Chapter 116. Return, Trouble in the Goblin Secret Realm
Just as the caravan was about to pass through the canyon, a dense volley of military crossbow bolts suddenly rained down from the slopes on both sides.
The Royal Legion soldiers imdiately raised their shields to block them, but because of the canyon’s terrain, their formation was sowhat scattered.
At that mont, organized troops surged in from both the front and rear like a tide, charging straight at the Kroll Kingdom’s soldiers.
The Caravan Leader was so shocked by the sudden ambush that his legs gave out beneath him. Watching the soldiers around him fall one after another, he felt nothing but despair.
This was already the sixth attack they had suffered this month, and there was more?
“Move.”
A strong hand pulled him to his feet. It was a Battalion Commander from the Royal Legion.
“I’ll lead n to cover your breakout.”
Another Battalion Commander also roared out an order, “Second Squad, hold the rear. First Squad, break through with .”
The two squads fought back-to-back, and the crashing of Dou Qi shook the leaves from the trees. They tore open a gap with everything they had, only to be quickly hemd in again by even more enemy troops.
As the encirclent drew tighter and tighter, the Caravan Leader’s breathing grew rapid.
Just then, orderly footsteps suddenly echoed from deep within the forest. One golden figure after another burst forth as if divine soldiers had descended from the heavens—it was the Gold Legion.
The Dou Qi armor on their bodies shone with a dazzling golden radiance beneath the sunlight. With long spears leveled in their hands, their formation was as orderly and unyielding as a wall.
The enemy soldiers were instantly cowed by that imposing presence, and even their charge slowed by half a beat.
“It’s the Gold Legion.” The Royal Legion soldiers froze for a mont, then erupted into thunderous cheers.
“We’re saved.”
“The Gold Legion is here.”
“Great, great—I’m not going to die.”
The soldiers of the Gold Legion gave no extra shouts. They simply charged into the enemy ranks in silence.
Golden Dou Qi and magic intertwined like an enormous sharpened blade, instantly carving a huge gap through the enemy formation.
Those enemy soldiers who had looked so vicious monts ago were utterly helpless before the golden warriors. Miserable screams rose and fell without end.
The Squad Captain leading the Gold Legion had a cold gaze as he shouted to the Royal Legion’s Battalion Commander, “Protect the Caravan Leader and follow .”
“All right.”
Under the Gold Legion’s cover, the group swiftly withdrew from the battlefield. As the enemy troops watched those unstoppable golden figures, not a single one of them dared to pursue.
After calm returned to the forest, the Caravan Leader looked at the golden warriors beside him, still shaken. “We truly owe you our lives…”
The Squad Captain shook his head, his voice steady. “His Majesty received word that six caravans might co under attack, so he specifically ordered us to rendezvous with you. This place is not safe to remain in. We need to return to camp as quickly as possible.”
The setting sun filtered through the leaves, stretching the shadows of the Gold Legion long across the ground.
As the Caravan Leader looked at their sturdy backs, he felt for the first ti with complete clarity that this legendary legion was not only Kroll’s military strength, but also its hope.
When the caravan finally stepped back onto the lands of the Kroll Kingdom and saw the familiar royal emblem on the Boundary Marker, many of the soldiers could no longer hold themselves together. They crouched on the ground and burst into tears.
No one knew how they had endured this past month—when crossing the Black Forest, where magical beasts ran rampant, they had to remain constantly on guard against claws lunging out from the darkness.
When passing through the slums of the Neutral City-States, they had to keep a tight grip on their sword hilts to guard against the Refugees’ theft.
Even when camping at night, they had to take turns keeping one eye open, terrified that an enemy dagger would slit their throats in their sleep.
The Gold Legion’s Squad Captain looked at their reddened eyes and said nothing to hurry them along.
He had seen this sort of scene far too many tis. The exhaustion of a long journey, the terror of brushing against death, and the sudden relaxation that ca with returning ho were enough to make even the toughest soldiers cast off all their defenses.
The Caravan Leader wiped his face, his voice choked with emotion. “We’re ho… We’re finally ho…”
He turned to look at the people behind him. Many were still wounded, their clothes in tatters, yet they clutched the Spatial Rings at their waists as if their lives depended on it.
Inside them were the resources urgently needed by the royal family—things they had exchanged their lives for.
“Pick up the pace. Return to camp and recover,” the Gold Squad Captain ordered in a low voice, though his tone had softened sowhat.
The convoy set out again, and their steps were much lighter this ti. In the fields by the roadside, commoners were working. When they saw them, they stopped what they were doing and waved.
That ordinary warmth of daily life soothed their hearts more than any comfort ever could.
A young soldier gazed at a distant village and muttered, “Once we get back, I’m going to sleep for three days and three nights…”
The veteran beside him patted him on the shoulder and laughed as he cursed, “You worthless brat. When we get back, the first thing you should do is drink three big bowls of strong liquor.”
Laughter spread through the convoy, scattering the last trace of gloom.
They knew that once they returned to the Royal Capital, what awaited them would not only be rest and reorganization, but new missions as well.
But at the very least, in this mont, they were standing on their holand once more. Behind them was an ever-growing Kroll, and before them was peace within reach.
As the sun sank in the west, it cast their shadows long behind them, and they pressed forward with unwavering determination toward the Royal Capital.
At this mont, William had already set out in full battle gear, leading his two Knight Orders along with part of the Gold Legion as they raced toward the Goblin Secret Realm in the Western Frontier.
At the sa ti, the Gold Legion forces carrying out missions elsewhere also received the order to assemble, instructing them to move toward the secret realm in the Western Frontier as soon as their tasks were complete.
anwhile, in the depths of the Goblin Secret Realm, a basin had already turned into a slaughterhouse.
The ground was littered with soldiers’ corpses. Broken armor and bloodstained weapons lay scattered everywhere, and the air was thick with the stench of blood.
On a giant tree at the edge of the basin, a Legion Commander had been nailed through the chest by a pitch-black spear. His eyes were wide open, and he had died without closing them.
Several nearby camps were in the sa state of devastation. At least three legions had suffered a surprise attack here, and only a handful of survivors remained.
What was truly alarming was that the goblins launching the attack were completely different from ordinary green-skinned cannon fodder.
Their bodies were covered in an eerie pale hue, their movents were swift as lightning, and the fluctuations of their Dou Qi had actually reached the peak of Sky-Rank Combat Power.
“These monsters… how can they possibly be this strong?”
A soldier who had survived by sheer luck hid behind a rock. As he watched a White-Skinned Goblin tear through his companion’s armor with its bare hands, his teeth would not stop chattering.
Sky-Rank Combat Power—that was a height ordinary knights could scarcely reach in their entire lives. Yet now it had appeared in goblins that should have been lowly cannon fodder. It completely overturned all common sense.
One particularly large White Goblin carried a blood-dripping Battle Axe and roared in stiff Common Speech.
“Flesh and blood… nourish… make stronger…”
Greedily red light flickered in its eyes as its gaze swept across the corpses around it, as though it were inspecting a field ready for harvest.
The secret realm’s energy was unusually active in this place, continuously pouring into the White Goblins’ bodies and making their auras increasingly stronger.
Clearly, the environnt of this secret realm was accelerating their evolution, while the flesh and blood of those soldiers had beco the nourishnt they used to break past their limits.
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