Cthulhu Gonfalon Chapter 668

Chapter 668: Chapter 28

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Shortly after the first snow fell, Dahl Hill’s winter “clean-up” army set out from the city.

The main force of this army was dominated by a private army under Baron Dahl’s command. It consisted of a total of 100 professional soldiers. These 100 people should not be belittled. Not only did they receive full-ti training all year round, but every single one of them was also fully ard to the teeth. Baron Dahl was very generous when it ca to the expenditure on armants. All his soldiers had changed into a simplified full-body armor that was introduced by the Republic of Northwest in recent years. On the basis of a one-piece breastplate, the additional features consisted of armor around the waist, arms, and legs, as well as a helt and mask, which were all made out of stamped steel sheets. This was truly a heavy-duty, full-body armor. Not only that, it was also much lighter than the traditional full-body armor. Putting it on might not allow its wearer to travel long distances, but the soldiers could at least raise their guns while charging at their enemies. This was sothing way beyond what the heavy-duty, full-body armor of the past could ever allow.

As for these people’s weapons, naturally, they would all be equipped with a uniform set of sophisticated weapons. Long rifles, big blades, shields and battle axes—they certainly didn’t lack anything.

Other than these professional soldiers, there was also an equal number of archers. They were classified as part-ti soldiers. They would usually receive a salary, but they had to prepare their own equipnt. During the battle, they were mainly responsible for rear support. With a single arrow, these skilled archers could usually shoot and finish off the weaker demons, like the gnos. When 100 soldiers were gathered to form an army, their combat power could also be extrely forceful.

This army of 200 n was most probably where Baron Dahl found base for power. As for the remaining 300-odd n, they were just there as do-all factotums. Among them, about a hundred were militia—and a majority of these 100 n were ruffians and rogues gathered from several villages. Baron Dahl did not expect these n to be able to fight tough battles, but they could provide backup by the side, and help to destroy enemies like the gnos by making good use of the advantageous situation their army was in. They were still capable of handling such tasks.

The final 200 n were purely servant soldiers. Among them, there were specialized servant soldiers, people who grew up learning how to serve soldiers, how to march, how to set up camp, how to build the battlefield, etc. But the bulk of the group was made up of the poor people who ca from slums around the city. This group of people consisted of both male and female, from young to old, all of whom who were basically untrained. They were only responsible for work like helping with the transportation of supplies and gear of the army, as well as serving the soldiers.

Yes, they were only required to do this. As for the other jobs, such as being cannon-fodder, militian, troopers, and so on, their services would not be required.

The key to how these poor people enlisted as servant soldiers were able to receive such treatnt was naturally because of the clergyn from the Church of the Void Mask.

To protect this group of poor people, including the local bishop and Bishop Kabbalah, all 10 clergyn had been mobilized. They even roped in two other church mbers to help. Twelve of them ca together and ford a powerful squad.

In this squad, three were of middle rank, and nine were only at the junior level, but their combat power was definitely not inferior. Even if they were pitched against Baron Dahl’s bodyguards, they still had a 50-50 chance of winning.

And the personnel allocation on this squad was fairly reasonable, with two paladins, one bishop, three priests, and six Sacred Warriors, and if close-combat or spells we needed, there was enough manpower to handle that too. Bishop Kabbalah even moved the sacred altar over and placed it within a big cart specifically made for it. When the need arose, he could definitely display a power that would scare any enemy away by relying on this altar.

Yes, any enemy, whether it was a wild beast, demon or any human with ill intentions.

This was the thing that made Baron Dahl particularly distressed. Originally, he had wanted to integrate those clergyn into the vanguard, then leave them to die as they grappled with the formidable demons. In the end, those clergyn pointed out that, “Our altar is right here. If you want to give us any orders, you can negotiate with Our Majesty on your own.” So he could only concede defeat and retreat in sha.

His Majesty, the Void Mask, was a good god, and Baron Dahl did not feel that he was seen as soone appealable to His Majesty. He felt it was better not to make himself unwelcod.

Since he did not have the guts to discuss it with His Majesty, then of course, he would not directly issue an order. However, Baron Dahl was, after all, a smart businessman. He was quick to figure things out—being unable to sche against those clergyn was in fact, no big deal. Anyway, when they crossed paths with the powerful yet evil demons, would these clergyn have any other choice but to fight head-on?

If they were to flinch, then they did not deserve to be clergyn!

Seeing how these people could possibly be of help to him when a tough battle was to happen, Baron Dahl did not calculate much with Church of the Void Mask. He even left the poor servant soldiers be and did not make them have to risk their lives.

For the sake of a huge profit, he should not be so calculative over such small matters. People who did business would always know how to act according to the size of trade-offs.

Of course, Baron Dahl would not pin hopes on the clergyn from the Church of the Void Mask at these crucial monts. His personal army of bodyguards were the troops that truly allowed him to rest easy.

His army of bodyguards consisted of knights, bandits and mages. In this army, there were four at the mid-ranked level. Especially that mage whose expertise was in protective spells and that bandit that was skilled in stalking and tracing—both of whom Baron Dahl had spent a great deal on just to enlist their help. They had been living in Dahl Hill for five to six years, and it had always been an amicable cooperation among them, so on the overall, they could be said to be dependable.

And the other two mid-ranked n were from the Dahl family itself. They were two dependable knights.

These two knights gave their allegiance to the Dahl family for four generations, so they were the most reliable ones. One of them was also a distant relative of the baron—that knight’s mother was also a Dahl and had the sa great-grandfather as the baron.

Because he had such dependable n under him, Baron Dahl dared to co out during a ti where the land was frozen and covered in snow to wipe out the wild beasts and demons. This was to lay a safe foundation for the following year.

In his hand was a map which was what that bandit on his army had summarized for that year. Basically, he had sorted out and made conclusions on the groups of beasts and demons in Dahl Hill. On this map, the most dangerous tribe would be the Tribe of Ogre that had migrated over here not too long ago. Closest to them was a group of gnos.

Or rather, a tribe of gnos.

“Our first enemy will most probably be a tribe of gnos,” said Bishop Kabbalah. When they were all back in camp that night, Bishop Kabbalah gathered all the church mbers. He also happened to have a map on the distribution of wild beasts and demons in Dahl Hill, and it was far more precise than the one Baron Dahl had. He spread out the map and introduced the situation to everyone.

“There are probably more than 200 of these guys, which is quite a big number. Among them, there is a tribal chief, a shaman, six warriors and 15 archers. In short, they are a force to be reckoned with.”

A single gno by itself would not be able to fight against the relatively stronger farrs, so even if there were 200 of them, they were nothing more than a group of live targets. With three to five courageous soldiers charging forward to finish off two or three gnos, the rest would be easily dispersed. However, if there were gno warriors among them, these gnos would be braver; this, their side would be able to bear a certain number of casualties. If they had a tribal chief, they could even co up with so decent formations, which when coupled with so clumsy but effective plan, could make them much more nacing.

Not only that, but with a tribal chief, there would be a division of labor within the tribe of gnos. This would give rise to advanced-type monsters like hunter gnos and archer gnos. The archer gnos were enemies that adventurers abhorred. These guys who used short bows were extrely skilled in archery. One careless move might cost you your life.

The most frightening ones were none other than the Gno Shamans. They might not be very powerful in combat, but they could greatly enhance the gno’s combat ability.

“So for our battle tomorrow, our first two targets will be the tribal chief and the Gno Shamans!”

Almost at the sa ti, both Bishop Kabbalah and Baron Dahl made the sa decision.