Your war hammer is too fake

When the main force of the intervention army set out from Lothern, the War Hounds hired by the High Elves also set sail from Miragliano at the same time, boarding a fleet specially dispatched by the High Elves to Le'Angulong to reunite with their employers. Due to the internal division of labor among the Lords of the Codex, Tyrell and Estalia were assigned to Dustan, and the wizards were too focused on monitoring the Border Princes and infiltrating Ulthuan in intelligence work. The Lords of the Codex did not learn of this until these mercenaries had already landed in Le'Angulong.

Of course, this is no big deal. Even the elite of the War Dogs are just slightly more advanced filler babies in this war. The only thing that the Lords of the Holy Scriptures should be wary of is that not all War Dogs are traditional mercenaries fighting on the battlefield. Some groups actually provide bodyguard services, responsible for protecting their employers from assassins, or acting as spies to collect intelligence.

The area around the Iron Forge Valley base is all muddy swamps. Ever since the fog released by the swamp monsters was dispelled, various swamp plants and small animals have gradually increased in number.

As the roar of the steam engines gradually reached overhead, some people wearing cloaks, wearing short swords at their waists, and some carrying light crossbows slowly raised their heads from the reeds and looked up at the fleet flying in the sky, which embodied human wisdom. Even though it was not the first time they had seen it, witnessing this scene with their own eyes still deeply shocked every spy.

"Don't think too much," the leader said after noticing the subtle emotions of his men. "Whether the pointy-eared master wins or loses, the outcome of this war has nothing to do with us. We just need to get the reward that belongs to us. Where's Raven?"

"Here." A subordinate carrying a cage came over, his face covered with souvenirs left by Mosquito.

Seeing the swelling on his men's faces, the leader suddenly felt itchy all over again. He resisted the urge to scratch and ordered, "They are almost over. Prepare to release the ravens, and then our work will be over!"

A suppressed cheer suddenly rang out from the reeds. When the flying fleet completely passed overhead, a raven flew out of the reeds and, under the gaze of a dozen pairs of expectant eyes, flapped its wings and flew southwest.

"Well," said the chief, "let us go home, and then ..."

Before the leader could finish his words, an arrow appeared in his left eye socket. With lumps from mosquito bites all over his body, he slowly fell backwards, splashing mud. Before he completely lost consciousness, he saw a tall and light figure coming in front of him, who seemed to check on his condition and then walked away.

Elf, this word popped up in the leader's brain that was about to shut down, and then his soul was completely annihilated under the power of the Outer Gods.

"Send someone to tell the humans," the leader of the team, the Wanderer, glanced around to make sure nothing was left out, "the 'cargo' has been delivered, and the last batch of 'eyes' has also been dealt with."

"Yes!"

……

Note 1: The Tar Gaiwo Knights in the background are very small, and are a mixed force of multiple arms, with a total of five High Elf princes riding griffins, two High Elf nobles riding giant eagles, and three helmsmen riding the Sky Slasher airship.

Chapter 335 Ambush

The loud cry of an eagle pierced the sky above, followed by a crackling sound that vibrated the eardrums.

Lawn Leocornwall, the king of the Knight Kingdom of Bretonnia, raised his head and reached out to touch the neck of the vulture Pyquis, soothing the strong and sensitive beast. In the king's vision, the giant bird of prey, which exuded the power of thunder, circled in the air first, as if to confirm the location, and then landed.

The claws of the ancient thunderbird had just touched the ground covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves when Ewen de Richelieu, the Elector of Westland of the Empire, jumped off the extremely simple saddle and nodded to Laun: "I hope I'm not late, Laun."

"You are punctual as always, Egwene," the king said, trying to sound as calm as possible. "I sincerely hope that this invitation to meet you does not cause you any trouble. We all have our own problems to deal with."

"If you think I will angrily question you about why you cooperated with those pointy-eared people," Knight Princess said, "then it only shows that you don't understand me at all."

