Chapter 758 v4c132
White Valley(3)
The foggy canyon, like a cleft struck by lightning, appeared before the eyes of the Folded Sword Squad. This cleft divided the entire glacier, making mortals look tiny in the face of nature’s masterpiece. As Freya looked up at the fractured section of the glacier, she had a feeling that she was a speck of dust beneath the feet of a giant.
The narrow cleft stretched ahead for miles, interlaced between the sloping ice surface, forming a winding path. The layers of ice, icicles, and ice cones that formed on the crags on both sides made the entire canyon look as intricated as a maze.
“This is spectacular!” Brund muttered, and behind him, the young knights from Kirrlutz also looked at the scene with awe.
“Where’s that stag ……?” Faced with such scenery, Alea also had to admit that following that stag was a knack, but even so, he did not want to admit it verbally.
“It went in.” Lolo, the mountain rider replied affirmatively.
“But I don’t see it now, does it want us to go in? That’s not good, these ice walls are full of traps underneath, they remind me of those dangerous wilderness valleys in the Sukaras Valley when we were training. As the master, it should at least escort us in even if it wasn’t planning to stay and lead the way for us. Besides, God knows how long this canyon is, what if it’s a dead-end inside?” Alea asked rhetorically.
Lolo did not bother to argue with this guy after glancing at him.
In the end, it was young Pero who came out to calm things down, “Well, Alea is right, although it was the Holy Spirit who guided us here, there is something ahead that we don’t know yet after all; I suggest splitting the squad to scout groups, just like how we did when we were training in the middle of those winding valleys in Sukaras.”
Brund frowned, “But then we were doing survival training, and now we have a Winter Wolf pack trailing behind us, wouldn’t it slow things down if we split up the squad and find our way forward?”
“We only have this choice, the canyon is like a maze. It would not be as easy as it is outside for those Winter Wolves to track us down” Little Pero huddled under his bearskin coat and shook his head slowly, “Let’s see what Miss Commander has to say.”
Everyone turned back to Freya, but found the Aouine girl staring at the never-ending glacier, her eyes had long since drifted off to some place. She stood there, looking like she was listening and looking out at the same time, as if there was something in the ice talking to her; it was only when little Pero called her name two or three times that she came back to her senses.
“Ah, what’s up?” Freya was slightly stunned and looked to the others, “Did something just happen? Did the wolves catch up?”
“No, no.” Brund shook his head: “Rather, you, Lord Commander, what happened, did you detect anything?”
Freya looked at the piece of steel-like blue glacier with some confusion. In fact, she did find something, but this was not the main reason she wandered off; she always felt as if something had just happened, but after coming back to her senses she could not seem to recall it.
She thought for a moment and slowly shook her head, “I do have an idea about everyone’s opinion. I just don’t know what Mr. Little Pero and Senior Maynild have to suggest.”
Maynild looked at her, while Little Pero replied directly, “Just say it, ma’am.”
“I want to ambush Marquis Yoakam.”
“What!?” Before Little Pero could speak, Brund was so surprised that he blurted out, because in his opinion, this female commander had been performing only moderately, although there were some convincing qualities in her, but in terms of intelligence, she was inferior to a knight’s like Little Pero.
In fact, her performance before this also showed that her commands during several were like the most standard textbook answers – that was, one could neither find any highlights, nor could one pick any faults.
He could not imagine why she would suddenly come up with such a risky and radical idea, it was not like what she would do.
This time it was Maynild who spoke up first after a moment’s consideration. The woman who graduated from the Royal Cavalry Academy in Aouine with top honors quickly became an official knight and was promoted to a Knight Commander asked in her usual icy tone, “Why do you think so?”
“…… Actually, I’ve always had this idea, Sister Maynild,” Freya’s tone softened a bit in the face of this stern senior, as if she had only managed to build up her dignity for a moment and turned back to the young girl from the countryside of Bucce, she said softly, “I just haven’t found a good opportunity before, and the terrain here is to my liking. The Infantry Handbook says……”
“Never mind the handbook, say what you think.” Maynild sighed and interrupted her with a bit of frustration.
The young people from Kirrlutz did not know what to know as they listened to the conversation between the two. They could hardly imagine that such a ‘weak’ commander had led them so far; even within the territory of the Kirrlutz Empire, they were known to be untamed, except under Veronica’s leadership, most of the superiors who had governed them would have probably black listed them, which is what they took pride of.
But it must be said that sometimes the fate between humans were full of wonders.
Feeling that the Kirrlutzian Knights were not convince, Freya felt embarassed but still replied in a serious tone, “Yes, senior. Winter Wolves are, after all, magical creatures, and if we find a way to kill the one who commands them, then it will be difficult for them to pose a threat to us anymore. We can’t keep fleeing in the middle of this icy land.”
“How can you say it’s fleeing, we’re executing established tactics.” Alea hurriedly corrected, but his movement was too big that he stretched his wound, which left him in pain, “The Knights of the Folded Sword Squad will never run away from the enemy, Commander, you must remember this.”
“You shut up, the Knights of the Folded Sword do not rely on bragging to defeat the enemy.” Brund glanced at this guy, then turned back and asked, “But the question is whether we can kill him or not… Commander, it’s risky, that guy obviously won’t be at the front of the pack, and if we can’t get it with just one hit, we could get surrounded by the pack.”
