Chapter 395: Chapter 377: Juanuo’s Final Lesson
The raging flames cast an orange-red glow on half of Catherine’s face, as her hard-soled boots echoed with a thud on the city wall’s solid floor.
With her breastplate and helmet donned, Catherine grasped a one-meter-long di’an rod, swiftly running under the protection of over a dozen mercenaries.
Beside them, a fire blazed fiercely within the city, occasionally spewing flames from the windows and doors of houses.
Militia cloaked in blue capes with white trim, under Mitney’s command, were toppling houses around the fire sites to create firebreaks.
In the fire, wizards clad in black robes formed a line under the wizard leader’s orders, eschewing ice spells to collectively hurl alchemical potions into the blaze.
The continuous explosions of the red dragon’s breath at three locations rapidly expanded the inferno, and currently, some militia have already gone to capture the culprits, but only a few assisting rogues have been apprehended.
"Charge!"
Lifting her head, Catherine saw the Imperial soldiers and Council soldiers locked in chaotic combat once more.
Ahead was another breached section of the wall, where the narrow corridor could only accommodate four men standing side by side.
Black armor clashed against light blue tunics, swords meeting with ear-piercing clangs, the whirl of steel ceaselessly spinning.
"Push through; don’t mind me!" Catherine wielded the di’an rod, aiming at the group of guards.
"Kill!" The Black Knights responded without hesitation, drawing their longswords to assault the guards.
With a few kicks, they toppled the shield wall of the rear guards, sending seven or eight heads flying in quick succession.
"Where did these Extraordinary Knights come from?"
"Quickly, turn now."
"Damn, can’t break the armor."
"Aha!" At the forefront of the battle, a triumphant shout arose from behind Catherine.
An armored soldier, raising his longsword high, leapt from behind Catherine, delivering a heavy blow to her back.
Catherine let out a muffled grunt, but the armored soldier’s expression shifted from ecstatic to terrified.
The blow that could have split a standard farmer in two only left an invisible white mark on Catherine’s expensive alchemy master-grade custom dwarf-forged White Crystal Steel armor.
Before the armored soldier could recover from the fear of the Krypton Gold Warrior, a master dwarf-forged long spike smoothly pierced through his flimsy chainmail, penetrating his soft abdomen.
"Di’an rod?"
The armored soldier stared astonished at the weapon in Catherine’s hands; it was indeed a militia’s di’an rod, yet someone had whimsically equipped it with such an expensive spike head.
"Chairman, are you alright?" Seeing Catherine assaulted, a guard captain abandoned the battlefield to return promptly to Catherine’s side.
Catherine shook her head: "He bumped into me, it’s nothing serious."
Under the assault of more than a dozen elite knights, the guards crawling up the wall were soon driven off.
As the last guard was tossed off the wall by the militia, this entire western section of the wall was reclaimed by Catherine once again.
But looking around, the wall was littered with scattered skirmishes between Imperial troops and Council troops.
To extinguish the fire within the city, Catherine had to divert a significant amount of troops for firefighting.
More troops in the city meant naturally fewer on the wall.
Coupled with the explosion of the red dragon’s breath, losing this powerful weapon, the defenders of Rapids City were barely able to retaliate against large siege equipment.
But ignoring the city’s fire would place them in a two-front crisis, facing both flames and enemy troops.
Even if successfully defended, it would merely delay the time of inevitable demise by a few days.
Perhaps then, those now resolute militia citizens would be the first to seek surrender.
Currently, Rapids City was at its weakest, and by the traitor’s intel, the outside Imperial forces had launched their attack.
They should have followed Qianqian’s advice to establish a military police force; at the time, it seemed too harsh, but now it was clearly necessary.
Fortunately, under Petier’s unified deployment, they had managed to withstand this wave of the Imperial offensive with their limited forces.
Honestly, their ability to hold out until now was entirely due to Petier’s contributions.
To Catherine’s surprise, an ordinary High Castle City miscellaneous guild could produce both Petier and Horn, two geniuses in military and governance.
"Chairman, Chairman look quickly—"
"What’s happening?" Catherine, initially resting, raised her head.
"On the west, on the western wall." The messenger soldier stuttered, "The Imperial Knights, the Imperial Knights have mounted the wall."
Catherine moved to the wall edge, gazing toward the western wall.
