Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

The rhythm of this whistle is usually used as a warning or alert. Its actual meaning varies depending on the occasion, but it always conveys the most basic message: those here are colleagues.

However, to Raslaufer's surprise, the other party did not buy it at all. As another whistle sounded in response, a bald, burly man who was nearly 2.5 meters tall leaped out from behind the hill, his upper body bare in the cold winter of East Inasas, holding a longbow in his hand.

Judging from the metallic sheen of that bow in the sunlight, it must be made of steel!

"Father God, open your eyes! I've finally caught you!" The burly man's features were as wild and untamed as the wilderness, with a pair of fiery red eyebrows and bright orange eyes that were bigger than copper bells. "Save your energy, Raslaufer. Today, I'm going to kidnap you!"

"Give me back my brother's life!"

"It's you?!" This time, it was Dobulle's turn to be shocked. He stared incredulously at the bandit who had jumped out. "Grock, you should have died in the cavalry charge!"

Even such a brute could not survive unscathed under the iron hooves, even if he was Goliath with the blood of a fire giant!

What's more, those brothers are used to not wearing clothes!

Yes, Raslaw knew this guy; this mercenary named Grok had fought alongside Raslaw in a battle with his brother.

"The cavalry are charging at me, yes! But the flames of vengeance prevent me from dying!" Goliath roared, puffing out his chest. Only when he got close did everyone realize that his skin was not naturally dark red, but rather made up of countless old and new scars!

"You vile and cowardly wretch, you vanished from Eastern Inassus after that, and I have been searching for you ever since! Now, Father God has finally brought you back to me!"

Despicable? Perhaps, but cowardly? The gazes of Raslaufer's companions shifted somewhat blankly between Goliath and Raslaufer himself.

This big oaf... could he have mistaken me for someone else?

"It seems not only your body was trampled, but your brain was also kicked even worse by the horses' hooves," Leslaufer sneered, his eyes showing no remorse whatsoever. "Your brother is a complete gambler. He should have known what would happen to him when he tried to shoot me in the back on the battlefield!"

In fact, Grok's timeline is somewhat chaotic. Raslaufer killed his brother many years ago. After that, Raslaufer not only stayed in East Inassus for quite some time, but also returned more than once, only he did not find Dople.

At that time, Raslaufer had only been in the business for a short time, so it was natural for him to participate in gambling or other entertainment common among mercenaries, only to discover that the more worthwhile "fun" lay ahead. Meanwhile, Goliath's brother was one of the most notorious gamblers in and around the gambling world.

He has poor gambling skills, bad luck, bad gambling etiquette, and a penchant for cheating. Yet, his naturally strong physique gives him the capital to overcome all these vices. If things don't go his way, throwing punches is the least of his worries; his solid iron longbow has cracked open countless skulls.

But when Raslaufer was young, he was far more ruthless than he is now, and the tall and strong Doppler was not much less physically imposing than Goliath. Therefore, when he was recruited into that group and heard about the opponent's misdeeds, Raslaufer quickly organized a card game specifically targeting him, and finally broke his nose with a bag full of gambling money before taking all the money.

The beaten-up Goliath could not accept this outcome, and a few days later, driven by malice, he attempted to kill Raslaufer during the chaos of the battle. However, while he acted in the confusion, Raslaufer also acted in the confusion, and in the end, it was Goliath himself who was left on the battlefield.

As for Grok, although he was also beaten up in that bet, he didn't go after him because Grok didn't shoot him in the melee. Later, when the battle group was defeated and retreated, he saw Grok being swallowed up by the tide of the enemy cavalry charge.

Leslaufer thought it was all over, but he never expected to run into him again today.

"What my brother does is none of your business!" Grok roared like a wild beast. "If he wants you dead, you should just obediently die!"

"There's no point in saying more now, come on! Today I will avenge him!"

Without giving Raslaufer a chance to speak further, Goliath used a speed and agility completely disproportionate to his size to draw his bow and nock an arrow, shooting it towards Raslaufer's head!

