The sun was setting over the western mountains, and dark clouds were pressing down on the city. Unrestrained winds howled from high places from time to time, and even made an unsettling low roar when passing through some damaged openings in the fortress.

"It's going to rain..." Tom couldn't help but muttered, feeling the cold wind pushing in through the cracks in the wall.

Taking advantage of the fact that the sky outside was not completely dark, Tom weakly raised his head and moved to the wall of a nearby larger crack, and then pressed his face tightly against the crack to watch the scenery outside. Nearby.

There are three marks carved with a dagger on the wall, which are the times Thom marked based on the sunrise and sunset seen from outside the gap.

This is the western garrison fortress of Mariaburg in the Principality of Michael, and today is the third day since the fall of this place, and Tom just carved a new mark on that wall with a sharp dagger.

"It's the fourth day... the principality still hasn't recaptured this fortress..." Tom sat back down again, then he looked up at his other companion Raghu who was lying in the corner in front of him and asked softly: "Hey

, Raghu, are you still alive?”

After asking without getting a response, Tom got out of the corner where he had just covered himself with heat and slowly crawled to the opposite corner. He pulled his companion who was rolling up a piece of ragged felt and found that the other party still didn't have it.

In response, Thom, who felt that the situation was not good, quickly used all his strength to drag his companion out of the corner. He took a look and found that the corner of his mouth was chapped and his face was pale. Then he looked at the wound on his abdomen and found the broken piece used to block the wound.

The cloth bandage has long been dyed red by blood, and the most important thing is that this scarlet bandage will leak out some sticky blood after being touched slightly, and at the same time, the blood also exudes a pungent smell.

The fishy smell. It was obvious that the bandage on Lager's abdominal wound had not fully stopped the bleeding, and from such a strong fishy smell, it could be judged that the wound had even begun to suppurate.

Thom quickly put his hand on Rag's neck to test the other person's question. As expected, the temperature on his body was already a bit hot. Rag's face was pale and the corners of his mouth were chapped. This was because the two of them had been together for a whole day.

There had been no water for two days, and Tom was still in good condition, so he could barely hold on. However, Rag was hit in the abdomen by an enemy weapon a day ago, and there was no good treatment in this place, so he could only

He randomly found a piece of rag to act as a bandage to temporarily stop the bleeding, but the result was a wound infection that put Rag into a high fever and coma.

Thom quickly dragged Rag out of the corner. Although the corner where Rag was kept was airtight and kept warm, the place was dark and dark, so Thom could not see clearly the details of his companion's injuries.

At the same time, Thom kept as little movement as possible while dragging his companions, because on the other side of the wall separated from them, the Solis soldiers who occupied the fortress were feasting on dinner.

Tom and Rag were the new recruits of the garrison who were first thrown into the secret passage by Akanos and the others. However, there were a total of 9 people thrown in by Akanos at that time. Everyone also knew that Centurion Akanos would

They were thrown into the secret passage to protect themselves. At the same time, they also chose to hide and avoid after the fortress fell. They only wanted to wait for Michael's army to counterattack and retake the fortress, and cooperate with the army to kill the invaders. But they waited and waited.

There was no sign of our own troops approaching the city. If everyone hadn't overheard the enemy discussing the failure of the siege and retreating to a certain place in the Bar Plains, everyone might have been unable to hold on. In short, everyone knew that the enemy was retreating and at the same time

More and more hopes were aroused, but after waiting for another day, which was the third day after the fortress fell, there was still no sign of our own attack. As a result, it was on this day that everyone ate all the food they carried.

"No matter how powerful a warrior is, he will still be tortured by hunger and surrender." This is a sentence that the garrison often hears during training. So everyone does not want to starve to death in a secret that no one knows.

In the middle of the tunnel, and also hoping to maintain their physical strength to fight before the friendly forces counterattack, this group of recruits finally planned to leave the secret tunnel to find some food.

Although they are all new recruits, because they have been stationed here for a long time, they are also familiar with the structure and deployment of this fortress. It is said that with their skilled skills and intelligence about the inside of the fortress, just sneaking into the kitchen to steal some food should be fine.

Dangerous. But on the day they went out, it happened that the enemy's troops went to the kitchen to steal food. As a result, the two sides naturally fought. However, the hungry and cold garrison recruits had no choice but to face the enemy's sharp musket fire.

There was no way to fight back, so everyone who went out to find food unfortunately died before the counterattack. But Tom, the weakest, was left in the secret passage because he was too hungry that day to walk. At the same time, he followed him

Rag, who was of similar age, was also left there to take care of Thom, so the two of them were left to guard the last two survivors in the fortress.

However, although Rag did not go out that day, he was shot in the abdomen by the enemy's musket through the wall when he was picking up his companions. In order not to expose his whereabouts, he gritted his teeth and hid behind the wall of the secret passage.

