Pioneer Lord: I Have Conquering System

Even the Ice and Snow Mages couldn’t hide the horror on their faces. A few of them were nearly on par with High Level Mages.

They scrambled to use their magic to move, hoping to dodge the volley of crossbow arrows.

But fired from such close range, the crossbow arrows were incredibly fast. Trying to dodge them was a fool’s errand!

The Ice and Snow Mages, who had held the upper hand just moments ago, were now suddenly facing a life-or-death crisis.

Faced with the astonishingly powerful crossbow arrows, the Mages’ ice shields were barely stronger than eggshells. They only halted the projectiles for an instant before shattering completely.

In an instant, bodies began to rain from the sky, falling one after another like limp sacks. The crossbow arrows, propelled with immense force, had shredded the organs in their chests, leaving behind holes the size of bowls.

"Gods!" Liya stared in horror, her small mouth agape, wide enough to fit a strawberry.

The surviving Ice and Snow Mages were terrified out of their wits. They dove for the ground, hiding behind the steel shields that soldiers hastily erected.

Unfortunately, the enemy clearly knew this kind of sneak attack was a one-time affair. The platform rapidly disappeared, sinking back into the ground.

This allowed the Ice and Snow Mages to breathe a sigh of relief.

Levi watched the scene, his heart aching for the loss—even though these Casters had absolutely nothing to do with him, Lord Li.

Mages also had another nickname—"Mage," a title befitting a true master. In the entire Northern Territory army currently marching south, there were only seventeen or eighteen Mages in total, showing just how precious they were.

The fearsomely renowned Lion Hunter Knight only had four Casters under his command, and they were just Zor Priests he had captured alive—not even proper Mages. Sam was a half-baked Shaman, and Orak was a brute of a Shaman who’d spent all his points on self-enhancements.

The number of Ice and Snow Mages lost just now was enough to equal an entire High Cliff Castle Casting Team. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a devastating loss.

Levi could already imagine Duchess Fulina’s furious rage.

And just as he expected, at the front of the Northern Corps’ camp stood a hastily constructed wooden tower. This was the observation tower where the nobles were watching the battlefield.

They had witnessed with their own eyes the miserable plight of the Ice and Snow Mages, who looked like drowned rats. First came shock, followed by a towering rage.

Fulina, whose face had been full of smiles just a moment ago, was now silent and expressionless.

"Your Grace, the despicable Southern Territory runts ambushed us! They must have dug a tunnel to get here. Let me take my men and make them pay with their blood!" a noble roared, viciously hacking his sword into the nearby wooden railing.

"Those damned Southerners only know how to use such vile tactics! I’ll capture them, tie their six limbs to horses, and make them repent!"

"Your Grace, let us go!"

All the nobles, red-faced and their necks bulging with rage, roared. At this moment, they felt this was an utter humiliation, a disgrace that could only be cleansed by repaying it a hundredfold.

An army of two hundred thousand elite soldiers besieging a lone city, only to have its most important Casting Corps devastated by a sneak attack. To all the nobles, this was a dark Chapter of history in the making, a permanent stain on their record.

How could they not be furious?

"Tess, Winter, take your men and bring them back. I want every soldier and Caster who participated in this tactic to experience a Northern Territory flaying!" After a long silence, Fulina finally spoke. Her tone was still calm, but her words sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

"As you wish, Your Grace!"

The two Counts smiled, then turned and led their soldiers toward the location where the enemy had appeared.

Digging such a long tunnel must have taken a significant amount of time; by the same token, destroying it wouldn’t be easy either. If they were fast enough, they could definitely catch the enemy before they made it back into Black Stone Castle.

After all, hauling those sophisticated bed crossbows back would surely slow them down.

Count Tess immediately gathered a thousand of his elite soldiers and rushed to the spot. Just as they’d thought, the tunnel entrance had not collapsed. The bed crossbows were even still there, left scattered about just inside.

"Look. Those Southern Territory Dwarfs dropped their bed crossbows and ran."

Tess was smiling, but his smile was cold.

As the first one to attack Kalia Town, not only had he failed to earn any merit, he had instead become a clown who only served to make someone else look good.

But now, his chance to wash away his previous humiliation had arrived. If he followed this tunnel and successfully attacked Black Stone Castle, his military renown would skyrocket and become truly dazzling.

"Tess, what if they’ve set an ambush in the tunnel? They still have Casters, after all." Count Winter had been in charge of the catapults earlier but had just been rotated off duty. He hadn’t expected to immediately run into another chance to score some glory, and he had brought his Giant Troll Guard Team straight over.

Count Winter’s words immediately reminded Tess of what happened at Kalia Town. He had suffered at the hands of Casters then as well. He nodded. "It’s possible. Have the soldiers go in first to check it out. If it’s clear, we’ll go down."

His chest still aching faintly, he decided to play it safe. Although, in his opinion, the enemy had clearly fled in a panic; otherwise, they wouldn’t have abandoned even their bed crossbows here.

One had to understand that over a dozen bed crossbows represented a tremendous defensive force, not something to be discarded lightly.

Rive was a soldier. He was often proud of the fact that his name was pronounced the same as that of the Lion Hunter Knight.

He didn’t understand why Count Tess and the other great lords from the north wanted to ostracize the Lion Hunter Knight.

Frankly, he found both the knight’s actions and his personal strength to be admirable.

But since everyone else ostracized him, even though Rive admired him, he had to pretend to spit a few curses as well, calling him an untamable dog, lest he himself be ostracized or even earn the Monarch’s displeasure.

But to get back to the point, he admired the Lion Hunter Knight and naturally longed to become a great figure like him.

So, when faced with this opportunity for glory right before his eyes, he charged to the very front without hesitation. If he could pass through this tunnel and break into Black Stone Castle, he might just become Knight Rive!

But at this very moment, he regretted his decision.

The tunnel floor, which had previously been covered in nothing but disorderly footprints, now had something new.

It was a candle, about to burn out completely. It looked as if it might consume the last of its wax at any second.

GULP~

A simple, ordinary candle was now causing the entire front rank of Northern Soldiers to gulp nervously.

Because a viscous green liquid was flowing across the floor, emitting a faint green glow. Though it possessed a strange sort of beauty, everyone couldn’t help but feel that this liquid was "evil"!

"What are you humans dawdling for? It’s just some gooey liquid and a candle. Pathetic cowards," a Giant Demon Warrior sneered, shoving his way forward from the back. His disdain was clear.

"You damned pig-faced brute! I ought to cut you down!" a white-bearded Knight cursed, stomping his foot in fury. "Wildfire! That’s wildfire! If it ignites, we’re all dead in here!"

"By the Undead, to think we’d run into something made by an Alchemist here."

The normally humble and polite Knight was now cursing like a common shrew, his profanity a desperate attempt to mask his despair.

Once ignited, this fuel created by Alchemists was impossible to extinguish. It would not stop burning until the very last drop was consumed.

Rive, at the very front, didn’t even have the mind to care what was happening behind him. If it ignited, he would be the first to burn.

Turning to run was impossible now. The candle was about to burn down. The moment the flame touched the wildfire, it would cause a violent conflagration.

The only hope was to extinguish it.

He slowly bent down, his lips trembling with fear. Despite the cold air, his back was already soaked with sweat.

The soldiers and Knights beside him didn’t dare to breathe, afraid they might distract him and cause him to fail at the last second.

He took a deep breath and slowly reached out, preparing to pinch out the flame. The wick danced. His movements were feather-light, but in the next second, the flame flickered...

A wretched smile touched his lips.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

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