Pierce, the muscular white-haired man, pushed through the crowd and strode over, glaring at Oleg. "You gutless bitch! You're talking nonsense and undermining everyone's resolve. You're plainly afraid of dying... Sure, Lord Warden, you won't have to become a slave yourself, but what about the other commoners? Everyone knows the miserable fate of a slave. We'd be better off dying in battle..."
Pierce turned to Sun Fei, his eyes burning with fervor. "Your Majesty, give the order! My brothers and I would rather die fighting on Chambord City's walls than let our parents, wives, and children become slaves for anyone to trample and abuse!"
Pierce spoke with impassioned conviction. At that moment, the honest Brook also stepped forward and dropped to one knee with a clatter. "Your Majesty Alexander," he said solemnly, "like Pierce, I, Goethe Brook, am willing to die fighting for you. I will never be a slave!"
Clatter! Clatter!
Before Brook had finished speaking, the soldiers and some of the poor people around them all knelt.
On the Azeroth Continent, a slave's fate was worse than death. Slaves could be killed or sold at their masters' whim, drafted into armies as cannon fodder, or made to perform hard labor. They lived in darkness without hope until they died of illness or exhaustion. Even their descendants were regarded as slaves, with virtually no chance of ever rising above their station.
"Your Majesty, our honored king, we would rather die in battle!"
The soldiers looked at Chambord City's young king, their blood boiling.
Sun Fei was moved by the scene before him. His worries vanished in an instant, and he was filled with heroic resolve. Just as he was about to speak, a thought struck him. He turned to Bazel, the herald who had remained silent all this time, and asked, "Bazel, tell me, what choice should I make?"
"We should use our defensive advantage and fight. It's not as though we have no chance. I believe Your Majesty should fight with all your might. We absolutely cannot surrender!" Bazel said, betraying no emotion.
The answer took Sun Fei by surprise.
He had assumed the gloomy-faced old man in red would be a coward too, inclined to surrender. Weren't all those scheming, treacherous officials in the history of his previous life like that? Who would have thought Bazel would unexpectedly side with those who wanted to fight, and speak so firmly?
But Sun Fei had no time to dwell on it.
He knew it was time for him to make his final decision. He couldn't disappoint the soldiers who followed him so steadfastly.
With everyone watching, Sun Fei walked to the bridgehead. He laughed and shouted down, "Did you hear my soldiers' answer? Go back and tell your damned master who hides his face: if he wants my Chambord City, let him come with swords and spears and take it like a real warrior! Stop playing these vile tricks to turn us against one another! In Chambord City, there are only warriors who bleed and die in battle, no cowards who kneel and surrender!"
There were only warriors who bled and died in battle, no cowards who knelt and surrendered!
Those words set the atmosphere on the walls ablaze.
That final declaration-"In Chambord City, there are only warriors who bleed and die in battle, no cowards who kneel and surrender"-left the kneeling soldiers trembling with excitement. They felt something unprecedented about to burst from their chests and could hardly resist throwing back their heads and roaring.
Below the walls.
The faces of all four black knights changed.
The silver-masked man had arranged this unnecessary attempt to persuade Chambord to surrender in order to sow discord and undermine its morale and unity. He wanted to keep the royal family, soldiers, and commoners from standing together as they had before, so the army could take Chambord City as quickly as possible. After all, they had ventured deep into the Zenit Empire to plunder; if they delayed too long and the empire discovered them, all their efforts would come to nothing.
But he had never expected Chambord City's notoriously idiotic king to turn the scheme against him, using the surrender offer to boost his own side's morale... The silver-masked man's plan had completely fallen apart.
Black Knight One laughed in fury.
He jerked his knight's lance, sending the helmet impaled on its tip flying hard into the city wall. It struck with a clatter and shattered.
Pointing his lance at Sun Fei atop the wall, Black Knight One shouted arrogantly, "You ungrateful country bumpkin! My master took pity on you and offered you a chance to live, but you refuse it. Instead, you insist on choosing death like pigs to prove your pathetic courage... Tremble, you wretches! You'll pay for the choice you made today. When the city falls, all the women will be torn apart before your eyes, and the heads of the old and the children will be piled into mountains. And you..." His lance pointed at Sun Fei as he sneered, "Idiot king, you'll be chopped into mincemeat and boiled into soup for our warhorses. I swear it!"
With that, the black knight wheeled his horse around to leave.
But the fiery-tempered, white-haired Pierce had been enraged by his words. The muscular man stood, snatched a bow and arrow from a nearby soldier, and shouted, "Bastard! You think you can insult His Majesty and just leave? Take this arrow!"