"I..." The corner of the king's mouth twitched, "This is not my intention, I just..."

"Lauren Leocornwall, son of Coronne," Evelyn interrupted the man in front of her, "no need to explain. Just as I chose the Empire over Bretonnia, you have made your choice, that's all."

"This war is a completely stupid mistake!" Laun could only say: "Even if the high elves win, the situation can never go back to the way it was before. You are already the elector of the empire. Even if the army of Ulthuan wins the battle, it will not be able to take back everything they lost... unless the Phoenix Court really wants to go to war with the empire."

"So?" Egwene asked softly. "I certainly have no room for compromise in this matter, but do the high elves have any room for compromise? The Elven Town rashly chose to intervene when I attacked Marienburg, and from that moment on, this war was doomed to be inevitable. I cannot tolerate someone openly provoking me in the city I rule and then pretending nothing happened. And Ulthuan cannot tolerate someone attacking and occupying their legal territory. They must respond."

"Before more blood is shed in vain, someone must stand up and stop this," Laun said in a deep voice, "Do you know how they convinced me? Finubar's plenipotentiary envoy told me personally that even if Asur wins this battle, he will not go any further. Everything they did was to ensure that the matter in Elftown could have a reasonable outcome."

After hearing this, Aiwen was silent for a while. "What did they say?" Knight Ji suddenly asked.

"'This army will never appear in Marienburg', that's what they said," Laun had a bad feeling in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face. "As a defender of civilization, I firmly believe that we should not point our swords at each other. Those who do not produce anything and only know how to plunder, enslave, and massacre, those cruel and bloodthirsty barbarians, those slaves of the power of darkness, they should be our common enemies! Listen, Evelyn, I..."

"In a way," Egwene raised her hand, a strange half-smile on her face, "they did not lie to you. They just didn't tell you the whole story. Who told you that Ulthuan sent only one army?"

……

At the same time, northeast of Iron Valley Air Force Base, in Duncanwald Forest.

Morgan, the Lord of the Crucified Wood Court, was riding on her unicorn, flipping through the war book with boredom. She had been waiting in this gloomy and evil forest for two hours, which was not a comfortable experience for a Kaldorei. Although in her false memory, "Morgan Linge" had experienced hundreds of battles, big and small, she still felt that she was a novice on the battlefield, and her patience was not particularly good.

After riding the unicorn into the forest, she met the forest scouts who came to pick her up after walking a few steps. Then the Weaver was brought here, and 4,000 Kaldorei warriors under An Jiyue had been waiting here for a long time - waiting for Morgan, who was designated as the commander, and also waiting for the arrival of a group of uninvited guests.

Dustan's choice to focus on Ulthuan as an intelligence agent prevented him from detecting the Warhounds' movements, but also allowed his spies to infiltrate kingdoms outside of Saphire. Despite the Phoenix Court's effective secrecy, Dustan's spies did not directly obtain relevant information, but intelligence work is not what the public imagines.

"99% of intelligence is obtained through public channels." This sentence is widely circulated on the Internet, but it is only half true. In intelligence analysis, information that can be directly used as a basis for decision-making is called "intelligence products." Since it is a "product," it naturally has a processing process. The so-called "99% of intelligence" obtained from public channels actually refers to "raw materials," and "raw materials" must be processed before they can become "intelligence products."

This processing process is the so-called intelligence analysis.

An Jiyue had learned a little intelligence analysis before she crossed over, and she had some knowledge of it. The "some knowledge" here was not modesty, she really only knew a little bit, but it was enough. By analyzing the price changes in Ulthuan in the past year collected by Dustan's spies, An Jiyue noticed that the market conditions in the Kingdom of Cosqui were a bit abnormal, and the price of grain was obviously not right.

Since something unusual has been discovered, it would be unreasonable not to investigate it carefully. As a result, the investigation found that the ship throughput of several major ports in Cosqui in July and August was nearly 50% higher than normal, and the transportation was basically food and military supplies. At the same time, the spies deployed in Lothern reported that since mid-July, no one had seen the flagship of "Sea Lord" Aislin in Lothern.

