Chapter 379 - 267: The Situation at the White Bone Fortress 2

In his middle age, due to his outstanding military Talent and his swift, decisive actions, he became known as the "Highland Golden Lion."

As a result, his achievements in life were great. Many even privately rumored that he, not his brother, should have been the Duke of the South.

Instead of his older brother—Duke Xilong.

But Damon knew he wasn’t cut out for it. Just dealing with daily political affairs was a massive headache; he would rather spend his time in a brothel.

He had originally thought he would spend his life in brothels and eventually die in the arms of some prostitute, only to be buried with great sorrow by Xilong in the place where they used to play as children.

But tragedy struck so suddenly. Xilong died, and Damon’s own misdeeds came back to haunt him, forcing him to go against his conscience and seize the title of Duke.

Afterward, however, he let that Knight and his own niece escape, which led to the Northern Territory marching south.

Then, at a critical moment, a single letter pleading for aid had led him to bring his army to White Bone Fortress. This ultimately resulted in his main force getting bogged down and ended with the fall of Kolon.

It was as if in his old age, fate no longer smiled upon him, allowing these tragedies to unfold one after another.

Damon possessed a pride that ordinary people could hardly imagine. He never felt regret for his actions. But now, looking at the decimated army in White Bone Fortress and the Demons lurking hungrily outside the walls...

He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. His conviction began to waver.

"No, Lord! Your actions are absolutely worthy of being sung by every Minstrel in the Seven Kingdoms," Mudehan said with a sincere expression. "It is because of the choice you’ve made that countless civilians in the Southern Territory have been spared from the Demons’ grasp, allowing innumerable families to survive."

As a Minstrel, Mudehan had long yearned to be part of an Epic tale.

’Now, because of Damon’s choice, I’m personally taking part in a battle that will be recorded in the annals of history. How could that be wrong?’

Besides, in all honesty, his choice had indeed saved countless civilians.

Without White Bone Fortress to hold them back, these Demons could have marched unopposed into the heart of the Southern Territory. The nobles and merchants in their castles might have been safe, but the surrounding villages, protected by only a few Militia, would have been devastated.

"Perhaps," Damon said noncommittally, his gaze hardening once more. "Mudehan, see if you can find a way to fix the Communication Magic Stone. First thing tomorrow, I’ll organize another charge and see if we can get a message out."

The situation at White Bone Fortress had grown so dire not because they didn’t want to call for aid.

At some point, things had started to go wrong.

The Communication Magic Stone, interfered with by the Demon Mages, only worked intermittently, and messages couldn’t be sent out.

As for Messenger Soldiers? Surrounded by Demons, White Bone Fortress was like a beast trapped in a swamp, struggling in vain to break free.

Even the arrival of the Griffin Knight Order as reinforcements had only served to add more fuel to the pyre, merely prolonging their struggle.

These Demons were cunning. They cut off all communication with the outside world, surrounding White Bone Fortress with the intent to annihilate them first.

If the Demons simply bypassed the fortress and entered the Southern Territory’s heartland, they would be vulnerable to an attack from the rear.

Now, their only hope was that someone on the outside would realize something was amiss and send reinforcements.

"My Lord... your injuries?" Mudehan asked, his face etched with worry.

"I am the Highland Golden Lion. A wound like this isn’t enough to make me whine in agony. While I still have the strength, I will do what I can. The rest is up to the Earth Mother Goddess." Damon turned, clapped him on the shoulder, and flashed his old, proud smile.

"My Lord..." A warmth spread through Mudehan’s chest, and suddenly, the Demons no longer seemed so fearsome.

"There are still a thousand Lion Knights left. I have to deploy them properly... COUGH, COUGH..." A sharp pain in his chest forced a few light coughs from him.

He had taken a direct blow to the chest from a Six-armed Snake Demon. If the Thorn Guardian magic on his armor hadn’t activated, he would have already gone to see Xilong.

...

On the Highland, dozens of Jackal Wolf Scouts fanned out, surveying the area. They would occasionally halt, allowing the Warg Mounts beneath them to twitch their noses and sniff the air.

