Chapter 231: War always starts by accident.
"Damn Svablos!" Kratz slammed the table so hard that the ink bottle on the table flew up, spreading black ink everywhere.
The Kraite family has absolute prestige over the territory they control. When Kratz issued an order to check for missing persons, a steady stream of soldiers ran towards the villages in the territory, contacting the usual tax officials and promulgators to make statistics on each individual. The number of people in the village.
Due to the rush of time and the restrictions of the household registration system of this era, only a small number of villages participated in the statistics at this time. More remote villages, or the concealed populations in the villages, have not been included in the statistics.
Just here, nearly a hundred people have been counted.
You must know that the 100 people captured by the Svablo Sect were not just old, weak, women and children. They were all young people with strong bodies and enough to support a family. Considering Skellig’s rich martial arts environment, these young people were all taken A person who can go into battle even with weapons and armor.
In other words, Kratz lost hundreds of reserve soldiers.
The entire Skellige only had a navy of about 7,000. Even though Kratz was the top family in the archipelago, this loss made him feel heartbroken.
Things didn't stop there, the tax collector also brought even worse news -
the Great Skellige Island is jointly ruled by two families, the southern part is controlled by the Kratz family, and the northern part is controlled by Madman Lugo's German family. Under the rule of the Ramon family. And Kratz's governance is definitely more rigorous than that of Madman Lugo.
The tax collectors located at the junction of the two families' rule were all familiar with each other, and they brought a piece of news to Kratz: There were only a lot more missing young people in Madman Lugo's territory.
Even under normal circumstances, this was not news that would make Kratz laugh - the regret caused by the loss of the young man far outweighed the pleasure of being hurt by his powerful enemy.
In the current situation, this is a problem that makes the situation even more serious.
"The Svablo cult gained more young people, or more 'warriors.'" Lane thought.
"But there are not so many giant bears on this island for them to train berserkers to control. And normal people are definitely not ones they can freely use mind control - if they could do this, they would have ruled Skelly long ago Passed."
Lann took a deep breath: "Then there is only one possibility, a possibility even worse than creating a berserker -"
Kratz took over Lann's words: "Living sacrifice!"
A light It's a word that makes people's hair stand on end when they hear it.
Svablo cultists despise the weak and like to sacrifice living people to their gods; they will kill people who are unable to fight or are not good at fighting as livestock to please Svablo. This bad habit worsened and eventually evolved into the massacre of villages, which led the Skellige to annihilate the Svablo sect.
Unexpectedly, they would have to face this bad habit again now.
"Since it is a 'sacrifice', you can definitely gain strength from it." Lann took a deep breath, "In the past, we used the so-called 'weak', but now we use young people who are of the right age to become soldiers, so they will definitely be more able to please Their evil god can also gain more power because of this."
"Uncle East is right, we may not care about the fight for the throne now." Kratz stood up and put on his bearskin cloak, " This may be a disaster that sweeps the entire Skellige."
"Fortunately, we discovered the enemy's conspiracy in advance. I will gather the soldiers now. Once there is any news..."
Kratz did not finish his words, and his words were suddenly interrupted. interrupt.
...
"Dong dong dong -"
A huge sound of banging on the door came from outside the study. The force even made people worry about whether it would cause any damage to the door.
Then there was a commotion:
"Wait a moment, you can't go in, please calm down, this is Lord Kratz -"
It seemed that the guard at the door was blocking someone, but the visitor was obviously in an emergency and couldn't wait to let him go. The guard followed the procedure and delivered the order.
With a "boom", the door was kicked open, and Geralt burst in. Behind him was the butler who tried his best to stop him.
"Something happened." Before the butler could confess to Kratz, or before Lann and the others asked about their purpose, Geralt rushed to speak, and the first words made everyone present look grim.
In the previous arrangement, Lann and Kratz accompanied Kratz back to count the number of people and assemble the soldiers. The large army was still stationed at the foot of the mountain in case of accidents, and Geralt and Ged, the two most experienced demon hunters, Then he accompanied Bill up the mountain to find the hiding place of the Wilka people.
