Armored Cavalry, survive in a world full of mods

The soft couch had a sturdy black teak frame, strong and heavy. It took four people working together to slowly lift it up. Kochkin quickly lay down and tentatively pried at the gaps in the wooden planks with his dagger, while carefully listening to the sounds below and tapping around with his knuckles.

“Empty, empty, empty!”

"It's done! This is it! Let's dismantle this place together."

When he heard the hollow echo, the young man was overjoyed. He quickly directed the others to throw the large object aside, grabbed an axe, and prepared to split the place apart.

"Crack!"

The axe sank into the oak floorboards almost like a hot knife through butter, sending splinters flying everywhere. With a powerful upward hook and pry, a large section of the floorboards burst forth, revealing a dark hole. Kozikin, now even more energized, swung the axe with ferocious force. He hacked and chiseled around the hole, peeling away the fragile planks until the axe struck hard stone, sparks flying. He had carved out a hole large enough for a person to crawl through.

"Let's go, don't let him really get away!"

........................

In the narrow terrain, the greatswords that the mountain people were accustomed to using, though incredibly powerful, were no longer very useful. A slight misstep could result in them striking the hard rock face. In a life-or-death struggle, such a mistake could be fatal. Therefore, none of the dozen or so people who came down brought their own greatswords, but instead each carried an axe, something they were used to—no child who grew up in the forest didn't know how to chop wood.

The underground passage had no forks, which made things easy for them; they could just keep running with their heads down. Soon, a hazy light appeared ahead, and with a sudden burst of panicked noise, everyone knew they had finally caught their opponent's tail...

The battle in the narrow passage was over in an instant. Sharp axes and shields clashed and clashed with short swords, splitting flesh, tearing open chests, slitting throats, and splashing large swaths of hot blood all around. In this damp and dark place, one could imagine that the stench of decay would linger for a long time, continuously attracting insects and rats.

He smashed the last soldier who dared to fight them to the ground with his shield, then cleanly chopped off his neck with an axe. Turning his head to avoid the spurting blood, Colin looked at the well-to-do middle-aged man huddled in the corner with a ferocious and triumphant smile. He waved his hand, and someone stepped forward to tie up their prey with ropes.

Mission accomplished, Colin couldn't help but relax. She shook her blood-stained hair and walked a few more steps towards the end of the passage with some curiosity. Then she saw a small door made of iron bars and wooden planks. Pushing it open, a wave of damp air rushed out, and the burning wreckage was still emitting thick smoke. Broken planks floated slowly past her, and the river that ran through the city came into view.

Colin suddenly realized—no wonder these people hadn't escaped; their ship had been burned!

290 shot down

It's easy to deduce the truth from the current situation—a hidden underground passage connects the riverbank to the nobles' offices. In the event of an invasion, the nobles who control the city can escape through this passage with their guards. They can reach the riverbank directly and quickly leave using a pre-arranged boat. At least in this era, boats are the fastest means of transportation on water; even galloping horses can't catch up with fast boats going downstream, making escape easy.

This seemed like a fairly safe and reliable escape method, since whoever attacked the city would first target those conspicuous and magnificent buildings. Who would have thought that in such a short time he had already slipped into the river and started to seize a boat to escape? Even if the river was blocked, there would still be room for maneuver.

But they certainly didn't expect that the first thing the Imperial warships did upon entering was to pour Burner's oil on all the warships in the city, ensuring the complete destruction of the enemy's resistance. The one-way passage left them with nowhere to go, and they dared not show their faces at the exit, for fear of attracting the attention of the Imperial warships patrolling the river. Otherwise, in their current state, they would be as helpless as ducks floating on fat noodles.

In the ensuing brief but bloody battle, all the guards perished, and the city's master was finally bound and brought before Tersolius, becoming the city's last spoils of war delivered to him.

"Your Excellency, I request to vote!"

