The Amber Sword

Chapter 218 – Battle at the riverbank (2)

=========== Ciel’s POV ===========

The scouts escaped from the forest and proceeded to cross River Gris, bringing back the news of the enemy knights’ invasion from the Palas region.

Brendel’s young attending wizard wore a long robe, held a staff with his hands and stood on the watchtower, looking towards the north as far as he possibly could, then turned around and spoke:

“The casualties are far heavier than expected. The scouts stationed in the north suffered a death toll that’s higher than fifty percent. All of them are veteran soldiers with rich experience. In addition to this, we lost another fifty men and have three times the number of injured men within three days at other defense lines.”

Ciel took a pause before throwing down another line:

“Perhaps a combination? The trees in front are real, while the back is an illusion of sorts. But even then, it’s still impressive.” The wizard groaned.

“Perhaps we can try using fire?” One of the knights asked.

“If we’re facing Druids, they would easily be able to extinguish the fire. Do not forget, these people are protectors of the forest, and they are very capable of handling fire better than we do.” The wizard said.

“Regardless, let’s try out this method.” Lord Palas issued an order with a stoic face: “Have the soldiers prepare fire arrows. We will test out the enemies. Whether the plan is a success or not, we will set camps here and have the Grey Bear Knights cut down the trees.”

============= Ciel’s POV =============

A portion of Count Randner’s army moved out.

A row of soldiers appeared in the forest, wearing dull green combat gambesons, wielding shields on their hands with their longswords hanging on their waists. The three rows of soldiers behind the frontline wielded lances that had a long grey triangular flag tied near their tips.

The northern Trentheim had three regions next to each other ruled by knights. The emblem of Lord Palas was the Hound, Lord Raleigh was the Grey Bear, and Lord Kruss was the Crescent. These marching soldiers’ raised flags were all crescents.

“I thought such a large forest would have paralyzed them with shock,” Ciel shook his head.

Even though the Druids presented their precious Magic Seeds and worked tirelessly day and night nearly without rest to create this defense line, they still lacked a little time. Only a part of the forest that reached the hastily built stronghold were real primeval trees, while the rest of the trees was actually an illusionary spell created by him.

The soldiers from the Kruss territory advanced slowly. Their two flanks were accompanied by highlanders who wore ragged surcoats over their thick leather skin, wielding sharp axes and round shields. These three units made their way across the river water and were about to reach the other end of the river.

“What does our Lord say?” Ciel raised his hand to give an order.

“‘These are not even classified as the lowest tier of soldier types! Private lancers and shieldbearers that the nobles randomly hired? Just get it done and over with already, why do you need my orders? Fool!’” Medissa imitated Brendel’s tone.

“Lowest tier of soldier types? What the heck is that?” Ciel’s eyebrows were already tied up into knots.

His Lord seemed to be fond of talking about strange things. The young wizard did not really understand what the term ‘level up’ meant back then in Fortress Riedon, now there was the ‘lowest tier of soldier types’?

But there was not much time to think about it. Count Randner archers had finally caught up to the soldiers. These trained men were all of Lord Palas’s chosen elites. They took out their arrows and drew a thin line across wet sand that was out of the water level, then took out a pouch on their waist and poured the contents into the drains they created.

“It’s oil, they are using fire arrows!” The Elven Princess’s expression changed.

A fiery dragon suddenly emerged near the edge of the forest. The archers raised their longbows with flaming arrows placed into position. There was a loud cry, and arrows were let loose at their commander’s order.

The next instant, almost everyone in the forest saw a fire cloud forming across the sky, dyeing the surroundings with a sea of red at its apex, before it rained down onto the ground with fury.

“Fire arrows!” A sharp yell warned.

The arrows were buzzing through the air. It was fortunate that the trees were dense and most of the arrows were affect the leaves at the trees’ crowns. There was a noisy din with thuds and clicks, but only a small portion struck near the mercenaries’ stronghold.

There was almost no direct damage done from the Fire Arrows.

Lord Palas who observed the event from afar did not reveal any particular expressions. He was waiting to see an effect, and it appeared like there was going to be one very soon.

The archers raised their longbows once again, and the second wave of fire arrows was on their bowstrings.