Uncle here isn't your average office worker!

"You're probably not stopping unauthorized personnel from entering the war zone, but rather intercepting messengers from the war zone from transmitting intelligence outwards!"

Before she could finish speaking, Anbenal had already raised his crossbow, and at the same time, the other "Forest Keepers" beside him seemed to be on the same wavelength, aiming their crossbows at Margaret as well.

"Margaret Nearl".

Anbenal murmured, like a venomous snake lurking in the darkness.

"Hmm, your novel is good."

PS: Second update.

Volume 1: Chapter 160 Is it too late?

"Mmm!"

He clutched the huge, gaping hole in his left arm, but still couldn't stop the blood from gushing out. Anbenal looked at Margaret with an expression of utter incomprehension.

Damn it, all I did was compliment your novel on being good! Why are you getting so worked up?!

Anbenal is one of the Serpent Scales. To put it simply, a Serpent Scale is like a clone after the One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones; in a more anime-like way, it's like the finger of the Archbishop of Sloth in Re:Zero. By manipulating the Serpent Scales, the immortal black serpent can access information from any corner of this land and can be resurrected within any of them. They can share information or separate, like Talulah, whom he has high hopes for. Although the seed within her hasn't sprouted yet, Koschche has already recognized her as one of the most important and worthy Serpent Scales to cultivate.

Through the knowledge shared by Duke Kosiché, Anbenal also read Margaret and Roy's novel through the Black Serpent's "network." It must be said that, although he, as the Black Serpent, has always regarded art as a mere embellishment of civilization as dispensable, this novel truly reflects the level of commercialization that Kazimierz has achieved in recent years.

It's so good that even the black snake, with its few scales, is planning to pursue the legendary love when it has nothing else to do.

Several others opted to launch a preemptive strike.

Talulah spends all day watching this kind of stuff, tsk, shouldn't we discipline her?

As for the gender issue, it doesn't have a gender itself. The only gender is the snake-scaled body, which can be male or female. It can be self-attached or self-submissive, so isn't that easier to relate to?

The problem is, even I, as a bystander, don't care, so why is Margaret, the person involved, getting so worked up?

The Radiant Knight has never been weak, not to mention that Black Serpent's assessment of her strength is still based on the time when she was first exiled four years ago. As the saying goes, "A scholar should be looked at with new eyes after three days of separation." How many three days have passed in these four years? Even if Black Serpent shaves his eyes clean, he still cannot imagine what Margaret has experienced over the years.

Becoming friends with the Pardoner, joining the resistance under the Demon King's command, and working for Rhodes Island, a place teeming with hidden talents, means dealing with elite operators who are no ordinary people.

Therefore, when Margaret got desperate, the intensity of her attack far exceeded Anbenal's expectations.

With his battle-hardened body as a forest ranger, and with the assistance of so many crossbowmen around him, he couldn't even hope to win, let alone draw. He was utterly crushed!

"A scholar can be killed but not humiliated; let us fight to the death!"

Margaret raised her sword and spear and charged again, leaving Anbenal somewhat amused and exasperated by the declaration.

Good heavens, if it weren't for the fact that I was lying all over the place and I was crippled as well, I would have really thought that I had the upper hand!

Are all you female knights like this? Always using "Gu-Kill"?

Oh, I learned that from Talulah's collection of books. That old bastard Koschke has been spying on Talulah for a long time now.

"Tsk, looks like we can't beat them."

He murmured, but there was no trace of fear of impending death on his face, which made Margaret frown in confusion.

I've seen people who face death without fear, and I've seen people who take life and death lightly, but I've never seen someone about to die act with the same regretful yet somewhat indifferent attitude as if they'd lost a game.

Seemingly sensing Margaret's confusion, Anbenal maintained his smile:

"It's alright, I had no backup plan, and the objective has been achieved anyway."

He pointed to the sky.

"There are thirty-three of us in total. We held you off for three hours. At six in the morning, how far do you think the Ursus army is from you?"

Anbenal's scale is still quite useful. It's a bit of a pity to sacrifice it, but as long as the goal can be achieved, the immortal black serpent never cares how much sacrifice is required.

