novelraw Chapter 195 : The Formless One 無形者
Chapter 195 : The Formless One 無形者
Chapter 195: The Formless One 無形者
Unable to come up with any ideas, the few of them didn’t have too many thoughts at the moment, but their opinions were still highly unified: they had to bring this information back as soon as possible.
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“It’s a pity that we lost all our supplies. Now we don’t even have a map. Other than knowing a general direction, we’re probably already lost, aren’t we?” Roda sighed beside them, his face full of helplessness.
The Bayor Territory had previously been a viscountcy. According to the general standard for the territories of Bloodline Nobles across the continent, the smallest scale of such a territory was one and one-third of a barony. However, due to some historical reasons, the Bayor Viscounty was the second-largest territory within the Marquisate of Red Eagle, second only to the Red River Territory, roughly equivalent to nearly two standard baronies in size.
It was worth mentioning that, due to certain well-known ennoblement systems within the Tyrella Kingdom, there was actually not much difference between a county and a marquisate.
Because of this, for anyone unfamiliar with the terrain of the Bayor Viscounty, once they lost their map, they would inevitably lose their sense of direction––under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t happen, of course. After all, there were many settlements within Bayor Territory. As long as one could find someone to ask for directions, they would know where they were. But now that the region was in a state of war and many settlements had already been burned to ashes, finding a living person was no easy matter.
“The map isn’t too big of a problem,” said Aches. “I have a newly drawn survey map with me, but since we’ve lost all reference points, we’ll still need to find a settlement before we can confirm our location.”
Sien nodded with some relief.
He also kept a map of the Bayor Territory on him at all times. It was what any commander would do—since you never knew what kind of situation a campaign might lead to, carrying a map personally was the most prudent choice.
From these few days of observation, Sien couldn’t yet say whether Aches was an excellent commander, but he was at least a qualified one.
After a brief discussion, the group began arranging the night watch.
Because of his status, Aches was assigned to the last watch––this was also to take care of him. In fact, Sien hadn’t planned to have Aches stand watch at all, but since Aches insisted, he was placed on the final shift.
The Bloodline Knight who was an archer was assigned to the first watch, since they would need a scout with good vision during the day.
After lying down, everyone quickly fell asleep.
Learning how to fall asleep quickly on the battlefield was also a required skill for any soldier.
Aches slept until deep into the night before being shaken awake in a daze.
He opened his eyes sharply and saw Sien.
“Uncle Sien? Has something happened?” Aches immediately got up.
His movements were light, and only when his right hand touched the hilt of the Demonic Sword did he feel slightly reassured.
According to the night watch rotation, Sien was second, so if it were time to change shifts, the one waking him should have been Roda, not Sien. For Sien to skip Roda and wake him directly meant that something was clearly wrong.
And at the same instant he asked the question, Aches already knew the answer.
Not far away came the faint clashing sound of metal against metal.
Clearly, a battle was breaking out there.
Roda and another Bloodline Knight woke up one after another. In the darkness, they could only make out the faint outlines of each other’s figures, but could still roughly identify positions. None of them spoke—it was obvious they were waiting for Aches, their commander, to decide.
“Move!”
After only two seconds of hesitation, Aches gave the order and took the lead.
The four quickly reached a battleground a little distance away––they had only walked a short while before spotting firelight ahead. They didn’t need to search for the exact location—it was easy enough to find.
When they fixed their eyes on the scene, they saw about ten riders who had previously departed with them, now being surrounded and hunted down by a unit of Aust Empire soldiers.
These riders had already been trapped in a ring of enemies––they had been traveling on horseback but weren’t actual cavalry, not even mounted soldiers, so they couldn’t fight effectively from horseback. Forced to dismount and fight, surrounded by blazing torches, there was no way to hide or use tactical deception. Moreover, the Aust soldiers outnumbered them by far, so even breaking through was impossible.
Of course, even if they could break through, it would be meaningless.
All of these riders were wounded, and without their horses, even if they broke free, they couldn’t possibly outrun the Aust soldiers.
“Save them!”
Aches gave a low shout, and the four of them charged forward.
Leading the attack was the archer Bloodline Knight—several arrows flew in rapid succession, felling several enemies instantly.
The Aust soldiers were not Bloodline Users, and clearly hadn’t expected enemies to appear from behind. The battlefield fell briefly into confusion, but under the commander’s shout, once they realized there were only four enemies, they steadied their formation, splitting off a small group to intercept while tightening their encirclement on the trapped riders.
However––
That situation didn’t last long.
Because when the small detachment rushed toward Aches and his group, they were wiped out in a single clash. It was then that the Aust soldiers realized these four were not ordinary fighters.
Chaos and fear spread rapidly among them.
Without any Bloodline Users, fighting Bloodline Knights was suicide—unless the enemy was an exhausted low-tier user, there was no hope.
Judging by Aches and the others’ condition, except for Roda, who looked slightly worn, none of them showed any signs of fatigue. The Aust soldiers dared not continue fighting. Realizing the battle was hopeless, they abandoned dozens of their comrades’ corpses and fled in panic. Yet one dutiful soldier still managed to fire a flare signal before escaping.
That man paid for his loyalty with his life––the archer Bloodline Knight never missed such a good target.
“Lord Aches!”
“Lord Sien!”
The surviving riders, upon seeing Aches and the others, all wore expressions of relief, as if reborn after disaster.
Aches glanced at the survivors, then turned back to look at Sien and the others. His grip on the Demonic Sword tightened.
“What happened to you all?”
Sien’s face, for once, showed a trace of joy.
“We were ambushed!”
“It happened right after you left, my lord.”
“Yes! A scout returned with Aust soldiers—it was betrayal!”
“Those damned Aust dogs!”
From their disjointed explanations, Sien and the others pieced together what had happened.
One—or rather, several—of the scouts they had sent earlier had betrayed them. They not only delivered false information, misleading them into an Aust ambush, but also brought Aust soldiers disguised as their own back into camp. Then, while Aches and the others were away for reconnaissance, they launched a surprise attack on their temporary encampment.
The riders were nearly annihilated in a one-sided slaughter.
Fortunately, this small team of about ten had just finished their watch and hadn’t gone to rest yet, so when the attack began, they were able to mount and break through quickly. Still, they hadn’t expected the enemy’s pursuit to be so relentless.
Even after breaking out, they were repeatedly intercepted and surrounded—that was why all of them were wounded.
Later, they had seen Aches and the others’ “Flaming Roar Arrow”, realizing their commanders were in danger.
But they were already too weak to help, even forced to retreat instead.
When they tried to contact the infantry behind them, they found the rear path almost completely blocked, forcing them to pick a new direction to flee—only to fall into yet another ambush.
By now, they were completely exhausted.
Just when they thought they would die there, Aches and his group appeared, saving them from the brink.
“The enemy is definitely not just three or five hundred men,” Sien said grimly after listening to everyone. “We must get the message back as soon as possible.”
“This isn’t the place to discuss it. Let’s move first.”
Aches agreed, but he didn’t lose his composure. He quickly gave orders, leading everyone to withdraw from the battlefield.
Because of the night, they couldn’t ride. Many horses had been killed or scared off during the skirmish, and the remaining few couldn’t carry everyone. So after thinking it through, Aches decided to release all of them.
These were veteran Bayor horses; they would find their way back to the fortress on their own. After removing their saddles and gear, it was at least a small mercy for them.
Aches thought that if even one or two of the horses made it back safely, his second uncle would realize their situation—an early warning in itself.
Soon, the group was on the move again.
Under the dim night, the flames still burned fiercely.
A middle-aged man wearing the uniform of an Aust Empire officer was pinned to the ground by a spear that had pierced through his sternum.
“Hais! You filthy beast!” the middle-aged Aust Empire officer snarled, “You—how dare you betray the great Aust Empire!”
“Boring.” Hais tightened his spear, then drove it in hard; the spear sank another inch.
The officer’s face instantly contorted in agony.
“I’ve killed several of your imperial commanders already; you aren’t the last. But why do all of your words sound so similar?” Hais raised an eyebrow. “You are, like us, just a bunch of failures, a rabble of routed soldiers. Why do you act as if you’d already won the war?”
“Hah.” Blood spilled from the corner of the officer’s mouth; his expression shifted from pain to a kind of fanaticism. “You idiot—you wouldn’t know the Empire’s greatness!”
“I really don’t know—after all, you’ve already lost,” Hais shrugged. “So stop spouting ‘greatness’ and the like. I’d find you very ignorant—practically laughable. What can you routed soldiers do now? With those numbers, even if you slipped behind enemy lines as a suicide squad, you wouldn’t stir a thing.”
“Hah. Ha-ha.” The Aust officer coughed up blood. “Ignorance is yours! You think I don’t know your identity? Hales of the Black Hawk Family! Do you really think the great Duke of Blood, the Conqueror, Lord William is so foolish? Ha—his Formless Guard has long since infiltrated your domains! You will all die!”
“Formless?” Hais lifted an eyebrow, but showed no sign of concern. “Oh, I’ve heard of them—those hyped-up fellows. They’re just little rats that hide heads and tails. Even if they’d infiltrated these battlezones, what could they do? The entire Southern Region is sealed off; they can’t even pass messages. Sooner or later they’ll be caught.”
“Ignorant! Stupid!” the officer cursed. “You don’t know how dangerous the Formless are! You—”
“You know about them?” Hais chuckled. “Not that I look down on you—you’re only a low-level officer. What you know is just hearsay. I’ve heard far more of those rumors than you have.”
“You arrogant fool!” the officer lost his temper and swore at Hais in his native tongue. “Wait! Lord Polcardon—may your marquis family wither completely in this war!”
“I see.”
Hais nodded gravely. “So this was your plan. Even your rout and hasty withdrawal now were to create opportunities for those Formless, weren’t they?”
“What?” the officer froze.
“Thank you, honored Lord Polcardon. May your marquis family rot utterly in this war.”
“You know me?”
“Of course.” Hais smiled and nodded. “Just as you know my identity, I know yours. You were a big fish among the low-level commanders—it would be a shame not to tease you a bit; that’s how I learned your battle plan.”
