Imperial Crown

December 25, 1193, around 7:20 am.

The same time when the vanguard led by Visdon set out.

Raven and his party were lurking next to a mound near the Scorpion's Nest.

The upper edge of the mound was worn out by the wind and sand, and the wind speed was so fast when the wind was howling that even smaller stones could not stand on it, but at this moment, two pairs of eyes appeared in the narrow gap.

One pair was pure black, and it was Margaret.

The other pair of course belonged to Raven. Even though his eyes were a little dry, he still stared at the gate of the Scorpion's Nest.

"Baron, take a break." Volaf came from behind and handed over the water bag: "You have been staring for more than three hours!"

Raven took the water bag and drank a sip, then handed it back.

He was very confident in his judgment, and because of this, he needed to keep an eye on this place in person and not miss any details.

"Isn't Margaret here?" Volaf took the water bag and saw that Raven still didn't want to rest, so he changed his way of persuading: "Or you can rest for a while, and I'll replace you!"

"He can watch if he wants to." Nancy was still angry from the last quarrel, hugging her shoulders and pouting: "If you keep an eye on it, and Heleti still doesn't come out, aren't you afraid that he will blame you?"

Hearing this, Raven finally reacted: "Heleti will definitely leave the scorpion nest."

Although holding her breath, Nancy couldn't help her curiosity: "Why are you so sure?"

Raven's voice was a little arrogant: "Those who are good at attacking, the enemy doesn't know what they are defending; those who are good at defending, the enemy doesn't know what they are attacking."

"What?" Nancy obviously didn't understand the meaning of this sentence.

At this moment, Margaret's voice rang:

"Baron, Heleti is out!"

This sentence immediately cheered up everyone present, and Nancy rushed up in three or two steps and hung herself on the crevice.

The gate of the Scorpion's Nest was wide open, and a figure in golden armor jumped out on horseback, and behind him, the bandits followed closely.

"Baron." Margaret's voice was hoarse and low: "The one wearing golden armor is Heleti, there is no mistake!"

Raven nodded slowly, but his heartbeat was slightly faster.

After more than 20 days of long journey and waiting, this "Sand King" was finally willing to leave his nest!

But immediately his brows knitted tightly.

There are too many people following Heleti!

According to the battle report sent by Eric, Heleti had lost about 80 people in the last battle, and it is impossible for him to have so many people to drive.

Eric could not have falsely reported his military exploits, so the answer was obvious.

Heleti recruited new people, or annexed other bandit forces during this period.

A trace of worry flashed across Raven's face.

In this way, not only will the battle to attack the Scorpion Nest be much more difficult, but Eric will probably be even more...

Patting his cheek gently, Raven immediately ordered: "Margaret, let your crows follow them, and report to me immediately when Heleti and Eric engage in battle."

The plan has come to this point, and it is useless to worry now. What Raven can do is to capture the Scorpion Nest as soon as possible. This is the only way to relieve Eric's current predicament!

Margaret's eyes were about to roll out of flowers. Summoning crows to spy on intelligence is indeed her common method, but she has basically not rested since yesterday. The energy in her body is less than half, and she is as tired as she can be.

But Raven is obviously not a gentle and considerate master, at least not for her, so she can only find a corner, summon her crows, and follow the bandit troops.

Nancy couldn't wait any longer. She jumped down from the crack, summoned her staff and held it in her hand, excited: "Raven, when are we going to set off?"

"Wait a little longer." Raven didn't look back, still observing the movements of the scorpion nest: "The Heleti have more people than I expected. We must wait until they pull away and give us enough time."

"Tsk, you're so timid." Nancy pouted with contempt: "What are you afraid of? I'm here! No matter who it is, I can deal with it with a magic trick!"

"Okay, wait for you to show your skills." Raven responded casually.

Seeing Raven's carelessness, Nancy made a face at him and turned her head to go somewhere else.

But she was never a person who could settle down and wait honestly. She walked around and around, and occasionally came to Raven and jumped up to observe the scorpion nest with him, but soon she began to feel bored and kicked the stones on the ground.

Time passed slowly, one hour, two hours...

Just when Nancy's patience was about to reach its limit, Margaret opened her eyes: "Baron, Heleti's army has arrived at the periphery of Eric's army!"

"How far is it from the Scorpion Nest?" Raven asked immediately.

"About... 20 kilometers." Margaret responded.

"Twenty kilometers..." Raven thought and clapped his palms: "Enough."