The arrow pierced through the clouds and shattered rocks, tearing through the air with a terrifying explosion that startled even Leslaufer. In Doppler's memory, the Grok brothers possessed no such power!

Fortunately, he is not the same Leslaufer he used to be!

The sword hidden at his side suddenly rose up, and Dubler roared and charged forward instead of retreating, actually charging towards Goliath's arrow!

Chapter 370 Goliath

The pure clash of forces shook the ground, but what was even more astonishing to onlookers than the struggle between the two was that the swing of Goliath's iron bow forced Raslaufer to take several steps back!

"Whoosh—" Grok exhaled a long wisp of white air. After just one move, the muscles all over his body bulged like bellows, with the changes in his upper body being far greater than those in his lower body.

Those muscles swelled to nearly twice their original size, and the veins coiled and snaked like venomous pythons, rising and falling with the heartbeat, as if they were alive!

"Wow—uh—" Daisy gaped, making an incomprehensible sound. "This reminds me of my biology textbook... Working out like this is definitely not for attracting the opposite sex..."

“Training alone can’t achieve this,” Leslaufer scoffed. “Every Goliath can trace their ancestry back to the Titans, but very few Goliaths can truly ‘trace their ancestry’.”

“I have you to thank for this, Leslaufer!” Grok straightened up, now at least two heads taller than before. “Fire is my power, and hatred is my inexhaustible fuel!”

"You will die here today!"

"Good!" The bandits around the crowd shouted, cheering for their leader.

"You guys are great, my foot!"

Just as Grok's momentum was rising, a clear shout suddenly rang out. The next instant, a emerald green sword light shot up from the ground. A bandit who was closer to the carriage didn't even have time to react before a transparent hole appeared in his chest.

Before he fell to the ground, if a bandit next to him hadn't just happened to block the incoming sword, he probably would have had more than just the skin and flesh cut off his arm!

Are there more experts?

The sudden counterattack startled Grok slightly, but Raslaufer wouldn't give him a chance to focus on Angelita. A faint scent of sulfur emanated from his right arm, guiding the greatsword in his hand to thrust forward once more!

Groke scoffed and abandoned his attention to his comrades. These people meant nothing to him, and he wouldn't feel any pain even if they all died. On the contrary, Raslaufer was the one who deserved all his attention.

Goliath originally thought that with his years of progress and awakening, killing a mere human would be a piece of cake for him, who possessed the blood of a fire giant. However, in today's battle, he could only gain a slight advantage!

How tall is he now? Three meters? Three and a half meters? Four meters? He's almost reached the size of his ancestor, and his physical strength and martial arts have reached their peak! Even now, every move he makes exudes the power of flames! But why can't he burn his enemy to ashes?!

Raslaufer darted around the damned little giant, coldly watching Grok's bandits being swiftly wiped out—Daisy would soon be free, and the scales of the battle would tip back in his favor.

This time he didn't need to duel his opponent, although Raslaufer believed that victory would still be his even if he did, but it was completely unnecessary.

Moreover, he couldn't guarantee that he could defeat this big guy who was stronger than him and whose martial arts skills were no less than his own before the battle over there ended.

The weapon, which had been transformed from a massive iron bow into a club, slammed down again, forcing Raslaufer to step back and create distance. This, in turn, gave Grok the opportunity to draw his bow. Two arrows rang out with a satisfying thud on the bowstring and hurtled towards Dople in quick succession.

Just before Leslaufer could deflect it, an arcane "sphere" with a faint pink glow suddenly rushed in front of him, and with two crisp sounds, the powerful arrow was deflected to the side.

"Old Lei, here we come!" The shield spells surrounding Daisy dissipated under the impact, but the bard's performance had just begun. As the melody flowed, a faintly glowing illusory shortbow appeared in front of her, shooting starlight towards the giant's face.

"You give me two arrows, I'll return one!"

"A mere trick!" Grok paid no attention to the starlight that moved as slowly as a tortoise, and even reached out to try to deflect it with his bare hands. But unexpectedly, the starlight was not a physical arrowhead at all, and was completely unaffected by the large hand, still hitting Grok's face with its predetermined target.

"Ten rings!" The poet's cheer immediately distracted Goliath, who had transformed into a giant. He didn't notice that a straight black shadow was sweeping past his side, and the flexible neck suddenly bent as it approached its prey, tearing a piece of flesh from Goliath's ankle!

It was Black Claw!

"Reslaufer! You despicable worm!" Grok kicked out, but only received a few primitive feathers and a series of mocking cries. The anger in the Titan's heart, harassed in this way, was unimaginable. "Do you dare to fight me one-on-one, like a man!"

"You talk as if your men are just for show," Dubul said dismissively. On the battlefield, it was common for ten to gang up on one or vice versa. How could he fall for such a trick? "It seems that the one who is going to die here today is you!"

Mary took the little girl and left the battlefield without joining the fight. Angelita and Daisy simply cast spells from a distance to harass Leslaufer and prevent him from splitting into multiple parts. Even so, Goliath, now all alone, was helpless even if his rage could burn through the nine prisons of Barto.

Just one person like Raslaw alone requires him to be fully alert; even though he has hands all over his body, he only has one brain!

Was he going to die here? No, absolutely not! He hadn't avenged his brother yet; how could he die at the hands of his enemy?

Raslaufer struck Goliath in the back of the knee with his sword, forcing Grok to his knees, whereupon he roared in fury once more. His size instantly shrank, and the iron bow that had fallen with him was caught by his feet, the bowstring falling back into his control.

Seeing its prey fall, Black Claw let out a strange cry and pounced forward with its claws outstretched. This was exactly what Grok wanted; the taut bowstring in his hand suddenly snapped, and with a sharp "crack," the Deinonychus was sent flying backward at the same speed as its attack. Taking advantage of this brief opening, Goliath flipped to its feet, abandoning its weapon, and fled headlong into the distance!

"Hmph, trying to escape?" Daisy's affected voice came from behind him, and several magical threads suddenly appeared out of thin air, wrapping around Grok's limbs. Unfortunately, the strength of those threads was no match for Goliath's giant bloodline, and the brute easily broke free of the restraints and fled in a flash.

Chapter 371 is coming soon

"Hey, I didn't catch him!" Daisy was dumbfounded when she saw that her spell had failed. "Old Lei, should we go after him? You cut his leg with your sword, so he probably can't have gone far."

“Forget it,” surprisingly, Leslaufer shook his head. “That big oaf is so strong, he might not be much slower even if he walked on two hands. Let him go.”

Goliath isn't a particularly rare race in Eastern Inassassins. Since many of them migrated from Ampiri, they tend to form gangs. If a few more as strong as Grok were to emerge later, the outcome would be hard to predict.

In fact, based on Raslaufer's past experience, there should be very few Goliaths who can reach Grok's level. However, this year's mission has been filled with more monsters and demons than he has ever seen in his entire life, so Raslaufer decided it would be better to play it safe.

Going to the Forest of Liha attracted the Spider Queen's attention. Who knows if chasing Goliath this time won't cause the Fire Giant God to jump out?

Although the subsequent peaceful journey proved that Raslaufer had probably overthought things, he didn't feel there was anything to regret: the Goliath brothers' schemes were mostly limited to cheating at the gambling table and ambushing him from behind during the melee. If he had no one behind him, even if they came to seek revenge every day, Raslaufer had nothing to fear.

This East Inasas is not just Grok's hometown.

“We’ll be there around the day after tomorrow,” Raslaufer said, leaning against a dead tree trunk by the campfire as night fell, gazing at the starry sky. “But let me remind you again, Anne, Zebrech isn’t a good place to settle down. If you change your mind now, we can take another route to Sunken Ironburg, one of the major cities in Eastern Inas—of course, it can’t compare to City of the Broken Bottle or Magpares.”

"Sinking Iron Fortress?" Daisy's ears perked up immediately; she loved asking about these things. "It's rich in iron ore, isn't it?"

