Chương 865: Chapter 864: Armies In Place

Harrison Dane"I am General of Nakar, Baron Lockridge, not you," I said firmly. Lockridge opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out of it.

"We will attack in five groups. Four will be led by the Colonels with five thousand men each, with the support of the barons' men. They will attack the four baronies."

"I will lead the fifth group, and we will march to Lauryl with fifty thousand men," I stated.

"I still believe we should attack Lauryl with every soldier we have. Once we conquer it, we will not have any problem in conquering the rest of the baronies," said Lockridge. This bastard likes to interfere where he should not. He is responsible for the administration, while I am responsible for its defence. So, he should listen to me when it comes to it.

"The purpose of the attack is not to conquer the whole baronies, but carve out more territories from Silver,""We will try to conquer Lauryl, but our main purpose is to keep their army occupied, while four colonels lead the offensives," I, too, would have liked to attack Lauryl with everything; we have captured the whole baronies in a fell swoop, but Grimvale is cautious. He had ordered to carve out the baronies slowly. This is an excellent opportunity we have right now.

Silver is spooked by the assassin attack from the undead, and he would not be moving his powerful Generals and forces out of his cities. While here, he is getting attacked by a large tide of monsters. There are three of them, and it is being said that the fourth monster from the powerful bloodline might join them as well. So, unlike last time, there wouldn't be any state to send the reinforcement. By the time they rested and recuperated enough. It will be too late, and with Grimvale's reinforcement.

It will be impossible for them to take back any territory.

"This is a great opportunity, we needed to conquer Lauryl," said Lockridge.

"I agree," I replied with conviction. I hear the mocks every day, and it is torturous for me. So much that I want to unsheathe my blade. A few months ago, I was the Lord Commander of Mirador Hold with a large army under my control and an important trade route that would bring me massive amounts of money. In a single night, everything disappeared. They conquered my fortress, and my men abandoned me. Leaving me desperate and dependent on Grimvale, who took complete advantage of that.

When I was Lord Commander, he was offering me many things. One time, he offered me a third of the baronies, but now, I couldn't even get a single barony. I asked for it as it would have made me a noble, but he didn't give it to me. I am now nothing but an officer under his control. Even those men who remained loyal to me had been moved to Dustorn Fortress and other cities. Here, I have barely five thousand of my loyal men. The same thing happened to Lockridge.

Grimvale had changed his men, but unlike me, the bastard has a territory as well as the artifact. Grimvale promised me that as long as I give him the whole Nakar, he will provide me with both of the things. It's not going to be easy. Silver has proved how formidable an opponent he is. He had turned my most trusted man against me—the man who hated Silver more than I did. Now, he is living lavishly, enjoying every pleasure that life has to offer. I cleared my thoughts and looked at the figurines on the map.

There are three most important. First is the whore, that Silver put in Lauryl, second is his sister, the General, and the Lv. 40 mercenary. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Vice-Governor Halvor, any positive response from the three to our offers?" I asked. The green-haired man is Grimvale's man. He is second in command of the baronies. He is intelligent and wields as much power as Lockridge or even more, considering he is Grimvale 's man.

"The response is negative to our offers," he replied, and I sighed in disappointment. Grimvale is offering a lot. Enough that both of them could live their lives in luxury. They did not accept it.

"Well, it seemed like death is the only thing they desire," I said with a smile appearing on my face.

"Lord Marquess will prefer them alive," he pointed out, but I smiled. I want to pay back Silver, and there is no better payback than killing his whore, sister, and mercenary. I may be following Grimvale's instructions, but I have a plan of my own. It is to destroy his army and kill everyone he values. This is my greatest chance, one I might not get again. Of the three, only one is Lv. 40+ The Mercenary. His sister is powerful, but she is not Lv. 40. I am confident that I will be able to kill her.

My class had changed, but I had levelled up, and my aura control had improved a lot from that Knight's guidance. As for the mercenary, I would have liked to kill him too, but I will have to give him to Lockridge. He will be riding with me in the battle. I hate to admit it, but Lockridge is as powerful as I am, and that is without an artifact. The mercenary won't stand a chance against him.