Due to the relatively short infiltration period, it was difficult for Dustan's spies to infiltrate the nobles, especially the great nobles. However, just these basic intelligences were enough for An Jiyue to detect the killer move hidden in the dark by the high elves: in addition to the main force of the intervention army, the high elves must have prepared a second army.

After noticing this, An Jiyue began to think about where this High Elf detachment would appear from. They couldn't possibly go to the main battlefield where the main forces of both sides were confronting to join in the fun. This was meaningless. Any High Elf army that left the protection of the "dark cloud" would only be bombed by the flying fleet. The Jiedushi tried to think about the war situation from Finubar's perspective, and then she came up with a conclusion: Egwene's becoming the Elector of the Empire was a fait accompli, and even if the battles in other places were fierce and the losses were great, they could be fooled by "local conflicts"; if it was the provincial capital of Marienburg, this matter would not only be a conflict between Ulthuan and Westerland, but a full-scale war between the High Elves and the Empire, and even the dwarves would have a great chance of being involved.

Finubar is not a madman, he will definitely choose to control the intensity of the war and avoid escalation. In order to maintain the face and authority of Ulthuan, Westerland must be hit hard enough as a clear lesson... An Jiyue looked at the map and found that apart from Marienburg, there seemed to be only one place in the entire Westerland that was of sufficient value.

Then, with the help of the Westerland army, four thousand Kaldorei moved to the vicinity of the Iron Valley Air Force Base without anyone noticing, and ambushed in the forest northeast of the base. Since An Jiyue needed to accompany the flying fleet, Xiao Yiyue had to command the Westerland Army before Ewen returned, and the whereabouts of Tigris had been unknown, so Morgan was sent to command this ambush.

Thinking of this, the elf girl couldn't help but sighed to the sky: "Why hasn't he come yet..."

"Your Majesty!" As soon as the words fell, a Wanderer passed through the layers of Eternal Guards and came to Morgan under the gaze of the Wild Riders and the Thorn Sisters: "They are coming."

"Great!" Morgan was delighted: "Come with me, let's get this done quickly!"

The author says:

Author's words: The battle diagram has been uploaded to "Work Related"

Chapter 336: Lion Slaughter

It was a massacre of elves by elves, nothing more.

In view of the dangerous environment of Duncanwald Forest and the difficulty of marching in the undeveloped forest, most of the members of the High Elf Division came from the Kingdom of Chrace. This is a country where most of the country is covered by deep forests, and the interior is a rugged mountain range that hides dark secrets. This harsh environment has created the people of Chrace: all Chrace people are skilled hunters and accurate archers. They are tough, wild, and have a strong spirit of sacrifice.

Among the ten kingdoms of Ulthuan, the people of Chrace, the Outer Ring Kingdom, are undoubtedly the most adaptable and skilled in forest warfare. To march secretly in the Duncanwald Forest and then raid the Ironforge Valley unexpectedly is bound to be a difficult task, even with the assistance of their wild elf cousins. In order to live up to the trust of the Phoenix King, the Kingdom of Chrace selected two thousand good men to carry out this mission, including three regiments of White Lion Guards.

As the direct guard of the Phoenix King, the famous White Lion Guard is actually divided into two parts, one of which is stationed in Lothern, taking on the sacred duty of protecting the Phoenix King, while the other stays in their hometown and is ready to be dispatched at any time. The two are easy to distinguish in appearance. The White Lion Guards in Lothern will use the colors of the current Phoenix King on their uniforms and armor, such as Finubar's "navy blue", while the White Lion Guards staying in Chrace use the traditional gold and red colors.