Though cloaked in flames, figures flickering in orange-red spots could still be discerned jumping about.
Those were the Imperial Knights, whom only the dragon’s breath could kill or repel.
"It’s over..." someone murmured, and the surroundings seemed to drop a degree in temperature.
"Is it over?" Catherine suddenly fell silent.
She knew of a method, one that she feared the most, one she least wanted to mention.
She still remembered those two years, the disdainful and fearful glances, those strange eyes, as if she was not a seven-year-old girl, but some kind of ferocious beast.
Catherine often suffered from insomnia, not because she drank too much red tea during the day, but because she always dreamt of those experiences in the night.
The experience of being abandoned by her mother, being driven away with pitchforks by the villagers, being hunted by knights...
She finally found a group of refugee companions willing to accept her.
But after using her to defeat bandits and robbers, they feared her power and sold her to the church.
If she hadn’t been clever enough to escape early, she would have already been dead.
She didn’t want to go through that again.
With other guards, Catherine confusedly rushed down the city wall and stood below, watching the militiamen running.
Under Petier’s command, they were rushing towards the increasingly torn western city wall.
With an arrow stuck in his shoulder, Petier, hair graying at the temples, was still shouting and sending soldiers to the front line.
"Finally, we found you." A senior partner from Meigedi ran over, "Quick, let’s go."
"Go? Where to go?"
"Of course, to leave through the underground sewers, the Azik Alliance will protect us." Seeing Catherine’s dazed expression, the senior partner thought she was reluctant and quickly added, "If Grand Duke Moliat wins, we can still come back."
Because of Catherine’s impressive performance with the Meigedi Commerce Association, with many Elfer merchants holding shares, the Azik Alliance certainly wouldn’t ignore Catherine.
But Catherine stopped in her tracks.
She took off her glasses and placed them in her palm. These exquisite crystal glasses were given to her by her teacher when she was sixteen.
Fifteen years had passed, and there wasn’t a single scratch on the crystal.
She had at least ten more sets of fifteen years, but how many more years did the Thousand River Valley people have? How many more years could they endure?
If she retreated this time, how long would it take for the Thousand River Valley to see another such opportunity?
Ten sets of fifteen years? Maybe twenty, thirty, or perhaps by then the Thousand River Valley people would be completely replaced by Falan and Leia immigrants?
Suddenly, she realized, what was she doing?
Step by step, she led the Meigedi Commerce Association to the peak, doing many dirty deeds, but for what?
When did she start considering her position in the Thousand River Valley after the war? When did she start considering the power and status of the Meigedi Commerce Association?
If her teacher were here today, what would he do?
"President, President?"
Catherine looked up and faced Mitney: "What did you just say?"
"For the Thousand River Valley, you should quickly run."
"......"
"President? You should give us a clear answer." The senior partner was almost desperate.
"For the Thousand River Valley?" Catherine gazed into her palm, the crystal lenses reflecting a sea of flames, "My teacher died for the Thousand River Valley, so should I run away for the Thousand River Valley?"
"President, I didn’t mean..."
"Then what would be the point of my teacher’s death?!" Catherine almost growled these words.
The persuading Mitney wanted to speak again, but Carl stopped him, staring intently at Catherine: "Then what do you want to do?"
Putting her glasses back on, Catherine closed her eyes.
Rapids City’s position was too critical; losing it would put Moliat in the north and Horn in the east in danger.
If her teacher were here, he would probably make the women, children, and young board the ships, and then lead the remaining people and soldiers to fight to the death.
Yes, even with only a one percent chance, he wouldn’t give up.
And what about herself? Hesitating, despite having more than a fifty percent certainty, yet still hesitating.
Having been a student all her life, if she couldn’t surpass her teacher, then that would be too disappointing.
If that meant reliving the old horrors, then let it come!
Even if it was more terrifying than death, even if it would make Catherine lose everything she currently had, but all she currently had was not what she truly wanted.
What she wanted was her hometown of freedom in her dreams, a free Thousand River Valley, a place without wandering.
"Do we still have the seeds of the blood-sucking vine?" Catherine opened her eyes, but those eyes belonged to the sixteen-year-old Catherine.
Mitney was stunned, then smiled wryly: "I really didn’t expect there’d be a chance to use it..."