I can evolve everything

The howling wind ahead seemed to pause for a moment.

Valen led his troops slowly closer, eventually stopping at a snow slope not far away, without immediately waving his hand to order an attack.

Below him, the pack of gnolls were greedily feeding.

The monsters were huddled around several dead moose carcasses, tearing and fighting over the still-warm, steaming meat.

These monsters look quite burly, and apart from their names, their other features are hard to associate with jackals.

Their grayish-white fur was still covered with ice shards and blood clots of varying sizes, their backs were hunched, and they held rough clubs made from thigh bones in their hands.

The gnolls looked extremely hungry, and despite their usually keen hearing and sense of smell, they were completely unaware of the danger behind them.

"Get ready."

Valen raised his finger high in the air.

Behind him, thirty soldiers unloaded their crossbows from their backs, knelt on one knee, and assumed aiming postures.

These crossbows were specially made for the northern fortress, and the bolts they were equipped with were a full size larger than usual.

At this moment, Raine and Ella circled around to the flank and lay prone in the snow, silently watching the well-trained soldiers.

"put."

Valen remained silent, his raised arm quickly lowering as a signal to launch an attack.

collapse!collapse!collapse!

Thirty crossbow bolts shattered the silence and swiftly pierced the depression.

The next second, countless snowflakes exploded on the snowfield.

The seven or eight gnolls, who were engrossed in devouring their entrails, were caught off guard as the crossbow bolts pierced their bodies without hindrance. However, their tenacious vitality prevented them from dying.

Only then did the remaining jackals realize what was happening.

"Awooo—!!"

Countless howls rose and fell.

"Proceed!"

Valen finally drew his knight's sword from his waist, but instead of charging to the front, he commanded thirty soldiers.

Upon hearing the order, the soldiers quickly put their crossbows back behind them and drew their longswords.

This is how the regular army in the North fights.

The soldiers quickly got up and moved forward slowly in pairs.

Renn squinted, observing them carefully.

The soldiers were like a slow-moving meat grinder.

Faced with these tough-skinned creatures, they did not seek to kill them, but instead cooperated with each other to slowly repel the panicked gnolls who tried to fight back.

The longsword thrusts out, then retracts. It thrusts out again, then retracts again.

This is the coordinated effort of the well-trained soldiers under the Northern Knights.

"Are we just going to watch from here?" Ella, lying next to Rein, seemed itching to get involved and asked again about their mission.

"Watch."

Raine adjusted his breathing, ready to activate the "Black Rock Breathing Technique" at any moment, his gaze fixed on the center of the battlefield.

"The teacher put us here to stop any who slipped through the net. So we don't cause trouble for Valen and the others."

Meanwhile, in the center of the battlefield.

Valen cleaved the skull of a gnoll with a single sword stroke. The beast, before dying, tried to stab Valen in the knees with a rusty dagger, but was stopped by the thick leg armor.

"Maintain formation! Don't scatter!"

Valen roared, using his armored elbow to knock back a gnoll that tried to flank him, and then a soldier behind him finished him off with a blow.

The encirclement and suppression operation went quite smoothly.

But this doesn't mean Valencia can relax.

His mind was still preoccupied, and during lulls in the fighting, his gaze would inevitably drift to the flanks.

There, behind two gray rocks, lay the two apprentice knights Karen had brought.

"That old Karen..."

Valen couldn't help but grumble to himself.

He knows Karen too well.

Since the old knight said "don't worry about them," he really wouldn't interfere unless there was some overly dramatic crisis.

Even if Raine and Ella were torn to pieces by the gnolls, Karen would probably just sigh with heartache.

This is not indifference, but rather Karen's consistent approach to educating her students.

But Valen couldn't very well let Karen's new student be brutally murdered by gnoll minions on his first mission with him.

"The Icefield Gnolls aren't the kind of goblins that just howl."

Valen kicked aside the corpse of a gnoll, his brow furrowed.

These monsters have thick, tough fur, making it difficult to inflict fatal wounds with ordinary cutting.

Moreover, when they go berserk, they move at an astonishing speed.

For beginners who have just mastered the basics of breathing techniques, two animals might be manageable through coordinated efforts, but once the number exceeds four or five...

There was a time when a novice knight was killed in an attack by several gnolls.

"Keep your formation! Stay alert, don't give them any openings!" Valen shouted at the soldiers around him again while fighting, trying to draw all the aggro to this side.