Whoosh!
The arrow whistled toward the black knight's back.
Clang!
Number One shook the lance in his hand and easily knocked the arrow aside.
He looked back at Pierce with a vicious grin. "White-haired brat, your strength is nowhere near enough... I'll remember you. Just wait. When the city falls, I'll personally cut off your head and put it on this lance!"
Pierce was born with great strength, but he had not mastered Dou Qi and was not a star-ranked warrior. Number One, on the other hand, had become a one-star warrior long ago. The difference in their strength was clear, and Pierce could not hurt him at all, so Number One paid the attack no mind.
Number One held his head high, his sharp gaze sweeping across the wall as he laughed and rode back.
But just then, something unexpected happened-
"Leave your head behind first!"
A furious shout rang out from the wall. Sky-blue light flashed, and a figure leaped straight down from the towering wall, arriving in an instant. Still in midair, he sent sword light shooting out like scattered stars. A sheet of cold light descended on Number One's head, carrying an unstoppable momentum.
"This is..."
In an instant, the shadow of death fell over him. Number One's pupils contracted, and he hastily raised his lance to meet the sword light, trying to escape...
But-
Crack, crack, crack!
A rapid series of faint sounds rang out as the sturdy lance broke into several pieces. Blue Dou Qi flames flared brightly, and after the figure flickered several times, the exchange was over.
Then the figure leaped into the air again, caught the stone wall with one hand, and used it to propel himself upward. In a flash, he was back atop the wall.
The whole sequence was clean and swift, without a wasted movement.
Everyone was stunned by the lightning-fast exchange.
When they came to their senses, they saw the figure standing on the wall like a god, holding a head with its eyes wide open.
It was Number One's head.
And the man holding it was Chambord City's strongest expert, the three-star warrior Frank Lampard.
His formidable strength shocked the entire battlefield.
The battlefield fell silent in an instant.
Suddenly-
Thud!
Below the wall, Number One's headless body fell from his horse and hit the ground hard.
Then blood spurted from his neck like a fountain, quickly staining the earth red... The black knight, long accustomed to having his own way, had been shouting with extraordinary arrogance one second earlier. A second later, he had been beheaded by the three-star warrior Lampard without lasting even a single exchange.
No one had expected the silent Frank Lampard to suddenly strike.
At that moment, the unstoppable might of a three-star warrior was on full display.
Drip! Drip!
On the wall, Lampard stood like a demon god. Blood dripped from the head in his hand, its eyes wide with terror, unable to rest even in death.
"Insult my king and smash the helmet of negotiation... Kill!"
Lampard summoned his Dou Qi and sent his voice carrying far across the battlefield. Everyone heard him clearly. The final word, "kill," in particular, resounded through the sky like rolling thunder under a blazing sun, causing a stir in the black-armored soldiers' formation opposite them.
According to the battlefield traditions of the Azeroth Continent, even if negotiations broke down, the helmet on the lance tip could not be cast down. To do so was a grave breach of etiquette and a stain on the glory of His Highness the War God. Number One had both thrown down the helmet and insulted the enemy king, so even though Lampard had beheaded him, he could only be said to have deserved his death.
Sun Fei looked at Lampard, shaken to his core.
Now that was an expert!
In yesterday's battle, Frank Lampard had been tied up by Langde, the enemy's three-star swordsman, and had not played much of a role. But just now, he had killed an enemy one-star warrior in a flash. He was like the red-faced Lord Guan, taking a general's head from among ten thousand soldiers as easily as reaching into his pocket. His might was unmatched; a single furious shout had thrown the enemy into disarray... That was the bearing of a true expert.
Sun Fei reckoned that, with his current strength, he could not yet accomplish all that.
But as someone in the habit of showing off, Sun Fei naturally refused to miss such a fine opportunity. Seeing how rare the chance was, he had an idea. He jumped onto the wall, raised his two-handed great axe, and roared at the other three black knights, who were still standing dumbfounded below-
"Get lost-!!"
Sun Fei used the barbarian shout skill Howl in that roar.
The distance was a little too great, putting them outside Howl's range. The black knights below were merely startled and did not experience that sudden terror. But Sun Fei's targets were not the three black knights with the strength of one-star warriors. They were...
The horses beneath them.
Those horses did not have the strength of one-star warriors.
Whew, today's update was late again.
I overdid it last night, and then stayed up all night writing for this morning's update, so...
You know how it is.
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Also: happy holiday! Remember to spend time with your loved ones before getting up to gay stuff. Long Live the King on Baidu welcomes all you bros.