Unexpectedly, Geralt came back early now.
"What happened? Did we find the Velkars? Or did we alert the enemy to our presence, and now they ran away?"
Geralt denied Lan's two guesses: "It's worse than this."
" The other candidates for the throne noticed our actions and blamed us as competitors for concealing information from them. They loudly laughed at our behavior of gathering at the foot of the mountain waiting for support, thinking that the dangers we mentioned to them were all alarmist lies. ."
"Because of us, they have determined that the Wilka people are on the mountain, and now they have assembled a large number of troops on the mountain in order to seize the throne." Geralt took a deep breath, "There is no time to prepare for us, we need to go directly Launching a general attack."
"Damn guy!" Kratz slammed the desk, and all the documents, papers, and pens on it crashed to the ground.
"Assemble the troops and set off immediately to support those idiots whose brains were chopped off by axes!" Kratz shouted outside the house, then turned to look at Geralt.
"Geralt, remind me, which families are those idiots you are talking about?"
"Our old friend Mad Lugo, and a guy named Hogg, that guy has a strange skin color."
Kratz said angrily Scolding: "The robber of Faroe Island, Hog Blackhand of the Diemen family, like Lugo, he is a fool who only knows how to plunder!" ...
Hog
Blackhand is the patriarch of the Diemen family and a member of the Faroe Islands. lord.
When he was young, he accidentally encountered an autumn blizzard, and his longship accidentally hit a reef. He suffered frostbite, leaving a particularly dark complexion on his hands and arms, earning him the nickname "Black Hand".
Even in Skellige, where plundering is almost a rite of passage, Hog Blackhand is a very cruel existence. When he plunders, he almost kills. His power is spread across Novigrad and the coast of Nilfgaard. Even when he attacked rival houses of Skellige, he spared no effort.
Therefore, the Dimen family has a particularly bad reputation in Skellige.
The Faroe Island he rules is located at the southernmost tip of Skellig. It is also the most primitive and uninhabited island. The people on it can almost only survive by plundering - this may also be an objective reason for the character of Hogg Blackhand. .
For this reason, Hog Blackhand is almost eager to search for any opportunity that can make Faroe Island prosperous.
Becoming a king is the greatest opportunity in his eyes. He and Madman Lugo are also the only two people who want to compete with East for the throne of king. The patriarchs of other families either choose to support like Dona, or abstain from voting.
At this moment, Hog Blackhand was standing with Madman Lugo, and they faced East with an ugly face.
...
East originally planned to return to Little Skellig Island to find King Bran and mobilize more family soldiers to come for support. However, when he heard that Madman Lugo and Hog Blackhand had forced their way into the mountain, he immediately I rushed back for a while.
It turned out that I didn't expect it to be too late.
When he was leading people to go up the mountain, he received the news that Crazy Lugo and his friends had already gone up the mountain. When he and his people were halfway up the mountain, he happened to meet Crazy Lugo and his team returning.
According to what Madman Lugo said, they have found the gathering place of the Wilka people.
Because soldiers from the Clete family and the Tursek family had been searching in the mountains before, it was equivalent to helping Crazy Lugo eliminate a large number of wrong answers and reduce their search scope in disguise; then they discovered Jack Lott and Gerd took Bill's route forward, and after they had a general direction, they dispersed hundreds of soldiers, searching for hiding places in the mountains regardless of movement, and finally quickly discovered the hiding place of the Wilka people.
At this moment, Bill was following Gede, and they stood in the queue of the Tursek family, with remorse on their faces.
Madman Lugo talked eloquently: "Those followers of the evil god are just some unworthy guys. All the warriors who really dared to fight were killed by our ancestors. The remaining soft worms are the same as those we usually plunder." People are no different!"
"Did you meet them? Killed them all?" East's face was expressionless.
"No, it's better." Crazy Lugo said, "They heard our movements and ran away immediately. We even rescued many kidnapped young men and saved them from becoming living sacrifices to the evil god!"
Madman Lugo opened his arms and showed East the dozen or so extra young men in his team. They were all depressed, with gray skin, dark circles under their eyes, and were in a trance - but they were all still alive.
