Chapter 1 Crossing the Fortress One

  Two wolf cavalrymen galloped across the endless wilderness, wearing dirty light armor, their hands tightly grasping the disheveled manes of their war wolves, letting out short howls to urge on their mounts as they scanned their surroundings with piercing gazes, a pair of typical scouts.

  Suddenly, the war wolves that were running wildly stopped at the same time. They lowered their bodies to reduce the inertia of the run while lowering their heads and sniffing fiercely on the ground, making low growling sounds in their throats.

  Knowing that the mounts had discovered something, the two wolf riders silently drew their weapons. They skillfully controlled the war wolves to spin in place while vigilantly observing the surrounding situation.

  Suddenly, a white shadowy figure emerged from the weeds not far from the wolf cavalry and sprinted towards them at an astonishing speed.

  It's no wonder they're the elite troops of the beastmen. The two wolf cavalrymen almost simultaneously sensed something and reacted in an instant. One of them shouted, his warwolf leaping up with him, while the other leaned forward, his curved knife slashing towards the white shadow.

  At this moment, a strange and eerie whistling sound suddenly came from the air, and a black shadow flashed over like lightning. The attention of the two wolf riders was attracted by the attacker, and for a while they didn't notice anything. By the time they reacted, the war wolf that had jumped up let out a mournful howl, its neck pierced by a long spear, and fell to the ground.

  At the same time, the attacker dodged under the wolf's abdomen and, as another wolf cavalryman's curved blade hacked down in front of her face, she slightly leaned back. Just as the knife tip incredibly grazed past the tip of her nose, she had already used the momentum from the blade to perform a triple jump along the wolf cavalryman's arm, then swept across his shoulder, and immediately heard that wolf cavalryman let out a miserable cry, with blood splashing from his neck.

  At this time, the wolf rider who was brought down by the war wolf hurriedly retreated and got up, but before he could figure out where the long spear came from, a giant axe with a heavy whistling rolled in, cutting straight into his chest, The huge impact sent his body flying several meters away, and he was dead when he hit the ground.

  "Ugh, these guys are always tailing me, it's so annoying." After taking care of the two scouts, Bastet casually wiped the blood off her curved knife on the Warwolf's fur and complained.

  "Stop complaining, who told you to let one of them escape when their patrol found us a few days ago?" At this time, Raymond and Rudes also stood up from their hiding place.

  "Ugh, how can you blame others? Young master, your long spear didn't hit that fleeing guy either." Bast said with a hint of grievance.

  "Cough, cough... alright, alright, let's not dwell on the past too much." Raymond cleared his throat and rubbed the puffed-up cat girl's head: "The priority now is to think of a way to get over that place."

  As he spoke, Rutz and Bast's gazes both drifted to the distant massive mountain range that stretched out like a wall, where in one of the recessed valleys, the shadow of artificial structures could still be vaguely seen.

  That is the pass that connects the Kingdom of Dinar and the Northern Wilderness, where countless beastmen were defeated at the Broken Sword Canyon Fortress under the city of Zhaikhan!

  A few days ago, Ramon and his party bid farewell to Amada and left the Beastman Empire. In the process of crossing the entire northern wilderness, they unexpectedly encountered a patrol team of wolf cavalry, exposing their whereabouts. After that, they were constantly pursued by the other side, and after killing several batches of scouts in succession, they finally arrived here.

  "Kill these two scouts and the enemy should not be able to find us for a while." At this time, steady Luz said: "Take advantage of this opportunity, let's cross the mountain tonight."

  Although the Duanjianxia Fortress was located in a strategic location, it was still a remote and sparsely populated area. The garrison had ample defenses against the beastmen army, but for scattered individuals like them, sneaking across the border was not a difficult task.

  But Raymond shook his head: "No way, if we just run away like this, wouldn't that be too unfair to those guys?"

  "Master, you... what are you going to do again?" Upon hearing this, Bastet had an almost instinctual bad premonition.

  Raymond said: "They worked hard to 'escort' us here, and didn't let them catch up, so it's only fair that we should at least give them something in return."

  "Are we going to fight?" Bastet hesitated: "But there are so many of them."

  "Nonsense, I knew that already." Raymond said irritably: "With just the few of us, we definitely can't win a fight. But if the people in the village are willing to lend a hand, it shouldn't be difficult to shake off those annoying guys behind us."

  "So you're saying..." Rutz ventured.

  "Let's use Dinar's men to drive those wolf riders away."

  "That's true enough, but how can humans possibly help us?" Bast said.

  "Ah..." Raymond stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment, then suddenly grinned and beckoned to Baster: "Baster, come here."

  "What's... what's going on?" The cat girl immediately looked startled and took a step back.

