Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1713. Change
This quarantine area can accommodate a total of five to six hundred horse-drawn carriages, and covers a considerable area.

In addition, the carriages are arranged and stacked, and there is a wall of wooden stakes around them.

After Lincoln and his men broke in and defeated the guard troops, it was difficult to quickly eliminate the scattered deserters.

The Sailans surrendered very easily under the leadership of the sergeant, but the Nilfgaardians who were assigned to such sensitive positions had to be deeply trusted and had good performance.

Most of them would not surrender until they died in battle.

Then we can only chase and kill them in this quarantine area.

But then again: this place is full of carriages and carts. How can it be so easy and quick to chase down a group of deserters?

So after the Embers Knights broke through the place, they were eager to begin investigating the curse, while the task of clearing out the deserters was spontaneously carried out by the follow-up troops who had rushed in with them.

But even if these deserters run in circles, they can still delay a lot of time.

It was already ten minutes after the goal was broken, but the deserters had not yet been dealt with. The ones who were cornered, fighting desperately, hacking cars and roaring were the last ones still alive.

Normally, it would take at least half an hour to clear out the enemy in such a complex terrain. The efficiency of these follow-up soldiers was quite good.

But now, facing the curse, they were still too slow.

When Lincoln quickly arrived here, he only saw the body of a Nilfgaard soldier lying on the ground with his breastplate smashed by the dwarf's hammer and blood foam coming out of the corner of his mouth.

There was also the carriage next to him that he had chopped at a few times just now when he was venting his anger.

"My beard!" The tarpaulin on the carriage was dragged down by the dead man when he fell, revealing the scene inside. The dwarf took a look and shouted as if his eyes were pierced by needles, "What the hell is going on?!"

The dwarves are a society that cannot even accept slavery, let alone the situation of treating humans like animals.

The Nilfgaardian swung his weapons a few times in an act of venting his anger, but he didn't hit anyone inside the carriage.

But he chopped down the partition between the narrow mezzanines, causing a layer of wooden boards that had long been corroded by urine and feces to break and fall on the people on the next floor.

These people were already in an extremely unhealthy state due to long-term severe fear, and they were malnourished and detained for a long time, so they couldn't even turn their heads.

The one who was pressed down by the upper layer died instantly.

But even so, when Lincoln went over to check, the man lying on top of the corpses on the next layer still seemed to feel nothing, his expression still immersed in unnatural fear.

Lincoln was the only Embers Knight who came here. The other three who were there just now had already quickly rushed to other places in the quarantine area to prevent anyone else from causing any accidents.

After Lincoln checked the scene, it was too late to do anything; the man was already dead.

"Did he cut the carriage on purpose? Or was it out of mindless rage in a desperate situation?"

He only asked the pursuing dwarves one question.

"Well, what's wrong with this?" The dwarf with blood on his hammer head asked carefully first, and then said, "But from what I saw just now, he probably just wanted to cheer himself up before dying, so I didn't think much about it."

"That's better." Lincoln nodded solemnly and said nothing more.

Afterwards, several Embers Knights gathered together again, and the defeated soldiers in the quarantine area were completely dealt with.

"This is my mistake." Lincoln lowered his head first and said to his battle brothers, "I didn't rule out these things that might affect the curse in the first place."

The other Embers shook their heads.

"It's not your fault. It's only been a few minutes since you broke into the house? How many people did you bring with you? You have to search for clues immediately and maintain the scene as soon as possible? You can't do it. You can only choose the most important thing."

"We are still too few in number, and we dare not allow outsiders to interfere in the curse. In my opinion, it is time for us to expand."

"Expansion is for the future, let's focus on the present first! Blaming yourself is a useless emotion. Lincoln, assess your own mental state, and hand over command if it doesn't work."

"No, I'm fine."

"Then the mission continues."

Lincoln took a deep breath: "Huh~"

"We don't know what changes the curse has undergone due to our mistake just now, but we still have to find the bell and the car as soon as possible! In addition, we must establish contact with the warlocks. Their research on the curse is also very useful."

Curse, the trouble is that it is complicated and dangerous.

Triggering the curse rashly will only make it worse, and laymen without professional qualifications will basically do so rashly as long as they get involved.

Even when Lann was dealing with the first curse-related mission he encountered, he followed Geralt, the veteran, which was like paying tuition to follow him all the way.

To deal with the curse, it takes a lot of experience and knowledge, as well as the basic skills of witcher lore.

