Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 421 Monster
The council chamber was filled with an indescribable smell, like a mixture of sweat, candle wax, and lingering blood.

The spot where Commander Baron fell had been simply moved, but no one had bothered to wipe up the bloodstains on the ground.

That sword strike was too sudden and too absurd.

Everyone realized one thing: Kyle Raymond was no longer the young master who could be negotiated with.

The nobles stood around the long table, and no one dared to sit down.

Some people were arguing in hushed tones, some were praying incoherently, and others were repeatedly emphasizing that "the city gates are still there and the garrison is still there," as if as long as these words were spoken, the situation could still be controlled.

"We must first stabilize the Knights."

“Isolate the young master, at least… at least prevent him from getting his hands on the sword again.”

"No, he just killed Baron! Who do you think would dare approach him now?"

Panic continued to fester in the conversation.

No one noticed that the air in the distant corridor was changing.

The first to notice something amiss was a young viscount standing against the wall.

He suddenly stopped talking and listened intently.

It was the sound of footsteps, but not human footsteps.

It felt like fingernails scraping against a stone wall, or like a heavy body being dragged across the ground, intermittent yet rapidly approaching.

"Did you... hear that?"

Before the words were even finished, the heavy doors of the council chamber shook violently.

The next instant, a rift was torn open in the center of the wooden door.

The iron hoops twisted, wood chips flew, and a cold wind carrying the smell of blood and alchemical medicine blew in.

A nobleman let out a bloodcurdling scream.

A dark figure surged in from outside the door.

The knights in the council chamber reacted quickly.

Several heavily armored knights immediately formed a battle formation, their spears pointing forward, their battle aura gleaming on the surface of their armor.

The two extraordinary knights had even completed their battle aura buildup, their swords humming as they prepared to meet the enemy.

When the first monster crashed into us, the formation did indeed hold it off.

The spear pierced its chest, and the sword shattered its shoulder bone. The monster fell to the ground instantly, blood splattering everywhere.

As someone backed away, someone muttered in a low voice, "It's those underground..."

"We can kill them!" Someone shouted these two words, but their voice immediately changed.

The second, the third, the fourth, kept coming in.

There was no formation, no coordination, no concern for the corpses of their comrades, or even for their own lives.

The pierced monster continued to crawl forward, while the monster with its severed arm tried to bite with its teeth.

A strike of fighting spirit can send them flying, but it cannot stop them.

A super knight was attacked by three monsters at the same time.

He roared and unleashed his fighting spirit, shattering one body, but in the next instant, another monster grabbed him around the waist.

Claws pierced the nail crevices, and scales rubbed against metal, producing a teeth-grinding sound.

The extraordinary knight continued to swing his sword to evade the monsters until the fourth one bit his throat.

The defenses began to crumble.

The knights in the city were not cowards or incompetent; they were fighting, using every skill and strength they had.

But the sheer number and the sheer madness are devouring everything.

The nobles began to retreat.

Tables and chairs were overturned, candlesticks fell to the ground, and flames spread rapidly along the carpet.

Some fell, some were trampled and dragged underfoot. The council chamber, once used to discuss taxes and fiefdoms, had become a slaughterhouse from which there was no escape.

All that remained were the ever-approaching shadows and the ever-closer screams.

When the last knight was drowned, the fate of the castle was already decided.

Only then did someone finally remember the city gate.

They rushed out of the council chamber, running wildly down the corridor, smashing open heavy wooden doors, their boots slipping on the stone floor, their armor clanging against each other with a chaotic and rapid sound.

Some people ran and shouted as they went to lower the drawbridge, while others yelled at the guards to assemble.

But the order was meaningless.

The inner gate leading to the city gate was locked as early as evening.

That was Kyle's personal order. To prevent traitors and surrender, all the outsourced keys were retrieved, the winches were sealed, and the drawbridge's pivots were secured with alchemical wedges.

Even if the general is still alive in the city, he cannot unlock this defense system in a short period of time.

Some people rushed to the winch and tried to slash it with their swords and smash it with their hammers.

Sparks flew everywhere, but the iron chain remained completely still.

The structure originally designed to withstand battering rams and magic cannons now coldly rejected any will to survive within the city.

