CHAPTER 358: CHAPTER 153, LIGHT FOREST AMBUSH BATTLE_2

Half an hour later.

The Kingdom Knights who survived countless battles fell one after another. The young Ranger Knights were cut down in swathes, many desperate soldiers rushed toward the Beastmen only to be killed, and the peasants fled in all directions, many of them drowned in the mud.

Count Adelaide looked incredulously at his army, which had been sliced into more than ten segments and was being swallowed by the tides of Beastmen: "No... It shouldn’t have turned out like this."

"Retreat! Retreat!" Shouts of retreat echoed within the camp. The red and blue Kingdom Army was retreating step by step, as the Beastmen gradually closed in on the center of the camp.

As professional soldiers, the Knights of Brittania were also extremely resilient. Many of the Knights finally found their squires amid the chaos, donning armor amidst a rain of javelins, and fighting desperately despite great casualties.

In the pouring rain, the Knights still strained to command the soldiers to tighten defenses and rebuild positions. Count Adelaide, under the protection of his squires, fled in a sorry state, his eyes red: "Why did it turn out this way? Why?"

His army was disintegrating, and he was powerless to stop it.

"My Count! Quickly, go!" The squires and the loyal Knights of his family clustered around him, urging him to retreat. As they stepped through the mud and retreated past the hills guarded by the Knights, they suddenly discovered countless Beastmen behind them. A Doomsday Bull, accompanied by dozens of Giant Minotaurs, approached with a sinister grin: "It’s... humans... eat them... kill them!"

"We can’t escape, Count, Beastmen are everywhere!" one squire cried out desperately.

"Hold the line, hold the line!" Adelaide shouted: "Everyone, gather here!"

The remaining troops gathered toward the hill where the Count was located. When this army finally formed a defense line, the Left Army, originally numbering around fifteen thousand, had dwindled to just over six thousand men, with more than nine thousand lost to the forest.

The soldiers and the remaining peasant soldiers formed the first line of defense, the heavily-bleeding Knights formed the second, and in the innermost circle were the surviving Count and other Great Nobles. They loudly called out for defense, erecting defensive positions, and repelled wave after wave of Beastmen attacks. They watched in anguish as the Beastmen continually executed the wounded Knights and soldiers, then feasted in gluttonous revelry.

"Is... is it dawn?" After a night of fierce battle, Count Adelaide raised his head to find it was daybreak.

"Count! What does Marquis Angxi say?" a Knight quickly asked.

"Marquis Angxi said they also encountered heavy rain and couldn’t come to support us at all!" Adelaide put down the Magic Communication device. He no longer cared about his rain-soaked body, having not slept all night, his eyes swollen and blue as he shouted furiously: "He wants us to break out, but... how can I break out?"

Adelaide felt deep regret. He had not expected such an event, nor had his army underestimated the enemy. But why did a sudden downpour and a Beastmen surprise attack coincide so perfectly?

The rain continued, pouring from midnight to morning, leaving the army exhausted and hungry. The Beastmen’s attacks rolled in waves, with soldiers falling at every moment. Some Kingdom Knights held only a sword, yet they resisted stubbornly: "For the Lady! For Brittania!"

In the depths of the forest, the Beast King "Blood Horn" Maras sneered: "The... Pseudo-God in the lake? Has... abandoned... you."

"Make... the final... attack... on the humans!"

"They... can’t hold on!"

At noon on September 7, seeing that the situation was hopeless, Count Adelaide finally decided to lead the Knights in a breakout. He charged through the Beastmen’s encirclement with more than a hundred Knights and over a hundred and fifty Knight’s Squires and vanished into the heavy rain.

The Beastmen did not pursue; the Beast King had long thought out the next tactic. Instead, it ordered the remaining Beastmen to continue their fierce assault on the hill.

So it was that by the night of September 7, after losing their commander, the remaining six thousand human troops were entirely annihilated, with no escapees.

