A Greater Force

Each Dark Sky released three rounds, turning the Ashbourne captain into a porcupine. The man staggered backward and eventually fell off the wall.

"Onwards!"

The Tigris Commander bellowed, pointing at the walls of Hebron Town. Hundreds of Tigris Footmen raced toward the wall with great momentum. The gates didn't last, and it was broken.

The remaining soldiers were massacred by the Tigris Footmen. Even those that surrendered were cut down. Seeing the slaughter, some began to run into civilian homes but were chased down and dragged out.

The ravenous laughter of the footmen terrified the civilians greatly. The Tigris Commander moved straight to the barrack and found an Ashbourne soldier releasing a messenger falcon.

His eyes widened.

He closed the gap, drew his sword, and swung it at the soldier. The soldier simply watched the sword come without moving. There were Dark Skies ready to open arrow holes in his body if he moved, so if he was going to fall, what was the need of evading the sword?

"Our Lord is coming."

Those were his last words.

Thud!

"Kill that bird!"

Tigris Commander yelled and the Dark Skies released lots of arrows, but the falcon dodged them all and flew out of their range, causing the commander to ground his teeth.

Dark skies were trained solely to master rapid fire to its peak and this resulted in poor accuracy. Once it was over 200 meters, their accuracy fell by a large margin.

They were not like the Stormbringer that had mastered accuracy. Anything in the range of 400 meters was dead meat, as they would almost never miss.

Because of that, their firing speed was nothing to speak of compared to the Dark Skies.

Bam!

A Tigris Footman broke into a storehouse and found lots of food, some brought from Nineveh.

"Call the commander!"

...….

"I have a report for the Mage." A Desolate Wolf said to another who stood before Aquila's tent. There were several tents pitched around her tent and soldiers could be seen around.

The soldier guarding the tent went in and returned shortly after. "Go in."

The Desolate Wolf walked in and found a silver-haired woman whose silver hair fell on her shoulders. She held an ink pen and was writing on a yellow piece of paper.

When he got close, he looked at her elegant handwriting and took a deep breath.

"Commander."

Aquila looked at him.

"You have a letter for me?"

"I do."

The man stretched the hand that held the letter. In the process of taking the letter, Aquila's fingers grazed his leather gloves and a chilling cold slithered into his body.

His breath became misty and his face almost became pale.

Aquila shot him a glance and averted her attention to the letter.

While reading through the letter, her face had no expression, but it suddenly changed.

She looked at the seal and her expression became even more solemn.

It was the Lord's seal.

Asher had given her the order to destroy Count William's forces in two days. The reasons were that their garrisoned troops had been slaughtered.

"Give orders. We're moving!"

After that night's march, they arrived at the outskirts of Hebron Town and pitched their tents.

When the sun came out, the Tigris commander saw a large number of white tents with black flags pitched several hundred yards away.

The sight of hundreds of Desolate Wolves marching out in an orderly fashion made him squint.

He snorted.

"Call the Dark Skies."

Swiftly, 19 Dark Skies manned the wall.

The Tigris commander waited until the Ashbourne troops had arrayed themselves and were just 300 yards away from the wall.

"Ready." He chuckled. To him, Asher had just sent his men to die.

Meanwhile, Aquila was at the back of the troop, on top of a Centrak. She looked at the corpses of Flameheart and Ashbourne soldiers hung on the walls with a cold gleam.

The Ashbourne troops moved by companies. 100 in one array, a large space, and another 100.

Seeing them so organized, the Tigris commander snorted.

"Kill them."

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

Aquila instantly knew this was the troop that killed the Ashbourne soldier because the opening on their bodies matched the number of arrows that filled the sky.

She lifted her hand and muttered softly. Almost instantly, tens of thousands of water droplets appeared and merged together to form a screen.

The arrows were stuck in the screen and the troop continued their march. When the Tigris commander saw this, his expression changed.

"Such a powerful mage!"

His pupils shook.

"Unleash your battle force. Kill them all!!" Spittle flew out of his mouth as he yelled at the top of his lungs.

The presence of a mage wasn't in their plans. If they had known, Thier lord would have sent a mage.

To make it even worse, this mage was incredibly powerful. How many mages could cast such a large area spell and still keep it steady?

Just casting such a spell should have sucked a great deal of Magi Force; how could she keep it?

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

The Dark Skies kept firing but their arrows were stuck halfway through the water screen. When Aquila had her fill with their taunts, she muttered another spell and the water screen transformed into a massive octopus.

It swung its tentacles, slamming the Dark Skies. The Tigris commander was shocked to his core to see 19 treasured soldiers of his lord get smashed.

Whatever remained of them was thrown away by the tentacle.

At this moment, the Ashbourne flagbearers tilted their flags towards the town. The second the soldiers saw the signal, they attached their tower shields to their backs and dashed toward the wall.

The sight of 1000 7-foot-tall men clad in thick, silver armor racing toward a 5-meter-tall wall while brandishing their long silver spears was awe-inspiring.

The radiant light of the sun reflected on the armor, making them look like divine warriors.

"What in the world is this? The Ashbournes are not just rising... they've already risen!"

The words of the soldier who sent the messenger bird echoed in the Tigris commander's heart.

'Our Lord is coming...'