Chapter 382: Chapter 130: The Absurd War (Part 2)

Of course, honor was a trivial matter. What was truly crucial was that Viscount Elton later heard large groups of goblins were still moving back and forth across the border. He knew if he didn’t take the initiative and attack now, he might lose his chance.

Viscount Elton raised his Long Sword before him, his eyes fixed intently on Red Leaf Town in the distance.

"Attack!"

...

"Everyone, hide in the buildings and wait for the human Soldiers to charge in!"

"Quick! Find a Stone, get down, and wait for the humans to come to us!"

...

Mendes’s heart pounded with excitement. Seeing the large mass of humans charging from afar, he immediately commanded his troops to prepare.

As the personal guard of Prince Odoruo, the Beastman Soldiers were all seasoned veterans. Mendes didn’t need to micromanage them; they immediately knew the right course of action.

"For the kingdom! For the Lord of Dawn!"

"For the Lord of Dawn!"

...

Mendes was directing his army when the sounds of slaughter carried from behind him. Seeing that all preparations were nearly complete, he snatched up his axe and immediately turned, heading toward the rear of the town.

From the thunderous sound of their footfalls, Mendes could already gauge the caliber of this army.

’They were certainly much stronger than the rabble he had faced before, but to fight his elite Beastmen...’

"For the Lord of Dawn!"

With a thunder of hooves, the Knights leading the human charge broke through the town’s perimeter.

Mendes lay in wait, searching for an opportunity. Suddenly, a galloping horse flew past him.

"Long live the Empire! Attack!"

With a great roar, Mendes leaped out from behind the Stone where he was hiding. A Silver-tier battle aura erupted from his body as he shot straight toward the galloping horse.

That’s right—Mendes practically flew.

"Hah!"

Mendes drew his blade and fixed his eyes on his target.

Viscount Elton, having noticed the Beastman’s move behind him, used every ounce of his strength to throw himself from his horse, bringing it down.

The abrupt fall instantly snapped his warhorse’s bones, but it was just enough for Viscount Elton to narrowly dodge the blow.

"Hah!"

Before Viscount Elton could even react, the Beastman’s second axe swing arrived. This time, the Viscount wasn’t so lucky; the axe bit into his arm.

Fortunately, the human army had already started to advance, forming a protective circle around Viscount Elton.

"Argh!"

"For the Empire! For His Highness!"

Seeing Mendes charge out and kick off the engagement, the surrounding bloodthirsty Beastman Soldiers didn’t hesitate for a second. Raising their axes and roaring, they swarmed out from every corner.

"Extraordinary?!"

Viscount Elton stared in shock at the Beastman Soldiers. Many of them were radiating a faint glow—the unmistakable sign of an Extraordinary.

’How are there so many Extraordinary Beastmen?’

Beastman Soldiers were now pouring out from all sides. There had to be at least several dozen Extraordinary Beastmen, and from the looks of it, they were powerful ones at that!

Viscount Elton’s mind went completely blank. For a moment, he couldn’t process what was happening.

’He couldn’t recall any of his subordinate nobles reporting this to him!’

Viscount Elton felt a despair beyond tears. Why would a band of Beastman Soldiers that had just come down from the mountains possess an Extraordinary Team of this scale?

He was the administrator of an entire county, and even he hadn’t managed to assemble a proper Extraordinary Team yet. He, Elton, was just an ordinary Viscount. What could he do? Not everyone could be a freak of nature like Robson.

If he had known these Beastmen possessed so much Extraordinary power, you couldn’t have paid him to come and tug the tiger’s whiskers. He would have never taken this risk.

"Everyone! Maintain formation and retreat!"

"Maintain formation! Withdraw from Red Leaf Town!"

"Quick! The Viscount is still inside!"

"Viscount Elton is still in there!"

It had to be said that this battle-hardened army, forged in the fires of war, was truly incomparable to ordinary Soldiers.

