Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Fall of the City

At the same time, on the other side of Snow Eagle City, deep in a street that had long been breached, Count Fos was already kneeling in the rubble and blood.

The silk robe on his body had long been burned through by sparks, and the magic crystal rings on his hands had fallen off during his escape.

All around were the corpses of knights who had died fighting to escort him out of Snow Eagle City.

“I, I am a count of the Forrester Clan!” Fos wailed incoherently, his cheek pressed against the cold stone slab, like a dead dog.

He tried to crawl forward on the ground, but a Snow Swearer warrior’s boot stomped hard on his back, pressing him down with a sharp cry of pain.

“Spare me, my lord… I have money, I have mines, I have castles… I can give them all to you, just please, don’t kill me…” he pleaded for mercy.

The warrior stepping on him laughed and said, “If we kill you, won’t all of that be ours anyway?”

Hearing this, Fos panicked immediately: “I’m willing to be a slave for life, work like an ox or a horse… I can even, even be bait to lure other Northern Lords!”

At this moment, Barnes appeared from afar, cloaked in gray and white, his face stained with the enemy’s blood, yet his expression was as leisurely as a beast returning from a hunt.

He looked down at the groveling and wailing figure, slightly raising an eyebrow: “Are you Count Fos?”

Fos lifted his head, with snot and tears streaming, his face deformed with crying: “It’s me! It’s me, my lord! I beg you to spare my life.

I will pledge my loyalty to you, no, no, no, from now on I am your dog! Just don’t let me die! I’ll do whatever you say!”

“Enough.”

Barnes, seeing his shameless demeanor, lost interest in taunting him.

He waved his hand coldly, his gaze as if looking at a crushed insect.

“Break off his limbs, take him back as a sacrificial offering for the blood sacrifice.”

He said lightly, turned around, and left, not even bothering to give another glance.

“Wha- what… no… no!! Ah!!!”

In an instant, his hands were twisted and broken, and Fos screamed, struggling to retreat, like a fish rolling on a display board.

A Mad Wolf Warrior stepped forward, quickly and deftly breaking his legs.

The sound of cracking bones spread in the night wind, accompanied by Fos’s heart-wrenching wails.

“Ahhhhh!! No!! Help!! I don’t want to die!!”

His cries echoed among the ruins, but they stirred no ripples.

After all, this was only a small part of the tragedy happening in the city.

The Snow Swearers took over the entire city like a tide.

Once they entered the city, they were like beasts that had completely broken free of their chains.

The noble mansions had long turned into dens of their prey.

Those who had not fled, the once haughty nobles, were dragged out in public, knelt, and beheaded, their blood splattering on the white walls, while their wives and daughters… their screams pierced through the entire street.

The Snow Swearers showed no mercy.

They seized jewelry, burned portraits, laughed while crushing ivory chairs, and threw crying children into the fire just because their cries were annoying.

Some warriors dragged captives onto the city walls and forced them to shout “Long live the Snow Country”, cutting them down if they couldn’t shout.

Even those who did shout were laughed at and had their tongues cut out: “Fake, not sincere.”

Civilians had nowhere to flee.

Fire raged through every wooden beam on the street, and blood mixed with mud smeared the street corners.

No matter their age or gender, anyone blocking the Snow Swearers’ path was torn apart.

Women knelt to plead for mercy, only to be humiliated, and then the long knives fell.

A boy holding a stick to protect his sister was kicked over, his arm crushed underfoot, and that sister ultimately couldn’t escape a tragic fate.

Some were skinned alive, others used as targets for throwing, some had only a head left, stuck on a lance, hanging at the nobles’ doors.

The Mad Wolf Team was the most bloodthirsty and frenzied, burning captives alive before the bonfire, gathering to howl and dance primitively to the cries of victims.

This was the victor’s feast.

They vented, ravaged, branding Snow Eagle City with the Snow Swearers’ mark with slaughter and flames.

And the conquered city could only endure these pains in silence, even if most did nothing.

The only consolation was Viscount Webster’s final order that destroyed the granaries, leaving them blackened and no grain was left.

And although the treasury was not completely destroyed, the piled-up gold and jewels were of no help to the war situation.

Barnes stood on the city wall, gazing into the distance.

The flag of the Old Snow Country flew high above his head, the white cloth tainted with red, fluttering in the wind.

It quivered violently in the wind, as if the slumbering will of a fallen nation was awakening.

And beneath his feet was the Empire’s dragon crest banner, already fallen in a pool of blood, its pattern indistinct.

Barnes knew clearly that the city was ablaze, cries echoed continuously, and the slaughter in the streets did not cease.

But he did not order a stop.

“The warriors need to vent.” He said to his guards, “If I were a few years younger, I would only be more ruthless.”

“Anyway, later I might find a noble lady to rest with.” He leaned on his blood-stained long knife, laughing wildly, “Hahaha!”

Yet just as he was immersed in this victory, a flurry of urgent footsteps interrupted his ecstasy.

A Wolf Knight brought a blood-soaked soldier rushing up the city wall.

“Lord Barnes!” The soldier collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, his face filled with fear, “Qingyu Ridge… Qingyu Ridge has fallen!”

Barnes froze, the smile on his face solidifying into frost.

“What?” he asked in astonishment, completely incredulous.

The knight beside him quickly added, “He’s not the only one; several warriors who escaped from Qingyu Ridge say the same thing!”

Barnes frowned tightly, looking at the severely wounded soldier, “How did it happen? How many enemies? Where did they come from?!”

“Night raid.” The soldier murmured in a low voice, “We don’t know… very few people, only two hundred? But… but…”

“But what?”

“We didn’t see anything clearly… and it was over…”

Silence spread over the city wall.

Barnes whispered sternly: “Impossible! Qingyu Ridge is easy to defend and hard to attack, even if it’s a night raid, it couldn’t have fallen so quickly!”

For the first time, rare anxiety appeared in his eyes.

The granaries of Snow Eagle City had long been reduced to ashes.

Now he had almost no supplies here.

And the supply line could only rely on the Snow Swearers’ base in Ice Sea County.

But between Ice Sea County and Snow Peak County, mountain ranges crisscrossed, and passes were treacherous.

Qingyu Ridge was the most critical throat connecting the two places.

If Qingyu Ridge was truly lost, it would mean Snow Eagle City had become an isolated city.

“Damn it!”

Barnes looked towards the mountains shrouded in the southern night, speaking coldly through gritted teeth: “Even if it’s a coincidence, we can’t gamble.”

He immediately ordered: “Dispatch eight hundred Wolf Cavalry and cavalry to circle around the eastern mountain path, recapture Qingyu Ridge immediately! We must regain it as quickly as possible!”

To swiftly recapture Qingyu Ridge, he dispatched the majority of his mobile forces.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep