Viscount Bartlet's domain was located forty-five kilometers southeast of the town of Twilight, and consisted of seven villages, a stone mine, a mill, and a fortress where the Viscount himself lived.

Before sending out the troops, Todd and Cumberland repeatedly discussed the details of the battle.

The old knight's advice to him was that the number of troops was not too large, and the cavalry was the main force of battle. If the viscount moves his forces out into the field, he will rely on the strength of the Knights of Dusk to defeat the opponent's forces and take advantage of the situation to capture the fortress, and if the opponent chooses to hold on, then abandon the attack on the fortress and plunder the population and wealth of the territory.

In terms of troop allocation, Huggins' "Successor" combat team was listed as the first choice, and then Cumberland selected 20 sergeants, 10 light cavalry as support, and finally selected 60 militia from Twilight Town as auxiliaries.

Todd initially expressed his concern to Cumberland about the attack on the fortress by an army of only 100 men, but the old knight did not care at all, and said bluntly: "Your worries, Sir. As far as I can see, there is no army in the Kingdom of the Silver Ring that can confront your xenomorph cavalry head-on. ”

As for the commander of the battle, Cumberland naturally had no time to take care of it because he was too busy collecting prisoners and managing the law and order of Twilight. The rest of the Order did not have enough prestige to manage this army. In the end, Todd had to go out and take on the post of commander himself. To his surprise, Rachel took the initiative to ask Ying to accompany the troops.

On April 3, 1171 A.D., an army of xenomorphs, sergeants, and militia left the camp to begin the first foreign war in the town's history, marking the beginning of the Knights' expansion.

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"These serfs, don't seem to be afraid of us?" Walking along the dirt road of the village, Todd looked at the men, women, and children standing in front of the large and small farmhouses, whose faces were curious and excited, but there was no fear or uneasiness.

Huggins rode closer, and whispered, "Twilight is a land of wonders, and the story has spread throughout the kingdom for a long time. What's more, there are several serfs in our town who come from here, and now their life comparable to that of the nobility has long been informed to the people here through the mouths of merchants. If it weren't for the lord's forcible obstruction, these people would have wanted to give up their lives here and go to Dusk Town. ”

Todd nodded when he heard this, looked at the flag behind him, the red cross in the "umbrella" pattern fluttering in the wind, he turned around and asked, "How far is it from Viscount Bartlet's fortress?"

Edgar nibbled on the wheat cake in his hand and said indistinctly, "Walk through the village and walk for another twenty minutes." ”

As he waited for the troops to actually march to the fortress, Todd looked at the buildings in front of him and was immediately disappointed.

The so-called fortress is a circle of walls piled up with polished stones, 25 meters long and 20 meters wide, and the three-meter-high city wall is built with six minarets and battlements, and a one-meter-wide passage is reserved at the top, and there is also a wall built next to the passage to block the arrows of the besieging army. Inside the walls, there were lords' quarters, barracks, warehouses, wells, and some civil facilities.

When Todd first heard the word fortress, the first thing that came to Todd's mind was moats, urns, castles, watchtowers, and miles of towering walls. But the pile of stones in front of me is really shabby. The huge gap between reality and imagination made him a little confused.

The troops of the Knights of the Twilight West stopped a hundred and fifty meters from the fortress, and Todd looked at the dense soldiers standing on the city wall, and several people who looked like nobles in armor were still pointing at this side.

Edgar used Eagle Eye's ability to count them carefully, and then said to the chief leader, "There are probably more than 110 people on the city walls. ”

Todd made some calculations of combat power, and understood that in the current situation, it was not very likely that the defenders would take the initiative to attack. So, he dispersed 20 sergeants and 60 militiamen to the surrounding villages, organized the serfs to load the goods they could take with them into wagons, and began to transfer people and wealth, leaving only Huggins' "heir" squad and 10 light cavalry with him.

The people on the city walls saw this and began to discuss, and the sound of an increasingly heated quarrel reached Todd's ears.

After repeatedly confirming that the invading enemy had scattered most of his forces elsewhere and could not be reinforced, the gates of Viscount Bartlet's fortress were opened, and the defenders were all dispatched, and with the idea of a quick victory, they attacked Todd's troops at full speed.

In order to boost morale, the viscount and the barons and knights under his vassals, shouting battle horns, rushed to the front line of the attacking troops.

On the other hand, Huggins and his "Inheritors" team climbed onto their horses, moved their arms, twisted their necks, and then turned their horses' heads and charged towards the defenders of the fortress.

The two troops fought together, and their strength was immediately superior.

The defenders of the fortress, no matter what kind of weapon, will not be able to deal substantial damage to the "Inheritor" who has the four layers of protection of armor, "dragon bone", "metal skin", and "regeneration". The 'Inheritors', on the other hand, can easily defeat any enemy in front of them with the xenomorph war horses and the 'dragon bones' on their bodies.