Morgan took a look through the vision of a certain Wanderer and found that these White Lion Guards were the ones who stayed behind in Chrace. The army of the Chrace people was very simple. In addition to the spearmen and archers that all high elf kingdoms had, plus a team of silver-helmeted knights, there were 300 White Lion Guards wearing red and white battle robes, with shoulder armor and arm guards painted gold. In addition to the Chrace people, there were also five Lothern Sea Guards from the ship gangs in the marching queue, as well as a group of...woodland guards?

King Evergreen was stunned for a moment, then realized that it was the wild elves. The wild elves were very different from the wood elves, whose lights had been extinguished, in terms of culture, but their technology tree and military composition were basically the same as the latter, except that they lacked a considerable number of advanced military types, and there were no forest spirits to help them. Morgan didn't know how Lothern had persuaded the wild elves to get involved in this matter. She only knew that after dealing with the intervention army sent by the high elves, she would most likely have to lead a team to the Laurenlauren Forest to call for justice.

It was as if the group was already discussing how to deal with Tyrell's Poggio once this was over.

If the wild elves were included, the total strength of the High Elf Division was less than 3,000, so the 4,000 Kaldorei didn't have a very obvious advantage in terms of strength. But since it was an ambush, the situation was very different.

Morgan did not deploy his troops on both sides of the enemy's route like in the movies and TV shows he had watched before traveling through time, waiting for the enemy to enter the ambush circle and then shooting arrows at them, and then taking the opportunity to WAAAGH!! pass. This so-called ambush imagined by an outsider would never succeed unless the opponent was a blind man or Varus (Note 1).

In a real ambush, the main force of the ambushers will enter the ambush position only when they are about to attack. After determining the enemy's route and making up their minds to fight, the main force of the ambushers will hide and wait in a position farther out from the ambush position, leaving only a few sentinels and scouts as eyes on the predetermined ambush position. When the enemy is about to enter the ambush circle, the ambushers will quickly enter the ambush position and then launch a short assault when the enemy is not ready to fight.

The essence of an ambush is a short-term assault under certain conditions, and the essence of an ambush lies in the time difference. No matter how elite the army is, it takes time to switch from marching to combat. The more elite the army, the faster this speed is, but no matter how fast it is, it cannot be completed instantly, and an ambush takes advantage of this time.

The advantage of an ambush is not that you only realize there is an ambush when arrows and bullets have already hit your face, as in movies and TV dramas, but that by the time you realize there is an ambush, it is too late to deploy your troops. Whether it is a modern army that uses skirmish lines or an ancient army that fights in formation, it is a disaster to suffer a premeditated attack from the enemy while on the march.

In addition, the ambush circle is not really a circle, and the troops of the ambushers are not arranged in two parallel lines on both sides of the road as in movies and TV dramas. The real ambush circle is actually L-shaped, which will not completely surround the enemy, and Morgan did so at this time: she arranged the Eternal Guards and Woodland Guards on the vertical side of the "L", and the more elite War Dancers, Wild Forest Rangers and Deep Forest Scouts on the horizontal side of the "L".

The cavalry troops were concentrated as a reserve and did not go out on the field immediately.

When a Wanderer who was responsible for monitoring the enemy's movements reported that the enemy had entered the ambush circle, Morgan immediately ordered the entire army to act according to the predetermined plan. The cavalry gathered around the Evergreen King and did not move out immediately, while the Kaldorei infantry was like a gust of green breeze, quietly passing through the gaps between the trees and taking their positions in the ambush.

Almost as soon as the Kaldorei began to move, the Charis and the wild elves almost instinctively sensed that something was wrong. Even though the Kaldorei did not make any extra noise when they moved, the birds in the area had already been persuaded to leave in advance. Perhaps the sea guards, who were used to plains, cities, and oceans, had not yet realized the approach of danger.

The high elf commander in charge of this detachment was no mediocre general. As a Chrace man, he chose to trust his instincts without hesitation. "Stop!" The prince, who was fighting on foot, raised his battle axe high. A strong white lion followed closely beside its master, and a low roar rolled out of its throat. "Line up and prepare for battle!" the prince shouted.

