Heart of the Castle

Chapter 456 Bloody Long Bridge, Saint White Rock Castle
Sir Chibe's confusion was not without reason. After he told the story of the irreversible defeat of the king's army in the middle, Earl Ansair and others also fell into deep thought.

The occurrence of the rout seemed very strange.After two consecutive overwhelming victories, although the main force of the demon army was not damaged, the morale had already dropped. They abandoned the two important towns in Nardi County and retreated towards the county town of Nardi.King Arthur XII's army pursued closely, and the king's army in the middle route reached the city of Nardi with overwhelming momentum, and then set up camp. While sending out sentries to detect the stragglers who were hunting demons, they began to build siege equipment.Everything seemed so logical, and many people in the middle king's army thought that victory was already firmly in their hands.

Sir Chebbe also firmly believed in this point at the time.However, on the night of the siege, the unbelievable upheaval happened.That night, as one of King Arthur's seven iron guards, Sir Chebbe led a small group of ashen knights who were absolutely loyal to King Arthur to patrol the city all night. When the battalion was resting, they suddenly saw a large area of ​​dark red poisonous sulfur fire, which suddenly ignited on the top of Nardi City!
Sir Chibe's first feeling at that time was that the demon army was about to abandon the city and flee, so they were setting fire to the city, so he immediately led the troops back to the camp, preparing to report the movement to His Majesty Arthur XII.However, when he was a few hundred meters away from Wang Jun's camp, there was a sudden commotion in the camp.

At first the riot broke out in the camp of the noble militia.This is not a very strange thing. The best thing these royal nobles are good at is eating Hesse's banquets and bragging, followed by quarrels and fights.Drunk aristocratic children will often draw their swords at each other because of trivial matters, and because their family blood is so noble and their titles are so prominent, the military commanders or duty officers who should maintain military discipline are not willing to provoke them at all. They made a mess.Anyway, these aristocratic children are noisy, but they seldom cause injuries bigger than bruises and swollen faces.

However, the development of the matter was beyond Sir Qibei's expectations. The riot quickly spread from the camp of the noble militia. The death knights flocked to other camps, holding torches one by one, with distorted expressions and shouting.Ser Chebbe could hear them all yelling the same thing, that Gregor Clemennon, Lord of the Mountain, had suddenly disappeared!

It is indeed a terrible thing to have no master in the army.Before Sir Chibe could think of a countermeasure, the camp of the jailers of the Dreadfort was in turmoil, and the jailers in barbed armor were rampaging everywhere. Listening to their shouts, it seemed that their commander, Lord Edwin Reeves the Terrible, was also missing. up.Now in the whole royal army camp, only the Ashes Knights' garrison is still stable, so the rioting soldiers flocked there, shouting the slogan: "Where is Your Majesty? We want to see Your Majesty", asking His Majesty the King to come out to meet him them.

Until now, the riots were still under control. As long as the neatly dressed tall figure of the Dragon King appeared in front of the camp, the riots would be quelled and the crisis resolved.However, the cries of those people did not get a response from His Majesty Arthur XII. As time passed, the roars of the rioting soldiers began to change in a dangerous direction.

"The king has escaped! He has escaped!" A piercing voice sounded from the dark night.

"The commanders are all gone, we have been abandoned!" Several voices shouted at the same time.

"Get on the horse, get on the horse, run for your life!" Now more people shouted, and the roar shook the night, and in an instant, the entire king's army camp was screaming wildly. "Run for your life, run for your life, the king and the commander are all running away, the devil is coming!"

So the riot slid down into the irreversible abyss, the soldiers rushed to each other, some turned around and rushed out of the camp, and fled into the night; some were at a loss and continued to shout, asking His Majesty the King or any commander to come out ;more people began to push each other, crowded and trampled, faces were gradually stained with madness, torches were flying above their heads, cursing sounded one after another, I don't know who was the first to open the curtain of disaster, and the sword was unsheathed The voice was extremely frightening.

