The mercenaries put up the most typical shield wall formation.
Henry noticed that the shields they were equipped with were all round shields, which were exactly the same style as those of the Skeen pirates. The wooden shield, which is more than half a meter wide, is made up of wooden strips that are spliced together and then bound with animal skin or steel. The outward side is then painted with a shield decoration to cover up the lines to prevent the opponent from attacking through the gaps between the wooden boards. Destroy shields quickly.
In the days when the Skjings were raging, the sight of these warriors from the four northern islands sailing slowly from the skyline on dragon-headed wooden boats with shields on both sides has long become a stunning sight for eternity. After that, countless people followed them. Through centuries of nightmare plunder and killing, they, along with many other northern cultures, have been deeply engraved in the hearts and minds of West Coast residents.
Pillage and conquest are a great way to convey culture, but the Stonewall was not actually the first of its kind.
As early as hundreds of years ago when pirates were raging, the arrogant Lamanite Empire had a square shield formation that was far more powerful in defense. With the name of the large square shield that could cover most of the body, the Lamanites The heavy infantry legion was almost unmatched in terms of defensive power - but it has become less common nowadays, not only because the Lamanite Empire declined before it could conquer the entire world, but also because the square shield was too bulky and could only Suitable for group infantry operations.
Although the smaller Skeen-style buckler is far from comparable to it in terms of defensive area, it is much stronger in terms of maneuverability and flexibility.
This is why they have become a common choice among modern mercenaries and adventurers. In experienced hands, the round shield, which has a smaller defensive area, is actually no weaker than the Raman square shield.
The user is always more important than the weapon. Although countless historians who have tried to tamper with history claim that the warriors of the four northern islands were able to conquer the west coast because their weapons were more advanced, anyone with a discerning eye knows that the facts are not so simple. of.
Henry looked at them.
A mistake often made by many inexperienced novice mercenaries and even regular soldiers is to simply raise their shields and stand with their companions when they need to make a shield wall array - this is quite stupid. Because the soldiers and soldiers who formed the shield wall in this way are still independent individuals, they can be defeated very easily, so how can they be called a "wall".
What Bernie and the others demonstrated was the absolutely correct approach, and the cooperation the mercenaries showed at this moment was simply breathtaking.
The shields were erected one after another as if they had been rehearsed, and then a group of people stood very close and made a "click-click" sound and buckled the edge of their shields on top of their teammates' shields. The shields overlapped and were pushed forward with force. Under the action of this force, the shields formed a real "wall".
"Push." Bjorn and Till, whose arms were injured, did not hold weapons but held torches to provide lighting for the team. The shining metal weapons in the hands of others reflected orange light. Henry, Jericho, Ivan and several women stayed behind, and the group began to slowly push towards the door of the bedroom.
This extremely large bedroom naturally has a door worthy of it. Although the body of the door has decayed over the long years, the huge marble door frame covered with dirt is still preserved.
The shield wall moved slowly and was pushed out. The bedroom was facing the stairs leading to the third floor. As soon as he went out, Iwen heard a "la--" and shot an arrow from his bow.
"Pfft!" The stubby arrow of the short hunting bow in the old scout's hand accurately hit the shoulder of the rat dragon that sneaked down the stairs and beat it. With a scream, it slipped down the stairs, but it wasn't over yet. As it slid down, Ivan opened his bow again and fired another arrow.
"Pfft!" The arrow shot from the left side of the rat dragon's face and penetrated its head, killing it completely.
"Good response!" Henry praised Ivan without hesitation, but the old archer with a wrinkled face just nodded to express his gratitude, and then took out two more short arrows from the quiver on his waist and held them between his fingers.
"Rodney!" On the right is a towering staircase, and looking to the left, the dim and cold passage with only a little moonlight is more rooms. They used to be servants' bedrooms, kitchens, studies and utility rooms, etc. Wait - Henry and his group chose the largest city master's bedroom, and Rodney and Lysa, who are now missing, are probably doing something in one of the remaining ones.
"Rodney!!" The situation was urgent, and Bernie shouted the name of the pudgy mercenary loudly, regardless of whether he would attract the rat dragon.
Naturally, he already knew that Rat Dragon liked to win with numbers. In this case, it would be even more dangerous for Rodney and the two to be alone. However, the leader of the team called several times, but they never responded.
