Freya bit her lip as she watched the wolves gather in the canyon and then suddenly disperse, revealing something in the middle. It was a few wolf corpses stacked on top of each other, and traces of a fierce battle were scattered around the snow. This was arranged in advance to ensure that Yoakam could enter their optimal shooting range.
After discovering these corpses, Yoakam walked over slowly. Four giant wolves the size of heavy warhorses surrounded him. They were the ghosts of the winter that often appeared in folktales – the children of Échis, the Pale Sons, who were far more terrifying than the winter wolves in this forest.
"Are you sure?" Brund asked with a sigh of relief when he saw Yoakam squatting down beside the wolf corpses and began to examine them.
"We can try." Lolo replied.
After a simple question and answer, the Folded Sword Knight made the final adjustments. They took a deep breath, held their breath, kept their hands holding the bow steady, and then slowly pushed the bow to the string. The bow creaked. Most of the bows suitable for the strength of the Gold Rank were magic bows. Only composite bows treated with the laws of 'strengthening' and 'toughening' could withstand a hundred times the strength of an ordinary person. But even so, every time the bow was drawn, it was still equivalent to the loss of the bow's lifespan. This loss was irreversible. In Erouine, a magic bow could even be bought for seventeen thousand Tor per bow. Even if it was the work of the masters in the workshops directly under the royal family, most of these bows would not be drawn more than a hundred times. Every time the bow was drawn, it was almost equivalent to squandering the weight of the bow.
There was no wind in the canyon, and Yoakam was still unaware, but it was as if there was a natural sensitivity to danger that made him look up. His subtle movement seemed to touch the tense nerves of the Cruz people. Little Pero looked at Freya, and the latter nodded gently.
Freya exhaled softly, as if to calm herself down.
"Shoot!" Almost at the same time, Maynild gave the order to attack in a cold voice.
The archers released their bowstrings one after another. The power attached to the arrows was so great that when they left the bowstrings, they let out a deafening hum. Wherever the arrows passed, the air surged. From afar, it looked like the space was shaking.
The first arrow flew over the flank of the Winter Wolves, and the whirlwind it created blew the wolves off their feet. Under such an attack, Yoakam had no time to react. He had just turned his head, and the arrow was already in front of him. Everyone could see his panicked and incredulous face.
The giant wolf beside him saved his life. The huge Pale Son leaped up and blocked the path of the arrow. Then, the arrow hit one side of its back. The huge impact directly penetrated the Pale Son into the snow, splashing snow everywhere.
The rain of arrows fell.
The four Pale Sons around Yoakam were instantly shot like hedgehogs, but at least they had bought time for the Marquis, allowing him to finally realize what had happened.
He never dreamed that those dazed Cruz Knight would dare to take the initiative to attack him. And by the time he realized this, everything had become irreparable.
Yoakam immediately got down and hid among the Winter Wolves. He tried to retreat to the other side of the canyon to find a place to hide. But unfortunately, the ambush point that little Pero and Maynild chose for him was surrounded by flat ground. The small group of Winter Wolves that had previously surrounded him quickly fell down one by one, while more Winter Wolves were still far away on the flanks or had already chased into the canyon.
Yoakam began to regret it. He should not have been so rash, but it was too late to say anything now. But when the wolves gradually became sparse, an arrow hit him. He screamed and fell into the snow. The arrow pierced his left calf and nailed him to the ground.
If he was still alive, he would be sweating in pain at this moment, but one of the benefits of the undead was that they lost their sense of pain. Yoakam hurriedly gritted his teeth and turned back, pulling out the sword at his waist, trying to cut off the long feather arrow that nailed him to the ground.
At the same time, the wolves in the canyon finally discovered the attackers. The wolves in the pack let out howls one after another, and the closer wolves had begun to turn around and pounce on the Cruz Knight above the cliff.
The closer Winter Wolves, on the other hand, rushed to Marquis Yoakam, trying to protect their master.
"Brund, Alea, lead the team to stop them!" Freya stared at the Winter Wolves all over the mountains and plains, rushing towards their position like a reverse avalanche. This scene was so similar to what she had seen in Ampere Seale, as if it had happened yesterday. The Valkyrie clenched the sword in her hand. It was impossible to say that she was not nervous. After all, she was just a Knight captain at that time. At this moment, her every order determined whether everyone present would be buried here or escape alive.
She clenched her hand so hard that her knuckles turned white because of the loss of blood, but she did not notice it herself. Thousands of Winter Wolves were less than a hundred feet away from them, and with the speed of the Winter Wolves, it would only take two breaths to rush in front of them. The snowy wolf pack, in which every beast bared its fangs that gleamed with a cold light, were clearly visible.
"Lolo, prepare for the second round of shooting." Freya took a deep breath and tried to keep her voice as calm as possible as she ordered.
Lolo licked his lips. Even for the people of Cruz, such a big scene was not often seen, not to mention that they were just some 'newbies'. The battle in front of them even surpassed the battle that broke out last night, and when the wolves charged in the open terrain outside the forest, the momentum was by no means the same.
