Ambush

Abel acted as if he was drifting off as he came out from the Blacksmith Guild. As soon as he got out, he sprinted directly towards The Knight Of Marshall's study room.

This was because he wanted to take a look at the map to check to see where he could safely dispose of that super exploding big sword that was inside the Horadric Cube.

For normal exploding swords, even steel of hundred skills couldn't resist its power. Who could've imagined the power of this super exploding big sword? If he wanted to have mutual destruction, maybe even a group of elite knights would not able to hold off the power of this toy. Abel was wondering that if he threw this super exploding big sword on to a commander, how long would his combat qi armor be able to withstand it.

Abel's brain was all gobbled up trying to think of a solution. As he continued searching the map for potential disposal locations, suddenly, he came across a place called the Ansa Valley. The place was perfect, it's distance was around a day's ride from the castle. There were cliffs marked on the map which meant it was perfect to destroy this exploding big sword that he had on him.

After two days' of rest, when Abel's meridian had fully recovered, Abel told the Knight Of Marshall that he would be leaving the castle for an affair. In terms of Abel's safety, The Knight Of Marshall wasn't particularly worried. Abel was equipped with Harry's bow, so everything should be fine as long as he didn't stumble across any intermediate occupation holder.

Besides, Abel was already a Master blacksmith. This meant that he had his own rights in spending his spare time as he pleased. Moreover, there wasn't any information related to any orc attacks during these two days. The attacks had seemed to come to an end. The Knight Of Marshall did not stop Abel from going out on his trip. He only specifically demanded him to be more careful.

For this trip, Abel prepared two horses with him. Abel rode one the war horse and the other warhorse was equipped with all the foods necessary. The horse's food was all high-quality beans and oats.

At the same time that Abel rode out of the castle. An ambush was unfolding in the valley of Neuilly which was in the directions of the Ansa valley that Abel was heading towards.

The Knight of Saroyan was an elite knight and a Lord at the same time. For many years, he had been following and serving under Viscount Dickens, owner of Harvest City and the leader of an elite brigade of 1000. Although he held a royal identity since there were fewer wars these days, it was hard for him to gain any outstanding military service. Therefore, he was only a Lord without fief. This was why he has been extremely eager to take part in wars for more military service.

With Harvest City being the heart of the human world, it was a very safe place. Except for some small battles, it has always held its' reputation of being a peaceful place without fighting.

A few days ago, The Knight Of Saroyan received an order from Viscount Dickens to lead its' troops of one thousand elite brigades towards the Neuilly Valley to ambush and eliminate any orcs that were nearby. Viscount Dickens organized two other Elite Knights alongside with 30 knights to execute this ambush. This made Saroyan extremely excited when he received his orders as it was most likely going to be a substantial amount of enemies in this upcoming fight.

Elite knight Bernard and Elite Knights Hopper were both born in different crumbling royal families. By their generation, their family's inheritance was already too relegated to be inherited. While they still had the talents of a knight, with the glory of their ancestor's shield being extremely dim, their only option was to become a squire to serve under Viscount Dickens.

These inherent knights were paid very generously but their wealth cannot be inherited to their next generations. However, these 2 Elite Knights have both been searching for their opportunity to restore the glory of their ancestors' shields.

When the 3 knights saw each other, they knew their chances of gaining an outstanding military service was finally here. Everyone that was apart of the ambush was all anticipated for the upcoming battle. All 30 knights and the thousand of elite soldiers who were ready to fight with a fire burning in their hearts.

It was now three days since the brigade had arrived in the Neuilly Valley, all the scouts had all been sent out to investigate and explore for any potential incoming orcs. Everything had already been set up, now all they had to do was wait for the orcs to show up.

The Knight of Saroyan was sitting on a rock, looking down at the map of Neuilly Valley map. The location was surrounded by mountains on all three sides, with two of the sides containing an extremely steep hillside. It was very difficult to climb, and also had a large number of thorns as well as the sides being dead ends. Now, all of Saroyan's forces had to do was gathered at the top of the last slope of the valley which had a very gentle and to ambush the orcs when they come.

"Report!" One of the scouts jumped off his horse and promptly gave a military salute.

The Knight Of Saroyan turned his head and looked at the sweaty scout. "What did you discover?" he asked.

"There's a small group of orcs from the south and they're heading directly for the valley. They're expected to arrive in 20 minutes."

