Pioneer Lord: I Have Conquering System

"Lord, I never thought I’d have the chance to fight alongside you again," Fujero said with a smile, seeming to recall their days in the Wilderness.

Back then, after becoming a Baron, he thought he would no longer have to address the Lord of High Cliff Castle as "Lord." He never expected that in just half a year, the other man would be promoted to Marquis. He probably wouldn’t be able to surpass him in this lifetime.

"Don’t worry. For Lorina’s sake, I’ll look out for you," the Lord said casually, patting his shoulder.

This made Fujero’s expression stiffen. ’Great,’ he thought, ’even after becoming a Baron, I still have to rely on my sister.’

However, this set him thinking. His sister was now over twenty, and because she had focused all her energy on the family’s merchant guild, she was still unmarried.

And this Lord was also unwed. An unmarried man and an unwed woman—they were practically a match ordained by the Gods.

Although his sister’s status was a bit lacking, if they offered the entire merchant guild as a dowry, it would surely be more than enough.

Before he could let his thoughts wander further, a resounding horn blast echoed as the armies of White Bone Fortress assembled in formation outside the city.

They were divided into two main forces. One was the army of the Southern Territory’s usurpers, led by Damon. The other was the reinforcement army led by Levi, which included not only troops from High Cliff Castle but also Fujero’s Thorn Corps and several thousand soldiers from Bodun’s Terror Castle.

Among the Debei Soldiers, who stood at an average height of just 1.8 or 1.9 blades, the few hundred Beastman Warriors and Centaur Cavalry, averaging three blades tall, were incredibly conspicuous—like a few giant pumpkins mixed in with a bunch of potatoes.

This was especially true for the soldiers from Terror Castle. Northern Soldiers were typically 1.9 to two blades tall, but the soldiers from Terror Castle were only 1.7 blades. It was hard to say whether their Feudal Lord was too harsh and didn’t feed them well, or if there was some other reason.

They looked like the short actors in a musical, hired to make the valiant Knight look better.

However, this didn’t mean their combat prowess was low. On the contrary, these men had exceptionally stable stances and were very agile, making them well-suited for woodland combat.

The Lord had changed into the magnificent Golden Plate Armor that Liya had given him in Kolon. A white cape draped over his shoulders, the Secret Silver Holy Sword hung at his waist, and an exquisite helmet sat upon his head.

As the sun shone down on him, he glittered with a golden light, giving him the full, majestic air of the Holy Hall.

This Armor was rumored to have been passed down from one of Liya’s ancestors, who had been a Holy Knight of no small rank.

It had been sealed away in a treasury, but Liya felt that such a treasure shouldn’t be left to gather dust, so she gave it to the Lord.

The real reason, of course, was that Liya wanted to see just how handsome the Lord would look in this Armor. Naturally, this was not a matter to be spoken of to outsiders.

This Armor wasn’t just ordinary Plate Armor. Besides its excellent defense and extremely light weight, it also had the property of amplifying Holy Light.

Although it was an old antique, its abilities were by no means lacking.

This world wasn’t like his previous life, where modern items could crush ancient ones. Here, the more ancient or primeval something was, the more ridiculously powerful it was.

However, as far as the Lord was concerned, the Holy Light amplification was rather unimpressive.

His own Holy Light was already so abundant that his weapons couldn’t bear it, so any amplification was useless.

"Aren’t I dozens of times more impressive than those Holy Knights now?" Having donned his new gear, the Lord naturally went to show off in front of the Barbarians.

"Impressive, sure, but a little too blinding," the Barbarians gave their honest assessment.

"What do you guys know? This is Holy Light! The more it shines, the more the Holy Light Goddess is watching over me. This is her favor," Levi continued, gloating to himself.

"Pfft~"

In that moment, the thoughts of several hundred Barbarians were surprisingly, unprecedentedly aligned, and they let out a synchronized sound of scorn.

