Quest: book 3

by Yufeng Zhuang

6

  "Will you change on the armor?" Wensly held a black iron primary color cavalry soft amour in her hands, "this is the master custom-made for you and Feshert a few days ago."

  It's noisy outside of the camp, all the people are doing their parts, the following me to set off soldiers are clearing their equipments, the staying behind to take care of the Darkness city people are laying out the defense under the officers' commands.

  Wensly helped me put on the armor, now she's tightening the belt for me with Kelly's help, up and down more than ten belt buckles let them busy for a while.

  "Your weapon." Feline hung the black long knife on my waist.

  I moved it for a while, and don't feel very well. So I took the knife down and cross hung it on my back.

  "The things over here..." I spoke to my three wives, "just leave to you!"

  "You can rest assured," Feline answered me, "by the time you get back, here is still Kone Cada's Darkness city!"

  "Be careful, although all the people left over here can pick up the weapons, but they are all new people after all." hesitated for a moment, I still gently caress her face with my hand, Feline didn't escape as before.

  "You too, so when I come back, I want you three people come to meet me together." I turned to Wensly and Kelly and said, "no one can be missed."

  "......"

  "Kone!" when I was walking to the outside in large steps, Feline suddenly called out to me, there are a lot of things in the voice.

  My body paused a bit, I wanted to listen to what she want to say, but I was afraid that I can no longer go out to the battle after I listen to her.

  "If you have anything to say, then wait for me to come back to tell me again!" after I left these words resolutely, I walked out of the tent.

  I needed to rush to the border and join a team of cavalries stationed over there. Leaving with me are more than five hundred cavalries, they are mostly called up temporarily. There is also the less than one hundred people officers group, they are made up by the probation officers who are still learning.

  "We are all ready!" the red nose grandpa rode on the horse and said to me, "you make all things clear?"

  "No problem!" I got onto the horse, "ready to go!"

  "Sir Viceroy!" Mogardi ran to me and said, "the wing-man scouts have launched in place!"

  I nodded my head, these wing-man scouts and the earlier sent ground rangers would give us the direction, in order to avoid to meet the enemy too early.

  "Sir Viceroy, the defense for construction sites of the Darkness city is almost finished!" Waldi also came to report. The dwarves are melee good hands, but it will be hard for them to have the long-range raid, so I left them to defense.

  "Waldi, you listen up!" I spoke to him, "the people at the other sites can retreat, but not here. Because the whole Darkness city is watching here, if here is broken down, the Darkness city is also over! Understand?"

  "Understood!"

  "Feshert..." looking at the sitting aside on the fence Feshert, I said quietly, "please!"

  "Just go!" he waved his hand to me, "there are tens of thousands people here!"

  "Set--off!" with the messengers loudly trombones, the flagmen at the most front of the caravan were holding the flags high, a wing-man swooped down from the high sky, he tilted across over the team in a straight line to point out the direction for us. With a long hoarse, the flagmen blunt went out first!

  The horses rushed urgently! Because wrapped the hoofs with cloth in advance, thus hundreds of cavalries just made only a little low depressing sounds. Having the wing-man scouts in the sky, the team rushed to the staging area and not to worry about meeting the enemy. In every river or the difficult to through area, the prior sent rangers would find the easiest route and left the marks, it saved us a lot of time.

  Went to the construction sites several times, my riding also can be so-so then, plus I had the red nose grandpa's guidance aside, that made me can barely keeping up with the urgent dashing team. Although I was very tired, I still went through it by biting my teeth. After hundreds of miles riding, the bones of my whole body were almost falling apart...

  After we paid the terrible price of losing tens of people or dead or hurt to falling off the horses, we finally arrived to the rendezvous place. It is a relatively hidden valley, we were ahead of time a little bit than we expected.

  "All rest immediately! Pay attention to the diet of the horses!" the ample experienced red nose grandpa explained to the messengers, and I held my dead stiff body and walked to meet with some of the officers.

  "The Viceroy!" the officers clenched their right hands as fists, and they put their fists on their left chests to give me an army salute.

  An officer asked me, "that is..."

  "Martin!" I gave them a salute back and said, "a once empire general, my wives' grandpa, your deputy commander!"

