Knight and Wand

Chapter 263 The Knights Set Out

He hurried back to Avalon from Redingburg on Corvus's Hippogriff.

Leon came to the griffin enclosure in the inner city, and before leading his troops on their journey, he paid a last visit to the severely injured Deathclaw.

The giant beast, which was sleeping soundly in the pen, saw a familiar companion. It made a humming sound of intimacy from its majestic eagle beak and immediately came over to rub Leon's body.

Leon held the huge eagle head and stroked it for a long time before letting go of the big cuckoo that was becoming more and more friendly.

Deathclaw, whose wings were severely injured, is still unable to fly and cannot return to its Griffin Nest Tower. It can only lie in the shed under the new tower built for it every day to recuperate.

After a period of recuperation, it at least looks much more energetic than before.

It is worthy of being a masterpiece of the King of France in ancient times. As long as there is enough food, the griffin can still rely on its extraordinary vitality to gradually recover from injuries that are enough to kill ordinary animals.

A clear cry came from the side. Leon turned his head and saw that it was little Goethe who had been curled up in his mother's arms. He suddenly flapped his wings and was awakened by the noise.

In fact, Leon felt that he could now almost remove the word "small" from the word "small" in his heart.

Although this griffin cub is only seven months old, it has grown to a size close to that of an adult male lion and has long since learned to fly.

Ever since this kid learned to fly, he has never had a single day of leisure. He either has fun in the sky of Avalon or strolls around the castle.

Nowadays, the people in the territory are no longer surprised by this friendly, magical and mighty beast.

Leon just let it go. Firstly, given the intelligence of the griffin, it was impossible for it to get lost or run away. Secondly, most people in the territory knew the names of "His Highness Deathclaw" and "His Highness Goethe" and regarded them as auspicious beasts guarding Avalon.

As a "lion" with wings and the ability to fly, it is almost impossible for ordinary people to threaten them.

Besides, griffins are extremely intelligent. Goethe grew up under their care and could understand human language and read human writing. His cultural level is much higher than that of his mother, who was not polluted by knowledge and was simple and clear.

Although it cannot carry people yet, even if it returns to the wilderness alone, Goethe is now an amphibious beast capable of living freely on land and in the air.

However, it is not certain whether it is willing to give up its comfortable life of eating and sleeping in Avalon and return to the wild to become a "wild griffin". After all, even if it lives in Avalon and enjoys the service of humans, no one restricts its freedom. To it, everyone in Avalon is also its relatives.

Especially Corvis, who is like another "mother" to it. Of course. Corvis always insists that little Goethe regards him as his father.

Leon muffled his voice and played with the grown-up Goethe for a while before he got up from the Deathclaw. He rubbed Goethe's fat belly reluctantly and said goodbye to the griffin mother and son.

Of course, Leon would not be so crazy as to bring a seven-month-old baby griffin with him on this expedition.

Even though this little griffin possessed strength far beyond that of ordinary natural beasts, it was still unable to protect itself in a dangerous battlefield.

It would be better to keep it in Avalon as a little sheriff to help Uncle Brian defend the territory and protect the Deathclaw.

"Take good care of your mother at home and wait for us to come back."

Leon looked at Goethe who lay back beside Deathclaw obediently, waved his hand, and left the shed.

I wish the three Dinocampus cubs locked up in the back mountain could be so obedient to their parents when they grow up.

Unfortunately, it's just a pipe dream.

Leon went to fulfill the promise in the contract. He left the fortress from the side door of the castle and came to the side of the back mountain, in front of the cave where the Dinocampus cubs were temporarily kept.

The entrance and exit of the cave had been sealed with thick iron bars by Azerien's men, leaving only a small door locked with an iron chain.

Currently, two teams of soldiers take turns cleaning and guarding the cave on a daily basis.

In their spare time, several soldiers sat on the rocks and played wooden cards. One soldier was at the entrance of the cave, using the handle of his gun like a cat toy, teasing a bear cub through the fence.

".Lord!"

Not expecting their lord to come, the warriors guarding the bear den stood up and saluted awkwardly.

Hearing the sound behind him, the soldier who was teasing the bear quickly drew back his spear, turned around and straightened his body.

Leon smiled and waved his hands, not blaming them for being lazy.

Guarding three bear cubs in this secluded place all day long is a must for anyone.

"You go back to the castle first, and come back when I get back."

Leon sent them away temporarily.

After several soldiers left, he pulled out the black card from his waist bag.

The card face of the Black Neti card shows a ferocious giant bear appearing in the shadows of the night.

It opened its huge mouth full of fangs and blood in a violent posture, and around the Terror Bear were hundreds of Wolf Clan soldiers who were either fighting hard or fleeing in panic.

Monster card, Callisto the Dreadhorse.

Turning over to the back, the card back mark of this card is the gray-winged red sword mark that is exclusive to the Pendragon emblem.

Leon didn't know what the reason was, but the summoning ritual of the Neti card identified the spirit of the Dinocampus as belonging to his own camp. Perhaps there was no concept of neutral creatures in this magic.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was watching, he injected magic power and activated the monster card in his hand.