The Beastmen celebrated their victory, stripping the Knights’ bodies bare and hanging innumerable heads on their bodies. Hundreds and thousands of headless human corpses piled higher than a mountain, and many filthy creatures completed their advancement. The Inferior Horned Beasts became Horned Beasts, Horned Beast Groups evolved into Great Horned Beasts, and the Great Horned Beasts began to show the marks of the Evil God—a sign that they had gained the favor of the Chaos Gods.

"Urgh! Ahhh! My Lady! Save me! Save me!" A young Ranger Knight crawled desperately through the mud, insanely praying to the Lake Fairy in despair.

"Despicable... maggot, powerless... human!" The Beast King walked up behind him and opened its gaping maw.

"Oooh no! No!!!" The Ranger Knight was grabbed by the leg and dragged towards the dark depths of the forest.

There, a grand Chaos sacrificial ceremony was about to commence, where the living Knights would be sacrificed to the God of Darkness in exchange for its blessings.

"The next step... the castle."

......

On the morning of September 9, Count Adelaide finally returned to Yulsen Castle with a small number of people, but Yulsen Castle was immediately besieged by a Beastman Great Legion of over thirteen thousand.

Inside the castle, in the tower hall.

"Damn! Damn! Damn! How could the weather clear up at such a time?" Count Adelaide struck the wooden table hard with his hand. Having not closed his eyes for two days, he looked extremely worn out: "Damn it, there are too many Beastmen, the garrison can’t hold this place."

Yulsen Castle sat in the middle of the river valley with excellent defensive capabilities and a wealth of siege equipment, but none of this concealed the scarcity of garrison forces. Of the more than 200 who broke out with Count Adelaide and returned to Yulsen Castle, only a little over 100 remained. Inside the castle, only dozens of Knights and a thousand defenders remained. It was impossible to hold the castle under the fierce Beastman assault.

Outside, a Kingdom Knight rushed in and said anxiously: "My Count, without reinforcements, we’re dead!"

"What else can we do? We can only hold this castle to the death! The only good news is that Marquis Angxi is already leading the central army back!" Through the tower window, the Count could see the countless Beastman Army besieging the castle, stretching to the horizon.

Marquis Angxi must come back to save Yulsen Castle.

Because within it lay a large cache of military supplies, plus most of the grain for the Left and Central Armies. Only Laine’s Right Army, due to its smaller numbers, could carry all its grain, leaving the supply needs of both the Left and Central Armies dependent on Yulsen Castle.

Therefore, it was evident how Adelaide, having suffered such a crushing defeat, was being cursed by Marquis Angxi.

"Adelaide, you are a foolish idiot, a shameless disgrace, a stain on the Knightly Path, a blessing for the Beastmen! An army of over fifteen thousand, how could you lose it all overnight?" Through the Magic Communication, Marquis Angxi scolded Count Adelaide furiously.

"It’s not my fault, my Marquis, this was clearly the Right Army’s false military report! They claimed not to have encountered the main forces of the Beastmen, so I confidently advanced, only to fall into an ambush!" Count Adelaide quickly defended himself.

"We’ll discuss this later. I’m telling you, hold for three days; in three days, you’ll get reinforcements!" Marquis Angxi knew he had to return for support, so he ordered his army to turn back and head towards Yulsen Castle along the original road.

The Knightly War has failed, and they may never reach the Ten Thousand Demon Rock again. The thought of such an outcome left Marquis Angxi’s face turning pale and red alternately; it was his first time commanding the Knightly Army, and if it ended like this, how would he face his Lady and King?

Wait.

Marquis Angxi suddenly felt there might still be a chance.

Isn’t this the decisive battle I wanted?

If he could annihilate this Beastman Army outside the castle of Yulsen, then this Knightly War wouldn’t be a failure after all.

As long as Adelaide held for three days and his army arrived, with an attack from both inside and outside, the military books say that under a pincer attack, the Beastmen couldn’t hold out for long.

Yes! The key to turning defeat into victory lies here!