"What is the current information on the monsters?" I asked.

"They are said to be in the same position, but their numbers are concentrating," he replied. It is not the news I like to hear, but it is fine. It will only delay our plan by an hour or at most a day.

"We will be marching in an hour," I stated. We will march near the boundary of Lauryl, but won't cross it. We will remain an hour from Lauryl's boundary and will only move at them when we get the confirmation of a monster attack. If we attack before that, and the monster attack doesn't happen. We will be in huge trouble. This time, there will be no mistake. I am not overestimating my abilities, nor underestimating the enemies. … Leila Silver"My lady, they have stopped at the Nart Village and are making camp there."

Informed the scout.

"Thank you," I replied. The man nodded and moved away with his horse. I am marching toward the destination where I will reach in a few minutes. I will stop at the same distance from them, on our side of the boundary. An hour is enough buffer to respond to anything that enemies throw at us.

"It's quite regretful; I was quite looking forward to the fight," said the handsome man with a disappointed sigh.

"You will get a chance to fight, Captain Vandal. You will only need to wait a little," I replied. He isn't the only one wanting to fight; I am as well, more than him. He seemed to see that and grinned.

"Can't wait, right?" he asked, while I simply nodded. We had sparred intensely in the morning. If we didn't have to leave to face the enemy. We would have continued fighting until we had no energy left to move. Even now, I am still feeling sore and tired—more in spirit than the body. He is a good sparring partner; we have fought nearly a hundred times. He had been here since we submitted to my brother, leaving for Greltheaven for a few days every month.

Every time he came back, he felt more powerful from the training. They have instructed me in aura control, but there is something more in Greltheaven. Remus didn't inform me, but I am sure there is something. The following month, for a few weeks, I will be going to the Greltheaven for training. What sort of training, Remus didn't mention, but he said, I very much need it. I argued against it, but after the spar where I was not even able to touch him, I agreed. It still made me sigh.

I still remember the young boy who used to watch me sneakily practice whenever I came home from the academy. He had even once asked me if he could train with me. I didn't reply and walked away, while he watched with tear-filled eyes. I wanted to, actually. Seeing his earnest eyes, but I didn't. It is one of the things I wish I had done differently. If I had, our relationship would be much different from the way it is right now. We might be siblings, but there is barely any familial love between us.

Now, it is too late to fix it. We both understand it, as we didn't even try to fix it. Soon, we reached our destination and stopped. Our people quickly got to work and started setting up the tents.

"Any new intelligence?" asked Vandel.

"No, the same," was the reply.

"Inform me if there is something," he said and walked toward where his mercenary group was setting up their tents. It's hard to believe, a Lv. 40 mercenaries came out of Greltheaven. When I took over the barony, I had read information on all the mercenaries in Greltheaven, including him. He was not that special. I didn't even think he would have a prospect of reaching Lv. 40, but here we are. He is a Lv. 40 mercenary, with rare skills, that would make anyone jealous. Remus played a big part in that.

He provided him with resources and training, not to mention the equipment. The man is wearing a half-artifice sword and armor that he got not long ago. These tools are very expensive and hard to obtain. Remus had gotten it for him, not to mention the emotion essence potions. It isn't just him; many I had not thought could reach the level have reached it, while I am still stuck below it. I shook away those thoughts and looked around. There are forty thousand men, a large number, but the enemy has greater numbers.

They are coming with fifty thousand, and all of them are experienced. They have fought in wars in the empire, but mine are no less experienced, and ours is comprehensive. They have fought people, the undead, as well as the monsters. Still, the difference of ten thousand is huge. So, I will need to use the most common strategy to finish the battle quickly. Kill the leaders, and the thing is, I really want to do.

Lockridge had betrayed us at the time when we were fighting against the largest tide of monsters we had ever faced. If we had failed to stop the tide, it would have made the baronies overrun with monsters and would have killed tens of thousands of our citizens. He had not cared for any of that and betrayed us. He will pay the price for it.