Pale Emblem

Chapter 207 Elite Battle Group
The city gate tower above the west gate of Echo Town.

Clark's temporary command post.

"You all took the Dragon Blood Strengthening Elixir just to escape?!"

The scholar, Pograk, stared at the Fourth Battle Group commander with a stern and fierce gaze, his expression one of disbelief.

Faced with the old sage's cannibalistic gaze, Commander Jabil felt both guilty and ashamed.

The Dragon Blood Strengthening Elixir itself is not very expensive, but it is an important strategic resource for the Fallen Leaf City Legion.

Soldiers take a secret drug that boosts their strength and grants them near-limitless stamina for half an hour. During this time, they can unleash bursts of power without worrying about exhaustion.

The secret elixir of dragon blood's strength can be used to help soldiers break through enemy lines. Soldiers can run continuously at a 100-meter sprint speed for half an hour, but in the following two hours, their physical strength will rapidly decline. Even if they take the secret elixir to replenish their strength, they can only walk slowly and will not be able to fight.

Running away, you can't actually get very far.

Therefore, when soldiers take the Dragon Blood Strengthening Elixir, it means they must fight to the death against the enemy!

The question is, why did the second, fourth, and fifth battle groups retreat after using up their trump cards?
"A few demons have scared you out of your wits? Should I open the West Gate and let you run far away, hmm?" Pograk shrieked.

Jaber's face flushed red as he lowered his head and explained, "We originally intended to finish them off in one fell swoop. However, Pild conveyed General Clark's order, requiring us to retreat immediately."

Clark, who had been looking serious, immediately stood up from behind the table and exclaimed in surprise, "I didn't give the order... Pild has been with you the whole time, how could you not know that I didn't give the order at all?"

"Pierd, get over here! Did you relay the retreat order to Jabir and the others?" Clark shouted angrily at the messenger, Pierd.

“I warned you long ago, don’t use a messenger as a warlord!” Pograk said sarcastically from the side.

Messengers are dedicated personnel who relay orders and intelligence from superiors to subordinates within a legion, and are usually trusted servants of the commander.

The person who relays information from a lower-level battle group to the commander is called a liaison officer. The selection of this person is not fixed; any soldier in the battle group can temporarily serve as a liaison officer.

The overseer is different. He is a military officer in charge of military discipline, who is directly responsible to the city council and is not under the jurisdiction of the legion commander.

Generally speaking, city councils try to avoid sending overseers to legions unless a legion is no longer trustworthy.

Clark had no right to appoint overseers, but he deliberately made his own messengers act as liaison officers, ordering them to remain within each battle group. In reality, these trusted servants were acting as overseers for each battle group, to see which commander dared to disobey his operational orders.

This was clearly a sign of distrust towards his subordinates, but Clark was a newly appointed commander who lacked experience and prestige in the military. Although his actions were undignified, they were understandable.

By bringing this up openly, Pograk was essentially exposing Clark's shortcomings in public and mocking him as an incompetent commander.

Clark's face was ashen. He had only recently become a general, and his legion was newly formed, requiring time to gel with its commanders. Before this, his control over the legion was relatively weak; shouldn't he have sent trusted servants to each battle group to oversee operations?
This was because the messenger Pild had given false orders, which gave Bograk leverage over him.

“My wise master, it was indeed I who, by virtue of your authority, issued the order to retreat to Commander Jabil,” Herald Pild explained to Clark, kneeling on one knee and bowing his head.

"Because the enemy we were facing was a demon, and there was more than one. Behind these demons, there might be an even more powerful demon. Your commanders and soldiers were completely unprepared for this, and even with the strengthening elixir, we couldn't be sure what would happen in the next battle. I thought we should preserve our strength, so I asked the commanders to disengage from the battle, report to the master first, and then let the master make the decision."

The young herald was handsome, spoke humbly, and was extremely respectful. He stood in stark contrast to the wrinkled, acerbic sage, Pograk.

Clark felt that Pild's reasoning made some sense.

Bograk, however, roared, "You lowly slave, who gave you the right to falsely convey military orders? I'm going to lock you in a hanging cage..."

