Sword of Dawn

Page 179

"The eagle has left the nest, and the chick is well."

Ropeni Grant nodded imperceptibly, then raised her head, and looked through the tall narrow window on the side of the castle promenade, looking at the red sunset that was gradually glowing in the distance.

"This long list is finally coming to an end."

Chapter 0432 Noble Virtue

The magic cannon cart pulled by pack horses creaked and creaked forward on the dirt and rocky road, and the heavily armed Cecil combat soldiers formed a guard formation around the cannon cart, always on guard against everything on the wasteland There was movement, the young knight Philip rode at the front of the team, and at the end of his line of sight were the mountains at the northernmost end of the southern border.

The Rock Fortress is between the mountains, locking the mountains firmly like a prison door, locking the Cecil family on this land for 100 years.

Today, he was going to open that door.

Scouts riding fast horses in groups of three are constantly being sent out from the team to investigate the surrounding situation in all directions, and report the situation to the team at any time: now the team has arrived at the area between the Rock Fortress and the southern border. The buffer zone must be more vigilant.

Knight Philip knew very well that this would be a completely different battle from the bombardment of the Crushed Stone Ridge - in front of the Crushed Stone Ridge, he fought a defensive battle. The attackers were the coalition forces of nobles, and he only needed to set up artillery positions on the spot Then just wait for the enemy to throw himself into the trap, and this time he becomes the attacker, then everything will be completely different.

If one follows the traditional aristocratic rules and war etiquette, both the attacker and the defender must act according to the rules. Even if one of the parties finds out the opponent's course of action, he must wait patiently on the agreed battlefield, waiting for the opponent to enter the battlefield, An attack can only be launched after the formation is set up and the war signal is issued. This "combat process" with more symbolic meaning than actual meaning is highly respected by the nobles, because it can ensure the safety of the nobles participating in the war as much as possible during the entire war, and it is not enough. Grace and dignity—but the bombardment on Gravel Ridge had shattered it all.

There was a cannon shot on the gravel ridge, and the noble coalition army that had not had time to organize their formation was scattered all over the field by the sudden attack of the Cecils. After that, the traditional war etiquette disappeared. It has already suffered a loss. It is impossible for the nobles to continue to stick to those old rules pedantically. Knight Philip must always be ready to deal with the enemy's surprise attack. Although the magic crystal rail cannon is powerful, it is its most vulnerable stage before the shelling position is launched.

While Knight Philip was thinking, a small commotion suddenly came from not far away. He raised his head and saw several soldiers escorting two people who were heavily tied up and came forward.

Philip stopped his horse and saw that the two bound men were wearing traditional—or old-fashioned iron chain armor. No identification marks could be seen outside the chain armor. One of them was wounded in the arm by a heat ray gun. The wound was scorched black, and there was no obvious trauma on the other person.

The team leader escorting the two men saluted and reported loudly: "Sir! We have captured the spies from the Rock Fortress—they were sneaking around in the nearby woods and were discovered by the troops patrolling outside."

The two bound captives looked terrified and nervous, as if those nearby Cecil soldiers who wore strange equipment and had a bad reputation would eat people. Philip looked down at the two men from a high position, and asked after a long time: "You guys?" People from Rock Fortress?"

In this case, if you don't admit it, you are looking for death. The two prisoners hesitated for a moment and then nodded one after another.

"Very well, don't worry, I won't execute you," Knight Philip nodded slightly, "I will let you go back—our lord has a letter to deliver to the commander of Rock Fortress."

……

The Cecils really came.

Two patrolling soldiers who went to the south of the fortress brought back the news of the massive attack of the Cecilians, and also brought back the "letter" they had given to the Rock Fortress.

The defenders of the Rock Fortress immediately summoned all the army commanders, as well as the southern nobles who had taken refuge in the fortress.

