City of Sin

Book 3, 100

Battle In The Night

Waterflower’s cold, indifferent voice rang out from outside the door, “Crafty? I certainly didn’t kill any fewer people than you did!”

Gangdor’s face fell. He snorted loudly to posture that he wasn’t scared of her in the slightest, but he was still sensible enough to not say anything else. Phaser followed in behind, while Olar, Zendrall, Tiramisu, and the others eventually gathered in the tavern as well. Richard and his followers could sense each other through their souls; they would naturally assemble together.

“Master, I’ve already made an inventory of the battlefield,” Olar started the moment he stepped in, “We don’t have an exact count yet, but we lost more than 2,000 men. Miss Flowsand is doing her best to rescue the wounded, she cannot come over for the time being.”

Richard nodded, “Okay, go invite Shea here. Oh, and Zim too.”

The elven bard accepted the order and left.

Gangdor hesitated for a moment, but eventually ended up speaking his mind, “Boss, we had to put in everything to fight them off today. Tomorrow’s battle won’t be easy! There’s 30,000 men out there!”

“25,000 after today, but only 15,000 of those can actually enter the city,” Richard replied calmly. With his elite bats in the sky, his understanding of the casualty count was extremely precise with a discrepancy of no more than a hundred men. Salwyn couldn’t possibly send his cavalrymen into the alleys to fight.

Gangdor was even more worried now, “Doesn’t that make our disadvantage even greater tomorrow?” A disadvantage of one to three had become even worse after this fight.

Richard’s brows creased as he seemed to be stuck making a difficult decision, “It’s not like there isn’t a solution to this, but... Let me think things over again.”

It was at this moment that Shea was brought to the tavern by a humanoid warrior. Her eyes lit up the moment she saw Richard and she smiled, “Sir Richard! May I know what it is you wished to see me about?”

The priestess’s gaze was focused on Richard’s upper torso, on the striking wound at his chest.

“I heard the spells of the Goddess of the Hunt allow hunters to conceal their movements in complicated terrain?”

Shea’s eyes lit up and she answered proudly, “Indeed, that is my Lady’s expertise!”

Richard nodded, “Very well! I’ll be heading out of the city in a while to mount a sneak attack on the enemies. Priestess Shea, would you like to come along?”

“Sneak attack?” Shea was greatly astonished, “Is your wound alright? Also... my mana...”

Richard smiled, taking a magic box from a humanoid to reveal a row of neatly arrange potions, “Mana will not be an issue.”

“High-grade mana potions, and so many!” Shea sucked in a breath of cold air.

Anything related to magic was extremely expensive in Faelor. Even as a priestess in charge of a church, she had never seen so many mana potions together before, let alone high-grade ones. Indeed, mana would not be a problem with these potions; the only problem was that she could only use one a day. If one was really looking for problems, the only other issue was the cost of a thousand gold per bottle; it made one feel like they were drinking gold.

Before Shea could even recover from her shock, Zim could be heard yelling excitedly outside the door, “Sir Richard, you truly are a legend! Even killing a saint was so easy! How did you know General Barry would appear at that street corner?”

Zim’s gaze was so intense that even Richard felt a little resignation. “Sheer luck,” he shrugged it off.

“Impossible!” The Viscount shook his head resolutely, pointing at Waterflower, Phaser, and Gangdor, “I saw it all. Those three and the two saints were already waiting in ambush at the corner of the street! They finished the entire battle in one minute! You truly are a model commander!”

Richard did not respond, his expression instead turning cold, “Didn’t I have you hide you hide yourself?”

“I want to kill enemies too!” Zim waved his hand around with force, his face flushing red, “I am a noble too, and a warrior!”

Richard decided to pretend like he didn’t hear the fat slob babbling nonsense, tossing potions out one after the other to those who needed it before twisting the lid off one himself and pouring the contents down his throat. He threw the empty bottle away, donning his shirt and placing Extinction on his back. He finally lifted the Twin of Destiny and then pointed to all of his followers, “Come, let’s give that Salwyn another surprise!”

The followers all started preparing for battle in silence. One follower after another was preparing for battle in silence. Gangdor stood up, lifting his crimson-stained axe and casually flexing his muscles. His wounds split open, but the fellow did not mind at all.

Although he was painfully neglected, blood rushed up to Zim’s head as he looked at this group who emanated an aura of blood and blazing steel. He took a big step forward and asked loudly, “What about me?”

“You?” Richard looked at Zim in all seriousness and thought for a moment before patting his shoulder, “You are to take a few men and return to your father immediately. Inform him that troops from the Iron Triangle Empire are at the Bloodstained Lands, and have him think of a way to persuade Duke Grasberg to cut off Salwyn’s retreat.”

