulders that are placed within the garden of the bastide?" Belnick asked. Right after, he jumped with realization and continued, "Darn, why did I forget about this..."

"Rolling boulder tactic? What is it?" asked Josk and Pajik curiously in unison.

"Haha, Brother Joe, Pajik, come over here and take a look. It's those 8 boulder balls that are placed over there," said Belnick with a smile after he headed to the other side of the castle walls and pointed downwards.

Beyond the main gates of the castle were a few flower beds where 8 huge boulders could be seen.

The moment he laid his sight on them, Josk understood and said, "So those 8 boulders can be used like that as well... I thought that they were just decorations at first. I even wondered once why they weren't sculpted into some other shape and believed that you guys were simply unable to find a good sculptor within the dominion."

Still confused, Pajik asked, "What would we do with those boulders?"

Belnick smiled and said, "Those 8 boulders each weigh over thousands of kilograms and they have all been carved to be able to fit through the castle gates so that they can roll straight down the drawbridge. Think about how the spectacle would look like the moment we push the boulders down after the enemy has pushed the siege towers halfway up the slope!"

Pajik stood there stunned the moment he heard it, but he recovered rather quickly and said, "Haha! To think that the family would still have this up their sleeves! I can't wait to see how the siege towers will fall... With this, we will be able to teach the duke an unforgettable lesson! We are definitely going to win the battle..."

"You may not know it, but the boulders have been there for at least two to three hundred years..." Belnick told Josk. "After the first ancestor of the Norton Family built the family bastide, it was frequently attacked by the mountain barbarians. The longest siege even lasted for half a year, but the barbarians incurred quite huge casualties themselves. That was when the rolling boulder tactic was thought up and one huge boulder was carved into a spherical shape. During the last siege the barbarians laid on the bastide, the result of the tactic was absolutely devastating. According to the family records, the slope outside the main gates was full of flattened corpses. There was so many that one would bloody one's whole leg the moment one stepped onto it.

"After that, the family spent tens of years to carve up the rest of the boulders in case we would need them once more. It would be the second time we use it since almost 300 years ago. We can finally behold the might of this tactic with our own eyes."

Josk thought for a bit before he said, "I hope that these rolling boulders don't frighten the enemy all the way back to Wildnorth Town. That way, milord's plan might have to be changed entirely again."

"The enemy has started to move..." said Supervisor Spiel from not too far away. The three knights ran over there immediately only to be flabbergasted by what they saw.

"What's going on? The enemy looks like they're moving their camp further away. What happened?"

The three knights looked at each other but they couldn't figure out the reason for the sudden move of the duke's army.

...

Knight Chevany's eyes were completely bloodshot as he stared at Maplewoods Bastide. If stares could set things on fire, then the bastide would be completely consumed by raging flames of hatred by now...

On the slope leading to the main entrance of the bastide were countless flattened bodies of the duke's soldiers who had toiled incredibly hard to push the siege towers halfway above the slope only to have two of them knocked off the slope with the other two lying flat on the slope itself. Between the two toppled towers was where the bloody spherical boulder lay.

It was the 10th day of the expedition led by Knight Chevany to conquer Maplewoods Bastide. After getting a good rest the day before, the soldiers were all energized and ready to attack to take over the bastide in one fell swoop. Chevany had also resolved that he would continue the assault and force the Nortons to submit no matter the casualties as long as the siege towers manage to reach the walls of the bastide.

After finishing breakfast, the soldiers got into their lines orderly behind the four siege towers and were led into battle by Knight Chevany. By the time the siege towers were pushed halfway up the slope, one hour and a half had already passed and it seemed that the attack would not truly begin until late in the afternoon. However, the knight thought that he would continue the assault throughout the night if it was necessary.

Having rested for half an hour, the soldiers began pushing the siege towers up again. However, after only advancing tens of meters, a few loud cries could be heard. "Milord, the city gates are open! The drawbridge is being lowered!"

That was something that Chevany had predicted all along. He thought that the Nortons would have no choice but to send their men on a suicide mission to stop the siege towers. He was confident that the Norton Family's soldiers understood that all would be lost if they allowed the siege towers to reach the walls.

