Chapter 12: Operation

Chapter 12: Operation





The other world.

The same stillness of the dead forest.

The same gloomy sky.

A tall skeleton was wandering aimlessly. The undead creatures in this forest were also quite rare. After wandering all day, it encountered two of the similar race. There was no communication between them. After passing by and it was not known if they will meet again.

There came a sound of footsteps, and the tall skeleton looked back. Another of his kind was rushing up. It turned back its head and continued its journey. Suddenly, the whole world turned upside down and the forest became sky. Its low intelligence couldn't answer this question for it and had the time for it to think again.

A long knife shattered its skull.

A faint white mist floated out of the broken skull and was sucked in by Love from the hole that was the nose. Love stood up and looked around, making a silent roar toward the sky, rushing into the forest with a swiftness that did not belong to a skeleton, to find the next target.

.....................

The "Dragon and Beauty" mercenary group embarked on the journey in the coolness of the early autumn. Lawrence and his thieves had rushed earlier to Fort Cyrus to scout the terrain and arrange traps. In the mercenary team, Keith led a hundred and fifty knights, and Emmet led the two hundred swordsmen. There were more than a dozen big carriages in the middle of the team, which were quite heavy. Frost was sitting in one of the carriages, and Franco as his guard, also seated in the carriage.

Rogge rode with Keith and pretended to be an axe cavalry.

The mercenary group’s destination was Le Mans, a small town sixty miles away from the Fort Cyrus. The town of Le Mans was of fair size, with more than 2,000 people in the town. Since the arrival of Snow Fox, there has been no news about the town in the Alliance. Several reconnaissances by Lawrence indicated that people with the snow foxes appeared in the town from time to time.

In the early morning, people in Le Mans town began to get up and prepare for the new day's food and clothing. The sun had not yet fully risen, but the morning light had illuminated the entire town. The sound of the chickens and dog jumping gradually became louder, and the smoke from kitchen chimneys also gradually began to rise.
There were already industrious people on the streets who were walking around. This mountain town, because of its remote location and poor lifestyle, often had only three or

five caravans arriving once a year. People in the town were used to self-sufficiency, after the decades of life here, and it was also quiet and peaceful.

The early autumn morning breeze had brought a little coolness, the sun slowly rising from the mountains, and the bright red colour of the town is coated with a layer of bright colours. The trees swaying in the town seemed to be decorated with golden leaves, and the early birds had joined the chorus team.

A good morning view of the mountain town!

Unfortunately, Rogge's whole body had not a half-elegant bone in him.

The fat man frowned and looked at the low and sloping houses on both sides of the boulevard. Even though it was the widest street in the middle of the town, there were a few shops. The townspeople on the roadside dressed in rough and coarse clothes and looked at the cavalry with curiosity, indifference, and even hatred for breaking the tranquillity of the small town.

"There are 2,000 people in this town, that is, three or four hundred households. Well, let me think about it. If they are poor as they look, the average annual income of two gold coins will be good. Then calculating this, the tax is five silver coins and must have to turn-in three and a half.

... Can you earn 50 gold coins a year? ? Really, this is my territory? "The fat man started talking to himself, and the last sentence couldn't help but sound high."

Franco looked at Rogge with dissatisfaction, and the fat miser’s financial calculation completely dispelled his appreciation of the scenery of the mountain village.

Keith did not say a word, sixty light halberd cavalry followed behind, and the rest of the mercenaries were missing.

The team slowly arrived at the small square in the centre of the town. The crowd had gathered a lot of people in the square. A tall, spirited old man seemed to be the leader. He came up and gave a courteous welcome. "My distinguished knights, I am the mayor of this town, Ian, do you have any instruction for our poor place?"

Rogge said awkwardly, "We are the Knights of the Bavarian Duchy. My name is Rogge. This is Franco, this is Keith."

"In the future, the town and the neighbouring area will be our territory."

"You are the mayor, right. First, prepare some food for us, then report the population and income of the town. After the meal, you will take us around the town."

"Wait a minute!" A tall, dark-skinned man stood up, carrying a huge hammer in his hand.

Keith frowned at the big man, riding the horse forward slowly, chilly air spreading from him.

"What's wrong, probably do you have some ideas?" Keith's halberd was also transformed by Frost. Despite the increase in the strength of the knight, it was even heavier. Both the halberd tip and the blade were magically enhanced, it was extremely sharp and more sturdy. Keith desire to fight slowly gushed out, although his skill was not enough, but the manner of the whole person was gradually enhanced.

The big man faced Keith's imposing manner and resisted hard, but did not back down. "I am the blacksmith Bam in the town! What do you use to justify that you are the Knights of the duchy? What did the duchy do in the past, in addition to collecting taxes? When those damn thieves came to snatch Shana, why did we not see a knight? When they slaughtered my brother, why didn't the knight show up? Now that the thieves are gone, we just had six months of the quiet period, but you have come back to collect taxes!

