Chapter 296: Militia Combat Training and Magic Beast Traps

That place is where the metal weapons used by the various bandits outside Bingxun Pass come from.

If these bandits who rob others were to be robbed themselves, presumably no one would care.

Where could those bandits be at this moment? According to the information gathered earlier, regardless of the size of their groups, those bandits would retreat into the deeper mountain Forest once the Militia began their training, to avoid the Militia's clearing operations.

Jier felt that if he were to go looking for bandits around Bingxun Pass now, it would be very difficult to find their traces. But if he were to head south from the road in western Kendall, as long as he crossed one or two mountains, he should encounter a large number of bandit tracks.

After all, looking at the map of Kendall County he drew, after passing through large stretches of Forest and a small amount of mountains, one would jump directly from the area near Kendall City to the west side of Bingxun Pass.

It is just that crossing several mountain peaks is not easy.

But since those bandits can occupy that place every winter, why can he not do the same?

The next day, Jier got up early, and after eating, he went out to watch the Militia's combat training.

He would not watch the entire Militia training; he just wanted to satisfy his curiosity and get a preliminary understanding of local large-scale combat.

This time he brought a small wooden stool and also brought a few slices of Bread with pickled cucumbers as his midday food.

Todd had not arrived yet, so Jier set up his small stool in a place with a good view outside the Militia training ground, wrapped himself well in his warm Cloak, and curiously watched the Militia's training.

Squads of Militia, led by their flags, dressed neatly and holding weapons, began to run around the vast training ground.

Knight Kela's requirement for them was that during the long run, the entire team must firmly gather under the team flag, and no falling behind or chaotic situations were allowed to occur.

After two days of training, these Militia could only barely meet Knight Kela's minimum requirements. A large number of Militia with insufficient stamina would still fall behind the team as they ran, having to wait on the side and wait for the next round of the team to pass by before finding the right time to join in.

After a while, seeing that the Militia's stamina was almost exhausted, Knight Kela ordered them to start eating breakfast.

Cans of fatty meat strips soaked in jars were taken out and thrown directly into iron pots burning hot; once the fat from several kinds of animals sizzled, each Militiaman would come over with a piece of baked Bread broken open, each person getting a large strip of fatty meat tucked into the Bread. Just as the Militia began to eat their Bread and fatty meat happily, the iron pots full of Grease had a large amount of clear water poured into them, followed by root vegetables cut into small pieces and large chunks of mashed dried fish poured into the iron pots.

Jier, watching from not far away, had his mouth watering. No wonder the young people in the county were impatient to join the Militia training, and it was full every year. It turned out the food during training was this good.

It was only because the training ground was close to Kendall City; if they left Kendall County to fight elsewhere, there certainly wouldn't be such sufficient logistics for food as there was now.

Todd wandered over slowly at this time. He was also attracted by the aroma of the food the Militia were eating. After finding Jier, he complained to Jier that the food they ate during Militia training back then was far worse compared to now.

It was all big pots of boiled vegetable soup; whatever they could buy at the market that day, they could eat in the soup.

Unlike now, the food was all prepared early in the morning; the pickled fatty meat was specially reserved by the city butchers for the Government Office to prepare early, and two people were hired from the city's bakery, starting from yesterday evening, to make the Bread for the Militia to eat today all at once.

After the Militia finished eating, Knight Kela's loud voice rang out again.

Because many Militia had not received weapon training, and some Melee Militia who had received weapon training had not received large-team combat coordination, Knight Kela first had the Kendall Guard form teams of ten or twenty to demonstrate what team combat looked like, which was different from individual combat.

The guards first took out the prepared Spears, stood in teams separated by about a meter, and then held their Spears diagonally, marching forward in unison. When Knight Kela changed the command, the front row of guards stuck the ends of their Spears into the mud, then half-crouched, letting the Spears extend forward at a low angle.

Then the guards in the back row rested their Spears diagonally on the shoulders of the front-row guards, and thus a forest of spears was erected on the ground.

This is the Defense Formation.

Changing the command, the guards held their Spears diagonally forward and charged forward in a triangular shape.

This is the Assault Formation.

