Imperial Crown.

Chapter 139 First Class Medal of Bravery (9 Words Update )

The sound of armor breaking was heard, but it did not come from Judra herself.

Judra opened her eyes in confusion and saw the head of a skeleton knight falling in front of her, staring at her.

"If he keeps on being in a daze, he'll really die!" Raven's voice came from behind him: "Volaf, give him a warhorse, and let's continue!"

"Yes, Lord Baron!"

Judra was stunned and turned around slowly, only to see that the skeleton cavalrymen who had almost taken his life had turned into skeletons all over the ground. There was also a warhorse with its reins nailed to it by a long sword, staring at him.

"This..." Judra's eyes were filled with relief and disbelief for surviving the disaster. He drew out his flaming sword and slowly walked to the warhorse, untied the reins and sat on it.

Judra spurred his horse to gallop backwards, his eyes fell on the direction where Raven left, his heart full of confusion.

You have to know that Raven's personal soldiers are all wearing full helmets and armor, and even their war horses are no exception. That set of armor, including the knights on the war horses, must weigh at least 150 kilograms. The battle has been going on for most of the day. Even if Raven has been cruising on the periphery, their war horses should not have such good physical strength to be able to move back and forth on the battlefield!

"Yellow Claw Flying Lightning... is it really that powerful?"

At this moment, Raven had no time to satisfy Judra's curiosity, because he was doing a very great thing - showing his face.

In a war of this scale, a mere thirty or so cavalrymen, even if they are elite, cannot affect the battle situation at all. But since Raven is here, he can't just do nothing.

The specific method is quite simple. Just take the troops for a circle around the front line and make those nobles who lead the troops remember you.

Even if I can't remember it, at least I'll be familiar with its face.

Anyway, Raven has the Eye of Truth, and he can only target weak links. With the help of Lux's magic, the soldiers will not be harmed. The warhorses that have been strengthened twice will maintain sufficient physical strength and endurance.

For example, saving Judra was just a matter of convenience.

However, since he saved Judra, Raven's mind was opened up. If he encountered some nobles in danger, he would help solve the problem - provided that it was not too dangerous. If there really was a Plague Colossus or something, Raven would not stop.

As for those nobles who had already fled to the safe zone or were basically out of danger, Raven did not let them go and asked Lux ​​to give them a small "blessing".

Of course, when we call it a blessing, it’s actually just a small ball of light exploding above their heads. It doesn’t have any practical effect, but it is somewhat of a psychological comfort.

The "blessed" nobles all ran a little faster to some extent.

After Raven made a circle around the front line, the sky gradually darkened, the fog dissipated, and the coalition forces slowly withdrew back to the camp.

The tireless army of undead did not pursue, and the main force was still madly attacking the city of Mon'en. There were more and more skeletons under the city wall. When it was completely dark, three piles of bones appeared directly on the city wall.

The atmosphere in the military camp was extremely depressing. The four temporary legions suffered heavy losses, and only the Iron Legion was in a slightly better situation.

When the loss of the Fourth Legion was reported to Viscount John, the elderly nobleman's lips turned purple, and it was unclear whether he was angry or heartbroken.

The fully staffed legion of 5,500 men suffered 1,738 casualties, with one battalion even being wiped out.

This is the number of people who died on the battlefield. The wounded, whether seriously or slightly injured, are not included in the statistics.

That night, Minsk urgently invited four corps commanders to hold a military meeting to summarize the gains and losses of the day.

It was normal at the beginning, but as the topic deepened, it turned into a game of blaming each other.

The one who was making the most noise was the commander of the Second Legion, La Lune. His Second Legion was the first to prepare, attack and penetrate deep into the battlefield, so it was difficult to evacuate in time and suffered the most serious losses. Three battalions were wiped out and the death toll was as high as more than 2,300.

He directly accused Minsk of acting out of selfish motives, disregarding military decisions, and forcibly ordering no retreat, which resulted in such huge losses.

Minsk was quite well-mannered. Although his face turned pale, he managed to swallow his pride. However, he secretly shifted the blame to Viscount John.

After all, it was Viscount John who first ordered the four temporary legions to retreat.