“What’s more is that …” he hesitated, “…what if that silver monster is with him?”
“I say you, boy, trying to grasp at everything won’t bring you anywhere.” As he understood Brund’s intention to oppose, Alea immediately said, “One would have to rely on luck on the battlefield. If you can 100% anticipate the enemy, what for fight a battle, you might as well directly ask him to send in his men to surrender for good.”
“Haha, that guy might really send a wolf to surrender to you, Brund, do you understand wolf language?” This guy joked and asked.
“It doesn’t matter whether I understand wolf language or not, what matters is that you just opposed it and now you support it, Alea, can you Inir people not be two-faced?” Brund was finally provoked by this guy and could not help but mock him back.
Alea, however, did not care and replied, “The past is the past, the current is now; You supported it just now so it was naturally for me to oppose; now you are against it, so I have to support it. What’s wrong, do you have any dissatisfaction?”
“I have no time to be upset with a guy like you–” Brund was so exasperated that he wanted to say something else, but was interrupted by Little Pero. The short Kirrlutzian Knight folded his hands in the sleeves of his bearskin coat and began as if he had not heard Brund’s argument with Alea until this moment, “Everything else is nothing to worry about, but have you thought about that silver monster?”
This problem was what was troubling the entire Folded Sword Squad. If it was just the Winter Wolves and Marquis Yoakam, they would have already turned around and send a bloodbath.
But the problem was that the silver monster was too terrifying, and had left a deep impression on everyone during the previous night’s battle.
Even Freya, who proposed it, fell silent when she heard the question.
Would that silver monster be present? If so, what could be done about it?
……
“Lucky guy.”
Yoakam let out such an exclamation as he stood at the crack of the glacier, tilting his head to admire the imposing natural beauty. He unconsciously turned the emerald jewel on the Ringed Serpent Ring, just like when he was still in his castle, he used to make some small subconscious movements when he was thinking, as if it helped him to calm down.
It was just that it was cold and windy here, extremely different from the pleasant climate in his territory near the Grey Mountains. The owner of the ring no longer needed such a small gesture to stay calm, his Undead mind was as cold as ice and it was now nothing more than just a habit.
Before the wolves found the cleft, he would not have believed that this group of Kirrlutzians could find such an exit by chance. Who would have thought that the knights could find the only cleft on the outer area of the Holy Cathedral od the Hibernator by chance?
White Valley, which should be the name of this place. Before the Kirrlutzians arrived here, he and Arreck had spent several days looking for this cleft, but they did not find anything so they had to turn back and go through the main gate guarded by the Frost Dragon.
But no one expected that he would find this place as he was tracking the knights.
Although he was a little upset that the Kirrluzians had escaped once again, he was a little surprised to find this shortcut, and even felt that it was an unexpected gain.
At that moment, several wolves emerged from under the glacier, and they growled at Marquis Youakam, who quickly understood what his pets meant.
The Kirrluzians had indeed entered the canyon.
“Really bold of them,” Yoakam pressed his lips together, “but forget it, it does not matter; they can hide, but they can’t run. They will soon understand that only you guys are the masters of the glacier, I would like to see how far those lucky guys can go.”
Then two Winter Wolves came to his side, and Yoakam stroked their silver manes with his cold and dry palms and sneered, “Let’s go, the hunt is far from over.”
As if they understood his words, they lowered their heads and whimpered.
Yoakam heard his pet’s whimpering and frowned, “Don’t mind that guy, he’s just a psycho, they are just the servants of the Twilight Dragon, who think highly of themselves. They better not think that nobody knows about their defeat in the ancient times once; if that clan of theirs was really as powerful as it is spoken of, how would they still lose to the Azure Knights? In the end, they still had to rely on our power.”
“All For One, the brains of those guys who are full of killing thoughts and only have a handful of brute strength left, how would they understand that they are nothing more than fighting creatures shaped by Chaos?”
He patted his pet’s head, “Of course, I understand, that little girl may indeed seem a bit odd, and I’ve heard rumors about her. I suspect that she is the daughter of that Earth Sword Saint, Everton. Heh, the King’s party claims that that rebel is dead, thinking we don’t know about the lies they tell. But it doesn’t matter, as our first goal is still to kill those Kirrlutzian knights, having them stay with Veronica is a danger, something that old man Arreck wouldn’t like to see; and as for that little girl, she can’t escape anyway.”
“Go on, my pets, go after them so they have no way to escape.”
Yoakam said loudly as he looked up, but did not realize that behind the layers of ice walls above his head, in the crevices of the glacier, a sharp arrow on the string of the long bow, was aiming at him.
At this moment, even Alea, who had been chattering all along, held his breath, and all the Folded Sword Knights hiding on the ice wall were looking nervously at the Winter Wolf pack that was like a rushing torrent that surrounded Yoakam.
The wolves were passing by Marquis Yoakam and entering the canyon.
“Luckily we stayed,” Brund was an orthodox knight who had learned archery but was not good at it, so at this moment he stood behind everyone holding his longsword, and wiped the cold sweat off his forehead as he watched this scene, “if we continue to run away, sooner or later we would have been hunted down ……”
Until this moment was when he really looked at Freya with some admiration.
But at this moment, that young girl from the countryside of Bucce was frowning harder than everyone else at this moment.
She also did not expect that the number of Winter Wolves would be so large.
……