The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

From the moment the castle wall was breached by Douson, a massacre was inevitable. Viscount Jonas, who had been holding his breath, stormed to the front lines in a frenzy. Nearly two hundred Earth Knights from the following two Knight Orders charged powerfully into the castle, killing anyone they encountered.

The castle, built beside the river and without a name, became the arena for a gory battle.

Countless combat skills burst forth within the castle grounds.

Liszt, choosing not to attack, continued to dismantle the castle with a well-rested Douson, not stopping until half of the castle wall had collapsed. Such a gaping breach could no longer stop the onslaught of the Knight Order, and a climax of the battle was in sight.

At that time,

Liszt waved his hand, signaling for all remaining Earth Knights to follow suit and squeeze into the castle.

He too drew out his Crimson Blood Sword and leaped towards the castle. The situation was already decided, so getting a share of kills wasn't bad. Or rather, it wasn't so much about getting kills as it was about decisively crushing the enemy to mitigate the losses of his own Knight Order.

"Great Fire Wave!"

With a silent incantation, he effortlessly executed a combat skill. His flame-wrapped Crimson Blood Sword easily cleaved through the armor of an enemy Earth Knight, leaving a deep, bone-exposing wound. With another standard attack, he instantly killed a Common Earth Knight, whose face still bore the marks of youth.

In fact, among all the knights on the battlefield, his face was equally youthful.

Advancing and killing as he went, he quickly penetrated deep into the castle. There, on a walkway, he saw Viscount Jonas engaged in an evenly matched duel with an opponent.

No one else could even get a strike in.

Observing the attire of the man, Liszt instantly deduced that he was facing the master of the Nameless Castle, Viscount of Little River City, also an old Elite Earth Knight. Perhaps lacking a bit in heritage, as his castle didn't even have a name, but the strength was considerable. Viscount Jonas, who had sustained light injuries, was unable to subdue him.

"Quick battle, quick decision!"

Liszt had no concern for a fair one-on-one duel, and the battlefield didn't concern itself with fairness either. As he lifted his Crimson Blood Sword, he immediately executed the ultimate mystery technique of the "Fire Dragon Drill" — the Heart of the Fire Dragon Drill.

He cut into the battle decisively.

With the support of Liszt, Jonas attacked the Viscount from both sides. With Liszt's help, the scale of the battle instantly tipped. A minute later, the opposing Viscount, running out of stamina, stumbled, and both Liszt and Jonas's eyes lit up as their longswords simultaneously pierced the gaps in the Viscount's armor.

Squelch!

Squelch!

The Dou Qi erupted, especially Liszt's Fire Attribute Dou Qi, which exploded inside the Viscount, severely damaging his internal organs.

"Ah!"

The Viscount screamed loudly and could no longer maintain his stance, kneeling to the ground, dying of wounds.

He had died, making such a tragic scene. Liszt found it distasteful and kicked the Viscount's body over before stepping over the corpse to support more of the localized fighting. Jonas also roamed around to provide support, the Elite Earth Knight who followed the potion-flowing method fought impressively, achieving effects akin to reaping crops.

Twenty minutes later, the sounds of battle within the castle began to subside.

Half an hour later, there were no more scenes of combat.

The siege of the castle thus concluded.

Without much fanfare.

"Count the casualties." Shaking off the dried blood from his Crimson Blood Sword, he stepped out of the castle, breathing in the fresh air outside—inside the castle was thick with the stench of blood and decay.

A moment later, Captain Layden approached: "Commander, a hundred and forty knights of the Black Knight Order joined the battle—nine fell, seventeen severely wounded; sixty-nine of the Grey Knight Order—eleven fell, twenty-one severely wounded. In this battle, a total of one hundred and five Earth Knights were killed, along with numerous Apprentice Knights."

The Black Knight Order had sacrificed nine knights, including one of Liszt's followers, Leslie Pile of Dead Leaves, who had not been following him for long.

Among the seriously injured knights was another follower of Liszt, his former classmate Rick Trace. This nineteen-year-old son of a minor noble had just advanced to an Earth Knight and was still quite naive. He had been seriously wounded as soon as he charged into the castle and had lain on the ground groaning for half a day until he was discovered after the battle had ended.

In fact, it's rare for knights to be killed in one blow in battle; most of them are severely injured and lose their combat capability.

After the battle ended, the casualties were either captured as prisoners or rescued by their companions, so the rate of combat loss wasn't very high. However, this time the Grand Duke refused to take prisoners. Any knight on the losing side who didn't die was finished off, leading to the total annihilation of the knights from Nameless Castle.

"Sigh."

The battle at Mane City, zero battle losses; the battle at Little River City, nine men perished.

Liszt knew that sacrifices in battle were inevitable, but he still felt uncomfortable upon hearing the numbers and asked, "Captain Layden, what should be done with the people who sacrificed their lives on the battlefield?"

"Cremation, may they return to the glory of knights."

"Then let's go with cremation."

"Yes, Commander!"

...

Treating the injured, looting the castle, resting and relaxing.

Leaving these tasks to his subordinates, Liszt and Jonas stayed in the highest room of the castle, drinking freshly brewed coffee, and summarizing the battle losses.

Jonas's complexion was not very excited, even a bit pale: "The battle was harder than I imagined. I've become accustomed to the style of warfare in the Pioneer Mandate, and I'm somewhat unaccustomed to siege warfare. This has led to the Grey Knight Order suffering heavy losses and now verging on collapse."

Previously, the knights charged headlong, and the Grey Knight Order, unprepared, suffered severe damage to half of its knights; this time, in the siege, they lost nearly thirty more men.

Now only thirty-seven knights remain fit for battle.

"Viscount Jonas, what is the style of the Pioneer Mandate?" inquired Liszt.

"The Pioneer Mandate is oriented towards plunder. We follow the Earl from city to city, looting the resources we desire; we rarely engage in siege warfare. To prevent their precious resources from being plundered, the knights in the castles have to come out and battle us, which gives us the opportunity to charge."

In open-field charges, with the Sea Wave Sword Saint Li Weiliam at the helm, Coral Island's Knight Order was very formidable. Moreover, they specifically targeted the weaker opponents. Those areas under established marquis and earl, Li Weiliam hardly ever touched. They would strike swiftly and move on like the wind, always achieving victory.

Furthermore, local mercenary forces would take advantage of the chaos to loot the population and then conduct business secretly with the knights of the Duchy of Sapphire, by trading serfs.

Therefore, in the Pioneer Mandate wars, the excess resources looted were not taken away but were disposed of on the spot.

Human hearts always surrender to profit.

Jonas had become accustomed to open-field charges in the Pioneer Mandate and had relatively less experience with siege warfare. Using his old approach led to significant losses in this battle.

"If it hadn't been for you and Douson arriving in time, I'm afraid I couldn't have taken Little River City's castle at all; a lifetime of glory charging into battles might have been completely lost here!"

Thinking of the dreadful outcome, Jonas's robust body trembled slightly.

Perhaps everyone, including the earls, had in one way or another underestimated the differences between this war and the Pioneer Mandate—the followers of the Marquis of Bull didn't care about the gain or loss of the territory resources; they only cared about whether they could hold onto the castles and resist the Grand Duke's retribution.

Liszt's face was stern, but inside he felt rather at ease, "If glory is lost, then we'll take it back. Now that we have taken over Little River City's castle and all the knights have been dispatched, we'll set out for Green Shade City first thing tomorrow morning. Together with Viscount Trik and Viscount Levis, we will take over the Green Leaf Fortress of Green Shade City!"

Green Shade City also has a viscount, a very well-established one, with a castle that has a name—Green Leaf Fortress.