"We can't care anymore. The shield wall is separated. We need to push down in pairs. We have to protect the horses." Bernie made a decisive decision. After receiving the order, the mercenaries immediately untied the shield wall with extremely high quality. Then he trotted down the stairs. The walls echoed with booming and booming sounds. This unknown combination of the unknown number of rat dragons and the huge empty room made everyone shudder.
Henry put the sword back into his sling. The environment of the corridor was not suitable for him to perform. The sage held a torch in one hand and protected Mira with the other and quickly came downstairs.
A few rays of silver-white moonlight were projected through the unblocked gaps. Everyone was relieved that the horses were safe and sound under the dim light, but then they found that the horses were squeezing in nervously.
"Be careful! - Pah - Puff -" The shouts and the sound of loosening the bow string sounded almost overlapping, and the short and powerful arrow hit the bird that rushed to the first floor like lightning. Tire's rat dragon fell to the ground, twitching and bleeding from its mouth and nose, and immediately died.
"The true God and the saint are above..." Till seemed to be a believer of the White Holy Religion. He made a praying posture, and Henry behind him had a strange expression on his face for some reason.
"What's wrong?" Mira said, holding the corner of his clothes tightly and looking up at Henry. "Nothing." The sage shook his head to get rid of the shadow in his heart, and then quickly pulled the girl to join the large army.
"Zhizhizhi——"
The group of people quickly rushed down the stairs and ran across the center of the hall. Behind them were horses huddled together, and in the darkness in front of them was a rustling rat dragon. "Hula -" Bernie used the torch in his hand to illuminate a circle in front of him. At some point, more than thirty rat dragons had gathered in a corner of the first floor.
"Knock out the rocks blocking the window." Henry turned to Bernie and said this. The team leader was stunned for a moment and then agreed with his idea in an instant - the rat dragon had come in, and the dim environment was not suitable for them. It is advantageous but disadvantageous to one's own side, so it is better to knock off the rocks and let the moonlight shine in to improve visibility.
"Get ready, shield wall!" The two mercenaries quickly dismantled the stones and let the silver-white moonlight shine into the first floor. Henry, Ivan, and Jericho came to the left and right wings of the shield wall and pulled out the arms.
"Kill!" Without any foreshadowing, Bernie simply shouted one sentence, and the entire shield wall was pushed towards the opposite side in an orderly manner.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak." Slowly he was backed into a corner.
It is said that rats will bite when they are anxious, and the same goes for rat dragons, which are basically no different from rats. After realizing that there was no way to retreat, these dirty, big dog-like creatures with pale skin rushed toward everyone in a mess but quite quickly, but faster than them were the arrows of Ivan and Jericho.
"咻咻咻咻-嚓——" The young archer's accuracy is not inferior to that of old Ivan, but the old man is obviously better at judging the situation. Several of the fastest rat dragons were shot in the head by Ivan's arrow, causing them to lose their original ability. The chaotic momentum stalled, and Bernie, who was familiar with his old subordinates, could not let go of this opportunity.
"Concave formation, outflank!" The beast's low intelligence was completely manipulated by human tactics. Under Bernie's command, the well-trained mercenaries quickly divided into three parts to form an encirclement formation with left and right wings protruding forward. , the rat dragons who were forced together were running around in chaos and disorder, and then Bernie gave the third and final order.
"Shield wall, open!"
"Pa-ta--" The mercenaries' starting moves were exactly the same. The shield-wielding hand immediately rammed forward the shield-wielding hand with the strength of his entire shoulder, and struck the rat with a heavy shield blow. The dragons became even more confused, and various weapons that had been drawn out immediately dealt fatal blows to the dazed rat dragons.
Blood splattered everywhere. The last thing Henry, Ivan and Jericho needed to do was to kill some rat dragons that escaped from the encirclement.
Steadily repeating the killing, defense, and advancement, the rat dragons that were forced into the corner turned into cold corpses lying on the ground as the entire encirclement shrank step by step.
"Bah, disgusting thing." Till, whose shield and clothes were covered in blood, drooped the hand that had been overexerted before the injury healed, and spat at a rat dragon that was still twitching on the ground.