They had never seen their boss properly worship the Holy Light Goddess. He was the very picture of someone who only prayed in a pinch—using her when convenient and casting her aside when not. If the Goddess actually paid attention to him, the Undead would rise.

After preparations were complete, the horns of attack sounded, and squad after squad of soldiers advanced rapidly toward the flank of the distant battle line.

The so-called battle line was actually a mountain pass, with gentle slopes on both sides and flat ground in the middle. Both armies were desperately storming each other’s slopes.

Their role was to circle around to the Demon’s rear. Like a sharp knife stabbing through the middle of a stalk, they would cut the battlefield in two, forming a pincer formation with the main army.

However, to do so, they first had to pass through a stretch of woodland.

It was a forest of tall trees with dense thickets of grass on the ground. Any intelligent person would most likely send scouts ahead to check for ambushes.

Unfortunately, the troops charged straight in, seemingly without any precautions.

And in the woodland, countless crimson eyes suddenly appeared from the grassy ground and the leafy canopies overhead. Watching the humans on the plain draw closer, their eyes glinted with brutal light.

The Demons were no fools. They had long anticipated an attack from the humans in White Bone Fortress and had set up an ambush here.

As the humans got closer and closer, the Demons wondered from which direction they should start tearing them to shreds.

But just as they were about to step into the woodland, the humans seemed to sense something. They stopped in unison right at the line between light and shadow, then pulled out jar after jar of something from behind their backs.

"Bring up my, your Lord’s, Italian hand grenades!"

The Demons only had time to hear that great shout before they stared blankly at the sky as countless fire arrows and round spheres rained down upon them.

These spheres smashed onto the ground, splashing a murky liquid all over the earth and trees. It smelled just like the pungent odor of the Abyss.

Just as they were looking on in confusion, some even dipping a finger in the liquid and tasting it, the fire arrows landed. In an instant, their eyes were nearly blinded as everywhere the liquid had touched suddenly erupted in a raging inferno.

A few unlucky ones doused in the liquid became human torches, scrambling up from the ground or leaping down from the trees.

They weren’t the Undead; they could still feel pain.

The entire woodland became a sea of flames. Countless hidden Demons leaped out, the natural oils on their bodies providing ample fuel for the clinging fire, and the very air around them began to distort.

Back when he had discovered oil pine in the Wilderness, he had sent men to harvest it and process it into fire oil.

Because it was so rich in resin and prone to spontaneous combustion, this oil pine could only be found in the cold north; it was virtually nonexistent in Debei.

The effect of this stuff was only a tier below an Alchemy Creation like Wildfire.

He hadn’t used it all up during the attack on Kolon, so this time he decided to let these Demons have a good taste.

The Barbarians kept throwing until every last jar of fire oil was gone, smacking their lips as if they hadn’t had enough.

To be honest, they found this method quite thrilling. Even Fujero’s hands started to itch, and he joined in, throwing a couple of jars himself.

Unfortunately, compared to the Barbarians’ accuracy, he was like a clumsy amateur. Both of his throws landed about ten blades away from the Demons.

He was so scorned by the Lord, who was throwing with the continuous fire of a machine gun, that he was too embarrassed to grab another.

The Centaurs, meanwhile, methodically drew their bows, picking off the Demons in the woodland one by one and further increasing the casualties.

Aided by the fire oil and a gentle breeze, the ambushing Demons in the woodland suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat.

They hadn’t deployed many troops for the ambush, as their goal was simply to catch the humans off guard.

They never expected that before any close combat could even begin, over a thousand Demons would perish in the sea of fire.

"These Demons are frighteningly stupid. With Griffin Knights circling overhead every day, did they really think their ambush was flawless?"

The Lord finished with a contemptuous spit on the ground.

’Even without the Griffin Knights scouting, out of caution, I would never have recklessly charged into terrain that so obviously screamed ambush.’

’The only reason we waited until we were so close to stop was to get the fire oil jars into optimal throwing range.’