Chapter 451: Red Knight’s War – Avalon’s Fist

Outside the Foul Swamp, the girls from the Silver Moon Pride team were waiting for their collaborators at a temporary camp south of the Maginot Line.

It was lunchtime, and the meals that Little Ashina had packed from Star Soul Eagle’s small restaurant in Crimson Citadel had already gone cold. However, it wasn’t a problem, as she asked the bard Lumina to use Scorching Hand to reheat the food by holding two metal lunch boxes with both hands.

Lumina was very dissatisfied with this “job.”

She was an elegant bard plus a formidable half-elf ranger, yet these fish-lipped humans had the elven lady do this?

Unfortunately, Lumina’s complaints didn’t receive any sympathy from the other sisters, as everyone was discussing the team’s upcoming work while waiting for the lunch boxes to heat up.

“The guys on the northern and western fronts did well, now the pressure is on our side, we must speed up!”

Lady Aqua, who was organizing combat potions and various spellcasting materials in the tent, said to Orchid and Pomegranate beside her:

“The enthusiastic students have reportedly taken six outposts and pushed their forces into the outer defense line of Plague Town. I saw on the forum that the sorcerers of the Eight Demon Elite Group are already trying to dispel low-level undead with the Command Scepter. According to their battle strategy, these students might actually become the first guild to advance into Plague Town.

Brother Stick seems unhurried, still training newcomers, but yesterday afternoon when I went to Sharon’s gun shop in Crimson Citadel to select protective weapons, I heard from the Countess Sharon’s attendant that Brother Stick had already placed an order with the armament factory, preparing to obtain a weapon that can burn extensively in the swamp.

Obviously, Brother Stick has his own plans.

Now among the three battle lines, only our southern line hasn’t made any moves.

We’re already far behind.”

“Don’t rush, moving fast isn’t an advantage, only taking down Plague Town can be counted as a major victory in battle.”

Fatal Orchid leaned against her ghost shield with her eyes closed. This great traveler sat on the ground stretching her long legs, maintaining her usual unhurried manner, and in response to Lady Aqua’s summary, she said:

“The outer defense line will be broken through sooner or later, and the gnoll warlocks aren’t fools, they’ll adjust their defense system based on battlefield changes. By my estimate, the students’ reckless advance will make them face more skeletal army interceptions when they charge the battle lines later.

This means the defensive forces on the other two battle lines will be weakened. I guess this is why Brother Stick isn’t in a hurry to make his move. As a professional commander, such slight changes in the situation won’t escape his notice.

So, there are advantages to starting late. I think we should focus our attention on conquering this ‘dungeon cluster’ of Plague Town.

I’ve carefully read the official announcement several times.

I realized that the reason the development team listed three battle lines this time is probably because the dungeon difficulty they set in Plague Town is too high.

The three battle lines will disperse the enemy’s forces, and to enter the team dungeon Land of Rotting Corpses, players on the three battle lines probably need to challenge the three outer small dungeons first, and weaken the gnolls’ defensive forces to a certain threshold through repeated clearing.

Look at how the officials set a 40-day period for this operation!

This means in their assessment, it’s impossible for players with their current strength to annihilate these gnolls in a short time.”

“Right.”

Sister Pomegranate sharpened her wolf fang blades with a whetstone. She had recently styled her hair into a neat ponytail, and while shaking her head, she said:

“Moreover, there’s no NPC support on the front lines this time, which means we’ll face very dangerous situations if we’re not careful. Once or twice is fine, but if we get team-wiped more than three times, it will seriously delay our progress. In other words, we need to be steady!

Better to be slow but steady enough.

We have few people, so we can’t engage in a war of attrition with the gnolls.

We must fight smarter.”

“Meow King is here, wow, their new mounts look so cool!”

Little Ashina’s exclamation from outside the tent made the three girls immediately get up and walk out, and they saw a squad of wind griffins descending in spirals from the high sky under the afternoon sun, carrying their riders.

The showy Big Bird Spin Spin Spin team had even put guild banners on their griffin saddles, allowing their strange emblem to be seen fluttering in the wind when they flew.

Of course, Meow King wasn’t crude enough to directly print the original Big Bird Spin Spin Spin Club logo on the banner. They took a rather clever approach, using an eagle with spread wings as their symbol, though with artistic modifications.

