"Left right left! Left right left!"
Shouting the neat slogan, the guards’ battle formation charged towards the Ard Farrs in the middle of the hillside.
Their strides were sotis orderly, sotis out of sync, pausing every ten steps or so to rearrange their zigzag battle line.
Jeska couldn’t fathom how a formation of seven people could arrange into such a zigzag battle line.
This side was still accelerating with the charge, not yet engaged, while the western front was embroiled in a bloody battle with Madlan and others fighting fearlessly.
They swung their sticks randomly, threw turtle punches, but still couldn’t resist the Ard Farrs’ advance.
Every second, soone would fall into a pool of blood, yet they still didn’t give in, holding on relentlessly for ten whole seconds before finally scattering.
But this was just the first battle line, the second was much more harmonious.
Beyond the twenty odd Ard Farrs in Tommy’s core circle and his enforcers, the other Ard Farrs seed to be fighting fiercely, but in reality, they were facing each other, striking at air.
Not to ntion so burst into laughter mid-fight, or even chatting while engaging.
"Fourth uncle, did my fifth cousin get married this year?"
"Not yet, are you going to introduce soone to ?"
"No, just seeing him unmarried, I’m not in a rush either."
"You little rascal!"
No wonder, the Thousand River Valley People were constantly oppressed and betrayed, prioritizing family ties, for they had no one else to rely on but their own family.
Even when it ca to Ard Farrs and their Public Register Farr relatives, they wouldn’t fall out unless absolutely necessary.
After all, fortunes rise and fall, who hasn’t faced adversity?
Jeanne herself ca from Ard Farr roots, when other Ard Farrs devoured her family’s estate, wasn’t it Old Gallar, the distant Public Register Farr relative, who adopted her.
This conveyed a sense of family heroism.
Yet in reality, this was rely the second law of the Thousand River Valley.
The first law of the Thousand River Valley was - Better a poor life than a good death.
As long as one could survive, family could be temporarily set aside.
"Second uncle, it’s !"
"Thrust thrust!"
A pitchfork pierced through the chest of an Ard Farr, who clutched the three holes in his chest, crying out in agony.
Actually, these three holes were less than an inch deep, but the Ard Farr rolled to the side as if his belly had been pierced.
anwhile, the iron-hearted Pope Guards coldly stepped over him and continued forward.
Compared to the mild battles of the western front, the eastern front was much more intense and brutal.
After all, the Ard Farrs of the east were facing the strongest army in the Pope Country - the Pope Guards.
Not only were they well-equipped and impeccably trained, undefeated throughout the Pope Country, they could even form battle formations that only military n could muster.
Facing the flood of forty elite troops, the hesitant Ard Farrs retreated step by step, forcing Tommy to urgently redeploy elite confidants from the dominant west line to the eastern battlefield six ters away.
"Hold firm, hold firm!"
Seven or eight enforcers and Ard Farrs arrived at the front line, led by a big man wielding the Crow Pecking Warhamr.
A courageous warrior standing one ter seventy tall, a single heavy blow laid a one ter sixty Pope Guard flat on the ground.
The entire Pope’s Guard’s forward montum ca to a quick halt, seeing the unfavorable situation, Jeska promptly shouted: "Dodging Hands, attack."
The Dodging Hands who had been protecting the sides of the formation, ard with wooden shields, mostly short in stature but extrely agile, imdiately squeezed inward from both sides, rolling across the ground fiercely, hacking at the legs and toes of Tommy’s formation with hamrs, axes, and daggers.
However, the Dodging Hands’ daggers and axes couldn’t penetrate the sturdy cloth armor made by the Ard Farrs, only a re three or four succeeded, with even one rolling down the hillside.
Yet this created an opportunity for Jeska.
"Hey!"
The warhamr hand had just flipped the Hamr from the Shield-bearer, when a whistling sound echoed past his ear.
He quickly sidestepped, but couldn’t dodge in ti, an arrow pierced through his face, causing him to fall flat backward.
"Charge, kill!"
Seeing the hamr-wielding warrior fall, the Pope Guards who had been forced to step back by him regained their spirits.
With disordered steps, they barely ford into an arc line, continuing their charge towards the Ard Farrs.
The Ard Farrs, however, hesitated and shrank back; that person was the bravest among them, and he was felled by an arrow.
They ca to fight, not to throw their lives away.
Fighting doesn’t an dying, and dying isn’t acceptable.
"Co to the east, everyone co to the east!"
Tommy shouted, redeploying the remaining core mbers from the west line over, but they still retreated step by step.
Faced with the Pope Guards’ high spirits and the trembling pitchforks, the Ard Farrs surprisingly felt a sense of reverence.
Seeing fewer and fewer of Tommy’s core personnel on the western line, the Ard Farrs on the western battlefield realized the unfavorable position and directly surrendered to their relatives in front of them.
They didn’t even hand over their weapons, cheerfully shouting "I surrender," as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their Public Register Farr relatives.
In an instant, the western battlefield celebrated a great victory.
"Victory, victory!" Buniyan shook Madlan, who was leaning against the manure pile with a head full of blood, crying, "We won!"
Madlan opened his blurred eyes, his vision stained red with blood, but he could still see—
Tommy was in full retreat, while the Pope’s Guards were advancing towards victory!
"That’s wonderful, finally, finally, victory!"
Tears filled Madlan’s eyes, and after shouting the victory slogan, his head tilted and he fainted.
"What happened? What’s going on here? Wasn’t everything fine before?"
Not far from the manure pile, Danji rushed over.
Riding bare-footed, Danji mounted on the horse, witnessed this chaotic scene, feeling that his brain wasn’t enough to comprehend what had transpired.
"Sangpo, let’s go over there!"
Danji shouted to his attendant, but the attendant leading the horse remained unmoving.
"What are you doing? Let’s go quickly, we’re all bishops of the Pope Country, how can we fight like this before the Pope’s Palace?"
"No!" Sangpo stubbornly held his ground.
Danji dismounted, attempting to seize the reins from Sangpo, but Sangpo wouldn’t let go at all costs.
"Let go."
Pushes Sangpo aside, Danji stepped onto the stirrup, ready to mount the horse, but Sangpo suddenly hugged his waist.
"Master Danji, don’t involve yourself in the factional conflict between Madlan’s faction and Tommy’s faction, you belong to the Royal Guard Knight Order, temple knights intervening in politics is a taboo!"
"What factional conflict, this is obviously a fight!"
Holding onto Danji’s pants and shirt, Sangpo anxiously shouted: "Can’t you see? This is political strife between two bishops, it’s a big tangled ss you can’t manage."
"Have you been brainwashed by court conspiracy stories? Those are all fake, let go of !"
"Dong dong dong—"
Distant bell sounds echoed from the bell tower, Sangpo and Danji simultaneously paused, looking towards the gates.
The previously closed doors swung open, under Jeanne’s protection and over twenty Child Soldiers wielding long spears, Horn stepped out of the shadow of the tower.
Under the moonlight, the bloodstains on those Child Soldiers’ spears were clearly visible.
"Lightning cos!"
Witnessing the chaotic scene before him, Horn shouted explosively.
"Boom!"
A lightning bolt as thick as an arm struck in front of the crowd, marking the ground with a charred imprint.
Scattered electric light, many had their sweat and hair standing on end.
They all stopped their actions, looking towards the direction the lightning ca from.
There, His Holiness the Pope wore a Holy Robe embroidered with distorted golden threads, topped with an elbow-length pope’s crown high hat.
"Tommy, do you know your sins?"
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