In response, Viscount John maintained a neither humble nor arrogant attitude, expressing his willingness to accept General Minsk's punishment, but insisted that his decision at the time was correct.

This is also proven by the fact that the Fourth Legion had the lowest casualty rate besides the Iron Legion.

Lancaster, commander of the Third Legion, stood on the side of Viscount John, while Titus, commander of the First Legion, accused John of retreating easily, which was contrary to the honor of the nobility.

Seeing that the attention was diverted away from himself, Minsk started to play the good guy again and began to appease each legion commander one by one. After all, he was still counting on some of them to continue fighting with him.

After the division into four legions, there were less than five thousand reserve soldiers left, which were just enough to be added to each legion.

The four legions lost a total of more than 8,000 people, and it was definitely impossible to replenish all of them. Alune, who made the most noise at the beginning, received the most compensation and completely made up for the losses.

The Fourth Legion received 1,200 men.

After all the bickering, it's time to get down to business. The most important thing is how to boost the morale of the army, mainly the morale of the nobles.

If the gloomy mood continues, let alone continuing the battle, a camp uprising is not impossible.

Simply put, the entire coalition is in urgent need of a positive example.

The four legion commanders each returned to their camps to make a statistic and asked the nobles to give their opinions on who was suitable to be the "role model".

The results were surprisingly consistent.

Except for the commanders of their respective legions, most people voted for the same person—

Raven Ota Griffith.

There are many reasons.

Some people say that the young man is very responsible and has been busy on the battlefield without stopping; although he is young, he is brave enough to take on responsibilities and saved himself from life and death; as a young man, he knows what he should do.

In addition to the gratitude for Raven's "life-saving grace", his words also hinted at setting Raven and Minsk against each other.

Minsk also noticed this and felt a little unhappy.

He was a 4th-rank Iron Knight, the temporary commander of the Iron Legion, and the eldest son of the Slater family. He not only had to command, but also had to balance the forces of all parties. However, he was outclassed by a little baron like Raven! Although he was unhappy, he had to admit that he had proposed the plan. Who made him fail to achieve any good results today?

Otherwise, Raven would not have become the "most beautiful scenery" in the coalition forces.

The next day, Raven was awarded a medal in front of all the nobles.

He directly skipped the lowest level "Second Level Medal of Bravery" and was awarded the "First Level Medal of Bravery".

The reason is very simple. In addition to commending Raven for his "excellent performance" in yesterday's battle, he also hopes that the nobles present will learn from Raven and carry forward his spirit of dedication of not abandoning, not giving up, and courageously taking responsibility.

In theory, only the royal family has the right to award medals.

By doing this, Minsk is guaranteeing with the Slater family's reputation that Raven will be able to obtain such an honor in the future. If not, then the Slater family's reputation will also be lost.

It can be considered as buying a horse bone with a lot of money.

Raven was completely confused. He really didn't expect that he could get such an honor just by doing a little face-saving work after fishing for a day!
The Keynes Empire Medal is divided into three grades and six levels, from low to high, namely, Second Class Medal of Bravery, First Class Medal of Bravery; Second Class Medal of Sacrifice, First Class Medal of Sacrifice; Second Class Medal of Glory, First Class Medal of Glory.

Of these six levels, usually only members of the royal family can obtain the highest level.

The first-class medal of bravery, as the fifth level of merit, is already very high.

Morgan, who died in the battle before, was awarded this medal for his meritorious service in defending the city, and his title was promoted from Baron to Viscount!

It can be said that obtaining such an honor is equivalent to obtaining half a certificate of promotion to Viscount.

This is a glorious deed worthy of being recorded in family history!

"If old Gordon knew about this, he would jump for joy!" Eric said with a smile.

In contrast, Raven was much calmer, even muttering: "This kind of honor that I don't know if it can be fulfilled is useless. I might as well expand my fiefdom!"

That being said, the expression on his face when he touched the medal, in Judra's words, was very annoying.

This second-class medal of bravery must be worn. Not wearing it would be disrespectful to the Slater family, but it would also bring trouble.

After yesterday's disastrous defeat, it was impossible for them to continue their march today. The legion commanders gathered together to study tactics, and the idle nobles began to visit Raven, the "newcomer". Their enthusiasm made Raven quite distressed.

