The Cornflower Witch Chapter 243

“Poof!” With a sound, torches were lit in the night.

At first, there was only one, then several, then a burning blaze.

Torches were held in the hands of mounted soldiers. They divided into several teams, rushed out of the military camp, and galloped into the night.

The flames stretched like a long dragon across the dark land. Then, the formed soldiers marched out of the main camp and headed south along the wide road beside the river, towards the city that had already changed its flag.

Their pace was not fast, merely a walk, to conserve energy. Their steps were uniform, their morale high, and they didn’t worry about being too late for the enemy to prepare, for they believed they would surely defeat the weak foe.

These were the elite troops of the Anti Kingdom, and their capital for conquering all directions.

The sounds of their night march could not be concealed. Even though the garrison in Stream Valley City was not elite, they received scattered scout reports and learned of the enemy’s movement.

In the castle’s council hall, Prince Jobs rushed in, his clothes disheveled. Traces of a lipstick mark remained on his face, indicating he might have just been sleeping with some noble lady. Ever since he gained an advantage in suppressing scouts, many young girls in the city regarded him as the future king, desperately trying to get close to him, flattering him, and actively seeking his affection. And this young prince, unable to bear the pressure of these days, accepted without resistance.

“What’s going on? Why did the Anti army move without any warning? Didn’t any of you notice?” He asked several questions in a row, clearly having woken up in the middle of the night with a belly full of anger.

“Your Royal Highness, this is not the fault of the reconnaissance personnel. The actions of those Anti soldiers were very sudden,” an officer explained. Unfortunately, Prince Jobs simply didn’t listen to these words.

“Don’t give me these excuses. All I need to know is that you completely failed to anticipate what happened tonight. This is your dereliction of duty.” He knocked on the table, then leaned his hands on it, looking at the map.

“What is their current situation?”

“Their main infantry force is slowly approaching Stream Valley City, but we haven’t seen them carrying any heavy engineering equipment.”

“As for the cavalry that rushed out in the night, they are currently circling around both sides of Stream Valley City, possibly preparing to outflank it.”

“Outflank? They only have horses, not wings. Can they fly in?” Prince Jobs shook his head, but then seemed to think of something and his expression became solemn.

“Although Anti doesn’t have many flying troops, the Aquascor…” He remembered that the fortress of Wind Cliff City was quickly breached because of the assistance of Aquascor Khanate’s giant eagles.

“Have the patrol teams’ hunters wait on the city wall. If they spot any strange figures in the sky, shoot them down immediately.”

“Yes, Your Royal Highness.”

After giving this order, Prince Jobs looked at the map again, his mood irritable.

“Do we have any plans now? How do we deal with their attack?”

“This…” The officers present couldn’t figure out how the enemy would attack without engineering equipment, so they didn’t know how to counter it.

“As long as we hold the city walls, they can’t get through,” one old officer finally said, stating a correct but useless fact.

“Alright, hold the city walls.” Prince Jobs was also clueless, so when someone answered, he directly approved.

The night fires burned brightly. Not only were the elite Anti troops marching, but within Stream Valley City, people also moved about, and sounds of running and shouting echoed everywhere. From the high tower of the castle, alarm bells rang continuously, waking the sleeping residents of the city.

“The Anti People are here,” such words spread through the streets. Many worriedly closed their doors and bolted them shut.

Some also dug out weapons and armor from their cellars, cautiously preparing.

An hour later, a line of torches appeared outside Stream Valley City. Even at night, they marched in orderly formation, holding their spears high, standing in the darkness, making the new recruits on the city walls tremble with fear.

Before these men could think too much, the attack horn blared in the night, and then the army raised their shields and approached the city walls step by step.

“Draw your bows, shoot your arrows!”

Under the command of the defending garrison, arrows were vollied, flying into the night sky in varying densities, then falling down, piercing the Anti soldiers below.

Despite the protection of their shields, many soldiers were wounded and killed during the assault. However, these losses did not shake the morale of the Anti army. They continued to approach the city walls, getting closer and closer.

“Knights! Advance with me!”

A tall and mighty figure appeared in the torchlight of the night. He rode a reddish-brown warhorse with a mane like flowing flames, especially striking in the night. This was none other than the commanding ‘Viscount Noxden’.

About ten fully armed knights rode out, accompanying him, then formed a triangular formation.

Their silver-white plate armor had distinct ridges, stained with a pale gold color in the firelight, reflecting the halos of the torches. As they rode faster and faster, they resembled a fiery streak rushing through the night, heading toward the pitch-black city wall.

Hooves thundered, dust flew. The city wall, solid as a mountain, grew closer in their sight, yet this fiery spearhead did not reduce its speed, pressing forward relentlessly.