“But isn’t that just escaping?” This was clearly not the answer Zim was looking for.

“Absolutely not!” Richard said solemnly, “This is extremely important. If you are confident in persuading the Duke to send his men, Salwyn will only dare to stay here for three days at best. He won’t run the risk of having his retreat completely cut off. I believe the Duke won’t let such an opportunity pass him by. You’re extremely important. If you don’t step forth personally, I’m afraid the Duke will never send his troops.”

“I’m important?” the Viscount was rather doubtful.

Richard clapped his shoulder hard, speaking in a low voice, “Very!”

Richard then left the tavern, the group of followers that reeked of blood passing the Viscount in single file. Zim was a little distracted, but he could vaguely sense that these frightening people seemed to be less scornful of him.

In the blink of an eye, the only ones left in the tavern were his personal guards. A moment later, Zim turned to one of his men and asked, “Am I really very important?”

The guard was well-tested, answering without hesitation, “You have always been very important, my Lord!”

The flush of excitement in Zim’s face gradually faded. He gazed in the direction Richard had left, suddenly remarking, “I’ve learnt just how important I am.”

The guard was startled, able to sense that his master was somewhat out of sorts that night. “My Lord? You—”

Zim interrupted his words, “Go back to Father immediately, and have him send his troops over for support!”

“But...” Bewilderment was written all over the soldier’s face. However, Zim clapped the man hard on the shoulder, speaking in a low voice, “Go! You are very important!”

The Viscount then took the rest of his personal guard and left, leaving the man staring blankly at the tavern walls. He really wanted to remind the Viscount that quite a few men had already been sent to ask for help. Besides, a large sum of money had been spent to deliver a message through magic; the first batch of troops from the Earl had likely set off already. Duke Grasberg’s army would be on their way the next morning, while another batch would come from Countess Katrina. The Countess wasn’t just adept at politics; she could compare to a marchioness in terms of military capability.

......

Five hundred cavalrymen stealthily exited the city, taking cover in the gathering darkness. Every one of these men were drones; 350 humanoids and 150 throwers. The warhorses all walked at a calm pace, but there wasn’t a single sound from their hooves. This was the power of Hunter’s Domain, a supporting spell of the Goddess of the Hunt.

These soldiers didn’t head to Salwyn’s camp, instead running in the opposite direction towards a little forest where a similar number of cavalrymen from the empire were camped to prevent any remnant forces from escaping. Each one of these imperial knights was a seasoned fighter with plentiful experience, but no matter how well they hid they could not escape the eyes and ears of the elite bats.

Just about a kilometre or so from the little forest, the army seemed to stop without Richard issuing any orders. Zendrall began a chant, a deathly aura enveloping the place as warriors of darkness walked out from a summoning portal one after the other.

Shea stared expressionlessly as the warriors exited the portal, but her body had already started trembling. Richard suddenly leaned close to her and warned quietly, “Be a little careful during the battle, don’t cast healing spells on them.”

The priestess nodded her head reluctantly, but then she suddenly covered her mouth. “My Lady!” she exclaimed softly, “What is that?”

The deathly aura suddenly doubled in intensity as the skull of a horse popped through the portal. The enormous figure of a knight squeezed its way out of the summoning spell with some difficulty, extremely burly with a gigantic sword in hand. Although the sword was covered in rust, it most certainly had unimaginable power just looking at its size and weight. Besides, this warrior of darkness emanated an intense aura of death that made Shea want to run. Although a priest could naturally subdue the undead, they were rendered ineffective against those creatures who were far higher than them in level.

“Just a death knight, Zendrall’s little pet,” Richard replied lightly before pointing to the forest ahead, “Beautiful priestess, there are about 500 knights in the forest ahead. Do be careful while protecting yourself.”

Shea nodded, but her face was still pale. The lifeless atmosphere surrounding her was simply too overwhelming. Besides, a battle was about to begin; Richard’s followers were emanating a murderous aura so intense it was almost tangible. It caused her to subconsciously lean towards Richard himself; it was only beside him that she felt safe and warm.

Richard raised his left arm up high and motioned forward, sending his troops barrelling into the pitch-black forest ahead. It was only then that Shea noticed a little detail; from the very beginning, Richard hadn’t made a single sound while issuing orders. A few simple gestures at most, and these men followed his every command. It was fine for the formidable followers to be that discerning, but how did these regular warriors see his gestures in the dark?

However, she had no time to think into it. The charging army swept her along into the forest.