Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 822: Independence of Narcissus Principality
March 30th, Xingti.

The heavy snow continued even after the winter upgrade.

The fighting on the Black Hawk battlefield at the front has completely subsided - under this heavy snow that can block vision and sound, the execution of any tactics is impossible.

Many times, as soon as you take a step forward, you suddenly can’t see anyone or hear any sound. But you can’t just stay where you are and wait for the snow to bury you…you can only wander around in a lost state. Then you can easily stray into the enemy’s camp and get caught.

The result is that the more the side tends to defend, the greater the advantage.

The mages of the Narcissus Principality are good at positional warfare. They can also control the power of the demonic snow and integrate it into their own spells.

At least 70% of the army was made up of Black Hawks, and there was a serious shortage of spellcasters. The warriors had no way to deal with this, and could only reluctantly use ritual arrays to protect the camp and block spell searches.

With the heavy snow blocking the roads, supplies could not be delivered to the front line, and the only water source was frozen by the magicians using spells from afar, so they could only rely on alchemists to melt the ice and get water. The demonologists had already done their best just to maintain the hidden ritual.

The alchemical puppets were also completely unable to be driven due to a lack of magic power - the alchemist's own magic power alone was not enough to support the actions of so many alchemical puppets, not to mention that the heavy snow that could block their perception had turned the alchemical puppets completely blind, completely unable to move independently and could only be operated manually at close range.

Even the power of those necromancers was greatly weakened.

Since the Winter Division was promoted... overnight, the mana required for most necromancy suddenly became water-attributed. Although the mana pool of the profession itself also changed from pure earth to half earth and half water, the path characteristics that have been chosen cannot be reversed.

Those path features built around the earth attribute mana pool... such as earth affinity and earth container, were instantly useless. Now earth attribute mana can only be used to cast preservation and petrification spells, but cannot be used to drive the undead. Those wands and other equipment that increase earth attribute mana have also lost most of their meaning.

Although they were the attacking party, they felt like they were in a besieged city.

A week after the heavy snow, they had not been deployed for three or four days in a row. The morale of the frontline troops suppressing the rebellion of the Narcissus Principality had dropped to the freezing point, and they were only half a step away from mutiny.

Originally, at this time, the military police should deal with these soldiers who violated the rules to suppress them... But at this time, even the military police stopped and kept a wait-and-see attitude. It seemed that they had some ideas of their own.

At this time, the messenger who had been lost in the snow for several days finally arrived and issued the retreat order.

They breathed a sigh of relief and began to prepare to retreat.

After they evacuated the camp, such a large-scale personnel mobilization allowed their specific location to be immediately detected by the Mage Tower.

More than ten kilometers away, the mages launched a wave of bombardment on them - they used magic to roll up heavy snow, condensing it into a blizzard mixed with invisible wind blades, and an ice storm mixed with high-speed ice boulders. They also summoned a legion of elemental life from a distance, constantly firing ice spears to harass and intercept.

Even with the spells of the Mage Tower, the accuracy of spells at this distance is close to zero. Only large-scale spells that do not select targets can be somewhat useful. However, they can only play a minor role in interference, and their actual lethality is close to zero.

But the result is - too useful.

The retreating Xingtan Army lost their last bit of morale due to this wave of spell attacks and was directly defeated. Then it quickly turned into a rout. All commands were almost completely ineffective. Some spellcasters were even trampled to death, and more spellcasters could not keep up with the speed of retreat and were left behind and completely lost.

In addition to the spellcaster, many soldiers chose to disperse and move forward during their escape because they were unclear about the direction and were afraid of being left behind, and naturally got lost.

Compared with those who were directly killed by these long-range strategic spells, there were far more people who lost their way.

The first batch of soldiers who returned to the front fortress of Black Hawk Territory numbered less than one third!

At this time, the chaos in the rear finally reached the soldiers on the front line.

Valentine VII and VIII died in succession. Although Valentine VIII's excuse to the outside world was that he was "seriously ill and needed to stay in bed for a long time", everyone knew that he was killed and was about to be transformed into the Son of the Moon. The so-called bedridden was just an excuse that no one believed.

What the soldiers could not accept even more than letting a one-month-old son inherit the throne was the fact that Valentine VIII "died of illness" just one week after taking the throne.

