The 10,000 troops of Steinbeck Fief under Clyde’s command marched towards the Needham Plains through the Leopold Lake area that had originally been controlled by the three earls. The opponent this time was Marquis Charles and his 120,000 troops who had already laid out a defense in the vicinity of the Needham Plains, waiting for the arrival of Steinbeck Fief.
Clyde’s monster army didn’t follow their march. They had been instructed to stay behind in the Leopold Lake area to suppress insect men monsters as well as the fishmen hunters hidden in the artificial lake Andy. These two humanoid monsters were potential threats to Benson Town. After Clyde had killed Insect Monster King and Insect Emperor Huxley, the insectmen monsters had lost their leader and been left in a state of confusion.
Before marching towards the Needham Plains, Ancient Demon King Andrisno had dispatched ghosts to scout who had accidentally discovered the existence of a dark shaman in Marquis Charles’s camp. The Light Church classified dark shamans as heretic existences. Once discovered, they would be treated like Undead Shamans. They would be captured and executed by fire to purify them. Generally speaking, dark shamans had powerful concealing magics, so it was difficult for others to find their traces. In fact, the dark shaman had only been discovered because their concealing magics barely had any effect on monsters and people of the dark side.
Marquis Charles likely had a secret deal with this dark shaman. The witchcraft of most dark shamans was even more evil than Undead Shamans’. Since Undead Shamans were heavily suppressed by the Light Church, orthodox Undead Shamans had been almost entirely stamped out in Ximengsi Continent. People like Young Master Hal were self-taught Undead Shamans, so they didn’t know many undead magic spells besides common, innate skills like how to summon an Undead Calamity. If not for the help of a Demon King, he basically wouldn’t have been able to use any Undead magics.
Compared to Undead Shamans, dark shamans had countless ties with aristocrats. Out of individual necessity, many aristocrats had secretly made deals with dark shamans. Especially in nations that didn’t have much faith in the Light Church, dark shamans were especially prevalent. Now, the imperial family of Adrian Empire had seriously weakened and was continuously losing its prestige. The imperial family was powerless to restrain battles between the large aristocrats; they had even fewer ways to restrict the dark shamans.
Among the two forces of humanoid monsters in the underground world, the insectmen monsters had been handled; however, the underground ratmen were strange. According to the ghosts’ latest investigation reports, the underground ratmen hadn’t attacked the low-level mercenaries and adventurers hired by Marquis Charles. The ratmen had only attacked the insectmen monsters.In the worst-case scenario, the underground ratmen and Marquis Charles might have already formed a secret alliance. In that case, their enemies would rise to over 300,000, with the 120,000 elite troops of Marquis Charles and over 200,000 underground ratmen.
After learning this, Clyde felt a bit regretful. He had made an error. When taking down Huxley, he should have handled the underground ratmen as well. Both the underground ratmen and insectmen monsters were obstacles. Merely, because the insectmen monsters had lost their Insect Monster King, they had fallen apart. Now, the underground ratmen didn’t face opposition from their old enemy, so they could act even more wantonly.
In the periphery of the Needham Plains was a town named Ferro. Now, the army of Steinbeck Fief invaded this town, intending to use it as a launching pad to the Needham Plains. Baron Haydn under Marquis Charles defended this town with over 5,000 troops. With the fortifications of the town, they planned to last until Marquis Charles’s reinforcements arrived. The army of Steinbeck Fief only consisted of 12,000 people; Marquis Charles, however, had over 120,000 troops. Many generals found Steinbeck Fief’s army amusing. Outnumbered ten fold, Steinbeck Fief’s army couldn’t threaten Marquis Charles. Few attached any importance to Steinbeck Fief’s army.
Princess Natalie controlled Steinbeck Fief’s army as they attacked Ferro. Her close girlfriends, Assassin Jenny who was the leader of the scout squad and Paladin Alicia who was the commander of the maiden knight regiment, were the deputy commanders. Nevertheless, for the time being, a magician’s squad couldn’t be formed because it would be wasteful to recruit sufficient magicians. Although there were many powerful magician beauties in Steinbeck Fief who could command the regiment, there was a shortage of magicians.
“Those underground monsters aren’t good at all. I hope the ghosts dispatched by Andrisno can provide more reconaissance.”
“Lord Clyde, we don’t need to worry. Marquis Chares is an aristocrat from the Human Race. He wouldn’t dare to publicly cooperate with the humanoid monsters; otherwise, we could just report it to the Light Church.”
“Eh, Princess Saras, you… never mind. Naivety is also a kind of virtue. While you are correct, I doubt that the Marquis Charles there is the real marquis Charles.”
“ Lord Clyde, you mean…”
“Never mind. Natalie and the others just started.”
