Chapter 47: The Battle Begins! (Please Keep Reading) (2600 words)

"Advance!!"

Lowering his pocket watch, Ecklaus spoke to the surrounding soldiers.

The neatly aligned regiment of knights began to move slowly toward the slimes in a predetermined formation.

The spellcasting range of the knights' mages could not exceed a hundred meters. If they wanted to deal effective damage to the slimes, they had to close the distance beforehand.

When the knight regiment advanced to a certain position, the captain of the scout squad shouted,

"Halt!!"

The soldiers stopped in their tracks.

"Revealing Powder!!"

Ecklaus commanded.

In the ranged squad, several hunter-attired soldiers drew their bows and arrows, with yellow cloth bags tied to their shafts.

Swish, swish, swish!

The arrows were shot high into the sky above the endless plain ahead, exploding with a muffled bang.

Pale yellow powder drifted down from the air.

One after another, massive monsters resembling circular little hills revealed their forms.

They densely populated the plain ahead, numbering at least several hundred by visual estimate, stretching far into the distance.

Every single monster moved slowly and steadily toward the knight regiment, leaving behind deep trenches in their wake.

Feeling the powder land on their bodies, their scarlet eyes snapped open.

"Bop! Bop!!"

They opened their gaping maws one by one, and a tremendous wave of sound swept across the entire plain.

The next second, the slimes in the front row began to split, with each Tier 2 slime transforming into two Tier 1 slimes standing about two meters tall.

"Mage unit, Tier 2 mages cast Blazing Flame on the Tier 1 slimes! Tier 1 mages cast Chilling Wind on the Tier 2 slimes!!"

The battle banner in Ecklaus's hand waved.

At his command, under the direction of the ranged squad captain, one scorching flame bomb after another roared from the tips of the mages' staves, tearing through the sky and heading straight for the newly split Tier 1 slimes.

The weaker Tier 1 mages chanted incantations, and patches of ice crystals drifted down from above the Tier 2 slimes.

When the ice crystals landed on the viscous surface of the Tier 2 slimes, they immediately triggered a wave of cold air, with wisps of white frost rising on their surfaces.

The Tier 2 slimes, already slow in movement, became noticeably even slower.

"Bop, bop!"

The Tier 1 slimes struck by the blazing flames burst into roaring fires, screaming in succession.

Yet this seemed to stir their ferocity; they roared angrily, leaping toward the knight regiment at an extremely fast speed while trailing fire.

Each leap left scorching marks on the ground, and the air was filled with a charred stench.

"Vanguard squad, push forward!!"

Paladins clad in heavy armor wielded their shields and stepped forward, blocking the charging slimes one after by one. Meanwhile, the berserkers wielded great axes or sharp swords, hacking down at the slimes crashing against the shields.

Finally came the healing from the priest group.

Amidst fervent prayers, warm white light lit up on the members of the vanguard squad.

Buff auras enshrouded them one after another.

At the same time, the black-robed woman also made her move.

She spread her hands, and wave after wave of eerie energy poured from her fingertips. Across a remarkably wide expanse of the area before her, a dark magic array appeared.

The next second, chains burst forth from the magic array, entangling the slimes ahead one by one.

These chains seemed to do more than merely bind; the restrained slimes shrieked in agony.

Even the Tier 2 slimes let out roars of pain.

The entire knight regiment adopted a rotating replacement formation, enveloped in a layer of orange-yellow light film—the effect of Ecklaus's [Tactical Rotation].

On the battlefield, fire and frost intertwined, impacts and roars mingled, and the Tier 1 slimes began to collapse as they could no longer hold out.

Everything seemed to be moving in a favorable direction.

Yet Ecklaus frowned deeply.

He knew that the advantage before them was merely superficial.

There were simply too many of these slimes, and the concentrated fire efficiency of the mages was far from enough. When those slimes swarmed forward, the vanguard squad's defense line would inevitably be breached.

Perhaps they wouldn't even need to wait until then...

The Tier 1 slimes blocked by the shields watched their companions fall, roaring and twisting their bodies as they crashed into each other in pairs.

Slimes of visibly much larger sizes emerged before the horrified eyes of the paladins.

braving the blazing flames and the berserkers' hacking, they swept toward the paladins before them with lightning speed.

It looked as though they were about to tear a gap in this defense line.

