Thick black smoke emitted a choking smell, amidst smoke pillars, flames, and writhing vines, the thrush sang sharply.

Amidst the ruins and broken floor tiles, the vines as thick as wrists had shrunk to the thickness of thumbs.

Half a wheel was left leaning by the roadside, on the roofs on both sides of the vine walls, mercenaries holding crossbows aimed at the running Knights.

But this speed was far from hitting the Extraordinary Knights; up close, they were deflected by longswords, and even if occasionally hit, the arrows would merely get stuck in their armor.

The arrowhead only pierced the skin, and a few drops of blood flowed out from the capillaries.

The Extraordinary Knights who were shot at by crossbows laughed and put nooses around the necks of civilians, dragging them back and forth on the ground.

In the bloodshot eyes of the city Guards and mercenaries, innocent women, children, or elderly were dragged across the floor, rubbed raw, and strangled alive by ropes on their necks.

But there was nothing they could do, as Kush Black Riders burst out of the vine walls several times, each time failing to reclaim civilians and even losing more people.

Even with the wall made of bloodsucking vines, they still were no match for Kush Black Riders.

The Knights had blocked most passages, preventing civilians from escaping in various districts, forcing them to hide in their homes or cellars, praying for the Saint Master's protection.

At the North City Gate entrance, the purple-red vines were still swaying back and forth but had weakened considerably.

The vine wall barrier, with a radius of one hundred and eighty meters, mainly relied on Catherine's berserk mana.

The berserk Witch infused almost limitless mana into the bloodsucking vines through her blood, resulting in blocking one of Ailard's Imperial Company outside.

Perhaps the mana was limitless, but Catherine's blood was finite; even with the Witch's defy-the-heavens physique, she couldn't stop the life from slipping away.

At the current rate of the bloodsucking vine's shrinking, in another half hour or even fifteen minutes, this wall protecting everyone might collapse.

The civilians at the North City Gate occasionally looked up, gazing at Catherine, covered in thumb-thick vines, with complex expressions in their eyes, hard to describe.

They never expected that in the end, it was this Witch who sacrificed herself to save more than half of the city's civilians.

After two hours of evacuation, Rapids City had evacuated around ten thousand civilians, mostly women and children, led by Catherine's trained Meigedi core.

As for those left to leave last, most were middle-aged and elderly, but upon discovering Rapids City citizens' movements, Guards blocked the North City Gate exit.

Currently, on the North Gate's walls, Xiaochi City's militias and mercenaries were still in deadly combat with the Guards outside the city.

The departing ten thousand were roughly a quarter of Rapids City's population, and also the most elite.

Among the remaining thirty thousand, ten thousand had been plundered and slaughtered by Knights, ten thousand hid at home, praying Knights wouldn't come to raid them.

The rest were trapped behind the bloodsucking vines, silently and quietly waiting for death.

The streets were full of silent crowds, holding wooden sticks or stones, quietly standing or sitting.

Applying medicinal liquor to their wounds, Carl often saw turmoil among the crowd, with people hanging themselves or to prevent tormenting of wives and daughters, slicing their cheeks with small knives.

Fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls cried out in their prime youth, tears as big as beans ran down her cheeks, mingled with slightly sliced wounds, pale red tears dripped onto the ground.

Her father also wept, yet still, gritting his teeth, used a knife to cut his blooming daughter's cheeks.

Carl wished to stop it, but the rotting wound on his calf prevented him from even standing.

Is this the end of Rapids City? He murmured silently.

If they had sought aid from the Salvation Army earlier, could they have arrived in time?

If they had gotten here on time, perhaps they could have dealt with the Imperial Company, and maybe the entire city would have been saved.

But now, with Kush Black Riders mostly dead or wounded, half of the forty thousand in the city were to die or be wounded, all because of his momentary arrogance and pride.

So the leadership position of the departing crowd was handed over to Mitney, whether Carl stayed behind to redeem himself is hard to say, at least his sins shouldn't be shared by Catherine and so many civilians.

Carl's blurred vision focused on his arms layered with blood scabs, unable to contain a bitter smile.

Until he faced the Imperial Company directly, he didn't realize how strong these Knights were.

The cavalry's armored defense, unstoppable charge, exquisite martial arts, and tireless endurance, with hardly any weaknesses beside their horses.

