Return of the Mythic Bloodline-Chapter 388: Attacking the House Ironvale

Within an hour of receiving the letter, Astrid gathered his already prepared army and left for Thornwall, leaving only thirty percent of his soldiers behind.

Unlike Thornwall, which was revered for its impenetrable fort and strong defense, Ironvale specialized in weapons and war machines. Located in harsh valleys, it was filled with rare metal mines and was famous for its heavy infantry and devastating siege units.

On the day after Astrid left Ironvale, an elderly man climbed through the valleys and arrived before the fortress of Ironvale.

"Who is this old man?" asked a man who appeared to be in his early thirties with short black hair, standing atop one of the towers of the thick stone fortress. He was Soren Ironvale, the youngest of the three Ironvale brothers and the acting commander of House Ironvale in Astrid’s absence.

"Must be someone from the outer villages looking for shelter here," the knight beside him guessed. "Should I thrash him out?"

"No. We can at least listen to him after he climbed all the way here through these harsh valleys."

Standing a few hundred meters away from the fortress, the elderly man took out a flag bearing the pattern of towering mountains and announced, his voice calm and laced with Soulforce,

"Our Prince does not wish for unnecessary bloodshed. If House Ironvale surrenders, the Hundred Sky Mountains will not touch a single hair of your people."

"He is from the Hundred Sky Mountains?" Soren gasped. "But aren’t they attacking House Thornwall currently?"

To clear his confusion, Soren stepped forward and asked, "How do you suppose you will make us surrender, soldier of the Banes? Where is your army?"

"Oh, an ignorant child still wet behind his ears. You would not have asked this question if your ancestors had given you proper history lessons," the old man, who was none other than Robert, sighed as he unsheathed his sword. "Foolish brat, I’m the army."

An aura of blue lightning began forming around his blade as he murmured,

"Sword of Thunderbane: Chapter Two

Mystic Tiger Severance."

From the swing of Robert’s sword, a colossal tiger made of lightning materialized and surged forward toward the walls of the fortress.

Soren instantly rushed inside the castle and laughed.

"Old man, your attack is useless. The Ironvale Fortress is protected by a defensive array that not even a Late Stage Eternal Sage could br—"

Before he could complete his sentence, the tiger extended its arm forward and struck the wall of the fortress. The wall instantly collapsed, leaving a massive gap in the fort.

"Wh-what!?" Soren exclaimed, his eyes widening and his mouth hanging open.

He was not shocked because Robert’s attack had broken the array. The array had not been activated in the first place.

As soon as the wall collapsed, several figures wearing silken white robes with intricate cloud patterns appeared on the valley behind Robert.

Soren did not have the luxury to think about why the array had not been activated. Pulling himself together, he immediately gave the order,

"Archers to your positions. Soldiers defend the fort. We are under attack."

It did not take long for the trained soldiers of House Ironvale to take their positions. Thousands rushed outside, standing as an unbreakable defense before the broken wall.

Turning to his personal knight, Soren muttered in anger,

"Move immediately and investigate what is wrong with the defensive array."

The sudden attack by Robert and the failure of the array startled Soren for a moment, but now that the army had taken position to defend the fortress, he calmly examined the situation and could not help but laugh.

"What is with their numbers?" he laughed inwardly. "No matter how I look at it, this is simply absurd."

His reaction was obvious considering the numbers of Banes they were facing. In the valleys before the fortress, there were hardly ten thousand Banes. Most of them seemed to be only at the Awakened Sage stage at best.

"Are they thinking of invading House Ironvale with these numbers? This is not bravery. It is pure recklessness," Soren thought inwardly.

Now he understood what was happening. The real army of the Hundred Sky Mountains was still fighting against Thornwall. They had sent a small force here to claim the fortress, assuming that House Ironvale had already sent all of its forces to Thornwall.

Both of Soren’s brothers were absent. The achievement of defeating these reckless Banes would belong solely to him. The corners of his lips curled upward in excitement as he commanded,

"Take these foolish invaders down. We will spike their heads on the walls as a warning for any future invaders!"

The army roared as they rushed forward toward the Banes. The archers atop the fortress rained down thousands of arrows from the sky.

From the Banes’ side, a muscular beastman stepped forward with a smirk of excitement on his face. As the arrows drew closer, he clenched his fist and hurled it forward at terrifying speed, forming rings of air around his arm from the sheer force.

"Galactic Punch!"

A gust of storm burst forward from his arm, obliterating all the arrows into countless fragments mid-air.

"W-who is this beast?" Soren murmured in shock. He had never heard of the Hundred Sky Mountains harboring such a monstrous beast.

Yet he did not seem as intimidating to Soren as the figure beside him who sat atop a horse.

Unlike the other soldiers of the Banes, who were dressed in their traditional robes, this figure resembled a knight.

Clad in heavy obsidian black armor with intricate patterns, his mere presence emanated terrifying bloodlust. His face was hidden behind a great helm with narrow eye slits. From the back of his helm flows a long tail of white hair, adding to his ominous appearance. Even his dark horse was clad in similar armor.

As the soldiers of the empire drew closer, from the Banes’ army nobody except the black knight moved forward.

He raised his hand sideways into the air. The space around his arm shifted as he pulled a grey longsword out of thin air.

With his enhanced vision as a Level Nine True Sage, Soren tried to look at the face of the black knight through the narrow vertical slits of his helm.

As his vision drew closer to the dark eye slits, what he saw was a pair of terrifying golden eyes staring directly at him.

Cold shivers ran down Soren’s spine, and his body instinctively moved several feet backward in fear. He felt as if the man had stared directly into his very soul.

"Th-that man is dangerous."