Castle of Black Iron

In the heavy rain and the dark, it only took Hawbon Stoic and his 6 subordinates a few minutes to transfer to a temporary foothold that they had fixed in advance. It was an underground cellar deserted by a business group less than 500 m away from the place where they fought just now in the south of the city.

This underground cellar had two exits. Even though one exit was blocked by the enemy from outside, they could still escape away from the other exit. It was why Hawbon Stoic chose this place as the temporary foothold for his team.

Leaving one person outside the exit as a watchdog, all the others entered the underground cellar which was messy yet safe for the time being. After lighting up the fluorescent lamps inside the cellar, someone finally couldn't help weeping.

The battle happened so fast. In the 2-minute battle, their team killed 7 enemies at the cost of 3 lives. As a result, the entire team depleted by almost one third in population.

They would not see those familiar faces any more in the future.

Wister, Sandor and Nagi...

Half an hour ago, they were still with each other and fighting shoulder to shoulder. In the daytime, they were talking about having a revelry after the battle in Coldwater City. Unexpectedly...

It was very depressed in the underground cellar. They all remained quiet as they hugged their knees and sat against the wall. Those heads that they brought back looked grim in the pale green fluorescent light.

The cheeks, chins, noses, even foreheads of those human heads were covered with tattoos in the shape of snake scale, cobweb and ox horn, which symbolized that they were fighters in Sacred Alliance Empire.

Under the ruling of demons, all the men in the Sacred Alliance Empire took such tattoos which symbolized demons as their glory. In the Sacred Alliance Empire, these tattoos couldn't be made for free. They had to undergo some rites. The more tattoos were on their bodies, the higher their positions would be in Sacred Alliance Empire. Those who had such "disgusting" tattoos on their faces were all fighters in the Sacred Alliance Empire.

"Captain, I'm sorry. I didn't know that person was a LV 9 fighter. Therefore, I fired an inflammable bolt at him the moment he jumped out of the window. On that occasion, I should have used an armor-piercing bolt. In that way, I could bring back that b*stard's head." Mole apologized to Hawbon Stoic in a low mood with a metal sniper's crossbow in hand.

If they brought back the head of a LV 9 fighter of Sacred Alliance Empire, they would receive a greater reward as it represented greater meritorious deed.

"Never mind!" Hawbon Stoic said as he took in a deep breath and patted Mole's shoulder, continuing, "That's a powerful enemy. He had a swift reflex. Even though I could barely deal with him. Without your bolt, he probably had already fled away. In the future, more brothers might be killed by him. You've avenged the death of Wister and Sandor..."

After hearing his words, Mole felt much better; however, he still felt pitiful about that, "But..."

"It's just a head. It's not a big deal. Additionally, we've already brought back some heads. If we want more, we could have many opportunities in Coldwater City as long as we're alive!" Hawbon Stoic asked Mole to take a seat. After that, he turned around and watched those people who rushed into the destroyed building with him just now, saying, "Lanktol, did you set the time bomb when you left there?"

A youth with red eyes raised his head under the hood of his field cloak before watching Hawbon Stoic and nodding while biting his lip.

"It's the best method for us to prevent the corpses of Wister and Sandor from being humiliated and being eaten by stray dogs and rats." Hawbon Stoic said, "As for Nagy... he doesn't need it... If I lay on the battlefield one day, you could also prepare a time bomb for me before leaving." His voice instantly turned lower.

"Captain, do you think someone... could still remember us after this holy war? Would they still remember that we once fought enemies in Coldwater City at the risk of our lives?" a person with a fresh scar on his face left by a saber sitting in the fluorescent lamp suddenly raised his head and asked Hawbon Stoic with a self-mockery smile, "Regimental commander said that someone could definitely bear us in mind; however, I feel that regimental commander was lying. So many people have died in the last holy war; however, only some big figures' names could be remembered in the end. At least, I cannot remember any name of small figures who died in the last holy war like us..."

After hearing his words, all the others also raised their heads and fixated onto Hawbon Stoic.

