From the sky overlooking the earth, two massive legions slowly stretched their bodies, like ancient fierce beasts awakening.

Derum, born of Kurdish Tribes, is now a genuine Imperial Knight. He rides a robust horse, leading a group of Kurdish light cavalry, galloping across the wilderness.

His current position is the Third Scout Cavalry Banner Captain, responsible for scouting the enemy's military layout before the battle.

The area between the two massive military formations has become a battleground for scouts. As the formations slowly approach each other, the gap between them gets narrower and narrower, and the battles between the scouts become more frequent.

"Boss, the Saracens' falcon has come."

"Juno, shoot down that beast."

"Yes!"

Derum shouted, and a rider immediately responded. He rode to the front of the team, taking the nearly person-height longbow, made of Tree of Life branches and vines, hanging from the saddle.

He bent the bow and aimed the arrow at the eagle in the sky. With a twang, the falcon spiraling in the sky was shot down.

A series of cheers immediately rang out from the team.

Derum also praised, "Good eagle shooter, no worse than those nomadic cavalrymen in dreams!"

"Boss, knowing the Saracens' style, we've killed their falcon; they will probably soon dispatch those black-skinned cavalry to encircle us."

Talking about those Nubian knights, the Kurdish cavalry couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive. It's not that these elite soldiers, who followed Abdullah to rebel in Syria, are cowardly, but many of those Nubians knew evil arts.

Earlier, a scout cavalry banner was besieged by an Undead Legion summoned by Nubians, almost getting wiped out.

Even Derum himself fell sick after breaking a Nubian cavalryman's wooden idol. He had to drink a bowl of Saint Lazarus Order's herbal medicine, vomiting out masses of red worms, which made him feel goosebumps whenever he recalled it.

"No rush, wait a bit more!"

Derum went to a dirt mound with a good view, gazed into the distance, and quickly took out a piece of paper to sketch the flags flying above the opposite formation while saying, "Do you know what that scorpion flag represents?"

"Saracens don't allow animal worship. That scorpion flag should be the Scorpion Force assembled by Coptics, indicating the enemy's left wing is quite weak defensively."

He muttered, quickly sketching a few strokes.

"Egyptians have never been good at fighting. After Greeks conquered Egypt, the Ptolemaic Dynasty's army was mostly Greeks and foreign mercenaries; later the same. It's a herbivorous tribe. Saracens using Egyptians as flanking forces shows their claimed hundred-thousand army is not as solid as it seems!"

"Boss, you know so much!"

Derum finished drawing roughly, breathed a sigh of relief, "All thanks to the lord's grace, otherwise I wouldn't know a word, let alone understand these."

Saying this, he continued, "We've completed our mission, retreat immediately!"

As soon as he spoke, over a dozen Nubian cavalry, dark-skinned, some with human bone necklaces around their necks, without armor, emerged from a low slope ahead, charging amidst eerie cries.

Derum had no intention of entangling with them, shouting, "Ignore them, retreat immediately!"

While speaking, he grabbed the riding bow, turned around to shoot at the enemy.

He initially wasn't afraid of these Nubians, but after the previous encounter, he genuinely didn't want to engage in close combat with these dark-skinned riders.

Fortunately, this squad had many seasoned Kurdish soldiers, excellent in riding skills and archery. Since the Nubian light cavalry disliked armor, several riders quickly fell from their horses and dared not pursue further.

Just then, dust rolled in from both flanks, and a sharp eagle call echoed from the sky, as two additional Nubian cavalry forces encircled from both sides.

"Not good, boss, we're going to be encircled!"

"Shut up, I'm not stupid!"

Derum cursed inwardly, calculating the enemy's and his own speed, realizing escape was unlikely. He handed the previous sketches to the eagle shooter Juno, "We'll create a chance for you, after entangling the enemy, you escape immediately!"

Juno didn't hesitate, quickly nodding. For scouts, intelligence is unquestionably more important than life.

Derum grabbed his lance, loudly encouraging his comrades, "Guys, time for a hard battle, don't fear those Nubians. Except for a few dirty tricks, their combat power is negligible!"

Saying this, he freed a hand to hold up the cross hanging from his chest, "God is watching us. It's time to show the enemy our Kurdish courage!"

"For God!"

"God Almighty!"

The cavalrymen shouted loudly. Initially conserving their horse strength, they tight-pressed their horses' bellies and charged decisively at the Nubian riders coming from the flanks.

The distance closed rapidly. Derum and his superb-sighted rider-shooters could even see sweat beads on the Nubians' dark skin. The leading Nubian rider was like a black tower, bare-chested, with a necklace of human heads, dried fist-sized, hanging gruesomely.

Derum's mood sank. Each flanking Nubian cavalry group numbered over thirty, far outstriping his team of only ten scout riders.

As scouts, they were lightly equipped for this task, without heavy armor. Even if they broke through one cavalry group, they'd be entangled by the enemy.

"Hopefully, Juno can break through."

Derum murmured lightly, pulling down his face mask.

Bam—

The sides crashed together directly. Amidst blood and flesh flying, Derum impaled the human bone necklace-wearing leader with a lance. But the leader seemed unfeeling, the wound turned blue-black, not shedding a drop of blood, the massive wolf fang club struck Derum's chest armor, knocking him to the ground.

Derum felt intense chest pain but couldn't afford to care about injuries, dodging desperately to avoid trampling hooves.

"Boss, over here!"

A loud call came, and he instinctively grabbed the handed riding spear. He soared into the air and landed on a fellow Kurdish rider's horseback. The two of them rode through enemy ranks, scanning around; Derum found that, during just this charge, their original sixteen riders were reduced to seven, and among the seven, everyone was wounded.

"These Nubians are hard to deal with."

Instinctively, Derum looked at the black-skinned giant resembling an iron tower. The guy's wounds were covered with nauseating flies, yet he remained indifferent, brushing them off. The flies left a perfectly healed wound, not even a scar visible.

At this moment, the other two Nubian cavalry groups came over, joining into a total of over fifty, while his side was only seven men.

"Juno, run! We'll buy you time!"

Derum gritted his teeth and shouted, "Charge! In God's name!"

The Kurdish riders echoed, without hesitation following. Many hadn't converted to Catholicism, indifferent to such appeals, but none stepped back.

At this moment, Derum surprisingly noticed that the Nubian cavalry were retreating.