Chapter 66: Wrath
The battle broke out suddenly and ended just as quickly.
Though there was some commotion, the noise was largely drowned out by the many people detained in the Grain-Drying Yard.
“Sir.”
The veteran who had deliberately mocked the enemy to draw their attention earlier spat out a mouthful of dirty blood, then stood up, his expression stirred with emotion.
“Are you alright?” Ion asked.
“I’m fine!” the veteran shook his head. “I can still fight alongside you without a problem!”
Ion glanced at his injuries, then shook his head helplessly. “I think you might not hold up... Take the wounded and retreat into the mountains. Find a chance to head for White Mountain City. A major battle is likely to break out there soon.”
The veteran hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Although he had shouted the loudest, his injuries were anything but light. Especially after being beaten up for causing a distraction earlier, he was in no condition to continue fighting.
“Do you know which direction the Lord broke through and escaped to?”
As Ion asked, he instructed the others to quickly rescue more people and distribute the weapons lying on the ground.
At this point, it was unnecessary to consider whether these people had any combat training.
However, since the militia and veterans had more battle experience, those who had been trained naturally got their hands on weapons more easily.
“South.” A veteran who had received a weapon replied gravely. “The Lord instructed us to retreat if possible. If not, then surrender. They regrouped in the south and broke out toward White Mountain City. That’s likely their destination.”
“When did the enemy launch their attack?”
“They launched a night raid but were repelled. After that, it turned into a direct assault,” another veteran added.
“Thanks to the village’s geographical advantages, we managed to hold out until morning, when we gradually began to lose ground... especially on the western front. When two enemy knights broke through and entered, the Lord abandoned the defense.”
“How many knights are currently in Mountain Ridge Village?” Ion asked again.
“One.”
The veterans looked at each other, uncertain how to answer, as they had been the first to be captured and didn’t know the later developments.
But while the captured veterans didn’t know, that didn’t mean no one else did.
Several villagers confidently spoke up.
“I saw him go into the village chief’s house! He dragged the village chief’s daughter in there, along with several other women!”
At the mention of this, the villagers became visibly enraged.
Ion glanced at the veterans beside him and asked again, “The watchposts didn’t issue a warning?”
“No,” everyone shook their heads.
Ion paused briefly in thought and then let out a soft sigh, having realized the root of the problem.
On the border, each watchpost was guarded by several Bloodline Knights. At critical points, especially when war broke out, additional personnel would even be dispatched to these posts to prevent them from being neutralized by enemy decapitation tactics.
When Ion initially adopted this method, it was simply to monitor enemy movements and buy time for an appropriate response.
But now he understood completely, he had underestimated the potential scale and intensity of this war.
The enemy had sent Bloodline Knights specifically to eliminate the watchposts, with the clear intent of annihilating the entire White Mountain Territory!
Because in the past few months, White Mountain Territory’s activities had not been a secret. Anyone paying attention would have noticed.
Ion finally understood why, at the onset of major battles, the first to be arrested and restricted in border areas were the traveling merchants.
“The Lord wouldn’t break out toward White Mountain City,” Ion said gravely.
“I have a good idea where he’s headed... Next, I’ll deal with that knight. You all focus on rescuing the others.”
By now, the several hundred able-bodied adults in the Grain-Drying Yard had been completely freed. Over sixty of them had been armed.
But with a single glance, Ion knew that most of them were not of much use in their current condition, as they all bore varying degrees of injuries. Still, just because they were currently unfit didn’t mean they would remain so, especially those whose eyes now burned with ferocity.
They might have feared war before, but after witnessing the plundering and humiliation of Mountain Ridge Village, their blood had been thoroughly stirred.
They could no longer remain indifferent or sit idly by. Ion had seen this often back on the border, whether it was the Tyrella Kingdom’s borderlands being raided, or them crossing the line to plunder the enemy, the result was always the same: a new wave of soldiers born with deep hatred.
Gripping his longsword, Ion strode quickly toward the village chief’s house, located on the eastern side of Mountain Ridge Village.
It was one of the few three-story buildings in the village.
The closer he got, the stronger the stench of blood Ion smelled.
He quickly scanned the surroundings.
