Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 81 The Arrow of Revenge
Ak and his confidants hastily fled on griffins, and looking at the few remaining people around him, he was overcome with grief.

Having barely recovered from the defeat at White Stone City, they were now in such a miserable state again. The surrounding generals were also demoralized and felt powerless to turn the tide.

He quickly composed himself and pretended to be calm: "Don't be too sad, everyone. Victory and defeat are common in war. We will go to Griffin Cliff to raise our troops and then turn around and besiege Longlet Castle."

Even if we are driven out of the city, we can go north and seek refuge with the northern nobles. As long as we have soldiers, we have a chance to turn the tide!

Hearing this, and seeing the patriarch's calm and composed expression, everyone managed to compose themselves.

"Oh no, Griffin Cliff is on fire!"

As they approached the city's border defenses, they witnessed the scene of Griffin Cliff being set ablaze, with the cliffs littered with the corpses of griffins.

"No wonder my orders were not carried out; the enemy actually launched a sneak attack on Griffin Cliff."

"Who is it? Eugen? He doesn't have that kind of power. City garrison commander Whiteman? He never acts without a clear objective, it can't be him. Could it be Su Mu's army?"

Now, Ak finally suspects that Su Mu's army has entered the city. If Maggie opens the city gates and lets the army in, Kuraki's strength is indeed enough to destroy Griffin Cliff.

If that's the case, we absolutely must not go to Griffin Cliff now, or we'll be walking into a trap.

"Stop! Observe first!"

The group rode griffins and hovered in the air, observing the situation at Griffin Cliff from afar.

The high cliff was completely quiet, with only corpses and broken weapons scattered on the ground, but no sign of the enemy.

"Could it be that the defending general defeated the attacking enemy?"

But looking at the griffin carcasses scattered all over the mountains, it didn't seem like that at all.

Just as everyone was hesitating, a person suddenly emerged from the top of Griffin Cliff, followed by several griffins, waving at them.

“Pep! It was him waving; he held Griffin Cliff?”

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed Pep waving; his armor was tattered and his body was stained with blood, yet he had survived.

"Thank goodness, Griffin Cliff was not lost."

They were already on edge, and were relieved that things hadn't gone as badly as they'd hoped.

Just as they were about to control the griffin to fly down, one of them muttered, "If we were to hold Griffin Cliff, Pep should have sent troops to support us in time. Why didn't he send any support or report it?"

“Look at his miserable state. He probably barely won the battle. He wouldn’t have had time to send a message.”

"It would be a great pity to give up Griffin Cliff just because we're making wild guesses. Let's ride our griffins and observe from the air. If there's a trap, then we can escape."

The group argued incessantly, but finally all looked at Acker Griffinson.

Ak hesitated. He had noticed something was wrong with Griffin Cliff, but leaving directly and abandoning it was difficult.

Since inheriting his title, he has been working tirelessly in the Griffin Army, rising from a regular captain to a commander and then to a hero. Griffin Cliff is the culmination of his efforts.

"Alright, let's observe from the air for a while first!"

The griffin unit carried them slowly towards the edge of the cliff, maintaining a certain altitude to facilitate their escape.

When they could see Pep clearly, they found that he was indeed alone, with a few griffins leaning against the cave entrance, and nothing unusual.

Everyone immediately relaxed and rode the griffins down to the top of the cliff.

Ak had lowered his guard and was about to land when suddenly his expression changed drastically. He slapped his mount on the back of the neck and turned to run away.

Ak had been with griffins for many years and knew their nature very well. The group of griffins he had just met were indeed soldiers from the cliff, but they looked sorrowful, tense and uneasy.

In addition, a fishy wind blew in from the nest, and he smelled the scent of earth element. There were other griffins lying in ambush inside the nest!
Pep betrayed him!

Almost without thinking, Ak instinctively tried to run away, not even caring about the trusted confidant who had just shared his hardships.

Even so, it was still too late.

Oling emerged from the cave at the edge of the cliff, his bow and arrow, which had been aimed at Pep, now aimed at the mount beneath Ak.

"As expected of a griffin trainer, your sense of danger is quite acute; you couldn't even hide it from the intermediate-level Soul Arrow Technique!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a group of Earth Bows appeared on the cliff. They emerged from their stealth state and all aimed at Ak and the others in the air.

"Oling!"

"Invisibility Trap!"

Upon seeing the familiar figure, Ak felt a chill run down his spine and frantically spurred his mount, trying to fly away. But having already approached the edge of the cliff, how could Ouling possibly let him go?

The longbows were drawn to their fullest extent, and stone arrows, condensed from magical energy, were fired in rapid succession at Ak's mount. The other Earth Bows also aimed at the sky, releasing powerful stone arrows. The sky above Griffin Cliff was instantly shrouded in arrows. Several of Griffinson's trusted men who had gotten close managed to defend themselves against the rain of arrows, but they were no match for them and were riddled with arrows, falling to the ground.

