At this moment, he felt Hu Que nudge him with an elbow.

He looked up and noticed the mercenaries lying in ambush below starting to stir. Although it was just for a moment, it was enough to sense something was amiss.

The long-awaited enemies had arrived—

The first to enter the valley were the Lizardman Dragon Hunter Cavalry, numbering about thirty riders. They tread over the cold rocks under the moonlight, quickly traversing the valley floor. Following them were a large number of Lizardman infantry carrying long spears and crossbows. Since they weren't regular troops, these creatures didn't have any standardized equipment or banners. The squad leaders wore arm rings and commanded the teams nearby to maintain order. They shouted out with high-pitched and meaningless cries to prevent their formation from becoming too chaotic.

Because this location was still far from where the scout reported encountering humans, the Lizardmen did not spread out their formation but maintained a two or three-column march. Their long line snaked through the valley—the mercenaries turned their heads back to look at Brand, waiting for him to issue the attack command. But Brand shook his head, signaling them to let the front half of the Lizardman army pass—they were not to attack just yet.

Soon, the Dark Priest finally made his appearance. Since he was not a physical profession, he didn't stand at the sides or front of the lineup but was surrounded by a group of Black Fire Sect believers. Brand didn't have to think too much to know that all of them were high order Black Fire Cultists. He also saw a few tall one-armed demons walking among these Black Fire Cultists—those were Bachisa, the demons said to be warriors whose souls turned into demons upon falling into hell. Bachisa are one of the rare assault-type demons among the low-level demons.

The front half of the Lizardman army had already been allowed to pass.

Brand suddenly looked around and asked, "Where's Antitina?"

"Miss Antitina seems to have been called away by Miss Roman," Hu Que answered.

The young man replied with an 'Oh.' He was somewhat worried about Roman causing trouble when no one was keeping her in check. But hearing that Antitina was with her, he felt slightly reassured. All that was left was to deal with this battle properly. He stared at the valley; the Lizardmen were completely oblivious to the imminent danger hidden on the mountainside. The young man drew his longsword—the blade was black and did not reflect a single ray of light—he pointed the sword downward.

This was the signal to attack.

The slaughter of that night began with the powerful vibrations of the four-armed crossbows' strings. The mercenaries firmly pressed the handles of these battlefield weapons against their shoulders, aimed at their carefully chosen targets, and bit their lips as they squeezed the triggers. The metallic wires quickly returned to their original state after losing restraint, producing deep "clang, clang" sounds. Dust rose from the crossbows as the elastic potential energy transformed into powerful kinetic energy at that moment.

The battle had begun.

From the Lizardmen's perspective, the moment a series of dull "ping, ping, ping" sounds rang out, a dozen lines instantaneously extended from the forest on one side of the mountainside. They barely had time to react before seeing a dozen comrades on the outer edge fall in unison—all holding crossbows. Although most of these Lizardmen weren't instantly killed with a critical hit, the massive impact of the crossbow arrows left them temporarily incapacitated.

Ambush!

These half-evolved reptiles instinctively and chaotically tried to enter combat mode, but the second wave of attacks arrived on cue. The Lizardman crossbowmen, who had long-range attack abilities, were named one by one. Chaos descended upon the Lizardmen like an inevitable disaster. Then the bushes on the mountainside parted left and right, and a row of elf warriors in silver armor emerged, holding double-headed swords—they moved in single file from behind. Though there were only twenty of them, they were orderly, appearing as if they were still on a battlefield from seven centuries ago, backed by the mighty Silver Elf Empire of Hayalan.

Imposing.

When the low-level Dark Priest of the Black Fire Sect saw this, he was nearly scared witless. He thought the Lizardmen had incited the ancient empire by spying on the Silver Elf King's Tomb, causing this hidden race to reappear in the world. When the Silver Elf warriors appeared, he almost wanted to kill the damned Lizardman leader, He Youji'er. It was a joke; they were facing the famous army of the Silver Elves from the Saint War!

Twenty Gold Level strength warriors, the Dark Priest's hands began to tremble slightly.

He fervently hoped the Lizardman cannon fodder below could give him some time, but instead things seemed to be getting worse. When the first squad of Silver Elves charged into the dense crowd of Lizardmen, the massive force threw these frail creatures high into the air before they fell to the ground. Even if they didn't die, they were severely injured. Then the fully armed Elf Heavy Armor Infantry directly split a path through the enemies, trampling over those Lizardmen who hadn't even had time to get up.

The prospects of the battle were essentially hopeless. Though the Lizardmen outnumbered the Silver Elves ten to one, Gold Rank warriors facing Black Iron Lower Middle trash was nothing short of a one-sided slaughter.

As the Elf Guard began their charge, the mercenaries were loading their third round of arrows into their crossbows. By this time, Brand, Hu Que, and the Silver Elf Commander coincidentally charged out. Among the three, Brand undoubtedly moved the fastest. The young man realized something unusual at the start of the battle. And it wasn't bad news; rather, he discovered his allocatable experience was sharply increasing.

Logically, although the Rubis Mercenaries and Gray Wolf Mercenaries counted as his summons and subordinates, the true killers were the Silver Elf Guard. These elves were allies to him, meaning they were in a team mode. Logically speaking, with so many high-level characters (the Silver Elves were Level 40 at this moment) in the team, his share of experience should be minimal!

... (To be continued. For more chapters, please visit www.qidian.com. Support the author and read the original work!)

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