Chapter 70: 39

Chapter 39: Clash in Feony Forest

Traveling east from Windmetal Fort to Haggardy, one would have to make the arduous trek through Feony Forest. Under normal circumstances, traveling through a route with such rough and uneven terrain would result in many complaints from the troops of an army, but this turned out to be a blessing to the Four Winds mercenary legion.

They were able to take advantage of the narrow path and the steep terrain these past few days to ward off many sneak attacks from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion.

After emerging from Windmetal Fort, the Wolf Moon mercenary legion had constantly kept a close eye on the route that the Four Winds mercenary legion was taking. Upon learning that the Four Winds mercenary legion planned to travel to the eastern coastline, the Wolf Moon mercenary legion immediately followed them into Feony Forest without any hesitation.

The Four Winds mercenary legion was already prepared for this, and all of the assassins among their ranks had been dispersed throughout the dense forest to act as scouts. As a result, they were always able to detect where the mercenaries from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion were coming from. These assassins couldn't help much in direct battle, but with their speed and stealth, they were able to quickly traverse through the forest and conceal themselves when required, gathering much intel on the enemy in the process.

In particular, Georgina was currently the most effective source of intel for the Four Winds mercenary legion. He was always able to get really close to the Wolf Moon mercenary legion and find out where they were planning to strike from next. His unicorn, Momo, was able to gallop along the harsh and unforgiving terrain here as if it were no different from flat ground. The Wolf Moon mercenary legion had already detected Georgina's presence on several occasions, and they desperately wanted to kill him, but given his speed and agility, he was always able to quickly make his way onto Momo's back before fleeing into the distance.

Talan had tried to pursue him with his subordinates a few times, but to no avail. There was simply no way that their horses could keep up with the speed of a unicorn.

With the intel provided by the assassins, the Four Winds mercenary legion was always able to seize the initiative. Every time the Wolf Moon mercenary legion launched a sneak attack, the Four Winds mercenary legion would always be waiting on higher ground. The martial artists clad in suits of Falcon Beak Lizard scale armor would guard the entrances to the higher ground that they claimed, while the magicians and archers would attack the enemy to their hearts' content.

Even though the Wolf Moon mercenary legion held a significant numbers advantage over the Four Winds mercenary legion, they were unable to make use of this advantage at all due to the rough and narrow mountain paths. Thus, with each sneak attack that they launched, they would lose 100 to 200 mercenaries for minimal reward.

Talan was becoming extremely infuriated and frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. If he continued to recklessly send more mercenaries after the Four Winds mercenary legion, he would eventually run out of subordinates. Furthermore, he hadn't anticipated the young nobles from Sarus to be so cruel and ruthless. None of the severely wounded mercenaries of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion had been left alive. All of them had been killed, then tossed into the forest to be fed on by crows and ravens.

He had thought that these young nobles would just be a bunch of cowards who didn't dare to kill anyone. In particular, they were supposed to be allies, so he always thought that the Four Winds mercenary legion would be apprehensive about killing the mercenaries of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion. Much to his astonishment, the two commanders of the Four Winds mercenary legion were just as ruthless and unforgiving as he was.

In reality, killing people for the first time had not been an easy experience for Erwin and his friends.

As Kaiba plunged his spear through the torso of a mercenary from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion, he looked on with a blank expression as warm blood gushed out of his enemy's stomach, then flowed along the shaft of his spear onto his hands.

He stared at the blood that had stained his hands, which was giving off a nauseating odor, and he was suddenly struck by a sense of surrealism. The enemy mercenary that he had impaled stared intently at him for a few seconds, then fell backward before collapsing onto the ground in a lifeless heap. Only then did it occur to Kaiba that he had just ended someone's life with his own spear.

Prior to this, Erwin and his friends had never killed anyone, and even though they knew that the people they were killing were heinous convicts who most likely deserved worse, that still did nothing to assuage the guilt and sense of absurdity in their hearts.

"What the hell are you just standing there for?" Chase yelled as he sliced off half the head of a mercenary from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion with a single swipe of his blade. That mercenary had attempted to take advantage of Kaiba's distracted state to avenge his fallen comrade, but his plan was thwarted by Chase.

