The Scouts in the forest crossed the river one after another, and all sorts of information about the Palas Knight army were also brought back. Brand's young Mage Attendant Char was standing on the watchtower at this mont, robed and holding a Magic Wand, staring hard into the distance toward the North, then turning back to say to the person behind him, "The casualties are even worse than we imagined. The loss rate for the Scouts we sent North is all above forty to fifty percent. These are all veteran Soldiers with rich Experience. In three days, we've lost at least fifty n, and there are three tis that number wounded."
In the end he added, "If I were the Lord, at this rate I'd just pack up and run."
"Which is why you are not the Lord." The Elf Princess, clad in a suit of Silver Armor, gave him a glance and answered coolly. disha wore the pointed helm unique to the Silver Elf, her small face wrapped within, lips pressed tight, looking valiant and imposing.
"He's busy clearing out our Scouts—is he plotting sothing?"
"Possibly not. It's purely because Pallas knows we have Cave Dwellers on our side, and he simply doesn't want his flank coming under Attack during battle. He doesn't want to repeat Sir Min Tai's mistake." disha replied.
"He's really hard to deal with." Char shook his head, his brows almost knitting together. "I don't know if we can drag this out for three days."
Jandener's main force had arrived—
"There are people in the forest!"
The first glint of reflected Light appeared in the woods: a Knight in Armor erged in the forest on the opposite bank of the river; after him, more troops appeared. That Knight drove the flagpole in his hand savagely into the soft mud of the riverbank beneath his feet, and a banner with a sky-blue field and Emblem unfurled in the wind.
The hound family crest of Pallas.
"To the North, and to the East as well…!"
"So many."
Soldiers in red-and-blue surcoats stread out of the forest in single file, no fewer than a thousand. "Are they preparing to storm the fortress?" Char saw an archer loose an arrow from the far side of the Griss River toward them; the arrows fell feebly onto the riverbank more than fifty paces short of the earthen wall, and he turned back to ask.
disha shook her head. The other side was only asuring the distance. They might launch a probing Attack, but before that they would observe for a while.
As the youngest Princess of the Silver Elf, disha had actually experienced hardly fewer wars than her other kin. The atmosphere before a great battle not only failed to make her nervous, it even carried a familiar intimacy—only, there were too few enemies.
Too few enemies, the Silver Elf Girl shook her head.
disha had not misjudged. At this mont, on a low hill a thousand ters away, Pallas stood upright in his saddle like a sharp sword. Knights clustered around this house servants of Gruding whom he trusted most; his hand rested on his sword hilt, and the gaze in his deep-set eyes, sweeping the distant riverbank, was as keen as a hawk's.
Pallas was the oldest among all of Gruding's house servants. Though he had personal ties with Sir Min Tai, the difference in age between the two was vast: Sir Min Tai was in his pri, but Pallas' temples were already grey. This Old Knight could be said to have been through a hundred battles. His fa might not reach as far as Ambeser or Buqi, but among the barbarian mountain people of Tonyger he was a figure whose na alone could stop a child from crying.
The Griss River Crossing lay close at hand; Pallas had been here once or twice before. He rembered the opposite bank as a flat adow, yet the sight before him now made him suspect his old eyes were failing—lush forest completely shrouded the Crossing, and only the shallows stretching from between the trees on the far bank toward the river mouth proved they had not co to the wrong place. This ti of year was when the water level of the Griss River was at its lowest; even infantry could wade through the icy Water and cross by way of the shallows at the Griss River Crossing. There seed to be fortifications hidden in the distant woods; the watchtowers rising above the canopy proved as much—only, since when had there been a forest here? Pallas rembered that the last ti he had co here was only two or three years ago, yet that forest on the opposite shore did not look like sothing that could have grown in just two or three years.
Those towering ancient trees needed at least two or three n to encircle them arm in arm; they were over ten ters high. Forget two or three years—even twenty or thirty might not be enough for them to grow to such a size.
"There's a fort across the river. The sentry says he saw earthen walls. This forest at least proves that the rumors of Druid serving the Rebel Army are true." A Deputy at Pallas' side said.
"Do Druid have a way to make a woodland beco like this in such a short ti? Is this an Illusion Technique, or a forest transplanted from elsewhere?" Pallas looked at the forest before him. That was clearly a prival deep wood, easy to defend and hard to Attack. If Druid truly possessed such power, it was a bit too incredible. Even if this forest had been moved here from sowhere else, it would not be easy to make it take root and live in so short a ti. He had seen Magic before, but most Spell cast by Wizard were fleeting; though powerful, they were not beyond belief.
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