Chapter Twelve: Chaos Begins

  "Freddie, how's our intelligence organization doing?" Raymond asked as he walked shoulder-to-shoulder with the three men.

  "I understand what you mean, Freddie shook his head: "Still lack of trained personnel, after all, the foundation here is too poor, and I almost started from scratch. At present, although we can cover the entire Haidington, it's still a bit difficult to extend our intelligence network outward."

  "This time's battle, we're probably unable to help much."

  Raymond had long anticipated this situation. After all, building an intelligence organization is not like a hen laying eggs, it can't be done overnight. Just training qualified personnel is a long-term task.

  He said carelessly: "It doesn't matter, let Baster take charge of the scouting aspect."

  Hesitating for a moment, Freddy continued: "Wait, maybe I can think of a way to get someone into Auston City. That's the closest town to us, and if they attack, they'll definitely stop in Auston. Maybe he can gather some intelligence."

  "Alright, I'm counting on you."

  Raymond then turned to Rutz and Shawn.

  "Rudolf, do you still remember that bandit camp I had you leave behind?" Raymond asked.

  Rudolph nodded: "As you ordered, I didn't destroy it."

  "Alright. You and Shawn, get everyone to repair the camp immediately, reinforce it as much as possible before the enemy arrives." Raymond instructed.

  "Do you want to meet the enemy there?" Rudes was surprised: "That's just a wooden camp, and time is limited. Even if it's reinforced again, I'm afraid..."

  "Think I want to?" Raymond said with a wry smile. "But there's no other way now, you've also seen the terrain of Haidington, it's almost defenseless, if we let the enemy get close to the city, then there's no need to fight."

  "So I must go out and meet the enemy in the field. The original foundation of that camp is still there, and the terrain isn't bad either, easy to defend and hard to attack, if we repair it, it's the best place to meet the enemy."

  "Alright, we'll do our best to repair the camp," said Ruz and Shawn.

  With limited resources at hand, Raymond can only take these measures for now. The real pre-war preparations can only be made after the arrival of that mercenary corps.

  The only hope now is that the mercenary corps is as powerful as Javier said.

  Javier did not disappoint, and 10 days later, the mercenary band arrived at Haydinton with the fleet.

  When the first mercenary walked down the deck, Raymond could feel a difference. The other's soldiers were all tall and strong, with sharp eyes, and although their equipment was varied, it was clear that they were all of good quality.

  What's more, the spirit of these people is obviously tempered with a hundred battles, and those with scars on their bodies are not in the minority. Although they appear to be lazy and lacking in discipline, there is an overbearing aura about them that is as intimidating as a tiger at rest, seemingly relaxed but ready to pounce at any moment.

  This murderous aura alone was enough to make the former bandit guards blush with shame, and the garrison troops of Haidington were even more unable to compare.

  "They're all tough guys." Rudeus said. Being able to earn his praise like that showed just how formidable the opponent was.

  "If it's a helper like this, maybe there's still hope." Raymond finally had a glimmer of optimism.

  At this time, a tall and robust man with a giant axe on his back and white hair, accompanied by Javier, walked towards this side.

  "Mr. Raymond, this is the leader of the Green Wolf Mercenaries, Rubens." Javier introduced to several people: "Mr. Rubens and our Lord of Lovell have a deep connection, so he agreed to help us this time."

  It wasn't until the man approached him that Raymond felt the pressure of his massive physique. Rubens was almost as tall and large as Rudes, with a rough face, white hair, scars and wrinkles all over his face, looking around 50 years old, but his muscles were bulging, his piercing blue eyes sharp as knives, paired with the huge battle-axe on his back, exuding an aura of killing intent, every inch the seasoned veteran.

  Rubens' blue eyes scanned the crowd, first looking at Rutz and Bascht with some surprise, then staring at Raymond: "Are you the client?"

  "Raymond calmly met his fierce gaze: 'I'm not your employer, but I'll be the one fighting alongside you.'"