Levi was riding on the back of Biefeng, who stood two blades high. This height allowed him to stand out like a crane among chickens, but not so much as to be overly ostentatious.

Fujero, riding beside him on a shorter mount, was well aware of this petty vanity but pretended not to notice.

Back when Fujero was made a Baron, he had been of equal rank to the Lord of High Cliff Castle. But now that the man had been elevated to Marquis, Fujero still had to address him as ’Lord’.

This time, he had brought a thousand cavalry in total. Combined with High Cliff Castle’s three hundred Heavy Centaur Cavalry and two hundred Jackal Wolf Scouts, their vanguard numbered fifteen hundred soldiers.

This number had been decided upon after careful thought and discussion.

Their high mobility meant they could retreat from a large enemy force with ease, yet they still had enough strength to take on any smaller groups they encountered.

Still, watching the professionalism of the Jackal Wolf Scouts filled Fujero with envy.

Their keen sense of smell allowed them to detect enemy movements from miles away, an ability that was especially valuable for tracking large forces.

So far, by following the Jackal Wolf Scouts, they had yet to encounter this mysterious Demon force, but the tracks they found along the way proved they were on the right path.

He even found himself wondering if he should recruit a batch of Jackal Wolfmen from the Wilderness to serve as scouts for the Thorn Corps.

But he quickly shook his head, dismissing the idea. Jackal Wolfmen were inherently bloodthirsty, which meant they could never be integrated into a regular army.

This made Fujero admire the Lord of High Cliff Castle even more. The godlike reverence those Jackal Wolfmen held for their Lord was plain for anyone with eyes to see.

He could only attribute it to Levi possessing a heroic charisma that few men had, one that made even these proud and unruly Wilderness People willingly submit to him.

He didn’t know, however, that the Lord possessed no heroic charisma. All he had were his own two fists and a "system" he passed off as the Gift of the War God.

With a classic carrot-and-stick approach, a bunch of ignorant Wilderness bumpkins were easily brought to heel.

"Lord, we’ve found something up ahead," Hog reported, riding up from the distance on his Warg Mount.

Since High Cliff Castle had its Jackal Wolf Scouts, they had naturally taken on all the scouting duties.

They had been marching for some time since leaving Kolon, but the Demons that had attacked the city seemed to have vanished into thin air. If not for the clear memory of the Demon corpses outside Kolon City, they might have thought it was all a dream.

But now, it seemed they finally had news. "Hog, what did you find?" the Lord asked, lowering the spyglass from his eyes.

"We found a village up ahead. A troop of Demons has gathered there. A rough estimate puts their numbers in the hundreds."

Fujero pulled out a map and compared it to their surroundings before quickly voicing his confusion. "This village is just an ordinary farming community. Because it’s so close to Kolon, the farmers here grow tulips to sell in the city instead of vegetables. The population is only about a thousand people. What could these Demons possibly want here?"

Fujero had been puzzled ever since they left Kolon. The Demons that had raided the city seemed to have no clear objective; they weren’t marching on any particular location, nor were they pressing the attack on Kolon. It was impossible to discern their purpose.

"It just goes to show you that a ragtag group is still just a ragtag group," the Lord offered a different opinion. "I’ll admit, for a bunch of good-for-nothings to come up with a plan to impersonate Andao’s troops and trick Kolon into opening its gates, they’re certainly a cut above your average village Militia."

"But at their core, they’re just a small, poorly disciplined force. When they saw they couldn’t get into the beautiful prize that is Kolon, they had to turn to the countryside and find these... more welcoming villages to blow off some steam."

Although his words were crude, the Lord’s assessment hit the nail on the head.

The Demons’ original goal was to trick their way into Kolon, a metropolis of a million people, and slaughter them at will. But since their plot was exposed, they had to settle for undefended villages, slaughtering helpless farmers and their freckle-faced daughters.

In Levi’s opinion, this Demon force was all bark and no bite. ’Best to finish them off quickly and be done with it.’

And so, the entire force of fifteen hundred men began to deploy into battle formation as they advanced, finally arriving at the small village called Yada.