642 The secret of the expeditionary army Part 1 (2/2)
The enemy wanted to give chase, but they were not as familiar with the terrain as Lex's men. In this tapered region, the mercenaries had disposed of their shovels and sharp antlers to allow the speed of the cavalry to be reduced to its minimum. This action made the expeditionary army's cavalrymen realize that this place was no Tanggulasi Empire.
The mages whom Saleen had hidden in the hilly region observed this whole event and the three kings sighed in regret. If they had coordinated with this offensive, then all three-thousand cavalrymen would have died there. The order Saleen had given was to attack the large force traveling behind these cavalrymen though. The Holy See's army used light cavalrymen as the spearhead force, there were another ten-thousand soldiers at the back.
The three kings were going to attack these ten-thousand soldiers and then flee before the main forces at the back arrived.
The vanguards had retreated, they should be meeting up with the ten-thousand strong army soon, before entering the periphery of western town. Banchajanna flew onto the battlefield and grabbed a corpse on the way. He smelled it and his face contorted in disgust.
Seeing Banchajanna return dragging a corpse in hand, the other two spirit kings also detected a tinge of strange smell. It was like the scent of the gods, but it was not quite like it either. This smell contained an evil which exceeded the scope of the rules.
”These people…” The three kings looked at one another, then turned to look at the soldiers behind them. These soldiers had been recruited by the nobles. The five camps under Saleen's command did not simply recruit anyone. The offensive power of these soldiers was pretty good, but they were ignored because of their age. Since the regular army did not have a place for them, they defected to the nobles.
Judikaka said, ”Let's go back, there's no need to ambush anymore.”
The commanders leading the human troops were in a tight spot, but they did not dare argue with the three spirit kings. Judikaka cast a death spell, when this spell was targeted at the corpse, it caused the corpse to explode with a clap.
Diyabannersa also shook his head, this corpse was effected with a divine spell and death magic could no longer manipulate it. This situation was more severe than the one in the beginning. When the expeditionary army first entered Phoenix, the bodies of the soldiers were not displaying such serious symptoms yet.
The thousands of troops hiding in the hills retreated, leaving behind some Caucasus people and barbarians to continue observing the enemy. Judikaka flew onto the battlefield, destroying all the bodies. After transforming all of them into a pile of decomposed flesh, he led the army back to Metatrin City.
Judikaka went to visit Saleen personally, he was afraid that Diyabannersa or Banchajanna would spout the wrong things and anger Saleen. Judikaka was not disobeying the order, but this order was not very meaningful anymore.
In the temple, Judikaka could feel an unknown pressure, ”Saleen is merely a grade-6 mage, even if he is making tremendous progress, he shouldn't be able to exert pressure on monarch-grade spirits, right?”
Judikaka did not look too much into it, he told Saleen, ”There is something amiss with the soldiers in the Holy See's army. Be it the Corpse Explosion Skill or the Undead Soldier Spell, their bodies are not affected.”
”Oh? I don't know much about death magic and divine spells, give me a moment.” Speaking, Saleen told someone to get Narnia, then he continued questioning Judikaka.
”What is going on, did you not conduct an ambush?”
”The soldiers of the expeditionary army are infected with a vicious divine spell. I don't know the specifics, but within a year, the offensive power and constitutions of these soldiers will be forcefully boosted. No matter their injury, they will be able to recover swiftly under the effect of this divine spell.”
Narnia nodded and said, ”There is indeed a divine spell that works like this, but it will consume the soldier's lifespan in exchange.”
”Yes, when I was at the borders, I could still manipulate those dead soldiers for a while. Now I can't and only less than a month had passed. This means that the divine spell veiled in the soldiers' bodies is slowly increasing its speed of influence. I estimate that these soldiers will not live for more than six months even if we do not kill them. The ones with the shortest lifespans might only live for two to three months.”
Saleen inhaled a breath of cold air. The life of the Tanggulasi people were slightly shorter, but they could also live for eighty to ninety years. On average, the age of a soldier in an expeditionary army would not be more than thirty-five years old. The Holy See had condensed the other forty or fifty years of remaining life of the soldiers in order to release massive offensive power. Even if these soldiers conquered Metatrin City, they would still die off swiftly.
What could be crueler than this? For their religion, these soldiers had traveled about twenty-thousand miles to Metatrin. In the end? Before they set off on this expedition, their fates had already been sealed, they would die on foreign soil.
”What about the main forces?”
”I didn't come into contact with them. The main forces consist of grand swordmasters and holy masters above grade-8, I don't wish to take the risk,” Judikaka answered honestly.