After spending a total of two weeks from the royal capital to Ura Castle, the armies of the Kingdom and the Empire finally reached the edge of Uro's territories. The commanders on both sides wisely chose to camp far away from Uro City. Although this will put Uro City out of their sight, they understand that although Uro City is small, it would be absolutely foolish to launch an attack right off the bat.
The best plan for them now is to send spies to scout out the situation in the city. The Inrud kingdom, who had a little understanding of the situation in the city, took the lead in sending spies and assassins, hoping to capture Uro without spelling much blood. But what they didn't know was that once they stepped into the city, they would never be able to get out again.
This is all due to the contribution of the Erdtree. Marika discovered that the Erdtree can see into the thoughts of everyone within its sphere of influence. In other words, Marika can use the Erdtree to read minds. With this reality-defying ability, all the spies and assassins were quickly discovered by the Erdtree and just as quickly eliminated or captured by Marika's soldiers. Thanks to this boon, the Kingdom army is still completely in the dark about what's going on in the city.
After the empire reorganized their camp, it also sent spies to spy on the situation within Uro, but it was no surprise that they had nowhere to hide under the gaze of the Erdtree, and were then eliminated or captured by the soldiers in the city.
The only fly in the ointment is that these spies and assassins either given little intel to work with in the first place, or they have prepared suicide methods in advance, and they will commit suicide as soon as they are caught to guard their intel. In the end, all Marika could figure out was the total number of troops on both sides. The kingdom brought an army of fifty thousand, and the empire brought an army of seventy thousand. However, Ladybug's good luck once again brought Marika a pleasant surprise. He extracted an important message from the spies of the two countries, that is, both countries seem to have brought some kind of elite flying unit. Only Marika has the ability to fly, so the pressure to fight them falls on her. However, Marika still decided to reward Ladybug anyway for his efforts. She entrusted Hewg to make a suit of armor and a long sword for Ladybug, so as to provide better protection for future battles.
And at this time, in the distance to the south of Uro City...
A group of Inrudian knights shouldered the mission of long-range reconnaissance, and were riding towards the direction of Uro City on horseback.
"Captain, I heard that there is no news coming from the spies and assassins who entered Uro City. What happened to them?" A young knight asked his team leader.
"That's why the old general ordered us to come here, Beter, and now unless you want to be discovered by their patrols, I suggest you keep your mouth shut," the captain ordered coldly.
Usually, if someone was so rude to Knight Beter, he would draw out his long sword to defend his honor. But the one who ordered him was Barr, a respected old knight in his house, who was also the object of his admiration and respect, so he shut his mouth wisely.
But at this moment, he vaguely heard a sound of "whoosh!", and before his eyes, the old knight Barr was shot off his horse by a huge stone crossbow bolt as thick as a wooden stake, and was nailed to the ground fiercely.
"Captain Barr?" The cruel scene in front of him made him unable to react at all, but it was clear that the launcher of the giant crossbow bolt didn't want to give these knights a chance, and another giant crossbow bolt pierced his teammates. Only then did Beter realize what had happened, and then yelled in horror: "Enemy attack!".
And on the west side outside Uro City, the empire's scouting troops are also being entertained by giant crossbows bolts.
"Damn! What kind of weapon is this! The range is insane!" A knight was terrified, trying to reign in his frightened horse, but he was torn in half by a crossbow arrow shortly after he finished speaking.
"Spread out, this weapon is very accurate! Scatter!" Another imperial knight yelled, trying to control the situation, but he soon became another body under the giant crossbow bolts.
Soon the knight reconnaissance teams of the two countries were all annihilated under the service of giant crossbow arrows. And the launchers of these giant crossbow bolts are none other than Marika's two golem guards. Marika noticed the golem guards stop shooting, and knew that the enemy's scouts had probably been repelled or wiped out. Marika is very satisfied with the performance of the golems. After being tortured by their ultra-long-range blows in the game, watching others being served by the same moves in reality gave her a certain kind of inexplicable sense of refreshment.
"This feeling is so refreshing! It's like wearing new underwear to welcome the new year's morning!"
Standing on the city wall, Malika couldn't help but make a jojo reference, which confused Siduri next to her, thinking:
'My Goddess, are you sure that you're not breaking your character? '
After another two days, whenever the scouts of the two countries tried to get close to Uro City, they would be killed by the golem guards, which made the generals of the two countries frustrated beyond belief. They have never seen this kind of ultra-long-distance strike, but they know it will only make sieging the city even more difficult. But until now, they didn't realize that Uro City was in Marika's hands. They all thought that Uro City was in the hands of each other, because only the other side could make this kind of weapon. So both sides chose to suspend the investigation temporarily in a tacit understanding, but in private they were planning a new plan of attack.
