Chapter 591 - 361: The Demise of the Traditional Knight Order (Part 2)

Chapter 591: Chapter 361: The Demise of the Traditional Knight Order (Part 2)

An army of one hundred thousand is a long column on the march. The ones arrayed on the high ground were just the first to arrive; tens of thousands more were still on their way.

The defeated remnants fled south for their lives, while the oblivious legions behind them continued to march north. The battlefield was waiting for their support. Even if they couldn’t get there in time to help or claim any glory, they at least had to make it for the plundering of the city. They needed to get something out of it, or being conscripted would have been a total waste. So, they were in a hurry too.

Two groups, both in a rush, collided head-on. They came from different territories, served different lords, carried different banners, followed different commands, and even had different accents. In the heat of the moment, some weren’t even speaking the common tongue, blurting out words in their regional dialects instead.

In the chaos involving tens of thousands of men, casualties were significant. The dialects were incomprehensible, but the screams were universal. Finally, everyone realized this was a total rout, and the confusion devolved into a complete collapse.

The Alliance Army disintegrated. A few nobles managed to escape with a handful of retainers, but the majority scattered like loose sand, fleeing blindly across the unfamiliar land.

Meanwhile, on the positions outside Deepwater City.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Zog watched the fleeing Alliance Army. ’This was even easier than I imagined.’

They had actually prepared a secret weapon, just in case the cavalry managed to charge them at close range.

A "This side toward enemy" happy mine.

They hadn’t needed to use a single one.

He wondered if that commander on the other side, the one with the gaudy armor, had died here.

He had to admit, the way that noble gave a pre-battle speech and then led the charge was pretty cool.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was the cavalry of Lóhan, led by Theoden himself.

The smoke gradually cleared, revealing a field littered with corpses.

Zog glanced over the area. There were probably a few thousand of them.

’What a pity,’ he thought. ’All this manpower... Every one of them is strong and healthy. They’d be perfect for the assembly lines or construction sites.’

Attracting new residents to Deepwater City was one thing, but it couldn’t compare to the speed of capturing them directly.

Besides, many of these men had been conscripted by Sutton and had no real loyalty to the Alliance Army.

With a bit of ideological re-education and good treatment, they could quickly be converted into new blood for the Northern Legion, rapidly replenishing their forces.

Therefore, the battle was not over.

Next up was the delightful prisoner-capturing phase.

The Alliance Army could decide when the battle started, but when it ended was entirely up to Zog.

Zog and Figxin had devised a detailed plan on how to maximize prisoner captures.

Two thousand warriors from the Northern Legion would split into squads to search the areas south of Deepwater City in sections.

The Alliance Army was full of outsiders unfamiliar with the terrain. In their rout, they would easily get lost. They’d have to avoid the main roads, which meant they would inevitably scatter and be unable to form an effective counterattack.

However, as a precaution, if they encountered strong resistance, they could use their issued Talisman Stones to summon the on-call Beastman squads.

The prisoner-capture squads’ mission was only to find them, not bring them back. After tying them up, they were to apply a special potion. The scent of that potion was extremely obvious to dragons.

Afterward, the off-duty delivery Longlongs would grab them and bring them back in batches.

If a prisoner was a Transcendent and had a chance of escaping their bonds, a Teleportation Scroll could be used to send them back directly.

Because the Teleportation Scrolls weren’t particularly precise, to avoid the returning prisoners piling on top of each other and causing unnecessary extra injuries, they would be attached to Magic Balloons before being teleported back, allowing them to float in mid-air upon arrival.

This idea came from Zog, inspired by a game that, while unfinished, was still a lot of fun.

*Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain*

Although Zog’s balloons couldn’t float all the way back on their own like in the game.

The Northern Legion warriors on site quickly broke off into their squads, mounted their horses, and set off toward their designated target areas.

The chance for a few thousand men to hunt down tens of thousands wasn’t an opportunity that came around every day.

—————————

「Nightfall.」

Outside a remote little village, in a stable’s warehouse, next to a large pile of hay, Sir Willy was shivering uncontrollably.