Knight Chevany raised his hand calmly and said, "Have the longbowmen aim forward. Sword and shield infantry, enter a defensive formation. Pike infantry, be ready to receive the assault."

The well-trained soldiers of the duke's army entered their stations orderly. The moment the soldiers rushed out of the gates, they would definitely be in for a harsh treat.

However, not a single one of their enemy emerged from the castle gates. Instead, Chevany and the surviving soldiers were presented with a scene that they would never forget for the rest of their lives: a huge boulder rolled out from the castle gates down through the drawbridge and headed for the slope as it accelerated more and more...

Everyone there were completely terrified and stood there motionless as the boulders rolled closer and closer in their direction...

Finally, someone shouted, "Run!"

The formation instantly crumbled into smithereens with soldiers running all over the place into and over each other, especially with the four siege towers blocking their way. Some more clear-headed soldiers no longer gave a damn and jumped straight off the slope despite the risk of falling and injuring themselves while the rest could do nothing but scream as they stared at the giant boulder that encroached them by the moment...

Boom! The rolling boulder rammed straight into the two siege towers at the front, causing wooden splinters and body parts to fly everywhere while the bloodied boulder continued to push the siege towers down the slope.

Before Knight Chevany regained his composure, he heard another soldier cry out, "There's one more..."

Raising his head, the knight saw another boulder rolling down in his way...

With his quick wit, Knight Chevany ordered, "Topple the siege towers to block the boulder!"

Miraculously, the siege towers managed to be pushed down before the boulder reached them. While it smashed its way through the first toppled tower, the boulder stopped when it reached the second tower as it had lost all its momentum.

As the soldiers that narrowly escaped death let out a cheer of relief, Knight Chevany was dripping cold sweat atop his mount. He could only stare at the bastide atop the slope as he thought, as long as they have more of those boulders, I will never be able to attack them from the front...

Chapter 134 Surprise Takeover Prev ChapterNext Chapter

Knight Chevany put down the beastskin map he held in his hand and paced around in circles within his tent. He didn't expect that he would lose up to a company's worth of men, 500 people out of the original 3000, after 10 short days of the expedition since they left Wildnorth Town. The Northland Army was organized in a 5 to 5 system; a regiment had 5 companies, a company had 5 squads while each squad numbered around 100 or more people.

The beastskin was a report submitted to him by a logistics officer. According to it, the light cavalry scouts had 83 casualties, 120 patrol troops were missing and more than 40 soldiers who were felling trees were killed. The casualties for the first attack on the bastide numbered at 74 people and 103 of them got killed during the night assaults on their camps by the Nortons. Combined with the 131 soldiers who died from being crushed by that huge boulder. the total number of casualties had soared above 550 people.

"What other things do you have to tell me?" Knight Chevany asked the logistics officer.

"Um, sir, the soldiers who were injured today number more than 200, among which tens of them might be handicapped for life. Combined with the heavily-injured soldiers, the casualties are at around 300 people. I think that letting them stay within the camp will negatively affect the morale of the soldiers... Sir, you might want to consider sending them to Wildnorth Town to rest up and heal from their injuries..." said the logistics officer.

"Hmmm..." Chevany mused as he stopped pacing around. "You're right, the Norton Family is indeed a family with more than 300 years of history and they are by no means easy to deal with. Our war with them might be drawn out for a long time and it is indeed not good to let the injured continue to stay within the camp. Send them back to Wildnorth Town tomorrow then. Right now, Wildnorth Town might become an extremely important base for us to recover and regain resources. The supplies we got from taking over the town will also last us long enough for a one-and-a-half-year-long siege against Maplewoods Bastide."

The logistics officer said, "Milord, if we're planning a long term siege, we should transport some more supplies back here after we send the injured soldiers to the town. We only brought 15 days' worth of supplies when we first set out and what remains can only last us for 6 days at most."

Knight Chevany nodded and said, "It's better to be prepared. After all, it won't hurt us to have too much supplies. As for whether we will besiege them for the long term, it's still not final until I go over all the strategies we can use first."

