《blood tax》Chapter 1 East Line
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Violent echoes hit the brain, and the vague and close babbling sound lingered in my ears.
Who am I?
Trying to open my eyes, I saw the black iron armguard smeared with mottled blood. Sharp and ferocious metal protected my fingers, the back of my hand and the outer side of my forearm. The inner side was brown leather and belt, which firmly tied my arm. And the wrist and fingers slowly moved, and the limp and numb feeling was transmitted back. Well, this is my hand.
Where am I?
The field of vision is gradually expanding, and there are sharp spears, small round shields, swords, daggers and hammers on the small wooden table in front of you. There are bows and arrows and quiver full of arrows near the corner of the table. The soil under your feet is hard and dry, and the iron boots, shin nails and spurs forged by black iron are ferocious and evil.
What am I doing?
The loud noise hitting the brain becomes clearer and clearer, and it can be gradually recognized that this is the echoing horn. Later, a clear voice came to my ears …
"Griffith."
"Griffith apprentice knight!"
"Hey! Second squad leader, wake up! "
The tone rises slightly, accompanied by the tapping sound from your shoulder armor.
"Well? What? " The trainee knight named Griffith felt blankly that this was his own name, but not all of himself. All kinds of confused memories are mixed together, which makes him unable to outline his own image.
"What?" Standing beside her is a tall and bright young woman, dressed in gold armor made by Seiko, with thin eyebrows raised. "What what? Why? "
Griffith was conscious for a few minutes, subconsciously felt his breastplate, then grabbed the weapon and put it on himself: "I'm a little dizzy ~"
"Ha? ! You're not dizzy anymore, okay? " The girl in front of her shook her head, and the ponytail with flaming red hair swayed behind her head. "Wake up, take up arms and attack!"
Before Griffith promised, the red-haired girl stuffed the black iron helmet into Griffith's arms, raised her right hand, and "snapped" the face of the trainee knight who was half a head taller than herself.
Griffith, who got twice, immediately walked out of the camp behind the redhead girl with a lot of weapons.
"Valkyrie, the second-level assault squadron leader, take your men to the right wing and hide under the slope behind the infantry." An officer in a red wool cloak rode past the two men.
"Command received," the red-haired Valkyrie mid-team leader nodded and dragged Griffith, who didn't know what to do, to the front of two war horses.
"Well, whether you are awake or not, there is no time for you to adjust slowly now ~" Valkyrie held his helmet in one hand, patted Griffith on the shoulder in the other hand, and shook his head at him. "Ride on the horse, take the pike, and make a surprise attack as usual. Just shoot the guy opposite, and we can go back. Ah, it's unlucky to say this before the war."
Griffith's body moved by itself, just like eating and sleeping, and naturally stepped on the tall and magnificent black horse in front of him. The steeds are also wearing black visor and breastplate. There is a sharp bump on his forehead, which is as dangerous as a monster in the dark, waiting silently for his rider to pull the reins.Run after Valkyrie and her mount.
Wow ~ Although I don't know what happened, everything seems to go with the flow.
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The breeze passes through the gap on the visor, sending the air with a faint strange smell into the nasal cavity. Just now, the turbid mind gradually became clear, and Griffith walked through the busy camp.
White tents are orderly distributed on both sides of the straight road, and each intersection is marked with the name of the nearby squadron and where to go ahead. On the five-meter-high wooden tower, soldiers waved green and red flags to stop or release the passing team.
Infantry in bronze armor and real armor are arranged in neat formation, armed with long guns and big shields, with short swords around their waists, and their faces steadily cross the straight road. Their helmets are decorated with bright red, bright yellow and white feathers, and their marching is like a colorful ocean.
Just now, the sound of the horn echoed in my mind has already stopped, and the running riding officers occasionally give loud and clear instructions, and the troops who received the orders simply respond loudly, and then continue to act quietly.
Griffith followed Valkyrie through the camp. From time to time, armored cavalry dressed neatly joined their team on the road. They came to the exit on one side of the camp. From there, they rode along a slope for a while, and finally stopped in a large flat clearing.
Dozens of cavalry men and women as young as Griffith are saluting the red-haired female knight immediately. Several people greeted Griffith with smiles on their faces.
