The Devil’s Cage

The mighty Gorl stabbed his great sword in the ground in front of him. He turned around and took over a thick rope the size of a grown man’s arm from the two soldiers that combined their effort to carry it.

The rope was giving out a metallic lustre; obviously, it was mixed with materials other than linen-type ones. At the end of the rope was a huge metal refined hook, heavy and sharp.

”Hek!”

Gorl grabbed the rope and shouted vigorously.

Then, the thick rope started to spin, producing a heavy whistling sound when Gorl spun it around with all his might. Gorl swung the rope around, forming a mini tornado, and when it reached maximum speed, Gorl let go of the rope with the hook.

Shooooo!

Pak!

The hook was thrown out dragging the rope behind and it easily latched on the inner wooden plate of the hang bridge after it flew over.

Gorl pulled the rope to test whether was it firmly latched before he signaled Duke Sergourney aside.

”Pull!”

The duke shouted after a vicious smile.

Instantly, the dozens of war horses at the other end of the rope started to sprint madly with the riders commanding the horses with their whips.

The thick rope was tightened into a straight line and was producing a irritating screech. The tall hang bridge started to wobble following the screech.

The tower on the other side started to fire arrows again, but against the stacked up shields, it was useless. In fact, the archer at the tower exposed himself with the shot.

Shooou!

When another arrow was fired out, Gorl who was prepared for the arrow quickly counterattacked with an arrow of his.

Instantly, everyone of the duke’s side could hear a faint moan of pain from the opposite tower. It made them cheer loudly, and their ruthless expressions became heavier.

After withstanding a full day of ambushes on the road here, it had infuriated the soldiers like ferocious wolves and tigers. Every one of them was eager to tear their target apart with their bare hands.

The riders with the whips struck harder on the war horses. The war horses were dragged down by the thick rope but they could only sprint forward as hard as they could after being whipped by their riders.

BANG!

After less than a half minute, the capstan of the hang bridge on the opposite was sent flying in the air under the brute force. The hang bridge which was already wobbling instantly fell down before Duke Sergourney, producing a heavy bang.

Duke Sergourney did not immediately order his men to charge but instead he bent down and checked the hang bridge. He used his palm to press on the bridge and sniffed his finger after that.

His face instantly displayed a sense of sneering.

”Gasolene? Bring the sand bags!”

The duke waved at his men behind.

A dozen of idle soldiers quickly took down the sandbags from the horse saddles and threw it onto the bridge. The soldiers slashed open the sandbag before throwing it out, and before it could land on the bridge, a layer of thick sand had covered the surface of the whole hang bridge.

”Gorl!” The duke shouted again.

As the duke’s knight, Gorl quickly carried his greatsword on his back and brought up a shield as tall as a grown man, advancing forward. Three more tall and strong soldiers followed behind Gorl tightly with their shield up too.

The few men formed a small shield formation, firmly guarding the top and front from all sorts of attacks. Regardless of how many arrows the tower fired at them, they couldn’t stop the shield formation from advancing.

”I said I would catch you, letting you know what it would be when you offend me…”

The duke was protected by the remaining soldiers. He was laughing ferociously and shouting at the tower loudly. His intention was to strike fear in the people’s heart within the castle and cause them to be in a constant state of anxiety.

However before the threatening words could be finished, the duke was interrupted.

Three continuous arrow were fired from behind the duke and precisely landed on the back of the soldiers’ neck who stepped on the hang bridge.

Although the shielding soldiers were raising their shield up high, blocking their top and front but they never would have thought the enemy would appear behind them as they fell down into the deep mountains streams with a dying wail.

The sudden arrows and the wailings of dead caused the duke to shrink his body, hiding completely behind the shields of his men. He quickly rushed the soldiers beside him, saying ”Quick! Quick! Locate the enemy! That useless Neet, can’t even handle such a small matter!”

”Gorl!”

Before his cursing could end, the duke shouted the name of his knight again.

However, Gorl at that moment was in a tough situation, preventing him from advancing and retreating.

The arrow from behind caused Gorl to tremble in fright, but the arrows from the tower could not be underestimated as well; he knew that if he wasn’t careful enough, he would have to suffer an arrow to his body.

More importantly, he didn’t have enough space to dodge the arrows on the narrow bridge. Gorl quickly picked up a shield from his fallen soldiers aside and started to retreat with two shields in each of his hands.

He was not by any means slow, somewhat even faster than advancing forward, but compared to Kieran who started the ambush, it was too slow.

The dark red greatsword slashed out from the shadow; it was like a grim reaper’s scythe dyed with blood, slashing the iron-coated wooden shields like sweeping dead leaves from a tree. The shielders were also slashed into half following their shields, and the person who was hiding behind these shielder soldiers, Duke Sergourney.

UGh!

Blood rain started to drizzle and the bodies that was sliced in half from the waist fell to the ground one after another. Some of them didn’t die from the slash and were suffering excruciating pain. They were crawling on the ground, dragging their intestines all over and dyeing their trail red with blood.

Duke Sergourney was one of them.

The duke went mute after the first wail of pain since he never had suffered such pain before. He was crawling among the group and moving forward because of the pain.

He then saw his knight, Gorl in front him. The duke unconsciously raised his hand.

”Go...Gorl, save me!”

The duke’s voice was still clear when he muttered, but the knight turned a deaf ear to him.

When Gorl saw the scene, he threw both the shields at Kieran and turned around running for his life, without a single moment of hesitation!

Maybe when Duke Sergourney was still alive, Gorl wouldn’t mind continuing his service to the duke, but when the duke was destined to die, he would never follow the same path.

”If the worse comes to worst, I’ll find another noble family to serve! There are plenty of nobles like Sergourney around!”

Gorl thought in his heart while running for his life.

Suddenly, he felt that his body was running too fast, to the extent that he felt like he was flying?

”Huh?! That body looked so familiar. Is it mine?”

Just when the thought bloomed in his heart, Gorl’s conscience vanished completely.

Kieran then picked up the white glowing skill book and made chase for all the other scattered soldiers.

After a while, when Kieran had dealt with the scattered soldiers, he came back to the spot.

He shook his head when he saw the dead Duke Sergourney. The duke was not a popular man in people’s heart. Maybe before he died, he could rely on his identity and reputation to command his men to work for him, but the moment he died, nothing was left behind.

Not even a person who was willing to avenge him.

After a thorough check on the duke’s body and not getting any results, Kieran stood up and walked towards the hang bridge. His eyes were looking at the tall tower before him.

Kieran could clearly feel there was a pair of vigilant eyes inspecting him from within the tower.

”I am 2567. I came here to reply to the aid of Swusters Castle’s owner!”

He said.