How are you different from those thieves! We are now silver Snow foxes territory, at least they saved us!"

There was a commotion in the surrounding crowd.

Franco took a look at Rogge and whispered, "Look at it! The townspeople don't have a woman, and they all have weapons."

Rogge looked at it carefully, and sure enough, the townspeople held more weapons in their hands, and of course, the farm tools were barely counted as weapons.

Rogge carefully observed the houses around him and found that some people were peeping out from behind the closed windows.

Rogge’s face became dark and said to Keith “I’m afraid there will be troubles. Finish the fight quickly.”

Keith snorted and jumped up. Bam also screamed and lifted the hammer up high and slammed down. Together with a cold light, and a clear sound range, the Keith halberd swung from bottom up, easily hacking the hammer into two. The men staggered and the handle of the halberd hit heavily on the back of the big man. A crisp sound of fractured sounded, Bam's mouth sprayed blood and flew three four metres and fell heavily on the ground.

The crowd began to clamour.

Keith glanced around and was satisfied to see the townspeople's eyes had more fear in them in addition to hatred. He returned to the horse and jumped down to the ground, "Bamm", and the halberd was lifted up, ready to cut the blacksmith into two."

"Wait!" Ian rushed over and pulled Keith's leash. "Lord Knight, Bam offended the lordship, a heinous crime. But your lordship has already taught him a lesson. Seeing us as the subject of the lordship, please don't kill him." This old man has already ordered to arrange meals in the town hall. Please don’t be too rough on him."

Rogge looked around and said slowly, "This crime of collaborating with the enemies, we will leave for the time being. Let's go eat first,  we will first clean up these foxes and then fix your bones. I know that you are still not satisfied, those Snow fox gave you some benefits. But you remember, this is our territory in the future! We are your masters! Our words are the law in this land!"

"If you are not satisfied, you can try it like that idiot. But this time, don't expect me to be merciful. Ian, go find a few pretty girls to greet. If I find that there are more beautiful girls in the town that did not come, old man, prepared to go to the slave camp for the next ten years."

The atmosphere in the town’s hall was extremely depressing. The knights were quietly eating simple breakfast, and several girls in the town shuttling around with food, knives and forks and other dishes. Occasionally, there were one or two sporadic screams, when some cavalry had touched some girl's buttocks. Rogge and other three sat at a table, whispering and discussing something in a low voice. The food on the table was swept away in seven or eight times, obviously, the three people had no interest to appraise the flavour.

The old mayor Ian stood by with a smile. He was rejoicing that there was no worse case. These knights seemed to have little interest in the girl in the town.

While the meal was being prepared, Rogge kept asking him about the situation of the Snow Fox mercenary. Shortly after the Snow Fox mercenary was stationed in Fort Cyrus, a group of thieves came to Le Mans and ransacked the town, killing few people. The Snow Fox Brigade passed by the town at that time, killed the thieves and saved the

whole town. Later, people in the snow fox often exchanged supplies in the town, and the price was fair. After the arrival of Snow Fox, the tax collectors of the Alliance have never appeared again. The simple townspeople were warm to Snow Fox. But what the civilians thought was not within the consideration of Rogge and these nobles. Politics was a compulsory course for the great nobles. The majority of these small nobles were simply not wasting their time on politics.


......................................

A rapid hoofbeat came over and stopped at the door of the town hall. A travel-worn halberd knight rushed in, took off his helmet, and hurried to the table towards the

Rogge and loudly said, "The snow fox has been found..."

"......?"

Keith gave him a slap in the face, "speaking so loudly!" The knight immediately went silent and in the low voice whispered to Rogge and others.

Rogge and others repeatedly questioned the cavalry, and their voices were extremely low. Ian could only faintly hear a few sporadic words such as "sneak attack, ambush, magic forest". The old mayor was careful to maintain his posture and smile and posture, for fear of causing misunderstanding.

At this time, everyone finished their discussion. Several noble debauchees were slyly grinning. They called for the knights and rushed out of the town like wind, leaving behind the town hall with empty wine cups and dishes were strewn about.

Ian hurriedly called a boy who looked very clever, whispered a few words, with the boy nodding his head occasionally. After a short time, the boy rode on the horseback and followed the traces of the cavalry.

Ian became busy comforting few girls with red eyes.

After an hour, the young boy rushed back.

Not too long after, another rider from the mayor's home quickly disappeared in the direction of the Fort Cyrus.

Hartley’s mood has not been very good this year.

The captain of the Snow Fox Brigade, the Rank 11 swordsman, was actually assigned to this backcountry, and it has been half a year. He let out few curses and patrolled the castle.

The heavy labourers moved the bag of ore into the carriage, and six small carriages were lined up in the small square in the castle, now already half full.

