Imperial Crown.

Chapter 83: Losing Unjustly
"Hehe, Lord Jose will surely be victorious this time!" Snow Chicken held a glass of wine in both hands, nodding and bowing to flatter him.

"Hmm..." Helaiti remained silent, staring at the fire in a daze.

At this moment, the tightly closed door suddenly opened with a bang, and "Iron Shield" Eugene stumbled in with blood all over his body. He knelt down in front of Heleti with a bang, crying: "Lord King of Sand, Lord King of Sand..."

"What happened? Why did you come back alone? Where is Jose?" Heleti's heart tightened.

It would have been fine if he hadn't asked, but when he did, Eugene cried even louder.

Heleti rubbed his temple and ordered: "Snow Chicken, help him up."

"Yes..." Snow Chicken instinctively felt that something bad was going on here, but he could only obey the order and stepped forward to support Eugene: "Commander Eugene, please get up quickly, Lord Sand King is still waiting for your reply..."

Eugene slowly raised his head, revealing a hideous face covered in dried blood: "…It's all because of you!"

He suddenly grabbed Snow Chicken's collar and lifted him up, then threw him to the ground and kicked him again and again: "You bastard, shit, you bastard who deserves to go to hell!!"

The hard iron boots kept kicking the snow chicken, and the latter bleeds from its mouth and wails: "Commander Eugene, spare me... spare me!!"

"Lord Sand King, save me!!"

"That's enough..." Heleti ordered in a low voice.

Eugene continued his rampage as if he hadn't heard anything.

"I say, enough!" Heleti raised his voice and his tone became cold: "Eugene, you don't even listen to me?"

Hearing this, Eugene lowered his head and rolled his eyes, then threw himself on the ground and cried loudly: "Lord Sand King, this is tragic, this is too tragic!"

"One hundred and sixty brothers, a full one hundred and sixty! Only seventy-eight returned alive! Only forty brothers are left in the main camp, and all of them are injured!"

This level of damage was completely beyond Heleti's expectations. His face turned pale and he asked, "What happened? How could the damage be so severe? Where is Jose? Let him come to see me!"

"Jose...Jose..." Eugene suppressed the smile on his face: "He died!"

"What!?" Helaiti thought that Jose pushed Eugene up because he was afraid to face the responsibility. Now that he knew that his most trusted confidant was dead, his eyes suddenly went dark.

After a long silence, Heleti finally opened his lips with difficulty: "...Where is his body?"

Heleti's tone was not harsh, but Eugene still couldn't help but get nervous. A chill rushed straight to his head from behind, making him dare not even cry: "...trapped in the enemy's camp, unable to get it back."

"Good, good... very good!!" Helaiti spat out a few words from between his teeth, veins on his face throbbing and the corners of his mouth twitching constantly.

Jose is his confidant and an old friend who fought with him from the bottom. He is also the only one still alive!
Anger, hatred, regret, remorse... a host of emotions suddenly surged in Helaiti's heart.

His breathing became extremely heavy, and he suddenly grabbed the golden wine glass and threw it to the ground, instantly smashing it into a golden cake.

Eugene lowered his head, not daring to look, preparing for the coming storm.

The snow chicken also stopped groaning, holding its head and trembling, fearing that the anger would pour out on itself.

But to their surprise, Heleti's breathing gradually calmed down, but his voice was hoarse as never before: "Tell me, Eugene, what happened?"

For the first time, Eugene realized that even after following Heleti for so long, he still couldn't see through this "Sand King" and immediately gave up the idea of ​​throwing all the responsibility on Jose.

He stood up, glared at Snow Chicken, and said to Heleti, "The most important factor in this failure is the wrong intelligence!"

"What Snow Chicken said is completely different from the actual performance of the Eagle Army. They are not the same army at all!"

Heleti's eyes fell on the snow chicken, who quickly fell to the ground and cried out: "Lord King Sand, I can swear to the Lord of Light that everything I said is true, not a single lie! The hatred between me and the Eagle Lord is as deep as the sea, how could I possibly provide false information!?"

"Oh, impossible?" Eugene gritted his teeth and said, "Didn't you say that Eric was the only first-level extraordinary among them?"

"Yeah!" Snow Chicken looked confused.

"That's the end!" Eugene stretched out four fingers and pressed them on Snow Chicken's face: "They have more than one first-level extraordinary person. I saw four of them! And Eric himself has even reached the second level!"