The Knight Of Saroyan waved his hand and replied, "Alright then, continue scouting ahead for us." As he then looked back at his lieutenants and ordered, "Get all our men to use the masking powder."

The masking powder was a tool that covered the human smell which was invented during the great war between the humans and the orcs. As the orcs had a strong sense of smell, the human's smell in the air was like the beacon of the sea. After countless years of war, there was a heavy amount of human casualties due to their exposure to the orc's sense of smell. After this painful loss, the human developed the masking powder, which became an essential strategic material for the army nowadays.

The army then began to move methodically, and without saying a single word. They silently dusted themselves and their horses with the masking powder.

"Report!" Another scout spotted the situation and reported, "There's a small group of orcs spotted in the east. ETA (Estimated Time Arrival) is 25 minutes."

"Report! Orcs spotted from the Northside. ETA is 20 minutes."

As the scouts kept coming back reporting more and more orcs sightings. The Knight Of Saroyan began to smile as he looked back at Elite Knight Bernard and Elite Knight Hopper After 3 days of waiting, he smiled and said towards the 2 elite knights, "It's finally here, the city's lord intel was real!"

"Indeed, I can't believe they even found out the location of where these orcs will be gathering." Answered Elite Knight Bernal, smiling with a desire for battle burning in his eyes.

At the mouth of the valley, there was already a party of orcs which consisted of wolf riders. As they arrived around the mouth of the valley, they scouted around and ensured that their surroundings are clear. When their surroundings were cleared, they commanded their allies through simple hand gestures and proceeded into the valley.

At the top of the side of the mountain, the hidden army, soldiers covered with masking powder, held their breath in fear that they might frighten the wolf riders and potentially interfere with their ambush plan. To them, more orcs that entered the valley meant more military service for them.

As time passed slowly, the presence of orcs was gradually increasing in the valley. As more and more parties of orcs entered into the valley, the valley slowly became a sea of joy. The orcs here all thought they were safe. They had already begun in setting up their bonfire and feasting on their barbequed meats while enjoying their stolen wine. Not only so, but they were also discussing their respective tasks loudly and chatting about their successes with their robberies.

When there were roughly 160 orcs gathered within the valley, there were already no sightings of anymore incoming orc parties. It looked to be that the gathering number of the orcs was already at its peak. The orcs suddenly paused their chatting. They discovered that the number of orcs that survived was much less than in previous years. There were around 500 orcs that were deployed here for the annual event. Last year there were around 200+ orcs returning survivors here. But this year, there were only 160 orcs. This was the lowest number of survivors in the history of this event.

A depressing mood began to spread for these orcs around the valley. Many of them began to realize that their friends and brothers did not come back. A valley that was bustling with noise and excitement suddenly a second ago suddenly transitioned into complete silence. But the orcs were a fighting race and the feeling of grief and sorrow only lasted for a short period of time. Afterward, the orcs were gathered according to their parties and waited. When the appointed time was about to come, there would be a flying beast to take them home.

The Knight of Saroyan kept his eyes on the situation in the valley. According to the intel from the City's Lord, this was a gathering point for the orcs. Saroyan then turned his head to his lieutenant and said, "Go and notify the team at the mouth of the valley and instruct them to seal off the valley exit.

"Yes, sir." As the lieutenant took out a piece of sheepskin, wrote the order and finally stamped it with the seal of the battalion. He then sealed the envelope with a block of ciphered wax and arranged for the messenger to deliver the order to the team allocated at the mouth of the valley.

After messenger had been gone for around four minutes, suddenly there was a flock of more than 20 huge birds came flying down from the sky.

When The Knight of Saroyan saw the beasts that were flying in the sky, he couldn't help himself but exclaimed in a low voice, "Sky sparrows? Is that how these orcs return back to their home?"

Then The Knight of Saroyan turned to his lieutenant and asked, "Is there still time to retrieve back the order we sent out?"

His lieutenant then shook his head with a bitter smile and said, "The operation should've started by now."

"It would be a tremendous glory for them if they were able to bring down even one of these sky sparrows." The Knight Of Saroyan then looked at the sky sparrows in the skies with excitement and desire. He never knew that the strategy of the orc empire was to use these flying beasts. Even if all the orcs below had escaped, just capturing one of these sky sparrows would've been an outstanding military service.