"They are all citizens of my great Skellige Island." Madman Lugo smiled proudly.
"Rescuing the people of Skellig is indeed an achievement." East nodded towards the rescued young people, but they were all in a daze and did not notice East's actions and did not give any advice. respond.
"But Lugo, Hogg, do you still remember our mission? We want to wipe out the Svablo sect, complete the mission that our ancestors missed, and eliminate a scourge for Skellige - but your rashness Action burned it all."
"Okay, East! Look at the current situation, do you still think the Svablos are a scourge? They are just a bunch of clowns who ran away after hearing the news! I think maybe Lannis The berserkers killed in your family's castle are already their entire strength."
Lugo sneered: "From this perspective, you did destroy the Svablo sect, but unfortunately that achievement cannot be counted. Count."
Hog Blackhand, who had been watching coldly, also spoke: "Easter, I respect you, but the current situation is that you have no chance of winning. Although none of us have accomplished the task of destroying the Svablo sect. , but Lugo and I have at least destroyed their new gathering place and rescued the hostages who were captured as living sacrifices. Even if we do nothing else, we are already ahead of you." Because of the perennial plundering at
sea In life, one of Hogg Blackhand's eyes turned blind and pure white. If he was talking to someone else, he might really be oppressed.
But East's expression did not change at all. He had more aura than Lugo and Hogg combined: "You don't understand. According to the intelligence we obtained, the Svablo Sect has more berserkers. . This is no longer a matter of fighting for the throne. Now that you are here, I invite you to stay and continue to search for the gathering place of the Wilka people in the mountains. They must have other hiding places." "We will,
Yi St." Hog Blackhand said coldly, "But not now, and not with you."
Madman Lugo laughed: "If the Wilka people still have berserkers, given their character, they will not go out. Berserker, where did the Berserker come from?"
As he spoke, he pointed at the dozen young people he rescued from the Vilka hiding place: "Could it be them? Could they be Berserker? ?"
The young people were all in a daze, and did not react at all to the words of madman Lugo.
East took a deep breath, feeling that communicating with Madman Lugo was particularly strenuous.
...
Behind East, Ged looked at the listless Bill, thought for a moment, and put his generous palm on his shoulder: "Don't blame yourself, and don't worry, what you have shown so far Your quality is worthy of the title of warrior. What is happening now is not your fault." "The matter between
you and your lover will definitely have a good result. Lann is a very good person. If it weren't for me, I would already have a follower. Lord, I guess I can't help it..."
Bill pressed his head hard, as if enduring extreme pain. He interrupted Gede's comfort and said intermittently: "My head hurts... Mr. Gede , something is wrong."
Big beads of sweat dripped from Bill's forehead, but his words became more and more fluent: "My memory has become clearer... The place found by these two lords is not right, it seems It's not the place where I was caught before, it's not the real gathering place of the Wilka people... Moreover, something happened, something, I forgot something..." "No, no, it shouldn't be like this
... "
Bill's expression became horrified, as if he had committed some heinous crime; his ashen face became like a corpse, and even his eyes lost their luster.
Gede frowned and subconsciously held his right hand to the hilt of the sword.
While preparing for the battle, Gede shook Bill tentatively, as if he wanted to give some concern to his companion who was not in the right state.
But then his movements suddenly stopped.
The bear-sect witcher's ears moved, and his keen witcher senses allowed him to pick up a little different movement around him.
The lords of the three major families in front of them were quarreling and negotiating, and the soldiers behind them focused their attention on the opposite side.
But beneath the fierce quarrel, Gede heard a low, covered voice that was like chanting. This voice spoke a language that Gede couldn't understand, with a vicissitude, determination, and a hint of fanaticism. the taste of.
Like praying.
Sounds like prayers came from all directions.
The sound was naturally made by people, which meant one thing - well-placed enemies surrounded them.
Gede's amber vertical pupils suddenly doubled in size, as if someone was holding his heart. His senses told him that danger not only came from the so-called "all directions", but also from around him.
...
"Roar——!!"