"When Emperor Richard the Great went north, he suffered a setback there. It is said that five thousand knights—the kind with titles—were donated to the city. The locals then renamed the place in protest against the emperor."

"Unfortunately, it was eventually captured. That sorcerer Charjiji played a significant role in it, but his name was not changed. However, it's hard to say who exactly was sunk."

Unlike the south, due to the environment and culture of Eastern Inassia, most cities were originally military fortresses, even the largest ones. In some places, the castles were dismantled as the fighting subsided, but more often, as the city developed, they were surrounded by walls, one after another, each like the rings of a tree, with the height depending on the city's situation at the time. These were called "Iron Walls" by the locals.

The city lord and other important figures sit in the constantly renovated castle in the center. If someone wants to attack, they have to tear down the outer walls layer by layer and peel back the layers to reach the innermost and most difficult fortress.

Such strongholds are easy targets; even with ten times the manpower, you could be overwhelmed if you're not careful. Even the mercenaries from the East Inasas are often unwilling to take on these jobs, calling them "iron trenches"—of course, only when they are the attacking side in wartime.

In normal times, those folds would be a den of iniquity, a place where mercenaries and nobles indulged in their pleasures. No one knew what kind of places were inside, just as no one knew how many people it would take to breach such an iron wall.

“The reason why Ironforge is called the largest is because it has seven layers inside and out. Now, any lord who wants to take it down would have to get a dragon,” Reslaufer said. “But it is said that strong fortresses are often breached from the inside, and that place is no exception.”

“I heard them say that since the Iron Fortress was built, no owner has ever died a good death. For every owner it has had, there has been a life lost in that position.”

"Then why did you still make me go?" Angelita gave Raslaufer a reproachful look. If Raslaufer, or the person who told him, wasn't exaggerating, that place was probably too gloomy even compared to the upper echelons of the empire.

"Are you planning to ascend the throne there?" the mercenary laughed. "As long as you don't intend to do that, it's still quite safe there. After all, you're not short of money, are you?"

“Then I won’t go either. We already agreed to go to Zebrech,” Angelita said, even though they weren’t supposed to arrive until the day after tomorrow. It was already night, and the journey would only take about a day. She relaxed and started to act a little spoiled. “Could it be that you’re afraid we’ll ruin your family’s happiness?”

"Isn't my family here?" The mercenary, who had a home in his hometown but had always been a wanderer, patted his chest. "I was mainly worried that you wouldn't be used to living here. You haven't been back for so long, and the dust and mud must be up to your calves. If you run away before your teacher brings the money, I'll be in big trouble."

“Anyway, it’s not a big problem,” Leslaufer thought for a moment. “If we don’t want to go to Ironforge, then we don’t have to. Do you remember Skadi, the one I told you about before?”

“Remember…?” A rustling sound of clothes made Angelita jump up alertly, but what Leslaufer said was completely different from what she thought.

“She married a count, and the count’s territory isn’t too far away. If you really don’t like Zebrech, I can take you there to live,” Raslaufer paused, “However, I can’t climb that count’s ‘high branch’ and I’m not familiar with him, so living under someone else’s roof would definitely be very inconvenient.”

"No matter how inconvenient it may be, there is always a 'fence' to 'stay' in."

Before Angelita could speak, a low, guttural response suddenly came from the darkness outside the campfire.

"I'm afraid that even if you wanted to go, you wouldn't be able to now."

"Playing tricks? Who are you?!"

His icy blue eyes were instantly filled with killing intent. Raslaufer leaped up, his ever-present battle sword revealing its sharpness as he slashed towards the night!

With a clang, in the firelight, the tip of a short spear was disarmed by the sharp blade of the regional iron. At the same time, a large, hairy figure staggered out of the light spell cast by Daisy—it was a goblin bear.

"Why does this look so familiar?" Daisy paused slightly, the appearance, the weapon...

“Of course you look familiar,” the goblin said in a muffled voice, dropping the two pieces of broken iron in his hand. “I surrender—I didn’t come here to fight, Princess Angrieta, Lord Raslaufer.”