Furthermore, losing snake scales is a common occurrence for it. Cultivating snake scales requires planting a seed in the heart of another, then using emotions like fear, desire, worship, or identification to allow the seed to sprout and thus let the black snake control the body. However, most powerful individuals obviously won't fall for this, and leaders rarely have the opportunity to meet the black snake alone or be infected by it. In other words, the snake scales cultivated by the black snake are mostly ordinary people with little strength.

A serpent scale like Anbennar's is considered quite powerful among its serpent scales. The reason he has high hopes for Talulah is because she is a serpent scale candidate with a rarity comparable to UR.

He has the strength, the potential, and the status. If it weren't for the internal strife within the Victorian royal family and Wei Yanwu's indecisiveness, where would he have found such a suitable vessel?

Margaret's heart sank as she saw the black snake's sinister smile.

She was certainly aware of Anbennar's plan to stall for time, but there was nothing she could do. If she hadn't been intercepted by Anbennar, it would have been fine, but since she had, it was almost impossible to bypass him and pass on the information directly.

But three hours had passed, and Margaret was not optimistic about the situation at the front.

She clicked her tongue, and just as she raised her spear, intending to sever the tendons of the enemy before her and capture him, she saw Anbenal charge headlong into Margaret's spear without hesitation.

"puff."

There was absolutely no room for maneuver. It was virtually impossible for Anbenal to defeat Margaret, but if he wanted to give Margaret his head, that would be a piece of cake.

Swords and spears stained with blood, Margaret gasped as she watched the slowly falling corpse.

madman.

With no regard for his own life or the lives of those under his command, and only seeking to achieve his goals, Anbenal's indifference to life and obsession with results absolutely deserve the adjective "madman."

He was dead, but the chill in Margaret's heart did not lessen in the slightest. She looked towards the border of the White Wave River, still three hundred miles away, her expression grave.

She's been held up here for three hours, so the Ursus must have been advancing for three hours already!

Three hours! Even if the Knights of Conquest tried to stop them, their forces probably wouldn't last long. Margaret would probably be able to see the enemy's shadow on the horizon before dawn.

Keep moving, let's set off now!

She adjusted her breathing and shot across the wasteland like a bullet, golden magical light flashing around her, accelerating her and illuminating her path. At that moment, she was like a shooting star flying close to the ground.

Regardless, let's get there first and see what happens.

.......

How long until sunrise?

Roy, with his hand on the Sun Sword at his waist, asked Marna the question for the third time.

"It's seven o'clock now. If it were summer, it would already be getting light. But it's February. There's still at least an hour and a half to go."

“An hour and a half…” Roy looked at the war fortress land-based ships, billowing sand and dust, sailing majestically across the river, and clicked his tongue: “Is it too late?”

"Damn it, why isn't a sea of ​​people considered a sea?!"

Volume 1: Chapter 161 Little Sun

"Sir Heng, let's retreat!"

Johnson practically cried out those words. He was covered in blood, having just been carried off the battlefield. Even his carefully maintained armor was now just a pile of scrap metal hanging on his body. His adjutant, who had always been by his side, was nowhere to be seen. Roy didn't ask where he had gone; those who went to the battlefield usually only had two destinations.

"We only have 1,200 men, while the enemy has tens of thousands! They are spread out on the ground and stretch as far as the eye can see. They also have fortresses, and we can't break through their defenses at all... We can't even get close. They only need one cannon shot to destroy our charging formation!"

Johnson's face was filled with sorrow. To be honest, not long ago, even he thought that his 1,200 men were about to create a miracle. The Ursus vanguard, which numbered nearly ten times their size, was routed by them almost without any casualties. The enemy lines collapsed instantly under the spells of the Eternal Knights. All they had to do was charge and charge again to sweep the battlefield like autumn leaves and achieve victory.

But all these illusions vanished completely after the main force of Ursus arrived.

