Arcane Journey

Chapter 146 The respective battles

The ranger in charge of reconnaissance spotted a mercenary regiment heading for Golden Oak Village.

They were faster than Karina expected, but many of the mercenaries were on mounts.

Some of the Chondath carried tall warhorses and wore leather waistcoats, while most other riders made do with saddles and blankets.

The mercenaries without horses could only follow the team, the dust was tangled up on their faces, and the leather armor was stained with sweat.

Chondaths are slender, with brownish skin, mostly golden hair, and green or brown eyes.

As the pastor of the Mother Earth Church, Karina saw the identity and origin of these mercenaries at a glance.

Jondas is composed of a series of allied city-states and small towns scattered on the southern coast of the Sea of ​​Fallen Stars, which makes it hard for priests to imagine that this is the country that produced merchants who settled in the powerful Sambia.

Now, however, Jondas is an increasingly dark land due to the decline of honor, the greedy ambitions of its rulers, and the enemies that surround it.

"I didn't expect so many riders," said the ranger in charge of scouting. "Obviously, these must be mercenaries that the Zhentarim would hire."

"That's right." Karina nodded slightly.

She brushed the hair that was in front of her eyes. It was a sunny day, and flying insects were chirping and buzzing in the steaming air.

She led a troop of 'Watchers' rangers standing in the cherry grove of a slaveholder's estate whose head had been beheaded by the lord of Mokou Town, and the latter was warm and fragrant in the hot sun.

The flowers have long withered, and the sweet and sour red fruits are all over the branches.

They will be ripe for picking in about five days, but Karina can't help but wonder if anyone will survive to join in when the cherries are ripe.

The Jondas approached slowly, along dusty country lanes, through fields long cleared in the sun.

About a hundred meters or so, their path would take them past the cherry grove where Karina and her warriors were waiting.

The sharp-edged ranger frowned and said to her, "These cavalry ruined your battle plan, high priest. Maybe it would be wise to let them pass. After all, most of the villagers in the five villages have gone to Mokou Town to take refuge These gangsters will only find an uninhabited village. Besides, our manpower is too small and too scattered, it is impossible to deal with this mercenary group of more than 200 people."

Karina studied the approaching mercenaries, weighing them for a long time.

Then she shook her head. "No, let's go on. By the Mother Earth, I suspect many of them won't mount horses to fight us."

"Don't underestimate the mercenaries, there are definitely spellcasters inside." Ranger reminded.

"Believe me, Dean, I've already made this mistake once. I would indeed wish that there were fewer riders over there and more bows and arrows here, but since we have accepted the task entrusted to us by the lord of Mokou Town , we cannot allow the enemy to destroy fertile fields and villages, and we must clean up any enemy who tries to approach Mokou Town.”

Karina smiled slightly, and kept her eyes on the approaching team for a moment, and said, "Send a message to our soldiers to target anyone on a horse. Those people should be good at riding and fighting."

She waited a short while while the mercenaries drew closer.

The air was heavy and damp, as it was in this wide green field, and the scent of dead flowers lingered in her head.

"Now?" Dean the Ranger asked.

Karina smiled confidently, "It's now."

After she finished answering, she raised her hand and made a brief gesture.

Fifteen rangers hiding in the cherry grove raised their white bows and flew arrows, shooting at the mercenary team heading north to Golden Oak Village.

In the time of three heartbeats, chaos broke out in the mercenary team.

The silver rain of death fell on the riders.

Howling, they fell from their saddles, arrows piercing their throats or through their chests.

The rest of those who were not killed by the ranger's arrow but were trapped by him screamed wildly in the sudden pain and rage.

The horses neighed and jumped, the infantry scattered, and another wave of arrows followed, firing farther into the rear of the human ranks.

Although caught off guard, the Jondathians were not vulnerable.

While roaring and cursing, the human mercenaries began to act while the third wave of arrows was still passing through the air.

The infantry raised their diamond-shaped shields over their shoulders, and quickly knelt side by side, chaining the shields into a wall of leather and wood to withstand the ranger's sharp arrows.