The Neti card turned into flying particles of light, and the huge magic power stirred up a strong wind, reconstructing a giant beast of astonishing size.

Boom—the earth shook under the pressure of the giant beast which weighed maybe ten or twenty tons.

The ferocious king of the forest silently lowered his huge head and growled threateningly.

Leon looked at the violent mother bear and was not afraid of what it might do.

After completing the contract with Laura, the card spirit could not move a single hair on his body and had to obey instructions completely. It was more restrictive than the command spells in a work he had seen in his previous life, and there was no situation where he could summon a big daddy for himself.

However, Leon had no intention of breaking his promise to the mother bear.

He turned around and saw that the bear cub, who had been lying at the entrance of the cave, had seen its mother whom it had not seen for many days and was anxiously biting the iron bars in its mouth, trying to get out.

Even the other two bears in the cave who had drunk enough goat's milk and cow's milk smelled the scent of the mother bear, and they ran to the entrance of the cave and called out.

Leon opened the chain locking the entrance, and the three little bears immediately rushed out of the iron gate anxiously and ran to the mother bear.

Seeing the lively cubs, the mother bear's eyes softened.

There was a soft howl of the bear, and the giant bear fell down with a rumble. The three little bears grabbed their mother's fur one by one, and did not settle down until they climbed back onto the giant bear's back.

The mother bear did not run away with them. Although she was not very smart, she knew that she had nowhere to go after becoming a card spirit.
Leon did not urge him, but patiently watched the giant bear being affectionate with its offspring in the open space.

Several hours later, when his magic power was almost exhausted, he clapped his hands to remind the Dinobotanic Bear, whom he named Callisto, that it was time.

The mother bear who was lying on her side breastfeeding her children finally got up reluctantly and pushed away the dozing cub in her arms.

It growled at Leon a few times, and somewhat unwillingly turned into light particles that dissipated in the sky.

Guiding the condensed Neti card to float back into his hand, Leon looked at the three bear cubs.

The little bears were suddenly worried about losing their mother, so Leon had to go over and carry the cubs that were running around back to the cave one by one.

According to the agreement between him and the mother bear, he would raise the three cubs until they were weaned and learned to hunt for survival, and then set them free.

As a price, the spirit of the mountain bear will fight for him.

Although he felt that it was a fair trade, for some reason, Leon always had the inexplicable illusion that he had turned into a yellow-haired person.

In the next two days, Leon received the Ilarial Knights who arrived in Avalon and opened the castle for them to come in for pilgrimage and worship. At the same time, he summoned the senior members of the Avalon Knights, and together with his companions and staff, they made final preparations for war, checked food and weapons, and arranged for the soldiers who were about to go out to say goodbye to their families.

Every expedition could be the last time a soldier sees his loved ones, especially when they are about to face a truly merciless and terrifying enemy.

During the time since returning to Avalon, Leon had not concealed from the soldiers the enemy they would face next.

The senior sergeants of the Knights Templar also educate all soldiers day and night about the types and characteristics of the undead.

Every word in the battle reports sent by Baron Ivan about the battle between the Eastern Kantadar Army and the Undead Army is experience gained at the cost of countless lives and blood.

Based on the information mentioned in Ivan's letter, Leon roughly divided the currently known undead in the undead army into seven categories.

The first category is the “walking dead” which accounts for the largest proportion.

They are zombies transformed from ordinary corpses. They usually have no weapons and cannot use them. They just use their claws to tear living things apart. They are the main body of the undead army.

The second category is "Dead Soldiers", which are divided into two types.

One type is the "Corpse Warriors", which are armored corpses with dried flesh and blood, and were soldiers in the army when they were alive.

The other type is the "skeleton warriors", which are more like skeletons that have been forcibly awakened from their tombs by unknown witchcraft. Their joints are spliced ​​with bone spines and they look completely inhuman.

The third category is "ghosts and vengeful spirits".

Wraiths have almost no physical form and cannot be harmed by ordinary swords and knives. They can only be eliminated by fire, magic, and a few enchanted weapons.

The fourth category is "undead beasts".

There are so many types of this kind of existence, from the common "winged corpse demon" and "giant bat ghost", others such as "undead lion scorpion", to some completely indescribable monsters stitched together. For convenience, they can all be temporarily classified into this category.

The fifth category is more special, the "Dead Knights". These powerful dead who were Knights of Arms in their lifetime still seem to retain some combat wisdom. Although they do not have much consciousness and cannot try to communicate, they can summon other lower-level undead on the battlefield to help them fight.

The sixth category is the commander of the Undead Legion, of which there are two types.

One type is the "corpse wizard" transformed by a wizard during his lifetime.

One type is the "Corpse Lords" who were the leading nobles during their lifetime.

These two are the generals who lead the army of the dead, and they are also the brains of the sea of ​​undead corpses.

According to Ivan's observations, the Undead Army does not have any middle-level or grassroots command structures other than the Corpse Wizards and Corpse Lords.