“You—”
Hais said nothing more. His face darkened; he slammed his boot down and crushed the man’s skull.
“Formless—”
“Infiltrate, subvert, turn them on one another—that was your operation for the Southern Region? ‘Duke of Blood’ William Hastings.”
“Then—”
Something flashed in his mind. The Black Hawk fledgling who had taken the name Hais suddenly changed expression.
“Hales! What are you doing!?” The young man who had just inherited the headship of the Siger Family clutched his bleeding chest and glared at the middle-aged man, equal parts furious and shocked. “Are you mad?”
“Ho.” Hales sighed softly. “I thought the one who would be entrusted with the Siger headship in a time of crisis would be Hales—his right of succession stood above yours. It seems you Tyrellans are still very foolish.”
“You—” The new head of the Siger Family, blood streaming from his body, stared at Hales in stunned disbelief.
Hales reached out, wiped some of the other man’s blood from his body, and put it to his lips to suck.
In the next moment, Hales’s face began to change.
Not only his features—his height and build shifted quickly; his whole body seemed to melt like a candle. But the melting quickly reformed into a new shape, and a moment later he had become a middle-aged man who looked exactly like the current head of the Siger Family.
Not only his face.
His height, build, bearing, posture, and aura all became identical.
“Lord Ram, do you think I resemble you?” The middle-aged man who had just been Hales now spoke in a deep, powerful voice; his demeanor carried the natural majesty of someone of higher rank. “Hales as an identity is no longer of use.”
Fortunately, he had been consigned to a cannon-fodder camp—he was likely dead on the front lines, so there was no need to worry about him. But you—
“‘Child of the Demon.’”
“What ‘Child of the Demon’—how ugly a name.” The middle-aged man who had become Ram Rodo Siger shook his head. “Demonic lineage is, like Calamity lineage, unpopular—but after all it is one of the Eight Golden Bloodlines. Even if none have awakened now, we should still give that lineage proper respect. Don’t you agree, Lord Hales?”
“What?” Ram paused. “Hales, me?”
“Of course—unless you think it’s me?” The man disguised as Ram shook his head with an exasperated look. “I’ve written you a script. Let me read it to you. ‘Hales Atar Siger, dissatisfied with me, Ram Rodo Siger, for inheriting the Siger headship, colluded with the Aust Empire and began a rebellion—but was ultimately suppressed by me, and Hales Atar Siger perished in that revolt.’”
“You—” “Oh, I almost forgot.” Ram slapped his forehead, looking embarrassed. “If you die now, you’ll make a spectacle of yourself, won’t you? Then I’ll be merciful and tell you this: I am ‘Isabella, Hand of Blood’ Isabella William Hastings, granddaughter of ‘Duke of Blood’ William Hastings, commander of the ‘Formless Guard.’”
The woman disguised as Ram—Isabella—spoke in a feminine voice as she casually dropped the spear and picked up Ram’s sidearm.
The next second, before the real Ram could speak, she severed his head with a single stroke.
After the head fell, Isabella cut her right hand and then bent down to pick up Ram’s severed head, letting the blood drip onto it.
But as the blood drenched it, the head that had once borne Ram’s features soon shifted into one of Hales—his face twisted into terror.
“I truly hope next time I’m not disguised as a man,” Isabella tugged at her trousers and muttered in annoyance.
She then pushed open the tightly shut door and looked at the combat still raging outside.
“Everyone, stop!”
Raising the head of the ‘Hales’ she had just made, the woman disguised as Ram’s voice rang out—low but full and commanding: “Traitor Hales Atar Siger has been beheaded by me! All who were seduced by Hales—if you put down your weapons now, I will pardon you. You are still the warriors I, Ram Rodo Siger, recognize!”
“Warriors, remember—this is the Siger Family’s darkest hour!”
“Do you really want to waste your lives on meaningless rebellion and internecine strife?”
“Hales said something right.”
“Don’t forget who our true enemies are!”
“They are those who betrayed us and still sit in the capital—the Tyrellan pigs!”
“But he had no right to start this rebellion!”
“He should’ve discussed it with me—I, too, have long been dissatisfied with those pigs! So now, put down your weapons, warriors! I accept your ideals! I accept Hales’s ideals! We should use all our strength against those who abandoned us, not against our own kin and comrades!”
“I swear it!”
“I will lead you to accomplish this vengeance.”
“I, Ram Rodo Siger, head of the Siger Family, will once again point the way!”
Those who had been fighting exchanged silent glances; soon, some lowered their weapons and knelt before Ram.
“With the head-eagle soaring again, guide our forward way.”
Once one bowed, others followed—second, third.
Before long, everyone put down their arms.
Whether they had earlier believed Hales Atar Siger or had stood with Ram Rodo Siger, they all half-kneeled and bowed their heads to Ram Rodo Siger.
A multitude of chaotic voices rose and finally converged into a single unified shout.
“With the head-eagle soaring again, guide our forward way!”
Ram Rodo Siger smiled faintly and answered, “The head-eagle has soared again! I will guide your forward way!”