Pioneer Lord: I Have Conquering System

This was no fair fight. In equipment, Martial Arts, courage, and sheer size, the soldiers of the Guard Army were completely and utterly crushed by the Beastmen.

The moment the two sides collided, the front line of the Black Stone Castle Guard Army collapsed like dominoes. It happened so quickly that the men behind them had no time to react before they too followed suit.

In the first moments of contact alone, the Guard Army was cut down in waves by the Barbarians, suffering devastating losses.

They tried to raise their swords to parry, but the Barbarians swung their War Axes with the force of a hammer on an anvil, smashing through their blades and crushing flesh and steel together.

On the rare occasion their own swords managed to land a blow, they left behind nothing more than a harmless scratch.

In the wake of High Cliff Castle’s advance, the ground was littered with severed limbs, which were quickly trampled into a bloody paste by the soldiers following behind.

Iron and fire intertwined. Blood boiled, surging through veins that bulged like thick, taut cords.

Black iron crashed against polished steel, sending sparks flying! Flesh and gore flew through the air! Blood pooled into streams atop the battlements, and the metallic stench of carnage filled the air.

The Barbarians, muscles knotted and bulging, roared as they pushed forward, like Samurai from a bygone era.

Life and blood vanished at a terrifying rate, pooling beneath their feet. Soon, skin and flesh were trampled into pulp, and hair was matted together like felt. Severed limbs piled up in gruesome heaps, creating a mountain of corpses in a sea of blood.

This was no longer a war. It was an outright slaughter.

"Levi! Levi!" Monvert reached the Lord’s side as he fought, roaring to be heard over the cacophony on the battlements. "Look! The Bed Crossbows! They’re turning them toward us!"

Levi paused, a Barbarian instantly taking his place in the fighting line. He looked up. In the distance, on a platform of the Inner Castle, were a dozen or so Bed Crossbows. They had all been aimed at the main battlefield, but now several were being pivoted in their direction.

Two Earth Priests were even starting to cast spells toward them.

Clearly, their terrifyingly fast advance had caught the enemy’s attention, and now they were diverting forces to deal with them.

These were massive Bed Crossbows mounted on the fortress walls. A single bolt from one could plow a bloody furrow through a whole line of men, let alone pierce Three-Layered Iron Armor.

As for how the Lord knew this, the section of wall they were on was evidently higher, allowing him to vaguely make out the situation on the main battlefield.

The fighting there was equally intense. In fact, because they were up against Black Stone Castle’s most elite troops, the Holy Knights and Mastiff Men were actually fighting them to a standstill.

A Crossbow Arrow as thick as a man’s arm evaded the Ice and Snow Mage’s interception, instantly skewering several Mastiff Men in their Iron Armor and even bowling over a dozen Northern Soldiers behind them before it finally came to a stop.

"Mon, I’m leaving this section to you!" Levi roared at Monvert. "I’m taking some men to destroy their Bed Crossbows!" With a wave of his Longsword, he yelled, "Follow me to the Inner Castle!"

By the time the enemy reacted, it was too late. He and his men had already secured this section of the wall, giving them the freedom to advance or retreat as they pleased.

The Barbarians instantly abandoned their strategic objective of slaughtering the enemy soldiers and taking full control of the wall. Following at their Lord’s heels, they charged down a newly captured stairwell and rushed toward the Inner Castle.

As he watched Levi and his men disappear into the cluster of buildings, cutting down soldiers who swarmed up from the streets, Monvert felt a sense of total and complete admiration for the Lion Hunter Knight.

Frankly, after the Lion Hunter Knight had so thoroughly dominated him in their wrestling match that he had no fight left in him, Monvert had only thought that the man was stronger than him.

It was only now, after seeing him single-handedly withstand the pressure of a thousand soldiers to secure a section of the wall and win a crucial strategic position for his allies, that he realized the Lion Hunter Knight’s true strength was on a level far beyond his own.

’If it had been me,’ he thought, ’even using all my Combat Qi, the most I could have done was secure a foothold for myself. I couldn’t possibly have created an opening for others.’

’And his Beastman subordinates are terrifyingly elite. Their individual prowess is one thing, but their frightening efficiency and discipline... it’s enough to send a chill down your spine.’

At that moment, he couldn’t help but sigh in relief. ’Thank God I didn’t side with Damon. If I had to face an enemy like this head-on, they’d beat the shit out of me.’

...

The Lord led his men through the maze-like streets. Occasionally, soldiers would leap from the alleyways in fearless, suicidal charges, only to end up as more experience points for the Barbarians.

Black Stone Castle was a fortress built on a high slope, with the Inner Castle at its peak. When the Lord turned to look down, he saw that the battle for the outer walls was already decided. Under the relentless assault of the Northern Border Corps, with the main forces of every noble house joining the fray, the Black Stone Castle defenders were being beaten back at every turn. The soldiers on the battlements were quickly being annihilated.

The Holy Knight Order, the Mastiff Men, and the others who had scaled the walls earlier were now systematically advancing toward the inner sections, gradually dismantling the castle’s defenses.

"Heh heh, I’ll be the one to claim the first spoils of this victory."

Levi chuckled darkly, but he remained extremely vigilant.

After all, he had suffered losses at the hands of Marquis Cross several times before. He had to remain cautious, no matter what.

The enemy had spotted the small team making a beeline for the Inner Castle and had begun to send large numbers of soldiers to stop them.

Unfortunately for their opponents, while the Barbarians might not be the world’s finest troops in an open field, it was nearly impossible to find any force that could match them in close-quarters street fighting.

The enemy was cut down, falling back step by step, while Levi’s forces pushed forward, step by step, ever upward.

...

In a quiet study, the books had long been cleared out. In their place, the walls were covered with various castle defense plans and topographical maps, all of them covered in scrawls and markings like a child’s chaotic doodles.