In the main hall of the castle area, a knight captain was relaying the news from the front to his chief:

"General, there are three to 5000 people coming north, and they have a large convoy - the car is loaded with all kinds of strange things, maybe it is the spell-casting device of 'Skyfire Explosion'. They have now Enter the hilly land south of the fortress, and you will enter the plain in about three days..."

The nobles in the south were a little agitated, but generally calm, while other knight officers discussed in a low voice. A middle-ranking knight commander stood up from his seat and looked at Sir Maryland: "General, those Cecilians What is written on the 'war letter'?"

Lord Maryland nodded, and casually took out the "Letter from Duke Gawain Cecil" that had just been delivered to him. Everyone's eyes were immediately attracted by the letter, especially the southern nobles in the hall. , and even his breathing slowed down for an instant.

Sir Maryland already knew the contents of the letter. He glanced at the southern nobles first, and then said unhurriedly, "I'll read the contents to you."

The content of the letter is not long - it is not as complicated and gorgeous as most noble letters, full of words and phrases, but simple and straightforward like a note -

"... more than forty nobles in the southern border collectively declared war on the Cecil family. After their defeat, the surviving culprits have fled into the Rock Fortress. In view of the above-mentioned nobles' unreasonable infringement on Cecil's land and people, they have been declared war criminals by the just law. , now that Cecil's army is going to your place to receive prisoners of war, I hope you can distinguish right from wrong, hand over the war criminals, and accept our personnel to enter the city to search."

Sir Maryland finished reading the letter in less than a minute, and then the whole hall fell into silence.

It was not until 2 minutes later that a knight officer broke the silence with an exclamation: "What is this?! How can there be such a negotiation document?!"

"That's right, of course this is not a negotiation," Sir Maryland said, looking at the knight officer, angrily, "This is an order from above, more arrogant than the king's order to his attendants! It seems that ours A founding hero who came back from the dead is not even ready to negotiate with us."

The southern nobles became uneasy after hearing the content of the letter, as if they were really afraid that the Sir Maryland in front of them would hand them all over in exchange for the safety of the fortress. Now that they saw the Sir's reaction, they felt a little relieved , Viscount Mari Oran even seized the time and said: "Sir, you are right, the Cecilians will not negotiate with us in accordance with tradition, their lords have always ignored all virtues and rules, and negotiated with them It can only be a waste of time and fall into a trap!"

Sir Maryland nodded slightly. Seeing this scene, Viscount Consco stood up next to him and said, "Sir, the Cecils will arrive in three days. We can take advantage of this time to make more preparations..."

"Make more preparations?" Sir Maryland looked at this tall and thin man who was depressed and drunk not long ago. He knew that although Viscount Consco's family inheritance was not long ago, he himself was a resourceful and flexible person, so Don't mind listening to the other person's opinion, "What do you mean?"

Viscount Consco gritted his teeth and said, "We can dig more traps on the plain in advance, and send druids to cast poison on the hilly land. In addition, we can throw the dead livestock corpses into the Baishui River. You can even let the druids spread the plague directly in the river—we have already buried all the wells on the plain in advance, and the Cecilians can only rely on the Whitewater River if they want to get water. No matter how powerful their weapons are, people will always Get ill……"

"Don't say any more," Sir Maryland suddenly interrupted Consco before he finished speaking, "Viscount, how did you come up with these... sinister ideas? No aristocratic spirit at all!"

"Sir, these tricks may be insidious, but they are really effective," Viscount Consco argued, "the Cecilians don't respect virtue and rules, and their lord is even the one who takes the lead in destroying the aristocratic dignity. What kind of aristocratic spirit do they talk about..."

Sir Maryland looked at Viscount Consco with surprised eyes, as if it was the first day he knew each other. He didn't expect that these insidious schemes would come from a nobleman, but he also agreed with Viscount Consco in his heart. These tricks are indeed effective, but after thinking about it for a while, he still couldn't help but say: "Do you know that the Cecilian army is not the only one in the lower reaches of the White Water River-the river continues down, and countless people are on the way." Live on it."

