Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence - Chapter 744 - 414: Battlefield Intelligence (2)
As long as that fear loosens a bit, temporarily filled by hunger, the situation will plunge into complete chaos.
Louis slowly opened his eyes.
Outside the carriage, the rainstorm continued to pour, and the distant Gray Rock Castle loomed faintly in the rain.
A bold yet precise plan quickly took shape in his mind.
It wasn’t a gamble, nor did it require a miracle.
Just a single cut, along the gap that Kael himself had left, to slice down steadily.
He turned his head, looking at the Knight escorting the carriage, who maintained a constant distance from it: “Weir.”
Weir immediately rode closer, lowered his head, and responded, “My lord.”
“Have Thomas come here,” Louis said calmly, “now.”
Weir didn’t ask more, just nodded shortly, then turned his horse around, and rode towards the back of the team through the rain.
……
The raging wind, with rain perched like peas, slammed hard against the rock wall.
Rainwater coursed down the crevices like uncontrollable streams, drenching the whole cliff face to a cold, slippery sheen.
Visibility was reduced to less than five meters, and the thunder rolled and echoed through the canyon, swallowing all subtle sounds in its roaring chorus.
Thomas clung to the rock wall, fingertips tightly gripping onto a protruding ledge.
Rain dripped into the corners of his eyes along the edges of his goggles, only to be blinked away. He didn’t lift his head, just adjusted his breathing slowly along the rock surface, bringing his heartbeat back to a controllable rhythm.
This weather, conversely, gave him peace of mind.
The Lord’s intelligence never erred, and the current downpour corroborated those calm judgments one by one.
In this humidity, the precise alchemy fuses acted like dampened matchsticks.
Not to mention stable ignition, even ensuring a reaction was difficult.
If Kael truly wanted to detonate those five tons of Fire Demon Explosion Bullets, the only way was to resort to the most primitive means: manpower, rope, and iron.
Thinking of this, the corner of Thomas’s mouth almost curled into an inappropriate smile, but he quickly suppressed it.
Thomas was not acting alone on this mission.
The twenty or so figures climbing along this cliff all belonged to the White Night Knights.
This was a special knight squad personally formed by Lord Louis.
No code number, nor were they part of any regular Knight Order.
Their existence was solely to carry out those missions that couldn’t afford to fail.
Each member was the most elite selection from several knight orders under the Red Tide, with even the lowest possessing powers above an Extraordinary Knight.
Thomas is the captain of this squad.
More than explosive strength and Fighting Energy levels, he excelled at judging timing, dismantling predicaments, and completing a mission successfully in the shortest time.
At this moment, they were dispersed across the rock face, with no apparent formation, yet maintaining precise distances from each other.
The soft armor on them was drenched in rain, clinging tightly to their bodies, with all metal fasteners wrapped in leather, even their breathing intentionally hushed.
No Fighting Energy was unleashed, not because they couldn’t, but because they dared not.
At this range, even a trace of excess energy could be captured like a spark.
The White Night Squad climbed upward along an abandoned herb gatherer’s mountain path.
This path, originally only secretly used by thin mountain villagers, was known to few, and now nearly obliterated by the rain.
Yet the White Night Knights seemed to remember every foothold; each hand movement, each change of feet was an instinctive reaction honed through countless drills.
Like a group of geckos clinging to a precipice.
Unknown how long passed, the slope of the rock wall finally relaxed.
Thomas raised his hand to signal, and everyone halted simultaneously.
He first peeked half of his body over the cliff edge, instantly lowering his center of gravity, lying flat on the cold wet rock surface.
The rain was harsher here, but also more noise-filled.
He looked up, spotting the sentry post fortress set up by Kael, ablaze with lights in the distance.
But their target wasn’t there; Thomas’s gaze slowly shifted to the left.
About a kilometer away in the darkness, a massive rock protruded outward like the curved beak of a predator, embedded tightly on the cliff edge – that was Eagle’s Beak Rock.
Below the rock, a faint, steady alchemy light shone through the rain, cut into intermittent spots.
Thomas squinted, lying a bit lower to improve his line of sight.
It was a heavy black iron winch, firmly anchored to the rock base.
The winch’s structure was rough but solid, with several hefty steel cables coiled around the drum, their surfaces greased, allowing rainwater to glide over without penetrating.