The battle lasted only 5 minutes, ending with the Viscount being captured alive.

With the exception of a small number who fled, the vast majority chose to surrender to the Knights of the Twilight.

After the war, the Knights found valuable treasures and large quantities of gold and silver currency from the viscount's residence. Todd looked at these gold, silver and jewels filled with a cart, and sighed with emotion, the hard work of farming and harvesting was not as happy as a robbery.

Before returning, Rachel suddenly found Todd and said to him, "Chief Chief, the number of xenos in Twilight Town has exceeded 100 at present, and this is also the upper limit of xenos we can recruit in the surrounding area. There are only two ways to further expand the xenomorph race, one is to increase the territory of Twilight Town, so that we can recruit more widely, and the second way is ......"

Watching the woman pull out a map from her bag, marked with dotted red circles, Todd looked at the other party with some confusion.

"Another way is to try to reach out to the 'hardliners' among the xenomorphs......"

Todd heard a strange word coming out of Richel's mouth and couldn't help asking, "'Hardliners'?"

Rachel unfolded the map, pointed to the red circles of various sizes on it, and said, "The so-called 'hardliners' refer to those aliens who live in isolation and do not want to be disturbed by others. On the one hand, these xenos may have powerful abilities that allow them to protect themselves or even fight back against organizations like the Heresy Hunters or the Relief Society, and on the other hand, for various reasons, they are indifferent to the outside world, and even have feelings of disgust and resistance, and it may not be easy to convince them to join Twilight. ”

Xenos with powerful abilities, far away from the world, unwilling to be disturbed. Todd touched the bridge of his nose, if he could really convince them to join Dusk, he would not only be able to enrich the laboratory's 'ability library', but also strengthen the 'Inheritor'' troops.

Rachel continued: "In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, I recommend that the first contact with the 'hardliners' be as few people as possible. ”

Todd looked at the woman and asked, "That's fine, so where should we start first?"

Rachel moved her finger to a red circle on the map: "Four kilometers south of here, there is a cave that, according to the investigation, contains an xenomorph. In appearance, she is a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl who is able to use the power of thunder and lightning. ”

Todd and the woman deliberated for a while, and then decided that he, Richel, and Huggins would go to the cave to persuade the xenomorph, while the others would escort the captives and belongings back to Twilight.

After dealing with the handover, the three of them broke away from the group and rushed to the cave in Richel's mouth.

Finding a hidden wooded area outside the cave entrance, harnessing his horse and strapping his weapons, Huggins lit a torch and walked at the front, followed by Todd and Richel.

The cave was a bit damp, and the ground was littered with animal bones. The steeper the slope became, and the three eventually came to a room that resembled a cave hall.

With the torch in Huggins' hand, Todd could see the whole room, the floor was covered with thick animal skins, tattered household items were placed at the base of the wall, all kinds of charcoal graffiti were placed on the wall, and in the center of the room, in front of a large stone table with a natural provision, someone had made several human figures out of clay.

Todd approached the clay figure, just about to take a closer look.

A childish and crisp voice sounded at the other end of the cave.

"Don't touch my mom and dad!"

Todd followed the voice, and finally saw the xenomorph girl in Rachel's mouth.

The thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl's hair and eyebrows were all snow-white, and her skin was different from that of ordinary people, white and flawless in the light of the fire, and there was not a trace of pigment or pigment to be seen, and her pupils were a sickly pale pink.

A girl with albinism.

That was Todd's first reaction.

But the girl's next move made him gasp in surprise.

In the dim underground cave, there are many blue "silk threads" in the girl's body that begin to shine slowly. The light grew stronger and stronger, even obscuring the light of the torches.

The girl took an iron arrow from her worn coat pocket and placed it on her chest, and then she stretched out her arms, parallel to each other, and the blue "silk thread" under the skin of the arms was like a coil in an electrical circuit, and it was wrapped around the two arms.

Todd watched the girl's actions and always felt that this scene was very similar to a certain weapon seen on TV in his previous life.

After thinking for a while, Todd suddenly opened his eyes, grabbed Richer and Huggins, pulled them to the ground, and shouted loudly, "Get down!"

At this moment, as the blue "silk thread" on the girl's body became brighter and brighter, there was a crackling sound of electrical sparks in the air, and the iron arrows trembled slightly, like a bullet out of the chamber, from the "passage" between the girl's arms, and slammed into the wall of the cave, creating a large hole with a diameter of thirty centimeters.

Todd looked at this scene with a pale face, and finally remembered the full name of this weapon in his previous life.

"Electromagnetic Railgun".