Chapter 372 Near My Hometown

Who else could this bear goblin that Daisy found familiar, besides the "lone beast" who attacked them and was then released?

“Don’t call me princess,” Angelita frowned at the title. “I’ve been out here for so long.”

“That’s none of my business. The deal’s off, I can yell all I want,” the beast shrugged dramatically as Leslaufer grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and dragged him to the fire. “Gently, gently, I’ve done everything you asked. I’m here tonight for something else!”

“Speak,” Leslaufer said, giving him a shove as he released his grip, “Wait, first tell me what I asked you to do, what was their reaction?”

"Well, that's pretty much it, 'That guy's still alive,' you know. Unless they also took the White Blade's gold coins like I did, what else can they do?"

"'Human Stick' and the others were quite happy and even treated me to a drink, but to be honest, drinking with that guy who has no hands or feet is definitely not a pleasant experience," the bear goblin grinned, probably recalling some embarrassing incidents from not long ago. "Those youngsters still scoff at every name they've heard of or haven't heard of. I guess someone will come looking for you to 'spar' in a while, but you'll definitely be able to handle it."

"They will soon learn what it means to be famous and influential; the old saying is not without merit."

"You're just a goblin, where do you get all these witty remarks?" Daisy pouted.

“If I didn’t have to waste so much breath on this, I would be dead already,” the goblin retorted, glancing fearfully at the sword in Raslaufer’s hand. “But this thing has its downsides too. Your old enemies are probably going to make their move soon. You rarely come back to the East, and they won’t let this opportunity pass them by.”

“In fact, I’ve already seen one,” Raslaufer nodded, casually sticking the knife into the fire. “Grock, that Goliath, he’s still alive. I haven’t heard from him in all these years.”

“You don’t usually stay in the east, so it’s normal that you haven’t heard of him,” the beast paused slightly, “but what grudge do you have against him?”

Although Grok was not Doppler, he was a well-paid longbowman, and his size and the distinctive iron bow made him quite famous in the circle. However, he never told outsiders about his hatred for Raslaufer.

“If he goes around telling everyone, his head will soon be worth a lot of gold.” Raslaw chuckled. He believed that many of his friends would still stand up for him, and those hoping to recruit him would probably not pass up such an opportunity to get a discount—even in Eastern Inassus, the price of Doples was still high.

“That’s true, I really want that money,” the Beast nodded in agreement. “That’s the situation. So, now you believe I’m not planning to do anything, right? I just happened to be passing by and saw you, so I followed along to take a look—I didn’t expect you to be going to Zebrech.”

The bear goblin is nicknamed "the lone beast" for a reason. His race prefers to travel at night, and he himself is even more adept at it. What others consider a night of rest and recuperation is his daytime.

"However, you don't need to go to Waidoule Pass over there. In fact, I advise you to take a detour. Although it will take a few more days to travel, you've already come this far, what's a little more time?"

As a former member of the hunt for Angrita, the goblin bear naturally knew why they had come to Eastern Inathas. It was highly unlikely that the Imperial forces would extend their reach here, and besides, they had already traveled this far from the Empire; a slight detour wouldn't be a big deal.

“I don’t need you to tell me what to do,” Leslaufer slapped him on the head. “What happened? Stop beating around the bush, unless you want to be a charlatan like ‘human charlatan’.”

The bear goblin immediately shrank his neck. Normally, this should have been a joke, but he had to take it seriously.

“It’s just misfortune in the family, that’s how it is for nobles, it’s always the same old story,” said the Lone Beast, waving his hand towards the darkness outside, signaling the newly recruited men who were “alone with him” to disperse. “It turns out that the count had two younger brothers, much younger than him. After the previous count passed away, they naturally didn’t get any of the territory, but they weren’t in a hurry. After all, the counts of the Outer Doule territory always lost their wives and had no sons or daughters.”

According to traditional inheritance law, the earldom would eventually fall into the hands of his two younger brothers.