"Don't waste your breath here and make a fool of yourself, sir. You should know very well that surrendering now is worthless, even lower than the wet, rotten mud on the ground, because you have nothing left, and everything I wanted has already fallen into my hands. Even if you had opened the city gates and surrendered to me yesterday, you would still be the master of this city now, but now you are just a prisoner."

With a casual wave of his hand, he ordered the guards to drag the nobleman away. As someone in a high position, he would know a lot of valuable information, which could be handed over to Brazil Saiyaros. The warden treated all prisoners and criminals equally and would never give up easily before ensuring that he had squeezed every last drop of value out of his target.

"Well done. I was wondering where you ran off to. I've heard very little from you guys since the battle started. I didn't expect you to be so bold."

"Hehe, actually we were just lucky. No matter who went there, we could have caught this guy. He was trapped in the hidden door of the river and couldn't move forward or backward, like a stupid fish that had fallen into a fishing trap."

Colin smugly wiped his cheek, spreading the still-wet bloodstain evenly all the way to behind his ear:

"I guess his plan was to wait until we finished searching and couldn't find him, then assume he had slipped away and lower our guard, and then find an opportunity to sneak out through the river. Unfortunately, although he hid very well, he still gave himself away."

Tersolius shook his head, reached out and tore a large piece of the hem from the clothes of the corpse beside him, then handed it to Colin:

"Wipe your face clean, your hair is all tangled up. Don't forget to clean it up later, otherwise the blood will start to smell bad before tomorrow, and it will be even more troublesome to clean then."

"Oh."

Colin reached out and took the soft cotton cloth that had just been torn from the corpse. He looked it over from left to right, then ran to the nearby fountain, soaked the cloth in, and began to wipe his face. Soon, the soft fabric was stained a dark reddish-brown. He then rinsed the cloth in the water. A distinct color, like pale red silk, spread with the clear water, only to be quickly diluted, returning to its transparent and clear state in the blink of an eye.

The soldiers were busy clearing the corpses from the city. The attack launched in the darkness easily broke through the Hols' defenses... To be precise, they didn't have any defenses at all, only desperate resistance when they were defeated and torn apart in panic. This kind of resistance for survival is often the fiercest, most intense, and also the most fragile. This courage is only temporary and often disappears quickly with the bloody killings and miserable cries. After paying enough blood and lives, they tremble and beg for mercy.

Thanks to the complete destruction of their morale, the number of casualties in the city was pitifully low compared to previous sieges, especially the horrific rout at Toracassi—where corpses piled up like mountains and blood flowed like rivers, with alleyways and streets covered in a layer of foul-smelling blood. It took the legion soldiers a full half-month to clean up all the bodies. Talina also led her medical unit on several preventative and treatment missions as if facing a formidable enemy, which prevented the potential for a plague from emerging.

"In any case, you have all made great contributions. Go and collect your rewards later. I don't need to teach you how. Also, take care of your injuries. You didn't wear full armor this time, so be careful."

"Haha! Actually, it was nothing. We just crept over in the dark! Those guys are practically blind in the dark if they don't light torches. Back then, when we were hunting deer, we often walked in the dark in the forest before dawn, while those guys were still sleeping soundly in the city."

"do not move."

Tersolius's suddenly cold voice made Colin freeze. He reached out to touch his greatsword, ready to give the guy who might reach behind him a good beating!

But Thesolius simply reached out to her and quickly moved closer to the girl's face, lifting the hair on one side of her head to expose a deep, bone-revealing wound behind her ear.

"I knew it."

The wound looked like it had been cut by a sharp weapon; the skin split open to both sides, revealing the red flesh beneath. The white bone was faintly visible. The hair had also been neatly severed, with some strands embedded in the wound, which was also filled with blood and dust from the intense battle.

He tentatively touched the area around the wound, and a sharp pain suddenly awoke like a sleeping snake, causing Colin's cheek to twitch and his whole body to hiss—! He gasped and tilted his head to the side.

This is no small injury, especially since the wound is on the head. If it had become infected, it could have been fatal. Fortunately, they have the best doctors in the world.

"Go quickly, go now, don't delay any longer, let Talina treat your wound."