Blood was gushing violently out of what remained of the mercenary's head, and it was like a red fountain in the middle of the battlefield.

However, instead of the calming sight that fountains normally provided, this fountain was one that evoked the darkest and most violent of emotions within one's heart.

"Holy shit, I just killed someone!" Chase looked down at the blade he was holding with an incredulous expression. He stared at the blood that was dripping down from the blade, and all of a sudden, a twisted smile appeared on his face.

Immediately thereafter, the mercenary who was missing half a head collapsed to the ground.

Chase didn't hesitate at all as he inspected the battlefield around him, then let loose a near-deranged roar before rushing back into the fray and wildly slashing and hacking in all directions.

Kaiba also returned to his senses at the sight of Chase hacking his way through the enemy ranks, and he picked up his spear before re-entering the fray as well, finding renewed vigor with each attack that he unleashed. As he slowly recovered from the shock of killing someone for the first time, a sense of joy began to well up in his heart as well. It was the joy of killing, the most brutal and vicious way of expressing a primal desire.

In contrast with the two of them, Larwood possessed a sense of calmness beyond his years. As opposed to Chase and Kaiba's frantic and frenzied style of battle, he was much more cold and calculating, striking with a combination of surgical precision and unerring accuracy. He was always able to spot the enemy mercenaries who were struggling to ward off the spells that were raining down upon them from above before promptly ending their lives. There were no unnecessary movements or superfluous expenditure of energy. All of his attacks either pierced through the enemy's throat, heart, or head as he harvested their lives in the most energy-efficient and elegant way possible.

In fact, he even had the presence of mind to act as a leader on the battlefield, instructing the martial artists around him to reinforce the parts of the battlefield where they were needed.

Even though Erwin was standing at a vantage point, things weren't easy for him, either. He was leading the magicians and archers to search for secure and well-concealed places on the mountain faces on either side of the battlefield where they could attack the mercenaries of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion from. However, the enemy mercenaries were no slouches, and they were constantly shooting arrows at Erwin and his group from down below. These flurries of arrows prevented Erwin and the magicians and archers from attacking as they pleased. If any of them were to get too close to the battlefield, they could easily be shot down in an instant.

As a result, the effectiveness of the magicians and archers from the Four Winds mercenary legion was rather limited, and Erwin was growing rather frustrated. All of a sudden, he rushed out from behind the bush that was providing him with cover, then cast a levitation spell and an agility spell onto himself before unleashing a storm of wind and hail toward the enemy mercenaries.

The archers of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion certainly weren't going to spare him, and they immediately fired their arrows toward him in unison.

"Look out, Master Erwin!" Lanyon yelled in a panicked voice, and he immediately turned to rally all of the magicians and the archers to rush out behind Erwin.

"Don't worry about me, and stay put!" Erwin commanded without even turning his head.

The flurry of arrows arrived in the blink of an eye, while Erwin conjured up his light shield, then looked on with tightly furrowed brows as all of the arrows struck the outer wall of the light shield.

"Lanyon, get everyone to hide behind me! Hurry!" Erwin roared.

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Lanyon immediately did as he was told, leading all of the magicians and archers to quickly duck behind Erwin, who was standing at the edge of the cliff face. As a result, they were able to get a lot closer to the battlefield, thereby allowing them to unleash a ferocious barrage of attacks upon the enemy mercenaries charging at the forefront.

The mercenaries of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion were already struggling against the enemy mercenaries, who were clad in suits of Falcon Beak Lizard scale armor, and they now had to contend with the arrows and spells raining down from the heavens. Talan could see that the casualties were piling up too quickly, so he had no choice but to order a retreat, even though it was the last thing that he wanted to do. He knew that if the battle were to drag on any longer, the outcome would be catastrophic for the Wolf Moon mercenary legion.

...

After that, the two mercenary legions clashed a few more times, and each time was essentially a repeat of their first clash. Talan always let his emotions get the better of him, leading his mercenaries into battle against the Four Winds mercenary legion, even if they had a terrain disadvantage. Each clash would inevitably result in defeat for the Wolf Moon mercenary legion, and at this point, they had already lost hundreds of mercenaries.

