World Development System 187 118. Massacre of Goldrush Mercenaries.

John asked Arlen after he came back with his men scouting the nearby area, "So what is the current situation? did you find anything?"

Arlen nodded and gave the report, "Lord, there is a small company of Goldrush mercenaries 8km away on the western side. They are basically divided into groups of 50 people with at least 20 groups near the north-frontier city. They are mostly targeting small caravans coming in and out of the city. However, there are other mercenaries as well. However, there is one particular thing we noticed while we were scouting out for them."

John furrowed his brows as he didn't want to make changes in his plans, "What is it?" 

Arlen nodded his head and spoke with a serious tone, "We weren't able to locate the biggest Mercenary group today near North-frontier town. And this was quite puzzling to us as not a single one of us was able to locate them."

John thought as he read about some mercenaries from Taylor, he asked and confirmed, "The Hell's playground mercenaries?"

Arlen nodded to give his confirmation, "Yes."

Arlen continued, "And there is one more peculiar report I just got from our spies that there are Royal units heading to Dolores with a lot of Ballistas. However we still yet don't know about their real intentions."

John smiled as he understood what was happening, "From the looks of it, the Hell's playground mercenaries have withdrawn after looking at the previous incident. It seems they are quite cautious compared to others. No wonder they are the number 1 mercenary group in the whole kingdom. As for the Royal units, It seems the king has finally decided to move against me. Ok, we won't use the cannons in this first battle but only after he makes a public stance. I would like to see their faces when they see these weapons after defying me."

John called Jay and asked, "Jay, are the men ready?"

Jay answered, "Yes, we are prepared. 1500 of our magic knights are ready to move out at a moment's notice."

John nodded and roared to all the soldiers, "Okay, We are moving out men. I hope everyone has sharpened their weapons, right?."

All the soldiers answered in unison, "Yes, Commander Anak. We are ready for the operation." This time there was respect in their tones after watching the previous battle when Anak owned Amber quite easily with even breaking a sweat.

John nodded and ordered Jay, "Marsh and Amber, you guys will follow behind me at the frontlines. Jay, You will be protecting the borders when I am gone. are you clear?"

Marsh Amber and Jay agreed and spoke, "Yes."

John looked at the 1500 men and ordered, "Follow me, men, first We will be targeting the Goldrush mercenaries. Bring the ballistas on the horse carriages in case of any emergency.

***

At the same time in the imperial capital, King Lionheart was in front of a big crowd.

Right now he had just announced the major policies of the Aelius family while the crowd was cheering for their majesty's because of the improved economic conditions for the current year. However there was an uproar as well since there were sanctions targeted at North-frontier city. The news spread like wildfire.

"Lets see, how long can that Count resist me after I have deployed the magic ballista canons along with Irwin. With Irwin, I am sure that Count's men will certainly offend Irwin which will only improve our chances of invading them. If I get my hands on all the available technologies over there then I can certainly achieve my goals of making a big Empire. The export themselves have already appreciated the value of our gold coins because of all the items produced by North-Frontier Town. This small city is certainly proving out to be a big headache. Just the fact that people there are living better lives than the ones living at the Imperial city is a big shame. Adding to that, it is a border city."

****

Currently, There were numerous mercenary groups ambushing the merchants near the borders, among these, a combined group of 5 groups of 50 men from Goldrush Mercenaries were waiting to ambush merchants going out from North-frontier city. John and his men took the exact route as informed by the Arlen and his men.

One of the commanders of 5 companies spoke, "This time we are going to ambush Joseph Morgan's trade caravan, Currently they are trading in non-important material into the kingdom with higher taxes. He is close to Count John and this would be a big blow to Count John. Lets see how he handles so many mercenaries, day in day out."

One of the mates asked, "Yes, however, something is puzzling me."

"What."

He cautiously asked, "It's the Hell's Playground Mercenaries. They have suddenly gone quiet. It's eerily ominous."

The commander nodded and agreed as he spoke with frustration, "Yeah, even I am surprised but you should know that Liam is quite an eccentric guy. Well, it's their loss anyway. He has lost a lot of opportunities in the past because of his cautiousness. Though he is sometimes bold but this time is a no brainer for him being cautious. This time we have made quite an amount of loot from merchants. The merchants too are complaining there every day. I guess the situation will slowly but surely worsen in that city and so too the big trade. Anyway, you guys should enjoy the bonus and that Guy Antonio has anyway given us mercenaries a free hand so he isn't like Baron Mendez who cares about our activities on peasants. Which is good for us."

One of the guys spoke, "Hahaha, this is such a good news Commander, I was having my eye on a certain girl for quite a few days in the village we were staying. Now this will be fun."

One of the guys was eyeing the armors for a long time and spoke, "Hey look, one of the patrols of 50 people are coming. Why don't we ambush those men and take their armors? We already have 250 men for this raid. This raid would be worth more than raiding the merchants. This can simultaneously reduce the morale of their border troops."

The commanders looked at the armor and thought, He agreed and spoke, "Hmm... Yes, these men have been arrogant for quite some time. It would be good to teach them a lesson while those armors are anyway worth a lot of money. Even I had to pay a lot to get one from the black market."

John had already spotted them through the telescope, he smiled as he looked at the movements of the leaves in the woods and heard the cries, "It seems they have taken the bait. Come, Charge with me in the western direction, kill them without any restraint, shoot arrows in 3 seconds for 15 seconds in the western direction, they are about 1.5 miles away from us. Give the signal to others that they have taken the bait."

Soon, one smoke signal was lit in the sky where red color could be seen as the group of 50 magic knights charged on their horses without any worries.