The conflict unfolded immediately, and it became intense almost instantly. The soldiers of the king's army began to fight among themselves. The soldiers who were supposed to be like brothers faced each other with swords, slashing wildly. The sharp blades took not only lives, but more The warriors had little sanity left.During the conflict, piles of bonfires were trampled out and knocked over. Once the bonfires were extinguished, the entire camp of the royal army became pitch black, only the garrison of the Knights of Ashes was still lit.The people who were even more terrified immediately rushed towards this direction blindly, and the people behind pushed the people in front, rushing over like a vicious turbid current.

The Ash Knights in gray armor lowered their halberds, but they didn't know whether they should slash towards the chaotic army.These people were all comrades-in-arms and companions not long ago, but now they should not be regarded as enemies. An iron guard knight walked out of the tent, ordered the Ash Knights not to do anything, and then walked out of the camp gate and shouted something loudly.However, no one heard it at all, and the irrational disorderly army rushed towards him immediately, engulfing him in the turbulent flow of people in the blink of an eye, pouring into the Ash Knight's camp like a flood that broke a dike.

Naturally, there was no need to say more about what happened afterwards. The final order in the king's camp completely collapsed. The demon army stationed in Nardi City took the opportunity to attack in an all-round way. The [-] demons divided into four groups and pounced on the king's camp.The strong horned devil slammed down the body and completely destroyed the outer fence of the king's camp; the hellhound, which was as big as a calf, ran and let out a chilling roar; the number of fireballs thrown by the fire monster There were so many that half of the night sky was reddened, and even the moonlight was covered; even the most numerous and weakest little devils went berserk as if they had taken a stimulant, holding high the steel fork with blasphemous magic power, uttering piercing screams.

Facing the surging army of demons, the Wang Jun, who was still in chaos, had no power to fight back. Those who got the mounts immediately ran away on horseback, while those without horses ran around without thinking. They knocked over The tents were broken, the fences were crushed, and the stables were trampled down.Some people want to escape from the camp and get out of the chaotic situation; others want to escape into the camp to avoid the slaughter of the demons;The soldiers of the king's army crowded, pushed, and trampled each other, fighting each other frantically in order to fight for a place to live.

At this time, His Majesty Arthur XII finally rushed back, followed by a whole team of ashen knights, and the torches held high illuminated the surroundings. The dragon king was so angry that he saw this terrible scene, and he roared and blocked the fleeing Soldiers, the Excalibur of Dawn slashed and killed several knights leading the escape.The Ember Knights shouted in unison, "Don't panic, Your Majesty is here, Your Majesty is with us!" But their voices were drowned out by the shouts of thousands of people. Fear and panic without psychological understanding.The crowd fleeing for their lives was like a river pouring down, with turbid waves surging to the sky, even the majesty of His Majesty Arthur XII could not stop it.Because there was a bright light, they rushed towards King Arthur XII. If there were no Knights of Ashes and a few Iron Guard knights to save their lives, even His Majesty the King himself would have been pushed to destruction by the chaos. the abyss.

Then there was a frantic rout. Of course, the demon army would not let go of this rare opportunity, and almost sent all its troops to chase and kill them frantically.The deceased who had never shown up in front of the king's army in the middle road finally appeared. A river called Lexington lay across the only way for the king's army to retreat. There was only one bridge connecting the north and the south. Dozens of death knights led thousands of people. Wan's undead creatures captured the bridge and wiped out a team of royal troops stationed at the bridgehead.When the retreating royal army arrived at the Lexington Bridge, what was left for them was a death passage arranged by the accuser.

The bridge itself was not damaged in any way. In fact, if the deceased had cut off the retreat of the Wang army, it would have made them resist desperately with the momentum of a desperate fight.However, the insidiousness of suing the deceased is to ensure that the bridge is intact, but thousands of skeleton archers holding bone longbows are arranged on the south bank of the Lexington River. Facing it was a dense and thick horizontal array of hundreds of elite skeleton warriors holding large shields and heavy maces, and dozens of death knights also gave up their horses to join them, forming many strong points that were difficult to break through.