At the very critical moment,

A dark aura enshrouded the area, and the Tier 2 slimes in front of the paladins fell into a state of weakness as if drained of spirit.

A figure rushed out from the rear,

An arc of light flashed in their hands,

And several Tier 2 slimes that had already suffered heavy damage froze in place, collapsing with a boom and shattering into fragments.

Holding two silver blades, Ecklaus appeared before everyone.

[Combat Skill]. The Tactician class was not reflected solely in command bonuses over legions; the user was also a master fighter in close combat.

Looking at the surging tide of Tier 2 slimes rushing forward again from the rear, Ecklaus sighed,

"Everyone, fall back!!"

The knight regiment began to retreat. Everyone in their hearts understood that although the regiment had suffered no casualties yet, the moment the regiment had nowhere left to retreat would be the beginning of casualties.

Inside the wooden house at the east gate of the town,

A group of nobles held barrel telescopes, gazing at the battle unfolding before them.

Someone clapped and cheered:

"Well fought!! This is the knight regiment of our kingdom, well-trained! They can hold their ground without losing the upper hand even when facing a swarm of Tier 2 slimes!!!"

"There is hope for the kingdom's revitalization!!!"

"This Ecklaus is a rare tactical genius! He should return to serve in the Bantam Knight General Corps!"

Yet there were others who were profoundly dissatisfied:

"What kind of war is a war without bloodshed?!"

"Do slimes only have this much strength? If so, we don't even need a buffer territory; we should just charge straight through!"

"Disappointed, so disappointed. This is completely different from the war I imagined! Slimes, put in some effort!!"

Suddenly, someone pointed outside the window and shouted:

"Everyone! Look, casualties have appeared!!!"

Everyone raised their telescopes to look. They saw a Tier 1 paladin fail to retreat in time, being swallowed whole by a dying Tier 2 slime.

Through the pale yellow powder, that paladin could be seen turning into a mist of blood right inside the Tier 2 slime's body.

He didn't even have time to let out a scream.

Inside the wooden house, excited voices rang out:

"Everyone, this is war!!! War is this cruel!!"

Other voices chimed in accord:

"Indeed, everyone. Watching this war has also sounded an alarm for us."

"After all, our Kingdom of Dorant still has relatively weak strength. For now, we can only reach a compromise with these monsters; there's simply no other way."

"Indeed, indeed..."

A chorus of agreement filled the room.

Suddenly, someone pointed outside the window again and shouted:

"New people have appeared! They don't seem to be part of the knight regiment!"

Hearing that there was a new development in the battle, everyone hurriedly looked over.

They saw figures draped in vulture robes running out from the flanks of the slimes, heading toward the direction of the newly fallen slime carcasses.

"It's the vultures!"

Everyone recognized them instantly.

"This is getting interesting."

Viscount Roar smiled and said,

"Gentlemen, seeing this war makes this trip worthwhile for us."

The nobles nodded and smiled.

"With the vultures joining, could they actually win... Won't the slimes think we broke the agreement?"

Someone asked quietly at that moment.

"Hah, impossible. According to the intelligence I received, even if two more groups of vultures joined, they wouldn't be able to achieve victory in this war."

It was another viscount who spoke, his tone confident:

"Besides, if they really win, it might not be a bad thing. Right now, the Klin Kingdom is also overwhelmed. If we can win by expending such a small military force, they probably won't make any further moves."

"Gentlemen, we can just sit back and watch the show. No matter what, the fire won't burn us."

Hearing this, everyone burst into laughter.

Meanwhile,

In the alleys of Wheel Town,

Tarsanya dragged an unconscious male warrior, walked over to Leila, and lowered her head slightly:

"Lady Leila, this is the only Tier 3 retainer I was able to contact and bring out."

Hearing this, Leila took out a small notebook, looked at the contents inside, and said,

"Then let's go look for Tier 2 ones next."

"The master only told Tarsanya to complete the fourth task, not how to complete it."

"Since that's the case, the more combat strength you weaken before tomorrow, Tarsanya, the better."

Tarsanya bowed respectfully:

"Understood, everything for the master."

The two of them slowly walked toward the exit of the alley.

Suddenly, both of them stopped in their tracks at the same time, looking at each other.

Feeling the surge of power increasing within their bodies, both of them understood.

Their master had made his move.