Chapter 30: Pink Snow Battle (2)
The Elderwood County was managed by the Elderwood Magus Household. Although he possessed the rank of 'Count', the current head of the Elderwood Household was only an intermediate-rank acolyte. This was a declining Magus family, and unlike the Moonfall household, the Elderwood family could not do anything to stop its decline.
After all, it had lost the last territorial war against the Moonfall family, losing countless magical resources in the process. Unlike bloodline path acolytes, elemental path acolytes had to consume various regent elixirs in order to break through from one realm to another. As most heirs of the Elderwood Household only possessed grade 1 talent, which was the second lowest of all, there was only a 30% chance of a beginner rank acolyte breaking through the intermediate realm with the high-quality regent elixirs it possessed.
There were three advanced-rank acolytes left in the Elderwood Ancestral Keep, but two of them had been injured in the last territorial war, and thus decided to seclude themselves for the sake of recovering. There were even rumours that the two of them were losing their cultivation. As for the third elder, he was guarding the Elderwood's Ancestral Keep.
Count Elderwood had gathered 9 beginner rank acolytes, which was roughly a third of his family's powerhouses, along with two third of his army, making it thirty knights and one thousand soldiers. When he had heard of a Moonfall's heir advertized expedition to hunt a Giant Python, Count Elderwood was blinded by greed.
The reason why the Elderwood was in such a declining state was related to the lack of regent elixirs. And although it required an experienced alchemist to brew them, a lot of them were accepting orders so it wasn't the lack of alchemist within the Elderwood Household that made the Count so helpless, but rather, the lack of ingredients.
The blood of magical beasts was the main ingredient for most regent elixirs.
A Giant Python, even if it was just of intermediate rank, could be harvested and provide more than 200 sets' worth of ingredients for regent elixirs. To the Count Elderwood, getting his hands on a Giant Python's body would mean rising his family's strength by leaps and bounds, giving all 28 beginner rank acolytes a chance to reach the intermediate realm. Even if they had bad talent, with fresh regent elixirs, a third of them, at the very least, would have broken through. For years now, Count Elderwood had been eyeing this beast, but couldn't take it down due to its enormous size.
Besides the Giant Python's blood, its scales were also very interesting. The Count could already picture the 80 knights in the Elderwood Household wearing semi-magical armours made of Giant Python scales. If it happened, even beginner-rank acolytes would not be able to inflict deadly damage to them as long as they evaded the most destructive spells.
As for the eyes...
The eyes of a Giant Python could petrify its enemy. To the Count Elderwood, who specialized in Golem Mastery, these eyes could become the core ingredients of an advanced-rank Golem. As an intermediate-rank acolyte, Count Elderwood was a bit lacking. Although he possesed relatively high magical power, he could only control three beginner rank golems. He didn't have the necessary materials to build an intermediate rank golem, and his elders could not help him in that regard.
This battle was an opportunity to steal an abundant amount wealth from the Moonfall family. The Moonfall family had been quite idiotic in his eyes. Magical beasts were rare, rare enough for one of this size to be eyed by neighbor territories.
Still, Count Elderwood could only watch in awe as his 1000-men-strong army was struggling against a mere 200 soldiers, exhausted from a 5-hours-long hunt. In a matter of minutes, more than one hundred of his men had died, only causing a handful of enemy soldiers to die.
'Formation...', Count Elderwood sighed, 'Fang Zheng had given me information about the Frozen Knight Order and their high mastery of swordsmanship, but I never heard about them being able to master the [Rose Formation]'
The [Rose Formation] was a circle-based formation with archers in the center. Whenever a frontline soldier died, a soldier from the center would advance and take his place, never letting the first line of defence be breached. Meanwhile, the archers in the center would use parabolic shots to support the front. The bigger the number of soldiers, the stronger the formation became. It would become more solid, and almost unpregnable.
If a significant amount of soldiers died, then it would not be a problem, because the rose formation would just become smaller, yet never broken.
It was an extraordinary formation which displayed its full strength when an army was surrounded.
*SPLASH*
Thankfully, Count Elderwood had brought acolytes, otherwise breaking the formation would have been impossible.
On top of his golem, his brother Frederick Elderwood and his sons prepared magic circles.
[Rain of Fire]
It was a combination spell where several flame-type acolytes would cast [Minor Fireball] spell over and over again, creating a rain of fire.
It was only a matter of time before the 200 infantry men from the Frozen Knight Order were charred to death. After depleting their mana, only 30 soldiers from the Frozen Knight Order remained, one of their knight having been beheaded by a charge led by ten Elderwood Knights.
'Victory is mine. Haha!', Count Elderwood rejoiced.
The morale of his army, however, was not that high. The rain of fire had killed more than one hundred of their own forces, not to mention that the Frozen Knight Order soldiers were demons. Even on the ground, they would unsheathe dagger and stab the feet of their forces. If they were unarmed, these men and women would bite and use every single bit of their force to bring down one more Elderwood soldier to their grave.
Their eyes showed no sign of giving up. Even though the Elderwood Knight Commanders kept offering a way to surrender and avoid unnecessary bloodshed, there was not a shred of hesitation in the eyes of these Frozen Knight Order fanatics. Some were smiling, others were even laughing in the face of danger.
However, the most frightening feature of this army was their level of swordsmanship. Even the worst soldier from this Frozen Knight Order could rival that of Elderwood knights. It was unbelievable. Although physical attributes played a large role in large-scale battles, it was all insignificant when sword play was so different. More than 10 Elderwood knights had fallen from average Frozen Knight Order soldiers, and even 6 knights could not bring down the female knight Evangeline Heart. They all died under her blade.
Before their lord even appeared, more than 600 soldiers from the Elderwood Army, 15 of their knights had already fallen.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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