  "So that's you, Raymond?" Raymond's composure slightly surprised Rubens, who grunted: "Reed speaks highly of you, and I was bored anyway, so I brought the brothers to play around."

  "As he spoke, he asked: 'How many enemies are there this time?'"

  "2000." Raymon said: "Like you, all professional mercenaries."

  Upon hearing this number, Rubens didn't show the slightest unusual expression. His long mercenary career had given him extremely strong psychological quality, and he probably wouldn't have furrowed his brow even if he heard 2,000 cow-headed men.

  "How many of you are there?"

  “300。”

  Raymond added: "Of these, 100 were untrained; another 200 had hardly ever fought, and most of them had never killed anyone."

  "What!?" Rubens finally looked surprised when he heard this.

  It's not that he's being overly cautious, but there's a saying "Don't be afraid of an opponent who is as strong as a god, but be afraid of teammates who are as useless as pigs". 2000 enemies aren't scary, what's scary is these 300 allies.

  "You want me to fight alongside these guys?" Rubens asked incredulously.

  Seeing Rubens react like this, Javier, who was beside him, couldn't help but glance at Raymond repeatedly, obviously blaming him for belittling himself.

  "Right. Although they lack training and combat experience, they are defending their homeland. At that time, these people will be able to exert their full strength in battle. You absolutely should not underestimate them."

  "Even so, we only add up to 900 people, less than half of the enemy's, do you think there's a chance of winning?" Rubens glared again.

  Are you afraid?

  "Hey, do you know who you're talking to? You'd better worry about yourself."

  "Doesn't matter, I'm used to it anyway."

  This is indeed the truth, from the icy plateau to here, every battle Raymond has been through has been a minority. In Langya City, facing Verona's rebel army, Raymond and his men were able to escape with just a handful of soldiers.

  When crossing the Broken Sword Canyon fortress, he was with only Rudz and Basute, and they turned the pursuers upside down.

  Waiting outside the city of Pralza, they encountered a bandit gang that robbed Princess Xerxes. With just Rud and Lutz, he intimidated the group of thieves. Later, facing the army led by Orch under Freydi, they were also outnumbered.

  Afterwards, helping Hayden destroy the bandits was a given. And this time, it wasn't even half of their enemies.

  So Raymond's sentence "got used to it" is really not nonsense.

  Rubens suddenly burst out laughing and said: "Haha, I like this kid."

  "Well then, let's work together and give that group of unknown guys a good thrashing." Rubens stretched out his hand to Raymond.

  "It's an honor." Raymond also extended his hand for a handshake.

  That night, Rubens declined the banquet arranged by Charlotte and instead brought in Raymond and others to make pre-war plans. Although he was rough and bold, his actions were swift and decisive, making people feel quite good about him.

  Rubens unfolded a map of Haidinton and its surrounding areas, studied it for a while, then said: "When I entered the city during the day, I carefully observed that your terrain is not good. The terrain is flat and there are no dangers to defend against, the city wall is low and can be easily flipped over, and behind it is the sea, with no retreat route. This is the worst city I've ever seen."

  Raymond and others didn't care, but Shawn was from Haidington. Hearing the other party belittle his hometown like this made him somewhat angry. However, since he still needed to borrow heavily from Rubens, he could only force himself to swallow it down.

  "He explained: 'We are a commercial town. When the city was first built, we considered the convenient transportation here and never thought that one day we would experience such a war.'"

  Rubens snorted, "Hmph, even if that's the case, why don't you have any decent defensive fortifications? The whole town is like a woman with her legs spread wide open, anyone can come in."

  Seeing him speak rudely, Shawn's face turned red: "Mr. Rubens, please be more respectful."

  In response to his protests, Rubens snorted: "What's the use of shouting at me now? I've seen too many towns like yours, with no sense of crisis, always thinking that war won't fall on their own heads and life will go on forever. But when they really encounter war, it's already too late to regret, no matter how beautiful a city is built, if it can't protect itself, it will eventually become an ugly ruin.

