Montenegro is not a mountain in the true sense of the word.

In fact, if you were to live in the highlands, it would be a hill at best. The reason for this name is obviously that Sivalier is mostly plain, and even the forests are mostly gentle terrain without much undulation.

Hence the hill in the north of Lazar, northwest of Prospel, which stands out in the middle of the jungle and in the whole plain, is named Montenegro because of the black pine of Ecca that spreads all over the mountains.

It is not for nothing that the Luoan bandits of this gang chose this place as a base.

Located in the middle of the forest, Montenegro is not too deep into the area infested with magical beasts, and it has been a place for bears and mountain lions in the past, and after the exiled Luoan people arrived here more than ten years ago, they built a very spectacular wooden fortress with a three-story outer wall out of trees.

Over the past ten years, the relationship between the West Valyers and the bandits entrenched in Montenegro has also been flickering.

Those who don't know the situation may think that the bandits must be eliminated, but in fact, as a gang with strong combat effectiveness, the Luoan bandits are a pretty good tool for those in power in many cases.

-- Let's take an analogy.

There was a conflict between the two nobles, and the contradiction reached an unresolvable level. So they can only retaliate, but if they send troops to war, not only will it be extremely expensive, but they will also have to take a certain amount of risk considering the possibility of defeat.

So what to do in this situation?

It's simple, borrow a knife to kill.

All you need to do is use the nobles' pervasive intelligence network to quietly reveal the information about the goods and dates transported by the caravan in the province of another nobleman's leadership to the Luoans, and turn a blind eye to the nearby Sivalier troops, and then you can use the hands of these people who hate dogs to achieve your goals.

The Luoans got their booty, and the nobles breathed a sigh of relief, and each took what he needed, and even if he wanted to, no one could find their heads.

Why not?

Everything was done for profit, and with the tacit consent of powerful merchants and nobles, and even the bishops of the Church, as in many other parts of the West Coast, these Roans bandits grew in power.

From this point of view, this time the mercenaries were summoned to suppress the bandits, which can be regarded as clearing the door to a certain extent.

Maybe it's the Luoan bandits in Montenegro who have hardened their wings and shot at the people who shouldn't have made a move, or maybe Archbishop Prospel has some secret that he doesn't want to leak out and just finds a reason, maybe this or that, who knows.

"Whew......" white mist dispersed in the air.

Henry let out a long breath, and he and Mira were at the back of the line, the sage leaning back against the sturdy trunk of the black Eka pine, and next to him, Mira with a hood hanging her head.

This hurdle must be overcome no matter what, and it is Mira's own request to fight, and as long as she engages in combat-related professions on the West Coast, she will inevitably have to deal with her own people.

Although the young Luo'an Lori does not have a strong sense of identity with this group like other Luo'an people because of the living environment, it is inevitable that there will be some complex emotions in her heart after all.

This is partly the reason why she covered her gray hair, and the reason why Henry didn't stop her this time was because of the future battle.

The mercenaries didn't know each other, and the symbol that identified the Roan was the striking white hair, and even if Mira wore the green mercenary emblem, she couldn't stop swinging her sword at her as soon as her head was hot when she fought.

The sensible Mira knew all this very well, and she was stubborn and self-reliant, and she had put on her hood since she entered the forest with the idea of not causing trouble to Henry, and the sage, who understood the girl's inner struggle at the moment, did not say anything.

The outermost wooden wall of the Black Mountain fortress was already clearly visible, and a large group of mercenaries with iris shields, tear shields, round shields, and even square shields walked over in a scattered manner.

Jeremy and a few other knights in full armor led dozens of sergeants to press behind, and there were more than 800 mercenaries who came here, and according to Sir Lord, there were only 300 or 400 bandits in Montenegro.

Theoretically, they have an advantage.

But as far as Henry knows, this advantage is actually not very obvious.

The siege of the city has taken place countless times in the history of Rigal, and the generals of the past and present have learned many valuable lessons - one of which is the number of troops.

The besieging side must have three times the strength of the defending side in order to be able to break through.

Considering that Montenegro is just a simple fortress with wooden fences, and the mercenaries of more than 800 people are still a useful army, but the problem is that the Luoan people are not idle people, and they are all at hand for all kinds of battles and wars.

"Smack-huh-"

A dumbfounded mercenary with a fliris shield became the first victim, and the short and thick arrow that hit him accurately in the neck missed the "pop!" sound in front of him, apparently from a crossbow, and just as he fell, a row of Luoan bandits stood densely on the wooden wall of the first floor.

"Enemy attack!!Enemy attack!!" another mercenary with a shield axe shouted and raised his shield, "Take, take!" Two arrows immediately hit him, sawdust flew sideways, the arrow pierced the shield and hit the mercenary's arm, blood began to spill out, he clenched his teeth in pain but did not stop.

