Summoning the Holy Sword

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Lion Legion soldiers were mashed into minced meat.

Everyone was appalled. The heavily-armored soldiers and Knights focused their attention on the mysterious soldiers entirely. Although there wasn’t an overwhelming number of mysterious soldiers, their threat to the Lion Legion was far greater than the soldiers from the outpost.

Soon, a sharp whistle screeched and the Knights shifted their positions and charged forward with their mighty swords. Meanwhile, the heavily-armored soldiers pursued closely from the rear to form a triangle formation, launching an assault toward the mysterious enemies.

If the mysterious reinforcements were just ordinary soldiers, this attack would be enough to annihilate all 50 of them. But this wasn’t the case because, at this moment, several gray halos descended from the sky and shrouded them completely.

“This is…” Nemo and his troops gawked unbelievably. The Lion Legion were just charging forward a second ago, but now, their movements had become incredibly slow. All of them seemed as though they were carrying a heavy boulder on their backs and almost simultaneously, white radiance emitted from the woods. The Knights wailed as they collapsed from their warhorses and while the soldiers lifted their swords in self-defense, dazzling blade rays emerged and weaved into an enormous net that slashed into them. The mysterious reinforcements regrouped their formation and accelerated forward. In a blink of an eye, their razor-sharp blades punctured the messy formation of the Lion Legion.

“This is the power of the Cleric, Lize.” Hidden in the deep woods, Rhode said as he watched the battle from a distance. The dozen of Clerics that Lize led were pale-faced as they gazed at the chaotic battlefield because they didn’t have any tactical literacy, let alone experience and understanding of battles. They stared uneasily when Rhode ordered Marfa and others to attack as there were up to 600 enemies from the terrifying legion while Rhode had less than two hundred mercenaries. Not to mention, Rhode had ordered only 50 mercenaries to attack and it seemed too risky for Lize and the Clerics.

However, the next clash left them completely speechless. Even though the Clerics had no experience in battles, this advantageous situation was so obvious that even fools could recognize at a glance. The seemingly powerful and fully armored soldiers collapsed one by one as they couldn’t resist Marfa and the mercenaries at all. The enemies apparently had the numbers advantage and yet they couldn’t stop 50 mercenaries?

All of this happened after Lize and the Clerics cast an AOE [Slow Curse].

[Slow Curse] was the final spell Clerics learned after entering the Outer Circle and it was the first curse that had an AOE effect. Lize had never thought that such an insignificant spell could be hugely useful in battles.

Nemo heard a sharp whistle. The ‘allies’ stopped their pursuit and began to sweep the battlefield for loot. Shortly after, a black-haired young man dressed in noble attire rode his horse out from the woods slowly, followed by a dozen archers with diagonal bows behind their backs. However, rather than Archers, they seemed more like Rangers. Not only that, Nemo spotted a dozen more Clerics and a young lady who didn’t match this bloody battlefield at all. The Clerics followed the black-haired noble closely while another young lady with an enormous shield with her hands behind her head and strolled alongside the Clerics casually.

Noble, Rangers, Shield Warrior, Clerics, and Mercenaries.

What an incredibly strange combination.

Although Nemo felt suspicious, he eventually heaved a sigh of relief and slid his sword back into its sheath. Nemo tidied his tattered clothes before approaching the noble. Since they appeared to be allies, he had to greet them properly in case of any mishap.

Nemo saluted in military-style towards the black-haired noble. “Thank you very much for your assistance. I am Nemo Serat, the Commander of the Cloud Summit Fortress Outpost. We are carrying out our defense mission. May I know who…”

Nemo was startled because this noble appeared to be a beautiful young lady, but ‘she’ was wearing a black men’s attire. What exactly was…

“You’re welcome,” Rhode nodded slightly. “I am Baron Rhode Alander from Paphield’s Land of Atonement. We’re abiding by Royal Highness Lydia’s order to provide assistance to the Cloud Summit defense line… It seems that we came at the right time?”

“Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Rhode. If it weren’t for your help, perhaps our outpost would’ve fallen into the enemies’ hands entirely…”

Nemo heard Rhode’s surprisingly deep voice and let out an awkward cough. At this moment, Nemo’s troops had arrived by his side and they scanned the reinforcements curiously. The reinforcements were indeed formidable and not only that, the number of delicate young ladies within the team was enough to bless the soldiers’ eyes.

“Don’t need to thank me. I’m just carrying out my duty as a Munn Kingdom noble. But…” Rhode scanned the patches of blood stains on the wounded soldiers behind Nemo and he reckoned that they must’ve been through a violent battle. Frankly speaking, Rhode didn’t expect a battle here because he thought that the Southern Nobles would prioritize their internal affairs first.

It seemed that they hadn’t assembled their forces completely and this was their price to pay for initiating an ambush. Small-scale ambushes could catch the enemy off guard because the enemy wouldn’t notice them. However, the lack of manpower was also the fatality of these ambushes, which Rhode derived from their choice to retreat back then. If the Lion Legion had enough manpower, they didn’t even need to retreat. The tactic to attack with a sea of people would definitely be advantageous and the fact that they had fled instantly proved that the Southern Legion didn’t gather enough soldiers at the moment…

But what were those people thinking about? Since they declared an independent country, there must be uncertainties within their internal department. Instead of appeasing their internal department, the Reformist Party chose to dispatch their soldiers into Paphield hurriedly. Were they trying to take advantage of this favorable situation or did they have other plans up their sleeves?

Rhode knitted his brows before gazing at Nemo. “It seems that your troops are gravely wounded. If you need, I can dispatch my Clerics to treat their injuries. How’s that?”

“Thank you so much!” Nemo was overjoyed at the unexpected good news. In fact, he had fixated his eyes on the Cleric young ladies since a while ago. Apart from their youthful, adorable appearance shimmering on this contrastingly bloody battlefield, the Clerics’ amazing healing spells were also well known to these military soldiers. The Clerics’ treatment would definitely beat the rough military first aid and the soldiers couldn’t ask for more to be treated by the beautiful ladies. Rhode turned around and beckoned for Lize and shortly after, all the Clerics strode over. Honestly, even though the young ladies had been through numerous battles, they still weren’t used to the bloody battlefields. Compared to looking at the corpses, they were better off treating the humans who were still alive.

Rhode turned his gaze to the other side after Nemo led Lize’s group to the nearby outpost to treat the casualties. It was a total silence. “Joey, how’s the situation?”

On the other side, a skinny figure emerged from the soulless ground. Joey pulled down his camouflage hoot and greeted. “Just as you’ve predicted, Boss. Those losers got away fast and we spent some time chasing up with them. They didn’t have the intentions to retaliate and they continued escaping to the riverside. I guess they are planning to set up camp there.”

“River?” Rhode twitched his brows. “The Dawn River?”

“Yes, Boss,” Joey replied firmly.

I see.

Rhode let out a snort. Moments ago, he was still wondering why the Reformist Party stirred up trouble that quickly and now he finally understood what they were up to after listening to Joey’s report. But, that’s fine too. At least those people won’t dare to attack the Cloud Summit Fortress for now.

Rhode lifted his chin and gazed at the mountain range on the other side.

Even though the current situation was looking grim for the Cloud Summit, it was a pity that Rhode didn’t come here just to defend against the enemies.