  Shawn was stunned to hear that Rubens was not just scolding, and then remembered that Haidington had built the city for so many years, except for repairing the symbolic walls, no defensive facilities had been built at all, indeed lacking a sense of crisis.

  Now that the enemy is at our doorstep, we don't even have anything to fight back with, so Raymond has no choice but to use inferior forces to engage in a field battle with others.

  Thinking of this, Shawn helplessly lowered his head: "You're right, we are indeed too... Alas."

  Rubens waved his hand: "Forget it, I just feel annoyed when I see this kind of place being protected."

  "Enemy should still have 4 or 5 days before arrival, during this time, let's build some defensive facilities as much as possible."

  Rubens shook his head: "It's useless, the gap in numbers is too big, just 4 or 5 days, can't even dig a moat around the city, what can it stop? Rather than wasting energy, let my men take a good rest."

  "What's going on?!" Shawn was completely stunned.

  Rubens said: "This rotten city can't be defended at all. When the enemy rushes to the city, even if Lord Dinysos comes, it won't be saved. So we can only think of a way to fight them in the wild."

  His strategy coincided with Raymond's.

  "Say, Raymond," said Rubens, "is there a suitable place for battle outside the city, preferably one that's easy to defend? If not, you might as well kill me now."

  The more Raymond got in touch with him, the more he felt that Rubens seemed rough but actually had a delicate mind and was not simple at all.

  He let out a hearty laugh, pointing to a certain place on the map: "I'm glad you don't have to die. There's a camp here, located at the top of the nearest hill, easy to defend and hard to attack, should meet your requirements."

  "What?" Rubens stared at the place where Raymond was pointing, looking at it while saying: "Hmm...it's blocking the main road to the town, surrounded by forests, and the enemy can't deploy their forces well. It's indeed a good spot."

  "Hey, is that camp solid?"

  "It was once burned down, but in these days waiting for your arrival, I have sent people to repair it. Guarding it for a while should be no problem." said Raymond.

  "Haha, I like you more and more." Rubens was overjoyed: "No wonder Reed values you so much."

  He said with a puzzled expression: "Wait a minute, could I have made a mistake? The people of this town are actually smart enough to build a camp in such an important strategic location?"

  "Th-that's what was left behind by the former bandits."

  The camp was not only not built by them, but it was also Raymond's idea to leave it for later use, and had nothing to do with Haidington at all, which made Shawn even more embarrassed.

  "No wonder..." Rubens muttered.

  Without time for embarrassment, Xiao En hastily asked: "If we can hold this camp, what are our chances of winning?"

  Although he also served as a soldier, it is naturally impossible to compare with Rubens, who rolled on the battlefield. In front of him, Shawn was like an ignorant little student.

  Rubens shook his head: "I don't think it's too big, but it's better than hard-arming with them. Fortunately, the location of this camp is too damn good, before attacking it, the enemy will not dare to take the risk of exposing their backs and attack Haidington."

  "Right," said Raymond, "all we can do is hope for a chance of victory when the time comes."

  "By the way, how many people are on the other side? What kind of troops are they? What is the specific time of arrival?" Rubens asked a string of questions.

  "Sorry, none of us know."

  "What did you say? Are you kidding me?" Rubens stared at him incredulously.

  "Can't be helped, we didn't expect the enemy to make a move so quickly. We haven't even had time to set up an effective intelligence system, so we really don't know anything about their specific situation."

  Rubens was stunned, his mouth agape for a moment before he said dejectedly: "I've really run into some terrible luck with this kind of crappy town. Whatever, the first time I went to Lovell to help that kid, that rotten territory didn't have anything either, it's not much better than here, let's just say history is repeating itself."

  Helpless, he suggested: "Let's just gamble with him, take all the men and horses to their must-pass place to ambush, take advantage of their unpreparedness and give them a ruthless blow. If lucky, one battle can solve the problem."