We went out to fight once, and the monarch changed twice - so who are we fighting for?

In the most crucial battle to suppress the rebellion, the entire army chose to retreat, and a rout occurred during the retreat, which also meant that the independence of the Narcissus Principality was unstoppable. Therefore, the generals of the Black Eagle Territory began to have their own ideas.

——Compared to the local army of Star Antimony, they themselves are the main body of the entire Star Antimony Army. Originally, they lacked upper-level extraordinary people, but now after the "warrior" profession reappeared, the number of extraordinary people and upper-level extraordinary people in Black Hawk Territory suddenly increased sharply.

Not long after this, Black Hawk had already produced two fifth-level warrior-type extraordinary people of its own, and the number of fourth-level extraordinary people had tripled!
Originally, most of them were hunters, a profession that was particularly good at long-range attacks, and could attach willpower and mana to long-range weapons for precise attacks and enchanted attacks. Whether it was bows and arrows, crossbows, pistols, rifles, or even cannons, they all fell into the category of "long-range weapons."

They can turn the powerful but inaccurate artillery weapons invented by alchemists into precision strikes. Alchemists also made powerful hand cannons for them as individual weapons. These weapons, which have no aiming ability at all, combined with the professional abilities of hunters, can become long-range strikes with extremely high hit rates within a certain distance... because the shells can turn.

Just like the crosshairs will stick to people.

Although at extremely high speeds, this tiny bullet absorption cannot hit the target 100%, it is definitely enough in a battlefield environment.

However, a big problem is that... they are "hunters" after all.

They are extraordinary beings who have adapted to the Tao, and are hunters who are supposed to hunt wild beasts, monsters, demons, dragons and other wild individuals.

Although their abilities were suitable for war, this was not considered practicing the Way, and was not in line with the conditions for upgrading their professional level... In other words, they could not gain any experience from this mode. Most hunters stopped at the third energy level - and they were already at the second energy level when they graduated.

But nowadays, a large number of hunters have transformed into warriors.

Although they lost the ability to guide long-range weapons, the experience they had accumulated was not wasted. The warriors themselves had various abilities that were beneficial to combat - strong vitality and natural proficiency in weapons were the key.

After all, they have always been engaged in the work of warriors, but there is no corresponding profession. Once they are employed, almost everyone is a "genius".

Just like an old artist who has accumulated many years of artistic experience and has just embarked on the path of transcendence after he is over fifty years old, he will definitely be able to continue to advance on the path of beauty.

Except for those who are at the front lines where the fighting is most intense and who dare not advance because they are afraid of being attacked at night... basically everyone else who has the materials to perform the ceremony can advance immediately.

The current Black Hawk Territory is completely different from before - they are no longer used as cannon fodder due to the lack of a large number of upper-level extraordinary people. At the same time, they are not afraid of being attacked from both sides by Narcissus in the north and Star Antimony in the south.

In fact, on the same day that the army withdrew... Narcissus Territory had already announced its re-establishment.

The mages used magic to immediately send the news to the surrounding countries. Avalon and Iris immediately posted messages to express their congratulations.

Without sending anyone to inquire with Lionheart City, several military nobles of the Black Eagle Territory led their team to the Narcissus Principality on the second day of the retreat to negotiate the release of prisoners in a diplomatic manner. Those spellcasters who were left behind in the rout and frozen to death in the snow were basically captured.

After all, for the Narcissus Principality, which has a large number of Moon Children, the biggest loss would be to let these high-quality blood sources die outside.

These military nobles did not encounter any obstacles or difficulties in the Narcissus Principality... Even though they had only officially withdrawn for a day or two, one-third of the soldiers had not even returned to the front-line fortress.

Because long before the order to withdraw troops was issued... they had already prepared for peace talks.

They just have to wait for the first batch of soldiers to arrive at the fortress before they can set out.

After all, these military nobles of the Black Hawk Territory all have scarlet eyes.

——And in the Narcissus Principality, the wizard lords who warmly welcomed them all had eyes of the same color.

Different from the Moon Children of Xingti's native land.

They do not believe in the Master of the Banquet, nor are they so greedy for pleasure... Instead, they believe in Sister Sasha and the Blood Sky Master.

Wash everything with holy blood——

(End of this chapter)