...

"Is what you told me true?" Lorist said with a surprised look.

"Yes, milord. It would take them around 20 minutes to get from there to here. There are 40 horse carriages filled with injured soldiers and which are escorted by three pike cavalrymen squads. Combined with the coachmen, they have a total of 350 plus people. We've been monitoring their camp for the whole time and we received the information the moment they departed."

Lorist made his decision and said, "It's finally time for us to swallow them up. We've been camped out here for 8 days straight and it's finally time to move. Paulobins, notify the four mercenary crews that if they are willing to follow me, they should take the rear so that they don't startle the enemy.

"Waxima, have the rest get ready within ten minutes to set out with me."

"Yes, milord."

To the soldiers of the Northland Army who were returning to Wildnorth Town, it was merely a short journey that would only take them around 90 minutes. They were looking forward to their return as there were quite a number of women within the town. Even though around 400 of them were virgins and were not to be touched as they were to be sold for a high price by the duke, the rest of the 600 or so married women were free for their picking. After being deployed for 10 days, they felt that it was due time for them to enjoy their share of women that their enviable comrades who stayed back at the town have no doubt relished in.

Seeing the defenseless soldiers of the duke approaching, Lorist tugged on the reins and clamped his legs to dig his heels into the abdomen of the horse to spur it forward.

"Kill!" He was the first one who rushed out of the forest.

Javelins flew out like lightning bolts and in the time he traveled the 60 plus meters of distance between the forest and the path, Lorist had killed off more than 20 of the pike cavalrymen escorts before he held up his own pike and started slaughtering away at the rest.

Following closely behind him was Waxima and Paulobins and the three guard squads and family soldiers that they led. The guards were equipped with javelins while the family soldiers were using training longbows. Under the command of Paulobins, they did not rush into the scene of battle and merely attacked from a distance with their arrows and javelins.

The situation around the duke's soldier's convoy descended into chaos almost immediately as the armed escorts struggled to fend off the assault. Hundreds of pike cavalrymen surrounded Lorist while the other hundred plus headed in the direction of the guards and family soldiers that were attacking them from afar.

Sounds of killing, horses neighing and people crying out in agony reverberated throughout the battlefield.

Lorist swung his pike in circles up in the air, covering a circular area around him with a radius of three meters as he rushed forward. Wherever he went, cavalrymen would fall from their mounts with injuries all over them.

Waxima brandished his riding lance which was emanating a brilliant silver blade glow as he rode to Lorist and protected his right flank. The two of them circled around each other like a wheel as they proceeded forward to crush any semblance of resistance the duke's men showed.

One could see a distinct path that was carved straight through from the beginning to the end of the convoy. Apart from the ten or so escaping cavalrymen, no other resisting enemy could be seen across the area. Lorist turned his horse back only to see that less than 100 cavalrymen were still desperately fighting for their lives with the others either lying on the ground or trying to flee in all directions from the rowdy mercenaries that chased them from behind.

The moment one cavalryman fell from his mount, four to five mercenaries leaped towards him right away. By the time they dispersed, only a headless, naked corpse remained on the ground.

The rest of the resisting pikemen were soon killed off by the mercenaries. Having no more enemy to fight, they rushed straight at the injured soldiers within the carriages and caused even more cries of pain and terror to ring out.

Lorist looked at Waxima who was trying his best to keep quiet.

"I thought that you would stop them from harming the injured soldiers," Lorist said.

Waxima shook his head and said, "Well, normally I would, but not this time."

"Why?" Lorist asked curiously.

Waxima sighed and said, "Even though they are injured and defenseless, they are still the ones who have preyed on and killed the citizens of Wildnorth Town who were equally as defenseless as they are now. It is only retribution for them to be killed by the mercenaries..."

"..." Lorist had nothing else to say about the matter.

At that moment, Paulobins brought a number of guards and family soldiers over.

"How are our casualties?" Lorist asked.