At the forefront, Noxden, in the fierce night wind, raised his war hammer. “Andartica!”

The square-angled war hammer glowed with a white halo, then a translucent giant hammer expanded and grew larger.

When Noxden was only fifty meters from the city wall, he gripped the hammer handle with both hands and swung it down with all his might.

The giant hammer’s shadow whistled through the night with an explosive roar, then struck the city wall, directly smashing a breach.

The accompanying knights also raised their lances, white chess piece phantoms appearing above their heads. Together with Noxden, they formed a white curtain of a city wall, leaped through the breach, and charged into the city. Soldiers and passersby who were still running were crushed by these knights as if by a giant train, turning them into mere fragments.

“Kill!”

Soldiers outside the city wall charged with torches, their battle cries echoing through the night, like a burning flood, pouring into Stream Valley City through the broken dam.

There was no lengthy catapult siege or ramming of gates. After the powerful knight smashed open the city wall, the battle directly entered the most fierce period of meaty grinding.

At this point, you either go against the tide, trying desperately to plug the gap with a weak front line, or you are easily slaughtered by the pursuing enemy forces in a chaotic escape.

From the high tower of the castle, Prince Jobs stared blankly at the scene in the distance, the Anti soldiers with raised torches pouring into the city.

Long-forgotten memories resurfaced in his mind—the day White Cliff City fell.

His tall, revered father, in lament and helplessness, sent him and his sister out of the city, while he and a group of knights vanished into that night consumed by fire.

“No… No, it can’t be like this, please don’t let it be like this.” He clutched his head, unable to accept this outcome.

His previous pride and triumph vanished like a candle flame in the night wind. All that remained in his heart was fear and confusion, and he dreaded returning to that night of constant running and fleeing.

“Jobs!”

At this moment, a figure rushed up the high tower, breathless and anxious, finally finding Jobs. She walked over and grabbed Jobs’ wrist.

“Quick, Jobs, we’ll leave through the mountain path on the south side of the castle.” Princess Masha anxiously pulled Jobs, who at this moment was like a walking dead man, following behind his sister.

Along the way, the delicate princess, dressed in a black dress, disregarded the danger and pulled Jobs through the chaotic interior of the castle, rallying any soldiers or knights they could find to escort Prince Jobs to safety.

And the high-ranking Anti Kingdom military officers, such as Noxden, who had breached the city, also knew that the prince must be somewhere in the castle. The sound of galloping hooves approached in the night.

Lacking strong organization, the chaotic garrison and refugees were not much different. Even if some of them had decent fighting power, they could only fight individually, making it difficult to resist the surging Anti soldiers, becoming merely scattered waves swallowed up by the front line.

“Kill!”

About ten long spears pierced out simultaneously, puncturing the warrior who was swinging his blade. As a former adventurer, he had rich experience in dealing with enemies, but even in his most dangerous moments, he had never imagined that he would be able to block ten long spears simultaneously.

So, after cutting down five long spears, this ‘First-Order Blood Law’ warrior, cornered, was surrounded and killed by ordinary soldiers against the wall.

Facing the plight of their comrades, the remaining supernatural beings felt a chill in their hearts. They no longer wanted to fight and instead looked for opportunities to escape. The departure of these core defenders caused the front line to lose its backbone and collapse even faster, overrun by the elite forces of the Anti Kingdom.

The city wall was breached, the front line collapsed, and the core forces retreated. The scales of battle in Stream Valley City tipped completely to one side.

Among the defenders, no one thought of resisting anymore; they only wanted to escape this nightmare.

On the mountain path at night, a team rushed out of the city. They lit only a few torches, hoping to see the road but also hoping no one would see them.

“Prince Jobs has escaped!” An angry shout echoed through the city, momentarily halting the battlefield, only for it to return to normal quickly.

No one in the city’s garrison cared about the prince’s whereabouts anymore; surviving was far more important than anger.

However, while the garrison didn’t care, the elite Anti Kingdom forces who had invaded the city did. Noxden led the knights and cavalry by his side, rushing out of Stream Valley City and pursuing the fleeing team along the mountain path, deeper into the night.

Initially, they could still hear the battle cries from Stream Valley City behind them, but as they pursued deeper into the mountains, everything around them gradually fell silent, leaving only the sound of the warhorses’ heavy breathing and pounding hooves.

Unbeknownst to them, figures in robes stood on the hillsides on both sides of the mountain path. They watched the pursuing team galloping below, and beneath their hoods, their eyes glowed with an evil purplish red hue.

Soon, several huge spherical shapes with antennae emerged from the darkness, their giant eyeballs opening in the gloom.