If one’s eyesight wasn’t good, it was easy to mistake that tilted-head eagle for something less decent.

“These guys are really something!”

Fatal Orchid crossed her arms and glanced at Little Ashina, who had wrapped herself up like a dumpling and was still waving at the wind griffins suspended in the sunlight above her head. The traveler quietly complained:

“There are children here…”

“If you actually voice your criticism of them, I bet Meow King would probably tell you that people with impure minds see everything as vulgar.”

Lady Aqua patted Orchid’s shoulder with a smile and said quietly:

“Speaking of which, I recently met a rather renowned extreme sports athlete and explorer online who told me he knows you, little Orchid. If I remember correctly, that very gentlemanly sir’s surname seems to be Yuan…”

“!!!”

The previously calm and composed Fatal Orchid immediately widened her eyes. She yanked away Lady Aqua’s hand, turned around to glare at her, and said:

“You! You you you! Enough! You’re too mean!”

“Ha, got nervous, got nervous.”

Lady Aqua covered her mouth and laughed:

“He didn’t tell me too much, just that several years ago his heart was badly broken by a woman as free as the wind. Oh my, I hadn’t realized, my dear Orchid, that you would also play such an artistic trick of ‘suddenly disappearing’?”

“It’s not what you think! Jerk.”

The traveler was truly furious. She screamed:

“Don’t listen to his nonsense!”

“Mm-hmm, won’t listen to his nonsense, let him explain in person! Anyway, he’ll probably be starting his new adventure in Transia soon.”

Lady Aqua said in a drawn-out voice:

“I extended an invitation to him, and he showed great interest, saying he would try to apply after completing this cave diving challenge.

No need to thank me, little Orchid, this is what I should do.

Just consider it a little ‘payback’ for you sending that game application to my fool husband.”

“Ah!”

The great traveler now realized her previous secretive actions had been exposed. This was “revenge” between sisters, but she had nothing to say, after all, Lady Aqua’s husband had started appearing on the forum.

And these were indeed all the “good deeds” she had done in private.

“Woohoo! So Orchid really has an unknown past?”

Sister Pomegranate asked with a beaming smile:

“Did something really happen between her and Mr. Yuan? Come on, Lady Aqua, tell us, don’t keep us in suspense.”

“Hmph.”

Lady Aqua chose not to rub salt in Orchid’s wound.

She didn’t continue the topic, leaving the great traveler alone on the side covering her face lost in thought, and stamping her foot hard.

This obviously means something happened!

“Hey hey hey, my dear sisters, hasn’t your most powerful support arrived?”

Once the mighty wind griffins landed, Meow King jumped down nimbly and waved greetings to the Silver Moon girls.

This guy had changed his original family guard outfit to a set of Avalon Church style chainmail, with mountain folk barbarian style battle robes and fur cloak.

But what caught people’s attention most was the weapon Meow King carried.

A barbarian double-bladed great axe, even under the sunlight, the snow-bright axe blade constantly emanated a cold aura, obviously very powerful and formidable at first glance.

“Is this the ‘Vam’s Executioner’ that you obtained through some means?”

Sister Pomegranate stepped forward to examine the weapon and commented:

“I previously thought what you did was a bit excessive, but after seeing this divine weapon in person, I’m starting to understand you guys.”

“Ah, let’s not mention that mess, almost got us expelled from the Avalon Church, better to do less of such messy things in the future.”

Meow King wore an expression of painful memories not worth revisiting.

He patted his wind griffin, and this creature with characteristics of both giant eagle and reindeer, very similar to the legendary “griffin,” let out a crisp cry and beat its wings to rise again, following the lead griffin of this wind griffin squad to go hunting and rest nearby.

These huge and elegant creatures looked very beautiful when flying, earning continuous praise from Little Ashina.

The only pity was that these great birds were very loyal and wouldn’t warm up to anyone other than their riders. When Little Ashina tried to reach out and pet them, she almost got her fingers pecked by Meow King’s wind griffin’s sharp beak.

“Don’t be sad.”