These are the top elites of the entire Leia Kingdom, among the millions in Leia Kingdom, no more than eight thousand exist.

More than half of them were concentrated in 42 Imperial Battalions. Carl and those low-tier cavalry who merely acted as Hired Knights on the battlefield, how could they possibly be opponents of the Imperial Knights?

Of course, the Kush Black Riders weren't entirely powerless. With their superb archery skills, they managed to entangle the Imperial Battalions by sheer grit.

Perhaps it was this point that gave Carl the illusion that he could defeat the Imperial Battalions like the Salvation Army.

He thought the Imperial Battalions would struggle with the environment of the Thousand River Valley, and believed he could win, thinking he could prove himself. But in the end, the Kush Black Riders were frequently defeated, turning himself into the one to be defeated instead.

Thanks to the victory of capturing Rapids City, after the Pavia Battle, some complaints and doubts about the Imperial Battalions vanished into thin air.

Facts proved that at most they could entangle; on the real battlefield you could only learn from the Deng Jia'er Array, using a massive number of infantry to exchange for these knights.

Watching the gradually wilting blood-sucking vines, Carl sniffed and gripped the lance in his hand tightly.

He seemed to be able to see past those vines, staring directly at his old adversary, Ailard, the Company Commander of the Imperial Battalion, who was smiling, watching them as if seeing a fawn in a trap.

Sitting at the corner of the street sipping red tea, Ailard was indeed thinking this way. Although he could forcibly charge in at some cost, he felt it was already a guaranteed matter. Why incur any injuries?

The firewood had already been piled up, the kerosene poured, just waiting for the vines to retreat to ignite the torch.

In this city entirely made of wooden structures with crowded, connected buildings, a single fire could cleanly burn out the northern districts and the last of the stubborn elements within.

So far, the amount of looting and slaughter hadn't been too much, and Ailard was quite restrained, knowing the final victory fruits would definitely be left for Arman to pick.

He already had the merit of breaking the city; to fight further for the city's wealth seemed a bit too greedy.

In his reflection, Ailard stretched and stood up, gazing at this trade center.

Only, the once lively city had turned into half a ruin. Markets were bulldozed, stores burned, houses dismantled into pieces scattered everywhere, and the residents had become bodies in the street's filthy gutters.

Rebuilding would be a long wait indeed.

Ailard couldn't help but shake his head; he bore no malice towards Rapids City. It's just that the city blocked their way.

Once the uprising in Rapids City was dealt with, next would be the reckoning with the main culprits.

"Salvation Army, Salvation Army," Ailard unconsciously muttered the name.

The sky gradually filled with dark clouds, and the daylight dimmed along with it. For unknown reasons, he suddenly felt uneasy.

From unknowable moments, the commotion among the peasants outside the city grew louder, to the point where he could hear it clearly inside.

"Boom—"

A sudden blaze erupted on the city walls, black smoke and fire amid soldiers of the Church falling like dumplings from the city walls.

"What's going on?" Ailard put down his red tea and frowned, "Go ask, why is there noise at the city gates?"

The response was not from the attendants' respectful answers, but fierce electric light flashing on the walls, mixed with pounding sounds and screams.

Gathered by the wall of blood-sucking vines, every knight stared blankly at the city walls.

What was that flash of light just now? Is it going to rain? There's both lightning and thunder...

In their confusion, an attendant riding a horse rushed over desperately, almost tumbling off his mount, landing at Ailard's feet: "People... people..."

"People? What people?"

"Guards, coming from the west, all people, and Witches!"

Feeling anxious, Ailard directly grabbed him by the throat and pulled him closer, "Speak clearly!"

The attendant swallowed hard, yelling hoarsely, "People everywhere, I saw clearly, it's guards and knights intercepting the Salvation Army! Are they fleeing?"

"Who's fleeing? Say it again!"

The attendant hissed and breathed heavily, his eyes rolled back from being choked and couldn't repeat it again.

Ailard released his grip, and the attendant sat down heavily, gasping for air, coughing violently.

"Our people are fleeing, I saw Lord Mizam's war horse, and there's a farmer in black riding it!" The attendant cried, "We are defeated."

"Impossible, impossible!" Ailard violently kicked out, the man's head spun several times on his neck, "My Imperial Battalion Empire is invincible! Absolutely impossible! Disturbing morale, you should die!"

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