In Mountain Ridge Village, nearly every household had several corpses at the doorstep, some were elderly, others were able-bodied adults, and even children, though most were the elderly and able-bodied.
But only in the area near the eastern part of the village were the deaths especially concentrated.
Ion even saw many people tied to trees or simply hung up, used as some form of entertainment props.
Men, women, the elderly, and children, all were among them.
This sight made Ion’s grip on his sword tighten further.
Because even during the raids he had participated in on the border, he had never seen anyone do such things.
From nearby houses came sounds of abuse and torment.
But Ion ignored them, he knew those people wouldn’t live much longer.
The wrath of the hundreds of surviving villagers from Mountain Ridge Village was not something these soldiers, who didn’t even have weapons in hand, could withstand.
Soon enough—
Ion arrived at the entrance to the village chief’s house.
Behind him, the sounds of doors being kicked open finally rang out one after another.
The enraged villagers had finally stormed into the houses to fight the enemies who had plundered and humiliated them.
At first—
There was only a shout.
Then came the clashing of steel.
But soon, it turned into pleas for mercy and wails of agony.
Ion didn’t listen to the end. He took a deep breath.
Black flames quietly ignited around his body.
At first, just a single wisp. Then, like ink spreading in water, it expanded into a sheet of black flame.
The clothes on Ion’s body burned in the fire, quickly turning to ash.
This was the effect of Blood Flame.
It was a blazing fire manifested by converting the blood within a Bloodline User’s body into fuel, hence its extremely fierce combustion.
One of its basic characteristics was that the more blood the Bloodline User consumed, the more ferocious the flames burned, and naturally, the greater the power.
In theory, Blood Flame was the only bloodline ability among all Second-Tier Bloodline Users capable of forcibly contending with and threatening a Third-Tier Bloodline User.
Of course, the result of such an act was usually only one.
That was, the Flame Hound Bloodline User’s entire blood supply would be evaporated.
Ion certainly didn’t plan to evaporate all of his blood at this moment, but the fury in his heart had indeed made his blood surge faster, making the black flames burning on his body even more savage.
Without further delay, one major weakness of Flame Hound Bloodline Users was their lack of endurance in prolonged combat.
Unlike most other bloodline abilities that consumed the user’s stamina and mental power, the Flame Hound Bloodline was a self-consuming force that harmed the user nearly as much as it harmed the enemy.
The longer the battle lasted, the more it disadvantaged the Flame Hound Bloodline User. In fact, the enemy might not even need to act, given enough time, the user would collapse on their own.
Ion kicked the door open with a single blow!
A flash of cold light shot through the air instantly.
The door he had kicked in was the first to meet this cold light and was immediately shattered into a spray of wooden splinters.
Most of the wooden fragments that blasted and shot toward Ion were burned to ashes by the black flames before they could even reach him.
But—
Ion seemed to have anticipated this. The longsword in his hand thrust unerringly toward that sudden burst of cold light.
“Ding—”
A sharp clash echoed.
Ion’s right hand numbed slightly; he immediately realized the enemy’s strength far exceeded his own.
Though he was slightly at a disadvantage in raw power, he discovered that his bloodline ability, Blood Flame, clearly restrained the opponent. When their weapons clashed, a stream of force burst from the enemy’s weaponz that must have been how they had shattered the door in a single strike. And this force had been held back deliberately, clearly intended for a surprise attack.
Unfortunately for them, the moment it was released, the Blood Flame already clinging to the Rare Iron Longsword tore it apart completely before it could erupt, leaving behind only a faint “pop” that would have gone unnoticed if not listened to closely.
The clash happened in an instant—
And ended in a flash.
Sunlight spilled into the house through the shattered door.
Ion’s eyes narrowed sharply. He couldn’t hold back a furious curse, “You bastard-born scum!”
The black flames around Ion flared larger.
He swung his sword to strike!
Though he couldn’t wield it like Yam to launch blazing arcs of flame, nor hurl slashes of searing sword energy, the black flames swirling around the blade made the downward strike seem even more ferocious.
“Damn it!” shouted the Bloodline User of Eastern Mountain Territory, also shirtless and wearing only hastily pulled-on trousers, his expression twisting in alarm. “Why are you here, Ion Soderbell?!”