No matter what the size of the sea of ​​corpses is, they only have these two undead generals to command and dispatch them.

Usually they don't have any tactics to speak of. They just focus on attacking key targets and then attack with the entire army.

Logically speaking, if such a large army was composed of living people, with such a crude command system, it could be easily defeated even if it was frighteningly large.

However, the bad thing is that the ghouls have no fear, will not retreat, have no morale, are huge in number and do not need logistics or rest.
A series of advantages beyond ordinary people's imagination have replaced most of the roles of middle and grassroots officers.

It seems that, with their huge size and locked morale, no matter what enemy they face, the Undead only need to know the F2A.

After the military meeting was over, Leon took a break and sat alone in the conference room, looking at the map in front of him.

Judging from the situation Ivan told them, most of the land in the east of Kantadar has completely lost contact with them.

The dark cloud of undead has now occupied more than 60% of the territory of Sobonitz.

If the scale of the undead rampaging in other eastern counties of Kantadar is the same as that of Baldim County.
Leon estimated that the number of undead in this area would probably not be less than 500,000.

A despairing number.

But Leon knew that this was still his most conservative estimate after excluding survivors and refugees.

According to Baron Ivan's report, before the disaster, the population of Sobornitz was approximately 1.5 to 2 million.

In fact, this is just the current situation facing the Kantadar battlefield.

What about Serrian?

Ever since he learned that the Holy Sun Church had sent an envoy to contact Redwin III to fight the enemy together, Leon knew that the disaster was not spreading in just one direction.

Are the battle lines in Serian also facing hundreds of thousands of undead at this moment?

The problem that Leon was most reluctant to think about, but had to think about, was that in the Rolandar region that was massacred, there were probably more than 300,000 deaths. If the situation on the other side was critical, and the war had been going on for so long, to what extent had the undead in Serian snowballed?
It's a natural disaster indeed.
Feeling extremely powerless, Leon slowly closed his eyes. He only hoped that Redwin had already launched a comprehensive military decree to all the territories in the kingdom.

The king currently has about 30,000 to 40,000 troops on his march to the south, which is a combined force of the "Kingdom of Kronia", part of the "Kingdom of Wester", and the entire "Kingdom of Greyshirt Valley".

But according to what Lord Elliver discussed not long ago, if the remaining five large territories of "Farayel Territory", "Braden Territory", "Ostania Territory", "Galsom Territory" and "Roman Territory" can be mobilized, theoretically, it will not be a problem to gather another 100,000 to 150,000 troops.

What's more, the territories of Wester and Kronia have not yet sent out all their troops.

The problem is, theory is just theory.

In this era, it is not easy to mobilize and gather such a large army.
Leon shook his head. This troublesome problem was Ledwin's fault. He couldn't care what other lords in the kingdom thought. He could only do his best.

Standing up, he walked out of the conference room, opened the window in the corridor, and looked out at the city of Avalon Castle.

From here, we can see that the barracks fortress on the east side of the middle area has been filled with stationed soldiers.

In order to boost the morale of the fully-strength Knights' army, Leon gave them a new internal organization.

The three spear and shield infantry companies that form the main body of the army are now called "Blade Wings".

The elite crossbow company equipped with fire arrows specially made for the undead was named "Fire Crow Wings". Since they were called Crow Wings, he might as well equip each of them with a warhorse.

Anyway, Avalon doesn't have that many qualified cavalrymen. The hundreds of Uriah horses that were added after the expansion of the cavalry unit can't just be left idle, so they are used to increase the mobility of the fire arrow archers.

As for the most elite heavy cavalry company of the Knights Templar, it is called the "Wings of the Griffin". They wear the best and most excellent armor and carry the most complete weapons. They are the trump cards that follow the knights in the charge.

Including dozens of knights-errant who had been assembled under an oath of chivalry, and one hundred and fifty conscripted militiamen who were escorting supplies, these were the entire forces that would be setting out.

Of course, there is also the one thousand-man Holy Lake Knights army.

Leon was thankful for Laura's foresight, which had prepared such a strong army for him without any salary.

Even though they don't want money, Avalon still has some dignity to save, and Leon will still provide the necessary food and supplies to this friendly army.

In this expedition, all members of the Knights will be dispatched, except for Uncle Brian who will lead ten cavalrymen and two hundred conscripts to defend Castle Avalon.

The 1,700-strong coalition army of Avalon and Holy Lake, plus the 2,000 Thorn Flower soldiers that Elliver had prepared in Glade County.

An army of more than 3,700 people was all the force he could muster to help Ivan.

Of course, our own teacher Laura is also indispensable.

Leon pressed his chest, feeling the presence of the Holy Prophet Lady who was already with him. Although in Elifer's view, he led the army there only to delay time for the defense of Orland and the County.

But he knew that there was only one real goal from beginning to end.

Find an opportunity and take Laura back to Rolandar.

He didn't know what method the French lady had, but he could probably guess it with his imagination.

Perhaps, only by finding her remains in the Great Temple can this ancient magic emperor restore his magical powers and reverse the current crisis.

(End of this chapter)