The refugees that followed Brando escaped into the Silver Sparrow Mountains before sunrise. Just as Brando predicted, after they defeated the undead cavalry, the undead army did not chase after them. This was because the low-level undead and vampires' fighting power would be greatly reduced during the day. Brando guessed that they would not let the sea of skeletons advance under the sun before they completely annihilated the White-Mane swordsmen.
However, after the undead took over a few graveyards in Fortress Riedon, their military strength would definitely increase. It was said that when Tarkus arrived at Dragos in the north, his military strength had increased by a hundred thousand, which was five times the military strength of the Grinoires region.
The number of refugees had increased to four to five hundred people after they absorbed the undead. The long procession was filled with carriages and loaded mules, and it stretched for half a mile in the Silver Sparrow Mountains. Some of the refugees were looking for their missing family members in the front and back of the procession, and for a moment, the refugees seemed to be livelier.
Romaine sneaked out of the carriage in the middle of the day, and was now hugging her precious bag as she sat on a flatbed carriage filled with goods. She was telling a story to a few of the brats. Her story was very unique, and the brats listened with their eyes wide open.
Just as she was talking about how Brendel was calm and wise, she suddenly saw a man and a woman riding a horse coming up from behind. She was so frightened that her face changed and she subconsciously lowered her head.
Brando slept for about three hours, and it was the only time he slept in the past few days. However, because he was worried about Madara's army, he did not sleep well. He quickly realized that the sneaky girl was indeed Roman, and he could not help but laugh and shake his head.
"Why did you run out?"
"I'm bored." Romaine replied submissively.
"It's dangerous outside, Roman," Freya frowned as she looked at her best friend and said worriedly, "If something happens to you, how am I going to explain it to Aunt Jenny?"
"There's nothing dangerous about it, I'm telling them a story." Roman said excitedly.
The little ghosts hurriedly nodded in unison.
"We're not talking about what you're doing now." Freya sighed. "Do you know how nervous I am right now?"
Brando looked at the Roman in amusement. "What story are you telling?"
"It's a story about Brando."
Brendel waved at her, gesturing for her to come over. Romaine paused for a moment, but did not suspect anything. She ran to the edge of the carriage, but was caught by the youth. He pinched her face and pinched it hard as he lectured her: "You have to listen to Freya, and be careful of your own safety, do you understand?"
The Roman was shocked and made a whimpering sound. He pushed Brando away in a hurry and raised his eyebrows. "I … Wu wu … I know. Quick … Let go of me!"
Then, she quickly retreated to the other corner of the carriage and stared at Brando with vigilance. She patted her chest with a look of lingering fear.
Brando smiled to himself. It felt good. But when he turned around, he saw Freya looking at him enviously. The ponytailed girl's face immediately turned red. She turned her head away and said loudly, "You … You're shameless. I don't care about you two anymore …"
She ran away after saying that, leaving Brando alone in a daze. He didn't know how he provoked the young lady again. While he was in a daze, Mano and Retto came to him.
They were looking for him to transfer manpower from the refugees to form a self-defense team. In fact, ever since the refugees entered Silver Sparrow Mountain, the surrounding terrain had become complicated. There were large areas of Abies in the hills, and their vision had become extremely poor. Not only did they have to guard against the possible presence of Madara's undead scouts, but they also had to guard against the bears and maned wolves in the forest. Moreover, the number of refugees was still increasing. Even if Brando threw in more than thirty riders, they probably wouldn't be able to make a splash.
Moreover, he also sent out the riders to scout a fan-shaped area in front of them, so the manpower on hand was even more limited.
Fortunately, Erouine had a lot of men who had participated in the complete militia training and were brave enough to stand up and fight. Brando had more than thirty Onyx Longswords that he had just collected from the skeleton riders. He distributed them one by one, and it wasn't a problem to arm forty or fifty people.
Retto and Mano placed these people on both sides and at the back, and let them patrol back and forth, mainly to maintain order and security among the refugees. But this was a simple matter to say, but it was very troublesome to do. They were busy for half the morning for this matter, and Retto was just here to report the results.
Mano, on the other hand, had another purpose. He and The Shire sorted out the armor fragments collected from the undead scouts last night and handed them to Brando for inspection.
Most of them were broken metal rings, and only a few pieces of metal were left. Brando picked up each piece and looked at it under the sun, then touched the inside of the metal rings with his fingertips. He quickly found the familiar insignia, an eye.