Paulobins replied, "Milord, apart from three idiots who were injured by the pikes that were thrown by the enemy, the rest of us didn't even get so much as a scratch as we were attacking from a safe distance without engaging in melee combat."

Lorist was quite satisfied with the results. While eliminating the enemy forces was one thing, ensuring that one's own soldiers survived was also important. Given that the family was situated at the Desolate Northlands, manpower was the thing it lacked the most.

"More than 10 of the enemy have escaped and it would take them around 20 minutes to return to their camp from here. The reinforcements would take another 20 minutes at least to arrive. I give you all 10 minutes to clear up the battlefield. At least the mercenaries seem to be obeying the regulations and not touching our spoils. We only want the mounts, the money pouches and the weapons," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord," replied Paulobins before he ordered his men to start collecting the spoils.

With bodies lying all over the path after the battle, the guards and the family soldiers could be seen busy picking up the javelins and arrowheads that were stuck onto the enemies. The projectiles that they used to attack served as clear markers to indicate to the mercenaries that the soldiers were killed by the family troops and the right to claim the spoils belonged to the family. The bodies that had Lorist's javelins pierced through them were also left untouched. Only the tens of corpses that were killed by him and Waxima which didn't have a clear marking were stripped naked by a few greedy mercenaries.

...

By the time Knight Chevany led his 50 plus leather armored cavalrymen to the scene, one hour had already passed by. All he could see were naked, headless bodies and severely damaged carriages. All of the coachmen, injured soldiers and the 3 squads of pike cavalrymen were stripped naked and decapitated.

All 700 of them! Apart from tens of pikemen who managed to escape, the rest were all lying there. Knight Chevany was so enraged that he felt like he was about to explode. The soldiers he brought over also looked onto the scene with bloodshot eyes. Resisting his angst and dread, Knight Chevany ordered his men to get off their horses to dig a pit to bury the bodies in before they themselves headed to Wildnorth Town.

After telling the Gold ranked Knight Hennard who was stationed to protect Wildnorth Town about the situation of the battle, Knight Chevany departed after staying for one hour and left behind 200 leather armored troops that would send the supplies from Wildnorth Town over to his camp.

On the afternoon of the next day, the gates of Wildnorth Town opened and more than 20 four-wheeled carriages exited the town. The carriages each carried huge piles of supplies which would be able to last Chevany's troops for 20 additional days. On the flanks of the small convoy, the 200 plus leather armored cavalrymen could be seen. Due to the incident that happened the day before, Knight Hennard also sent along 300 longbowmen along with the convoy to ensure its safety.

Lorist, Waxima and Paulobins were mounted and looking at the group of soldiers from a distant hill.

Paulobins could no longer hold it in and asked, "Milord, aren't we attacking them? They're transporting food and supplies! If we leave now, we might be able to ambush them in time..."

Lorist shook his head and said, "We will not ambush them. That's because our true aim is Wildnorth Town itself."

"Wildnorth Town?"

"That's right. Do you know why I ordered you and the other four mercenary crews to not approach the town and merely observe it from afar?" Lorist asked, before he answered, "That's because I was afraid that you would alert them. The citizens of Wildnorth Town could already defend itself well against us the last time with only 1000 men. And taking into the fact that the mercenaries only fight for money and aren't willing to put their own lives at risk, even if we have up to 1200 people on our side, if the mercenaries aren't willing to give it their all, I'm worried that the burden of facing off against the troops defending Wildnorth Town would fall onto us instead. Even if we manage to take over the town, we wouldn't be able to withstand the counterattack of the enemy outside the town and end up being chased out of it in the end."

Pointing at the supply transport troop of the enemy, Lorist smiled and said, "Right now, our provocation on the enemy worked and they sent 300 of their longbowmen out to accompany the transport convoy. That way, there will be only roughly 700 troops left within the town for defense. If we attack at night, even if the mercenaries aren't willing to fight at the frontlines, we can still take the town with 300 of our own men and the casualties won't be huge either. As long as we manage to reach the walls, the mercenaries will definitely follow along as well if they see that the battle is progressing in our favor. Given that they have already made quite a sum from the duke's army before, I'm sure they wouldn't mind making some more."