Colin clearly realized that this needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. He nodded repeatedly and was about to turn and leave when he suddenly stopped and looked up at a tower in the distance.

The tower was taller than all the surrounding buildings. Beneath the spire of the red-tiled city, a bronze rod stretched out, wrapped in leather. A magnificent bird of prey circled the spire, its long tail feathers fluttering and trembling with the air currents. Its entire body shimmered with iridescent light, and its feathers were smooth and glossy.

"There's a peregrine falcon here too!"

Thesolius also looked up, gazing somewhat absently at the nimble creature atop the tower, and for a moment, he was filled with a sense of wonder:

"The beasts the Hols use to deliver messages are quite useful; they can deliver a message round trip in a day and night... There should be someone here who knows how to raise such creatures; I'll have someone look for them later."

Colin watched with even greater fascination, forgetting the pain in her cheek. As the raptor's wings flapped and rose and fell, her feet moved along with it, as if she had grown wings and was flying with it, giving her a strangely childlike appearance.

Tersolius suddenly paused, looking at Colin with some surprise for a moment... He had been immersed in the war with little rest, which had made him used to focusing his attention on the war, but only at this moment did he suddenly realize that this mountain girl, who had always been very reliable, looked quite young. Apart from the toughness and heroism on her face, she was no different from the girls who often helped their parents with housework in the imperial villages.

Driven by an inexplicable emotion, Tersolius stepped forward. He looked up and watched the creature's flight path:

Do you want it?

"Ugh?!"

Colin turned around, somewhat caught off guard, and then saw Tersolius's earnest and piercing eyes. The words he was about to say inexplicably caught in his throat, and he stammered:

"W-Can... we shoot it down? It'll... it'll fall to its death, won't it...?"

"Just let it land on the city wall. It's not high enough to kill it. Go to the city wall and wait for it to fall. Catch it in time... I have some experience with this. How about it? Want to do it?"

She suddenly lowered her head in a fluster, trying to avoid Thesolius's gaze. She inexplicably felt her face, hidden by her hair, burning, and stammered a muffled reply:

"okay!"

........................

Drawn from his quiver of white ox horns, Tersolius took out a steel-tipped arrow from his quiver, glanced at it for a moment, then held the bow and arrow in his left hand and drew his saber from his waist with his right. With a flash, the tip of a section of fence was sliced ​​off and caught steadily on its way down, delivered to him.

This was a piece of wood that had softened and loosened from being exposed to wind and rain, which perfectly suited his requirements—to stun rather than kill.

Insert the wood into the arrowhead, then draw a dagger from your waist and modify the wood slightly to reduce air resistance, making it fly straighter, while also reducing its weight to minimize its impact on the arrow shaft.

He had thus modified an arrow specifically for stunning birds and small prey, nocking the fletching onto the bowstring. Looking up, he saw a gleaming golden head emerge from the distant city wall, its blood-stained golden hair fluttering in the wind, a hand raised high in a gesture of farewell. Meanwhile, atop the towering tower nearby, the swift falcon, oblivious to its perilous surroundings, continued its leisurely circling.

Thesolius, completely focused, concentrated his attention on the constantly moving raptor. He slowly raised the hornbow in his hand to his forehead, then slowly extended it forward, his rear hand already pulling back the bowstring, causing the powerful composite bow to bend slowly. Astonishing power had begun to gather on the bowstring, ready to be channeled into the long, sturdy arrow at its master's command.

A gentle breeze swept by, lifting a straw from the nearby thatched hut, which swayed in the air before drifting to the ground. At the same moment, the vibrations of the bowstring stirred up dust that billowed into the sky—the arrow writhed in the air like a snake. Swift as lightning, it streaked across the sky, quickly becoming a barely perceptible black dot, before striking precisely a head covered in fine feathers with a soft, crisp sound.

The soft wooden tip did not pierce the flesh and blood, but bounced off as if it had hit a stone wall. The creature that was soaring around also seemed to lose all its strength at that moment, its wings drooping and it fell straight down, as if its soul had been stolen in an instant, leaving only a living corpse that was still bleeding.

