Final Lord

Chapter 88 Pagan Kate

At noon, the shrill chirping of crows could be heard in the assembly square, where 2,500 militiamen stood huddled like lambs to be slaughtered.

Under the leather armor of young Tom was hiding half a piece of rye bread, which was a parting gift secretly given to him by his sister.

"Go faster!"

An unsheathed dagger was pressed against his lower back and stabbed him. The biscuit crumbs leaked out from the gaps in his leather armor and were crushed into powder by the patrolling Crow Assassin.

Dark clouds loomed over the 2,500 militiamen and 500 Crow Soldiers. The 3,000-man mixed army was like a moving graveyard, moving slowly and with a sense of fading desolation. The militiamen, forced to march in the front rows, the bottles of self-explosive acid hanging from their waists dimly visible in the gloomy sunlight.

The pale light of dawn pierced through the dark clouds, illuminating Lincoln's withered face like a resurrected corpse. He stood on the pulpit converted from the gallows, stepping on the tax-resisting farmer who had been hanged the day before, his rotten toe bones protruding from the holes in his straw sandals.

"Look at this poor fellow!" Lincoln pointed his staff at the center of the square, and the Crow Assassins immediately lifted the slurry-soaked linen. The severely decomposed corpse thudded to the ground, a swarm of carrion beetles burrowing from its chest. This was the villager who had informed King Lincoln of his whereabouts three days earlier.

Seeing the miserable corpse, the militiamen all took a step back, looking terrified.

"Guess who killed this villager?"

No one answered.

"It's Kate Grew!" Lincoln shouted, the end of his staff scraping against the oak podium with a sharp sound. "This loser, expelled from the Royal Academy, has now fallen into the company of the Black Forest monsters, feasting on the flesh of his subjects!"

When Lincoln swung the staff, acid dripped from the top of the staff onto the corpse's face, corroding the already festering facial features to an even more unbearable sight.

Hal, the blacksmith, suddenly shuddered in the crowd. He recognized the body—the man who had once ordered a bronze wedding ring from him. He had seen the man carried away by the crows. Now he lay there. The murderer's identity was obvious.

But when he caught a glimpse of the dagger in the Crow Assassin's hand, the question on his lips turned into a whimper.

"Your beloved son of the old lord—Kate Grew." Lincoln suddenly ripped open the corpse's shirt, revealing wounds that had been faked by acid to look like claw marks. "We found him performing a living sacrifice in the Black Forest!" The rotten corpse fluid flowed through the wounds into the boots of the onlookers, startling them with retreating footsteps.

The Crow Leader unleashed the bloodstained corpse of a caveman, dropping it precisely next to the corpse. "The patrol found this last night," he said, tossing out a few more bloodstained harpy feathers. "The harpies and the cavemen are both Kate Gru's men. Together, they used a cruel and evil ritual to kill our villagers."

These are all evidences of Kate, a pagan, colluding with monsters! "

"Now! Open your eyes and take a good look." Lincoln's staff burst out with a faint green light, casting a distorted illusion above the square.

The illusion shows "Kate" with an evil smile on her face, feeding a villager's heart to the caveman.

"This is why I wanted to expel Kate. The old lord was a great and benevolent lord. But his descendants were not like that. They had long been corrupted by chaos and became something as abominable as the devil."

Lincoln waved his arm and said loudly:

"The time has come to perform meritorious deeds, people of Gruland. Grab your pitchforks and spears, follow me, the true guardian, and together we will fight our way into the Black Forest and flatten the demon cave!"

"Da da!"

The Crow Assassins stomped their feet in unison, causing the cracks in the stone slabs of the square to collide with each other and make a buzzing sound.

The militiamen were pushed into formation by the Crow Assassin, who held their daggers at bay. "No, my child! Ah!!"

A peasant woman cried and tried to pull back her young son, but was immediately gouged out of three fingers by the crow's claws, causing her to let out a heart-wrenching scream.

The villagers watching were all deeply moved by this scene, but they were powerless to do anything and could only cover their mouths and lower their heads in silence.

"Teams of ten!" Lincoln's withered fingers traced across the cowering crowd. "Each team will be issued a bottle of holy water." Lincoln held up a glass bottle filled with acid, its dark green bubbles clearly visible. "If you encounter the infidel and his minions, throw them on them!"

When the last timid militiaman was dragged into the ranks, the Crow Leader suddenly flapped his wings and took to the sky, scattering a foul-smelling black dust from his bony wings. The villagers who got it on their skin immediately felt itchy and scratched until blood dripped from their skin.

"Don't scratch it! This is a blessing from the Master Mage! It can help you breathe in the Black Forest!"

Hal the blacksmith squinted in the dust. He saw faint traces of crow's teeth on the corpse's neck. The edges of the wounds, which had been faked to look like caveman's claw marks, clearly showed the distinctive three-toed marks of a crow. But when he tried to get a closer look, a spear had already pierced his sandals.

"What are you looking at? Get back to the team."

"Go! Avenge the villagers!" Lincoln's staff smashed heavily on the illusory portrait of Kate, and the acid devoured the fictional face like a poisonous snake.

The three thousand-man army rushed into the Black Forest like zombies. The militiamen in the back row stepped on the footprints of their companions and entered the dim journey amid the shrill screams of crows.

……

The Dark Forest is very dangerous at night.

Soon after the militiamen entered the Black Forest under the escort of the Crow Assassins, they were ambushed by wild monsters.

The massive fungus-stone beasts moved in groups at night, like a herd of stone giants. Just two attacks disrupted the militia's formation.

Most of the militia tried to flee, but were driven back by the daggers of the Crow Assassins. They could only split into many small teams and wander around like headless flies.

"drink!"

Hal the blacksmith swung his axe and hit the rock body of the fungus beast hard.

His axe was very sharp and chopped into the body of the fungus-stone beast, but it still failed to cause any substantial damage to the fungus-stone beast. Instead, the axe was embedded in the body of the fungus-stone beast and could not be pulled out.

puff!
The mycelium beast's head spun, and the brown parasol mushroom aimed at the blacksmith Hal's face, and suddenly a mist-like spore sprayed out, making Hal unable to open his eyes.

Three militiamen with spears rushed from behind Hal, trying to rescue him, but their sternums were smashed by the rock fist of another fungus beast, and they were obviously dying.

"Chop the mushroom caps! Chop the mushroom caps! I've seen this kind of monster before. Their weakness is the mushroom caps on the stone!" Hal shouted angrily at the crows twenty meters away while trying to pull out the axe.

But those dark shadows sat leisurely on the top of the parasol mushroom, recording the militia's death posture with their eyes, with no intention of helping at all.

Only after the mushroom-stone beast had killed two more militiamen did the crows throw a few bottles of acid. These bottles of acid were not meant to save people, but to prevent the mushroom-stone beast from getting close to them.

(End of this chapter)