He was so cold and so scared.

’How did it come to this?’

A short while ago, on the battlefield, he had used a Teleportation Stone to escape. He hadn’t made it completely clear of the legion’s area, landing right near the troops that were still advancing.

As a result, he had experienced the full chaos of the front ranks colliding with the rear.

In that chaotic escape, he had lost his weapon and his cloak, barely managing to get away.

After running headlong into the forest, he finally realized he was lost.

His map was long gone, so he could only make a rough guess at which way was south and head in that direction.

’This has to be the right way.’

He, a dignified noble, had actually been reduced to not even having a horse.

’What a disgrace!’

’Once I get back to Delong Castle, I’ll definitely regroup my forces! This defeat was only because we didn’t understand their weapons. After we’ve studied them, I’ll absolutely crush the Northern Domain!’

Along the way, he had discarded his expensive suit of armor. On the battlefield, it was a life-saving Divine Artifact—though it hadn’t been much use on the Northern Domain’s battlefield. But off the battlefield, when fleeing, the dozens of pounds of full plate were just a burden.

After walking for who knows how long, he finally saw signs of civilization: a small, unfamiliar village.

He felt like his legs weren’t even his own anymore.

But he didn’t dare ask any of the villagers for a place to stay. Who knew if they sided with the Northern Domain?

So, he had no choice but to hide in the warehouse next to the stable and make do for the night.

Unexpectedly, he wasn’t the only one hiding here; there were several other routed soldiers as well.

They weren’t knights loyal to the Willy family, but they didn’t look like the lowest-ranking soldiers either.

"Do you know where we are?" Sir Willy asked quietly.

"Of course not. Just keep running south."

"It’s all that idiot commander’s fault. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this miserable state."

Not many in the Alliance Army had seen Willy in person. Now, without his armor, cloak, or even a weapon, he was even more unrecognizable.

The routed soldiers crudely expressed their dissatisfaction with the commander.

Hearing this, the man in question was naturally displeased, but he was too embarrassed to reveal his identity. "The commander had his reasons."

"Reasons, my ass! For all we know, he used a teleportation to run off to who knows where by now."

"Alright, shut up! There’s movement!" the only soldier present who still had his weapon said suddenly.

He was warily observing the situation outside through a crack in the warehouse door.

"It’s a Northern Domain squad."

Hearing this, the others panicked.

"How many?" Willy asked hurriedly.

"Less than ten."

"Then can’t we go out and fight them?"

At these words, all the other warriors stared at Willy as if he were an idiot.

"Don’t you know how strong they are? Before, there were more than thirty of us, and we all had our weapons. We ran into a squad just like this one and thought we had the advantage in numbers, so we fought back."

The speaker’s voice still seemed steeped in the terror of that moment. "I’ve never seen a team with such perfect coordination. They moved like a single person—incredibly fast, with terrifyingly accurate shots. It was like they couldn’t miss. They were too calm to be human."

"And the result?"

As soon as Willy asked, he realized the answer. Looking at the few survivors present, the result was obvious.

"Then what do we do?"

"Split up and run. Save who you can."

"Split up? No, you can’t leave me behind! I’m a noble," Sir Willy said frantically. "You swore an oath to protect the nobility! It’s your duty and your honor!"

The warriors fell silent, but it wasn’t hard to see their anger.

In the silence, the Northern squad drew closer. Just then, the warrior with the weapon spoke up. "You guys go. I’ll hold them off."

"Really?" Sir Willy asked excitedly. "I swear on my family’s name, I will give you a funeral full of honor and provide for your relatives! What’s your name?"

The warrior didn’t answer. Instead, he charged out the door and ran toward the Northern squad.

"Drop your weapon!" the squad shouted, raising their guns in warning.

Under Willy’s stunned gaze, the warrior tossed his weapon aside and fell to his knees with a THUD.

"Don’t kill me! I’ll inform on someone! There’s a noble deserter right in there!" he said, pointing a hand in Willy’s direction.