Before he could finish speaking, Pild rushed forward and slammed his fist into the sage's face.

Clark selects messengers from among his household servants, at the very least those who are agile and awakened, and will provide them with resources as appropriate to help them advance to become professionals and serve him.

Pild's professional rank wasn't high, but he was a genuine stealth hunter. He was agile and physically strong, far exceeding that of ordinary people.

The old and frail sage Pograk had his nose broken by a single punch and collapsed to the ground.

"You old mad dog, you think you're my master? How dare you bite me like that? I'll beat you to death!" Pild cursed loudly as he stomped on the Sage Pograk lying on the ground.

Clark was stunned. The messenger was actually a domestic slave, and Pograk was not only the highest-ranking servant of the Silver Horn noble family, but also a sage certified by the Alliance Academy Council. In other words, the Silver Horn noble family and Sage Pograk had both a master-servant relationship and a cooperative relationship.

Seeing Pild beat up Pograk, Clark was secretly pleased, but he also knew that this damned servant had gotten him into big trouble.

How dare Pierre!
Before Clark could give any orders, a quick-thinking, high-level professional grabbed Pild by the neck and tossed him to Clark's feet like a dead chicken.

"Quintus, well done." Clark stepped on the back of Pild's head, praising the advanced professional, but his expression was not very pleasant.

Quintus shrugged indifferently. He was about 30 years old, with typical brown curly hair, handsome features, no beard, and fair skin—typical features of a highland half-elf. His body seemed to be honed to perfection, displaying smooth, full muscle lines that gave him an impression of both strength and agility, like a powerful tiger.

Quintus was not Clark's subordinate; to be precise, he was not a follower of the prestigious Silver Horn family, but rather the vice-commander of Clark's Legion.

Each battle group has an elite squad, and each legion also has an elite battle group of 200 people.

Elite battle groups are typically composed of dragon riders and professionals of level three or above, along with ten large, third-tier dragon beasts, and are specifically tasked with fighting powerful enemies.

The prestigious Silver Horn Clan doesn't have the resources to build an elite battle group. This is the elite force allocated to the Clark Legion by the Fallen Leaf City Council. Level 6 swordsman Quintus is the commander of this elite battle group, and also serves as the deputy legion commander of the Clark Legion.

Although Quintus was born into a noble family in the Highlands, the Earth Temple in Fallen Leaf City was his patron.

Because of the Earth Temple, he was forced to serve under Clark. Of course, Clark himself knew that this top twenty genius swordsman of Fallen Leaf City looked down on him.

The situation now requires Quintus to step in in order to turn things around.

Clark put on a smile and said to Quintus, "Brother Quintus, that idiot Jabir messed things up. I can only rely on you now. I need you to take back East Gate immediately, or we'll all die."

“You’re right, sir.” Quintus nodded, then continued, “No matter what demons stand in our way, we must reclaim the East Gate. I will do it, but please send me your personal guard, sir.”

Finally, he added, "Otherwise, I can't guarantee that we can definitely take over the East Gate."

Clark's Royal Guard was only slightly less capable than the elite battle groups. However, of the 150 men in the guard, 70 had been lost while tracking the Chimera, leaving only 80 who could not possibly be deployed to Quintus.

"How about you change your terms?" Clark had no choice but to back down.

Quintus sneered and said, "Sage Pograk was knocked unconscious by your men, otherwise he would have sent three more battle groups to assist me."

Clark glanced at the old sage being treated by the physician, then turned to say, “That’s impossible. The second, fourth, and fifth warbands haven’t recovered their fighting strength yet. I only have seven warbands left, and we also need to guard against the orcs attacking the city walls. At most, I can send the first warband to you and allow you to let them lead the charge.”

Quintus could have asked for another warband to assist him, but he couldn't be bothered to haggle with Clark. He slung his longsword over his shoulder, waved his hand, and led the group of high-ranking professionals down the city wall.

Before long, the First Warband and Quintus's elite warband, totaling 495 people, joined forces and crossed the streets, approaching the town's east gate square.

For some unknown reason, the howling wind stopped, and the foggy East Gate Square became as quiet as a cemetery.