Even though the troops of the duke that were escorting the supply convoy arrived at the camp near Maplewoods Bastide safely, Knight Chevany still felt rather troubled. He had brought the 300 of his leather armored cavalrymen to camp within the forests for an ambush before dawn. In the end, the Norton Family troops didn't show up to pillage their convoy. So, they could only follow their convoy back to the camp.

...

"You all know the rules, right? If any of the members of your crew breaks them, you must punish them yourselves, okay? Don't make me dirty my hands," said Lorist candidly.

The four crew leaders that stood in front of him nodded jointly. Richard, the Gold ranked mercenary from the Cromwell Mercenary Crew said, "Milord, please don't worry. All of us understand the rules. The loot on the enemies we kill will belong to us but the other spoils within the town all belong to you. We will definitely not lay our hands on them."

Lorist nodded and continued, "Our family troops will follow me to take over the walls and open the gates. You guys will only have to rush in and attack. Do pay attention to our signals. Paulobins, it's time to make our move."

The moment the silvermoon was obscured by a passing cloud, Lorist rushed out of the forest with Paulobins following behind him with the both of them holding a long wooden stick on both ends as they rushed towards the town with speed and silence.

Lorist resembled a huge black bird as he scaled the walls. Two of the guards who were dozing off on the walls were startled awake, but the moment they wanted to report the enemy presence, they felt their throats running out of air before they were assailed by a sudden pain. Losing consciousness, both the guards slumped to the ground powerlessly.

Lorist stepped forward and held both the shoulders of the guards whose throats had just been slit by him as he laid their bodies gently onto the sides of the walls to make it seem like they were merely slacking off and taking a nap.

The soldier distribution on the walls of the town was sparser than Lorist had expected given that he only killed 14 guards after traveling near 80 meters from the spot he ascended the walls to the gates of the town. To top that off, most of the soldiers were half asleep and were not aware of their surroundings in the least. Beside the drawbridge mechanism above the gates stood six guards who had all unknowingly had their throats slit by Lorist before they were able to make any noise.

As he raised a torch and swung it thrice high up in the air in a circular motion, Lorist sighed and thought back at the density of the soldiers back when he first attacked the town walls which ended up with tons of heads rolling all over the ground, much unlike the current situation where the walls were hardly defended and attacking it was merely a walk in the park.

Six patrolling soldiers came over from the other side of the wall and seemed to be complaining about something. Lorist silently sneaked near them and in a quick explosion of movement, the six soldiers fell to the ground one by one.

With audible 'thunks', three siege ladders were laid on the walls and Waxima was the first one to climb up, followed by Paulobins, the double metal armored guards and lastly, the family soldiers.

Seeing the tens of people get up the walls, Lorist whispered, "Paulobins and I will bring some guards to open up the town gates. Waxima, be alert and lower the drawbridge."

Waxima knocked onto his left chest lightly and said, "Yes, milord."

Within the tunnel leading to the gates, ten or so guards could be seen sleeping rather soundly. Lorist actually accidentally stepped on one of the soldiers who was lying on the ground when his eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness. The soldier got up and grumbled, "You blind..." before he was stabbed to death by Lorist while Paulobins and the rest of the guards rushed in and killed off the rest.

However, two soldiers managed to cry out loud during the whole commotion.

Lorist said hurriedly, "Quick, open the town gates and let the mercenaries in..."

The gates were opened wide and the drawbridge was subsequently lowered, causing the mercenaries who were hiding in the forest to rush towards the town en masse.

However, their movements managed to attract the attention of some enemy troops as one of them shouted, "Who opened the gates?!"

It was soon followed by a loud, panicked cry. "E-enemy attack! The enemy has entered the town!"

Sounds of horns blaring to signal an enemy attack could be heard immediately while the mercenaries let out their war cries as they rushed towards the enemy soldiers who hastily arrived at the town gates.

Complete chaos broke out in Wildnorth Town as Lorist smirked and thought, Wildnorth Town is finally in our hands...