These steel cables spread downward like a web, disappearing into the fissures below the cliff face.
Thomas didn’t need to see to know what lay at their end.
Five tons of Fire Demon Explosion Bullets.
Guarding the winch were five Death Warriors from Gray Rock.
They stood evenly spaced, without talking or making unnecessary movements.
Each one looked like a statue nailed to the ground, only slightly adjusting their balance when necessary to combat the fierce wind.
Not Extraordinary Knights, Thomas quickly assessed in his mind.
Indeed, such a task requires no power, just pressing down the lever at the last moment.
Bringing in an Extraordinary Knight to detonate is indeed a waste.
His gaze finally fell on one of them.
The knight stood directly beside the winch, his right hand already clasped tightly on the safety pin, yet steady without a hint of trembling.
As long as he presses down, the winch will loosen, the sledgehammer will fall, and the primer will ignite, blowing the entire canyon sky-high.
Thomas took a slow breath.
Rain dripped from his chin, striking the rock and being instantly swallowed by the wind.
He raised his hand, making a short and clear gesture behind him.
The White Night Squad’s movements came to a silent standstill at that moment.
Everyone was waiting for his next instruction.
Then, Thomas raised his hand and made several short, clear gestures in the rain.
Ignore the others, prioritize taking care of the winch handler.
It must be a one-hit kill without giving him even half a second to press the safety pin.
The gesture flickered in the darkness, yet was accurately captured by every White Night Knight.
Twenty silhouettes swiftly responded with hand signals, quietly adjusting their angles from their original positions, each locking onto a target.
Their breathing was suppressed to the minimum, their Fighting Energy still dormant within, without leaking out in the slightest, merging completely with the rainy night, leaving only calm and focused gazes.
At this moment, the clouds in the sky churned violently.
A blinding flash of lightning tore the night sky, illuminating Eagle’s Beak Rock and that black iron winch in a ghastly white.
Immediately after, thunder echoed deep within the clouds, gathering force.
Thomas knew the time had come, counting silently in his heart.
Three, two, one.
“Boom——!!!” Thunder exploded above the canyon.
At the instant the thunder drowned out everything, Thomas moved.
His Fighting Energy suddenly surged, his figure transforming into a pale blue afterimage, using the thunder to cover the explosive sound of trampling the muddy water, spanning several dozen meters in an instant.
The Death Warrior pressing the winch seemed to sense something in the lightning, instinctively turning his head.
But his reaction was ultimately a beat too slow.
“Choke.”
The dagger pierced upward, directly passing through his palm, pinning the hand clutching the safety pin onto the wooden handle of the winch.
The scream hadn’t even been uttered when another cold light swept across.
The blade sliced through the rain, cutting accurately across the throat.
The blood was quickly washed away by the rainstorm as the knight’s body tilted forward, slamming heavily onto the winch, silent forever.
Almost simultaneously, the other four Gray Rock Death Warriors were also approached.
The glint of blades flickered briefly through the lightning and rain.
No roars, no collisions.
Four bodies fell one after another in the rain, sliding softly onto the rocky ground without a chance to sound an alarm.
These Elite Knights were ultimately no match for an Extraordinary Knight, dispatched within a single encounter.
The crisis was averted.
Thomas kicked the corpse away from the winch, his gaze falling on the taut steel cables.
This was Kael’s most powerful card and also his most insidious plot.
He retrieved the alchemy hydraulic scissors from his waist, clamping them onto the guide wire.
“Snap.” The first steel cable broke.
“Snap.” The second one followed.
“Snap.” The third one.
The tensionless steel cables snapped sharply, quickly dropping like several severed dead snakes, retracting into the darkness beneath the cliff.
Sufficient to destroy everything, the five-ton Fire Demon Explosion Bullet had been rendered completely inert.
Thomas put away the tool and glanced up at the sky.
The thunderstorm hadn’t ceased.
Thomas stood on the edge of Eagle’s Beak Rock, letting the downpour wash over his armor and the bloodstains, looking down into the pitch-black canyon below.
There, tens of thousands of refugees huddled in the narrow passageway, shivering in hunger and fear.
And farther away, Kael was expectantly waiting to press a button… that no longer existed.