Dozens of tall figures stood in the night fog, making it impossible to tell whether they were stone statues or flesh-and-blood monsters.

At this moment, the commander of the First Battle Group stepped on a corpse. When he shone his torch on it, he found that the armor on the dead body was intact, but the flesh and internal organs of the dead body seemed to have been sucked away by something, leaving only dry skin covering the bones.

The sunken, empty eye sockets of the deceased gave off an ominous feeling.

"Sir, should we send out scouts to investigate?" the commander of the First Battle Group asked cautiously.

Quintus smiled dismissively and shook his head, saying, "Don't worry, there are no monsters in this world that can't be killed. Have your men take the fortifying potion in two batches, then attack with all your might. Once the effects of the potion wear off, you can retreat."

"Yes." The commander of the First Battle Group had no choice but to agree, but in his heart he cursed the previous commanders who had deserted their posts.

"Don't worry, we'll go with you. And just a heads-up, aside from the head, demons have no fatal weaknesses. If you're smart, have your soldiers attack any part of them; the accumulated wounds and their continued self-healing will kill them," Quintus said, staring ahead without turning his head.

His brown eyes gradually turned pale purple, and his focused gaze seemed to pierce through the thick fog.

The commander of the First Legion didn't dare delay and immediately issued tactical orders. The soldiers of the First Legion were divided into two attack echelons. After taking the Dragon Blood Strengthening Elixir, they launched an attack on the east gate in a wedge formation.

Sure enough, the enormous figures vaguely visible in the thick fog were all former garrison soldiers who had been corrupted and mutated.

They are about 2.5 meters tall and have a bulky body. Although they basically maintain a human form, they are deformed and ugly. Their clothes and equipment are torn due to the expansion and deformation of their bodies, revealing grayish-white skin. They have a tail trailing behind them, which makes them completely different from half-elves.

These monsters trudged heavily as they charged toward the half-elf soldiers.

The two sides clashed quickly. The humanoid monsters were incredibly strong and outsized, easily launching their opponents into the air with a wave of their arms.

Half-elf soldiers who take the secret potion experience a significant increase in physical strength, especially the shield guards at the forefront. They activate Rock Skin, greatly increasing their strength and defense. Their class-specific Bloodlust ability also helps them automatically resist one fatal blow. They can always use their shields to block monsters' fierce attacks in time. Even if they are knocked into the air by a great force, they will automatically adjust their posture to reduce the impact damage.

The relentless attacks of the shield guards created opportunities for other soldiers to inflict casualties.

The giant monster roared repeatedly, rampaging across the square, its power and size unstoppable.

But the dragoons were undeterred by the charge. They focused their attacks on the monster's legs and feet, bending their spears and denting their shields, managing to slow down the monster's charge.

At this moment, three larger lion-like dragons rushed into the battle and tackled the monster, pinning it firmly to the ground with their powerful claws and teeth.

The soldiers swarmed him and threw all sorts of weapons at him.

Even an immortal being would be chopped into mincemeat under such circumstances, let alone these contaminated mutants which do not have strong regenerative abilities. It let out a dying howl, each wound bulged, and then large amounts of blood sprayed several meters high, turning into a thick blood mist that spread rapidly.

The soldiers around them were sprayed with blood. They hadn't expected the monster to have so much blood inside. Fortunately, they hadn't noticed anything unusual yet; it seemed to be just blood.

The soldiers packed their weapons and rushed to another battlefield.

Victor stood atop the city wall. In his view, the half-elf soldiers, carrying torches, were like a pack of wolves, swarming and killing Christine's servants. With each servant they killed, more soldiers would be sent to attack the next one. Their numerical advantage snowballed across the battlefield.

After all, Christine had only about 40 servants left, while the other side had deployed nearly 500 elite soldiers, including hundreds of dragon riders and a small number of lion-type dragon beasts.

The army was indeed a terrifying force; even though Christine's servants had all been corrupted into lesser demons, they were still unable to reverse the situation.

However, the massive amounts of blood mist spewed out by these lesser demons after their deaths had quietly enveloped most of the square.