Chapter 222 Bark (2)
Chapter 222 Bark (2)
Ashton honestly believed after witnessing their leader getting shit on, the rest of them would simply back down. But much to his surprise and annoyance, the soldiers took their weapons out and were about to charge right inside.
"This does not look good," Ashton stared at the civilians around them.
His five hundred soldiers were nowhere near enough to stop a thousand men charging at them. If they clashed, there were bound to be casualties and Ashton didn't want that.
Blood was the last thing he wanted to see on his first day since he took command of the city. But if his enemies were so desperate to die, then it was only right to fulfil their wishes.
"There can only be three reasons for their idiotic charge." Ashton mumbled, "Either they don't know who I am, or this man and his honour are more important than their lives or they know about me and don't give a fuck. Tsk, there's no time for ramblings. I'll have to take a gamble."
Ashton began shouting orders at everyone to prepare for battle. However, the sudden sound of an explosion distracted him.
"Bull's eye!" Baiter happily exclaimed, punching the air while he was at it.
Ashton was a bit confused but then realised what happened. One of the morons might have stepped on a trap laid by Baiter.
Although the walls and the building surrounding the city might take a while to be rebuilt, Baiter had taken the pleasure of spreading some ready to use traps all around the city, that could be triggered by him at will. Just one of the few overpowered skills related to the creationist class.
'Tsk, if only I could get that class too...' Ashton thought but soon shook those thoughts out of his head, "Great job, Baiter! Keep disrupting them from a distance and be careful not to pop any of us up with those explosions."
Ashton applauded the little weirdo before taking arms himself, "Renee, Fae, focus on taking the people out of here. Virgil, you're with me. Sheera, the knights are yours to command."
All of them nodded, acknowledging his commands and got to work.
Following the explosion, the united forces were now in utter chaos. They had not expected their enemies would have established such tiny yet dangerous defences.
Although the explosion wasn't powerful enough to kill them in an instant, it was enough to leave them in ruins and covered in their blood.
If Baiter wanted, he could have increased the explosive output while setting them up. But ultimately decided against it as such a powerful explosion would do more harm than good to them. After all, ruining the city to take out a bunch of enemies wasn't worth it.
Ashton rushed in slicing enemies left and right. Their numbers might have been too much for him and his soldiers to handle. But that rule only applied till the enemies were organised and focused on them. But after Baiter's stunt, It was easy to handle them... momentarily.
"Don't kill them all. I have a plan for them."
Ashton reminded his soldiers. But as time passed, it became increasingly difficult to do so as the soldiers were continuously gathering their willpower and fighting back. It was inevitable to avoid killing them entirely.
"What the hell are they doing?"
However, to everyone's surprise. Some of the soldiers soon began surrendering themselves. None of them had asked them to do so, but they did it of their own volition. Ashton's soldiers weren't aware that it was just another one of their tactics.
By making uninfluential soldiers surrender, the rest of them were already on their way to escape along with Peter. But that wasn't all, with the people surrendering all around them, a part of Ashton's force had to be dedicated to properly detaining them.
This also gave Peter's soldiers time to regroup. By merely sacrificing 300 from their thousand men strong army, they were able to reduce their enemy's fighting efficiency by 50%. It was a strategy Ashton had never even heard of.
"Tsk... that damned Mera better pay us well for doing this shit!" Peter mumbled through his swollen face, "I have to report all of this to lord Morgan."
He wanted to say a lot of things, but the treatment Ashton had given him mere moments ago was still fresh in his mind. He had underestimated the kid... a grave mistake to say the least.
His benefactor, Lord Morgan along with Mistress Mera, thought they would be able to force the brat into submission by utilising his inexperience and keep doing what they had been doing till now.
But to their dismay, the kid might be inexperienced in terms of governance, but he wasn't callow when it came to fighting. The injuries on his face were the proof of that.
"Go faster bastard, if he catches me, you're dead!"
Just as those words escaped Peter's mouth, an arrow whizzed past his head, but his driver wasn't so lucky.
"What is this!?"
Without the driver, a crash was inevitable. A couple of seconds later, Peter managed to drag himself out of the wreckage, only to be greeted by an unnerving sight. All of the soldiers that were trying t escape along with him, were nowhere to be found.
"What..."
"Sacrificing your soldiers was a wise move. If only your soldiers knew a thing or two about acting, you might have managed to escape."
"Eek!" Peter jumped up as soon as he heard Ashton's voice and immediately covered his face, in fear of being slapped again.
"Hm... since your soldiers surrendered, it would be wrong of me to send them back," Ashton mumbled while turning Peter's attention towards his soldiers, "You, on the other hand, didn't surrender. Good for you."
"Eh?" Peter was genuinely confused by Ashton's sudden mood swing. Just a moment ago the kid was so hostile toward him and now he was smiling at his face?
"I'll let you off this time. But only if you do something for me."
"W-What will have to do?" Peter asked politely, trying not to offend the kid.
"Nothing much, just bark."
"W-What?"
"You ask one more stupid question and I'll rip your skin off the bones. Understood?"
Whatever semblance of pride that was left in Peter's heart kicked in. It was clear as day what the kid was doing with him. He wanted to thoroughly humiliate him, just like when he slapped him senseless. But this time he wasn't going to bring any more harm to his lord's name.
"I refuse- ARGH!"
As soon as Peter refused to comply, Ashton lodged an arrow straight into his knee, forcing the man to cry in pain while he fell on his back.
"I said, bark!"