"There's no other way right now." Lincoln waved a stack of documents in his hand, "Let's follow the original timetable and route map and look for it nearby."

"Seal off this quarantine zone again, and send someone across the battlefield to find Lady Merigold. The Nilfgaardians have collapsed, so there is no need to keep the battlefield silent." "These tasks are not difficult, and ordinary people can do them."

Instructions were listed quickly one by one.

The Embers Knights consulted with each other and quickly passed the decision. Without any hesitation, they immediately began to execute it.

Lincoln and another Embers Knight went out immediately, mounted their horses, and rushed towards the direction of the route map amid the growing chaos.

The other two Embers will be in the chaotic Nilfgaard camp, conveying orders to the other Embers.

Lincoln rode away on his horse, not wanting to care about the chaos in the barracks.

It was normal for a military camp that could accommodate tens of thousands of people to collapse and become chaotic for several days. The victors would need weeks just to capture prisoners near the battlefield.

Even so, the number of bandits, mountain robbers and highway robbers in this area will increase rapidly after the war, which is the result of the deserters who were not captured being transferred to other jobs on the spot.

Along the rough road, horse hooves kicked up spots of mud and hay.

The Embers Knights only had to nod to the Northern Alliance troops surrounding the military camp, and they could run out of the dangerous plain area and into the forest about one kilometer away from the camp.

The forest in winter looks gloomy and deep.

But the Ash Knights who have become demon hunters focused their energy on the detailed traces on the roads in the forest and didn't care at all how gloomy and deep the forest was.

Under the witcher's senses, the broken branches on the roadside, the fresh wheel marks on the black soil, and other traces are clearly visible.

The only problem is that when riding a horse, the demon hunter's senses are fully activated, and the change in perspective makes people dizzy.

But now time is running out and the situation is urgent, and the Embers Knights don't want to care about so much at all.

The dull thud of horse hooves hitting the ground could not be heard far in the gloomy and depressing woods.

However, the Ash Knight on horseback, who was originally observing his surroundings attentively, suddenly became distracted.

It was just a very small movement, and it was done while on a galloping horse.

However, the Embers Knight behind Lincoln still sensed something unusual through the extraordinary tacit understanding between the fighting brothers. He increased the speed of his horse silently, while vaguely forming a seal with his left hand.

He didn't relax until Lincoln gestured without turning his head.

The tacit understanding was mutual. He could detect Lincoln's slightest abnormality, and Lincoln also knew that the other party would notice it and become alert.

And in his mind, the secretary of the Order of Embers responded to a communication.

"Lady Merigold?"

"Lincoln, I'm glad I got in touch with you!" Triss's voice combines the crispness of a young girl and the charm of a mature woman.

"Once we saw the Nilfgaardian army collapse, we immediately tried to establish a communications network. Where are all the Embers now? It seems to me that you are very scattered."

It's not easy for a warlock to find people. Triss can feel the approximate distribution of the Embers Knights because she assisted in the mutation process of all the Embers Knights in High Hill Castle. She has cast spells on each of them and they all know each other.

"It would be great if we could get in touch using the Warlock's communications network now!"

Lincoln did not explain further.

"Please pass this thing to all Embers immediately. We need to spread out along this road to find a carriage with a big bell on it."

The clerk handed over the timetable and route map he had written down in shorthand in his mind.

"What and what?"

Triss didn't follow the Embers' train of thought for a moment.

These powerful knights have already crushed the enemy on the battlefield, and now all they have to do is finish off the task. Why are they suddenly looking for a 'carriage with a big bell on it'?
In fact, after the transfer of the command of the Northern Alliance, the command post immediately began to evacuate, so Triss was too busy to see what was happening with the ghosts on the battlefield.

It was during her telepathic communication with Lincoln that she found out.
"That thing is the product of a curse?!"

The sorceress' tone was full of astonishment. Even among the sorcerers, most people would stay away from curses and avoid contact with them.

But then, while Triss quickly used magic to pass Lincoln's message to the minds of the Embers on the battlefield, she suddenly realized and exclaimed, with a sense of urgency in her tone.

"So the thing on the battlefield is the way it is now because some of the thousands of people who created the curse died?!"

"What does it look like now?" Lincoln immediately became serious. "Has that thing changed, Lady Merigold?"

They were racing against time to investigate clues about the curse and had no time to take a look at the battlefield in the distance.

This area is said to be a plain, but if you look at the distance, the slight height difference is enough to obscure the view.

(End of this chapter)