Chapter 134: The First Transportation Mission—Arrival at the Sixth Legion

As a high-tier Silver, facing one high-tier Bronze along with a dozen Bronze-grade lizard warriors, plus a few insignificant cannon fodder, Vallin felt zero pressure at all.

With a single slash, he cleaved a lizard warrior right down the middle—effortlessly.

Blood splattered everywhere. Every time Vallin swung his sword, he claimed the life of a lizardman.

"Warriors, flank him from below!"

"Other minions, fire volleys of flaming bolts! Do not engage him in close combat!"

As the deputy commander, the high-tier Bronze lizard warrior stayed safely in the rear, ready to retreat at any moment.

Being a rational warrior with intelligence, he was worlds apart from those brainless kinsmen of his. He certainly did not want to end up like his unfortunate commander, pinned to the ground and impaled by a spear.

Seeing flashes of fire erupting from the inner circle, the cunning high-tier Bronze lizard warrior grabbed a fellow tribesman and bolted backward at full speed.

Watching the big fish get away, Vallin swung his sword to cut three obstructing lizard warriors in half at the waist, pulled the spear stuck in a lizard champion from the ground, and hurled it at the fleeing lizardman.

Seeing the spear hurtling through the air, the high-tier Bronze lizard warrior hurled the clansman in his grasp forward and sprinted with every ounce of his strength.

"Such crafty creatures."

Casually clearing away the surrounding low-tier lizard warriors and lizard minions, Vallin watched the leader vanish into the distance, his expression turning somewhat gloomy.

The creature had actually used its own clansman as a human shield to blunt the spear's momentum and alter its trajectory.

"My Lord, the lizardmen's volleys of flaming bolts burned some of our fodder, but otherwise there are no losses. It is well within the normal transportation loss margin," Kyle reported as he walked over to Vallin after extinguishing the sparks.

"Step up the vigilance. There might be more attacks ahead."

On the other side, seeing the flames erupting from the right flank of the transport camp, the lizard warriors acting as the execution squad automatically retreated, directly abandoning the goblins who had been rounded up as cannon fodder.

A dozen minutes later, the goblins who had ingested the black demonic potion exhausted their life force and collapsed on the battlefield. Within a mere minute, they rotted into piles of putrid flesh.

The remaining goblin cannon fodder, losing all restraint, scattered and fled into the dark jungle.

As the mastermind behind this raid, the lizard chieftain Guga had started his retreat the moment he saw the fire. Whether the operation succeeded or not was irrelevant; what mattered was that he had made a move, and that was enough.

If he had actually stepped forward with a battle-axe to risk his life, he would have died countless times over. Rough as his name sounded, he valued his life dearly. He still had a dozen lizard beauties waiting for him back home—he wasn't about to throw his life away for nothing.

This raid, which was more of a formality than a substantive threat, thus concluded, and each unit began tallying its casualties.

At dawn the next day, the final casualty reports of the various units reached Vallin, the commander.

"My Lord, last night the First Battalion suffered thirty-seven casualties, the Second Battalion one hundred and thirteen, the Third Battalion sixty-nine, and the Cocalos Transport Battalion suffered zero casualties."

"Most of the fallen were ordinary human soldiers who had not yet stepped onto the path of professionals."

Vallin skimmed through the statistical report, then tossed it to Kyle and gave his orders: "Leave a detachment behind to collect and burn the corpses. The majority will press forward; our time is limited and we cannot afford any delays."

"Understood."

The orders were swiftly issued. Two companies comprising one hundred soldiers were left behind to clear the battlefield, while the transport camp pressed on without stopping.

Along the subsequent route, the frequency of attacks grew increasingly higher, though the casualties they inflicted became smaller and smaller.

Claiming the heads of valuable monster clans, Vallin ordered the transport camp to march onward.

"My Lord, latest news: once we cross this hill, we are only twenty kilometers away from the Sixth Legion's temporary encampment," Kyle reported, pulling the slip of paper off the messenger azure falcon, unfolding it, and reading it to Vallin.

"It is indeed time for this to end. The closer we get to the border, the more frequent the attacks become," Vallin said with a hint of exhaustion, watching the silhouette of the messenger azure falcon fade into the sky.

Although the task of transporting army provisions was much safer than front-line combat, the endless, non-threatening harassment took a heavy toll on one's mental endurance.

"Let's get the handover done quickly and head back."

After half a day's march, Vallin finally arrived at the Sixth Legion's encampment.

Compared to when they had first set out, fully prepared and equipped, the number of personnel in the Sixth Legion had noticeably decreased.

Judging purely by the number of military tents, the Sixth Legion now had roughly twenty-three to twenty-five thousand men remaining—five or six thousand fewer than before the war had begun.

Even so, the Sixth Legion was only tasked with the secondary theater of war and had not participated in the most intense primary front lines.

"This is the cruelty of war. Military achievements must be bought with lives, not just those of ordinary soldiers, but even the lives of nobles."

The monster armies of the Ashen Waste did not care about international rules or noble chivalry. Fall into their hands, and you would most likely end up as army rations.

"Please show your orders," an officer said wearily at the camp entrance, his armor still stained with uncleaned blood.

Vallin motioned for Kyle to present the logistics department's orders and took the opportunity to ask, "What happened?"

"A monster raid yesterday afternoon broke through the main camp from the left flank. A lot of men were killed or wounded, our medical supplies were entirely wiped out, and there are many wounded soldiers in the camp right now," the officer replied with a wry smile.

"There are plenty of medical supplies among this batch of cargo. You can notify the legion to unload them as soon as possible."

"Understood, Milord. These are your orders."

Hearing this news, a slight smile appeared on the officer's face. He handed the documents back to Vallin, then ordered his men to clear the roadblocks and let the Thirteenth Transport Battalion enter the encampment.

Upon entering the camp and coordinating with the Sixth Legion's quartermasters, personnel were immediately assigned to urgently unload the medical supplies.

After stashing away the stamped orders, Vallin took Kyle and headed toward the other camps to see if he could find his uncle and the others.

After some searching, Vallin was the first to find his cousin, Brian.

"Vallin, you've arrived." Brian looked at Vallin with a pale face, his right arm in a sling.

"Lord Vallin."

The magic knight Adrian bowed in salute and proceeded to change Brian's bandages.

"Kyle, did you bring any Ice Blue Potion?" Vallin turned and asked.

Hearing this, Kyle took a vial of Ice Blue Potion from his pouch and handed it to Adrian.

"This is?"

"A healing potion for injuries."

Faced with his cousin Brian's inquiry, Vallin explained from the side.

Shortly after, Adrian removed the wooden stopper and helped Brian drink the Ice Blue Potion.

Within moments, the color in Brian's face improved significantly.

"Cousin, was yesterday's raid really that severe? Even you got hurt," Vallin asked with a worried expression.

"It was indeed perilous. If Adrian hadn't arrived in the nick of time, I probably would have died at the hands of that gnoll," Brian recalled the scene from the previous night, unable to suppress a look of lingering fear.