Snow Chicken's expression froze, and then he turned to Heleti: "Lord King Sand, I really don't know this!"

"There are probably too many things you don't know, right?!" Eugene raised his voice, "Not only are there a large number of extraordinary people, but the equipment they carry is also amazing. Eric not only has a set of enchanted plate armor, but also at least two enchanted weapons and an enchanted shield."

"Four extraordinary people, each of them is equipped with enchanted weapons!"

The snow chicken was so frightened that it turned pale and couldn't utter a word.

However, Heleti's attention was not on him: "But this does not explain why we lost this battle. Even if they have five extraordinary people and their equipment is not bad, we only have more extraordinary people than them. What's more, Jose is also a second-level person!"

"... This is all due to Eric's brilliant tactics." Eugene took some of the responsibility on himself at the right time: "His tactical arrangement was completely beyond my expectations. I have an unshirkable responsibility for this failure!"

"Oh?" Helaiti was very clear about Eugene's abilities. He was very professional in training and marching. Otherwise, Helaiti would not have promoted Eugene to be his confidant.

This was the first time he heard Eugene admit that his tactics were inferior to others.

"Tell me more specifically."

"Yes, sir!" Eugene stood up and began to recount the process of the previous battle, telling in detail how they marched, how he saw that Eric had some plan, and how Jose decided on the tactics.

Heleti closed his eyes and thought: "Jose's decision is correct."

"It should be so." Eugene sighed, "But three rounds of shooting have no effect. The leather armor of the Eagle Army is so protective that most of the arrows cannot penetrate it and cause no damage!"

"I captured this at great cost on the battlefield. Please take a look!"

Eugene clapped his hands, and someone immediately brought a set of dirty leather armor to Helaiti.

The latter took it, not caring about the blood stains on it, but reached out to touch its surface, even tore it twice, and his expression became much more solemn:

"No wonder the arrows can't penetrate it. The leather is tough and the surface has been hardened by a special process. Even if it's not as good as monster leather, it's not much different."

"Where did this Raven get this good stuff?"

Snow Chicken immediately shouted: "Lord King Sand, I really don't know this. When I saw it, the Eagle Army was equipped with ordinary leather armor!" Helaiti believed this, because the scout he captured was equipped with ordinary leather armor. If there was such good leather armor already, Raven would not have failed to give it to the scout.

But now, he had no intention of paying attention to this snow chicken.

Heleti looked at Eugene and said, "Go on."

"Yes..." Eugene swallowed his saliva: "Next, Jose will lead the team to attack the Eagle Army's main camp. By the time he completes the charge, our team will have lost more than 30 people!"

Heleti was keenly aware of the details: "Did they dig a horse trap? No, it's freezing cold now, the ground is as hard as stone, they don't have that much time!"

"You're right." Eugene sighed. "So they just dug a lot of small holes on the plains like gerbil holes. The horses would break their hooves if they stepped into them. And Eric also showed the crossbowmen hiding in the snow. They used a three-stage shooting method and enchanted crossbow arrows!"

"Three-stage...shooting, what is that?" It was the first time Heleti heard this term.

"It means having a team of more than 30 crossbowmen divided into three groups to shoot. After each round of shooting, they will immediately start reloading to ensure that the crossbows' firepower will not be cut off."

"It's indeed an unprecedented tactic." A cloud of gloom appeared on Helaiti's face.

The continuous shooting of enchanted crossbow arrows could not avoid casualties even if he led the team: "But this is not enough to make Jose fail."

"Indeed not!" Eugene praised his dead colleague: "Jose was very brave. He led his team into the Eagle Army's main camp and caused a lot of casualties!"

"Then how did he lose?" Heleti was puzzled. "Even though the opponent's equipment was not bad, he could only barely catch up with us. What's more, even if there were some casualties, we still had the advantage in numbers!"

Hearing this question, Eugene glared at Snow Chicken again: "Lord King Sand, this is why I think he is a dead soldier who deliberately deceived us!"

"The soldiers of the Eagle Army are not new recruits at all!"

"Although they are not as good as the Iron Legion, the discipline and quality they have shown can make them the elite among the Earl's family's private soldiers!"