Crazy Lugo and Hog Blackhand suddenly heard the deafening roar of the giant bear.
The sound came from behind them.
And East, with a look of horror in their eyes, rushed towards them.
——Half
an hour ago.
On the mountainside, soldiers from the Tursek, Drumon, and Dimen families were still arguing.
In the jungles of the mountains, there are large groups of hunters.
Their eyes were hidden in the darkness, not emitting any light; their march relied on the shrubs in the forest, but did not make any sound.
The direction they were heading towards was the soldiers of the three families halfway up the mountain.
Different from these fully armed soldiers, these hunters' equipment is very simple, and they don't even wear basic leather armor now; their upper bodies are naked, exposing their muscled chests and arms, which are densely covered with dense enough to dismember normal people. Numb scars.
They wore simple war skirts around their lower bodies and thick cloaks on their backs, most of which were made of whole furs such as wolves, wild boars, and bears.
Seeing these cloaks, it seems that we can understand where the scars on their bodies come from.
They are the Vilkars, followers of Svablo.
With just hatchets and bucklers, their numbers were less than one-tenth of the family coalition in front of them, but they had full confidence in surrounding these Skellige troops.
They are not afraid of death - they even say that they come to seek death.
A muscular figure with a bald head and a large beard stepped out from behind them. Unlike the Velka warriors who were hunkering down and sneaking around, he straightened his back and walked through the jungle as if taking a leisurely stroll.
The trees around him seemed to be conscious, and took the initiative to get out of the way for him, and even helped him hide his whereabouts without making any noise.
All this illustrates the fact that he is a Druid.
After seeing the Druid come out, all the Wilkas bowed to him and whispered: High Priest Attis.
Artis was still quite far away from Skellige, but his eyes were like hawks, passing through the heavy forest cover and taking in everything on the mountainside.
"Obviously they have so many powerful warriors, but they chose to be content with the status quo, huddled in this small archipelago, and gave up the vast continent to the weak..."
Attis looked at the team in front of him coldly: " They are also playing the king's game like playing house... Ha, there are women in their team! They are also wearing armor and holding shields. What do they think of the glory of warriors?" I saw Hog Blackhand behind him
. Standing there was a female guard holding a shield. She had a heroic appearance, a strong figure, and her hands were covered with calluses. She deserved the praise of "Iron Lady".
But in the eyes of the fallen druid, all this is deviant.
"Sure enough, they need the guidance of my god Svablo, and they need to shine the glory of my god." The
bowed warriors whispered at the right time: "My god Svablo."
Artis looked at Looking at the believers around him who were always ready to fight, he nodded with satisfaction.
"The plan on Little Skellig Island went very smoothly. The dead warriors are also part of the blood sacrifice. The sacrifice of believers can please my god more." "
Then now, sacrifice these pagans in front of me to my god. We will do this for decades. I have been dormant just for today."
"Go, warriors, fight, fight, sacrifice, and please my god Svablo!"
The eyes of the bowed warriors gradually burned, as if there were A war drum began to rumble in their chests.
"For my god - Svablo!"
The figure of the fallen druid slowly retreated, leaves and shrubs covering his footprints, covering his whereabouts - he had other tasks.
And along the path he left, the roars of wild beasts began to be heard from the depths of the jungle. It was not only the roar of wolves and bears, but also the roar of some large monsters, and even a duller roar.
Never try to test how powerful a druid master who is proficient in the way of nature can be in the forest, especially if this druid has given up his faith and has been operating in this forest for decades. .
In response to the roars of these beasts, all the Wilka warriors lowered themselves to the ground, no longer worrying about hiding their traces, and began to chant prayers loudly.
"My god Svablo, I am your son, I am your flock, I am your blade;
please accept my blood, please accept my flesh, please accept my sacrifice;
may my pain be transformed into the blessing of God, may my pain be The joy of transforming into a god.
Ask God to give me a blade, ask God to give me strength, and ask God to give me energy.
In the name of God, destroy God’s enemies; in the name of God, attack the enemy’s place.
May you be with me— —My god, Svablo!"
(End of this chapter)