The city gates remained silent, a silence more cruel than any roar. The steps leading to the city walls soon fell as well.

Those narrow spiral passages, which were originally an advantage in defense, have now become a nightmare.

The fleeing crowd was crammed together here; those in front stopped, but those behind continued to push and shove.

Some people fall down and never get up again.

Flames spread down the corridor, and everything flammable was burning.

Thick smoke was trapped inside the fortress by the heavy stone walls, unable to dissipate, and soon it was compressed to a level where people could breathe. Some people lost their way in the smoke, stumbled into dead ends, and were cornered against the walls.

Those stone walls, which once symbolized safety, now cut off all avenues of survival.

The defensive design of Grayrock Fortress was intended to make enemies pay a bloody price.

Every gate, every gate, and every spiral staircase was designed to slow down the attackers and buy time for the defenders.

But it was never designed to leave a way out for the people inside when disaster broke out from within the city.

Flames spread through the corridors and towers, illuminating the figures of people fleeing frantically, as well as the silhouettes of monsters crouching on beams, window sills, and city walls.

They don't rush to chase, but keep moving forward, gradually driving all living things into the depths where there is no exit.

The Grey Rock Fortress is no longer a fortress.

It became a hell that it sealed off with its own hands.

The night was stained red by the firelight, and screams echoed repeatedly within the thick city walls, but could no longer reach the outside.

Before dawn, there will be no more order here, only destruction.

The screams, which could be interrupted at any moment, quickly grew faint, swallowed by the flames, and choked off by the thick smoke.

But the disaster was not over.

The unrestrained dragon-blooded monster still roams inside the castle.

They surged outwards along the corridors, staircases, and towers, crashing against the closed city gates and sluices time and time again.

The heavy iron gates trembled, the stone walls echoed, and the entire castle sounded like a trapped giant beast, rumbling softly in the darkness.

Only the doors made from precious mines can hold up for now.

Everything Kyle had reinforced to prevent internal strife—the inner gate, the drawbridge, the locks—became the only obstacle at this moment.

The monster is trapped inside and cannot rush into the residential area outside the castle for the time being.

But each impact made those guarding outside the city realize clearly that this was not safety, but merely a delay.

The night was tinged red by the firelight, and by dawn, Grayrock Castle was completely silent.

There were no flags of surrender, nor cries for help from survivors.

Only the charred city walls and the smell of sulfur and blood seeping from the cracks remained.

The vanguard of the red tide approached shortly before the disaster.

Louis stood on a high slope outside the city, looking down at the fortress that should have been impregnable.

The city gates were tightly closed, yet covered with dents from impacts. The city walls were intact, yet a series of low, muffled thuds could be heard, as if something was lingering inside.

A knight strode forward, knelt on one knee, and spoke in a very low voice.

"My lord, inside the castle... there is no sign of any living person."

He paused for a moment, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"But there's something else moving down there. A lot of it, trapped inside the city. The garrison, the nobles... all wiped out."

Louis did not speak immediately; he simply gazed at the silent castle.

He already knew the castle's fate from the daily intelligence system this morning.

There are sixty fully-formed dragon blood monsters and hundreds of unfinished ones.

When they are injured, the torn flesh will automatically repair itself.

More importantly, they possess battle aura, which is unstable yet real, with blood-red battle aura surging intermittently between the gaps in their scales.

This is a monster created by that mad dog, Raymond.

He knew all this information in advance, but that was all.

He didn't know the chaotic details or the duration.

However, those questions do not require his speculation.

“You don’t need to worry,” Louis finally spoke. “There’s already a plan. Send the order to seal off the outer perimeter, evacuate nearby residents, and forbid anyone from approaching the city walls.”

So the vanguard knights dispersed and deployed to block roads, drive away, and pull away.

"Back up, don't stop, move now."

Some people cried out, some struggled, saying they still had relatives in the city, but those who refused to cooperate were grabbed by the Red Tide Knights, dragged into vehicles, and pushed away from the spot.

There's no time to explain.

The cordon was quickly set up, layer upon layer, and anyone who approached the city wall was forced to leave.

Grayrock Fortress was completely isolated, the living were cleared out, and the city was sealed off.

Louis withdrew his gaze, turned, and left the hillside: "Let's begin the plan."

(End of this chapter)