"Rush! Rush me! You slackers!" Not all mercenaries are equipped with shields, the dense woods make the composition of the shield wall basically impossible, and the more than two hundred shield fighters at the beginning are scattered to the side, and the strength is obviously not enough to surround the entire Black Mountain, so the gathered mercenaries are in a messy group and rush towards the wooden gate on the outer wall above the slope.

"Ahhh The archers among the mercenaries also began to fight back, and Henry noticed that there were also fires in many places, apparently the magicians who had been forcibly recruited were preparing for magic.

But they made the mistake of being inexperienced, because of the range of the beginner magic, these mages stood in the glade, which directly caused them to become the target of the attack when casting spells.

"Woo---" The fireballs that had lost the guidance of the mage's magic dissipated directly in the air, and the magicians who were unwillingly wide-eyed fell to the clearing in the woods, bleeding profusely.

"Whoa!" Many of the young mercenaries, who were obviously participating in the battle for the first time, bent down and began to vomit when they saw the scene of a succession of people dying in just a few minutes, and the Rérémi behind looked at them dissatisfied, and then waved his hand to signal his sergeant to rush forward and drive them forward.

"Archers! Support!" shouted the mercenaries in front of them, and the archers found their positions, leaned against the trees, and began to shoot a large number of arrows. The sound of "snatching" rang out continuously, and many arrows were stuck straight above the outer wall, and the archers with better alignments hit the careless Luoan, and the tall white-haired bandits rolled over and fell from above.

"Rush!" There was no cooperation, but in the chaos someone shouted like this, and the mercenaries rushed forward in a chaotic manner.

The archers continued to shoot at the wooden wall, and the suppressed Luoans were unable to attack for a while. "Aren't you rushing!" a voice sounded from behind him, and Henry glanced back, and the one-handed swordsman Alain gave them a defiant look, and then rushed out directly after the others.

"......" Henry shook his head, Mira looked at him, and the sage touched her head before running with her from the other side.

"Raise the shield!" shouted the mercenaries in front of them again, and they had already rushed under the wooden wall, this time raising their shields above their heads, and the Luoans lifted stones and hot oil and began to throw them downward, and the Luoan archers on the flanks also took the opportunity to attack the weak flanks of the mercenaries.

"Ahh

"Archers, get up for help!" "Jeremy roared from behind, the mercenaries hiding behind the trees could only rise to the bridle of the nobles.

It is impossible for the Luoans not to notice that these archers also ran forward, and the Luoans on the wooden wall also launched an attack on them, and more than a dozen of the mercenary archers who could not dodge fell in a pool of blood first.

However, the mercenaries were able to suppress the Roans, and some of the Roan bandits who threw stones and poured hot oil on the top of the gate fell down with two or three arrows and smashed on the mercenaries' shields.

"Atz Picchu!!Atz Picchu!!" the Roan people above the wooden wall shouted in the Roan language to retreat, and some of the mercenaries who understood the Roan began to cheer loudly to convey the news, it seemed that the first wooden wall was about to be breached, and the mercenaries gathered in front of the wooden door, and then began to use axes and hammers and even shields to try to smash the wooden door open.

"......" but Henry frowned.

He felt a little strange - the Luoans were excellent warriors, and even if they were reduced to bandits, in all fairness, they were not as strong as these low-level mercenaries could do with this virtue.

Not to mention the words of retreat that were clearly meant to be heard by all, which seemed to the sage more like a trap than a real repulsion.

"Everyone! Stop! I suspect they have an ambush. Henry shouted, he didn't really want to communicate with the others, but now the situation was getting worse, and even he was a little worried that it would become very ugly.

"Hmph, what do you think you are!" Alain, who was standing under the wooden door in the distance, feeling that he was at the forefront of the very honorable position, said triumphantly to Henry, and the other mercenaries glanced at the tall adventurer with the green card, and did not take him seriously.

"Alas......" Henry sighed, and then began to run in the other direction with Mira.

"Tsk, that's a coward. Alain glanced at Henry with disdain, then looked back at Jerémie—but the aristocratic lord he had expected had not seen himself excel. On the contrary, Jerémi touched his chin, as if he was lost in thought because of Henry's words.

"What's that?" one of the mercenaries stopped knocking on the door, and more mercenaries stopped in obedience.

"Holy shit!" one of the mercenaries in the back cursed, and the Sivalier nobles such as Jerémi, who was fully in plate armor, suddenly turned around and ran away.

"Damn! the nobleman has run!" shouted one of the mercenary archers as the others walked to the clearing, and before he could finish speaking, an arrow went through his throat and took his life.

"What's that?!" the panicked and confused mercenaries shouted, and in the next instant, the Luoan bandits, who had already made a detour on both sides of the woods, stood up.

"Vauk (launch)!" shouted the Luoans with their swords raised in their hands, and the arrows that came from both directions killed more than a hundred mercenaries in an instant, and then the white-haired men drew their weapons and rushed towards them.

"It's over...... It's really a trap. One of the mercenaries muttered.