  "Better not," Rutz said in a low voice. "We can't afford to gamble. Outside of Haidington, it's all enemy territory and we have no way to penetrate deep alone."

  "It's all over, I've traversed the Mojina continent for decades, who would have thought that an old bone like me would end up losing my life in this godforsaken place?" Rubens couldn't help but let out a sigh of sorrow upon hearing this.

  In the face of such an almost absolute disadvantage, he can still talk and laugh freely, without putting life and death in his heart. Rubens' demeanor is indeed eye-opening.

  "I'm fed up, I don't want to think about it anymore. When the enemy comes, we'll just fight them to death." Under his breath, Rubens pushed away his chair and walked out in big strides.

  Three days later, news arrived that Depreo led an enemy army of 2,000 men to Auston, not one less...

  Just as Raymond and others were worried about the upcoming war, something happened in the distant kingdom of Gasperd, far from Haidenton.

  The geographical location of the Kingdom of Gasparde is extremely special. Although its national strength is the smallest on the continent, it occupies the central position of the entire Veronika continent. To understand the reason, we need to start from the history of the Kingdom of Gasparde.

  Hundreds of years ago, the continent of Veronia had a very powerful kingdom called the Kingdom of Saint Bremen, which was extremely brilliant. Later, this kingdom disintegrated and its land was gradually divided by other countries. The Kingdom of Dirck is one of the countries that separated from Saint Bremen.

  However, when it comes to orthodoxy, the Kingdom of Gasparde is the one that counts. At the time of the collapse of Saint Bremen, a piece of land in the central region of the kingdom stubbornly held on and later formed the current Kingdom of Gasparde, even its capital Orlate was the old capital of Saint Bremen.

  Therefore, although Gasper's territory is the smallest, it occupies the central part of the Veronica continent. Several major trade routes on the Veronica continent will pass through his territory. This alone is enough to make the Ravit Trade Federation jealous. The Dirk Kingdom, which wants to rebuild its former glory as Saint Bremen, has never given up its ambition to annex him.

  It is precisely because of its special geographical location that Gasperd has survived to this day. It borders four other countries, which seems unfavorable, but each country does not want it to be annexed by others, so they restrain each other and do not dare to take action.

  Moreover, although Gasparde's territory is small, its terrain is treacherous and easy to defend but hard to attack. Furthermore, under the pressure of crisis, the domestic subjects have always been united, and it is not so easy to occupy.

  The current King of Gasparde is Fagana II, who despite his poor health, has proven to be a king with extraordinary political acumen. During his reign, through various means, Fagana won over the Gaudan Plains Alliance and the Ravite Trade Federation, jointly resisting the pressure from the two great powers, the Kingdom of Dirke and the Krote Empire.

  At the same time, taking advantage of the geographical advantages of the Kingdom of Gasparde, Fagana vigorously developed commerce and rectified military equipment, making the small Kingdom of Gasparde shine with unprecedented splendor.

  At this time, on a mountain road in the Kingdom of Gasparde, a long procession was advancing.

  The team was escorted by knights in iron armor at the front and back, with a huge carriage in the center, on which was engraved the emblem of the Gasperd royal family.

  This team is the convoy of Phagan II when he goes out for inspection.

  Inside the carriage, Fagan leaned against a soft cushion, his body swaying slightly with the movement of the carriage.

  He was probably over 50 years old, but due to long-term political affairs, he had a full head of white hair, and with his thin face and wrinkles all over his face, he looked like an old man in his 60s. However, only his eyes were bright and clear, shining with the light of wisdom.

  Suddenly, the carriage jolted to a stop, and Fagana almost fell over from the inertia. At the same time, a chorus of shouts and wails could be heard coming from outside.

  "What's going on?" Fagana was startled in her heart.

  At the same time, the curtains of the carriage were lifted up and a knight hastily said: "Your Majesty, there is suddenly an assassin ahead. Please be at ease, we will definitely protect you."