The crossbowman moved closer behind the shield wall and began to shoot wildly at the trees, hissing curses and whooshing through the air, playing a clamor in Karina's head.

A captain who was close to the mercenary leader came out of the sheath with a sword, dodging a large number of feathered arrows passing by his side.

"Come on, you bitches!"

He roared and challenged the invisible archers, and led twenty riders straight into the cherry grove.

But Karina shot a precise arrow through the heart and fell off the horse.

"Pay attention to the flanks!" Ranger Dean quickly warned, "They want to outflank us here."

"I see them," Karina replied with a smile, but first they had to deal with the Jondathians rampaging through the woods.

Pointing to the riders rushing towards the ranger's hiding place like lightning, she said calmly, "Get that one done first!"

A wizard in the Warden's army nodded.

He skillfully took out a pinch of silver powder from the pouch on his body.

As he waved the powder into the air, the incantation of a deadly spell flew out, and was directed at the approaching rider.

Every particle of powder on his fingertips turned into long, silver-white ice needles, which flew past the arrows of Yusheng, and went straight to the cavalrymen who were charging.

Shining shards pierced through breastplate and mail shirt like torn onyx, followed by a flash of white light a moment later with a deadly frost.

The Jondas riders in front were the first to bear the brunt of being blasted into loose sand by the deadly ice needles and hailstones. They were pierced to the core with their horses, or they were burned by the unbearable cold, so that their bodies were covered with snow and their blood clotted. into ice.

Glittering pillars of frost and black blood make the stars of the fruit trees shine.

Karena couldn't help flinching, but she tapped the wizard on the shoulder and ordered, "Retreat now! They may be about to cast a spell."

The two rangers hurried back for about a hundred meters, sprinting through the woods.

Sure enough, a violent flame erupted in the woods, right where they had just stood.

A wave of sulfurous heat lifted Karena's cloak over her shoulders and scorched a strand of her hair.

She ran about a hundred meters, shrank behind a tree, and quickly considered the surprise attack.

Arrows were still roaring into the Jondas team on the road, but there were a lot fewer arrows than before.

Rangers roam around between shots to avoid being targeted.

Karina could see the cavalry sweeping through the orchard, diverting the fire of the archers on her flank.

In a moment, she and the warriors would be surrounded in the woods, though her 'Watcher' rangers were strong enough to rely on machetes and longswords, making them fertilize the cherry trees.

But the battle in Mokou Town was far from over, and she didn't want to waste her precious magic skills on these mercenaries.

She held a holy symbol hanging over her heart, and whispered a divine incantation.

The spell carried her words to all rangers in the woods, whether they were close at hand or a hundred paces apart.

"Retreat immediately!" she ordered them, "Go to the second line of defense, quick!"

Fifteen rangers turned and sprinted north in unison, making their way beyond the Big Fruit Grove.

Karenna glanced at her ranger warriors more, in and out of sight as they skimmed past the trees beside her.

She could hear the curses of the humans in the distance behind her, and it didn't take long for the Chondath to realize that their ambushers were retreating.

The mercenaries reached the edge of the fruit forest and rushed into the distant fields.

Karina stepped forward and ran at full speed, knowing she and her warriors were without cover.

At a glance, most of her warriors were still following her, and rangers followed her silently across the fields.

But sweeping to the west, only 200 meters away, sixty cavalry appeared, chasing wildly around the edge of the big fruit forest.

"High Priest!" exclaimed Dean the Ranger worriedly.

"Don't worry, I see them!" she replied, giving them an encouraging smile. "Keep it up!"

After passing the field, a long and low ridge was covered by a thick bush lying like a green wall.

Karena risked a glance over her shoulder and diverted to the right, getting away from the approaching cavalry so that it would take them longer to run over his warriors.

The sun beat down on her, and the bushes up to her waist forced her to take long, long steps that seemed more like trudging than running.

She stared at the dark bushes in front of her and tried to keep up her speed, sweat running down her face and the moist air thick as honey in her lungs.

Behind her, she could hear the hooves of the riders following her.

The mercenaries roared rudely with a tone of sure victory, while the ranger warriors were less than 50 meters away from the bushes over there.

