75: A hearty victory

Chapter 75: A Resounding Victory

Ingabado could never understand why Arthur would lead his troops here at this critical juncture.

This completely disrupted his original plan.

Originally, he had planned to use a ritual with other believers to transform all the dead villagers into zombies.

Then, he would lead this undead army, along with the bandits led by Mad Dog, to launch an attack on the pioneer group.

Unlike what Henry thought, he wanted to kill the Saint of Mother Earth, because the great deity he believed in had sent him a divine oracle.

But now, everything was over.

The ritual was not yet complete, and the newly revived corpses were simply no match without the assistance of the bandits.

Even more critically, Arthur’s surprise attack in the rain directly crushed Mad Dog’s subordinates.

Despair and unwillingness surged in Ingabado’s heart; he gritted his teeth, deciding to take a desperate gamble.

He decisively abandoned maintaining the tottering ritual and instead cast an invisibility spell, approaching the Saint like a phantom.

As Lord Arthur gave the command, a knight leaped forth.

Bruce locked onto the spellcaster who was chanting, realizing that the key to this battle was to destroy the evil ritual.

“Laserlan, mount up!” he shouted to a half-elf archer.

Laserlan quickly fired an arrow, then used the momentum to grab Bruce’s outstretched hand, agilely flipping onto the horse’s back.

“Do you see that fellow?!” Bruce asked loudly, “How close do you need to be to hit him?”

As the most skilled archer in the team, Laserlan quickly estimated the required distance and replied, “The rain is heavy, and the wind is strong.”

“Closer, it needs to be closer to work.”

“Alright!”

Bruce cut down a corpse trying to grab the reins with a single sword stroke.

Immediately after, he kicked the horse’s flank hard.

The horse neighed and accelerated forward again.

Jessica also noticed the commotion and spurred her horse without hesitation to provide support.

When the distance was close enough, Laserlan took a deep breath, drew his bow, and aimed.

At this moment, everything around him seemed to stand still.

The corpses rushing forward to pull him off his horse, the noisy and chaotic shouts of battle, all were cast aside.

He felt a power flowing within him.

He knew it was the magic Lord had cast upon him.

He released the bowstring, and the arrow tore through the air, whistling straight towards its target.

Unexpectedly, the arrow passed directly through the person’s body, deeply embedding itself in the mud behind him.

Arthur, who had followed on horseback, felt his heart sink and cursed under his breath, “Damn it, it’s an illusion!”

The next second he realized something was wrong, the spellcaster suddenly appeared beside him.

The rapier in his hand was like a venomous snake, striking directly at Arthur’s heart.

At such close range, Arthur had almost no way to evade.

In the nick of time, a figure flashed out.

Flora skillfully parried the deadly rapier.

Then, she twisted her wrist, actually thrusting the rapier back into a zombie’s body.

Ingabado didn’t even have time to react.

A heavy punch landed squarely on his face, and several teeth, mixed with blood, splattered from his mouth.

Before he could recover, the opponent delivered another knee strike, hitting his abdomen heavily.

He endured the pain, trying to create distance, but was firmly held by the opponent’s iron-like hands.

Then, the opponent used a shoulder tackle to directly send him flying.

The moment Arthur was attacked, Jessica had already spurred her horse to his aid.

At this moment, she just saw Flora throw the attacker out, and she unhesitatingly drove her horse to collide with him.

Ingabado was knocked far away by the horse, spitting blood from his mouth.

Before he could struggle to get up, the approaching horse’s hooves mercilessly trampled on his head.

The poor priest died under the horse’s hooves just like that.

In the evening, the rain finally stopped completely.

Catherine led the team north and soon found the low-lying wetland.

The children, like joyful birds, excitedly ran and played on the grass after the rain.

The adults were busy, bending down to pick edible wild vegetables.

“Plantain and wild garlic,” Irene Moonbrook introduced to Catherine as she put the picked wild vegetables into her basket, “This is marsh sow thistle.”

“There’s quite a lot; pick them all and bring them back. The cook can add them to everyone’s dinner tonight.”

Catherine was curious about everything.

In the past, her three meals a day were meticulously prepared by servants.

She had never even thought that onions grew in the soil.

“I heard that Lord Arthur won a great victory,” Moonbrook said, “The enemy was utterly annihilated, and he even destroyed an evil ritual.”

“And we didn’t lose a single person, not even a horse was harmed.”

“This must be the blessing of Forest Mother!”

Catherine smiled and echoed, “Yes, my heart was always hanging, fearing something might go wrong.”

“Fortunately, everyone returned safely, and they brought back quite a few spoils of war.”

At this moment, a halfling held up a plant and shouted to Moonbrook, “Hey, herb girl, is this nettle?”

Moonbrook leaned in to examine it closely, her eyes lighting up with joy, and nodded, “And it’s a stinging nettle, that’s great.”

“Is there a difference from ordinary nettle?” Catherine asked.

“This is a very good herb; not only can it be brewed into tea, but it can also be eaten.”

Catherine bent down and picked a plant, holding it in her hand and examining it carefully.

She looked up at the children playing in the setting sun, and the adults picking wild vegetables with smiles on their faces.

The lingering glow of the setting sun pierced through the clouds, illuminating everything with a fiery red hue.

A sudden emotion surged in Catherine’s heart; she felt that she wanted to protect all of this, to protect this ordinary beauty.

After Arthur returned to the monastery, he did not rest for a moment.

He first found the abbot of the monastery and asked him to send monks to find the Sheriff of Mud Town.

He planned to hand over the captured bandits to her for handling.

The battle in Grey Mud Valley Mountain Village, after the death of the mysterious spellcaster, instantly became one-sided.

Whether it was the corpses or Mad Dog and his cronies who were still stubbornly resisting, they were all cut down by the soldiers one by one.

Arthur had originally thought of leaving a few alive to interrogate them for more information.

Bruce, to atone for his poor reconnaissance.

Volunteered to lead a team to pursue the fleeing bandits.

Arthur originally didn’t have much hope for this, but unexpectedly, the road to Field Mouse Village was blocked by a landslide caused by the heavy rain.

This unexpectedly helped a lot; most of the bandits were captured.

It’s just that these bandits were all illiterate fools, and not much useful information could be extracted from them.

After dealing with a series of affairs, Arthur kept the abbot alone.

He took out several crumpled land deeds from his Pregnant and handed them to the abbot, saying, “Henry tried to use the community’s land to entice those bandits to attack me.”

“Now he has tried to outsmart me and failed. You take these land deeds to Wolf Den City.”

“It just so happens that Pope’s deputy has been auditing temple personnel these days; you can report this matter to him.”

“I think he should pressure the Earl to thoroughly investigate this matter.”

The old abbot trembled as he took the land deeds, saying emotionally, “Brother Arthur, we will never forget your kindness.”

“No, don’t rush to thank me,” Arthur said with a serious expression, “I have something for you to do. I will write a detailed report.”

“Once you arrive in Wolf Den City, you must hand this report to the Sheriff or my father.”

The abbot nodded repeatedly, agreeing wholeheartedly.