A slender, calloused hand caught the large bird precisely in mid-air. The fingers truly touched the magnificent, soft feathers and the warm, firm flesh beneath. Even the gentle contraction and relaxation of the bird's powerful lungs could be clearly felt, conveying an unmistakable message—this was a living creature.

"Sir! Look, I caught it! I caught it! It's still alive! It wasn't shot dead!!"

Colin was practically jumping for joy. She stood on the crenellations of the city wall, facing the towering wall and the huge drop between it and the ground. The large bird feathers she was waving in her hand were also shimmering and sparkling in the sunlight, so beautiful that it was breathtaking.

A smile crept across Tersolius's lips as he raised his bow high and swung it twice towards the city wall... He looked a little childish now.

………………

"Huh? Is the siege over?"

Tarina emerged from the room, rubbing her eyes, looking rather listless. Her delicate eye sockets were veiled with dark circles, clearly indicating she hadn't slept well the previous night. She smelled strongly of herbs, her hair was disheveled, and her clothes were wrinkled.

The doctor had been busy with her new discovery for the past few days, only learning about the upcoming attack on the city while eating. It wasn't until Karila, covered in blood, came to find her that she realized she had been in the house for a long time and was feeling a bit dizzy.

“You’ve been causing trouble inside for days. Didn’t you even notice the huge commotion during the siege last night? We’ve already won, and even the city’s count has been captured.”

Tarina nodded somewhat bewilderedly, then yawned twice, her eyelids almost closing...

291. Pharmacy (1)

"So this is the final result? It looks almost exactly the same as before..."

Karila curiously shook a small glass cup containing a crystal-clear red liquid that emitted a vibrant fluorescence and possessed a captivating allure, making one irresistibly want to pour it into their mouth and taste it.

"I added some other herbs to neutralize and counteract the effects, greatly reducing the stimulant and hallucinogenic effects while enhancing the ability to replenish energy and maintain condition... In other words, this could become a panacea for quickly replenishing energy and restoring condition! It would definitely be of great use in the army!"

Tarina looked at her creation with some excitement, while Karila scratched her head in confusion, baring her sharp teeth.

"Why remove the stimulating effect? ​​I feel it's quite useful; sometimes you need that jolt when you're really pushing yourself."

"It's not completely removed. I kept a small portion to invigorate the mind. After all, the original stimulating effect is too much. It can cause people to lose their minds and is extremely stimulating to the nerves. It can easily leave aftereffects, and it's even possible to die from an overdose. It's just too dangerous."

"Oh, I see! Some guys do drink too much at once and their eyes bleed... Does that mean we can drink it now?"

"That's about it, this is the potion I've adjusted... wait a moment..."

Before Tarina could finish her sentence, Karila gulped down the liquid in the glass, emptying the cup in the blink of an eye. She even smacked her lips, savoring the lingering taste, before finally offering her assessment:

"It's a bit bitter, not as good as wine."

"...This bottle has contained other things before, why are you drinking it!"

"That thing shouldn't be poisonous, right?"

Karila finally became more serious, and Tarina keenly noticed the change in her demeanor—she suddenly became much more energetic, as if the dust on a sword had been washed away to reveal its gleaming blade, and even her breathing became smoother and longer.

"It's definitely not poisonous, but the extract from the Passaro red mushroom... might cause your mouth to hurt for a couple of days..."

"What do you mean... Ugh! Ugh!"

Just as Karila was still somewhat confused, a sharp, piercing pain, as swift as an electric current and as biting as ice, erupted from her teeth. It felt as if a tiny, shell-covered insect had burrowed inside... and the little thing was desperately scraping at her dental nerves with its spiky limbs!

What's even more terrifying is that this isn't just simple pain, but a sharp, aching pain that makes your entire head feel weak and tingly, more unbearable than a cut from a knife or sword, and more cunning and unbearable than a bone broken by a blunt object.