There was no movement. When Thom climbed out from the stronghold of the secret passage at night, he had already passed out from excessive blood loss, but even so, Raghu still held a piece of dusty sweet bread and a piece of sweet bread in his hand because of

The soup can was broken when it fell to the ground and most of it was scattered. It was with this little food that the two barely managed to survive another day. However, due to the tragic death of their companions, the secret passage of the fortress was exposed.

existence, so the two of them hid in a more secretive mezzanine of a tower before the enemy launched a large-scale search of the fortress.

This is an abandoned tower on the edge of the fortress wall. The advantage of hiding here is that the enemy is unlikely to come here to garrison. Every day, people occasionally pass by here when patrolling on the city wall, so for the two of them,

It is said to be safer, but the disadvantage is that the tower is in disrepair and is in tatters due to being bombarded by enemy gunfire in the battles in the past few days. Therefore, there is air leakage everywhere and there are many insects infested at night.

At this point, Thom has no hope for his own counterattack, because he always wonders whether Count Adrian, the second son of the Duke, who is commanding the battle in Fortress Maria, has given up on the fallen fortress.

Because when the enemy withdrew from the Maria Fortress, the enemy soldiers had been discussing the battle situation on the front line. Count Cerro recaptured the fallen Stone Castle barracks that day, and then pursued him westward the next day.

The enemy drove them out of the vicinity of Mariencastle, but did not send a single soldier to the garrison fortress located just west of Mariencastle to collect information.

Tom also confirmed from the enemy's conversations that they had never encountered any scouts or spies from Michael's side during this period, and there was no counterattack. When there was any sign of the army being sent here, Tom was

After constantly eavesdropping on this kind of information in the past two days, it was inevitable that some disappointment would arise. In addition, the last remaining companion, Raghu, was in a state of collapse due to injuries, so the disappointment in Tom's heart turned into despair.

, until this moment when he found Raghu who was seriously injured and unconscious, this feeling of despair finally became a "reality".

The light outside was getting darker and darker, and the strong wind was blowing through the cracks on the side. Even the enemy soldiers who entered the tower to eat because of the wind were a little uneasy by this sudden change in weather.

With the help of the last ray of light coming from the crack, Thom managed to deal with the injury on Raghu's abdomen, but even though he was dealing with it, it was nothing more than removing the dirty bandage and replacing it with another dirty piece.

It's just a bandage. The difference between the two is nothing more than that one piece is soaked with vengeful pus and blood while the other is relatively dry. This is the maximum effort that Tom can do. At this moment, let alone whether his own side will

We have counterattacked to recapture the Western Defense Fortress. Even if Tom comes, he probably won't have the energy to cooperate with the friendly forces in the battle.

The strong wind was still making louder and louder sounds through the damaged wall. Even Tom was a little worried about whether the damaged wall on his side could withstand the impact of the strong wind. If this wall thought it was blown down by the wind,

It's not bad news if the brick wall collapses, because even if the brick wall collapses and won't kill you, at least you and Lager will be discovered by the enemy. And although it's spring, the nights in the Baal Plain are not warm.

Especially this kind of cold wind blowing from the mountains in the north. I am afraid that the two unlucky ghosts, myself and Rag, will freeze to death on the mezzanine of the tower tonight before they are discovered by the enemy tomorrow.

among.

Tom endured the abdominal pain caused by hunger and quickly dragged Lager to a corner where he was sheltered from the wind, because he could no longer stay in his original position. The stench of the dirty pus and blood was simply worse than excrement.

It's also pungent. If he stays in that place, Thom is worried that Rag will be smoked to death. But even if he leaves that corner, it's hard for Rag to survive tonight in this state, so Thom's eyes are complicated.

Glancing at Raghu who was lying in the dark shadow, Tom couldn't see Raghu's face at all in the darkness, but he could still slightly feel his increasingly weakened breathing.

"I'm afraid he's going to be ahead of me..."

Although Thom was not familiar with Lager in the past, after all, the new recruits of the garrison were young men from various military towns, so the two people from different towns were still not familiar with each other even after they had gone through training and were stationed here.

But that is already a thing of the past. After all, after experiencing the initial defensive battle, several recruits of the garrison were lucky enough to survive under the protection of Centurion Wolf Claw, so the original group of recruits all

He regards his companions as brothers. Although now there are only two of them left in this group of brothers, and Thom, who is gradually losing control in this inexplicable emotion, also has some crazy ideas.

"Instead of waiting to die here, it is better to go out and kill one more enemy. If you can kill one, you must hurt one. Even if you cannot kill, at least one must be injured. It does not matter how much help you provide to the friendly forces who later regained the fortress, but at least it must be worthy.

Only the companions who died...the companions of the garrison...and the warriors of the Wolf Claw Centurion..."

Tom thought about it and clenched the sharp dagger in his hand. This was the last weapon in his hand. This dagger made of Caldera steel was extremely sharp, because this was the weapon before the Wolf Claw warriors left.