This was the right order, but it was too late. The army was not in good condition at the moment. Marching in the Duncanwald Forest was not a comfortable experience. They suffered several attacks from beastmen and forest goblins along the way, and killed hundreds of mutant monsters. Although the casualties were not many, all the soldiers inevitably became tired due to the frequent battles. Perhaps because of this, they failed to detect the ambush of the Kaldorei in time.

Prince Chrace's roar was still echoing in the forest, and dense arrows had penetrated the gaps between the trees, bringing greetings from the Kaldorei to their cousins. The target of the first round of arrow rain was very clear. The ambushers spared the Asur and concentrated all their firepower on the wild elves, shooting down these close relatives from Lauren Loren in large numbers.

Without the need for the sea lords to give orders, the sea guards responded immediately. They stepped forward quickly with their large shields raised, smashed the lower edge of the shield on the ground with their left hands, and held their spears flat with their right hands, allowing the sharp spears to protrude from the gaps between the shields. In the blink of an eye, a shield and spear wall, the iconic symbol of the high elf army, was formed, and the surviving wild elves quickly retreated and hid behind the sea guards.

The archers of the Cherith held their bows but did not fight back. The archers of the Kaldorei all hid behind the trees. Even with the sharp eyes of the elves, the Cherith could only see some vague figures moving in the shadows under the shade of the trees, making it difficult to discern the exact location of the enemy.

The ambushers' rain of arrows never stopped, and high elves were constantly shot and fell. The armor on their bodies and the shields in their hands were useless in front of the enchanted arrows of the Kaldorei. The ambushed high elves could only stand in formation under the rain of arrows. Many were shot dead in the process, and the hastily drawn formation was inevitably distorted. A strange horn sounded in the forest, and the arrows that poured down like a torrential rain suddenly stopped. Then, even though it was intermittent due to the division of the trees, a strict and straight wall of shields and spears stepped out of the shadows and appeared in front of the Cherith people.

The Eternal Guards advanced in silence, and the Cherithians responded with a high-pitched war cry. There was no time for the Cherithians and the Sea Guards to reorganize their formations, and they could only fight against the crooked shield and spear wall. The horizontal spears were getting closer and closer to each other, and when the spear shafts on both sides slowly intertwined, both sides almost simultaneously thrust their spears fiercely.

At the beginning of the battle, the high elves were at a disadvantage due to their chaotic formation. The fight between spearmen was not like the sword and shield fights. In the process of fighting for the center line, it only takes a moment to decide life and death. The Eternal Guards were obviously more skilled than the Chrace spearmen and sea guards (Note 2).

The high elves' originally solid formation was rapidly thinned by the spears, and the entire front line was shaky, and the casualties they brought to the Eternal Guard were far less than their own losses. What was worse was that after entangled the high elves' infantry column, Morgan led the cavalry to make a detour and launched a charge from the rear of the high elves' formation in the desperate eyes of the enemy.

In the blink of an eye, several spearmen and sea guard ships with the highest casualties were smashed into pieces by the Kaldorei cavalry. The Eternal Guards that were originally fighting against them were freed, and when the Kaldorei cavalry completed a round of charge and quickly broke away from contact, these Eternal Guards took advantage of the situation and began to outflank the other high elves who were still holding their positions from the enemy's flanks and rear.

The high elves resisted tenaciously to the end. The White Lion Guards fought to the last man under the attack of the War Dancers and the Wildwood Rangers, defending their honor with their lives; the few Silver Helmets Knights, after judging that it was impossible to do anything, left most of them to block the pursuing Kaldorei cavalry, and the rest forcibly took the prince away from the battlefield despite his struggles.

Of course, they didn't get away in the end.

……

Note 1: A famous Roman general was ambushed by Germans while marching in the Black Forest, and lost three Roman legions at once, causing Octavian to shout out the famous words: "Varus, give me back my legions!"