Changing the command, the guards scattered at an extremely fast speed, with the distance between each person kept at a distance where they could not be stabbed by each other's five-meter-long Spears.

This is the Evasion Formation to avoid Magic strikes and Magic Beast rushes.

Changing the command, this time all the guards gathered around the leading guard, and then they ran together quickly. Even though they were running at full speed, the entire team did not scatter.

This is the Rapid Movement Formation.

For the last command, the guards ran to some large boxes that had already been opened, and they rushed up to pick up the Crossbows and Crossbow Bolt bags with belts from the boxes one by one.

The Crossbows were neither too big nor too small, just right to be carried on their backs with the Rope on them, and the bags full of Crossbow Bolts were tied to a belt. The guards only needed to simply wrap the belt around their waists and tie a quick knot to be ready for battle.

After all the guards were equipped with Crossbows, several simple Wooden Walls rose in the empty field in the distance; it turned out that someone had propped up supporting wooden poles behind the Wooden Walls.

Then these people ran away quickly, and the guards had already scattered into the previous Evasion Formation. They moved the Crossbows on their backs to their fronts, pulled two Crossbow Bolts from their waists, and after pulling the upper and lower Bowstrings of the Crossbow with the mechanism, placed the two Crossbow Bolts into the grooves of the Crossbow body, aiming roughly at the Wooden Walls in the distance.

On the Wooden Walls, human shapes and horse shapes were painted with red paint, as well as huge animal shapes two people tall.

Knight Kela stood behind the guards, and seeing that all the guards had entered the state of preparing to attack, he shouted: "Fire!"

The guards obeyed the order and pulled the triggers of the Crossbows, each firing a Crossbow Bolt.

Swish, swish, swish, swish.

In a very short period of time, dozens of guards fired a Crossbow Bolt. The neat rain of arrows was like a horizontal curtain of rain, and after flying for a brief moment, it hit the simple Wooden Walls in the distance with a crackle.

"Oh!!!" The Militia watching from behind let out a uniform sound of surprise.

In fact, when the guards demonstrated various movements earlier, the sounds of surprise had not stopped, but they were somewhat scattered; clearly, some people did not think those things were very difficult.

But at this moment, firing a wave of Crossbow Bolts, this visually impressive sight made everyone unable to hold back, and they let out a uniform exclamation.

Jier's observation angle was different. Although he thought the various formation movements earlier were okay, there was nothing that surprised him.

But this shooting was different. It was not the volley that surprised him, but the formation these guards used when shooting that made him feel it was peculiar.

Unlike his imagination of everyone standing neatly and then firing a volley, these guards were shooting at distant targets while maintaining the Evasion Formation.

This was very interesting; what did this mean?

It meant that when the guards were conducting long-range shooting, they still had to avoid the opponent's counterattack. Thinking of the things painted on the Wooden Walls opposite, Jier felt that the long-range strike power of this world might exceed his imagination.

After all, in Knight Kela's training for the Militia, he noticed that Knight Kela paid special attention to the training of the team's overall gathering and scattering. He insisted on ensuring that all teams could expand in an extremely short time and gather together in a short time.

This showed that the regular wars in this world had long-range power far exceeding the level of development of the era.

Especially hearing Todd say that all Militia had to undergo Crossbow training and that all Militia were to be equipped with Crossbows.

Thinking of this, Jier felt that in the regular wars of this world, the main strike force should be various long-range weapons.

However, he saw Knight Kela again and thought about the situation where extraordinary power was generally present; ordinary soldiers should indeed focus on long-range strike power.

After all, if it were just close-quarters combat, thousands of people might not be able to defeat a Knight Rank powerhouse like Knight Kela, who wore super-heavy armor, in melee combat.

But what if it were thousands of soldiers using Crossbows?

Thinking of the scene of over a thousand Crossbow Bolts shooting at you in an instant, Jier shuddered and understood.

Knight Kela was not satisfied with the effect of the first wave of Crossbow Bolt strikes and cursed loudly. The guards focused their attention, striving for the second wave of shooting to satisfy their guard captain, Knight Kela.

"Average shooting! Don't all shoot at that largest target. Can you guarantee that the human target is not the truly dangerous one? Now, fire!" Knight Kela shouted.

The guards moved the Crossbow mechanisms, and the second wave of Crossbow Bolts was fired.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

This wave was clearly much stronger than the previous round of shooting.

Knight Kela was quite satisfied.

The guards, putting away their weapons, returned the crossbows and quivers to the large chest, while also returning the spears to the Militia, continuing their guard duty at the training ground while whispering and laughing.

Next, Knight Kela began to have the various Militia squads pick up their weapons for simple formation practice, patrolling the training ground and constantly adjusting the training progress of each squad.

Only after a squad had practiced their current formation well and it looked decent did he allow that squad to proceed to the training of the next formation.

As for the Melee Militia, Knight Kela had the clerk providing logistics and the city Militia bring over the wooden weapon tools prepared beforehand, and had the Militia, already wearing their protective gear, form into two-man confrontation groups to engage in combat sparring.

However, the squad combat sparring was not like street thugs fighting for territory; even if it was a fight between a few people, there had to be a winning combat logic.

In multi-person combat sparring, while winning is important, preserving oneself is a necessary prerequisite for victory.

Knight Kela had the Militia hold their Shields tight and move close to each other, but not too close, with the best degree being that they could support each other with a single step.

If the opponent charges, they must quickly bring their Shields together to block the opponent's assault and breakthrough.

At the beginning, the Melee Militia were still in a chaotic mess when they fought, often with a few people shouting and rushing straight up, only to be beaten down by the crowd; although they weren't injured, they were still beaten until they were dizzy and disoriented.

The onlookers laughed heartily, and Todd couldn't stop laughing either; he told Jier that even after training for a long time, there were still a few people in his squad who, every time they sparred, would have their hot blood rush to their heads, ignoring the formation entirely to be the first to rush up and the first to be beaten down.

Jier, however, learned from these training scenes the method of how to win in multi-person confrontations.

Although Knight Kela had stated the principles to everyone, whether they could actually apply them during the combat process was a matter for the captain of each small squad to consider.

Jier watched for a long time, and after asking Todd, he knew that the next period of time would be mainly for practicing these things; although the things taught were not many, they were all very important basic content. Plus, the Militia were basically illiterate, so it would be difficult to learn deeper content in such a short time.

Therefore, the next period of time would be a process of consolidation and mastery. However, in the later stages of training, the shooting and maintenance of Crossbows would also be taught, and those were the most important things.

After saying goodbye to Todd, Jier returned to his room, packed up all his things, and then, carrying only his armor, weapons, and necessary supplies, set off to "borrow" some metal from the bandits.

Anyway, those swords made of metal would only harm ordinary people in their hands; it would be better to get them into his hands so he could forge his first set of full-metal, full-coverage armor.

According to the plan from last night, after Zhao Ji left the city, he first walked west along Kendall City, and then, after walking halfway, turned south to enter the Forest.

After passing through a large area of the Forest, as long as he crossed one or two mountains, he would reach the place where other bandits, besides the Thieves of Luodai Cave, hid to avoid the Militia's clearing operations during the winter.

But shortly after leaving the city, Zhao Ji looked up and saw the first snow of this winter beginning to drift sporadically in the sky.

The snowflakes were extremely beautiful; after catching one on his hand, he observed it carefully, and the exquisite and complex micro-structure of the snowflake made his mood improve for some reason.

Hopefully, this trip goes smoothly.

"What a truly good snow," Zhao Ji exclaimed.

At the same time, in the Forest northeast of Yinyulin Village, ever since a few sporadic snowflakes passed through the layers of branches and landed on the back of Knight Lanisha's hand, Knight Lanisha frowned and complained, "What a snow that comes at the wrong time."

An old Hunter hiding in a half-pit next to her spoke up: "Sir Knight, although it is inconvenient for us to ambush the Magic Beast when it snows, it also brings us other benefits."

Raising an eyebrow, Knight Lanisha asked, "There are benefits?"

"Yes, when the animals in the Forest see the snow, those with nests will hide back into their nests. If that Magic Beast wants to hunt outside, the prey it can choose from will be greatly reduced. The tied-up animals we placed in the few traps around will appear very tempting," the old Hunter said slowly.

Don't look at this old Hunter speaking in the place where they were ambushing; in fact, the old Hunter kept his voice very low, to a level that almost only he could hear. But he knew that Lady Lanisha, as a Knight, had sharp ears and bright eyes, and in a quiet situation, she could hear no matter how small the sound was.

Once, they Hunters had a shooting competition with Knight Lanisha, and the result was that Knight Lanisha could hit the target with multiple Arrows from nearly seven hundred meters away, far exceeding them, these ordinary Hunters.

Beyond one hundred meters, it was difficult for them to hit a target the size of a wild deer with a single Arrow; after the Arrow exceeded one hundred meters, it would be greatly affected by the wind, and basically, unless a heavy bow was used, it was impossible to accurately hit the target.

"Well said; in that case, if that Magic Beast, which is said to be huge in size, wants to maintain normal activities in winter, it must hunt animals constantly, and our traps should attract it over very soon." Nodding, Knight Lanisha smiled. She was happy to be able to complete this crusade and Hunting of the Magic Beast as soon as possible; after all, in this kind of Forest where there was nothing, she couldn't eat good food, had to be careful about the possibility of a Magic Beast attack while sleeping, and she also had to pay attention to the safety of her subordinates.

Although they were all old Hunters who had been hunting for a lifetime or Hunters with extraordinary bravery, going so deep into the Forest was still too dangerous for them.

There was everything in the Forest, and anything could appear.

Although it was said that there was already one Magic Beast in this Forest, and there was a high probability that there would not be a second one, other small things, such as various ferocious, cold-hardy Monster insects, or some shadow Forest Leopards that could hide their figures with the environment, were all very dangerous.

Fortunately, they were entering the mountains and forests in winter, and there were no other large animals or beasts here, otherwise, just dealing with these things normally would be troublesome enough.

Just as Knight Lanisha's thoughts were drifting, a mass of magical White Mist enveloped their surroundings.

It's here.

Knight Lanisha looked to the side; the figure of the old Hunter next to her was also obscured quite a bit by this Mist, but she could still see the other person nod to her, confirming that this was the first-hand intelligence obtained from the Steward of the Cunzi earlier.

This pure White Mist was the preemptive means used by that Magic Beast before it struck.

Perhaps ordinary Merchants or travelers would think that the appearance of Mist at night was a very common thing, but Hunters who had survived in the wild for years saw at a glance that this Mist was unreasonable.

The temperature had already dropped below freezing in the past few days, and the appearance of Mist in the damp Forest seemed abnormal.

It was just that none of the Humans ambushed by the Magic Beast before had survived, so even if someone had noticed something wrong at the time, they could not have expected that a very huge spider-type Magic Beast was crouching on a high tree, or hanging from the silk threads it had spun, and then sneakily attacking from above the Humans' heads.

Thinking of this, Knight Lanisha felt that the deaths of her three subordinate Hunters were not worth it.

After the three of them were ambushed at that time, only three pairs of feet were left, indicating that they had discovered the abnormality of the Mist and had already stood up to be vigilant. But they still never expected that the Magic Beast would launch the ambush from above, in the blind spot of human vision.

Just like that, they died carelessly and were eaten.

Touching the Armor-piercing Rapier at her waist and the Single-handed Heavy Sword on her back, Knight Lanisha waited for the Magic Beast's further actions.

According to the plan, the first few traps were just a means to spread out and lure the Magic Beast over; although people were also ambushed, those hidden Hunters were not allowed to act. Only after the Magic Beast had eaten the tied-up animals they had captured one by one and reached the Knight, and after the Knight felt the timing for the attack was appropriate and launched the attack, would the other Hunters take action, using bows and Arrows stained with flammable Grease to shoot at the Monster's body.

And the traps were not just these.

The place they chose had an open space in the middle; after the Magic Beast entered the trap and the Knight launched the attack, the other peripheral Hunters would light the kindling that had already been moved to the branches and trunks, letting the raging flames trap the Magic Beast within the range of the traps.

It could only fight with them and could not escape.

After all, if a Magic Beast of that size was determined to escape at the cost of being injured, it would be difficult to stop it without special means.