volume 3 - Chapter 218 Battle at the riverbank 2 (1/2)

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:

“If I’m the lord, I would have rolled up my blanket and flee.”

“Which is why you’re not the lord.” The Elven Princess who wore a suit of silver armor glanced at him and answered emotionlessly.

Medissa wore a unique pointed helmet that covered her small face completely. Her lips were pursed tightly and she looked dignified.

“He’s trying to remove our scouts. Is there some kind of scheme?”

“Maybe not. This most likely happened because Lord Palas know we have Subterrane Dwellers. He probably doesn’t want to be attacked on the flanks during a battle, avoiding the mistake that Lord Macsen made.”

“Truly difficult to deal with,” Ciel shook his head, his eyebrows were nearly about to bunch together, “I wonder if we can delay them for another three days.”

The full army of Count Randner had already arrived—

“There are people in the nearby forest!” Someone shouted.

The first glint of light appeared in the forest, and a knight covered in full armor appeared at the edge of the forest near River Gris’s opposite bank. Very quickly, more men appeared behind him. That knight raised the flag in his hand and stabbed it viciously into the riverbank’s loose soil. The flag unfurled to show a sky-blue pattern.

The emblem of Lord Palas’s hunters.

“The north, even the east…..!”

“That’s a lot.”

The soldiers who wore intercrossed red and blue uniforms came gus.h.i.+ng out; their numbers were no less than a thousand. Ciel watched an archer shoot an arrow from River Gris towards the city, and the projectile struck the ground approximately fifty paces from Firburh’s walls.

“Are they preparing to attack the city right away?” He glanced at Medissa and asked.

“Not yet. He’s testing out the distance. This army might try to attack us and test the water. But they will probably observe instead.”

As the youngest princess of the Silver Elves, the number of battles Medissa fought could not be compared to the other Silver Elves, but the atmosphere of the impending battle did not make her tense. Instead, she felt it was a familiar welcoming feeling.

[But the enemies are too little.]

She shook her head.

Medissa did not predict wrongly.

========== Lord Palas’s POV ==========

Lord Palas was currently on a hill that was approximately a kilometer away, sitting on his mount with a posture that was as straight as a sharp sword.

He was a retainer that Graudin formerly trusted in the most. His hand pressed down on the sword’s hilt firmly, his eyes in their sunken sockets surveying the distant riverbank like a hawk.

The old knight was the oldest amongst all of Graudin’s retainers. Even though he maintained personal contact with Lord Macsen, their age difference was quite far apart.

Lord Macsen was still in his prime, but Lord Palas’s sideburns were in patches of white. The old knight had experienced hundreds of battles, and though his fame did not reach places like Ampere Seale or Bucce, he was a figure of terror amongst Trentheim’s barbarians, capable of silencing their children from crying.

He had been to River Gris a few times and now that he was near it, he suddenly recalled that the land was supposed to be a plot of flat gra.s.sland, but the current scenery made him wonder if his memories were wrong.

A verdant forest had completely covered the land past the opposite riverbank. Still, there was proof that they did not come to the wrong place since the river ended at the port with shallow water. This period was when the water levels were at their lowest. Even a foot soldier could trudge across the icy waters to reach the other side.

There seemed to be fortifications in the forest. As proof, watchtowers constructed tall enough to reach the tree crown could be seen.

[The time that I came here was merely three years ago, but the trees in this forest don’t seem like they can grow so quickly as to cover the land like this. Any of the trees would need two or three people to wrap their hands around it. Perhaps ten meters tall? These trees are specimens that could reach for the skies one day but they grow slowly. ……Never mind three years, they probably couldn’t reach this height even after thirty years.]

“The scouts have just sent in their reports. There’s a stronghold in the opposite riverbank, and the rumors of the Druids aiding the rebels seem to be true.”

“The Druids are capable of making a forest in such a short time? Is this an illusion or a forest that has been transferred from somewhere?” Lord Palas asked.

It was clearly a dense forest that was easy to defend but difficult to invade. It was unthinkable that the Druids could create a forest out from nothing, but it was just as difficult to transport an entire forest. It was not as if he had not seen magic, but most of the spells are over in the blink of an eye. Even though they were powerful, it was not unacceptable.