"What does the life and death of those common people have to do with us? When we were sleeping and eating in the wasteland, those common people probably forgot their lord long ago, and were busy welcoming their new master Cecil!" Viscount Consco He said a little excitedly, as if the pressure accumulated for so many days finally broke out on him, "Sir, I know what you are worried about—the White Water River flows south, and there is still part of your territory on the other side of the hilly land, But don't forget, there is my manor and castle below! What we have to do now is a sacrifice full of glory--civilians are like wheat, this batch is cut off, and it will grow again in the next year, but once we dead, who can maintain order in the land in the south?"

Viscount Consco waved his arms, and at the end of the speech, there was a bit of impassioned meaning. What surprised Sir Maryland the most was that the southern nobles at the scene responded one by one. They all nodded in agreement with Consco. These proposals of the Viscount, just because of the "sacrifice full of glory" in the latter's words, this strategy that was originally completely contrary to the spirit of the nobility turned out to be a noble plan.

But at this moment, Countess Luo Penny suddenly said in a cold voice: "Gentlemen, I'm afraid your thinking is too simple."

At this moment, Ropeini Grant has a great say among the southern nobles. As soon as she spoke, the agitated nobles fell silent. Even Sir Maryland showed a look of watching the show, waiting for Ropeini Next words.

"I'm afraid you have forgotten how the Cecilians made their fortunes."

Ropeni Glenn threw out a word coldly, and more than half of the people present immediately looked thoughtful.

"Alchemy elixirs—they have so many alchemy elixirs that they can be drunk as water. Is the disease-removing mixture something very valuable?" Ropeni Glenn glanced around, "Even if you use druid spells to turn the White Water River If all the river water in the river is turned into toxins, the Cecilians will probably not care, but you will waste a lot of energy in vain!"

The southern nobles looked at each other in blank dismay, Viscount Consco was speechless, and Sir Maryland said at the right time: "Indeed, Viscount Consco, that is not a good idea of ​​yours."

Immediately afterwards he said: "But we really need to respond, before the Cecils have a firm foothold..."

Chapter 0433 The End of the Noble War

In the night, a silent team was approaching the Cecil camp under the cover of darkness.

This team wears light leather armor that is easy to move, and all the equipment they carry are also painted black. They are agile, and they can walk on the road in the wilderness full of gravel and potholes.

It was a dark, starless night, but their actions were still unaffected by the darkness.

This is an army formed by extraordinary people, they are the precious elite force of Rock Fortress.

The dignified nobles often disdain sneak attacks when they are engaged in war. The warring parties agree on the time and place with each other. After the rules of war are broken, experienced veterans don't know what to do. The so-called noble virtues on the battlefield are nothing more than a fig leaf used to decorate the appearance when plundering profits. Rip off this fig leaf. What should we do or what should we do.

A cloud of erratic shadows flitted across the overgrown ground and gathered beside a boulder, while other transcendents wearing nocturnal camouflage also came to this figure within a few breaths.The stalker captain who emerged from the shadows lowered his voice and whispered to his team members: "We are coming soon, be vigilant, and we will give priority to destroying the magic devices on those cars later."

The supernatural beings who performed the sneak attack secretly touched the small bag that they carried with them—the magic scrolls were contained in the package, and the explosion they made was enough to destroy the magic devices of the Cecils. These scrolls were extremely valuable strategic resources of the Rock Fortress. Each is painstakingly crafted by experienced magicians whose job it is to ensure that these precious scrolls are used in the most appropriate way.

After a short rest, these raiders set off again, and the most powerful shadow power in the night came from all directions, hiding their figures one by one in the dark depths, and their figures disappeared in the vast wasteland soon. All that remained were the streaks of darkness that swiftly shuttled among the grass.

In a place quite far away from them, in a dense grass, a faint red light was flashing.

