The Devil’s Cage

Dak Dak Dak Dak!

The knight acting as a scout was riding back to the temple convoy swiftly. The knight didn’t even bother to pull the reins on the horse, jumping down right away, dashing towards Einderson’s wagon.

“Lord Archpriest, someone is onto us! There are more than 500 men ahead of us, they must be the bandits from Smochker Hills!” said the knight as he entered the carriage.

“Just some common bandits? Are there others?”

Einderson lowered the map in his hand, asking without showing much expression.

When they had decided to head north, the archpriest had known what they would encounter in Smocker Hills.

Bandits! As many as a swarm of locusts, leaving nothing alive in their wake.

In fact, other than the monsters, the bandits were the only other obstacle that troubled the archpriest.

When the monsters were blocked outside Arya Outpost by Ryan, the bandits became the only problem in their journey to the north.

Therefore, the archpriest had been thinking about solutions to deal with the bandits.

Facing a bunch of merciless, killer bandits who knew the terrain, their disadvantage would be their numbers. Even if all the knights could come together and engage the bandits, they wouldn’t be able to fight the endless waves of enemies. However, their advantage was obvious: elite equipment, elite soldiers skilled in combat, all things the bandits did not possess.

Should they engage in a frontal assault, despite the disadvantage in numbers, the knights would be able to take out the bandits swiftly.

But, should they fall into the bandit’s trap, then it would become a nightmare.

Therefore, the archpriest had to be extremely careful.

“Not at the moment,” replied the knight.

“Send more knights to scout the area, I want more details about the enemy. And not just ahead of us, check the rear and back too.”

The archpriest tried his best to set up a steady plan.

He didn’t want to eliminate his enemies; all he hoped for was a swift and safe ride through Smochker Hills. Otherwise, he would have wasted Ryan’s efforts in defending Arya Outpost.

As for solving the confrontation in a peaceful way?

After understanding what the bandits had done in the past, the archpriest was smart enough to discard the thought.

” I understand!”

The knight jumped off the wagon and swiftly rode away on his horse.

Two more groups of knights from the convoy followed shortly after, more than 30 knights riding off, their task to scout the details of their surroundings.

Therefore, before the knights returned with a detailed report of their surroundings, the entire convoy setup came near a hill.

“Patrols and outpost soldiers get into position. The civilians will help the deacons in preparing a simple defense structure.”

After putting away his beloved harp into the deerskin pocket at his waste, Kampu swiftly returned to his group. His voice was heard throughout the convoy with his special spell.

For a priest of Melody Temple, no matter how bad or good the play was, spreading one’s melody was the basic plan and the sound was key.

With the archpriest’s order, the seed of Melody Temple, Kampu became the ideal person for spreading orders.

His body was slightly thin and not too tall, so it was hard for someone to imagine how loud his voice was. However, because of his loud and sonorous voice, his normal looking face didn’t seem that normal anymore.

He looked tough and plain, like a knight, but possessed the elegance and temperament of a scholar, which a knight lacked.

Even though the atmosphere was slightly tense, his temperament and mature looks were very calming to look at.

The knights were out scouting, leaving the whole convoy a little nervous, but when they saw Kampu, the tense atmosphere swiftly calmed down, everything returning to its organized manner.

Kampu then patrolled the temporary camp once more, before striding towards the archpriest’s wagon.

Lilith, the priest from Love Temple, was already waiting in the carriage.

“Archpriest Einderson.”

Both of the younger priests greeted the archpriest.

Einderson smiled and waved his hand, telling the two to sit beside him.

“We may have encountered our most difficult times yet. This time, we can no longer rely on Ryan or Arina; we have to rely on ourselves to overcome this obstacle. A bunch of jackals are waiting for us. We can never show any weakness in front of them because if we do, we will be eaten alive!” said the archpriest with a stern look.

“Understood. We will never give in!” Kampu nodded seriously.

Lilith, on the other hand, looked at the map. When she saw the narrow Weiss Valley, the young lass furrowed her brows. Even though Love Temple had no lessons on fighting and wars, the young lass could tell the valley would be a key factor in all of this.

“I am worried about this place,” Lilith said, being blunt with her words.

She had nothing to hide in front of Kampu and Einderson, bof them were trustworthy allies.

“Me too, I am also quite worried about the valley. Weiss Valley is too long to cross safely, and should they sandwich us from both ends, disaster will befall us in the middle—what’s worse is the bandits have men guarding the top of the valley all year long. This is also the reason why the lords of the fields failed so many times in trying to eliminate the bandits. Therefore, we are only left with one choice: settle the battle outside the valley!”

Einderson pointed at the map in front of him.

“We lure them out?” Kampu reacted quickly.

“I have an idea…” Einderson whispered.

Kampu and Lilith were all ears and a moment later, both of them showed agreement to the suggestion.

“If we can make it, we will be able to move past the valley smoothly!”

Lilith youthful face showed a smile.

“We can’t afford to be careless. The plan is almost certain, but…”

“Lord Archpriest, Lord Archpriest!”

Before Einderson could finish, he was interrupted by a panicked voice.

It was the knight who had left earlier for scouting, his face showing unconcealable panic.

It was quite a rare expression for a temple knight, unless…

He really had ran into something inconceivable.

“What happened?” Einderson asked.

“Dead! All the bandits are dead!” said the knight.

After the knight reported in, the group of knights who had left for scouting also came back in a hurry. Every single one of them shared the same panicked look.

“Lord Archpriest, we’ve found more than a thousand bodies on the left!”

“Lord Archpriest, we’ve found at least a thousand bodies on the right!”

“Lord Archpriest, we’ve found five hundred bodies on our tail!”

…

The consecutive reports stunned the archpriest completely. He had never thought something outrageous like this would happen.

“Expand the search area! I want more details, I want to know what happened!” said the archpriest.

Puzzled, Kampu and Lilith looked at each other.

After the order was given, more knights went out to scout.

…

Weiss Valley. The mountains on both sides were tall and towering, as though they could pierce the sky.

The entire valley reeked of blood, even the strongest of wind not able to disperse the smell.

More than a thousand men dressed in black uniforms, showing only their eyes, stood at one end of the valley like statues.

In front of the army of men was Mizelle, his eyes shut and his face cold.

Mizelle had discarded the presence of a petty thief, now filled with killer intents that almost materialized and reeked of bloodshed, looking like a man-eating shura on top of his war horse.

The next moment, he opened his eyes. The burning hot shine from his eyes almost outshone the sunlight.

“Our lord needs us! Go!”

The order was given and the entire army of black moved like robots, swift and merciless.

In a bird’s view, the scene looked like a dark cloud was moving south.