"Seuratal, line up," Valkyrie waved to one side. "Are the gods here?"
"The trainee nun Krista is in place," said a blond man about Griffith's height, putting on his helmet. "Just now, the herald came to inform us that Grand Priest is at the infantry man's place, so it's too late to come."
"Uh-huh ~" Valkyrie nodded. "Krista, come to the front and bless the front row of the squadron. Skip the rest."
A beautiful blonde petite girl ran through the crowd to the front of the queue. She was wearing a shiny silver chain mail outside her blue robe, holding a book almost as big as her upper body, and softly singing the blessing of being clear as a stream.
Griffith, standing in the front row, suddenly found himself wrapped in warm light, and both himself and his mount had a feeling of floating and lightness.
It's amazing. What is this power?
"The wind is elegant, sheltered and loaded."
The blessed blonde girl finished her job and nodded to the mid-team leader. She took a breath and looked at Griffith with big emerald eyes.
She's looking at me?
"Hey ~ Griffith, when this battle is over, I want to go to Bayram with Krista." A tall cavalry with brown hair poked Griffith with his elbow, with a smile on his face. "When I have enough merit and promotion, I will confess to Krista!"
Griffith is relishing the effect of blessing. He felt that his movements became more agile and dexterous, but at the same time his strength was greatly improved, and somehow he felt that he would have good luck. He thought for a while, and remembered that this brown-haired cavalry named Golona was one of the admirers of the beautiful trainee nun.
"502nd cavalry regiment, move!" There was a thunderous roar in the distance above the slope, followed by shouts and slogans one after another, and heavy and dense hooves rolled in.
At the same time, across the sky, there are fireballs with long flames, which fly to the front beyond our eyes.
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A red flag appeared on the slope near the cavalry, waving at them.
"A cavalry, forward!" Valkyrie put on his golden helmet, put down his armor, raised his golden lance and leaped forward. Armored cavalry followed closely, wrapped in overwhelmed Griffith, and trotted off from the hidden depression to the slope on the other side in four columns.
Griffith's line of sight moved up a little bit along the arc of the slope, and gradually saw the whole picture of the battlefield.
Thousands of infantry are lined up in phalanxes and lines one after another. The square shields in their hands form a wall-like front, as straight and smooth as butter cut by a small knife. The huge battle line stretching for miles is moving forward under the guidance of the flying flag. At the forefront of the procession is an eagle flag wrapped in a pure gold wreath.Just projecting the line of sight into the past makes people more courageous.
A heavy trebuchet as tall as the giant in the story is projecting a meteor-like fireball from behind the front. Hundreds of fireballs crossed the sky round after round, falling to the ground and igniting flames more than ten meters high. Invisible shock waves spread from the location of the explosion, sweeping away nearby trees and vague figures.
Originally led by Valkyrie, the cavalry squadron hidden in the depression kept a column formation, turning to the right side of the broad battlefield. Many cavalry like them are advancing or fighting.
Some cavalry units don't have armor like Griffith and others. When they approach the enemy, they jump off the horse's back, take out strong bows and throw guns to the opposite side to die. When the human wall in front of them collapsed under the impact of bow and arrow, another team of cavalry roared past and rushed towards the gap in the front line. And then,Behind the opposite front, there are some monsters as big as bison and as big as jackals, with humanoid creatures riding on them, and the cavalry that launched the impact collided with each other, giving out roars and screams.
"Good luck today!" Golona shouted at Griffith's right hand side. They were less than the width of a war horse. "There are not many wolf cavalry. It would be great if no one stopped us all the time!"
A cavalry team quickly crossed more than half of the battlefield, and there was no infantry near Griffith. Hundreds of archers in light leather armor gathered not far from the squadron. They nimbly drew the arrow from the quiver behind them, and threw an endless stream of arrows toward the front.
Locust-like arrows cover the sky, landing at the same time from the opposite position came pieces of bellow.
Griffith trotted his horse while watching the archers shoot. Suddenly, Valkyrie, at the far right of the team, shouted, "Long-range defense!"
The knights around him uniformly raised their left hand with small metal shields at the top of the slope, and leaned down as far as possible to get close to the war horse.
As soon as the voice just fell, a storm of arrows washed up. Griffith, hiding behind the shield, heard the dense sound hitting the shield, like a summer shower hitting the roof.
