Serious Witch's Travel Book

Gnicia didn't know how to respond to her, and subconsciously reached out her hand and shook it there, but saw the nun quickly shut the door, and then they heard the sound of the door being locked again.

The house was quiet again.

They heard the boots outside the door stomping away on the stone floor of the barracks, followed by some chaotic footsteps.

The three of them stood separately in the quiet cell, relying on the silence of the night, they heard more and more noises outside.

Gnassia quietly considered the current situation...

According to Royce, there is an orc troop approaching here. It seems that the head nun must have believed it. The noise in the barracks probably came from the night soldiers who were waking up the sleeping people. She heard someone making noise from not far away. There were some metallic sounds, perhaps the imperials were distributing actual combat weapons.

However, looking at the gaps in the house, it was still dark outside, and there was not much lighting in the barracks, only some scattered torches on the wall far away. It seemed that the head nun didn't want to alarm her enemies.

After a while, Royce, who was wandering along the wall, suddenly asked her lord in the dark: "Your Excellency, do we need to leave by ourselves? I found a place where I can pry the board open."

"No, let's just leave it at that, the Imperials are on alert, it's useless even if we go out..."

After she finished speaking, she left the door, turned to the wall, found a clean place and sat down.

Gnicia thought she was going to take a rest, but she was a little cold and wanted to find a quilt to wrap herself up, but she suddenly saw a faint green color in the dark room, and she couldn't help but look sideways.

Adelia was holding her hands in vain, and there was a green light ball between her palms.

It was about the size of two fingernails, and the light was very faint, not enough to illuminate the room at all, but it was quite eye-catching in the darkness.

This is probably... "magic"?

Gnicia has some concepts about things like spells. The sages have taught her similar things. She has also seen some guys who can't tell whether they are the sages' subordinates or what, in a strange black box. She demonstrates similar skills.

But it was really so close, and it was the first time she saw a spell cast by someone she could touch--the previous moment was not counted, although Adlia created a strong wind, but the Nishia didn't see what she did at the time, she just felt confused.

The Elf Druid controlled the ball of light floating in the palm of his hand with his ten fingers. Under her guidance, the ball of light gradually spread outward, and the light green light became slightly darker as it spread out. It was slowly pulled into something like an irregular spider web.

Her hands continued to spread out, and the "spider web" became more fragmented and gradually dimmed.Suddenly, it turned into a blurred and weak spot of light in an invisible shock, slowly fell from her hand to the ground like very light sand, and disappeared.

The archdruid shook his head: "The wind of magic element...it's too far away, I can't resonate with nature."

She didn't move after that, and Gnicia could only continue to be silly - and then listened to more and more noises outside the cell.

……

Before dawn, the orc army was finally fully ready.

The tall and mighty gray-skinned warriors spread out in a row along the lush forest line according to the order of the warlord, to minimize the possibility of being noticed by the humans in the barracks.The long journey brought them a lot of fatigue. Under the silent command of the vanguard officers of each clan, they found their positions according to the predetermined battle ranks, then rested on the spot, and ate the last dry food they carried with them.

The fortress under the hillside was still quiet, the scouts did a good job, and the humans were unaware of the quietly approaching threat.

Clovis, the chief of the Sharpaxe clan, the eldest son of the chief of the Frankish tribe, Hilderic, and the descendant of Merovingian, the "Blessed One of the Sea", received his scouts behind the hillside.

The clan extended from a huge family is the basic unit of the tribe, and a complete orc tribe cannot do without the clan that supports it.The entire Salian Frankish tribe is composed of more than ten core clans, each of which has its own strengths. Now they are united under the banner of the great chief Hilderic, but Clovis knows very well that if he Without a firm grip on the loyalty of these clans, they may be less keen to support themselves.

This war was too hasty, but he couldn't wait any longer. His father was gradually losing prestige due to aging. The ruling system of the orcs was not as stable as that of the empire. Although an old shaman could still continue to gain Respect, but competitors often do not pass on the respect to his descendants.

To logically inherit the position of Great Chief, Clovis needs to achieve higher achievements than his father.

In the name of Thor, the God of Thunder, he rewarded the scouts of the "World Eaters" clan and allowed them to be included in the reserve team in this battle-these scouts had been running around for half a night, and they no longer had much physical strength. Now, it's the turn of others to do their part.

In silence, the arrangement for the war was carried out step by step.

The orcs had already figured out the defense situation of Candlepine Castle. In order to ensure the suppression of the four reserve companies of the Imperials, they mobilized a total of more than 500 troops to deal with this local war. Candlepine Castle was not What a dangerous pass, as a barracks for maintaining regional security and conducting reserve training, its outer wall is only about seven cubits in height (one Roman cubit is about 45 centimeters), for tall orcs , as long as some short ladders and footings are enough to solve the problem.