Including him, everyone's palms were oozing with a thin layer of oily sweat.
However, their daily training worked, and the young Knights of Cruz raised their longbows in unison. Just as they drew their bows, the Knight in the back row had already picked up his shield and stepped out with his longsword in hand. They were twenty steps away from the front line and formed a thin blocking formation, led by Brund and Alea.
The wolves were less than fifty feet away.
The Knights put down their long shields and inserted the pointed end of the shield into the snow. The center of gravity of their bodies was also lowered, ready to receive the impact.
Lolo narrowed his eyes and raised the longbow in his hand a little higher. His line of sight was always raised, over a line of rushing wolves, and the arrow cluster that gleamed with a cold light was still aimed at the bottom of the canyon.
"Release!"
Maynild waited until all the archers had adjusted and immediately issued an order.
At the same time, Yoakam finally turned around and cut off the arrow stuck in his left leg with a sword. Although the undead did not feel pain, it did not mean that he would not be troubled by pain. The loss of soul power almost made him suck in a breath of cold air. After doing this, he did not rush to escape. Instead, he threw down the longsword in his hand somewhat dispiritedly, turned over with difficulty, and then looked at the sky.
Yoakam's pale eyes flashed with a gray light, the expression inside was both madness and despair.
In his field of vision, above the sky, arrows fell like rain.
He opened his mouth, revealing his white teeth, as if he was making a final cry, but there was no sound. Almost in an instant, more than twenty arrows nailed him to the ground together with the winter wolf that had just arrived.
Yoakam raised his head, persisted for the last moment, and then lay down dejectedly.
… …
When the winter wolf collided with the Knight's shield, there was a dull thud. The impact of these beasts was so great that if it were an ordinary human soldier, he would have been blown away at this moment. When the Duke of Long Blade fought against the large-scale movements of the tundra wolves on the plateau, he often needed to arrange his soldiers in a large square of seven rows, far beyond the extent of fighting against heavy cavalry.
But the winter wolves were also facing extraordinary opponents. The dozens of Cruz Knight in the front row were all Gold Rankers. In front of them, the winter wolves were not much different from ordinary wolves.
The Knight used their shields to lift the wolves that crashed into them, or nailed them to the snow with their swords, and then took a step back, waiting for the second attack. Unlike Alea who was slashing and killing, Brund was carefully calculating the distance they would retreat. According to his calculations, they would have to hold on for at least five rounds of attacks. Before that, they had to buy enough time, the more the better.
But after the third impact, the Cruz Knight suddenly felt that their vision was empty, and the repulsed winter wolves did not rush up again.
"What's going on?" Everyone subconsciously looked down at the canyon below. In the misty fog, countless white beasts were fleeing in all directions.
It was not until this moment that the archers in the back cheered.
Little Pero, Maynild, and Freya all looked nervously at the place where Yoakam had fallen, because no one could say for sure whether the winter wolves would leave after Yoakam's death. The only thing they could count on was that at least after losing their commander, the winter wolves would only have the instincts of wild beasts, at least they would not act in an orderly manner like an army.
It was undoubtedly a fantasy to break out of the encirclement of an army, but if the opponent was just a group of beasts acting on instinct, then it might not be so.
But the reality was far better than they imagined. At the moment when Yoakam fell, although there were still a small number of winter wolves attacking them, but further away, the large-scale wolves had begun to show signs of hesitation and scattering.
The Cruz Knight with longbows were the first to notice this sign and could not help but cheer in unison.
Then little Pero could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. He turned back and congratulated Freya, half relaxed and half glad, "It seems that we made the right bet, Commander."
Freya just nodded slightly. Yoakam was dead, and everyone saw it with their own eyes. The wolves were also collapsing, and although there were still a small number of them who were still entangled with them, their numbers were no threat to them at all.
But even so, she was still a little worried.
There was only one problem. The premise of their ambush was if the silver monster was not with Yoakam. What if the monster was lurking around? No one could say for sure.
Maynild was keenly aware of her junior's worries. She looked back at the latter and asked, "What's wrong?"
"I'm a little worried," Freya replied, "Senior Maynild, I think we'd better get out of here as soon as possible."
"Are you worried about the monster?" Little Pero also thought of this question, "But if it's here, it wouldn't let Yoakam be ambushed by us, would it?"
"I don't know," Freya shook her head gently, "But I have a hunch that something is wrong."
"You're too nervous, Commander." Little Pero shook his head. He had received professional military training. For soldiers, hunches were probably the most unbelievable thing.
But Maynild's judgment was the opposite of his. The female Knight frowned and asked, "A hunch? Did you miss something? "
Freya was slightly startled. She looked at her senior with some surprise. She did not expect the other party to be so clear about what she was thinking. It was this feeling that she always felt that she had missed something.
Maynild stared at her and did not speak. But if Brando was here, he would be doubly vigilant.
The Valkyrie's hunch was a very famous rumor in his world.
… …
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