Old Tune, carrying his gun, saw Little Ashina’s disappointed face and consoled her:

“The mountain folk clan we brought back this time is very skilled at training wind griffins. They’ve already accepted Countess Sharon’s arrangements to set up wind griffin riding points in various key locations throughout Transia, building a flight route network for us. I estimate that clan will soon open reputation grinding.

Then you can go grind some reputation to get your own wind griffin.

However, these guys are very smart and sensitive. According to the mountain folk, after you get a wind griffin, you can’t have other flying mounts, otherwise it will make the griffin jealous. And if you don’t train it well, the wind griffin will also actively leave and return to its nest.

Anyway, it’s like raising a jealous golden retriever…”

“Hey, that sounds really interesting, I’ll go take a trip to the Ancestral Forest later then.”

Little Ashina’s eyes lit up, but Old Tune suggested:

“If you’re going there, I recommend not choosing a wind griffin. We’re all hunter-class, we can search for flying battle pets in that forest. On our way back, under the mountain folk’s guidance, we visited the Flying Feather Valley.

There are so many birds there, I got a horned eagle egg, just need to hatch it to have my flying pet.

I heard sometimes powerful creatures like thunder eagles appear there. When we have time later, let’s call other hunters to go try our luck together.”

“Sure sure, I want a powerful blood vulture!”

Little Ashina raised her hand and said:

“I already have a silly astral wolf, but Lord Murphy has a powerful spirit vulture, I want one too! I have to live up to my bloodline after all.”

While these two hunters were exchanging pet training experiences, Meow King was already discussing swamp operation strategies with Lady Aqua. After hearing Lady Aqua’s analysis, Meow King stroked his chin and said:

“Sister Pomegranate’s view is correct, we have few people, so we need to fight smarter. The southern line only has the Avalon Church as support forces, so we need to fully utilize this advantage.

Actually, on the way here, I already had an initial idea.

Look, I decided to use this!”

He pulled out a handful of multicolored tree seeds from his herb pouch and handed them to Lady Aqua. As a legitimate priest of the Avalon Church, she naturally knew what Meow King’s seeds were for.

She took them in hand and identified them, saying:

“There are defensive wood guardians, detective binding vine spirits, offensive battle treants… huh, what’s this red one? Why haven’t I seen it at Grandma Marianne’s?”

“This is the blood wood seed unique to the War Red Knight, it’s my class feature.”

Meow King explained:

“When this thing takes root, it grows into a bloodthirsty treant, more powerful and more aggressive than battle treants, and can grow by absorbing blood. The only problem is it can’t exist for long, but it’s very useful for setting up defensive traps.

I have plenty in my bag, take these to use first.

My idea is, we buy these oak seeds in bulk from the Avalon Cathedral, then scatter them along our attack route. Although the swamp terrain isn’t preferred by us nature walkers, its natural spirit energy is much higher than other places.

With proper cultivation, perhaps in just one week, we could have a ‘nature army’!

About 1,000 treants should do it.

Though treants move slowly, their health and endurance are much higher than the skeletal army, and when necessary they can take root to form a living wood wall.

Under the nourishment and replenishment of abundant natural spirit energy, they will also undergo ‘natural adaptation and transformation’ according to the swamp terrain. If we assign specialists to be responsible for this, perhaps after the conquest is complete, we’ll have a permanent army in the swamp.

Let’s not talk about grand undertakings like transforming the entire swamp afterwards, just these nature offspring spreading through the swamp isn’t a bad thing!

Not only can they counteract the skeletal army’s wandering everywhere, but as long as their numbers are enough to form forest settlements, when the black plague comes, we can also buy more time. Therefore, I named this battle plan ‘Avalon’s Fist’.”

“Wow, that’s quite an excellent plan and idea.”

Lady Aqua originally had her own tactics, but after hearing Meow King’s idea she immediately realized that women really aren’t as resourceful as men when it comes to matters of war. Compared to Meow King’s tactics, her original tactics not only seemed outdated and cliché but also completely failed to consider post-war matters.

She immediately abandoned her own plan, didn’t even mention it and just kept nodding. She rubbed her cheeks and said:

“Since we’re doing it, might as well expand the scope! Take this opportunity to cultivate a permanent stronghold for nature forces in the swamp, plant at least 3,000 treants in there! Let them act freely after the war, we’ll set up a druid camp here.