When Ak saw Orling's arrows coming, he hardened his heart and simply raised his arm shield to block the griffin's side.

If Orling were to shoot down the griffin, surrounded by layers of earth bows below, he would have no chance of escape.

With a loud crash, the shield cracked, and the stone arrow became lodged in it. Ak felt a sharp pain in his arm. He had barely withstood the first arrow's attack, but the real danger lay with the second.

Almost without giving Ak time to adjust, the stone arrows came along their previous trajectory.

Another wave of excruciating pain hit him, and Ak thought his arm was probably about to break, but when he looked at the griffin beneath him and saw that it was completely unharmed, he was overjoyed.

Before he could even smile, the enemy's Earth Bows appeared simultaneously on several towers atop Griffin Cliff, positioned just wide enough to reach the farthest reaches of the sky. They raised their longbows, drew them to their full draw, aimed at Ak and his mount, and fired stone arrows.

"No!"

Ak roared, but could not stop the arrows from coming. The griffin desperately flapped its wings, trying to fly higher, but it was no match for the arrows.

In an instant, the griffin's massive body was struck by dozens of arrows. Even with its meticulously crafted armor, it could not withstand the enhanced firepower of the Soul Arrow Technique.

The griffin fell freely from the sky and landed on Griffin Cliff along with Ak.

At this moment, the shield bearers also emerged from their lair and surrounded Ak Griffinson, giving him no chance to escape.

Ak was, after all, a hero, and Orling had no intention of capturing him alive; otherwise, how would he deal with a count? So he signaled the Earth Bow to continue firing arrows.

Round after round of arrows rained down on Ak. Even though he was wearing protective gear, he was unable to resist and soon lay on the ground, barely alive.

Still not satisfied, Ouling personally fired two more arrows into his chest until he was completely dead.

Ouling waved his hand, beckoning Pep over and handing him a longsword.

"You know what to do, right?"

Pep gripped the sword tremblingly, almost bursting into tears: "Acker Griffinson plotted a rebellion, intending to seize the troops inside Griffin Cliff to attack the arena. I refused to follow him, so I led the guards in rebellion and captured him."

But Ak remained unrepentant and resisted stubbornly, and was personally killed by me in the chaos of battle.

"Do it!"

Pep slowly approached Ak's corpse, raised his sword, but hesitated to strike. He looked at his uncle's狰狞 (zhengning, meaning ferocious or hideous) face, as if it wanted to come back to life and devour him.

Just as he was about to retreat, a sharp arrow was pressed against his heart from behind.

If Pep doesn't take action, he'll be the one who dies.

"Don't blame me, you couldn't beat them, don't blame me!"

"I just want to live!"

"what!"

In fear and despair, Pep decapitated Ak with a single sword stroke.

The head rolled to Orling's feet, and he picked it up and handed it to Pep.

This was somewhat of a cover-up, but sometimes nobles needed a fig leaf. Even Ak's plan to ambush Su Mu in the arena could have been explained as the third duel not being completed, and Su Mu's rebellion resulting in his capture.

History is written by the victors; in the end, it's all about the winner taking all.

Orling witnessed Ak die before his eyes; Ak was the mastermind behind the murder of him in Longletburg, but he felt no pleasure as he had imagined.

The lord is right; the nobles' charity is laced with poison. Rather than kneeling and begging for their favors, we should personally confront them and force them to hand over their precious possessions.

We are all human beings, and no one is more noble than anyone else. If you truly shatter the glorious image they have created, you will find that this group of people is even more cowardly.

As Pep held Ak's head, gradually becoming obsequious with a desire to survive in his eyes, Ouling felt nothing but disdain.

Orling removed the arrows that were stuck in Ak's body and put them into his armor.

He will remember this battle of revenge.

[You successfully set up an ambush and killed the enemy leader with an arrow. It was a glorious victory.]

+1 Attack, learn Advanced Soul Arrow Technique

[Advanced Soul Arrow: Increases the damage of ranged units under your command by 40% (120%). Ranged units under your command can mark enemies of a certain unit type as vengeful units. Within their range, every arrow will hit and deal maximum damage. There is a significant chance to restore the hero's mana after killing an enemy. Can be trained with the special spell, Vengeful Arrow.]

【Arrow of Vengeance (Special Magic): Grants the archer invisibility and bestows upon them a Vengeful Spirit (the spirit is an independent entity with the same attack capabilities as the archer; it deals 150% damage upon breaking invisibility, but shatters immediately upon encountering area-of-effect magic or enemy attacks.)】

(End of this chapter)