Note 2: Although the Eternal Guard is a core unit on the desktop, on the same level as the High Elite Spearmen and Sea Guards, whether in terms of chess piece attributes or background settings, the Eternal Guard is targeted at elite units such as the White Lion and the Swordmaster.

Chapter 337 Initiative

North-west of Marienburg, near the border between Westerland and the Duchy of Cologne.

The flying fleet, organized into two echelons, turned again and entered the battlefield from the west side of the two armies that were confronting each other. The flying fleet maintained a flight altitude of about 1500 meters (based on the flagship Swift), and the straight-line distance from the high elf camp was more than five kilometers. Even with the altitude advantage, this was beyond the effective range of the projectile cannon.

A slowly rotating dark cloud was hovering above the high elves' camp. From time to time, a silver snake flashed through the depths of the dark cloud, and a few seconds later, a heavy rumbling sound came late, shaking the audience's eardrums. Compared with normal dark clouds, this "dark cloud" created by multiple spells was only a little over a hundred meters from the ground, and the thickest part of the entire dark cloud was more than a thousand meters, and the diameter of the cloud was six kilometers.

Although the flying fleet was still some distance away from the dark cloud, An Jiyue did not order them to get closer, but maintained the current distance. On the land battlefield, the West Territory Army, which was confronting the High Elite Intervention Army, had already tested it. In addition to automatically attacking targets within its coverage area, the dark cloud also had a "manual mode": Xiao Yiyue, who was acting as the army commander when Aiwen left temporarily, ordered the rocket launchers to conduct exploratory shooting as soon as he took over the command.

At a distance that the high elves thought was absolutely safe, a company of Hellstorm rockets opened fire. This company was not recruited directly by Egwene from the War Codex. The Hellstorm rockets were rare units in the tabletop rules, and the Knight Princess would never use precious rare cards on this. This company was actually produced by Coast Heavy Industry after its establishment, and then converted into a system unit after the supporting personnel were trained.

Since the rocket launchers were produced in-house, they used nitrate rocket technology imported from the Xuanshui Arsenal. Although the cost increased significantly, it was completely worth it compared to the improvement in range. Anyway, Aiwen could import cheap sugar through the channels of group friends.

The high elves who failed to update the intelligence in time misjudged the range of the rocket launcher. The first round of volleys hit the camp of the intervention army and caused a small fire. After observing for a while, Xiao Yiyue ordered another company to fire another round of volleys. As a result, the rocket just flew into the coverage of the dark cloud, and was hit by lightning bursting out of the dark cloud without touching the dark cloud.

All 54 new rockets were intercepted by lightning. Seeing this, the governor of Shuofang thought for a while, and then ordered the cannon company closest to her to open fire. This was actually a meaningless move. West's army did not enter the coverage of the dark clouds when it was deployed, which means that they were more than three kilometers away from the interference camp. No field cannon in service could have such a long range.

Xiao Yiyue was actually trying to trick the high elves on the other side, and she succeeded. Because there was a rocket launcher with an abnormally long range that did not match the description in the intelligence, the high elves, who only knew about the effects of black powder weapons, used the "manual mode" of the dark cloud again to intercept.

Compared with rockets filled with nitrate propellant and black powder, the difficulty of intercepting a solid iron ball was much higher. The lightning, which was much denser than the previous one, burned the cast iron ball. The hot molten iron splashed on the grass in late summer and early autumn, and the high temperature burned the green and yellow grass.

After two attempts, Xiao Yiyue strictly ordered West's army not to enter the coverage area of ​​the dark clouds, and then contacted An Jiuyue who was in the flying fleet in the chat group.

