CHAPTER 355: CHAPTER 152, EAGER TO ACHIEVE MERIT_2

Then the Holy Grail Knight began to issue commands: "Mr. Deni! Please come over!"

The battlefield fell silent in an instant.

The eyes of the peasants and knights were all focused on that young man.

In the pouring rain, Deni turned around, his face showing shock and uncontrollable joy. The young man jogged to stand before Laine, drenched in mud and rainwater: "Lord Laine?"

"Let me see your spoils?"

"Yes, yes! My baron!" Deni offered his spoils, the heads of one Horned Beast and three Inferior Horned Beasts.

Seeing this, Laine nodded slowly; this young man was indeed exceptional.

He made a decision: "Mr. Deni, please kneel down!"

"Yes! Yes! My baron!" Realizing what was about to happen, the young man was overjoyed and immediately knelt in the mud and pile of corpses.

This was it, this was it! The peasants present looked at the young man kneeling in the rain with envious eyes.

Would it happen?

"Mr. Deni, you guaranteed the victory of this war with your information, and you proved your strength with your martial valor," Laine said in a low voice. Surya, standing beside him, could feel the baron’s seriousness.

Deni’s body trembled violently as he crazily kowtowed, mud and rain covering his face.

"Due to your contributions, I, Lady’s Champion, Holy Grail Knight, Baron Gene, Laine Macado, formally appoint you as a sergeant. Are you willing?"

"Deni is willing!" The peasant continued to kowtow crazily.

Thus, the handle of the Holy Grail Knight’s warhammer lightly touched the peasant’s shoulder, marking the completion of the ceremony.

Dreams come true.

In this dark age, war is the peasants’ only hope of ascension. Perhaps the deaths of hundreds of peasants couldn’t earn one a promotion, but it’s the only chance for a peasant to change their fate.

He seized it.

Deni just wanted to break down and cry.

But Laine wasn’t willing to give him time for that. The Holy Grail Knight commanded: "Clean up the battlefield quickly, we must retreat, find a place to make a fire, and shelter from the rain! If this continues, everyone will get sick!"

"Yes!" The soldiers quickened their pace, and under Laine’s stern gaze, Deni also scrambled up while crying and began tidying his things.

After a simple cleanup of the battlefield, the Right Army gathered all its forces. They had previously identified a forest gorge three kilometers from the camp as a place to shelter from the rain. Peasants used various materials to construct crude rain shelters, hiding inside to warm themselves, while the knights also sheltered in tents, trying to stay warm by the fire. Fighting in armor in the pouring rain, even in summer, left many knights shivering with cold.

Compared to the Beastmen, humans are much less adept at fighting in forests and heavy rain.

In the Central Army Tent, Laine, Gabriel, and Julius were sitting by the fire. Laine himself didn’t fear the cold; he had Spiritual Armor, using spiritual energy to briefly dry his clothes. The three of them took turns boiling water for a bath, then gathered around the furnace, sipping hot soup.

Even such intense battles weary Legendary Tier warriors like Julius and Gabriel.

After a while, Marchioness Surya and her maid Sylvia joined the two men, clean and refreshed. The female knight, freshly bathed, carried a faint fragrance as she sat beside her brother and Laine.

The group began to discuss their next steps: "We repelled another wave of Beastman attacks; what next?"

Gabriel laughed, "Don’t worry. If I’m not mistaken, the Beastmen won’t trouble us again for a while."

"I’ve dealt with these creatures for over twenty years; I know them well. After such a setback, unless it’s a last resort, they won’t engage us again. Clearly, the charge led by Lord Laine has given them a hard blow; the appearance of a Holy Grail Knight will instill fear in them."

Laine smiled, "Exactly, with Beastmen, whoever flinches loses."

"For at least the next few days, we will have relative peace. The troops have suffered losses, and the knights are exhausted from fighting in the rain. We need a day or two to recover."

Thus, the Right Army decided to stay in the gorge temporarily, awaiting the passing of the rainy season.

......

When receiving the news from Marquis Gabriel, Marquis Angxi was completely certain that the Right Army had encountered the main force of the Beastmen.

Now, there’s no need to worry about being ambushed!

Thus, on September 3rd, he and Count Adelaide separately led the Central and Left armies deeper into the forest, preparing for a coordinated attack on the Beastmen.

By September 5th, the day after Laine’s force defeated the Beastmen, both armies had fully advanced into the forest.

Throughout the march, the troops occasionally encountered small Beastman War Gangs. Marquis Angxi was fairly cautious and urged the knights not to advance too deeply, advising them to stay together and not to venture forward alone.

Count Adelaide, however, was different.

Count Adelaide of the Left Army was a count of the Leonais Duchy. Although nominally he led the Left Army, he wasn’t a Marquis Angxi, with the King’s Shield Emblem to command the army by royal power, nor was he a Holy Grail Knight like Laine, who could take the lead through prestige.

Count Adelaide’s grip on the Left Army was noticeably weak.

When a small number of Beastmen appeared ahead, the knights would always shout and chase after them. The Beastmen seemed frightened, constantly fleeing, drawing the knights into pursuit.