Not too far away from their own archers let out a scream, and the archers who were shooting fast just now fell like the wheat fields of autumn harvest in the blink of an eye.
Valkyrie led her cavalry in the same step, and continued to make a big circle to the right. The cavalry in heavy armor coldly separated from the sparse front of the archers and advanced deeper.
“Hurrah!” The tsunami-like shouts of mountains scared Griffith and his mount. I saw two crowds colliding in the middle of the distant battlefield, and many people flew into the air.
"Squadron, stop!" Valkyrie once again raised his lance, and the cavalry stopped trotting mounts. At the same time, several cavalry columns also came from nearby, gathering together like streams converging into rivers to form a dense queue.
"Cross team! Prepare for assault! " A commander in a red shirt rode to the front of the queue and pointed his sword at the dark crowd not far away.
The cavalry quickly expanded from column to horizontal team. Griffith suddenly found himself crowded with a small figure in the right rear.
Is this Krista who just blessed us? The slim girl is also wearing armour, holding a sabre, and riding a horse calmly. She turned slightly to see Griffith's eyes and smiled at him.
"dense formation!" And the officers and knights handed down the passwords one by one.
The young cavalry, who are all iron, put their armour close to each other, growled like beasts, and stared at the front.
The red-robed general's sword refers to the beginning of a trot ahead, and the brilliance like a rainbow spreads from his long sword, enveloping him and the knights around him.
"A cavalry, forward!"
Hundreds of armored riders began to trot, pouncing on the enemy's flank like a wall.
Seen from the sky, it is like a cold and shining tide, roaring towards the shore. A number of scattered monsters and soldiers pounced on this huge wave along the way, and then they were swallowed up and disappeared without a trace in an instant.
The first row of the trotting cavalry battle column is armed with lances, and the last few rows are clenched with sabers and hammers, maintaining smooth lines rolling forward.
"flush with me!" General Red Robe shouted, the battle line of thousands of people is like the extension of his hands and feet, "Byelam-!"
"Bayram-Wan Sheng!"
"Wansheng!"
The cavalry regiment began to charge on horseback.
"Jie Jie Jie Jie Jie Jie!" The dark crowd ahead stirred up. Griffith saw countless black humanoid creatures through the gap of the undulating helmet like festering ant nests, pieces of land collapsed in front of the cavalry and fled in all directions.
"Boom!" The cavalry battle line washed down the enemy's line like a flood, making a deafening roar. Griffith picked a monster's skull, and then stepped several others under the steed's hoof.
It was not until this time that he could see the enemy's face clearly.
This is a creature with dark green skin that is slightly shorter than human beings. They have the same hands and feet as people, but their sharp fangs protrude from their lips and their ears are like donkey ears. These enemies are dressed in grotesque black and gray armor and armed with machetes, wooden shields or spears.
Orcs. Griffith felt that his brain, which had just become normal, was like a mess, and all kinds of confused and conflicting information twisted into a ball.
Howling orcs, marble columns wrapped in flames and collapsed ruins, huge and distorted shadows emerging in rolling fire waves. All kinds of information are gathered in my mind, as if there is an illusory image, and the countdown hand of the clock is rolling towards the end.
A black shadow emerged in the depths of consciousness and slowly turned around. Griffith subconsciously felt that this person's identity was so important that he almost forgot that he was still on the battlefield and tried his best to see the true features of this black shadow.
"Ow!" Suddenly, a 4-or 5-meter-high troll appeared ahead. It is extremely strong, and its whole body is full of strong muscles like rocks. It wields a huge tree and sweeps towards the second-class captain.
"the amount? Huh? !” Griffith, who is still trying to see the mystery man's true features, immediately flew out with his steed, and the earth turned upside down.
……
Severe tinnitus made people crazy. Griffith got up dizzy. I saw a cavalry with a long gun hit the troll who had just shot himself, and fell in the mud together.
The cavalry column has disappeared, and there are fighting cries and screams everywhere.
"Woo!" A sharp voice sounded from behind, and Griffith quickly turned around. Two orc soldiers in tattered clothes and armed with machetes and wooden shields had already rushed to his nearby place.