  "Ah, what's there to be afraid of?" Raymond smiled brightly: "It's just that I have a small favor to ask of you."

  "Last time you said that, I ended up with a foot in the Haffdan River." Bastard shook his head desperately, backing away inch by inch: "So..."

  "...so let's just cross the mountain directly then."

  She suddenly stood up like a startled kitten, her hair standing on end, and turned around as if she wanted to run away.

  But as soon as she moved, Luz grabbed her tail. Bimon said calmly, "Where do you want to go? As a scout, are you going to desert in the face of battle?"

  "But... but the young master must be up to some strange idea again." Bast stretched out his claws and grasped the ground desperately, his tail being pulled straight.

  However, in terms of strength, she was no match for Rutz. And so, the poor cat girl was dragged back by her tail, bit by bit, leaving two deep claw marks on the ground that represented her unwillingness to give up.

  As if he had known the outcome all along, Raymond smiled and squatted down, patting the cat girl's head: "Don't worry, I guarantee it will be a lot of fun tonight."

  "Right, since there's nothing going on now, let me give Young Master a shoulder massage."

  "Meow... no!"

  It's night.

  Jie Sha leaned against the city wall with his long spear, yawning out of boredom.

  Since the end of the war 20 years ago, with the weakening of the Orc Empire, the Broken Sword Pass fortress, which had faced countless baptisms of fire, also fell silent.

  Tonight, like the countless nights he had kept watch before, Jeshua gazed absent-mindedly at the tranquil grasslands outside the fortress, guarding against the sneak attack of the "Beastman Army" that would never come. After so many peaceful days, almost no one remembered what kind of terrible enemy this fortress was supposed to block.

  It was not just Jie Sha, but from time to time, there were waves of yawns rising from the top of the wide walls of the fortress.

  "Ugh, I'm so tired. When is the guy who's supposed to relieve me going to show up? I really want to go back to sleep." Jiesha thought to himself, sticking his head out over the wall and taking a deep breath of the night air in an attempt to refresh himself.

  Just then, he suddenly noticed that outside the high and steep city wall, there seemed to be a black shadow approaching.

  "What's that, a lost beast?" Jeshua rubbed his eyes involuntarily.

  Due to the insufficient light at night, he could only see a vague black shadow passing through the narrow canyon and coming under the fortress. Although Jesh was responsible for being vigilant, compared to the massive outer wall of the fortress, this mysterious thing really couldn't show any signs of posing a threat, so he just curiously watched the other's movements.

  Suddenly, the black shadow below underwent a strange change. It was seen that its body shape rapidly expanded, and in an instant it changed from a normal human size to being as tall and large as a giant bear.

  "This... what is this?" A sudden thought flashed through Jiesha's mind, that thing looked like something the instructor had mentioned during new recruit training as extremely dangerous.

  But before he could make sense of it, a whistling sound suddenly came from the air, followed by a loud crash not far behind him, and a huge boulder smashed onto the wall.

  In an instant, countless gravel hit Jiesha's body, his stiff neck turned around, although he was not hit, but the sudden loud noise seemed to still echo in his ears. At this time, other soldiers who heard the movement elsewhere were shouting and running towards this side.

  Several massive boulders were then hurled over the city walls, one of which even sailed over the parapet and crashed into the fortress, shattering the stillness of the night with a deafening impact.

  At this time, Jie Sha finally remembered what the huge shadow below was.

  He used all his strength and shouted loudly until he was hoarse.

  "The beastmen have arrived! The Bimon beast has charged into the city!"

  In an instant, the entire fortress was awakened. The bugle call representing the enemy's raid sounded back and forth, and the lights of various strategic strongholds in the fortress were lit up one after another. Soldiers who woke up from their dreams quickly put on their armor, grabbed their weapons, and rushed to their posts.

  At this time, a chaotic city head, no one noticed that the incoming Bimon giant beast had quietly retreated into the curved valley outside the fortress.

  The garrison of the fortress was indeed the elite of the Dinar Kingdom's army, and after the alarm sounded, in just a short moment, a fully armored general with his entourage quickly walked up to the city wall.

  "Vortak, sir." Seeing him, Shak and the nearby soldiers hastily saluted.

  "Who sounded the alarm?" asked the stern-faced general with a frown.

  "Reporting to you, sir," Shak said hastily. "I was the one who discovered it. It's a beast bigger than a Mongolion. Those rocks were thrown up by him."

  "How is the damage?" Vtac asked turning back.

  Another officer replied: "Two soldiers were crushed to death, and several others were injured. The city wall suffered minor damage, and I have called the engineering team to come and repair it."

  Futaq nodded and immediately walked to the edge of the city wall, looking down. His attendants hurriedly ran up and set up shields around him to prevent cold arrows.