Chapter 66: Battle at Heisong Village!

The refugees of Heisong Village weren't actually fat; they were merely of normal build.

But to wild dogs who had long roamed the Chaos Wasteland, eating irregularly, they looked positively plump.

Such easy prey made their hearts itch with hunger.

As dusk fell, the villagers who had gone out had all returned, and smoke began rising from every hearth; the wild dogs could no longer wait and launched their attack.

Yet the villagers remained unaware that doom had descended.

"Kill!"

Shouts echoed through the Heisong forest as over three hundred wild dogs, lying in ambush, surged from all directions, surrounding the village completely.

The villagers inside sensed the danger; men quickly grabbed knives, forks, and other weapons and rushed out of their homes.

But when they saw the dense throng of bandits, they turned pale with terror, their eyes filled with despair.

"Listen up, all of you! We're the Scorpion Bandits! If you don't want to die, kneel down and surrender now—we might spare your lives."

"But if anyone dares resist, don't blame us for being ruthless—we'll twist off your heads and kick them like balls, and leave not a single soul alive in this village!"

"The Scorpion Bandits?"

The men's limbs stiffened; especially when they saw the black-and-white flag bearing the scorpion emblem, their fear intensified dozens of times over.

Clang! Clang!

Sounds of weapons and tools being dropped rang out as every villager surrendered their resistance.

Because the Scorpion Bandits were a name that made children stop crying at the border.

No resistance meant a slim chance of survival; resistance meant certain death.

Seeing how well their intimidation worked, the wild dogs grew excited and immediately bound all the villagers, then gathered them in the open space at the village entrance.

"Great leaders of the Scorpion Bandits, we of Heisong Village are all refugees persecuted by nobles—we would never dare resist you. Take everything in the village, all our belongings."

"We only beg you to spare us—thank you, great leaders!"

Among the trembling crowd, a burly middle-aged man pleaded with the wild dogs.

He was the village's only blacksmith; he had originally planned to resist, but upon hearing they were the wild dog bandits and seeing the flag, he believed them.

After all, no one at the border would dare impersonate the Scorpion Bandits.

"Spare you? Hah! Do you really believe that? You're nothing but filthy, stinking vermin!" The wild dogs laughed uproariously, faces twisted with cruel amusement.

They treated the villagers like dogs, and the villagers whimpered and begged.

Yet their own lost dignity needed to be reclaimed from these even weaker refugees.

Thus, toward these inferior refugees, they were utterly merciless.

"You… you're breaking your word!" The villagers cried out in shock and fury; the men struggled to rise, but it was too late.

"Enough chatter. This place is still too close to the border. Kill all the men and children, take the women and valuables, and leave quickly!"

A leader among the wild dogs barked orders, raising his spiked club to smash the blacksmith's skull.

Whoosh!

Thud!

Just as he raised the club overhead, about to strike, a shrill whistle pierced the air—and a spray of blood burst from his neck.

"Ugh…"

The wild dog struggled to look down, staring at the trembling arrow shaft still quivering in his throat, his face filled with disbelief.

Before he could say more, his body went limp and crashed heavily to the ground.

In that instant, he saw above him in the sky, over a dozen terrifying giant flying birds hovering.

The wild dogs froze in shock; after a moment, they snapped awake. "What's going on?"

At first, they couldn't tell where the arrow had come from.

Then came a series of whooshing sounds—five or six more bandits fell, and now they finally looked up.

"Damn it! Look up in the sky! There are demonic flying beasts—and people on them!"

"It's noble sky knights! The sky knights have come to crush us! Run, everyone!"

The wild dogs scattered in panic.

Sky knights—such elite beings—were as terrifying to them as robbers encountering the state deploying fighter jets in their past lives.

But before they could reach the Heisong forest at the village's edge, the sound of galloping horses and dense footfalls erupted around them.

Looking closer, the wild dogs trembled again.

From the woods emerged seven or eight knights, leading over a hundred soldiers clad in brand-new leather armor, charging toward them with murderous intent.

"It's the soldiers! The Kingdom's soldiers! Run, everyone!"

Because the presence of the Swift Demon Hawks had already planted fear in their hearts, they dared not even consider resistance.

"Run? You sons of bitches—you won't escape a single one!" Gervas and his men gritted their teeth; the fury they had held back for a day now demanded release.

"Storm Legion! Attack! Leave not a single wild dog alive!" Gervas drew his longsword and gave the order!

"Kill!"

Instantly, a one-sided massacre unfolded in the Heisong forest; the Storm Legion showed no mercy to the wicked wild dogs.

No quarter. No survivors.

The knight-soldiers slaughtered on the ground; the Swift Demon Hawk squad provided aerial support and surveillance.

Notably, the training of the Swift Demon Hawks clearly still needed improvement.

The ten archers had all been skilled bowmen, capable of hitting targets reliably at forty to fifty meters.

Yet in today's battle, their accuracy hovered at only fifty to sixty percent—alarmingly low.

The reason was simple: the movement of the Swift Demon Hawks.

Half an hour later, the battle ended.

All three hundred and twenty-five of the Wild Dogs were slain, not one left!

And the Storm Legion, aside from more than twenty lightly wounded, suffered no other casualties!

Gervas was naturally very satisfied with such a battle record.

Even though the Wild Dogs' strength could not compare to the core members of the Scorpion Bandit Gang.

But with over three hundred people on their side versus our easy twenty-plus, this is absolutely a great victory.

Ordering his subordinates to clear the battlefield, Gervas looked at the villagers of Black Pine Village.

"My lord, how should these refugees be dealt with?" Knight Mi Gen asked aloud.

The field instantly fell silent; the other knights and guards waited for Gervas's command.

"Noble lord, spare our lives! Noble lord, have mercy! We know our errors; we beg the noble lord to spare us once!" The villagers trembled, still feeling despair.

The noble and his guards had slaughtered the bandits, but for them, these refugees, it was merely falling from the bandits' hands into the hands of another, even more formidable group of 'bandits'.

"Have mercy? Tell me, on what grounds? The Imperial Law states all captured refugees must be executed!" Gervas's expression was cold and sharp.

But hearing the question, hope surged within the villagers.

Their greatest fear was that the noble would kill them without a word; now that he gave them a chance to answer, did that mean there was still hope for survival?

"Noble lord, we are all craftsmen; I am a blacksmith, able to forge all farming tools, and even long swords and leather armor!"

"Noble lord, I am a stonemason; I can build stone houses and repair castles!"

"Noble lord, I am a carpenter, able to make wagon wheels and wooden farming tools..."

One by one, the refugees, as if clutching a straw of salvation, hurriedly declared their value.