In a short while, the Kent County coalition forces had surrounded Sleepy Hollow, and even the tops of several higher hills around it were firmly occupied by soldiers holding torches.
"Tell Lord Rother, Sir Hassis and Sir Robben to lead their troops and rush into the valley immediately! The others will follow with me. Lord Helin will stay outside the valley and be on strict alert!" Viscount Salk looked at
Sleepy Hollow in the darkness ahead shouted an order.
"Yes, sir!" Immediately, the messenger conveyed the Viscount's order.
"Hart, let's go!" Lord Rosser, who received the order to attack, roared, then jerked the reins and rushed out first.
"Yes, father!" As Rosser's eldest son, Hart, who is only twenty years old, is already a fifth-level knight and has entered the ranks of mid-level warriors.
As Lord Rother and his son and their cavalry team started up, Sir Hassis and Sir Robben's men also followed closely, rushing into the mouth of Sleepy Hollow with great momentum.
"Hamilton, why is this place called Sleepy Hollow?" Moriarty asked the knight beside him in a low voice as he watched a fire dragon charging away in the distance with its fangs and claws.
"Because of……"
"It's because there were hundreds of heads that crashed to the ground here." Hamilton spoke, and suddenly Viscount Salk on the other side spoke up.
After saying that, without waiting for Moriarty to speak again, the Viscount kicked his spurs, rode forward and entered slowly.
As the Viscount moved forward, the entire noble coalition army also mobilized, following the smoke and dust raised by Rosser and others, and slowly entered the valley.
Seeing that it was no longer convenient to chat at this moment, Moriarty stopped chatting with Hamilton and rode closely behind him together.
By the time Viscount Salk, Moriarty and others actually entered Sleepy Hollow, Lord Rosser and three other noble vanguard generals had already carefully swept through Sleepy Hollow. However, in addition to the broken and mutilated corpses and pieces of debris all over the ground,
When the dirty blood flows out, there will be nothing else left.
"Lord Rosser, how is the situation?" Viscount Salk sat on his mount, his sharp eyes slowly scanning everything in the valley through the observation hole on the black iron mask.
"Reporting to the Viscount, no trace of thieves was found in Sleepy Hollow, nor was Sir Luo Yanta seen. Except for fifty stripped corpses, there is nothing else." As a veteran soldier, Lord Rosser
His speech is simple, clear and well-organized.
"Well, that's expected." The Viscount nodded to Rosser and said in a deep voice.
"Lord Rosser, are you saying that there are only fifty stripped corpses left in the valley?" At this time, Moriarty asked from the rear left side of the Viscount.
"Yes, Sir Ensborg." Rosser replied affirmatively, without any contempt because of Moriarty's young age and junior qualifications.
"Didn't you see any left weapons, flags, or dead horses?" Moriarty frowned and asked again.
"Not at all. Even the bones of the horses killed in the battle were mostly dismembered and transported away. Those hateful thieves were like a swarm of locusts, taking away everything they could. For this reason, the corpses of our soldiers were even destroyed.
It's a serious blasphemy." This time, Sir Hassis on the other side replied.
"Can you tell where the thieves went?" Viscount Salk looked around the valley again and saw Chiluo corpses being carried out one after another by the soldiers. Obviously, some of them were
The family guards of the Luo Yanta family, while others are the corpses of thieves covered in dirt and with ferocious faces.
"This is a group of habitual bandits. They retreated very cleanly and left almost no traces." Lord Rosser shook his head regretfully.
"Oh my God, look, this is Knight MacMara!" Suddenly, a noble from the crowd on the other side shouted loudly.
Moriarty immediately followed the direction of the voice and stared. What he saw was a tall corpse with one arm and one leg missing, and the whole head was only connected to the body by skin. The coalition soldiers carefully lifted it from the pile of corpses.
Come out and lay it flat on the ground. Like other corpses, this corpse is also exposed without any covering.
"Who is he?" Moriarty did not recognize the body.
"He is MacMara, a seventh-level knight attached to the Luo Yanta family. He is very powerful. He... is a pity..." Although the relationship between Ensberg and Luo Yanta is not good, Moriarty
It was obvious that there was gradually rising anger in Hamilton's tone.
For knights, it is their duty to die in battle loyal to their lord, and there is no need for excessive sadness or lamentation. However, compared with life, the dignity of a knight cannot be trampled or desecrated at will, regardless of life or death.
And like this, the thieves killed McMara and then skinned his body, which was the real reason that really offended the nobles present, especially Hamilton and others who were also knights.
"Lord Viscount, give chase!"
"Yes, we must not let those beasts go so easily."
"I will hang all those thieves with my own hands!"
As a clean felt cloth was gently covered on McMara's body, some young noble warriors could no longer bear it and gathered around Viscount Salk, swarming to invite him to fight.