Clyde and Princess Saras watched the battle from a small hill. Clyde glanced at her naïve expression and decided against shattering her illusions. The Light Church had already diverted from the original Light Church’s path, turning selfish. Perhaps, they have already forgotten their original aspirations. Other than those few saintesses who appeared somewhat reasonable, those bishops and archbishops he had met weren’t reliable. Each had their own selfish calculations. He himself had become a victim defrauded of thousands of gold coins.
Nevertheless, it was meaningless for the saintesses to be reliable. Those few saintesses of Light Church had almost no real power; they were symbolic ornaments. Even if Light Church knew that Marquis Charles had cooperated with Dark Shamans or allied himself with the underground ratmen, it was unlikely for the current Light Church to get involved. Adrian Empire’s belief in the Light Church was not high, and their annual contributions were less than those of other empires. Light Church would at most offer some lip service. As for practical action, it was almost impossible. Now, they were busy suppressing an undead calamity, so they lacked the manpower to meddle in Adrian Empire.
While Clyde and Princess Saras chatted, the battle for Ferro began. The army of Steinbeck Fief formed a phalanx and carefully advanced. The Ferro was not big, and the enclosing walls were temporary and only three meters tall. There were also newly-built, wooden, arrow towers. The defenders relied on longbows to snipe Steinbeck Fief’s troops from the safety of their walls.
Not far behind Clyde and Princess Saras were the siege weapons of Steinbeck Fief’s army. Dozens of huge mangonel catapults rolled toward the town. These colossal mangonels were quite troublesome to transport and assemble. Normal human armies required several hundred people to safeguard, transport, and assemble each mangonel. The skill required for their operation and their cost prohibited frequent use of these weapons. Generally, only empires could use these weapons, and even then, they only brought them out when attacking important cities or formidable fortresses.
Clyde had borrowed external assistance. The original Steinbeck Fief’s army had not been capable of dispatching these giant mangonels due to insufficient troops and training. Thus, the monster army had brought these giant mangonels. Monsters with huge statures were responsible for loading boulders onto the contraptions with an efficiency far greater than even several hundred skilled human troops. If the human army had been responsible for these giant mangonels, after a single volley, reloading them could take more than half a day. Basically, the war would have finished before the catapults were ready once more.
With the monsters’ efficiency, the mangonels could be fired every few minutes. Because their innate strength was sufficient, monsters didn’t need giant siege weapons. As a result, the Human Race had long believed that the Demon Race wouldn’t use siege weapons to attack cities. Unsurprisingly, the commander of the siege weapons was Ancient Demon King Andrisno who arranged giant skeletons and Undead to test run the giant mangonels.
Behind the mangonels, tall, wolf-headed mummy giants and a large number of mummified soldiers efficiently transported boulders to the frontlines, similar to transporting heavy stone blocks for pyramids. Undead Queen Lafania organized these supply lines.
The younger sister of Undead Queen, Cursed Queen Mephis, commanded the demonized eagles circling in the sky. Hovering at high altitude, those eagles’ surveying eyes were blood-red as if they had been cursed. They provided the allied monsters manning the mangonels coordinates for targets.
Since the war for Ferro was occurring during the day, Lucifer’s Bloodkin didn’t participate in this operation. Under her command, a large number of her Bloodkin familiars transformed into blood wolves, bats and crows before detouring around Ferro to cut off Viscount Haydn’s retreat as well as prevent any possible reinforcements. Joyce Fort, the nearest place to Ferro, was an important military stronghold of Marquis Charles. The commander stationed there, Viscount Aaron, had over 15,000 soldiers.
Viscount Aaron was part of Marquis Charles’s personal clique. The troops under his leadership were well-equipped with a combat power that far outclassed those miscellaneous troops under Baron Haydn. Once he reinforced Ferro, without any assistance from the monster army, Steinbeck Fief would have to retreat.
Cursed Queen Mephis provided long-ranged curse support to the Bloodkin army through the resource-intensive, large-scale curse “Eternal Night Prison.” This curse shrouded the paths around Ferro in black clouds, preventing sunlight from reaching the ground. Like this, Lucifer’s Bloodkin could roam freely without the restriction of sunlight. Even high-level Bloodkin familiars would be greatly weakened even if they managed to avoid direct purification by sunlight.
The defending troops of Ferro were entirely unaware of the imminent disaster. They were still leisurely playing with longbows and arrows along the city wall. As for their leader, Baron Haydn, he was still sleeping in the castellan residence. He still didn’t know that Ferro was in danger. After occupying the town, this fellow had done nothing and became indolent. Originally, Marquis Charles had instructed him to build a five-meter-tall city wall, but the baron had committed to shoddy work and used inferior materials to make a profit. In the end, the city wall was only three meters tall, and most of the dedicated funds went toward his personal treasury.