"Clang-whoosh-" Bernie sealed the throat with his sword and stabbed the other Rat Dragon, which was not completely dead, to death. Then he raised his head and looked around.
"Don't let your guard down, there may be more. Me, the injured Bjorn, Tire, and Henry will stay, and the remaining two will be teamed up. We will search the entire building. If there are any of these damn things, , shout loudly to the nearby companions as soon as possible, as long as we have the numerical advantage, we can easily kill these brainless beasts." The mercenary leader said, and the men under him immediately turned around and walked towards the stairs. past.
"Huh -" Bernie exhaled a long breath, and Till next to him took the soft leather kettle handed over by the woman in her twenties - it was filled with wine, and the blond mercenary bit He clenched his teeth and asked the other party to help remove the bandage on the wound, then tilted his neck and took a sip of wine, and then poured it on the wound.
"Uh..." The one-handed swordsman frowned and snorted. His injured arm muscles bulged with veins, and the woman removed the bandage and threw it away, then took out a brand new bag from the horse's bag. He tied the bandage carefully for Till, and then walked towards Bjorn, who was less injured.
Henry and Mira watched all this quietly, and the sounds of walking above kept echoing. They waited for several minutes before a few screams of the rat dragon were heard, and after a while there was a loud noise accompanied by scolding and ridicule. Passed clearly from above.
Then Rodney and Lysa, whose hair and clothes were messy, came over. Seeing Bernie's unkind appearance, the short and fat mercenary apologized again and again, but in the end, they were lucky that nothing happened to them.
There was nothing more to say that night. All the vents were blocked. After Henry personally confirmed that there was no problem, everyone returned to the bedroom again and spent a fairly comfortable night on the cool marble floor in autumn.
And when you wake up in the morning, it must be a new day.
Having decided that the destination was Wavasika in the west of Avenella, it was natural to set off without further delay. After spending a lot of effort to open the stones blocking the door, everyone ran out again.
During the day, most rat dragons would hide in dark sewers and other places, but even if they spent another night here, Henry didn't think they would be attacked again.
The group of people walked slowly back to the entrance of the castle without being disturbed. The experienced old scout went out first to investigate and confirmed that there was no trace of the Sivaliers, and nodded. After everyone slowly walked out, they spent the time. During a long night at the castle, Henry stood at the end, looking in from a distance from the gate that was still dark in the early morning.
The young rat dragons that should have been living at this exit have disappeared, and as for where they are going, the sage has a good idea.
Creatures like rat dragons are extremely territorial. The reason why only the thirty-something rat dragons came last night was because the remaining adult rat dragons who occupied the safe area in the center of the castle were trapped in a trap with the young rat dragons. In the battle for dragon territory.
All this was expected by Henry. The idea that young rat dragons want to compete for territory is always there, but because adult rat dragons are more powerful, they are unable to do all this. But the appearance of outsiders like Henry made these timid and cautious creatures see a glimmer of opportunity.
In fact, the young rat dragons in the outer area have been following Henry and his group from a distance from the beginning. The sage is not sure whether they want to hunt his group or what, but he understands very well that when this group of rat dragons encounter those When the adult rat dragon entrenched here, the two sides would inevitably have a bloody conflict.
Therefore, even though he knew they were following, he did not inform Bernie that they were going to attack. He just brought the conflicting parties together and watched the tigers fight from the side of the mountain.
Henry solved the situation of being surrounded by a hundred rat dragons without saying anything, which made the pressure they endured last night somewhat less. But who will be the owner of this abandoned castle after today? He couldn't help but think this as he stood at the entrance and breathed the cool morning air.
The castle that was once built by humans and given a name and meaning became a lair for beasts after the death of its owner. The territorial hierarchy that these beasts had maintained for a long time was disrupted last night by the intrusion of his own group.
"Nothing is eternal... everything has its time." Henry said softly as if he remembered something.
"?"
The corner of his clothes was pulled by someone, Henry turned around and saw Mira looking up at him with her big bright eyes.
"What are you still thinking about? Let's go." The girl said, and the sage smiled, turned around, and started the journey again with her.
The sea breeze blowing from the inner sea of Morbigas still passes through the Protasia Forest, and the changes in power that happened in the ancient abandoned castle are just like where the wind will eventually blow.
No one knows.