Stepping back from the crevice, his eyes swept over every guard:

"Heleti has reached a far enough position. He defeated the vanguard led by Weston and is fighting with Eric."

"The Eagle Army is using their lives to buy time for us."

The guards looked serious, and Volaf's throat began to move. He was a little worried about his comrades.

I don't know what happened to Mosingan, Simon, Gore, Link and the others.

Raven walked quickly to his warhorse, his voice steady, but conveyed his determination to every listener:

"So, this operation can only succeed, not fail."

"Get on the horse, let's go!"

The mound was not far from the scorpion nest. In just five minutes, Raven and his party had already reached the corner a hundred meters away from the entrance of the scorpion nest, hiding their whereabouts behind a low hill.

Although he had already observed it from a distance, when he saw the scorpion nest head-on, Raven was still a little touched.

The road leading to the city gate was full of stone chevaux de frise. The city gate was narrow, the tower was tall, but the city wall was very wide. In addition to the shooting holes, there were actually four crossbow beds!

This weapon is a weapon for defending the city, with a very long range. If it is loaded with special enchanted crossbow arrows, its power is not inferior to the artillery of the previous life. Ordinary third- and fourth-level knights can't withstand a few hits.

On the other hand, even though more than 160 people have been taken away by Heleti, the number of people on the city wall is not small. Raven has seen 13 of them so far, and they are very sparsely distributed.

If they cannot be dealt with in a short time, it will be a big trouble when they can control the crossbows!

"Baron, let's forget it." Margaret whispered: "I didn't expect that Heleti's men suddenly had so many people. The chances of winning are too low now. Let's withdraw!"

"Don't worry, with me here, supplies are definitely not a problem!"

Raven glanced at her: "Do you want to volunteer to help me open the city gate?"

Margaret shuddered: "No, absolutely not!"

She is a witch, not a female knight, and she can't do the work of charging into battle. She was able to quickly knock down so many people before because the formation of the personal soldiers was too dense, but the city wall is so wide, if she really goes up, she will not survive if she is locked by the crossbows!

Raven also knows this, so he didn't send her up, but this doesn't mean that Raven wants to give up.

As a lord, he must protect his life, but the responsibility on his shoulders is equally important.

He will not let the sacrifice of his soldiers go to waste.

Several plans came to his mind and were rejected one by one. Raven's brows furrowed deeper and deeper, and he even bit his nails unconsciously.

Nancy was watching with interest. It was the first time she saw Raven so entangled. She couldn't help but come over: "What are you thinking about? Tell me?"

Although it might not work, Raven didn't mind having an extra brain at this time: "The defense of the Scorpion Nest is too tight. We must destroy at least four bed crossbows at the same time before we can break the door with peace of mind."

"Oh, that's it, why didn't you say it earlier!" Nancy raised her fiery red hair: "Leave it to me!"

As soon as the voice was over, before Raven could speak, she had already jumped out of the hill on horseback.

Looking at the back of the leaping figure, Raven's heart rose with a trace of anger.

Nancy's appearance had exposed their position, directly forcing him to the point where he had to go!

Volaf stepped forward carefully and asked, "Baron, what are your plans...?"

Arrangements!

Raven cursed in his heart and brought out the most reliable plan in his mind:

"The enchanted crossbow will shoot at the bed crossbow as the target, and after destroying the bed crossbow, turn to the horse thieves, and the others will raise their shields to cover, and charge!!"

After saying that, he squeezed his legs hard against the horse's belly, and the warhorse under his crotch neighed and raised its hooves to move forward!

At this time, the horse thieves on the city wall had already discovered Nancy's fiery red figure, and they should have issued a warning immediately, but when he saw the face of the person coming, he hesitated again.

A weak girl who looked like she had not grown up yet... Is she lost?

But the next moment, the "girl" in his eyes suddenly had a staff in her hand. She stopped her horse 30 meters away from the city gate, pointed the staff in her hand at the city wall, and began to chant the spell loudly.

As the spell was chanted, Nancy's hair fluttered without wind, like a burning fire, and with her as the center, the surrounding environment became brighter and redder!

Only two of the people present knew clearly what was happening.

Through the Eye of Truth, Raven could clearly see that the fire elements in the environment were gathering towards Nancy at a crazy speed.

You know, this is winter, and the Bloody Highlands are covered with heavy snow!

Even though Raven can sense and be friendly to more elements, Nancy is even better than him in terms of fire affinity!

Margaret couldn't see it, but the witch was naturally very sensitive to the elements. At this moment, she also clearly sensed the restlessness of the fire element, and even her skin felt a little burning.