"What are you shouting about? How rude are you! Why don't you give me some silence!" Without the Viscount even needing to speak, Lord Rosser had already shouted and drove away these completely hot-headed aristocratic children.
Seeing Lord Rother's anger, and then seeing the cold gaze from Viscount Salk behind him, the crowd that was boiling just now suddenly became quiet.
"Hmph! This is a battlefield. Anyone who dares to talk nonsense will be subject to military law." Looking coldly at the young nobles who had begun to retreat, the Viscount snorted lightly, and his words were filled with the sound of gold and iron clashing.
"Yes, Lord Viscount!" Under the old man's huge pressure, no one dared to go overboard, and they all bowed and quickly retreated.
"Haim, what do you think now?" Withdrawing his gaze, Viscount Salk turned to Lord Rosser and asked.
"Viscount, to be honest, we have lost track of the thieves. If we want to pursue immediately, we will have to divide our forces." Lord Rosser looked at the darkness in the distance, and then said.
"Yes." The Viscount nodded.
"Leaving Sleepy Hollow, there are only three roads suitable for fast travel. One is the road we came from, leading to Windsor Castle. The thieves will definitely not choose this road in order not to run into us head-on." Lord Rosser continued.
.
"Not bad." The Viscount agreed.
"As for the other two roads, one leads to the southeast and the other leads to the southwest. Therefore, if we want to continue to pursue these thieves, we must divide the team into two and attack separately." Lord Rosser said.
"However, our strength will be dispersed in this way. Once we encounter those thieves, we will not have an overwhelming advantage, and the casualties are likely to be huge." At this time, Sir Robben, who had not spoken for a long time, said with concern.
.
"Indeed. Judging from the situation in Sleepy Hollow, this group of thieves is very powerful, otherwise they would never be able to kill Knight Macmara so easily." Sir Hasis, one of the three forwards, also said, it was him.
The first one discovered McMara's body and examined it carefully: "I checked and found that Knight McMara's fatal injuries were three stab wounds on his left hand, left leg and neck. Among them, there were three stab wounds on his hands and legs.
It was a cut with one knife, breaking through the armor, but the incision on the neck seemed to be that the perpetrator deliberately restrained his force and deliberately left a thin line without cutting off all the cuts."
"Viscount, what do you mean?" Hearing the old man suddenly uttering the word "Sand Bandit", other nobles including Sir Hassis and Sir Robben were shocked.
"Decades have passed, and I didn't expect to encounter these bed bugs that like to roll in the sand again in the county today." On the other side, Lord Rosser had an expression similar to the Viscount's, with a hint of murderous intent in his indifference.
"Sand bandits refer to the indigenous warriors living in the vast desert in the southeast of the mainland. These people are engaged in robbery and are murderous. They usually use scimitars and small shields, are good at riding, and have strong attack power." Moriarty
Beside him, Hamilton explained in a deep voice.
"I remember that thirty years ago, the eastern and southern counties of the kingdom, including our Kent County, jointly sent troops into the desert to kill the bandits." Moriarty nodded, and then recalled what he had seen in his father's study.
of a certain document.
"Yes, but the effect of that joint operation was not significant. The harsh climate of the desert was very harmful to the kingdom's army, and the traces of the main force of the sand pirates were always erratic. Therefore, after several tentative engagements,
After that, the coalition forces withdrew." Hamilton seemed to be quite familiar with that period of war.
"Lord Viscount, are you saying that these thieves who have entered our county and committed evil are all sand thieves?" At this time, a noble asked nervously.
As we all know, sand thieves are extremely mobile. If a group of dozens of sand thieves really entered Kent County, it would be more difficult to deal with than ordinary thieves with hundreds of people, and the damage they would cause would be much more terrifying.
.
"It's not a group of sand thieves, at most it's just one or two lone sand thieves. Otherwise, Luo Yanta's guards would have been cut into pieces of meat long ago. How could they still have their whole bodies like now?" Rosser
The Lord shook his head, seemingly dissatisfied with the inexplicable panic in his own camp.
"A few sand bandits will not affect the overall situation." The Viscount said calmly.
"But just now, Sir Hassis said that Knight Macmara was killed by the sand bandits." Although it seemed that neither Viscount Salk nor Lord Rosser were interested in the existence of the sand bandits, some nobles still stepped forward cautiously.
road.
"That's also because the thieves relied on their numerical advantage to trip up Knight Macmara, which gave a certain sand thief an opportunity. As you can see, at least more than ten thieves died in the attack of Knight Macmara.
Under the sword." Seeing that this somewhat cowardly question was about to anger the old man again, Moriarty suddenly said.
"Yes! Yes!" After Moriarty said this, the questioner who reacted in the same way immediately stepped back in agreement and secretly gave Moriarty a grateful look.
"Hmph!" Seeing Moriarty speak, Viscount Salk didn't know what to say. He just waved his hand and asked the surrounding minor nobles to retreat. At the same time, the messenger invited Lord Helin over.