Brando put the armor fragments back in Mano's hand and replied, "It seems that the army behind us is the undead maggot's army, just like in history —"
He suddenly saw Mano looking at him suspiciously, so he quickly coughed and said, "Undead Maggot Marcus, he's a half-zombie. Among the military generals of Madara, he's especially good at gathering numbers, but he likes to march at night. When the time comes, you'll see an army of zombies all over the mountains. "
Retto and Mano looked at each other after hearing Brando's words. They didn't know why Brando knew so much about Madara, but it didn't seem like he was bragging. Besides, this young man didn't have to boast. Since the battle last night, he had already won the hearts of these old mercenaries.
But Brando stopped and looked up at the sky. There were a few black spots in the sky to the southeast. He didn't know if they were the hawks in the mountains or the skeletal vultures of Madara. But he soon stopped thinking about it. As the standard scout troop of Madara, skeletal vultures were hard to guard against. They had excellent eyesight, and the necromancers could understand every movement on the battlefield through them.
In the last few years of the First Era, between 421 (the year of Lin Mao) and 426 (the year of Astrology), especially the Battle of the Oblique Forest in Seifer, Madara's skeletal vultures were everywhere. The players couldn't get rid of them in time even if they sent out the Wyvern Cavalry. That was the peak of Madara's strength, and they were almost at the peak of their strength.
However, it wasn't as if they hadn't come up with a solution after years of fighting. For example, in a dense forest like this, the skeletal vultures were severely weakened. Their monotonous coloration made it difficult for them to distinguish the battle environment in the complex terrain. Not to mention Brando's four to five hundred men, even a thousand or two of them would be like a pebble thrown into the sea.
This was the reason why Brendel chose to enter the Silver Sparrow Mountain instead of following the refugees into the Valley of Sharp Rocks, which was easier to traverse. He didn't say it out loud because he was afraid that these experienced mercenaries would have other thoughts. Although he would rather believe that these people were still hot-blooded, he still had to be cautious.
Brando thought for a while and continued, "Marcus likes to march at night, but he won't be idle during the day. He will use the elite ghouls and zombies to chase the refugees away, but the first thing he needs to do now is to defeat the White-Mane swordsmen. But I don't know where Luc Beson is. "
In fact, Brando was most afraid of being discovered by the Skeletal Dragons. He knew that Tarkus had three Skeletal Dragons with him, and it would be a disaster if the Skeletal Dragons found them in the valley. However, Tarkus should be resting in Fortress Riedon for a period of time. After occupying the graveyard, he should use the time to expand his forces. After all, the biggest obstacle had been removed. From Fortress Riedon to the Dragos region through the River of Sharp Stones, there would be no more obstacles in between.
Brando couldn't help but look at the direction of the valley as he spoke. At this time, he was already a young general or a rising star in the eyes of Retto and Mano. Even the way they looked at him was a little different.
Although they were mercenaries, they didn't have any thoughts of becoming a noble's retainer. But the heavens knew that Brando was just a fake noble. Although the young man purposely corrected the way The Shire addressed him, he still felt a chill down his spine when he heard the latter address him as' Master 'in such a serious manner. He might as well just accept the way he addressed him.
He thought about it for a while and could only blame it on the 'factory settings' not being set properly.
After finishing the morning's work, it was peaceful for the rest of the morning, but the refugees were getting bigger and bigger. Other than a group of refugees that caught up from behind, there were also some refugees that escaped from the valley. They brought news from that direction. Brando was right, Marcus's ghouls, ghouls and three Kabias's skeletons were engaged in a fierce battle with the White-Mane army. The outcome of the battle would be decided in the evening.
The group of refugees expanded to about a thousand people. In the middle, Brando asked them to stop and prepare a meal. Fortunately, Madara attacked the Northwest and Southwest districts when they entered the city yesterday. Most of the refugees had enough time to bring some necessities, so Brando didn't have to worry about food for the time being.
But the young man wasn't unprepared. Deer Forest was a natural food storage base in his eyes. There were many different kinds of animals in the forest. Other than the aggressive bears and wolves, there were also wild boars, deer, badgers and rabbits. There were also plenty of pine nuts, mushrooms and wild vegetables in the forest. As long as one had the heart, they could easily feed one or two thousand people here. Although they might not be able to live a good life, it was not a problem to ensure that they had enough food and clothing.
Around three in the afternoon, the riders that were sent out in the front finally brought back the first piece of news. The news wasn't about Madara.
Someone wanted to see him.
… …
(PS: I finally managed to make it at the last moment. Originally, I was supposed to write this chapter in the afternoon, but who knew that I would be so happy when I returned home on New Year's Day that I would eat a little too much. My stomach would only start hurting at night. Don't overeat!
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