The Herb King

Looking at the struggling soldiers, Aenwyn turned her gaze to Aethelwolf and asked. "Are you not going to make a move?"

Aethelwolf shook his head as he answered. "This is a good learning experience for the troops. Most of them are new recruits so this war is a valuable opportunity for them to learn a lot of things. Besides, I can't do everything myself, right? I would be exhausted to death if I do that."

"Some of the soldiers you sent would die and there might only be a little more than half of them who would survive the war. Are you sure about that?" Aenwyn stared at his face.

Aethelwolf's eyes were calm as he replied. "I sent them here to gain experience. I don't mind some casualties as long as I see results."

Hearing this, Aenwyn no longer asked him anything.

On the battlefield, Ramiel could barely block Gustavo's fearsome attacks. Without his Unique-Rated armor, he would have already been seriously injured. 'He has a major advantage in terms of speed. My world essence would soon be depleted. By then, I would be at the mercy of this guy...' Ramiel thought to himself.

As he thought of this, he decided to keep his shield inside his storage ring. This thing was too heavy and it would only be a hindrance to his fight against Gustavo who was a lot faster than him.

Gustavo smiled mockingly when he saw his opponent discarding his shield. "Did you really think that you can gain the upper hand just because you have discarded your shield? Foolish! Since you want to die that badly, then let me help you!" He tapped his foot and dashed towards Ramiel. He left afterimages in his path and it was difficult to pinpoint his exact location.

Ramiel remained calm when he saw this. He lifted his giant mace with both hands and spun like a twister. This created a violent gust of wind around him which sent invisible wind blades in all directions!

CLANG!

Gustavo's position was revealed and he couldn't help but look at Ramiel in surprise. This man actually attacked in all directions just to locate him. He was also shocked by the power behind those wind blades. Although he managed to block it, Gustavo felt that his arms were starting to feel numb. 'Dammit! This guy is like a magical beast!'

After a moment of astonishment, Gustavo launched another attack. This time, he carefully maneuvered in a way that Ramiel wouldn't be able to easily hit him.

However, Ramiel remained motionless as if he didn't plan to block the other party's strike.

Seeing this, Gustavo smirked coldly. "You asked for this! Die!"

Suddenly, Ramiel lifted his left hand and clutched the blade of Gustavo's sword that was about to cleave his head! His hand bled profusely, but he showed no signs of releasing his grip. "You fell for it!" He muttered coldly to Gustavo as he swung his giant mace to the man.

Gustavo's eyes constricted and he decisively abandoned his weapon.

BANG!

The spot where he last stood now had a deep crater! The power behind Ramiel's mace was enough to kill him on the spot! He was lucky that the man was a lot slower than him or he would have been done for!

Meanwhile, Aurus was fighting against three experts. One of them was Vhincent, the only surviving Vice Leader of the Northern Viper Group.

At this moment, Vhincent had a vicious look on his face as he stared at Aurus' defenseless back. However, the old man's figure suddenly disappeared right in front of his eyes.

"Are you looking for me?" He heard a disdainful voice before he felt a sharp pain in his neck. He then felt all the strength in his body gradually leaving.

Vhincent clutched his neck as he stared at the smirking old man in disbelief. 'How did he...' He couldn't even finish his thoughts before he collapsed on the ground with his eyes wide open.

The two experts who were fighting alongside Vhincent were surprised to see their comrade suddenly dying. They wanted to call for help, but the others were still fighting so they could only do their best to hold back the old man.

"Now, you guys are the ones retreating." Aurus muttered coldly when he saw the futile attempts of the two experts. "You people are still too green to face this old man!"

Aurus ended the lives of the two experts in just a few minutes! He was like a killing machine!

Aurus looked around him. He saw that Einar was slowly overwhelming his enemies so he decided to lend him a hand. "Sir Einar, let's kill these bastards and support Sir Ramiel!"

Einar nodded his head. He was a bit surprised by the old man's efficiency. He actually managed to kill his enemies in just a short amount of time!

Seeing the appearance of the old man, their enemies felt anxious. His presence here means that their comrades were dead! They thought that they could kill these guys, but they were the ones who ended up dying.

"Let's retreat and regroup with the others!" They quickly withdrew the moment they noticed their disadvantage.

Gustavo saw them retreating, making his furrow his eyebrows in frustration. 'These guys are so useless! They can't even hold back two old men! Dammit!'

Despite his anger, Gustavo still commanded them to retreat. It wasn't wise to stay when his comrades had already lost their morale. "Regroup with the soldiers!" He shouted.

Before he left with the others, Gustavo gave Ramiel a hard look.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Two figures suddenly appeared before him.

"Are you alright, Sir Ramiel?" Aurus asked while observing his body.

Einar was silent, but he was also secretly observing him.

Ramiel nodded his head. "I'm fine. Let's go and support Harold. He wouldn't be able to hold back the Iron Elephant Army all by himself!"

The two old men nodded their heads when they heard this. They then followed behind him.

***

On top of the walls of Lion City, Baron narrowed his eyes into slits. He could see from where he stood that there was a separate force moving in the direction of the eastern gate. "Sir Aethelwolf really has foresight. It's good that we had prepared some traps there. Even the Ice Wyvern Battalion would have trouble trying to infiltrate that area." He smiled coldly.

It was part of their plan to make the enemies believe that the eastern gate was the least protected part of Lion City, but the Dustin Empire didn't know that there were traps waiting for them there.

Duke Baron took out his Communication Rune and when it lit up, he could hear Prince Renz' voice on the other side. "Are they coming in this direction?"

"Yes, Your Highness. It happened as Sir Aethelwolf has predicted. Their Ice Wyvern Battalion is now moving in the eastern gate. You guys should be ready." The Duke muttered.

"Alright. Be careful on your side, Sir Baron."

"You too, Your Highness."

Meanwhile, Prince Renz who was hiding at the eastern gate with his troops kept his Communication Rune. He then gave a hand signal to his men.

When they saw his signal, the soldiers discreetly moved to their designated spots. Each of them was holding silver-colored nets. These nets were used by hunters to capture strong magical beasts. It was made using tough materials and it could even trap a Level 2 magical beast!

Not long later, they could already hear the sharp cries of the Ice Wyverns.

Prince Renz slowly raised his head and saw a huge number of Ice Wyverns moving in their direction. Each Ice Wyvern had a Level 3 Esper riding them.

He waited for them to get nearer and when the Ice Wyverns reached their range, Prince Renz stood up and shouted. "Release the nets!"

As soon as his voice fell, thousands of soldiers suddenly appeared and cast the silver nets to the Ice Wyverns.

The riders of the Ice Wyverns were late to notice their presence and some of them were immediately bound by the nets.

"Light the javelins! Release!" Prince Renz didn't stop commanding his troops.

The soldiers took out their javelins and lit them up with flammable materials. They then threw the javelins to the bound Ice Wyverns.

The silver nets could only hold a Level 2 magical beast so they had to be fast in the execution of their attacks since the Ice Wyverns were all Level 3 beasts and even their riders were all Level 3 Espers!

"It's a trap! Move further away and don't get caught up in their nets!" The commander of the Ice Wyvern Battalion quickly issued a command when he saw the situation. However, it was already too late. More than a thousand Ice Wyverns were impaled by the burning javelins and they soon plummeted to the ground along with their riders.

"These bastards didn't go to Vale City! They intentionally lured us here! Dammit!" The commander cursed under his breath.