The light around Nancy became brighter and brighter, and the fire element began to flow through the outline of her body in a visible manner, merging into the staff, and ignited a blazing white flame at the top of the staff!

The horse thief finally saw what was going on.

This young girl seemed to be a magician?

It's not his fault that he reacted slowly, it's really that magicians are too rare in the Bloody Highlands.

"Enemy--"

The word "attack" didn't come out, and it will never come out.

After Nancy chanted the last syllable, a blazing white flame floated out from the fire-colored crystal on the top of the staff. At first, it was just a tiny spark, but after it broke away, it rolled bigger and bigger, like a snowball sliding down a high slope, growing to the size of a water tank.

Then, it smashed into the city wall!

Boom——

The viscous flames like magma rose and exploded. The terrifying impact force threw all the wooden structures into the air and rushed straight into the sky. The flames on them burned fiercely, like a meteor shower!

The raging fire burned along the cracks in the wall, violently washing the walls on both sides, igniting everything that could burn, torches, towers, flags, trails, bed crossbows, and... horse thieves!

Even when they died, these trapped horse thieves had no time to scream, because as soon as they opened their mouths, their throats would be filled with flames, struggling and twisting, like moving torches!

Crackling, crackling...

The whole tower shook as if it was twitching!

With a crisp click from the gate, the entire tower collapsed to the ground in the smoke and dust, causing the earth to tremble violently, and the flaming stones collapsed and flowed like building blocks!

Raven stared at everything in front of him in a daze, rubbing his eyes in disbelief!

What... what is this?

Italian cannon? ? ?

Although I don't understand this magic, judging from the structure of the spell, it will not exceed the second level.

But... but my second-level magic is not so powerful! ?

Not only Raven, but Margaret was also scared. Her body trembled continuously and she could not restrain the magic power in her body.

She recognized that this was the second-level magic "Pyroblast", but the difficulty of this thing is generally recognized to be equivalent to the fourth level!

How did Nancy, a weak little girl, cast it? Is she also a witch?

Not to mention the personal soldiers headed by Volaf, each of them opened their mouths so wide that an apple could be stuffed in.

But in addition to surprise, there was more joy and admiration.

It is such a good thing to have such a powerful magician in your own camp!

After a brief surprise, Raven was the first to regain his sanity and immediately ordered loudly: "Clear the city wall! Get rid of the remaining two bed crossbows and horse thieves!"

The personal soldiers came back to their senses one after another.

Raven's order was easy to execute. Nancy's magic was powerful, but it was not enough to blow up an entire section of the city wall. There were still a few bandits on it, and because they had "appreciated" the power of the magic at a closer distance, most of them were so scared that they were like puppets and would not move at all.

The guards raised their crossbows and began to "call the roll" one by one.

As Raven's guards, they had undergone more rigorous training and were more skilled in the use of crossbows.

Even if some people were not so accurate in aiming, it was still no problem to shoot fixed targets. In a moment, they cleared all six bandits guarding on the top of the city wall, and even burned the only two remaining crossbow beds with a flame crossbow.

Maybe someone was hiding somewhere else, but as long as he didn't dare to show up, it would not affect the overall situation.

Nancy put away her staff, lowered her head and rode back to Raven, carefully observing his face with her peripheral vision.

In fact, Nancy had already regretted it when she ran out of the hill. It was a big mistake to disobey orders on the battlefield, and you might be beheaded!

But Raven didn't get angry as Nancy expected, but looked her up and down.

Nancy felt a little strange, and after a while she said, "What are you looking at?"

Raven rode past her on horseback, and Nancy quickly turned away. Unexpectedly, Raven lowered his voice and said, "Well done, don't do it again."

Nancy's face flushed instantly, and she glared at Raven.

If you want to praise, just praise, why don't you praise me in a mediocre way? And you looked at me for so long, making me nervous!

Raven would not bother with this arrogant person, and his attention was still on the business.

There were not many wooden structures on the tower, and it was cold. As the magic effect dissipated, the flames on the wreckage of the tower also went out, and only a few pieces of wood were still shining with sparks.

The gate was finally broken!

Looking at the scene in front of him, Raven's heart was a little excited.

The collapsed city walls formed a rugged hill that a warhorse could not climb, but a human could.

This was also very suitable for dealing with cavalry.

Exhaling a breath of white air, Raven showed an excited smile on his face:

"Get off the horse and enter the city!!"

...