This death trap buried thousands of Royal Army soldiers.Although many people have seen the arrangement of accusing the deceased, but they

The soldiers of the king's army crowded on the bridge, while bearing the rain of arrows that shot over without stopping like a torrential rain, while fighting for each other, pushing and crowding each other, and the sky was filled with boiling.The living and the dead fell into the icy torrent from both sides of the bridge, the density was like crackling hailstones.Crazy struggling crowds were everywhere on the bridge and in the water. The knights in heavy armor sank to the bottom of the water in the blink of an eye, leaving only a string of cloudy bubbles on the water surface, while the lightly armed soldiers struggled for a little longer. They desperately called for help in the water, wailed loudly, and begged for mercy, but the people on the bridge were driven crazy by fear and threats, and mercy was far away, and no one thought of reaching out to help.

The bone arrows fired by the skeleton archer are indeed not powerful. In fact, this kind of weapon is difficult to penetrate the armor of the knights, and it is also unable to penetrate the shields in the hands of the warriors.However, when the soldiers of the king's army marched to the head of the bridge with difficulty under the rain of arrows, they found that there were neatly arranged elite skeleton warriors in front of them. The bone shields as tall as a man and the rusty heavy maces formed a desperately strong line of defense. .

The army of demons who were chasing after them came later, and the situation was so bad that it could not be worse. Seeing that not only the king's army in the middle road was about to be wiped out, even the life of His Majesty the king was in danger. The Knights of Ashes who were loyal to Arthur XII Once again showing the courage to turn the tide, Sir Musey, one of the Seven Iron Guards, led a squadron of Ash Knights to launch a desperate charge towards the demon army, desperately holding back the advance of the demon army.At the same time, the Knights of Ashes rode their horses to charge, and the other six iron guard knights protected His Majesty Arthur XII in the middle, rushed and trampled on the bodies of the soldiers of the frenzied royal army, and rushed towards the death knights and elite skeleton warriors without hesitation. Get up a thick line of defense.

Marquis Osiris, the green lion, once again demonstrated his terrifying force as a sky knight. At first glance, the emerald green grudge looks somewhat similar to the dark green undead magic power, but it has a sense of peace of mind.When that piece of green light lit up in the array of undead creatures, it didn't look so brilliant, but even a high-level death knight with fighting spirit, the moment he came into contact with this green light, he couldn't match it. Just like an ordinary skeleton soldier, he collapsed, his body's death fighting spirit as dark as the night did not bring the slightest protection ability.

With just one sword strike, Marquis Osiris completely defeated the blocking of the undead creatures, and caused the complete destruction of more than a dozen high-level death knights and hundreds of elite skeleton warriors.For the deceased, this is not an unbearable blow, but if the loss is only caused in an instant, it will make the deceased who has always been known for his large number of corpses feel unbearable.

The green light flashed again, further widening the gap just opened. In the face of Osiris' terrifying power, the characteristic that undead creatures would not be afraid had no effect at all, and instead caused even greater damage due to the dense formation.The murderer commanding behind the scenes could only let out a mournful howl helplessly, and then the undead army withdrew from the south bank of the Lexington River one after another, retreating towards the hills and forests on both sides in a mess.

Of course, the remnants of the king's army did not have any idea of ​​following them. After the Knights of Ashes protected His Majesty the king and crossed the Lexington River, they rushed south without looking back.However, most of the remaining soldiers of the royal army did not have time to escape from the demon army. Except for a small number of cavalry who passed the bridge first, most of the infantry were driven to death by the faster-moving demon army.

In this way, the entire middle royal army disappeared in the riots and pursuit. The corpses in the camp of the royal army in Nardi City and on both sides of the Lexington Bridge were piled up like mountains, and only a small part of them died at the hands of demons and undead creatures. Most of them trampled and killed themselves.

The noble militia that fell into chaos first suffered the heaviest losses. Countless servants fled in the dark. Corpses with noble badges on armor or clothes can be seen everywhere. Some of them died from trampling or crowding, and more The person fell on the way of the army's rout, and the body was almost unharmed, except for the fatal and small wound on the back or side of the body.