The apprentice's subconscious right hand sent forward, and the half-broken lance in his hand immediately pierced the throat of one of the orcs. At that moment, another orc swooped over and stabbed Griffith in the head.
"Dang!" Griffith flashed slightly, and the blade hit his shoulder armor and flew out directly. The apprentice drew the dagger from his waist and poked it into the eyes of the horrified orcs.
The two bodies fell to the ground almost at the same time, and the black blood splashed into the eyes and mouth from the crack of the visor. Griffith immediately burst into nausea, brimming with nausea while blinking and pulling out the sword around his waist, looking for the next enemy.
"Griffith!" Krista and another wounded cavalry came running. They all lost their mounts, covered with dirt and blood, and still holding sabres or half of their riding guns.
"The United team broke through the defense line and rushed over. What shall we do?" Krista's helmet flew somewhere when she fell off the horse just now, and her soft blonde hair hung over her shoulders. She pointed to one side of the battlefield and said to the two men, "A group of orcs are coming towards us."
"We stay here," Griffith picked up a shield from the ground and held it in his hand, while holding up the sword in his hand. "Come closer to me!"
On one side of the mud, several cavalry who had been laid horses were climbing up from the ground, and two of them immediately ran to Griffith, who was shouting. Several other people also gathered together to form a small array.
It's too late to gather or retreat. A group of screaming orcs were originally sent to support the defense line here. As a result, before they arrived, the defense line vanished under the impact of human cavalry, and the remaining two teams of foot cavalry were just regarded as their targets.
Five foot cavalry immediately gathered back to back, and formed a circle with swords and shields that they could pick up at hand.
“Waaaagaaaaah!”
An orc is the fastest. It jumps over his companion and slashes at Griffith with an axe. Before his axe fell, Griffith pierced his chest with a sword.
"Boom!" Several orcs then collided head-on, hitting the shields of Griffith and cavalry around them with a ringing noise. Before they could stab each other, the orcs behind them jumped up and squeezed their companions among them.
With a rusty machete and axe dangling in front of him, Griffith seized the opportunity to stab a sword from the gap and plunge it into the lower abdomen of an orc. The little monster immediately gave a scream, and his hands tightly grasped the blade that pierced him and twitched.
In the crowded crowd, no matter how hard Griffith tried, his long sword could not be pulled out. Screaming orcs were pushed around by their companions and Griffith's shield behind them, spewing blood like a crushed orange.
A pike came from the crowd, and a cavalry standing next to Griffith was stabbed in the throat. The tall soldier fell down and pressed on Krista behind him without even having time to hum a sound. The dead cavalry is still clinging to the shield in his hand, maintaining a standing posture under the crowded back and forth.
I don't know how long it took, but the besieged orcs stepped back a few steps. Three dead cavalry and a dozen orc soldiers laid layers of bodies on the ground. Another small group of cavalry in the distance has also been submerged in the sea of people.
Griffith didn't know how many weapons he changed. He took a wooden knife from God knows where he got it, and guarded the trainee nuns back to back. Panting orc soldiers wiped the sweat from their heads while staring at them a few steps away.
Krista dropped her sabre, which was half broken, quickly took off the heavy book hanging around her waist, tied it with a silver chain, and there were four cold light shining horns on the chain. The holy book just used to bless the cavalry suddenly turned into a scary shield with sharp teeth.
The blonde girl holds the shield and gently rests her head on Griffith's shoulder. Two people stood in silence, waiting for their final fate.
"Wansheng!"
I don't know where the majestic roar broke out again on the battlefield. A brigade of infantry broke through the enemy's front line from nowhere, and under the guidance of the commander, they rushed towards the battlefield here.
The orcs, who were just besieging the cavalry, immediately wavered. Some of them shouted to kill Griffith and others, and the other part began to turn around and run away.
"Holy light gives me courage,
"The holy light gave me shelter,
"The holy light looks at me and throws fear on the enemy's head."
Griffith heard the gentle prayer of the girl behind him. Krista suddenly swung the chain in her hand and swept around. Griffith shrunken his head, followed by a silver sweep, tearing his way out among the surrounding orcs.
The slim blonde girl doesn't know where she got so much strength, waving the holy book with chains and flying in the center of the orcs. The orc team that was just shouting was scattered and fled in an instant.
