Pioneer Lord: I Have Conquering System

In the snow, Count Tisi’s soldiers were a far cry from their earlier bravado. They sprawled haphazardly on the ground, their iron helmets and weapons nowhere to be seen, panting heavily, still shaken from the battle. They were a wretched sight.

For this siege, Tisi had brought just over twenty-two hundred elite soldiers. A rough estimate suggested they had lost thirty percent of their men in Kalia Town. Unable to sustain such casualties, they had been forced to retreat. The losses were undeniably severe.

After all, while his total force numbered over ten thousand, if you excluded the logistics staff, cooks, grooms, and Auxiliary Soldiers, he only had a little over seven thousand combat troops.

Of those seven thousand, only about four thousand were truly elite. To lose six or seven hundred right at the start meant it would be difficult to expect him to regroup and organize an effective force anytime soon.

"Where did they get a Stone Giant?"

Levi didn’t kick them while they were down. He called over the old man, Sam, to provide treatment for the defeated soldiers.

A green light enveloped Tisi, and the burning pain in his chest was instantly replaced by a cool sensation. It felt much better.

"Thanks," he said, then added with a wry smile, "It wasn’t a Stone Giant. It was Casters! They have three high-level Mages!"

"Just the Stone Giants they summoned were enough to cause us devastating losses. They were terrifyingly powerful!"

"If it weren’t for this Miliyan Plate Armor that I paid a fortune for, that Stone Giant’s single blow would have sent me to reunite with my long-dead grandmother."

Having just had a brush with death, the Count had lost all semblance of aristocratic bearing. He was no better than a common thug from the countryside.

"They must be Clergy from the Mother Goddess Church in the Southern Territory," Count Andao sighed. "Across their entire Church, the number of Casters who have mastered that level of Magic can be counted on two hands. I never expected them to show up here."

For instance, when they marched south, the Ice and Snow Church had only dispatched a dozen or so Casters to accompany the army. And all of them were with the main force, treated as their most crucial strategic assets.

Logically speaking, the enemy shouldn’t have appeared in a minor place like this, which was neither a critical checkpoint nor a strategic location.

"Who cares why they’re here," the Lord sneered. "Capture them all. A round on the tiger bench and a hundred lashes with a brine-soaked whip, and they’ll tell us everything."

’In Levi’s view, these three Casters were likely the source of the enemy’s confidence. It was still unclear why their main reinforcements hadn’t arrived, with these esteemed Caster units showing up instead. But that wouldn’t stop him from capturing a few informants.’

"Zat! Go tell the brothers to get geared up. It’s our time to shine!" He kicked a nearby Beastman who was idly poking at the snow with a branch.

"Levi, we should just wait for the main army to arrive." For once, Count Tisi sincerely tried to persuade the Lion Hunter Knight. "I admit your men are absolute elites. One-on-one, my soldiers would just get the shit beaten out of them. But you don’t understand how powerful those three Casters proficient in powerful Summoning Magic are. They’re not something ordinary people like us can handle!"

"Don’t be so stubborn!"

"Only Magic can fight Magic, Knight!"

The Count even pulled out a classic saying from the Magic Realm, hoping to make the overconfident man change his mind.

He had clearly been traumatized by the three Stone Giants from earlier.

’Even at ten-to-one odds, I could beat the shit out of you and your worthless grunts, and then beat you again with that very shit.’

Levi cursed him out internally, but what he said aloud was:

"First, I’m not being stubborn. I know exactly what I’m doing. I never get hot-headed. My confidence stems from my strength!

Second, as a Lord, it’s not like I haven’t fought Casters before. They’re not as amazing as you make them out to be."

As he spoke, two Beastman Barbarians helped him quickly don a suit of Gilded Heavy Plate Armor. Finally, he fastened his Iron Helmet, becoming completely encased in steel. The Lord, now looking like a walking tin can, waved a hand. Several hundred fully armed Beastman Barbarians lined up behind him. With his back to Tisi, his muffled voice echoed, "Third, if you can’t do it, just admit it. Don’t drag us down with you!"

"Hmph. Are you counting on that little lover of yours from the Holy Light Church who came to ’support’ you?" Count Tisi retorted sharply. "Even if her Magic is profound, there’s no way she can deal with three high-ranking High Tier Clerics from the Mother Goddess Church on her own."

"Actually, I don’t plan on bringing her along. It’ll just be me and this group of ’ordinary people’ you mentioned."

Both Counts knew about the arrival of Fatir Saint Delirium Heart. However, her completely unfiltered way of speaking had led them to believe that she and Levi were definitely having some kind of sordid affair.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain why a Saintess of the Holy Light Church would come in a personal capacity to support a completely unrelated Lion Hunter Knight.

But since Fatir, the Saintess herself, didn’t care about such rumors, the Lord certainly didn’t either.

But back to the matter at hand. Logically, having Casters like Fatir and Heather join the battle would make taking this border town an easy task.

But Levi didn’t want to do that.

War was like a game of cards. Both sides kept raising the stakes, and whoever played their trump card first would be at a disadvantage.

Heather and her three fellow Zor Priests, plus the Saintess Fatir, formed a powerful Casting Corps that couldn’t be ignored. They were High Cliff Castle’s most obvious trump card.

As for Sophia, she was an even deeper trump card, one the Lord would absolutely not play unless it was the most critical moment.

The Lord took the lead, with Gus and Zat unhesitatingly falling into position just a step behind him.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!