"It's not like we haven't fought with ordinary nobles' private soldiers before. No matter what formation they put up, they would scatter as soon as we rushed into their faces. But these Eagle soldiers managed to maintain their formation! They fought with our people and fought to the death!"

At this point, Eugene seemed to be back on the battlefield, with a taste of blood in his mouth: "Those first-level extraordinary people were hiding in the crowd. Lawson, Binrui... were all besieged and ambushed by them and died!"

"Jose and Eric are tangled together. Eric is obviously a man of steel, but he is evenly matched with Jose!"

"Jose's trusted cavalrymen were stopped by Raven alone. The bravery they displayed has nothing to do with 'cowardice'!"

Eugene took a breath and calmed down a little. Seeing Heleti's livid face, his expression became sad. "Even so, Jose still seized the opportunity. But just when he was about to kill Eric, those extraordinary people hiding among the ordinary soldiers surrounded him!"

“That’s when I discovered these extraordinary beings!”

"I wanted to rush in and get him out, but I encountered extremely stubborn resistance. By the time I broke through the defense line, those extraordinary people had already surrounded Jose. He was alone against five, but in the end..."

"Okay, stop talking..." Heleti waved his hands tiredly and closed his eyes: "In this battle, we didn't have enough intelligence, and our loss... was not unfair!"

The air fell into a dull silence, and even the snow chicken could feel Helaiti's helplessness.

Heleti was in a very depressed mood.

The loss of dozens of his men was not a big deal. The thing that was most lacking on the Bloody Highlands was bandits who wanted to rob and plunder, and he could recruit a new group at any time.

But a second-level extraordinary person, especially a loyal second-level extraordinary person, is not so easy to cultivate in the Bloody Highlands.

"Who killed Jose?" Heleti's voice was low and majestic.

It was too far away and too noisy, so Eugene didn't know the name of the man who stopped Jose, but he had to give a clear answer at this time: "...Eric!"

Eric is far superior to Eugene in both personal strength and battlefield command. He provided this name not only for rationality, but also to cut off the possibility of Heleti recruiting him.

"Eric...!" Heleti opened his eyes and burst out with a strong murderous intent: "I will cut off his head with my own hands to commemorate my dead brother!"

"Then... let's gather our men and set off immediately tomorrow?" Eugene asked tentatively.

"No hurry." Heleti remained calm at this time: "...Although they performed very well, this arrangement can kill Jose, but it can't defeat me. They must have a backup plan!"

"Send out all the scouts. I want to see what other tricks they have up their sleeves!"

At the same time, in a cave three kilometers southeast of the Scorpion's Nest, the "backup plan" that Heleti mentioned, that is, Raven and his men, settled down here.

"Hey, I didn't expect that Heleti was so timid. He didn't even dare to come out by himself. I was exposed to the wind for so long. Damn it!" Nancy complained as she warmed herself by the fire.

"Captain Eric is still amazing." Volaf grinned and added wood to the campfire: "Hey, more than 160 people went out and less than 80 came back. A great victory!"

"That's all thanks to me!" Nancy patted her chest and said proudly, "If I hadn't insisted on keeping Mary, they wouldn't have been able to fight so smoothly, don't you think? "

Raven agreed with Nancy for once: "Yeah, if Mary hadn't given the specific personnel composition, Eric wouldn't have been able to make targeted arrangements."

Mary, who was cooking, lowered her head shyly: "Thank you for the compliment, Baron."

"You're flattering me! I can't say enough!" Nancy smiled proudly, "If you hadn't led the way, we wouldn't have been able to come here so early. If Heleti had gone out in person this time, we would have missed the opportunity!"

Hearing this, the guards all nodded in agreement.

Mary provided a lot of help along the way. Not only did she introduce and utilize the flora and fauna on the Bloody Highlands, but with the crows, she could always find small paths that were difficult to find, and she also found many places that were not on the map but were large enough for them to station.

Even Volaf, who had always been wary of Mary, had to admit that without her help, they would probably still be eating snow on the road, unable to even contact Eric, let alone sneak near the scorpion's nest.

"Mary, thank you for your hard work along the way." Raven stood up and walked to the "black pearl" and put his hand on her shoulder.

Mary's cheeks flushed: "...It is my honor to serve the Baron!"

"Our goal is the same, to kill Heleti." Raven's cheek slowly moved closer to Mary's ear: "But before that, there is one more thing I need your help with."

……

(End of this chapter)