This can also be seen as spreading the power and majesty of the Avalon God. Lady Natalie might not care about these things, but using this to convince zealots like Old Eugene would definitely work. To be honest, in Transia we can hardly find another area like Foul Swamp where natural forces take effect over such a large range.

But we need to find a professional person to cultivate the treants and manage the future small druid camp.”

“Your appetite is really not small, but the good news is I’ve already found the right person.”

Meow King laughed and said:

“Little Rich Brother’s follower, the one who helps him train manticores, Brother Belly, that guy is a professional keeper and has already decided to pursue the druid career path.

He’s a true professional!

Maybe he can become a ‘treant shepherd’ in the future. I’ve already sent a message to Little Rich Brother, he and Belly might arrive this afternoon.”

“Good! Then let’s proceed according to your idea, we’ll fully cooperate with you.”

Lady Aqua concluded decisively:

“Is there anything you need us to do?”

“Uh, money! I want to borrow money from Little Ashina to buy enough tree seeds from Morland Village.”

Meow King scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly and said:

“All our team’s money was spent on buying wind griffins and updating equipment. Those mountain folk, I don’t know what happened, they were very simple originally, but overnight they became all about money talk. I guess some bad NPC was coaching them behind the scenes, but anyway, this investment will definitely be profitable.

The equipment provided by the mountain folk is very suitable for us nature walkers.

I suggest you and Fatal Orchid go to the Ancestral Forest before entering the swamp to get yourselves a set of ‘Mountain Forest Spirit Ceremonial Robes’ and Forest Walker Battle Armor. They also have Druid Staves made of millennium wood there, said to be sacred ritual objects passed down through generations in the mountain folk tribes.

Just looking at the appearance, it’s extraordinary, definitely more suitable for healing classes than the large scythe in your hand.

You can just mention our names when you go to the mountain folk elders, we brothers already have revered reputation there.”

“Sounds good, I saw little Sharon wearing traditional mountain attire before, it’s quite beautiful, a natural aesthetic style I hadn’t encountered before. Little Ashina!”

Lady Aqua’s eyes lit up, and she turned back to call:

“How many gold coins do you have in your bag?”

“Ah?”

Little Ashina turned back blinking and said:

“Just tell me how much you need, I can collect from the forum.”

“Spare those poor players, their money has all been collected by you.”

Lady Aqua sighed, she looked at Meow King and said:

“I still have some private savings, is 30,000 gold coins enough?”

“More than enough, we are insiders of the Avalon Church after all, I don’t believe those witch hunters have the face to ask for too much.”

Meow King rubbed his hands and said:

“I’ll set out now, we’ll meet here tomorrow to enter the swamp together and find the witch hunters’ advance camp.”

“Good!”

Lady Aqua nodded, handed a named card to Meow King, and he quickly left for the administrative office in Crimson Citadel to exchange gold coins.

The physical form of 30,000 gold coins would be enough to crush him to death ten times over, Lady Aqua couldn’t possibly carry that much money on her. The administrative office has exchange services but now only has a few major clients, Old Huo wanted to enter the banking industry before, but after seeing this situation he also gave up the idea.

The prerequisite for wanting to be a banker is that everyone must have money, but in Transia’s current situation, even old man Buffett would starve to death if he came.

“It’s good to have money.”

Brother Black Stockings said sourly to More Than Three to Five Pecks beside him:

“I really wish I had a gentle and beautiful rich lady who could see through my sensitivity beneath my stubbornness, and support me with money I couldn’t spend in several lifetimes so I would be free from worries about food and clothing for the rest of my life.”

“Ha, rich ladies? Aren’t there plenty?”

Three to Five Pecks laughed and pointed at the Silver Moon girls:

“Go flatter them, see if the real rich ladies would fancy you.”

“Forget it, these girls are all ‘superhumans’, I can’t mess with them. They’d think the water content in my brain is too high even if they finely chopped me into stuffing for dumplings, so, let’s just look at the swamp in the distance. Brothers, we’ll be spending the next month in this ghostly place.

Damn!

If I had known, I would have brought a bottle of ‘Six God’ in.

I heard from the students that the mosquitoes and insects here are terrifying, not only do they suck blood but they also spread disease debuffs. Sigh, I hope I won’t be carried away by them while sleeping at night.”