[Administrator #Xiao Yiyue: I can't attack here. Before the surge of magic energy caused by the supreme mana ends, there is no way to break the spell cast by Bai Douya. I can't let the soldiers advance under the lightning. ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: Even in the Cataclysm era when the Maelstrom had not yet been established and demons could appear at will, spells of this level could not be cast casually. There are absolutely no magic nodes nearby, and there is no magic storm at the moment. These white bean sprouts must have used some unconventional method to release this spell... Although there is no evidence, based on my understanding of spells, this spell cannot be maintained for a long time. Well, waiting like this is not a solution. We cannot hand over the initiative of the battle to the enemy. ]

[Administrator#Xiao Yiyue: What do you want to do? ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: Force them to attack. ]

In the sky, the flying fleet that had been gradually slowing down suddenly began to speed up and collectively turned around and flew northwest - to be precise, it flew towards Le'Angulan.

At the same time, the Westerland Army suddenly began to retreat. The first to move were the cavalry, the Imperial knights in shining armor, the Ugor archers recruited from Kislev, and the pistol cavalry composed of the children of Imperial nobles who defected to Egwene. All the cavalry in the Westerland Army gathered together and stayed in place to monitor the movements of the intervention army, while the infantry covered the artillery and took the initiative to abandon the original field fortifications, destroyed the fortifications, and retreated two kilometers in batches.

After the infantry and artillery were back in position and the minimum fortifications were urgently repaired, the Imperial Cavalry also retreated. As they retreated, a pistol cavalryman who took the initiative to take on the task, holding West's flag, ran in the opposite direction and plunged into the coverage of the dark clouds. The lightning did not fall, and the pistol cavalryman smoothly arrived in front of the intervention army's camp, and was stopped by a team of Arion plunderers when approaching the camp gate.

"This is a letter to your general!" said the pistol cavalryman, handing over a freshly written letter, then turned his horse and left.

After several checks to confirm that there was no poison or curse in the letter, it was handed over to Prince Ivan, the commander of the intervention army. The letter was written in Rexpert and the content was very simple. To be exact, it only had one sentence:

"I am waiting for my fleet to raze Tor Alessi. What are you waiting for?"

Tor Alessi, the name of a colony established by the high elves in the Old World, is now called Le'Angulong. The Lords of the Holy Scriptures will naturally not go to war with the Bretonnians at this time, so what this sentence actually means is that the flying fleet will raze the Asur enclave in Le'Angulong, just like it razed the elven town of Marienburg.

"This letter was definitely not written by that female tyrant," Prince Ivan calmly handed the letter to his subordinates to circulate one by one. "'Plunderer' Egwene is a Bretonnian. She would not use our terms to refer to a Bretonnian city."

The high elf nobles and mages looked at each other, wondering if now is the time to care about such trivial matters.

"This is not normal. Most of the Tyrant's army is here, but she herself is not here," Prince Ivan said, glancing at an empty chair, which was Teclis's exclusive seat. "Danger is lingering and brewing in invisible corners, and we are like fools, knowing nothing about the potential threat."

"Sir," a high elf noble said tentatively, "How should we deal with such a despicable threat?"

"Remove the 'Thunder Sky Canopy' and we will fight!" Prince Ivan stood up suddenly from his seat and said in a sonorous and powerful tone: "Since they want a bloody battle, let's give them a fight! Let all flying things take off and entangle the enemy's airships. We will take this opportunity to defeat their army! For the Phoenix King!"

All the high elf nobles and mages present stood up, drew their swords and shouted in unison: "For the Phoenix King!!"

The author says:

Author's words: Reply to reader "Reader1659590858":

No, why would you think that if he failed to escape, he was killed? It's obvious that he was captured and asked for ransom.

Chapter 338: Witch Hunter General

"I should go back." said Evelyn.

"Do we have to be enemies?" asked Lawn.

"You can try to stop me, Laun, just like you did three years ago," the Knight replied, "draw your sword and let us continue the unfinished battle; or we can part ways and end this futile meeting."

After saying this, Egwene looked at Laun, waiting for his decision. Both the Elector of Westerland and the King of Bretonnia came here fully armed. In a place so close to the Grey Mountains, it was foolish to go out without weapons, even for a Holy Grail Knight.