The prepared equipment was distributed to each team, and then arranged by the vanguard officer one by one.

The imperials have an advantage in defense and equipment, and they also have a complete team combat training system. In normal times, two orc warriors have a great chance to eliminate three imperials, but if the imperials form an formation, Then they can only compare one to one, and they can't even get one to exchange for battle damage.

Clovis is very aware of the risks faced in this battle: he crossed the dangerous mountains and directly attacked the army camp in the hinterland of the empire. People want to exchange one-third of the upper Germanic area for a more reasonable defense line, but he doesn't want to be so little.

Pine Candle Castle is on the east side of the Meuse River, guarding the Heyuan area sandwiched between the two rivers. If it can be pulled out, the entire Moselle River in the east will be exposed to the tribe's feet, so that he can cut it all at once. The second half of Upper Germania...

If it fails?

His regiment went into battle lightly, and had no more supplies. Most of the rations eaten by the soldiers were their last rations, and a group of people followed behind with an additional two or three days of supplies, but returned to the Lower Germanic Road. Dangerous obstacles, these grains are definitely not enough.His greatest reliance was the enemy's food—if he could occupy the Roman camp, he knew there would be enough food for the orcs to feed them for half a year.

Before the last opportunity came, Clovis, accompanied by his bodyguards, surveyed the troops which were gradually being prepared.

The short ladders were sent down, and the craftsmen also temporarily prepared a few long wooden boards. Although they were not very strong, they were enough for some people to step on them and rush up to the city wall. The soldiers began to check their equipment, and the first team let go The linen cloth of the weapon exposed the long-lost cold front to the cold moonlight again.

These warriors are eager for victory. They are not gentle doves. The empire and these tribal members they regard as barbarians have had hundreds of years of grievances. He doesn't need to do too much mobilization, just tell these passionate adults Orcs: The Imperials have fertile land, endless ale, fat female orcs, and gold coins stained with blood from their ancestors - and that's enough.

As the shaman of the god of thunder, he salutes every warrior who salutes him in the dark, and bestows upon them the blessing of martial prowess with gestures.

But in the midst of gearing up, a different voice suddenly came out.

Clovis squinted at the little orc standing in front of him. She didn't look half her height.

Black-haired golden eyes-her eyeballs are beautiful, shining under the moon, very suitable for collection... Clovis knows his own arrangements, these are the scouts of the Black-tailed clan, they should be with the World Eaters They acted together, but there was a small bruise on the woman's face, which seemed to be injured a little bit.

He also saw the Thunderbird skull hanging around her neck. As the future chief, he was familiar with the customs of each clan, so this skull should have been given to her by the World Eaters clan.

So he stopped the guard's attempt to drive away the disrespectful person: "What's the matter? A skinny cat."

The catwoman standing in front of him had the stern temperament of a very qualified hunter, but she asked him a question that only a coward would ask:

"—Is there really going to be a war?"

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I want to write a war scene... I'm so nervous, I need to find something for reference... Damn, we used to write only about bed fights!

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Note: The Franks have their own polytheistic beliefs, and they tend to shamanism, but the Germanic people from Central and Northern Europe generally have similar beliefs, even very similar to the polytheistic beliefs of the Slavs, so we made some changes for convenience, now they Like other ethnic groups near the Sue Huihai, they believe in the Nordic gods with Odin as the main one (but some other gods are also involved), and the Slavic culture still believes in Slavic polytheism.

Also, interestingly, according to the archeology of the Napoleonic era, some of the Franks before the Merovingian dynasty claimed to be descended from Trojan refugees. I don’t know how much these guys like Troy. The Franks claimed so, and the Romans also claimed so. ... I won’t go into details here, if you are interested, you can look it up—but of course, Europe itself is not big, but the terrain is complicated, and it is not impossible for this kind of thing to happen after hundreds of years of migration. The Caucasus was driven all the way to France and Spain...

Regarding the barbarian part, we will open a separate chapter to write about the settings, and those who are interested can take a look.

Finally, it may not be the same as the general impression that the Franks belong to the relatively "modern" tribes among the barbarians in Germania. People are taller, much stronger than Anglos, but the same treatment is used in this book-everyone is waaaaaaagh!

Chapter 21 016. Offense and Defense

Royce had been lying on the ground listening, but at this moment she suddenly raised her head.

"coming."

It seemed as if there was a sudden thunder in the silent night. At the moment when everyone was depressed and waiting for the arrival of the God of War, an astonishing roar suddenly sounded from the hillside outside the city.

"Howling ah ah ah-"

The sound was majestic and heavy, like the howling wind in the mountains. No one, or ordinary intelligent race, could make such a sound. Even if they only heard it from a distance, it would make the hearts of those who heard it tremble.

