One or two hours were already enough for him to accomplish a lot.
The gargoyle continued flying southwest. Brand finally saw a unit of skeleton cavalry weaving through the forest. He didn’t know if he had missed others, but this should be a reconnaissance vanguard of a column.
Then, three minutes later, he found another unit of skeleton cavalry.
Meanwhile, Madara’s tactical characteristics during this period resonated with what he had thought. He had the gargoyle cross several valleys along a direction tangent to the ridge, and sure enough, he soon saw an army of dark skeleton soldiers in the valley.
About two hundred, a battalion.
The gargoyle continued moving forward along the valley, exactly as he envisaged. Brand soon found another two battalions - although he couldn’t see to which column they belonged, it was certain that during this period, Madara’s column commanders were not to be trifled with.
He thought the ’White Knight’ Albton and Weisa shouldn’t be so far behind, but it must be one of Diren, Gulob, or the ’Blood Mage’ Leidios.
Two main generals, five columns, nearly ten thousand undead, gathered in hills stretching no more than twenty or thirty miles wide; the undead army indeed commenced a massive advance under the cover of nightfall—
The situation was getting urgent.
Brand still wanted to see how large the depth between Madara’s second and third layers, and the position of another column, but the gargoyle had reached its maximum range. Of course, although he previously bluffed Madden and Breson, saying the gargoyle had reconnoitered the whole Bu Qi Region in one day, the gargoyle wasn’t almighty in reality.
News from the northwest also came in. As Votarong had predicted, a large batch of zombies appeared from that direction—indeed, the elite force of the ’Dead Maggot’ had rushed from the Sharp Stone River Valley.
When this news spread among the mercenaries, everyone’s face turned somewhat solemn. They had still held on to a sliver of hope, but unexpectedly, things developed into the worst-case scenario.
This put the refugees in a dire situation. Unless they could accelerate and break out to the north, escaping through the gap before the encirclement was complete.
But the mercenaries looked at the refugees, and then at Frey and Brand, knowing this was unlikely.
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
Frey nervously gripped the reins, unconsciously casting her gaze toward Brand.
But Brand only glanced at his pocket watch, then mounted his horse, as if not bothered by the surrounding atmosphere at all—
With a clang, he drew his sword and spoke to everyone: "Listen up, everyone—"
The young man’s voice was clear and powerful, resonating through the air.
"There’s two battalions in our southwest, two to three miles away, and another battalion farther off. Four undead scout cavalry are coming from those directions. What I want to tell you is that we need to take down two of them and attack one of the battalions to create an opening—"
"We’ll also go behind the ’Dead Maggot,’ just like we planned."
"We have two hours to accomplish all this. After two hours, we’ll start playing hide-and-seek with Madara’s undead army." Brand raised his sword, pulled the reins, making the horse circle before everyone, wearing a mocking expression.
"What, are you scared?"
At that moment, everyone was stunned. How did this young man know all this? Could he be speaking without thinking?
But although Brand was always surprising, most of them knew he never spoke without thinking. Especially as he stood on the horseback, pointing his sword southwest—each word was firm and resounding, as when he led them to charge.
It was as if the direction his sword pointed was a path to a miracle, no matter how perilous, they would carve out a path.
That was the road paved with blood after the thorns were parted—
Brand looked at them without a word, just as he once led those kindred spirits to charge against Madara. Someone had said he was the most qualified squad leader, for once he decided, he would press forward unwaveringly.
But all the mercenaries mounted their horses in unison, the sound of metal rubbing against each other ringing out.
(PS. Today’s first update is here. Seeing a friend in the book review area saying they want ticket votes in exchange for updates can be a bit disheartening.
=__= I always felt that if it becomes a transaction of however many tickets for however many updates, it would feel less like a friendship, more like a bare transaction. It’s a bit uncomfortable.
Regarding the update issue, you all can see my level of effort. I have no stockpile, writing every day with all my might, especially to create bursts for these past days, squeezing almost all my free time.
That’s it for now, everyone. Please don’t mind, take it as my rambling.)(To be continued. For the next part, please visit www.qidian.com where there are more Chapters. Support the authors, support legitimate reading!)