"Is that... a Magic Explosion Bullet?!"
"It’s the Red Tide Army! The Red Tide’s crimson banner!"
Soone exclaid.
Yorn stared intently at the figure erging from the flas.
Clad in a red and black battle robe, black hair burning like snow in the firelight, wielding a longsword, arriving with wind, snow, and furious flas.
"It’s the boss! It’s Lord Louis---!!!"
Yorn was so excited that he dashed out of the cellar, stumbling as he lunged forward, directly hugging Louis’s leg.
"Boss! I knew you wouldn’t abandon !"
"You still rember when we trained in the Imperial Capital as kids; to skip class, you pushed into the manure pit, I knew you weren’t a bad person, wooooo..."
Louis’s eye twitched,
Raising his foot, he kicked him away without rcy: "Calm down, your sll is too strong."
"I still have other territories to rescue here. You imdiately take your people and the remaining knights, and retreat imdiately towards the Red Tide Territory.
If you delay any further, you’ll have to rely on for a second rescue."
Yorn covered his face, kicked back a ter, got up even more moved: "Woooo boss, you’re still so cool, I’m really too..."
"Go!"
With a sharp command, Louis quickly reorganized the flathrower squad to clear the insects not yet dealt with on the east side, while he headed with the knights towards the next area engulfed in flas.
Yorn watched the distant figure, suddenly gritting his teeth, shouted quietly: "Listen up! We’re leaving! Back to Red Tide! If anyone falls behind on the road, I’ll personally cut them down!"
"From today on, I, Yorn Harvey, will follow the boss wholeheartedly! Anyone who speaks ill of Louis, I’ll be the first to fight!"
"Go!!!"
......
The next destination was Notte Castle.
When the Red Tide banner rose over the mountaintop, what t Louis’s eyes were not ranks of welcoming knights, but ruins gnawed black by the Insect Tide.
Stone walls collapsing, banners burnt, wind and snow blowing spores drifting in mid-air, the air reeking of charred wood mingled with blood.
"...Couldn’t tell this was once the Notte Territory," Lambert murmured.
Louis remained silent, rely raising his hand: "Fire squad, begin clearing. Flathrower team, advance by sector, focus on spore cluster areas."
As the order was given, flas cut through the dense fog, the flathrowers roared, igniting large numbers of insect corpses into char.
The magic explosion grenade squad then followed with a second wave of explosive cleansing, the horde collapsing, tumbling, wailing in the firelight, like a rift in hell.
Twenty minutes later, the battlefield fell silent.
"Survivors found!"
Soone shouted loudly.
From a hidden cellar passage behind the fortress, a dozen knights, their bodies stained with blood and armor damaged, were led out.
Their faces were pale, eyes bewildered, as if ghosts dragged back from purgatory.
Louis stepped forward, one person saw him, muttering: "It’s... the Red Tide Lord, Lord Calvin... are we... still alive?"
Louis did not answer, instead looking at the knight, asking: "What happened in Notte Territory?"
The knight staggered, knees buckling, trembling all over: "Lord Edward... fled the city before the Nest approached... we were left behind... couldn’t hold the West Gate, many brothers... died."
Another person gritted his teeth, adding: "He and his personal guard fled with treasure through a tunnel, got blocked by insect corpses at the valley entrance, couldn’t even rescue his cloak."
"We tried to hold on in the cellar... for three days... survived on dry biscuits, snow water... until you ca."
Hearing this, Louis finally spoke: "Is Edward dead?"
The person nodded: "I saw with my own eyes, he was surrounded by insect corpses... a so-called Extraordinary Knight, torn to pieces..."
Louis was silent for a mont, his gaze sweeping over them.
"Are you willing to stay?"
"I swear by this sword, my loyalty to Red Tide," the leading knight slowly drew his sword, presenting it with both hands.
Imdiately, all remaining knights dropped to their knees. The firelight illuminated their charred, scarred bodies, shining on their loyalty arising from survival.
"Very well," Louis nodded, "from today, you are the Red Tide Knights, under Lambert’s command."
He turned back, ordering the flathrower squad: "Clear all insect corpses, thoroughly burn the west side battle nests, block the Nest’s return path."
Then mounted his warhorse, coldly stating: "Prepare to move towards Grant Castle, setting off at night."
......
Grant Castle lay further north in a deep valley, remote, barren, almost forgotten.
Few insect corpses, yet enough to push this small domain to the brink.
Among the ruins, Lady Grant stood atop a half-collapsed tower, watching the trickle of insect corpses winding out from the forest, lips bitten bloody.
Her armor was full of scratches, body wrapped in blood-stained strips, resembling more a wounded refugee than a noble.
"Reinforcents... are impossible," she whispered to herself.
Three letters for help she had penned, poured all stamps and reputation, yet once sent, they vanished like stones in the sea, not even a bird returned.
Half the soldiers around her were dead, supplies and food in the city could only last three days.
Even if it’s just a dozen insect corpses, every night attack seed like a countdown to death.
She understood her status; the Grant Family had declined for years, classified by the Empire as "nominal" nobility.
In the eyes of major nobility, she didn’t even count as a target "worth rescuing."
Thus, as she stood in front of the last stone wall, holding a broken longsword, her heart was prepared...
If that thing indeed broke in, she would personally set the granary and library alight, perishing together with the enemy.
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