Accompanied by this roar, a stone with the size of several people was thrown high, followed by thunderclaps piercing the quiet night sky, blowing it into dozens of pieces with astonishing power.

The flint (Note 1) bound to the stones burst and burned due to the violent magic element shock, turning into brightly colored fireballs and falling down with the crushed stones. Each of these stones was the size of a human head. For a while, they did not cause any serious damage to the stone buildings in the barracks, but they landed on the stables of the barracks - although they didn't aim properly, but the general direction was correct, a few fireballs fell into the pile of grass In the fence, the hay was quickly ignited, and in the blink of an eye, several dazzling flames were brought into the fort.

The sudden violent noise quickly caused chaos in the barracks. The humans hiding behind the wall let out a few exclamations, and then began to hold torches and run towards the place where the mutation occurred...

Seeing their reaction, Clovis, who was standing on the hillside, nodded in satisfaction. He waved to the overseer beside him. Began to urge the infantry to start marching.

Quietly——I can't say that, because thousands of tall orcs can't do it side by side, but at least they didn't make too much noise in the first place.

The orcs left the ambush forest area and began to march towards the human army camp. They took advantage of the last chaos to seize the time to shorten the distance from the city wall, and when the dense queue gradually entered the open area, one of them stood at the head of the city. They will be spotted by the patrolling soldiers who are at a loss with torches on their hands.

"Enemy, enemy attack—it's an orc—!"

He yelled and ran down the city gate in a panic.

"It's time to charge!"

A vanguard officer couldn't wait to remind.

The body is fully armed, the armor is a mixture of hard leather and red-painted iron sheets, and the upper and lower sides are filled with various animal teeth and skulls. The warlord denied his opinion: "No, wait a little longer, let someone shoot arrows."

The orcs did not carry much supplies, and there were only two hundred bow bearers in total, each with thirty arrows.Under the order of the warlord, the archers began to throw shots into the barracks - no one could expect a hit rate at this distance and under such lighting conditions. Many people's arrows could only fall in vain on stone walls, towers and outside the city. But the warlord still yelled loudly and asked everyone to shoot all the arrows. He knew very well that the bows of the tribe could not compare with the high-quality bows of the imperials. The gathering speed of people.

This method probably worked. There were several screams in the barracks, and a few imperial men hid behind invisible walls and shot a few arrows at them, but the soft force did not make the rough and flesh The thick orcs were downsizing, and those who were hit by the arrows quickly pulled out the arrows, or broke the arrows and continued to move forward. A little pain stimulated their ferocity even more.

—The sky is starting to get dark.

The dark clouds seemed to be following them, and it quietly covered the moon, making this pre-dawn raid even more uncertain.

But at this moment, the roar of the ogre sounded from behind the hill again.

These giant monsters with low intelligence but amazing arm strength are not allies of orcs, nor are they things that can be easily tamed. , the orcs took control of it and forced it to do some simple and easy-to-understand tasks.

For example, stone throwing.

More than a dozen orcs bound the ogre with iron chains around its neck, feet and arms. Under the whipping of an animal trainer who was specialized in this kind of work and was said to be able to communicate with this giant monster to a certain extent, they frantically The ogre lifted up the entire boulder on the ground and threw it towards the city wall below the mountain.

And Clovis waited for the opportunity. He tied flints on all the stones and wrote the tracking runes. When the stones crossed the orc queue and reached the sky above the human camp, he raised his hand again. In the direction of the rune mark in the sky that only he can see.

As a violent blue electric arc rushed across his body, the spirit of the ancestors bestowed upon him the thunder and lightning of the gods, those brilliant electric arcs curled and formed a layer of armor-like lightning spiral on his strong arms, the next second , the rebellious Ben Lei blasted out, over a distance of hundreds of steps, and accurately hit the huge boulder in the air.

The stone shattered once again, like meteorites wrapped in sparks and lightning, rushing to the ground.They set fire to the wooden houses of human beings, and this time they mercilessly spread to the areas inhabited by civilians. Although some people have woken up, many more people who are still in a daze have been overwhelmed by this new round of fire rain. Terrified, they screamed and ran out of the burning house, scurrying around like headless chickens, and even began to squeeze beside the city gate, wanting to leave and take refuge in the mountains.

This is exactly the signal the frontline Overseer was waiting for.

The abnormal celestial phenomenon is not auspicious, but combined with the power of the shaman, it has become a symbol of special meaning.

He raised his right hand high, cast the black iron handle, raised the giant magic ax (Note 2) blessed by three mysterious runes, and howled at all the orcs:

"God Thor is protecting us, for victory and thunder, for the glory of the God of the North!"

His battle cry drove the bloody orcs to the brink of madness, and the impatient vanguard officers immediately issued an order: "Charge!"