However, the situation on the battlefield is often beyond human control.

As their companions fell one by one, the remaining gnolls, not being mindless beasts, finally realized that the soldiers in front of them were too tough and that they could not break through.

The ferocity inherent in wild beasts gradually gave way to the instinct for survival.

Among the gnolls who were still frantically charging at the soldiers' formation, a few suddenly let out short screams.

This seemed to be a signal; upon hearing the sound, the remaining dozen or so gnolls began to scatter and flee in all directions.

"Stop them!" Valen's heart tightened.

Most of the gnolls were blocked by the soldiers' formation or, in their panic, crashed into the direction where Karen was—even if there were hundreds of gnolls there, they would only face certain death.

But an accident still happened.

On the right side of the battlefield, in the direction where Raine and Ella were located, a gap appeared due to the lower terrain.

That spot was specially reserved to make it easier for them to catch the few fish that escaped.

But no one expected that there would be a lot of gnolls exposed this time.

"Aww!!"

One of the gnolls howled, and eight or nine of the largest gnolls, who were originally surrounded, smashed through the flanks of several soldiers.

The soldiers groaned as their longswords were knocked askew by the immense impact, creating a small gap in their formation.

This is the gnolls' chance to break out.

The gnolls seemed to have gone mad, running on all fours toward the gap.

Just a few dozen steps directly in front of that gap, there were only two figures.

Ryan and Ella.

"Damn it!" Valen's pupils shrank.

Eight or nine! That number would be difficult to stop, let alone two apprentice knights, or even a well-equipped squad of soldiers if they were in formation beforehand!

"Third squad! Follow me!"

Valen disregarded maintaining formation and turned to charge in that direction.

But as soon as he took a step, two old gnolls who were responsible for covering his retreat rushed forward recklessly, slowing him down.

All of this seems to be part of the gnolls' plan: the elderly gnolls stay behind to hold off the humans, allowing the younger, more capable ones to break through.

"These cunning beasts," Valen cursed inwardly.

"Get out of here!"

With a roar, Valen swept his knight's sword across, cleaving the two beasts in two.

But this also delayed them by a few seconds. What's more, several gnolls were charging at them from behind, fearless of death.

On the battlefield, a few seconds can be enough to decide life or death.

The seven or eight gnolls had broken out of the encirclement. Their bloodshot eyes showed no fear, but rather an instinctive excitement at seeing the two seemingly frail humans ahead.

It looks like an easy target.

"Raine!"

Seeing this scene, Ella shouted, her voice trembling slightly.

Having spent so much time with Ella, Renn knew that the trembling was not out of fear, but rather from the excitement of not having seen blood for so long!

Seven or eight monsters, each nearly two meters tall, charged forward like a series of runaway carriages.

The impact was enough to make an ordinary person's legs go weak.

The two sides are getting closer and closer.

Ten meters. Five meters.

She could even see the bits of meat hanging between the gnoll's teeth.

"Back off! Ella, Raine!"

Valen, finally free of the pursuers, was still some distance away. He could only shout, "Let them escape! Don't fight them head-on!"

He had already prepared for the worst in his mind.

If those two kids can buy him ten seconds... no, five seconds, he can get there!

However, the next moment, he saw a scene that did not conform to his usual understanding of apprentice knights.

The dark-haired youth named Ryan did not obey his orders to retreat in a panic, nor did he try to find cover.

Instead, Ryan took a step forward.

Where his foot landed, the snow suddenly sank and compacted, and the surrounding snow seemed to vibrate slightly, centered on his foot.

Then, Renn lowered his hands, lowered his shoulders and back, and assumed a defensive posture, like a reef preparing to meet a raging storm.

He did not draw his sword.

Faced with the seven or eight monsters rushing towards him, Renn simply lowered his hands slowly and slumped his shoulders slightly.

"Is he insane?!"

Valen was somewhat panicked at this moment.

That posture... that's the posture of preparing to take a hard hit.

Those are gnolls weighing around two or three hundred pounds, charging at full speed! Even heavy infantry wearing plate armor wouldn't dare to withstand several gnolls charging at full power!

"Come."

Renn looked at the gnoll that was charging at the front.

The enormous mouth rapidly magnified in my field of vision.

Life energy originating from the depths of the bone marrow flows slowly at this moment.

Every bone in his body was trembling slightly, emitting a faint hum.

"let me see……"