Amber roared as he finally felt his chains getting off, "Finally some action. Charge with me men. Show these guys what it means to kill our comrades. No mercy to any of these scums."

All of them chanted as they charged forward with their horses, "No mercy to these scums."

The loud voice of Horses footsteps could be heard everywhere in the surroundings as there was cry for war.

John and Arlen were leading all the best men as they immediately used their mini-ballistas.

Arlen remarked, "These saddle and stirrups are quite useful when it comes to using ranged weapons on the horses."

Marsh asked as he only learned horseriding straight with saddles horseshoes and stirrups in the army, "Wasn't it natural?"

Arlen shook his head and spoke, "Nah, you will see the difference in this battle where our enemies don't have these accessories while we have them. This is also one of the reasons why we aren't watching these tools in the public domain. Anyway, start shooting arrows to the right with an 11 o' clock angle."

Marsh nodded and started shooting arrows in the right direction, "Aah, yes."

A lot of arrows laden with magic runes rained on the Goldrush mercenaries who were preparing to ambush them.

The commander heard the ringing roars of war cry as he thought, 'Ahh it might be our men.'

The commander looked at the arrows raining on his men as he saw John's men just 1 mile away from them, "Hey, hey how come they are able to detect our ambush. Charge men Charge. Don't wait or we will be routed,"

The exchange ended with 100 Goldrush mercenaries dying in the first clash of arrows. 

During the first charge, Amber didn't wait as he understood that during a battle you can't hold back and immediately used Fire magic along with his sword against his enemies. A lot of people followed the same example.

As both sides clashed with each other, Anak's men emerged superior with their first charge. Goldrush mercenaries weren't even able to penetrate armors of John's men in their first charge.

The guy who was eyeing for one of the people at the village screamed in as he was stabbed in his chest by Marsh, "How the fuck is their armor so sturdy? I can only scratch their armor with my fire sword. Damn, how do you expect me to resist."

Amber killed one of the commanders of 5 companies with a Flame slash.

Their army was in chaos as they lost 2 commanders in the first charge. One of the commanders looked angrily at Amber who killed his mate, "This boy can't live. Such a young man and already such a talent to kill men."

In the first encounter, The Goldrush mercenaries lost 80 men, at the same time a major chunk of them also got injured. while the Head of the mercenaries lost his sword which was purposely broken by John. John smiled as he picked up a sword part nonchalantly and showed it to the mercenaries on the other side as he threw it aside. All the guys on both sides immediately understood the meaning of John's action.

He astonishingly looked at John who was wearing a masquerade mask. 

The commander immediately looked at John who was playing in a battlefield, 'This guy is dangerous.'

He asked the masked man, "Who are you?"

John smiled as he pointed his sword to the enemy army, "Just a soldier of Count John. As for my name? You can call me Everburning, Anak. CHARGE! NO NEED TO LEAVE ANYONE OF THEM ALIVE. THIS WILL BE THE PUNISHMENT FOR ALL THE MERCENARIES BUGGING AT OUR BORDERS AND WIPING OUT GREENWOODS VILLAGE. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM SHOULD BE LEFT ALIVE."

The commander had a shocked face as he looked at John. John didn't beat around the bush and charged immediately.

Without waiting, everyone from John's army charged behind John, John kept his eyes on the commander like a predator and charged with his horse. This time, the Commander of the mercenaries lost one of his ears and spoke.

The commander looked at John with extreme horror and anger as he saw that John was simply toying with them and hoarsely spoke, "You guys will pay for targeting Goldrush mercenaries. Do you think you guys are safe? you don't know what is coming for your lord. Hahaha, You guys will just die a dog's death like those guys at Greendwoods village."

John smiled and spoke as he understood the commander's threat, "Are you talking about the royal army? We already know about them, No one in our army gives a shit about them. We will kill anyone who becomes our enemy, We see men, we kill men, We see devils, we kill devils. We see god, we kill god. We only believe in ourselves. You got it? Right men?"

Everyone roared and answered in Unison which shivered their enemies to their bones, "Yes, General Anak."

John smiled and pointed his sword in the direction of his army, "See. Every single one of believes in Lord John."

The commander was stunned after hearing such a proclamation from Anak and was about to speak.

But Without waiting for a second, John stabbed him in his heart and killed him.

John murmured as he threw his body, "You talk too much."

In the Second Charge, all of the men from Goldrush mercenaries died with some escaping the carnage.

In this battle, Amber was able to kill 2 commanders of the enemies while was injured only a little bit on his right hand.

There were no casualties with some only getting injured in the previous charge.

At this time the remaining men who escaped were killed by the reserve men who were in hiding. However, there were still 3 men who were able to escape the carnage.

John smiled as he looked at the 250 dead men from Goldrush mercenaries, "It seems some rats were able to escape, no problems, almost a perfect battle, Just the way I like. Come, we will start targeting other companies as well. Take care of the injured men. Bring out Light magician knights and heal their wounds We are just starting and this was just an appetizer, the real operation will be done in the coming days. I don't want anyone slacking off."

John healed Amber with light magic as he readied for his next battle. Amber was quite surprised as he already witnessed John using wind magic in his last battle.

Amber thought, 'General sure is quite a talented man. I wonder why he underestimates his magic?'

John remarked as he saw Amber simply looking blankly at him, "What are you looking at, kid? I am a straight guy, ok? Go and get ready with your mates."

Amber came out of his thinking and spoke, "Sorry General, it was nothing like that. I just think you are good at magic as well and thought about your previous remark of being weak at magic."

John sighed and waved him off.

Chapter end