If they don't meet, it will inevitably give people the impression that he is a villain; if they meet, the medal may make people misunderstand that Raven is showing off intentionally.

So Raven simply turned a blind eye and took his team out for "reconnaissance", leaving Eric alone to receive the nobles on his behalf.

The strength of a second-level Iron Knight would not seem disrespectful.

"Huh——" Standing on the high slope on horseback, Raven breathed in the fresh air, the medal on his chest shining, and stared fixedly in the direction of Mon'en City.

After fighting day and night, the situation in Mon'en City is more dangerous than yesterday. Although some of the bone piles piled up under the city yesterday have been destroyed, more bone piles have been erected. A rough count shows that even without counting the invisible parts, there are nine bone piles on the city wall facing Raven alone!
The skeletons were rushing towards the top of the city one after another. If Raven had not seen skeletons falling from the city wall, he would almost think that Mon'en City had been broken.

Undead creatures can stay awake all the time, but living people cannot. It is only a matter of time before the city is captured.

Minsk knows this too.

So after only one day's rest, the hastily assembled coalition forces set out again.

This time the tactics changed again. After pouring out, the various legions were no longer confined to the same battlefield, but instead deployed their formations and began to advance and attack towards the City of Mon'en from five different directions.

The purpose of doing this is to distract the attention of the necromancers in the Hand of Death Cult. Even if the Mist of Withering is used again, the number of legions affected will be quite limited.

In this battle, the advancement speed of each legion was not slow.

But this anomaly soon alerted everyone, including Raven.

Because these undead soldiers are too weak, most of them are just cannon fodder. Even the first-level skeletons with white soul fire in their eyes are very rare, not to mention high-level creatures such as the Corpse Corpse, the Bone Cavalry or the Plague Colossus.

From Raven's perspective, he could only see one "herder" after another, but could not see any trace of the necromancer.

The battle lasted from morning to noon, and the battle line began to advance towards the City of Mon'en. The fastest Iron Legion was even less than 200 meters away from the city wall!
However, at this moment, the towering bone spire in the center of the undead army suddenly emitted a terrifying and sharp buzzing sound, sweeping across the battlefield in an instant.

That sound is like the sharpest whistle, ringing in the heart of every living person!
Raven looked over and saw a scene that he would never forget in his life.

Undead creatures were seen falling down in circles around the spire of bones. Grey, white and green soul fires condensed at the top of the spire, outlining intricate magic patterns that continued to expand and expand. In just a few breaths, it turned into a magic circle with a diameter of tens of meters!

In the center of the magic circle, that is, the top of the spire, a little gray-white light condensed, and the originally clear sky became overcast, and even attracted thunder at this time when winter turned to spring!
Lightning continued to strike from the sky, charring large areas of undead creatures. The sky and the earth were as dark as night, with only the magic circle flashing with light!

The light grew brighter and brighter, condensing in the center of the magic circle. Then, a dead white lightning burst out from it, piercing through the atmosphere and hitting the wall of Mon'en City!
The earth suddenly shook at this moment!
Under the violent shock, the undead creatures were knocked to the ground one by one, and the soldiers defending the city were thrown out, turning into black dots and disappearing among the white bones.

On both sides of the city wall, mud and sand splashed and smoke and dust rose!

As the earth shook visibly, a section of the city wall trembled, and then it broke apart like tofu and collapsed!

The previous powerful attack was actually just a means to paralyze them. This earth-shattering magic is the real means to break the city!
After a brief silence, a group of undead rushed out from the army of undead. They were not skeleton soldiers, but bone cavalry!

Raven's pupils constricted.

No wonder there was no trace of the Skeleton Cavalry in this battle. It turned out that the Hand of Death gathered them together, waiting for this moment to rush into the City of Mon'en after the city wall was broken!

For the human cavalry, the collapsed city wall was simply a road to hell, and it was not a place that the cavalry could pass through at all.

But the bone cavalry themselves were too light. They trampled on the ruins. As many as six or seven hundred bone cavalry rushed in, followed closely by a sea of ​​skeletons!

The city of Meng'en was broken!

……

(End of this chapter)