  Although that's what the knight said, just as he was speaking, the miserable cries outside had become much clearer, indicating that the assassin was breaking through the obstacles and rapidly approaching.

  "Protect His Majesty, stop that monster quickly!" The cavalry captain's almost desperate shout came from outside.

  Fagan felt uneasy in his heart, he opened the door of the carriage and looked out, what he saw immediately left him stunned.

  A lone swordsman, clad in thick armor and wielding an oversized giant sword, was charging towards us, breaking through the heavy cavalry's blockade as if entering a deserted land.

  His combat strength was extremely terrifying, the giant sword as wide and thick as a shield, swung in his hands like nothing, every swing, there were cavalrymen who turned into fragments along with their horses, blood splashing everywhere.

  As he moved, it was as if a deadly tornado swept through the cavalry group, with broken corpses flying everywhere, the neighing of war horses and the miserable cries of men mixed together, piercing the eardrums.

  No wonder the cavalry captain would call this guy a "monster", if not for the human eyes exposed in the gap of his helmet, it would make people suspect that there was a devil inside the armor.

  The strange man's target was clearly Fagana, and in an instant he had rushed up to the carriage. Just at this critical moment, a figure suddenly rushed up from behind.

  "Your Majesty, get back in the carriage!" The speaker had already rushed to the front of the strange swordsman and in an instant, a sword flashed through the air.

  Upon seeing this person, Fagan's tense heart calmed down. This was Raina, the captain of the Gaspard Kingdom's palace guard and one of the five strongest swordsmen on the Veronica continent.

  Before that, no one had ever assassinated Fagana, but they all died under Laina's sword without exception. No matter how strong this strange swordsman was, he was absolutely not Laina's opponent.

  As he made his move, the knights around him hastily retreated. At the same time, a burst of cracking sounds was heard, and the heavy armor outside the swordsman's body intersected with dozens of cuts, immediately turning into countless fragments falling to the ground.

  When they saw the appearance of that strange swordsman in the armor, almost everyone gasped.

  This is a towering, robust man with a head of hard black short hair, his entire body covered in various sword and knife scars, shocking to behold, like a wooden stake for practicing sword techniques. Even more frightening is his face, the huge scars that crisscross it almost twisting his original features out of shape, paired with his silent, sharp gaze, making one's blood run cold.

  "What in the world...!" Seeing himself go all out, yet only managing to cleave through his opponent's armor, Laina's eyes widened in incredulity.

  The man raised the giant sword in his hand, looking at the several deep gashes cut out by Laina on its body, and slowly said: "Indeed...not...as before..."

  "Die!" Taking advantage of his opponent's momentary distraction, Laina raised the sword in her hand.

  Then he saw a seemingly invisible wave of energy emanating from his body, causing the dust on the ground to swirl violently. He had used the strongest skill that only top swordsmen could master: Dou Qi.

  Just as his sword was raised, he suddenly saw that the front was overwhelmed by a rapidly approaching black shadow. The next moment, Laina only felt her body light, as if she had flown up.

  Was I killed in one hit?

  How is it possible...

  The person next to him only saw the strange man's hand shake slightly, and the giant sword flashed out at an incredible speed, cutting off Laina's entire body, with half of his body flying into the air.

  Veronica Continent's five strongest swordsmen, one step away from owning the title of Sword Saint, Reyna, the captain of the guard, wasn't even a match for this person?

  "Monster...!" Someone's terrified cry rang out, and in an instant everyone was frightened into retreating to the side.

  The strange man walked up to Fagana's carriage, casually shaking off the bloodstains on his giant sword.

  "Who sent you?"

  "You... don't need to know..."

  A giant sword slashed down, and the carriage was shattered into pieces.

  King Gaspard II of Fagana was assassinated while on tour, and the news immediately shook the entire continent of Veronika.

  The storm sweeping across the mainland originated from here...

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