Chapter 86 Decision
“Nancy is just being unruly, not stupid.” Raven’s anger was almost gone: “Don’t worry, she will come back.”
This scene happened suddenly. The turmoil finally ended with Raven subduing Margaret, but he had no time to be happy now because his condition was not as good as it seemed.
The Song of Dark Souls itself caused considerable damage to Raven, and his mental energy was also squeezed out. He had a big fight with Nancy, and now he is so tired that he can't even open his eyelids.
"I want to take a rest." Raven bent down and pulled out the enchanted crossbow arrows on the ground and put them away: "Continue to send people to watch over the Scorpion Nest and report the trends at all times. If anything happens, wake them up immediately. Me.”
"Yes, sir!" Volav respectfully accepted the order.
A blanket was laid out in the corner, and Raven fell asleep wrapped in the blanket.
Raven's sleep was restless this time. Various scenes and pictures flashed through his mind, but none of them could be remembered clearly.
"Lord Baron...Lord Baron!" Volaf's voice rang in his ears.
"Ah..." Raven opened his eyes and felt a splitting headache. This was the sequelae of excessive consumption of mental energy without fully replenishing it: "How long have I slept?"
"In less than four hours..." Volaf paused and said a piece of news that was completely beyond Raven's expectation: "Brothers caught a tongue and came back."
"Oh? That is indeed what it should be. Wake me up." A flash of joy flashed in Lei Wen's eyes, and then he turned his sore shoulders: "It's not exposed, is it?"
"No. Yes, sir." Volaf helped Raven up and said in a relaxed tone: "The guy was releasing water, but he was held down by several brothers on the spot, and he didn't have time to say anything."
Stand up. Come, Raven glanced around and saw Nancy peeking at him secretly in the corner. After noticing his gaze, he immediately looked away.
Leiwen shook his head and stopped looking at her: "How is the situation at the Scorpion Nest?"
"It's not optimistic." Volaf said with a sad face: "In just four hours, Scorpion Nest sent out eight waves of sixteen scouts, otherwise it would not be so easy for the brothers to capture people."
< br>"Oh, Heleti fell You're not stupid." Lei Wen stood up and stabilized his shaky figure with the help of Volaf: "I know that I have insufficient information, and now I am trying to make up for it."
When he came to the horse thief, Lei Wen looked him up and down.
This was a man who looked less than thirty years old. His face was full of dust. At first glance, he looked like a guy who was used to sleeping in the open air. He looked at Raven with a hint of disdain.
Raven winked, and Volaf understood it. He stepped forward and pulled off the cloth that the horse thief scout had sealed, and a blood-stained stone fell out.
"Bah..." The horse thief scout moved his cheeks and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and looked at Raven provocatively: "Hey, are you their boss?"
"Bold!" Volaf scolded : "See clearly, this is our Lord Baron, don't confuse him with you!"
"What about the Baron, isn't he still one nose and two eyes?" the horse thief scolded He twisted his body and said, "I just don't understand. You just want to live a good life, but you have to come to the bloody highlands to die. What is the way? Could it be that nobles are all masochists?"
< br>Stop Volaf, who was about to continue scolding, Raven stared into the horse thief's eyes: "What's your name?"
"None of your business." The horse thief scout looked away.
Raven wouldn't get angry over such a trivial matter, but he knew that it was useless to speak softly to a horse thief.
With a clang, Raven pulled out the long sword from Volav's waist and pressed it against the horse thief scout's face: "I ask you again, what is your name?"
A wisp of blood It flowed down from the horse thief's face. The latter's eyes narrowed, and then he showed a hint of ruthlessness, and he suddenly stood up and hit the sword!
This move was too sudden. Raven sheathed the sword very quickly, but the sharp blade still opened a bloody wound on the horse thief scout's face, almost piercing his right cheek. .
“What are you doing!?” Volaf shouted loudly.
"I know what you want, isn't it information about the Scorpion Nest?" The horse thief scout raised his head, and the muscles on the wound kept twitching and squeezing out blood: "I won't tell you!"
"Lord Sand King, you will definitely avenge me!"
As he spoke, he suddenly closed his mouth tightly.
Leaven's heart tightened: "Stop him!"
But it was still too late.
Just when Volaf reached out to pinch the horse thief scout's cheeks, the latter had already opened his bloody mouth, and half of his tongue fell into the dust with blood mixed with saliva.
Even so, he still did not forget to look at Raven with provocative eyes.
The corner of Raven's mouth twitched slightly, and a sword was sent into his throat. He shook off the blood on the blade and inserted it back into Volav's waist.
