The vast fortress coalition slowly walked on the way to the border town.

At the head of the line is the Knights of the Six Strongholds. From the armor and dress of each knight, you can see the difference in the strength of the family to which they belong. Undoubtedly, the most striking are the knights under the command of Duke Lane, whose mounts are all bobtails from the royal capital, good at long-distance running, and larger than other horses. The knights on horseback were even more formidable, their armor made by the fortress "Hammer and Dragon's Teeth" blacksmith shop, with huge lion heads carved on their shiny thick silver chest guards and two wolf heads on their shoulder armor, as if they were roaring with their mouths open. The cloak behind the back is embroidered with delicate patterns, and a red ribbon is tied around the waist.

These knights are not what they look like. Every year after the end of the Demon Month, they are responsible for going out of the city to clear the remnants of the evil beasts and ensure that the land route is unblocked. Everyone has accumulated quite a lot of combat experience, and when it comes to fighting alone, they are not much worse than the Knights of the Royal Capital, but they are slightly insufficient in number - of course, it is a very staggering amount of money to raise an elite knight army of one hundred and fifty men with the power of the Duke.

Duke Ryan looked at this razor-sharp army with satisfaction, there was no doubt that with their strength, no one in the West could stop him.

At the center of the line were the mercenary troops, who were much less equipped, most of them wearing some old chain mail or sheet armor, either lacking gauntlets or helmets. There are also some people who are equipped with only cheap leather armor and have a variety of weapons. They spread out along the road, in twos and threes, talking and laughing loudly as they went, as if the trip was not for battle, but just for a spring sightseeing.

At the end of the line were the freedmen forcibly recruited by the lords, dragging wheels carrying food and tents, and slowly following the mercenaries. The difference in marching speed made the 1,500-strong or so team very long, and the knights at the front had to stop from time to time to wait for the men and horses behind to follow.

"My lord," said Hiltai Medra, Count of Elk, pulling the reins at the same time as the Duke, "we are still half a day's way from the border town, and if all goes well, we should be able to reach the dog at 4 p.m." Will the troops rest for the night and wait until the next morning before moving, or will they immediately attack the lord's castle?"

"Do you still want to sleep in the wilderness?" laughed the Duke, "and at night I think we should lie down on the castle bed, and not in the wet mud." Of course, the face of the royal family still has to be taken into account. When I arrive at the border town, I will first send an emissary to persuade him to surrender. ”

Earl Honeysuckle walked a little forward, and he turned his head, "The knights have been walking for a day, and the men and horses are tired, wouldn't it be appropriate to attack directly?" ”

"Haha, it's just that others don't know, and even you don't know the details of the evil beast? They are indeed terrifying in the wild, moving quickly and with incredible strength, but when there are walls to block, most of the evil beasts are just targets. They are nothing more than beasts after all. "I'm amazed that he can build a wall so quickly, but that's not how much he can stand up to my knights? ”

"Exactly. And I've also received a message from the north," said Duke Ryan nonchalantly, "This year's Hermes has been attacked by a large number of hybrid beasts, and the New Holy City has almost fallen. It's unclear why, but it seems that this year's evil beasts are all heading for the Holy City, and the western side is just a few fish that have slipped through the net. ”

As the master of the West, his eyes are not only focused on this remote place, but also on the eyes of the major towns and cities that have been placed for many years, and he has been continuously passing back the latest information from all over the world. The bitter battle in the Northlands wasn't the point, as he had received a secret message from Cliff City a few days ago that a fierce battle had broken out between the new king Tifeko and Garcia, the queen of the blue waters, in the southern Eagle City - and according to previous reports, Tifeko's party should not arrive in Eagle City until a month later.

The letter makes no mention of the battle, except that when Tifeko returned from Cliff City, there were few thousand troops left, and he was no longer able to block the road as he had done when he came. Others saw the Eagle City burst into flames, sending columns of black smoke almost as level as the clouds, and the inhabitants of the surrounding towns witnessed the spectacle.

There is no doubt that whether or not the Queen of the Blue Water died at the hands of Tifeko, such a tragic loss would be a serious blow to the new king. This secret letter made Duke Lane nervous, and sent several groups of cronies to the royal capital and the eastern border overnight, hoping to find out what Tifeco's current situation was. If this battle of the two kings had any chance of destroying the new king's unsecured regime, he would never mind filling the fire with another torch.

If you want to become independent king, now is almost the best chance. The soldiers in the north are buried at the foot of the holy city, and the south has just experienced a great battle, and it is obvious that they need to lie down and lick their wounds, and the east and the king will not mention it, I am afraid that they will not be able to recover in a few years. As long as you pull a group of people to eat the north, you can tear the Grey Keep in half. At that time, the territory and population he possessed were comparable to those of the Eternal Winter Kingdom, the northernmost kingdom on the mainland, and his strength could completely rival the two places in the southeast and southeast of Grey Keep.

And he, Osmond Lane, would be the first king of the land.

Thinking of this, the Duke smiled smugly, and he hoped that after the farce was over today, he would immediately escort the prince on his way home tomorrow. If he's lucky, he'll be able to deliver good news from his cronies in the castle in three days.

As the sun set in the west, approaching the top of the mountains, Ryan saw the looming outline of the castle in the border town...... and, a group of densely arranged figures outside the town.

"Father, Lord Duke," said Wren Dmied, who was in charge of leading the way at the front of the procession, "those men in front should be the guards of the Four Princes, they are all armed, and it seems that we are not welcome. ”

"Well, at least we won't have to bother to go to the castle to get him," laughed the Earl of Elk, "and tell the knights to slow down the speed, it's still far from the charge." ”

"Yes, father," Wren commanded.

Duke Ryan raised his lookout goggles and looked at the opposing formation. The team in the mirror looked very strange, holding a strange weapon, and the people stood in two dense rows next to each other. If the weapon is a spear, the tip of the spear is not visible at all, and the grip is too short. And the array posed by the other party is too unreasonable...... With such a thin line of defense, wouldn't it be pierced at the first rush?

This made the duke a little confused, even if the prince no longer has the common sense of military formation, but he still has knights and personal guards under him, it is impossible for them all to accompany him, right? After thinking for a while, the duke decided to let the mercenaries take the lead first, and the knight troops temporarily stopped in the charging acceleration area to wait to see what the prince had in mind.

Of course, the messenger of persuasion still has to be sent. "Go and tell the prince that I have no intention of harming him, but that the will of King Tifeco Wimbledon has arrived, and I must obey it." If you lay down your arms and surrender now, he will not be harmed in any way, and I will escort him back to the capital as a prince. ”

The assembly of the army was a slow process, with the knights taking their positions one after another, while the mercenaries were still slowly gathering in front of the formation. At this moment, Duke Lane saw four flames appear on the opponent's position—the flames flashed away, and then a puff of green smoke rose. He frowned, thinking he had misunderstood, and was about to take a closer look through his lookout glass, when a series of loud thunderous noises suddenly exploded in his ears! )