Even when fighting toe-to-toe with Extraordinary Beastmen, the army Viscount Elton had brought did not break formation. Even the noble lords were displaying a rare sense of camaraderie.

Seeing the Extraordinary Beastmen all around them, they all snapped to their senses and realized they had thrown Viscount Elton into a pit of fire.

A few of the nobles who had been the most vocal in pushing Viscount Elton to charge now showed their courage, leading the remaining Soldiers to fight their way back in, trying to rescue the Viscount.

"Rescue the Viscount!"

"Charge in, quickly!"

Mendes watched the human nobles charge toward him. After a moment of consideration, he decided not to engage them, nor did he order his Beastman Soldiers to encircle them.

He had no choice. Right now, Mendes only had a little over forty Extraordinary warriors under his command. If he exhausted them here, he’d have nothing left.

"Avoid these ones! Attack the army behind them!" Mendes ordered the surrounding Extraordinary Beastman Soldiers.

Avoiding this group of Extraordinary human nobles didn’t mean Mendes was giving up this opportunity.

On the contrary, it was a way to seize an even greater one.

Mendes understood human nature perfectly. The humans wouldn’t give a damn if countless common Soldiers died. But if too many nobles were killed, the force sent to hunt him down would be far larger than Robson’s previous army.

Besides, his goal was to capture the human cities in the northeast to make his eventual escape smoother.

Even if the human nobles survived, without their armies of common Soldiers, the cities of the northeast would still be his for the taking.

...

"Lord Viscount! Lord Viscount! Are you alright?!"

"Viscount..."

As Elton heard the chorus of "Lord Viscount!" around him, he nearly coughed up a lung in exasperation.

’He clearly remembered that just yesterday, these same people were calling him a coward, even a lackey of the Beastmen. He never imagined they could change their tune so quickly.’

"Fine? Do I look fine to you?" Viscount Elton said with a bitter smile, looking at the concerned Baron Theodore before him. He remembered this man quite well.

’Theodore was the one who had been causing the most trouble earlier.’

Theodore’s face flushed with shame, well aware of the sarcasm in Viscount Elton’s words. But he thought to himself that when he was here before, there hadn’t been this many Beastmen—or at least, not this many Extraordinary Beastmen.

"Alright! This is no time for that. Hurry up and find my arm!

The intelligence was wrong. We can’t fight this group of Beastmen!"

Only then did Baron Theodore notice that Viscount Elton’s left arm was gone. Remembering his earlier words, his face turned an even deeper shade of red.

"My lord, your warhorse is injured. Take my horse and go! I’ll hold these Beastmen off for a while!"

"Have you been watching too many plays? Can’t we just take off our armor and share the horse?" Viscount Elton snapped.

"But... what about the Beastmen? What if they pursue us?"

At these words, a bitter look crossed Viscount Elton’s face as he surveyed the battlefield.

"They won’t," Viscount Elton sighed. "Their posture makes it clear they intend to devour my army... They won’t have time to bother with us."

He said it with a casual air, but inside, Viscount Elton felt anything but.

This army was everything Elton had. After this battle, he wondered how many of them would make it back to Vidom City alive.

In the span of a single hour, Viscount Elton’s entire outlook had been turned upside down.

’Originally, he had thought they were just a routed army. How strong could they possibly be?’

When he’d first heard of the massacre in Sri County, he had even inwardly sneered at the southern nobles for being so incompetent.

Now, Viscount Elton was getting a brutal taste of what the nobles of Sri County had felt. In fact, his situation was even worse.

After all, the nobles of Sri County had at least held out for half a month on the strength of their resources. He, on the other hand, had been completely steamrolled by the Beastmen in a matter of days.

"Let’s pull back while they’re not looking," Viscount Elton sighed.

Now, all he could do was hope for some good news from Count Sriphine.

PS: Just one Chapter for today. Your humble author seems to have caught the seasonal flu. I’m feeling dizzy, my head is fuzzy, and my eyes hurt a bit. I’m going to get it checked out. I’ll make it up to you all once I’m better.

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