Hartley was originally ordered to discover the lab of a Necromancer but found nothing. Unexpectedly, he discovered a rich vein of the fine iron, which was very high grade and could be used directly for smithing.  The iron ore vein was of great value to the Rowen Duchy which was very lacking in mines, but it was a pity that it was situated in the territory of the Bavarian Duchy. They could only sneak it out of duchy in secret.

The Bavarian Duchy had been strangely oblivious to the occupation of the fort by the snow fox, but despite this, Hartley still had tried to keep the mining operations a secret.

A few months ago, the sudden and strange attack had caused Hartley to lose a few elite cavalries and an intermediate mage. The mage was the nephew of the deputy head of the mercenary group. For this reason, Hartley was called back to the headquarters and receive scolding and his time at the Fort Cyrus was extended for one year.

Thinking of this, Hartley's mood became more depressed, he began to look for lazy coolies, ready to practice the whip skills.

...............

A horse galloped through the castle's square, and a knight jumped off the horse and ran to Hartley rapidly. Hartley's face sank like water, then gradually became cheerful, and finally laughed. He heavily patted the messenger and said, "After cleaning up these brats, I will recommend you to the snow fox! In the future, you will follow me! Hahahaha!

Little brats! Form up! let's go hunting!"

After sometimes, a hundred cavalry and two hundred light infantry assembled in the square of the castle. A mage in black robe was also standing next to Hartley. Under Hartley's order, the Fort Gate opened wide, and the three hundred snow fox mercenaries drove out of the Fortress, leaving only fifty swordsmen in the fort.

Rogge and others were still travelling in the same way as they were in an outing on the road to Fort Cyrus in an unhurried manner. The formation of the cavalry was also very open. Turning over a small hill, the cavalry in front of the sudden suddenly stopped, the following cavalry being blocked foul-mouthed and squeezed forward. When he crossed the turning, he could not make a sound.

In front of them, a heavily armed Hartley was waiting for Rogge with the snow fox mercenaries in a neat formation.

Rogge and others sucked in a mouthful of cold air.

The snow fox deserved to be called elite, the formation of the mercenaries was strict and solemn, and there was no voice or horse neighing. When he saw Rogge and others, Hartley sneered, and his tongue licked his lips.

He slowly raised the halberd, and the rear infantry split into two teams. with a sonorous sound, began to slowly and neatly flank the group.

Every time the mercenaries walked ten steps, they raised the sword and hit the shield, giving a loud "kill!" shout.

However, the squad still had no movements, and Hartley raised his halberd up high and paused for half moment, but still, there was no reaction from the Rogge, seeing this his anger shot up to the sky. There were mere hundreds of people in the formation, but when their killing intents gushed out, it seemed like a mighty army!

Rogge and others looked at each other, aghast. They wanted to use the fifty cavalries to lure the enemy, first to strike for a while, killing some. However, it was not expected that the other side is such veterans. The horses were provoked by murderousness and began to tread on their hooves uneasily. Some cavalrymen had already turned pale.

Established just half a year ago, rookie cavalry had trained for just two months, when it comes to the veterans who have been through the battlefield, it immediately shows a gap.

Several noble debauchees looked at each other and found that the other's faces were also white.

Rogge made a decisive decision and chanted a spell. There was suddenly a black fog between the two sides. After the dispersal, the ground was covered with dense webs covering dozens of meters radius.

Keith held his halberd high and opened the order.

"All ready!!

Draw bow!

Aim at the left front infantry team, shoot!"

Dozens of arrows whizzed to the 200-meter infantry team. The Snow Fox infantry had a uniformed shield, however, their equipment was really not very good. The light shield was not enough to cover the whole body, and the leather armour was not good protection for the bow and arrow.

After the arrow rain (if this arrow can also be called arrow rain), there were five or six infantry soldiers on the ground.

Keith halberd swayed again,  "Draw bow, shoot!"

Another wave of arrows rained, another five or six people from the snow fox mercenary fell again. The Snow Fox Infantry began to charge and tried to shorten the distance between the two sides.

Hartley stared calmly at the opponent's formation. As a commander of battles, he had to wait until the opponent was most confused, and then a final shock from the cavalry team. Although Rogge's magic would not stop his cavalry, the speed of the sprint is greatly affected. Fortunately, this magic lasted for a long time, for about five or six minutes.

Hartley had patience. Unconsciously, he stretched out his tongue again and licked his lips, just like a wolf who smelled blood.

Keith raised the halberd for the third time.

"All ready!"

The Snow Fox infantry had already rushed to a hundred meters. When they heard Keith's command, they immediately lifted the shield over their head and continued to sprint.

Because of this, their speed was slowed down significantly.

"All turnaround, withdraw!!" Keith yelled.

The mercenaries of the dragon and the beauty are mostly veteran while retreating, they were rapid but not flurried. They turned their heads in a flash and started to run along the way. Rogge and others also have already retreated a short distance.

Hartley was so angry that he trembled and snarled: "Pursue them!! Pursue those son-of-bitches!!"





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