After suffering such heavy losses, Talan knew that he couldn't continue to attack recklessly, and he began to think of other ways to deal with these unexpectedly ruthless brats.

Finally, Talan arrived at a decision. "Pass down this order: we're pulling up our tents and heading east. We need to get out of this accursed forest as soon as possible."

He had to cut his losses and live to fight another day.

"But Boss, we still haven't killed those little scumbags from the Four Winds mercenary legion!" the narrow-eyed man protested.

"Do I need you to tell me that? Do you think I'm an idiot? Can't you see how many mercenaries we've already lost? Do you want all of us to die in this damn forest?" Talan slammed his palm viciously down onto the temporary desk in front of him, and the desk was instantly reduced to pieces of scrap wood.

"Yes, you're right, Boss," the narrow-eyed man hurriedly said in a feeble voice.

"We're definitely going to kill those little brats someday, but we can't continue to try and target them in this forest. We'll go east and wait for them in Haggardy. It's a wide open space there, so they're not going to be able to use any of their little tricks against us," Talan said as a sinister look appeared on his face.

"But Boss, what if they don't go to Haggardy?" the narrow-eyed man asked in a careful voice.

"Are you an idiot?" Talan immediately flared up with rage. "Think about it with that pea-sized brain of yours! Why is it that they didn't follow the main path after leaving Windmetal Fort, but chose to go east through the treacherous forest instead?"

"Er..." The narrow-eyed man pondered this for a moment, but was unable to come up with an answer.

Talan picked up a piece of scrap wood from the ground before hurling it directly at the narrow-eyed man's head. "Is there even a brain in that thick skull of yours? It's clearly because they're running short on funds, so they're traveling along the east to plunder resources from the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries!"

The narrow-eyed man was almost knocked unconscious by the piece of wood, and he hurriedly scrambled out of the tent to relay Talan's orders.

You're running short on funds, but I have more than enough money! I'll be waiting for you in Haggardy. Either you come out to face us in Haggardy, or you stay in that forest like cowards forever! Talan thought to himself with a hateful expression.

...

A white steed was galloping along the rugged mountain paths of Feony Forest. It was an extremely rare unicorn.

Erwin and his friends spotted the dashing unicorn as it sped over the undergrowth, and they were very much envious of Georgina for his exceptional steed. However, the unicorn seemed to have formed a bad first impression toward Erwin and the others for teasing its owner, and it had always held a grudge against them. As soon as it caught sight of their group, it immediately began to neigh in a menacing manner, much to the dismay of Erwin and his friends.

Georgina got down from Momo, but Erwin and the others didn't approach him for fear of being attacked by the unicorn. Georgina patted his unicorn steed's sturdy behind, and Momo immediately made its way toward the campsite on its own.

"So? How did it go?" Chase asked in an urgent voice.

"By the time I got to their campsite, all of the tents were already gone, so I set off to find them, and I only spotted them after traveling several dozen kilometers. They're already close to leaving the Feony Mountains," Georgina replied as he wiped the sweat on his own forehead.

"Wait, so you're saying that they ran away?" Kaiba was quite stunned to hear this.

"I don't think that Talan is the type of person who would let something like this slide so easily," Erwin said with a smile. "At this point, we've killed at least 200 of his men already, right? There's no way that he'll just let us get away with this."

"He probably realized that continuing to fight us in these mountains is a terrible idea," Larwood mused. "I think he's most likely leaving the Feony Mountains to wait for us in Haggardy."

"What do we do then?" Chase asked. "Should we follow them?"

"There's no hurry," Larwood replied with a shake of his head. "Once we leave these mountains, the terrain will become a lot more open, and that'll significantly highlight our numbers disadvantage."

"So you're saying we should wait for a while longer?" Erwin asked.

"We have enough supplies anyway, so why don't we just set up camp at the exit of the Feony Mountains in the east? From there, we'll be able to observe the Wolf Moon mercenary legion to see what they do next. Let's see who's going to outlast the other," Larwood said with a cold smile.

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