Are you fast and fierce in battle useful? The enemy is driving a war fortress the size of a mobile city. Their defenses are truly impregnable, and their firepower is endless and despair-inducing. Whenever their main gun fires, a crater at least tens of meters in diameter appears on the ground. Such an enemy is invincible to them.

Unless... unless Roy fires another arrow and destroys all those war fortresses!

But Johnson couldn't make such a request. He had witnessed Roy chanting the spell and knew how badly Roy's condition had deteriorated after the arrow was fired. His body cracked as if the earth had been scorched by the sun for ten days and ten nights, and the blood flowing out almost covered him completely. He couldn't even stand up, yet he still gave them a thumbs up and joked to boost their morale. What a strong and noble person it must have been to do that!

Although Johnson was opportunistic and ambitious, he was also a veteran who had served on the frontier for many years. He had simply become numb to the corruption and depravity of the Supervisory Council and the power struggles within the Business Federation, but that didn't mean he had become a treacherous villain. He might laugh at the old commander for being ousted by the Business Federation for not taking sides, but he couldn't bring himself to ask a hero who had just risked his life for them to sacrifice himself again.

"Sir Heng, continuing to hold out now is just a waste of lives. We have held off an Ursus army that outnumbers us a hundred to one for four hours. This is enough to be recorded in the military history of any nation. No one will think we have lost. Retreat!"

Johnson took a deep breath, as if he had made a tremendous decision, and said...

“At the very least, you should leave. Someone like you shouldn’t die here. I will personally lead the army to cover your retreat. Please leave.”

As soon as Johnson finished speaking, as if to prevent himself from wavering, he immediately turned around, dragged his wounds, and once again walked towards the front line outside the forest, where gunfire was raging.

"Assemble! Form ranks! Remember this, lads: we are knights of Kazimierz! Not a single Ursus lackey is allowed in! Charge with me!"

Roy stared blankly at his retreating figure until Marna placed her hand on his shoulder, bringing him back to his senses.

"I misjudged him."

Marna's face remained serious, but it was no longer the disdainful and reserved silence that Roy had shown when he met him in the Grand Knights' territory. Instead, it was a more intense silence, like the calm before a storm.

Roy noticed that his hand on the hilt of his sword was trembling, and there seemed to be a power approaching its limit being suppressed in the golden arm armor.

Marna wanted to draw his sword; he wanted to rush to the front lines.

But he ultimately did not draw his sword, because he knew that even if he were added as a general to the battlefield, it would be like a mantis trying to stop a chariot against the steel fortress of Ursus. The one who truly had a chance to turn the tide of the battle was the man standing beside him at this moment.

He needs to protect him, wait for him to work a miracle, or cover his retreat.

Marner leans towards the former.

Roy was truly at his wit's end. His newly acquired Sun Sword was useless, and the other modules were too weak in the face of this situation. Against the war fortress, the only potentially effective weapon was the Great Wilderness Meteor Shower, but it only happened once. This was a battlefield, and there was no rousing background music to help Roy refresh it. Whether he could even stop it was a question, and even if he did... the Ursus people didn't just have one war fortress.

You only realize how few modules you have when you need them. If only I had known, I should have stayed in the Ten Mile Slope Sword God position for another four years and waited until Margaret Nearl returned to rescue her sister before coming out of seclusion. By then, I would have wiped out not only the Ursus army, but even the Sea Kings!

Is retreat the only option now?

Roy was lost in thought, but a sudden scream pulled him back to reality:

"Brothers, look! The Great Wilderness Starfall! Lord Knight Heng is here to help us!"

Roy: “?”

What Great Wilderness Starfall? Where did this Great Wilderness Starfall come from? I'm still standing right here. Pantheon stole the Ultimate Tome of Magic, and he can still create a clone?

Before he could even ask what had happened, a bright light suddenly appeared behind Roy, and a meteor of light pierced through the forest as if flying close to the ground, heading straight for Marna.

Marna was slightly startled and immediately drew her sword, blocking Roy's path. Unexpectedly, before it could reach Marna, the light abruptly stopped, gradually slowing down until it ceased. A familiar yet unfamiliar figure slowly emerged from the light, panting but filled with immense joy: