Chapter 32: Gervas

“It’s… over!” Barbari’s face was filled with terror; he could already foresee what was coming.

And so it was—the armored fire lizards surged forward wildly and immediately crashed into the ranks.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In an instant, the snakefolk in front of the armored fire lizards were smashed apart like clay pots.

The swamp troll finally reacted at this moment.

With a roar, it charged straight at the armored fire lizard.

Thud!

A heavy, muffled crash echoed as the two colossal beasts collided.

The armored fire lizard smashed its massive head into the swamp troll, while the swamp troll held its ground with both arms, bracing against the impact.

Once their momentum ceased, the true struggle began.

The swamp troll freed its right hand, drew a massive stone axe from its waist, and slammed it directly onto the armored fire lizard’s skull.

With a howl of pain, the armored fire lizard retaliated, whipping its iron-like tail—like a steel whip—toward the swamp troll.

Dust and smoke rolled across the wasteland as the armored fire lizard and the swamp troll fought fiercely, neither gaining the upper hand.

“Damn it, get out of the way!” Barbari’s face turned ashen as he shouted for his people to retreat.

He was furious!

That damned human knight had lured the armored fire lizards to attack them.

“Chief, look over there!”

But before Barbari’s thought had fully formed, one of his subordinates let out another cry of alarm.

Following the direction of his subordinate’s finger, he saw over a hundred humans charging toward them.

“Damn it! So you were all planning this!”

When he spotted the knight who had lured the armored fire lizards standing among the ranks, Barbari realized at once—he had been tricked!

“Brave men of the Storm Legion, charge!”

“Kill!” came a cry from afar—the humans surged forward even faster!

“Damn it! Follow me! Kill every last one of these hateful humans!”

Seeing this, Barbari had no choice but to order his men to fight.

Of course, he still hadn’t realized how different these humans were.

Only when the two sides clashed did the knight who had lured the armored fire lizards unleash his aura—then Barbari was stunned to realize he was facing a seasoned Bronze Knight.

“Damn it! Weren’t you supposed to have no nobles left in Stormhold?”

Of course, the surprise wasn’t just from this one Bronze Knight.

The combat prowess of the other five full knights and Gervas’s Earth Knight strength quickly became apparent.

Instantly, the snakeforce fell into disadvantage.

Barbari turned his gaze toward the swamp troll—both it and the armored fire lizard were badly wounded, neither having won the battle.

“Damn it!” Barbari cursed, but at that moment, the Bronze Knight from the human ranks had already charged up close.

Clang! Their weapons clashed—and Barbari’s face twisted with fear.

His opponent’s strength far surpassed his own.

“Is that all you’ve got? Die, snakefolk!”

In contrast, Lei Meng’s face lit up with delight; his longsword, empowered by aura, grew even sharper.

Puff! The snake chief’s head flew high into the air.

“Your chief is dead—I’ve cut him down! Run for your lives!” Lei Meng impaled Barbari’s head on his spear and roared at the surrounding snakefolk.

The snakefighters, seeing this, immediately lost their courage.

“Run! The chief is dead!”

“Run! We can’t beat them!”

Like a dam breaking, the snakes fled in panic.

“Don’t let them escape! Leave none alive!”

“Yes, my lord!”

His subordinates charged after them.

In truth, even without Gervas’s order, his men would have pursued fiercely—especially the guards.

After all, today’s reward offered a chance to become a knight’s squire.

Half an hour later, the battle on the wasteland ended.

This time, with six knights present, not a single snake escaped the slaughter.

And the battle between the swamp troll and the armored fire lizard had also concluded.

The final result: both were mortally wounded, now lying on the ground, barely clinging to life.

“We won! We won!”

“Ha! We defeated the snakes! Our lord is mighty!”

“Our lord is mighty!”

The guards began cheering.

After the cheering subsided and the men were assigned to clear the battlefield, Gervas walked up to the armored fire lizard and the swamp troll.

He delivered two more slashes to the swamp troll, then turned to face the armored fire lizard.

Under normal circumstances, at this point, Gervas should have finished off the armored fire lizard and claimed a large amount of beast meat.

But as he gazed at the creature’s labored breathing, its huge yellow eyes fixed unblinkingly on him, Gervas found himself unable to strike.

“My lord, beast life is strong—if you don’t kill it quickly, once it regains strength, we may not be able to handle it!” Lei Meng whispered a warning.

“Lei Meng, I want to spare her life.”

“This…?” Lei Meng stared in disbelief. “My lord, the corpse of this armored fire lizard is worth at least a hundred gold coins!”

“I know,” Gervas nodded.

Seeing that Gervas had made up his mind, Lei Meng’s eyes darkened with complex emotion.

Recalling how Gervas had once saved him, he said, “My lord, you are the most merciful noble I have ever met.”

Afterward, Gervas and his men left the armored fire lizard untouched; they took only the snake chief’s head and the swamp troll’s corpse, leaving all other snake bodies where they lay.

When they returned to the distant hillside and saw the armored fire lizard struggle to rise, then slowly devour the snake corpses to regain strength, Gervas waved his hand—and led his men back in triumph.

…

Splash!

“Look over there! What is that?”

“Good heavens, what a huge monster! So terrifying!”

“That’s a swamp troll—I’ve heard of it. It’s the guardian beast of the snakes. A few years ago, a small border town was overrun by a swamp troll, and every villager was slaughtered! Look, those are the snake bodies, aren’t they?”

“Good heavens, so many snake bodies, and that enormous swamp troll—our lord slew them all! Our lord is mighty!”

“Yes, our lord is mighty!”

“Our lord is mighty!”

Back in the village, even though the swamp troll was dead, its massive, towering frame, its greenish-blue skin, and its terrifying face with two protruding fangs still terrified the villagers.

Many children, upon seeing it, screamed and ran home.

Of course, there were the timid—but even more were the bold, drawn to the spectacle.

Seeing the monstrous corpse, which required a widened and lengthened cart to haul, along with the snake chief’s head, someone started the chant—and soon the entire village echoed with cries of “Our lord is mighty!”

Of course, the civil magistrate would later inform the villagers of the full details of the battle against the hellish snakes and the slain swamp troll, to highlight the lord’s bravery and authority.

This was precisely why they had gone to the trouble of bringing back the inedible swamp troll corpse and the snake chief’s head.