"Lord Baron, it's my fault for reacting too slowly." Volaf blamed himself.
"...No one would have thought of such a thing." Raven's face was gloomy, and his heart became heavier: "Just move it out and bury it."
Volaf led people to dispose of the body, while Raven returned to his seat and sat down.
Closing his eyes and opening them again, Raven's eyes unconsciously fell on the open space where the horse thief scout was.
Although the body has been moved away, the blood is still there and the half of the tongue is still there.
Leaven's eyebrows twitched fiercely, and the look in the horse thief scout's eyes before he died came to mind again.
In order not to expose the information, he chose to bite off his tongue. This was the first time Raven had seen such ruthlessness and decisiveness.
If this was really a dead soldier, a spy, or a fanatical believer of a certain god, Raven wouldn't be so surprised.
"He is just a little horse thief scout."
Scouts are all like this, what will the elite men under Heleti look like?
Thinking of this, Raven's heart sank.
After thinking for a moment, he muttered in his heart: "Margaret, come out."
The next moment, a crow flew out from the corner and landed on the ground, revealing Margaret's deformed body.
A foul smell filled the air.
Leaven frowned in disgust: "Can't you clean your body?"
"This..." Margaret poked her forehead with her finger, her expression a little embarrassed: "Lord Baron, it's not that I don't care about cleanliness, but we witches are getting older, so we still smell like this."
"I'll give you a bottle of perfume later." Raven reluctantly pulled back a little distance. , pulled the blanket to his nose and lowered his voice:
"Before you said that the curse in my body was very unusual?"
"Yes, it is ancient and powerful." Margaret's body trembled: "Just a little contact, I felt like Almost died of old age, but we witches have a lifespan of thousands of years!"
"Then do you know how to break this curse?" Raven asked.
"Please forgive me, Master, the power of this curse far exceeds my limit." Margaret rubbed her fingers together: "But... judging from the way it works, it doesn't look like The techniques of the human race or our witches are more like the methods of the elves."
"Elves?" Raven raised his eyebrows: "This is interesting."
Through the link between the two, Raven knew clearly that Margaret could not deceive him, which meant that his curse was probably related to elves.
But this is so strange!
Since thousands of years ago, the elves have been huddled in the ancient forest in the southwest corner of the Middles continent, but the Griffith family has taken root in the northwest of the continent, which is more than half a continent away!
What did the ancestors of the Griffith family do to offend the elves and pass on such a vicious curse?
Raised an elf princess as a slave?
Or burn the world tree of the elves?
Shaking his head to expel these strange associations from his mind, feeling the increasingly pungent smell, Raven showed a trace of disgust: "You can transform, why don't you become before?" What does "Black Pearl" look like? "
Although I know it is fake, even if it is not pleasing to the eye, it is still good to look at.
"That requires very complicated procedures and rituals." Margaret felt Raven's disgust. Although she was dissatisfied, she could only answer honestly:
"I need to first Control the target, make her unconscious, and then perform the ceremony, just like I did to you before, except that the time process is longer. Once successful, I will be able to obtain a stand-in dummy so that I can become someone else. ”
As she said that, she glanced at Nancy with evil intentions: "It's difficult for ordinary people to make a qualified stand-in puppet, but she is very suitable. By then, I will not only be able to retain some of the characteristics of a magician, but also be able to be beautiful from the inside out." If I can be exactly like her, I can serve you better!"
"If you dare to think like this again, I will kill you! You." Raven's voice was calm but unquestionable: "If you do this without my permission, I will kill you too."
Margaret's heart was awe-inspiring. He nodded repeatedly: "Understood, Lord Baron!"
Raven's eyes once again fell on the spot where the horse thief scout fell dead.
Four hours and sixteen scouts showed that the performance of the Eagle Army exceeded Heleti's expectations and made him wary.
In this case, it was meaningless just to let Vesdon yell.
In a castling position, if Raven is Heleti, and he cannot figure out the opponent's trump card, he has the home field advantage and has no responsibility to defend the ground, so static braking is the best option.
And Raven just didn’t have the capital to drag on any longer.
Now I am afraid that the Death Hand Order has begun to wreak havoc in the Nord Province and may affect the Eagle Territory at any time; the supplies carried by Raven and the others do not allow them to waste too much time.
Heraiti must be drawn out as soon as possible to end this expedition.
Raven broke the silence and suddenly asked: "If the distance between you and me is too far, can you break away and weaken my control?"
"...Yes!" Margaret's mouth twitched, no Reluctantly, he told the truth: "The effective control distance of this curse is from here to the outside of the scorpion nest at most. If it is further away, although I will execute the orders you gave before, I will not be able to receive new instructions, nor will I be able to give any feedback." , You can't kill me with a curse during this period."