A horn sounded from somewhere in the woods ahead.

Karina yelled at her warriors, "Get down!"

She threw herself into the tall bushes, branches brushing her face and arms.

And above her head, more than eighty longbows were fired.

Under the shelter of the trees in front, it seems that all the men in Golden Oak Village are good at archery, and some women are the same, raising their bows and shooting arrows at the cavalrymen who are about to trample the retreating rangers.

They weren't all as accurate as the ranger fighters, but some were, and the rest shot well enough.

Horses roared and leaped, cavalry fell to their saddles, while the rest panicked under the devastating fire.

After three rounds of quick volleys, combined with Karina and the others' attack spells, the Jondas mercenaries were already dizzy, and most of them were killed or injured. Only two or three rode their horses to escape from the green bushes, leaving their companions behind. in spite of.

Karina and her ranger warriors sprang to their feet and sprinted into the cover of the bushes.

She found a goblin waiting for her, and an ogre beside her.

More gnolls, kobold villagers, and troll farmers stood aside with grim satisfaction on their faces.

Their armor varied from no inches at all to worn mail shirts or inlaid leather hunting jackets, but all were proficient with bows, and many carried swords and axes in their belts.

The people of Mokou Town are not to be judged by appearances. Karina smiled and praised: "Good job, little goblin. If you and your villagers hadn't fought so beautifully, we would have been trampled flat by the cavalry."

"Ms. Karina, you are too humble. I plan to wait as long as possible until I hear the signal." The goblin holding the hand crossbow said a little shyly, "I didn't expect them to follow you so quickly. Praise to Mother Earth God, you are all walking like flying, you have no problem dealing with a group of mercenaries."

"What shall we do next, ma'am?" the ogre asked Karena.

As a slave, after he regained his freedom, he took the initiative to serve as the captain of the militia in Golden Oak Village.

The originally approachable ogre is a different person on the battlefield.

His usual gentle smile and relaxed laughter disappeared, replaced by determination and worry, and he said in a low voice, "How many enemies do we have to face?"

"The battle is far from over."

Karina cast the divine reconnaissance spell, and the distant scene clearly appeared in her mind.

She closed her eyes and pondered for a moment, then smiled kindly at the group of humanoid creatures, "Now, I have an important task for you."

"There is a group of gnolls and orcs with a number of about 500. Instigated by the Zhentarim, they pulsed down from the Horn of the Storm Mountain and prepared to sack Mokou Town."

When the ogre and goblin heard the words, their faces turned ugly, and the goblin stammered, "Well, what should we do?"

"Just listen to me, and I promise you will destroy them unscathed." Karina's beautiful eyes flashed a touch of cunning, she smiled, and said confidently:

"This group of bandits will pass through the grove of the druids in Emerald Garden. Little goblin, you take a few gnoll villagers to lead them the way, and then take the opportunity to set a fire in the grove of the druids, and someone will Help us deal with this threat."

"Is this really okay?" The goblin was taken aback when he heard this, and said with fear on his face, "I'm afraid that wolf men and orcs will eat me."

"Believe in yourself, use your eloquence, praise these brainless guys, and you will survive."

Karina showed an encouraging smile, and said to him, "Otherwise, the consequences of the influx of more than 500 gnolls and orcs into Mokou Town would be unimaginable. Do you want to watch your homeland be destroyed?"

"I definitely don't want to." The goblin replied without thinking, gritted his teeth, nodded and said: "No problem, Ms. Karina, leave this task to me."

"This is a fireball scroll, will you use it?" Karina handed the goblin a scroll, "Bring the enemy into the woods and release it immediately, and then run away as soon as possible."

"Of course it will. I once worked as an assistant for a wizard." The goblin took the scroll, picked out a few ragged gnolls, and walked towards the Stormhorn Mountain Range with the expression of a martyr.

"May the Mother Earth protect you."

Karina gave her a blessing, and immediately commanded her 'Watcher' ranger, ready to go into the next battle.

　Thanks to the big guys: Huang Xiyun, Liang Ling, father-son relationship, pony cart, la la la ivgg for their rewards, thank you for your support! ! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)