A steel ranger wearing light body armor looked back from a distance, the red shimmer of the tactical eyepiece flashed on his helmet, he lowered his voice, and whispered to the squad commander beside him: "Captain, Found another team, this team should belong to us, right?"

The tactical eyepiece with the effect of "detection distortion" is enough to detect the traces of most stalkers, even in this deep, starless night, those sneak raiders who dare to move quickly on the open plain relying on their extraordinary abilities are also invincible. hidden.

"This team belongs to us, but don't act rashly—those idiots are about to enter the minefield," the captain of the Iron Rangers whispered, "Brothers have spent so much effort to bury the mines for half a day, at least the Let's fry one or two."

"Hey, good."

"Prepare for the explosive shooting first, and then hit the enemy when they mess up."

The warriors of the Iron Rangers acted in the dark, while in front, the raiders from the Rock Fortress were still moving quickly towards their target.

A series of swift black shadows shuttled among the gravel and weeds, as unrestrained and natural as the ubiquitous night wind. Captain Stalker enjoyed this feeling of walking recklessly in the dark, especially in this night wind. High for nights to kill.

The thick darkness is his armor, and the silent blade is most suitable for cutting the throats of those lambs waiting to be slaughtered. He likes this kind of job of controlling other people's lives and deaths in the dark. , is an intoxicating pleasure.

I heard that the skyfire explosion of those Cecilians was so terrifying that even the coalition forces composed of more than 40 noble families in the southern border panicked, but this kind of task can bring enough sense of accomplishment: No matter how powerful magic items are, they also have their weaknesses. Well, what stalkers are good at is inserting knives into these weaknesses.

A gust of cool night wind blew away some of the mist on the wasteland. Taking advantage of the cover of darkness, the stealth captain and his team members stepped lightly on a piece of gravel. The moment the footsteps landed, a A strange "click" sound suddenly reached his ears.

A stalker stopped in confusion, he felt something wrong with the soles of his feet: "I seem to have stepped on something..."

As the stalker spoke, he raised his feet, wanting to see what was under his feet.

Then he found that what he stepped on was a group of flames that exploded rapidly.

A loud "bang" broke the silence of the night, and the stalkers who stepped on the landmines flew into the sky in many batches, and at the moment of the explosion, the stalkers who reacted the fastest suddenly burst into their minds. The same word: Trap!

The most powerful ability of the stalker profession - speed is fully stimulated at this moment. The members of this team have already begun to disperse in all directions when their partners go to the sky. However, no matter how fast their speed is, they cannot match The shrapnel and rubble scattered in the explosion, a series of screams sounded one after another in an instant, and half of the people in the team were affected by the explosion on the spot.

After all, Captain Stalker was stronger. He relied on the crisis instinct cultivated over the years to leave the range of the explosion one step earlier than the others. However, the loud noise and flash still made him dizzy. During this fatal short-term dizziness, he Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw one figure after another appearing in the grass in the distance.

The combat instinct cultivated over the years allowed this middle-level Rogue to forcibly resist the dizziness of his head, and immediately pulled out the short sword he was wearing, and his figure became blurred in the next second.

Under no circumstances should a stalker be completely exposed to the enemy, only by hiding his body can he be invincible in combat——he flashed through his mind what his mentor had said to him when he had just become a superhuman He spoke while keeping his eyes sharply on the figures of the ambushers emerging from the brush, waiting to see who would be the first to charge forward.

He is still very confident in his close combat ability.

However, the first ones to rush in front of him were not those ambushers, but a powerful explosion, explosion, shooting, strike! !

Accompanied by a series of slight beeps of mechanical impacts, sharp bangs came from a distance, and one after another strange things wrapped in light blue magic light clusters emerged from the strange weapons carried on the shoulders of those "grass lurkers". It flew out, and after a quick and short trajectory in the air, it landed at the feet of the stalkers one after another, followed by a series of shocking explosions.