"I don't care whether my name could be remembered by someone else or not!" Hawbon Stoic said as he shook his head. At the same time, he pointed at those heads being covered with ugly tattoos and said in a muffled sound, "As for me, the most important was that I don't want to live like them; neither do I want my sons and grandsons to live like them by kneeling down on the ground and calling demons dad!"

"I see!"

"Glad to hear that!" Hawbon Stoic then glanced at the others while he said, "Rest one hour here to restore your physical strength. One hour later, we will leave here and continue our search."

After hearing his words, all of them took out their portable dried rations and started to eat them.

The battle in Coldwater City had not come to an end; neither had their battle tonight come to an end. Even though they had already fought their enemies once and had lost some comrades-in-arms and brothers somewhere near them, they should also leave here and continue to look for the opportunities to annihilate their enemies outside after a short rest.

When they were having a rest, Hawbon Stoic came to the exit and asked the watchdog upside there to take a rest. He would like to stand sentry for his subordinates.

It was a warehouse above the cellar, which had already collapsed. In the ruins, a triangular steel frame formed a secret entrance above the cellar. Therefore, Hawbon Stoic chose this place as the temporary foothold for his squad after discovering it.

It was raining heavier and heavier. In the rumbling thunders, the visibility across Coldwater City was even lower than before. It was misty all over over 50 m away. They could barely see any people out of this distance. Only when a lightning streak flashed could they see further.

Besides thunders, they faintly heard growls of fighters of Barbarian Alliance from some blocks over 1,000 m away. Meanwhile, a streak of red light faintly flashed. The red light was the battle qi totem of a barbarian fighter. There was a vast and open square in the block. It was the most proper place for fighters of Barbarian Alliance to display their ability, also the defense area of barbarian fighters.

The battle in Coldwater City didn't come to a stop. The bloodshed didn't cease even on such a rainy night. More people were fighting in this ruined city in the distance.

When Hawbon Stoic was seriously observing the situation outside, he silently counted down the resting time for his subordinates.

Not knowing why, Hawbon Stoic felt that the lightning bolts in the sky above Coldwater City appeared to be a bit dense tonight, almost one lightning bolt per 3-5 seconds. It appeared to be a rare thunderstorm.

However, as he had neither been to Coldwater City before nor was a weather expert, Hawbon Stoic didn't know whether this weather was abnormal or not here; instead, based on the lightning bolts that happened per few seconds, he could better observe the situation outside.

Only in 10 more minutes, Hawbon Stoic had seen a thick and odd red lightning bolt tearing open a dark cloud that looked like a lead plate and hit a ruined two-storey shopping mall over 200 m ahead. At the same time, Hawbon Stoic suddenly felt the surrounding ground trembling once heavily. He then caught sight of a streak of golden light flashing across the broken wall of the shopping mall...

'Is that a piece of meteorite? Did I have a hallucination...'

A thought occurred to Hawbon Stoick.

At this moment, he heard a voice from the cellar as Mole had exposed his head out of there. "Captain, was that an earthquake? Are some powerhouses fighting nearby?"

"Something is wrong. Call out all the brothers..."

"Yes, captain!"

In the blink of an eye, all the team members who were having a nap downside there had already come out of the cellar. Closely after that, they all stealthily moved towards the ruined shopping mall after Hawbon Stoic.

There was a big hole in the floor slab between the first floor and the second floor. Right under the big hole, there was a huge pit that was deeper than 10 m on the ground in the central courtyard of the shopping mall. Everything around that huge pit appeared to be melted. The stones near the pit on the ground were also giving out glow like melted candles. When they arrived there, they saw heavy rain and water columns pouring down through the big hole and hitting the ground around the big pit, causing sizzle, The moment the raindrops and water columns touched the ground, they would be vaporized. As a result, it was like a sauna room; however, the ground was also cooling down rapidly.

The group of fighters in steel-sole battle boots was approaching that big pit meticulously. When they reached the edge of the big pit and watched inside, they all became petrified.

Because they saw an egg at the bottom of the big pit!

It was a huge golden egg higher than 1 m...