"Don't stop, keep attacking!" Several infantry soldiers had already penetrated the defense line and came to Griffith's side. One of the leading soldiers, with his face close to his visor, shouted, "Follow us. Ah!"
Before the sergeant could finish, he suddenly trembled violently from his feet. A palm wider than Johnson's body stretched out from the ground, and one hand smashed the sergeant.
"Bi Meng!"
"Bi Meng!"
The infantry in the shock gave a frightened yell and fell into a crazy flight in front of the sudden monster. In this shout, a giant as tall as a hill broke out of the ground. Its skin is as tough as bronze casting, with a huge one-horned head, a wheel-shaped one-eyed eye scanning the battlefield, and turning to the infantry and cavalry around it is a blow.
What is this! Griffith barked wildly in his mind. Although he soon realized that it was a legendary monster hunting dragons. When his vision is obscured by the huge black shadow, the will to test the war still can't bear such a sudden scene.
Somehow, I seem to hear the sound of two dice landing. Then, Griffith felt as if a crack had opened in his head, and chaos, evil, fear and anger poured out.
His rationality is losing.
The legendary monster just appeared without warning. The terrible force brought a powerful shock wave, and Griffith was blown down to the ground like grass in the wind. Most of the nearby comrades-in-arms fell into fear and madness, some of them scattered and fled, and some of them attacked the behemoths with long guns.However, the sharp spear head stuck on the beast's body was like hitting the city wall and instantly broken.
Terrible beasts swept over with their wall-like arms, and the chaotic infantry brigade immediately heard a continuous crack of bones, and all the soldiers who were hit flew into the sky apart and then fell apart. In Griffith, it sounds as dense as hail landing, and fear and nausea gush out from the stomach.
A team of cavalry returned to the battlefield. They just broke through the line of defense, were preparing to besiege the enemy's large array, and hit the legendary creature's devastating attack head-on. Some of the cavalry fled screaming, others crashed into it out of inertia.
The air echoed with screams and crackling sound.
It's. It's terrible. I'm dreaming!
My rib is broken. It hurts. Damn it, it hurts!
Griffith was shaking all over. The whole body armor was useless in the face of Bi Meng's sweeping, and his internal organs were shattered just by the wind pressure.
Griffith kept spitting out blood foam, struggling to pull on the mud, trying to escape from this battlefield.
At this desperate moment, a brilliant golden light appeared in front of him.
"Garfield, hold on, I'm coming!" Krista ran to Griffith with soft blonde hair, still singing healing magic in her mouth.
The warm heat flow immediately wrapped Griffith's body, and he felt as safe and calm as soaking in warm water. All he can see is Krista's bright face and bright blonde hair.
Ah. Is this the goddess!
"Pa!"
A gust of wind swept in front of me, and the trainee nun who was just in front of her disappeared immediately.
"Krista!" Griffith heard Golona's familiar and frightened shouts, and then he saw the broken limbs of the trainee nuns fall to the ground. The head separated from the body rolled in front of Griffith, and his big blue eyes were still staring at him.
Griffith's heart thumped as if something important had broken apart.
Bi Meng kicked the cavalry running to support, and three or four dodgy cavalry immediately turned into a mass of broken meat.
"Go to hell!" Gorona agile dodged a blow and jumped up from the war horse, and ran straight down Bi Meng's arm towards the blind corner of its field of vision. Just a few more steps forward, he can pierce the one-eyed monster.
I want to distract this monster. Griffith almost bit his teeth. He stood up with all his strength, grabbed a javelin and threw it at the beast.
"Bang!"
The javelin smashed into pieces on the wall-like chest. Beamon beast raised his left hand with a heavy beat, and Golona, who was sprinting on his right arm, turned into a mud on the spot like a killed mosquito.
"Well! ! !” Griffith watched the heroic Golona be smashed, and took a step backwards in horror. Fear has spread all over him. The trainee knight with a black line stepped back and plopped down to the ground.
Krista's head lay quietly at his hand, and the beautiful light in her eyes had gone out.
"Ouch!" Griffith vomited, as if to vomit up his stomach and intestines, which was generally uncontrollable.
No, it won't work.
How can this be something that human beings can overcome.
Anyway. What am I doing in this place?
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