The weapons left for him, even a shield forged from pure iron, can only be as fragile as a piece of wood in the face of this extraordinary weapon. Therefore, no matter how weak his body is at the moment, he can still carry it as long as he watches the season correctly.

Walk away from an enemy.

Norm did not intend to rush in front of the enemy and confront him head-on, because he knew that he would be beaten into pieces if he could not get ten steps away from the enemy, so a sneak attack was the best way. As for the location, he chose

The tower is ready. Due to the weather, the enemies who were supposed to be patrolling the city wall have all entered the tower to take shelter from the wind and rain. This is the best opportunity for me.

With tears in his eyes, Thom placed Rag, and covered Rag with as much warm clothing as possible on himself and around him. Although his body temperature was a bit hot at the moment, Thom was not willing to let him freeze to death.

On this windy night, Thom didn't know whether he would let his wounds rot first or whether his life would be taken away by the cold wind of the night. Thom's whereabouts seemed a bit futile, but at this moment, he could only do this.

So when trying to leave this mezzanine, Thom looked back at Raghu, who was still leaning against the wall and was unconscious, and whispered softly: "I'm taking a step first. I hope we can meet again in Burhels."

There was no light at all in the sky, and I didn't know whether it was night or whether the dark clouds in the sky were too thick, but the scattered water droplets carried by the strong wind seemed to hit Tom's face.

Tell him the warning of coming heavy rain.

This rain does not seem to last long, after all, sudden violent storms have always been like this. Strong winds and heavy rain will bring a certain amount of chaos inside the fortress, and will also bring unexpected surprises to Thom's suicide attack.

Opportunity, so the time to launch the attack is at the moment of heavy rain, because at that time the enemy patrols will lose a certain amount of combat capability.

Their weapons are afraid of water. This is the key information that Thom overheard on the first day.

Tom didn't know why their weapons couldn't get wet, but at least this was good news, because it meant that he might be able to kill one more enemy, and maybe even two or three.

, four...

In short, Thom, who was a little confused, lay down at the exit somewhere in the tower, quietly and excitedly waiting for the opportunity, because in the room opposite the exit, there were several enemy patrols who were still eating. It seemed that they were planning to

They regarded this place as a temporary place to stay, and at the same time, they also dragged the supplies they had piled on the city wall here to take shelter from the rain. The large amount of supplies and the narrow space. Although I don’t know why they didn’t light a fire to keep warm, this also contributed to the success.

The light in the room will be very dim, and Tom can also use the darkness to quietly use this sharp dagger to harvest the lives of his enemies.

Accompanied by a sudden flash of bright light outside, there was a deafening sound of thunder falling from the sky. However, after a while, there was a noisy and loud sound of rain outside, followed by more and more sounds coming from other rooms in the tower.

The sound of footsteps. These people who just came in must have come to take shelter from the rain. Although more people means greater risks, in turn it can be said that there are more opportunities for revenge. Thinking of this, Tom became slightly excited.

Then the few well-fed soldiers in the room also left the place and went elsewhere, leaving only one person in the room to guard the supplies.

The opportunity finally came. Tom quietly got out of an inconspicuous dog hole in the dark, and then tiptoed behind the soldier who was standing in front of the window looking at the majestic scenery of heavy rain outside. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Because the sound of rain outside directly covered the sound of Tom's footsteps, he was able to successfully touch the enemy's back. But after all, Tom was not a professional assassin, so when he held the dagger high, he planned to stab the opponent's heart.

At that moment, the enemy in front of him suddenly turned around and kicked Tom in the chest before Tom could react. This time, Tom was kicked to the ground several meters away, and that

The sharp dagger also fell to the ground and stuck firmly into the stone brick floor.

"Huh? Baby, such a sharp dagger? It's definitely not ordinary." The enemy soldier walked up to Thom angrily and kicked Thom hard on the head again before he could recover.

After confirming that Thom was unable to resist, he went to the position where the dagger fell and pulled it out with force.

Thom tried his best to keep his consciousness awake, but it all seemed too futile. After all, not to mention the huge difference in physique between the two parties, and Thom's body was weak due to hunger and fatigue.

He couldn't withstand a few such violent attacks, so although he was still alive, the stinging pain on his chest indicated that several of his ribs had just been kicked.

Tormented by the suffocation caused by the severe pain, Tom felt that his vision finally began to blur, and the enemy in front of him actually walked in front of Tom playfully while playing with the dagger. It is true that he was there just now.

With a violent noise, the door next to the room was suddenly opened, and a group of enemy soldiers armed with weapons came in. They gathered together and exchanged words in whispers, then turned their attention back to Thom.

Although Tom's vision was still blurry, his hearing was still normal. From the conversations between the soldiers, Tom knew that these greedy guys were dissatisfied with the previous soldier monopolizing the dagger, but they were also worried about something, so

They couldn't snatch other people's trophies, so they could only think of searching Thom's body to see if there were any other valuables. After all, although Thom was in a panic at the moment, he was still wearing the leather armor of the garrison, and this kind of
To be continued...