  The officer dropped his jaw badly, "Martin? Is the mighty general Martin Arthur of our country tens of years ago? One of the four star generals in the deity coalition? My father once was his bodyguard!"

  Martin Arthur? I was wondering, his last name is Arthur, how come Feline and Kelly's last name is Lola? I looked back at the old man who was still explaining to the subordinates, I was more confused.

  Half of the command headquarter followed me to here, here would be the main battleground.

  We laid out a large area with long string, the intelligences and the commands started from here in and out, the whole dominated regions by the Darkness city were tightly connected into one.

  The wing-man scouts, which I once ever managed on impulse earlier, played out the huge role.

  Only they can spotted the enemy in the high sky, and only they can find our scattered forces and convey the orders from the command headquarter. I can't image how to play this battle without this small force.

  "Report! The enemy's main forces have just robbed the woods mine! They have begun to retreat." a military officer said to us.

  "What you judged is right," the red nose grandpa drew the enemy retreat route on the map with his finger, "they will not go back along the coming route."

  "The other party knows our troops are too few, it's not enough and impossible to fully intercept them." I laughed to say, "we can only gather all our troops to chase after their tails and ambush them in their retreat route. But they are all cavalries, they can get rid of our pursuers with their speed. And they can let our ambush lose our target with this strange route."

  On the map, I have marked all the enemy's routes in red ink. That such as red blood thick and big line, it starts near the Darkness city that side in the Harrick's territory, directly points to the forest mines in an almost straight line, then goes back with a big bend around the Darkness city nearby, enters into the desert entrance to travel for a short distance, then goes back to the coordination point in the Harrick's fiefdom. There are more than five hundred miles between the finish and start point!

  "The commander of the other side is really a smart guy!" the red nose grandpa said with a sigh, "tell us you countermeasures."

  "What we have to do now," I said, "is to help them to complete this retreat!"

  "Oh?" as if he didn't see the surprised eyes of the officers around, the red nose grandpa, or I should call him the general Martin Arthur, came over near to me, seemed like that he had seen the tasty good wine, "tell us!"

  "Everyone take a look," I asked everyone came to the map, "the strategy of the other party is very careful and perfect. They came in from the border near the Darkness city, I think they come in batches, because our reconnaissance over there although is lax but also not haven't any. Most likely, their main forces were discovered by us when they were massed together. With our ability to respond, in this period of time, we can only strengthen the defense for the Darkness city's main construction sites, and not likely to do anything else. This is all in the other party's plan!"

  "But," the red nose grandpa continued my words and said, "the other party didn't think of t
hat we have found their coordination troop a day earlier, and they even didn't think of that we learned of their plot from this troop's exist.”

  "Just like this," I said, "so we have the time a day more, that is the reason why we are here."

  "Do you want to be... here to destroy his entire troops?" the red nose grandpa pointed his finger and stopped at the enemy's coordination spot in the Harrick's fiefdom.

  I nodded my head.

  "I ordered the elves and the wing-men to keep pursuing them, is to make them run all the way back and have not a moment to rest."

  I explained my thought to the surrounding officers, these guys are my future capitals, "the people who have taken advantages will become afraid of death, they will retreat once they grab the ores. But, the places in their way back have been mopped up by us, they will not get any rations, they will be very tired."

  "They can not change their route?" an officer asked.

  "You forget our alien friends?" I said with a laugh, "they can't change the route no more!"

  "Then when do we supposed to attack?" another officer asked.

  "When the time they return to their border," I said, "their bodies will be extreme fatigue... and their mentality will also slack off..."

  "Can't we ambush in other places?" this guy still not unwilling to give up, "will it not bring troubles for across the border?"

  "In other places will let us pay a very high price, our troops have never been in any battles before." I shrugged my shoulders, compared with my soldiers' lives, cross-border is just like shit! If it is necessary, I will tied up Harrick to sell him as a pig in the marketplace!"

  The officers were made laughing by my words.

  Since I was given a lesson at the wedding night by my father, I paid attention to everything and every time, I have not spoken any swear words for a long time.

  After the words were out, I felt it is brilliant unexpectedly.