It wasn't until they arrived at Holy White Stone Fort, an important military town about a day and a half away from Nardi, that the retreating royal army stopped. At this time, there were very few troops that could follow His Majesty Arthur XII, except for the Knights of Ashes. , and most of the knights and lords looked lost.

Neither the Death Knights nor the Dreadfort Jailors had returned, and Sir Chebbe could not tell whether they had fled or were all wiped out.As for the two commanders who should be mainly responsible for the riots-Gregor, Earl of the Mountain and Reeves the Dreadful, they have not been seen since that terrible night.

Since both Gregor, the Earl of the Magic Mountain, and Reeves the Terrible possessed powerful vindictiveness, second only to the Marquis Osiris, the Green Lion, in the king's army, no one believed that they would all die in the rebellion.Sir Chibe couldn't help gnashing his teeth every time he mentioned these two cursed names, but intentionally or unintentionally avoided mentioning the responsibility of His Majesty the King, which was no less than Earl Gregor and Marquis Reeves.

Sir Qibei narrated this point in one breath, and his chest was tightly blocked by resentment and shame. He couldn't help but let out a moan, and a burst of gray fighting spirit burst out from all over his body, and he urged his mount to run forward with all his strength. Just to ease my pain a little bit.This feeling was also transmitted to other people along with his narration. Earl Ansair, Archbishop de Beauvais, and Miss Fleischer all had ugly expressions on their faces and followed Sir Chebbe on horseback. gallop.They were angry at the shame and humiliation suffered by the king's army in the middle lane, and they were even more worried about the future of Arthur's kingdom. For a while, no one spoke except for the whistling wind. They all lost the desire to talk in the face of the harsh situation.

After galloping silently for more than half an hour, Earl Ansair said in a heavy tone, "This is really a great disgrace to the kingdom, and it is even more strange. There is one thing we must clarify. Before the battle, the two commanders But both of them disappeared, if it wasn't caused by the assassins sent by the devil, it would be simply..."

"That's right, Lord Sheriff, we also guess that there is such a possibility. Gregor and Reeves probably did this on purpose!" Sir Chebbe replied in a low voice.

"Deliberately?" Miss Fraser's voice was particularly sharp due to anger, "This is simply the most shameful betrayal of the kingdom!"

"May the one in charge of thunder send down a thunderbolt, and turn these traitors into ashes!" Archbishop Bovais roared angrily.

"Listen to me, the most important thing now is not to find out the traitor, but to defend His Majesty the King." Earl Ansair said, "There are only more than 800 people around His Majesty now, even with the more than 500 people from our Northern Alliance Army , There are only more than 1000 troops in total, and the coalition forces of the devil and the dead are close to [-]. Such a gap, even under the protection of the Holy White Stone Fort, unless we can get reinforcements in time, we will not There may be any chance of victory. Sir Chebbe, why don't you protect His Majesty from danger?"

"Your Majesty was...injured on the way out of the siege, and it is inconvenient to move now." Sir Qibei replied with difficulty.

These words silenced the Earl of Ansair. The inconvenient action is probably just an excuse. The personal strength of Arthur XII must not be underestimated. He has the strength of the earl with a sword. The Dragon King will definitely not because of ordinary injuries And losing the ability to move, it seems that the situation is much more serious than he imagined!

"No matter what, we will live and die together with His Majesty! Long live the Kingdom of Arthur!" Miss Fraser shouted sonorously.

"That's right!" Earl Ansair cheered up, raised his arms and shouted, "Long live the Kingdom of Arthur!"

"Long live the Kingdom of Arthur!" Dozens of voices shouted at the same time, and then the voice spread throughout the marching ranks of the Northern Allied Forces, "Long live, long live!" roar.

There was a faint morning light ahead, the sky had already dawned, and the field of vision opened up impressively. From a distance, between the two rolling mountain ranges, the military fortress built of white stones could be seen.

The Holy White Stone Fort, the residence of Wang Jun and His Majesty the King in the middle road, is already within easy reach!

(End of this chapter)