"What is this?! Why does it hurt so much? My teeth are so sensitive! Help me, doctor!"

"It seems I misjudged; it actually affected my teeth..."

Tarina nodded thoughtfully, as if she had seen something worth studying, which made Karila even more anxious, especially since her teeth were so sore that she could hardly open her mouth and could only frantically gesture.

"Okay, okay, just bear with it for a little while, I'll go and prepare a potion for you to drink and you'll feel better. You also need to change your careless habits. I hadn't even finished speaking when you drank it down in one gulp... If this stuff were poisonous, I might not have been able to save you in time. You know I have a lot of dangerous substances here."

Knowing that Karila was not in any danger, Tarina remained calm and continued to work at her usual pace, searching through the various bottles, jars, and boxes for liquids, powders, and even solids. She then prepared the medicine she needed by grinding, filtering, and distilling the materials.

Karila was speechless, but the liquid she had just drunk made her feel no fatigue after a night of fighting; instead, she felt full of energy... Naturally, the pain and numbness in her mouth became even more intense.

Worse still, she could clearly feel her cheeks starting to swell, her face swelling up like lungs, with a lot of blood pooling in her face, making it red and hot, as if it had just been burned.

Unconsciously, her actions became more aggressive. Her heart was burning like fire. She was flustered and didn't know what to do. Seeing that Talina couldn't do anything for a while, she looked left and right and rushed to the bucket of water next to her. She used a spoon to pour the water on her face to relieve the terrible soreness, numbness and burning.

Tarina continued her methodical work, simmering the pale purple liquid on a small stove and adding orange powder in three batches:

"If you're really feeling unwell, the medicine in that green bottle on your left can help, but it's very bitter."

Karila, who had never experienced such torment before, immediately grabbed the bottle and drank it down in one gulp. Although she frowned slightly because of the bitter taste, she immediately felt much better—it was as if she had soaked charcoal in cold water, and the redness and swelling on her cheeks visibly subsided.

"Okay, let it cool down a bit. Drinking it now will burn your lips."

Talina finally finished her work, poured the pale purple potion into a clean small bowl, and placed it on the table, waiting for the winter chill to cool the liquid down.

Karila didn't have to wait long. Soon, the steam rising from the small bowl became less and less, until it was drinkable. After drinking it in two gulps, her pain was greatly relieved. Her brows relaxed, and the swelling on her face began to subside immediately.

"The extract from this red mushroom has some irritant and toxic properties. I was originally planning to continue testing with this batch of the agent, but who would have thought you'd be so quick to speak up. But it seems to be working quite well now? I haven't tried it on humans yet."

Karila was rubbing her cheeks, trying to get her tongue back to work and recover her sense of speech as quickly as possible, wanting to get over her recent embarrassing state.

"The effect is really quite good! I was chopping heads all night last night, but I don't feel tired at all right now. I was feeling really sleepy when I came in to find you just now, and I was about to go and rest for a bit."

"It seems that the expected goal has indeed been achieved... You don't need to go back to your room, just rest here. I'm not sure if there will be any follow-up effects, so let me observe for a while."

"Oh, okay... wait, haven't you also been out of sleep for a long time? Where are you resting? Are you not sleeping again tonight?"

As Karila nodded, she suddenly realized the problem—she hadn't forgotten how exhausted Talina looked when she first met her.

"Ah, it's alright, there's only a little work left. I can rest after I finish the last step, and I can also find out from you how long the potion's effects will last."

Karila wanted to say something more—she instinctively realized that something was wrong with Tarina… even a little unnaturally excited, but just as she was about to speak, she suddenly turned to look at the wooden door, which was at least three fingers thick.

The sound of swift, thunderous hooves came from outside the door, then came to a steady stop not far away. A deep, heavy footstep followed by a lighter footstep.

"Oh, the master is here."

As soon as Karila finished speaking, the wooden door was slowly pushed open, and Tersolius walked in with his head down, his winged helmet clutched to his waist, followed by Colin, whose head was wrapped in a soft cotton cloth.