Chapter 442: The Battle To Protect The Borderlands [Part 1]

"What are you waiting for, you fools?!" the Royal Inquisitor shouted. "We don’t have all day!"

Now that he had safely crossed over the bridge, he felt very proud of himself. This proved that he was right, and the two generals were merely overthinking.

The soldiers under their command started to waver, but Duran simply raised his hand to keep the order of their formation.

"Dominic and Marco, all of you are to follow the army as we march to the other side of this gorge," Duran ordered. "I advise the Royal Inquisitor and the Royal Guards to do so as well, or you will be left behind and become easy targets for the enemy."

"What?!" The Royal Inquisitor couldn’t believe what he was hearing. "Are you mad?! Do you really plan to make that long of a detour?!"

"Whether you follow us or not is all up to you." Duran sneered in response. "After all, you only report to His Majesty, don’t you?"

"Y-You damn buffoon! I will report this insolence to His Majesty later!" the Royal Inquisitor roared in anger.

"Suit yourself." Duran shrugged before giving the bridge a side-long glance. "Men, march with me!"

After weighing the pros and cons of using the bridge, Duran eventually decided to just take a detour.

As someone who had led multiple military campaigns, he had learned to be extremely cautious, especially toward situations that were too good to be true. The enemy was aware of their existence, and there was no way they would make it very convenient for the enemy army to march.

Sure, it might be possible that the bridge posed no threat at all. However, he was in charge of multiple men and wouldn’t risk their lives for the mere possibility of convenience.

Anyone with a brain would be suspicious of a bridge that would save them a lot of time in a suspiciously convenient place.

Had this not been a military expedition, he might have been more lenient. However, after suffering repeated losses during the first two days of their advance, he no longer wanted to take any chances.

As long as he and Vogel were together, their army could fend off anything their enemy threw at them!

"Damn it!" The Royal Inquisitor stomped his feet angrily. "This brain-dead fool!"

Marco and Dominic exchanged a glance with each other before ordering their men to march alongside the Britannian Army.

Left with no choice, the Royal Inquisitor and the Royal Guards followed them. After all, the last thing they wanted to happen was to be left behind and face the enemy that might be lurking somewhere.

Ten miles away from the gorge, a faint smile appeared on Leone’s face.

"They didn’t bite the bait," Leone informed everyone. "They chose to take a detour."

Logan clicked his tongue, while Vlad looked very disappointed.

The others also showed regret, disappointed that the Britannian Army didn’t fall for such an obvious trap.

Seeing their reactions, Leone decided to let them be for a while. Their mission was to delay the advance of the enemy’s army.

Even though they didn’t fall for their trap, they still succeeded in delaying them for a few hours.

But once the Britannian Army regrouped, only ten miles would separate them from Leone’s fortress.

This distance wasn’t that big. In fact, a head-on confrontation with them would be inevitable in a few hours.

"Otto and Logan, I’ll leave the kiting in your hands," Leone said. "You can position yourself anywhere on the battlefield. Your purpose is to cause chaos and ensure that Vogel would be forced to pay close attention to you instead of unleashing a bombardment on this fortress."

"Yes, Great Chieftain!" Otto promised.

"I’ll make sure this guy doesn’t kick the bucket." Logan nodded.

The Orc Champion was strong enough to protect Otto if anyone tried to get close to him.

Even so, that was highly unlikely since he could snipe them from a distance the enemies’ sight couldn’t even reach.

"Rasta and Sir Dian, I leave the Fire Catapults in your very capable hands," Leone stated.

The Orc Shaman and the Druid nodded at the same time.

"We plan to attack them repeatedly to hopefully slow down their advance," Leone added. "If they come dangerously close to the fortress, we’ll immediately evacuate and abandon this fortress."

Leone didn’t want to be too stubborn and endanger his people. Most of the warriors and shamans accompanying him were the elites of the Aslan Tribe. Losing any of them would be a great blow to their military power.

They had already suffered great losses during the Monster Stampede. Their population was small to begin with, so they couldn’t afford to lose too many warriors, especially since they still had to reinforce Eden against the Aurelion Empire.

A few hours later, the disgruntled Royal Inquisitor gave Duran a good nagging. However, the Black Tortoise General treated him like air.

Vogel even had the leeway to chuckle. In his eyes, the Royal Inquisitor had no power over this campaign.

Sure, he might report them to the King. But so what?

They were the generals of the Kingdom of Britannia.

Even if a Royal Inquisitor was breathing down their necks, this was the battlefield.

One could simply die due to a stray arrow in the midst of the chaotic battle.

Naturally, Duran thought of the same thing.

If the Royal Inquisitor proved to be a true hindrance, they could just stage an opportunity for one of the enemy’s attacks to conveniently land on the annoying prick who thought he knew everything about war.

After the two armies regrouped with each other, they continued with their march.

However, several hours later, they saw a fortress in the distance, blocking their path.

It was conveniently positioned on top of a rocky outcrop, overlooking the rugged terrain where the Britannian Army stood.

Before any of them could ponder what to do next, over fifty fireballs suddenly flew from the fortress walls and headed in their direction.

"Raise the shields!" Duran ordered.

Vogel, on the other hand, had already raised his bow and unleashed an arrow.

Just as always, his arrows turned into dozens of arrows of light.

They pierced through the fireballs heading in their direction. But instead of dispersing, the fireballs only split apart before raining down on the magical shields of the Britannian Army.

As this happened, a second volley rained upon them.

Just as Vogel was about to shoot them down again, he immediately moved his body to the side.

A second later, a crossbow bolt that was the size of a spear flew past him from behind, hitting the soldier in front of him.

Blood spurted out of the soldier’s body as the crossbow bolt pierced through his back.

However, two more crossbow bolts shot out, forcing Vogel to evade. As a result, the soldiers in front of him were pierced by Otto’s attack from the rear of their formation.

Leone asked Otto to concentrate all his shots on Vogel. The Horizon Archer knew that the moment the Vermilion Bird General was neutralized, the long-range attacks of the Britannian Army would effectively be halved or completely neutralized.

And since Vogel failed to shatter the fireballs in time, the powerful offensive from the Aslan Tribe crashed against their magical shields.

The loud explosions momentarily deafened the soldiers near the impact zone, while their vision was blocked by searing flames that seemed to wrap around their magical shields.