As No.1's footsteps changed from a brisk walk to a trot, the whole ground trembled for it.

Without the morale-boosting drums, the footsteps of the orcs became the best drumbeat, and the chaotic but firm footsteps stepped on the ground that had become a little hard due to the cooling down, making a mighty wave after another, as if There was an invisible wave rushing out of the forest, crashing into the tiny military camp in one go.

The orcs carrying the wooden ladder ran in the front, and the archers also shot the last arrow, threw their crude hunting bows on the spot, picked up axes and machetes, and rushed to a place with the others.

130 steps, 120 steps.

Every blink brought the low stone wall closer to them.

Some humans have already reacted. Their archers appeared on the tower, and they used the advantage of the location to shoot arrows at the array of orcs. Human beings who have just woken up from sleep are nothing more than lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

At this moment a third stone was thrown, and the lightning struck it so late that it fell to the ground beside the stone wall of the barracks, and only damaged a row of low buildings.

Even closer, the Overseer even saw the fearful gazes of the only few humans holding shields on the city wall hiding behind the walls.

——But when the orcs smashed the fences and horses set up by humans outside the city, and began to run closer, a sudden change occurred.

Eighty steps.

A woman wrapped in a long black dress and a three-cornered hat suddenly stood up from the city gate.

She is carrying a long sword across her shoulders. Although the blade is not wide, its length is considered astonishing for her size.

The orc who reacted quickly took off the hatchet or hammer and threw it at her, but the sword was unsheathed when she stood up, and when the first throwing ax came to her, she threw the blade of the sword It slid to the side as soon as it was crooked, and immediately after, several imperial men stood up. They were all fully dressed, and they blocked the thrown weapons by relying on a few sturdy door shields.

The woman stepped between the battlements and shouted in a shrill voice: "Follow the will of the Most Holy and Omega, for the great Augustus, the Legion and every citizen of the Empire, everyone, Ready to fight--!"

Before the words fell, many figures stood up from behind the city wall.

These imperial people who hid belonged to the reserve soldiers of the Gallic Legion, and two companies were not even included in the exact legion number. Most of them were young people under the age of 25, and there was only one centurion adult soldiers mixed among them, serving as coaches and orderers.

The youngest was only fifteen or sixteen years old, and didn't even have decent equipment—but the belief of "you will die if you don't win" united everyone at this moment, wearing a leather hat or even a small iron pot as a helmet The reserve soldiers attacked the orcs who were almost at hand with everything in their hands, bows, slings, stones, even frozen carrots and the terrible pie baked by Grandma Susan next door-the officers only had one simple idea: Order: When the orcs get close enough but not hand-to-hand, throw everything you can.

This round of chaotic attacks quickly took effect. The orcs who had never thought that humans would ambush them in the opposite direction were stunned for a while. In about ten seconds, the charging team gradually stagnated. They all looked at the nearest vanguard officer, wondering if they should continue to attack.

"Howling ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

The one-eyed ogre behind him was driven up the hillside. Clovis, who originally wanted to preserve the human fortifications as much as possible, dispelled his conservative thoughts the moment he saw the silver light on the city wall from a distance. He ordered the beast tamer The division mobilized all four ogres, and when these huge monsters, each about two people tall and as big as a hill, appeared on the top of the hill, some of the human recruits who saw them from afar quickly had some commotion.

But the chief, who knew that the two sides had completely entered a state of war, would not stop because of this. Under the instruction of Clovis, four huge boulders were thrown into the sky at the same time. The exhilarating destructive force of a hole smashed into the ground reinvigorated the orcs, and at the same time made them understand the orders from the chieftain.

"Kill them all!!!"

"Chop off the head of the Imperial nun!"

In a new round of howling, the orcs attacked again.

The first thing to put on the city wall was a thick wooden plank. A group of orcs held it high and pressed it to the city wall. The orc rushed up.

Few of them have experienced real wars, and most of them have never even seen the war-torn frontier colonies. To these young people, orcs are just grotesque fangs that bards and instructors have passed on. Just a freak.

They even gave these not-too-distant enemies a nickname for ridicule, "Boars from the North", but when these gray-faced and long-toothed "Boars" screamed and charged at them with their axes high, these The recruits couldn't help but retreat again and again, as if the soles of their feet had been filled with lead, no one dared to step forward.

Someone raised a spear to stop the orc from climbing the city, but the fragile spear was quickly broken, and the first orc jumped onto the wall.

"Don't retreat!" Seeing the fear of several recruits nearby, Marianne rushed over immediately, but she couldn't stop the soldiers who wanted to escape. After a moment of hesitation, she raised her long sword and pierced the deserters from behind. back.

"Don't stand back! With unarmed citizens behind you, you have nowhere to go!"