"There is a risk of being out of your control."
Raven nodded slowly and asked another question: "You. How far can a crow fly?"
Margaret immediately replied: "There is no hard limit, but the farther the distance, the more magic power I consume, and I must focus on controlling and maintaining it."
"Hmm..." Raven pondered for a moment: "Flav, bring the paper and pen."
The soldier whose name was called handed over the parchment and charcoal, and Raven did not hesitate. He started to brush dots on it, and soon he finished writing and handed it to Margaret:
"Use your crow to send it to Go to Eric."
"You can't leave my effective control."
"Yes, Lord Baron!" Margaret took the envelope and walked to the corner. After sitting down, wisps of black energy arose from his body and condensed, turning into a crow with beautiful feathers. He picked up the envelope and flew out with flapping wings.
Just as he was about to close his eyes and rest, Raven saw Nancy coming over. Just as he was about to speak, Nancy had already preempted him: "...Why did you give this letter to her?" There were some emotions, but it didn't look like they were here to quarrel. As long as she didn't make trouble, Raven wouldn't bother to meet her: "In just four hours, Heleti sent out eight groups of sixteen scouts, which shows that he has begun to be alert."
“The thieves in the Bloody Highlands are all very good at riding horses, and everyone is a qualified scout. Heleti will definitely not just tell this "
"So if I send personal soldiers to contact Eric, once discovered by the scouts of the Scorpion Nest and fail to silence them in time, Heleti will know that there is another one that he doesn't know about. The troops are hiding nearby, and he will never come out again until he is sure that we have left or destroyed us.”
Raven spoke very carefully, and Nancy heard it very clearly. She snorted with dissatisfaction in her tone: "You can leave this kind of thing to me, no matter what kind of horse thief can escape my magic, absolutely not People will find out, why do we have to use her?"
"..." Raven lowered his head, really not having the energy or interest to continue explaining.
Seeing that he didn't speak for a long time, Nancy felt a little bored and left muttering: "Humph, sooner or later you will regret it..."
Feeling tired, Lei Wen fell into a deep sleep again.
In the early morning of the next day, as soon as Raven woke up from his sleep, Margaret immediately came up to him: "Lord Baron, the letter has been delivered!"
"What did Eric say?"
"Sorry, Lord Baron, I didn't hear it." Margaret's voice was full of apologies: "Such a long distance consumes too much of my magic power. I just sent I can no longer maintain the existence of the crow."
Raven looked at her with a careful look, clearly seeing that she still had more than half of her energy.
Although you cannot disobey my orders, you can execute them at a discount.
Just in time to try the power of this "Song of Dark Souls".
A ray of silver light flashed in Raven's eyes, and Margaret's expression immediately became distorted. She felt that the magic power in her body suddenly began to rebel, running rampant, and almost tearing her internal organs apart.
"Don't make any noise." Raven ordered calmly.
So Margaret opened her mouth, but could not make any sound. Her claw-like hands dug into the ground, bringing up large amounts of dust and dripping with blood.
The painful feeling finally disappeared until a layer of dirty sweat soaked through her.
“You can talk now.”
Margaret's face was dejected: "Baron, I, I never dare..."
"Yes, I know." Raven interrupted her: "Next, use your Crow investigates the terrain and layout of the Scorpion's Nest. The more detailed it is, the better."
"Yes..."
Margaret felt that she had simply become a tool, being used by Raven. Handy to use.
But she didn't dare and couldn't resist, so she dragged her belly back to the corner and called out a crow.
The cave was peaceful and silent, except for the occasional crackle of the burning bonfire.
Leaven leaned against the wall and glanced across the cave. He saw that the soldiers had fallen asleep and Nancy was curled up in the corner.
Finally, his eyes fell on Margaret's back.
Emotions that had been suppressed and ignored due to exhaustion quietly grew at this moment, and Raven's heart suddenly beat faster.
Reaching out his hand to touch the ground beneath him, Raven recalled the pain that seemed to tear him apart, the helpless despair, the kind of facing death...
fear!
His hands suddenly began to tremble, and cold sweat trickled down his forehead.
He is afraid.
Just a little bit away from death!
Did Raven really have no murderous intention towards Margaret?
How is that possible! ?
It’s just that reason trumps impulse. Raven knows how precious a witch is, especially a witch who is completely controlled by him.
He has a long life, magical magic, and specializes in the use and breaking of curses and poisons.
It can be used not only to deal with enemies, but also to protect yourself.