There are many unique types of extraordinary people in this world. As the "sharp warriors" of various forces, they have different fighting styles.

Rangers are good at fighting in the jungle. The rogue troops have powerful magic power. The Royal Shadow Guards will jump out of stealth and perform whirlwind attacks. The Iron Rangers from Cecilland...

They will squat in the grass, waiting to jump out suddenly and slap you in the face! P! G!

Then run away.

In the deep, dark, starless wilderness, one after another explosions sounded near Cecil's camp, breaking the originally peaceful night. In the center of Cecil's camp, Knight Philip was quietly listening to the sound coming from afar. Explosion sound.

Sure enough, the nobles in the Rock Fortress took advantage of the night to attack.

The nobles may be slow, but they are by no means stupid. After being chased and beaten by the Cecils in the southern border for nearly half a month, they can at least sum up some experience of being beaten. The magic crystal rail gun is powerful, but firing shells requires deployment Therefore, if you want to fight against the magical weapons of the Cecilians, destroying them before they enter the firing state is the only solution. In the face of cannons, any behavior that insists on traditional noble warfare rules is tantamount to suicide.

Young Philip Knight sighed slightly.

The classical aristocratic wars are gone forever, and those nobles learn to fight—or abandon "decency" faster than he imagined, as the lord said—romantic and inefficient aristocratic wars. It is going to perish, and when the new era comes, war will inevitably return to its most primitive and pure state.

A low humming sound suddenly came from the side, interrupting Knight Philip's thoughts. He raised his head and saw the magic device placed in the center of the camp that occupied a small half of the table was making noises and flashes. He immediately stepped forward and manipulated the rune trigger on the base of the magic device with a little unfamiliarity.

The device was activated, and the big bearded face of Knight Byron was projected in mid-air, along with the other party's loud voice with a slightly disturbing noise: "Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Damn... this thing Is that how it is used..."

"I can hear it, I can hear it—stop yelling, you don't need to be so loud!" Philip quickly replied after a brief trance—even though he had tried to use it several times, this new communication device still works every time. Let him feel amazed.

It is also Philip's task to use the new communication device on the battlefield and test its value on the battlefield. For this reason, the convoy attacking Rock Fortress also specially brought a team of magicians and a large number of magic net units, magic Functional obelisk components, so that the magic field can be laid to the place where the army can reach.

Because Earl Hossman died early, the efficiency of the southern nobles in establishing the magic net was not high, and the coverage of the magic net in the northern region was not yet seamlessly connected. In the wilderness and villages, technicians were needed. They continue to set up relay stations to ensure the signal transmission of the magic network communicator, but fortunately, the hive devil unit and the small obelisk are modular, and it is not difficult to set up and install along the way.

In the holographic projection above the communicator, Knight Byron was exclaiming on his face, and his voice was still very loud: "This thing is really a good thing... I can't imagine, we are so far away, and it is so easy. I can talk now... Before this, I have only seen the sight of a mage using the communication technique twice in half my life."

"Your voice can be lowered—the communicator uses the magic net to transmit signals, not your loud voice."

"Hey, I can't help it anymore," Knight Byron laughed dryly, and then showed his ear to listen, "You seem to be a little lively..."

Philip's face was a little tangled: "As you guessed before, they came to attack."

"Hey—those nobles have learned how to fight." Knight Byron slapped his hands and laughed loudly. "It's a pity that they are still too immature, and they can even come up with the idea of ​​a sneak attack in the middle of the night..."

Seeing this old partner's increasingly dishonest appearance, Philip couldn't help but frowned: "Are you here to occupy the channel to chat with me?"

The word "channel" was invented by the lord.

"Chat? Oh, I'm here to talk to you about something serious," Knight Byron seemed to remember what he was going to say, and hurried back to the topic, "We've already set sail, two warships with the latest ' The calibrator, the rainbow cannon, has been riding the wind and waves all the way to your side!"

