HCB Chapter 136 God's Child
Chapter 136 God's Child
In the forest north of Midland, an army marching towards the depths of the forest startled a flock of birds that flew into the sky.
"Damn, there are so many vines and spider webs. What deep hatred do these noble lords have with those natives? They want to tear down their homes." A mercenary complained while cutting off the vines in front of him with a knife.
"My knife isn't meant for this."
"Save energy. It's better to be tired now so that you can relax later. I've seen those natives before. They basically don't wear armor when fighting. I don't know which unscrupulous businessman they bought the weapons from. I don't think they can break our defense by then." said the mercenary leader next to him. Not only the mercenary group he led was hired, but other mercenary groups nearby were also hired by the lords with high bonuses.
This also puzzled some mercenary leaders. In the past, they did not receive such high rewards for helping local lords resolve territorial disputes with other lords. Now, they can get five times the previous bounty by helping to fight the natives. Unless these noble lords have become kind-hearted after being visited by the God of Light in their dreams, otherwise, the front line has lost the battle and is now short of manpower.
When these mercenary leaders asked their employers about the direction of the war, the lords simply replied "everything is normal" and increased the previous bounty. Such vague answers and inexplicable increases in money made some sober mercenary leaders refuse to be hired. However, there must be brave men under a high reward, and some people resolutely embarked on the journey to the forest for the high bounty.
However, this money was not so easy to earn. From the first day they entered the woods, these mercenaries became the vanguard of the army, responsible for clearing the way for the main force. This made many mercenary group leaders complain.
Logically speaking, as mercenaries who have been working for so long, they would not complain because the lord put his mercenaries in the front. However, this time they entered the forest, and they not only became soldiers but also lumberjacks. During the day, they wielded swords and cut down various vegetation to clear the way for the soldiers behind. At night, they endured the bites of mosquitoes to sleep. After only three days of working, some mercenaries fell ill and were sent back to the rear. Whether they can be cured is another matter.
What made them even more crazy was that they had been marching in the forest for three days without seeing even the shadow of the natives, and the lords behind them urged them to work faster in the name of cutting their pay, which forced them to reduce their rest time to do meaningless logging work.
"In my opinion, this lord's army is a bunch of idiots. Not only did they fail to defeat the natives, they also failed to leave a path for our later troops to pass through. What's the point of keeping such a defeated army?"
The mercenaries complained about the lord and his army, and they cut the vegetation faster, as if what was in front of them was not vegetation but the lord's big face.
As the core of the mercenary group, the leader naturally had to inspire the morale of the mercenaries. A mercenary leader climbed to a high place and shouted to the mercenaries:
"Brothers, hold on a little longer! It will be easier when we fight the natives in the future. Those natives don't wear armor when they fight. They can even beat three or four beggars from Midland. When the time comes, we can just capture those natives and make them work like slaves for us. Then we can take the bounty and buy some land to become landlords!"
It has to be said that any leader needs to learn to paint a rosy picture for his subordinates. Following the leader's words, the mercenaries thought about the good days they would live as landlords in the future and worked even harder to cut down the vegetation.
"Swoosh!" With the sound of arrows being fired and a scream, the mercenaries found that their leader had fallen from the tree to the ground. They hurried to help him up, only to find that there was an arrow stuck in his neck and he was not far from death.
The same thing happened in other mercenary groups. The unprotected mercenary leaders were hit by arrows one after another. Some arrows even penetrated the armor and hit the mercenary leaders who had no idea what was going on.
Just when everyone didn't know what to do, a thunderous shout like the sound of tsunamis rang out from the surrounding woods, and a group of natives wearing wooden helmets and holding wooden weapons rushed towards the mercenaries.
Without a general commander, the mercenaries could only fight on their own under the command of the thousand-man or centurion commanders. However, they found that their swords, which had been sharpened in the past, could only leave a small gap when chopped on the wood, while their armor was cut by the weapons made of the opposite wood. If they had not participated in the battle before, these mercenaries would even think that their equipment was a low-quality product bought from somewhere.
A mercenary centurion found the right moment and stabbed a native in the neck with his sword. As blood flowed out when he drew his sword, the centurion shouted to the other commanders:
"These natives are too evil, let's retreat quickly!"
As soon as the words came out, they quickly attracted the response of the commanders. The mercenaries quickly raised their shields in front of them to form a shield wall and retreated backwards. However, the arrows directly broke through the iron plates on the shields, and even the arms of the mercenaries holding the shields were shot through. For a while, screams resounded among the mercenaries.