And her crow is also a rare detection and communication tool in this era.
At that time, a quarrel broke out with Nancy. Raven seemed to be persuading Nancy, but why wasn't he persuading himself?
"Lux, your calculations are really accurate..."
With a wry smile, Raven stretched out her legs and recalled what she had said to herself the night before departure.
Think carefully and make decisions carefully.
Could it be that the Lord of Light really has the ability to see the direction of the river of destiny?
Raven thought the danger came from Horati, but unexpectedly it came from Margaret.
If she hadn't been too greedy and hadn't used a curse, then I might have been unable to escape death.
"It's better to die." Raven put his hands together and moved his wrists:
"Maybe I can go back if I die."
The hands gradually After stopping his trembling, Raven's mind calmed down and he closed his eyes to review his entire plan.
Although Heleti's caution was beyond Raven's expectation, Eric also successfully defused Heleti's probing attack.
The plan had some twists and turns, but the overall process went smoothly.
The next thing to do is to prepare for the attack on the Scorpion Nest.
Leaven put his hand on his waist, grasped a magic core and a crystal bottle in his hands, and then gently crushed the magic core.
Energy circulated at this moment, flowing into Raven's eyebrows, and began to expand his magic power reserves, while the rotten soul essence was diverted into the crystal bottle under the diversion of mental power.
Margaret seemed to notice something, her neck shook slightly, but in the end she did not dare to look back and continued to focus.
A pleasant feeling of fullness filled Raven's heart.
The upper limit of the magic power of the energy conversion of a first-order magic core is comparable to Raven's approximately fourteen days of meditation.
Raven rarely used this method to strengthen his magic power before.
As a magician, in addition to the magic power itself, the growth of mental power is also very important. If the magic power grows too fast, it will make it difficult for the mental power to accurately control it, which will reduce the success of spell casting. Rate.
Therefore, Raven always took a period of time before, and waited until meditation gradually closed the gap between mental power and magic power before continuing to absorb the magic core.
But the situation is different now. Hleti's caution exceeded Raven's expectations, and the bravery of his horse thieves also left a deep impression on him.
Even if the next plan goes smoothly, the outcome of this battle is still uncertain.
So Raven must improve his strength and expand his magic power as soon as possible.
On the battlefield, it is good to have one more magic.
After absorbing the energy of three magic cores in succession, Margaret also took back the crow.
"Lord Baron, the terrain has been clearly surveyed."
Looking at Raven's face, Margaret said cautiously: "In general, it is not much different from what is marked on your map. The difference is that after entering the first city gate, there is an urn city."
"The urn city..." Lei Wen muttered this word and frowned.
The so-called Wengcheng means that after entering the city gate, you will not go directly to the city, but there will be an open space enclosed by a wall.
Even if the attacking side breaks through the first gate, if it cannot break through the second gate quickly, it will become a living target for the crossbowmen on the city wall.
After a long while, Raven took a deep breath and cheered up: "What time is it now?"
Margaret calculated carefully: "Judging from the direction of the moonflower, it is about From three to four in the morning.”
Raven nodded, and suddenly clapped his hands heavily: "Assemble!"
The long-term habit made the sleeping soldiers wake up quickly, and immediately picked up their weapons : "Lord Baron!"
Nancy also rubbed her sleepy eyes and sat up dissatisfied.
"Everyone is here, ready for battle." Raven looked around at his soldiers: "Pack up their equipment, prepare their horses, and set off on time in twenty minutes!"
"Let's do it! "It's so early." Nancy muttered dissatisfiedly: "It's not yet dawn."
This time Nancy was disappointed. It was considered a favor to Raven. He loudly explained this question to everyone: "It was only before dawn that we were able to hide from Heleti's eyes and ears, sneak to the side of the scorpion nest, and catch Heleti off guard. . ”
“Once dawn comes, the density of Scorpion Nest scouts will be really troublesome!”
The soldiers were busy in an orderly manner, checking leather armor, weapons, crossbow bolts, and feeding the war horses with fine materials.
About to face the war, Raven and his party were lightly dressed. In addition to their own equipment, everyone only brought a water bag and a ration. The luggage, supplies and pack horses were all hidden in the cave. inside.
Twenty minutes later, the soldiers gathered under the dark night under the leadership of Raven. Everyone was silent, and the war horses were all covered with leather bridles.
There was no fire, only the whistling north wind and the rising snow foam.
Leaven took a deep look at them, looked closely at Margaret, who was shrouded in black robes, and waved an order:
"Let's go!"
Twenty-one people and twenty-one horses were hidden in the howling cold wind.
……
(End of this chapter)