  "Let's finish off the enemy here first," when we laughed to the about time, I said, "Let's have a small victory to excite the morale first!"

  ............

  This is Harrick's fiefdom, a place five miles behind the enemy's coordination spot. We have just arrived and is having a short rest.

  "Poof" a tied into dumpling enemy infantry was thrown to the side of my feet, his face looked gloomy.

  "Sir!" Jack said, "this 'pig head' is a messenger, we just caught him!"

  "Did you get anything from his mouth?" because I put the face guard down, so my voice sounded a bit strange.

  "No words even we beat him to almost dead!" Jack looked a little bit discouraged.

  "Oh?" I was a little surprised, but... I have seen too many not afraid of death.

  "Hmm..." I thought for a while and then said to Jack, "go find some good tenacity branches."

  Jack went to find what I wanted. Heard that we caught a captive, the officers came up around. The captive has presence of mind in his face, he just looked at the sky with his pair of dead fish eyes.

  "Sir!" Jack ran back, "here's your branches!"

  I held the branches in my hands and spoke to Jack, "executing a punishment, torture also need to learn, this is a very serious learning."

  Jack and all the officers were dumbfounded...

  "For example, just like right now," I continued to said, "he doesn't want to say, but we also want to know something from him. What should we do then? Executing the punishment will be the only choice for us. But we have to pay attention to some points, bring the greatest pain to him, and not to cause too much damage to his body at the same time..."

  At this time, the body of the "dead fish eyes" began to shiver slightly.

  "Because, we need to keep questioning, until he will tell everything." I didn't have the plan to let him go, "who will cut these branches into toothpicks, the thinner the better."

  When the officers were laughing to cut the toothpicks, I had already asked someone to put a bigger branch across in his mouth and tied it to behind his head with the cloth. This makes him can't call out but also can speak at the meantime, the more important thing is to prevent him to bite his tongue.

  When the cut toothpicks were ready, I asked Moah to come over, we must choose the right guy for the execution, this is not literally what all the people can stand.

  "It's the biggest mistake that you didn't suicide at the moment when you got caught." I spoke to the "dead fish eyes", "if you don't tell, you will have the difficulty for either live or death."

  The "dead fish eyes" had already dad the small beads of sweat on his forehead, but he still not said a word.

  "Grab his hair, push him to the ground!" I said with no facial expression, "hold his hand tightly... Right! Moah, have the execution!"

  Moah looked at me confused, he didn't know where to start with the toothpicks in his hands.

  I heaved a sigh secretly, I took a toothpick, hold up one of the "dead fish eyes"s fingers. I pushed the toothpick against his fingernail, took a look at Moah, and slowly rotated and stabbed it in...

  All ten fingers connect to the heart, there is an old saying in my former life said so.

  As a member of the special force, torture is one of the most basic skills.

  After one finger was stabbed, the "dead fish eyes" had his shirt sweaty. And I, kept continue to do it on another finger...

  The "dead fish eyes" kept struggling, although it's so weak in the hands of several strong guys, but he was still struggling, as if that could relieve some of the feelings spread from the fingers.

  Stabbed four ones... The "dead fish eyes" tried to bump the ground with his head, but he was pulled the hair to prevent this kind of circumstance to happen. The blood came out from the wound on the torn scalp, some sounds also were sent out from his mouth... But this was not what I wanted.

  To the seventh finger, the "dead fish eyes" had no more doughtiness in his eyes... Just only the desperation remained, the around officers had been back far away. Moah's mouth corners twitched slightly, but he didn't back off.

  "Take off his shoes." when the about to collapse "dead fish eyes" heard my this sentence, he couldn't hold it any more, he began to wail up. I went forward one step, he immediately told the intelligences vaguely what we needed...

  After we got and confirmed the most direct intelligences, I and the red nose grandpa plotted the tasks for the officers. Part of the soldiers left under the leadership of their chiefs, the rest lined up in neat formation to walk forward slowly... In the place we left behind, there's a lost life body buried. He has a strong will and loyal heart, he is an almost perfect soldier, following a wrong command officer is his only mistake.

  When we already could see the camp of the enemy infantries, Martin Arthur nodded his head to me.

  "Attack!" I swept my highly in the sky right hand down heavily.