Marika was not idle either, she exchanged all the runes from the knights who died in the past two days into her own troops. Marika's current manpower has more than 500 Godrick soldiers and more than 400 exiled soldiers. Her Godrick knights also increased from twenty-three to forty, and the number of Banished knights increased to ten.
The third night ushered in under the tense battle situation.
Artorius was faithfully patrolling atop the city walls with some soldiers, and the soldiers passing by would give him a military salute. In their eyes, Artorius, whose combat prowess is closely following that of the demigod, has that qualification. There were even private rumors among soldiers that Artorius was secretly another demigod son of Marika.
Artorius stopped patrolling suddenly, spotting Marika standing not far away looking out. Artorius guessed that Marika probably had something important to say to him.
So he asked the soldiers to continue patrolling, while he stopped to talk to Marika.
"Does Your Majesty have any orders?"
"I want to ask you, knight Artorius, what chance do you think we have of winning?" Marika turned to him and said.
Artorius thought for a while, and then said:
"I'm afraid it's not optimistic. Although our soldiers are stronger, the enemy still has a numerical advantage. However, as long as your Majesty orders, I will gladly exchange my life for Your Majesty's safety."
Marika was a little surprised by Artorius' answer and asked:
"I am glad for your loyalty, but what have I done to deserve your loyalty?"
"Your Majesty, it was you who gave me a second chance. I was supposed to turn into a monster under the erosion of the abyss, but you rescued me and gave me a chance to make up for my failure.e I will never forget Your Majesty's life-saving grace." Artorius replied, although Marika couldn't see his face, she could feel the sincerity in his tone.
Marika turned her eyes to the distance, as if she could see the enemy in the distance.
"Sir Artorius, have you heard the story of the Battle of Thermopylae?"
"My apologies, I have never heard of it," Artorius said with his head bowed.
Malika pondered for a while, and then slowly told the story of her original world.
"A long time ago, there was an enormous empire called Persia, led by an emperor named Xerxes. Xerxes intended to conquer the world, and the Persian Empire was invincible under his leadership. Every kingdom on its warpath either surrendered to them or was destroyed by the Persian army. But when Xerxes led his army to a land called Greece, the local small kingdoms stood up against the march of the Persian Empire. And at the forefront of this battle is a small kingdom called Sparta. Its king, Leonidas led 300 of Sparta's elite soldiers and 1,000 volunteers from various small Greek states to resist in a canyon called Thermopylae. Far outnumbered by the Persian armies, the Hellenic allies still held out for 3 days, but on the third day a shameful traitor led the Persians around the rear of the Greek allies along a mountain path. Seeing this Leonidas knew there was no chance of winning this battle, so he disbanded the coalition forces and asked them to warn the rest of Greece to prepare for the incoming army, while he himself shall serve as the rear guard with his 300 elite soldiers. When the Persians came, Xerxes was greatly impressed by the Spartans bravery, so he promised Leonidas that as long as Leonidas surrendered to him, Xerxes would bestow him with unimaginable splendor and wealth. But if Leonidas refused him, Then he would wipe Sparta from the face of the Earth. Do you know what Leonidas said?"
"I do not know."
"Hesimply uttered: 'Molon Labe'. "
"Molon Labe?" Artorius, who had never heard Greek, was puzzled by the meaning of this sentence.
"Molon Labe means: 'take it if you dare'. "
Artorius was greatly surprised by Leonidas' answer, and he couldn't wait to ask:
"What happened to Leonidas in the end?"
"Leonidas and his 300 strong men fought bravely, but in the end they all died in battle. But the Persian army paid a hefty price to occupy Thermopylae. Because of Leonidas' sacrifice, Greece had enough time and preparations to bring the fight to the Persian army. In the end, the Persian Empire was completely expelled from Greece, and the descendants of Xerxes never dared to touch Greece again."
Artorius fell silent, feeling nothing but infinite respect for the brave king in the story. Leonidas, much like the god-king Gwyn whom he respects, sacrificed himself to save his homeland. Such a warrior deserves his greatest respect.
Marika didn't let the silence last long, and she finally spoke up about her purpose for tonight.
"Sir Artorius, I hope you can serve as the general who defends the southern city gate."
Regarding Marika's request, Artorius thought carefully for a while, then knelt down on one knee, and said firmly:
I shall obey your Majesty's order and defend it with my life."
Seeing Artorius accepting this task, Malika smiled relaxedly. The night breeze gently blows across her long golden hair, making her smile even more charming.