"Ah!!! My hand!"
The mercenary who covered his arm created a gap in the shield formation. Some natives took advantage of the situation and rushed towards the gap in the shield formation, wrestling with the soldiers inside.
Seeing that the formation could no longer be maintained, the morale of the mercenaries collapsed and they all fled. More and more people fled, until the entire forest was filled with fleeing mercenaries and the natives chasing them. The original massacre of others turned into a massacre of others.
Some mercenaries fell into the traps of the natives while escaping and became bloody skewers. The nearby mercenaries were so frightened by the scene that they dared not fight with the natives.
When the war was over, those mercenaries who managed to escape fled the forest, while those who were unfortunate were captured by the natives and taken back to the tribe.
The mercenaries in the cages looked at the natives outside who were pointing fingers at them. Some of them were almost crying. They didn't expect that such a simple job as beating the natives would turn out like this.
Then the mercenaries were carried to a square similar to that used for sacrifices. Unlike the totems of ordinary natives, this place was like a wooden temple of the ancient empire. The knowledgeable mercenaries recognized at a glance that some of them were gods of the ancient empire.
At this moment, there was a commotion from the crowd outside. Dozens of natives were carrying a huge throne, and sitting on it was a child wearing a ring made of unknown leaves on his head.
As the throne got closer and closer to the mercenaries, an invisible pressure gradually pressed on the mercenaries' internal organs, as if they were about to be crushed at any time. Some of the older mercenaries even had difficulty breathing.
Finally, the throne was put down when it was a certain distance away from them, and the pressure disappeared inexplicably. The mercenaries looked at the child on the throne while catching their breath. He had golden hair and a petite figure, and was estimated to be around ten years old. Although he should be at an innocent age, he did not have any youthful vitality, and his eyes only gave the mercenaries indifference and murderous intent.
"Implement the eleven-stroke killing rule on them." The child said slowly in a cold tone after sizing up the mercenaries kneeling on the ground.
Although this sentence made the mercenaries present uncomfortable, they could also hear from it that the child did not intend to kill them all, because many mercenaries knew that this came from the laws of the ancient empire. It was a punishment for deserters in the ancient empire. Usually one out of ten deserters was killed. Now it is also used by the laws of some lords, which means that the probability of being killed is only one in ten. The mercenaries present can only hope that they are not the unlucky one.
Soon ten mercenaries were selected and stood on the platform. A man wearing a mask and holding a wooden sword walked back and forth in front of these mercenaries, choosing people to be killed as if he was selecting commodities.
“God of Light, as your loyal believer, you must protect me from being killed... otherwise I might believe in something else in my next life.” The mercenaries silently chanted the name of the God of Light in their hearts, praying that they would not be killed.
Finally, after a while of selection, the native seemed to have made his choice and stabbed a mercenary in the heart. The wooden sword pierced the mercenary's heart with an unusual sharpness. As the wooden sword was pulled out, a torrent of blood spurted out, and the mercenary became a bloody man while twitching.
The mercenary next to him was shocked, but excited about his stock. However, just as he laughed, the native stabbed the bloody wooden sword into his heart.
"Isn't the kill rate 11? Why are you still killing?" A mercenary next to him cursed, and then the native who was noticed opened his mouth, and his tongue was cut off with a wooden knife.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" The mercenary who had lost his tongue screamed as the native stabbed him in the heart.
At this time, the remaining mercenaries also understood that the eleven-draw killing by these natives was not what they thought, but that one person out of ten would live and the rest would die.
Seeing the mercenary next to him being killed, a younger mercenary was frightened out of his wits. When he saw the native walking up to him with the wooden sword covered in blood, he suddenly felt warmth in his lower body, and then his pants were wet.
Seeing the mercenary pissing his pants with fear, the natives present burst into laughter and raised their thumbs. After seeing the reaction of the audience, the native tied him up directly and kicked him back into the cage when the mercenary was at a loss.
After an unknown amount of time of massacre, during which even the natives who were carrying out the executions were replaced countless times, only dozens of mercenaries survived out of the hundreds of mercenaries. The remaining mercenaries hugged each other, not knowing what would face them next.
The child sitting on the throne looked at the demons who had previously oppressed his people and spoke to them.
"As the successor of the Millennium Empire, I, Esa, forgive the sins of all of you. Tell your ruler to submit to me within this week, otherwise I will march to his capital and kill all the Mitran people I see on the way!"