"Calibrator?" Knight Philip repeated the unfamiliar vocabulary curiously. From the structure and expression of the word, he could hear the style of the ancient Gondor Empire.

"The name given by Master Kamel after the Rainbow Light Cannon was finalized means that it can be used to calibrate the enemy's mentality," Byron laughed, with a high-spirited expression on his face, "Now it depends on your progress—I These two ships don't have much self-defense capability after being equipped with rainbow cannons, you have to clear the position for me."

Looking at his old partner who was smiling like a child in the holographic projection, Philip's previous regret and sigh about the end of the noble war had vanished, and he also laughed, with a loud and powerful voice: "You still Think about yourself, you'd better hurry up, maybe I'll blow away the walls of the Rock Fortress before you arrive!"

"Ha, you underestimated Miss Till's ability—"

Chapter 0434 Approaching

On the White Water River shrouded in darkness, two completely remodeled large ships with extremely weird shapes are sailing in the rolling waves with a speed and agility that are completely unsuitable for their size.

These are two large ships that vaguely have the outline of an inland sailing warship. However, about one-third of the original wooden hull is covered with a layer of metal plates for reinforcement and magic. It was originally used as the power of the ship. The sails were also removed, and a huge and sturdy metal bracket was installed on the base used to fix the mast, and straight structures like wings extended to the sides and sides of the hull, and the magic runes on the "wings" structure appeared at night There is a faint light in the middle, and it complements the magic spar lights all over the hull, and apart from the particularly conspicuous "wing" structure called "magic array", the most conspicuous thing on these two ships is It is the two huge magic devices installed on the deck.

Their basic outline seems to be an extraordinarily large magic crystal rail gun, but the "barrel" is not a straight and parallel metal guide rail, but three alloy "beams" with elegant arcs and arranged in the shape of "pin" when viewed from the front. The inner side of the alloy beams is covered with magic patterns, and a transparent and slender artificial crystal is fixed in the center of the three alloy beams by some kind of mechanical locking device. The steel mechanism connects the entire "barrel" and the base together.

The size of this device is almost twice that of the first-generation magic crystal railgun. Although according to the development law of general technological creations, after the technology matures, it must have room for improvement to optimize the structure and reduce the volume, but since its birth Judging from the initial size, this must be a powerful thing.

Those power ridges extending from the bottom of the deck and covered with magic patterns, as well as the magic net runes that can be seen everywhere on the deck, and the amplifier set exposed in the rear half of the weapon base, all of them emphasize this The "power" of something.

Carrying such a heavy set of "transformation results" on their backs, the two wooden warships in inland rivers would naturally become bulky, but they sailed fast in the water, and it was still a night when the clouds blocked the stars. Ships hardly had the habit of sailing at night, and there were no other ships on the Baishui River. On the wide and clean river, the two warships galloped at a speed that would have stunned any captain of this era.

This is all because the waves of the Whitewater River are "pushing" the two ships forward.

The two warships sailed one after the other, and the originally calm Baishui River rolled up waves near the two ships. These waves did not shake the ships at all, but pushed them to gallop steadily all the way. On the surface of the water between the waves, there is an elegant figure that is almost dreamlike, shuttles and undulates swiftly between the foam and the water.

It was a girl with a beautiful fish tail. She shuttled through the water, and her body jumped out of the water from time to time, dancing with the surrounding waves. Her fish tail beat the foam, which was in sync with the waves beside her. She was like an elf in the water , like a fairy in the river in the legend, playing with the whole Baishui River.

Byron walked out of the cabin and breathed the fresh and cool air on the White Water River. He saw Tyre swimming through the waves, and couldn't help underestimating softly: "You look more energetic when you swim in the water."

A sound of footsteps came from the side, and Gawain's voice sounded behind Byron: "That's because she had slept for two full days and two nights before this, and if she didn't wake up, I would really suspect that the fish died in In the pool."

Byron turned around and saw the lord in uniform looking at the figure of Heli Tyre.