143: The Battle of Golbest (Part 1)

The bandits began their assault as the Midwinter Festival's midnight frost clung to the battlements.

Ryne's knuckles rapped against the wooden wall, and with his breath, a mist rapidly enveloped New South City Gate and dozens of meters of the nearby wall under the moonlight.

Compared to the nearly one thousand enemy troops outside the North City, there were only over 300 bandits here.

Seventy feet away, the bandit vanguard—over 100 Kobolds archers—launched flaming arrows that streaked across the night sky like a meteor shower, only to be swallowed by an invisible barrier upon entering the mist.

A transparent force field enveloped the entire wooden city wall, and sparks rippled like golden patterns across its surface before the arrows fell to the foot of the wall.

Under the powerful and dense cover fire of the Kobolds, 20 Goblins, carrying iron birch battering rams, advanced, snow shaking off their armored shoulders.

What they didn't realize was that beneath the invisible mist, the city wall and gate, protected by the force field, were not catching fire anywhere.

Ryne, leading 49 of his subordinates, 35 members of the Thieves' Guild, 55 guards organized from other merchant groups, and 103 newly organized militiamen from the refugee camp—a total of 243 people—were observing the enemy's every move from atop the wall and behind the gate.

From the distant north, earth-shattering shouts of battle could be heard, but near the South Gate, an eerie silence prevailed.

Ryne set the mist at the city gate to be extremely thin, while the force field at the gate created an illusion of greater distance.

These green-skinned creatures roared as they charged into the thin mist, unaware that the actual distance to the city gate was tripled by the illusion created by the force field, and they continued to push forward.

As their leather boots crossed the critical line, four invisible wall curtains slammed shut like a bear trap, compressing their roars into a tomb-sized space.

Not a single howl from the Goblins reached outside the force field wall.

At this point, the bandits outside also sensed something was wrong.

Flaming arrows from the Kobolds 70 feet away and sharp arrows from the Goblins and humans 130 feet away, shot into the mist wave after wave, yet still received no feedback.

When the mist crystal core suddenly glowed, the expanding magical mist surged like a beast pouncing.

The Kobold archers suddenly plunged into a milky-white abyss; the rustling of their scales and their intermittent beastly screams echoed within the mist wall.

Ryne manipulated the mist crystal, allowing the northern mist wall to reveal the swaying shadows of fir trees—these creatures born underground instinctively fled towards the false light source, but ended up crashing head-on in the force field maze.

The forest was, of course, an illusion set up by Ryne using the force field; from the moment the mist enveloped the Kobolds to when the Kobolds automatically ran into the force field prison inside the city, less than 10 minutes passed.

130 feet away, after the mist approached the Goblins and humans, they could initially hear the chaotic footsteps of the Kobolds, but then the Kobolds gradually moved further away, finally falling silent. Some bandits, facing the terrifying mist, had already begun to flee the battlefield.

But when the bandit leader at this location discovered someone deserting, he led his subordinates to shoot and kill them, which then deterred others who wanted to escape.

The rain of arrows from the bandits flew into the mist again, but besides the whistling of the arrows cutting through the air, they still heard nothing.

"Everyone! Turn to the front left, go to the East Gate!" The bandit leader reluctantly issued new orders, the mist ahead making him uneasy.

But it was too late; while their arrow rain had paused, Ryne, protected by dozens of shield guards, had already walked more than ten meters out of the South Gate with the mist crystal.

The distance was enough!

Ryne controlled the mist to bulge sharply again, enveloping the vast majority of the remaining bandits.

However, human intelligence was far superior to that of Kobolds.

While most Goblins and human bandits ran towards the illusion set by Ryne, another group of human bandits shouted from behind, "Close your eyes and charge in different directions!"

Some bandits actually managed to break out of the mist, but what awaited them was Ryne's archery team, who shot deadly arrows at them.

Ultimately, nearly 200 bandits were trapped in the force field cage, and the rest were completely annihilated.

The battle at the South City Gate, lasting less than half an hour, ended in Ryne's complete victory without losing a single soldier.

But at this moment, the sky above the North City was already half-reddened by the raging fires.

North of Old South Gate, desperate commoners had surrounded it, making it impenetrable.

Ryne, arriving with his men, ordered them to let people in, about 500 people per group, separated by energy walls.

As expected, bandits had mixed in with the commoners.

When dozens of bandits used the commoners as hostages, shouting to be let out, Ryne waved his hand, and dozens of transparent energy spears descended from the sky, precisely like a tailor using a silver needle to pick out threads, striking down these emerging bandits one by one.

He then led 200 of his subordinates, under the protection of the mist, to advance into North City and begin rescue operations.

The stone path in front of Feierde Inn was already soaked black-red with blood, and Ryne's mist wall transformed into a flowing white giant python in the melee.

Under the protection of shield soldiers, Ryne quickly approached the battlefield, then repeated his tactic, enveloping the enemies in mist and then encircling and annihilating them.

Whenever a gap appeared in the rhythm of the bandit arrow formation, this "magical creature" would suddenly bite into a certain area—enemies swallowed by the mist would quickly be killed by Ryne and his men, while those outside the mist could only hear the screams of the swallowed bandits.

He continued northward in this manner, eliminating enemies along the way and rescuing many households.

In the northern part of Gorebest's Old City, in front of many tightly closed noble gates, Ryne saw countless commoners who had sought refuge, lying in pools of blood with arrows sticking out of their bodies.

Outside several nearby mansions, bandits who were burning, killing, and looting were swiftly annihilated by Ryne's arriving army.

After rescuing the few surviving commoners in the vicinity, Ryne had them taken to New South City for temporary shelter.

In the North City's mansion district, most of the walls were sturdy and protected by guards, so the bandits couldn't take them down quickly and thus diverted towards the slums in the East City and the South City direction.

The bandits coming south who encountered Ryne were all walking into a trap, but the slums in the East City were ablaze with fire at this time.

More commoners who remained at home cried out, their wails shaking the heavens.

As they passed the tightly shut doors of the Red Scroll Inn, two figures fighting alone appeared before Ryne's eyes.

It was Flame Covenant Red fiercely battling an old man wielding a magic longbow.

"Edmund!" The Holy Knight, who had previously campaigned against bandit lairs, recognized the other person.

The one battling Kovenreid was none other than Edmund Klester, the leader of the Blackclaw mercenaries, the Magic Archer.

Flame Covenant Red, wielding a longsword, somewhat disheveled, parried two magic arrows shot at him.

Then another black shadow arrow curved and shot towards his back.

Just as Ryne's mist was about to engulf the battlefield before him, with a "thud," Kovenreid was still hit by an arrow.