Lord of Caldera - Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Chapter 158

“It seems you didn’t account for the difference in numbers!”

Even if the initial assault caused chaos, troops would eventually regain their composure. To maximize the advantage, confusion had to be exploited swiftly. But if the enemy recovered and still had the numbers, the ambushers could find themselves overwhelmed.

“If you managed to get this far unnoticed, I doubt you brought your entire force. You may be good with an axe, but you know nothing of strategy!”

“Who knows?”

Brian sneered, and Bjorn responded with a cold smile. Brian wasn’t entirely wrong; they had indeed reduced their numbers to avoid being noticed. If they were an ordinary army, Brian’s assessment would have been correct, and they would likely have been overwhelmed by now.

“But our forces are a bit special,” Bjorn replied.

“What nonsense is this?”

“Look to your side, and you’ll understand.”

“Stop with your tricks!”

Telling him to look away in the middle of a fight? Brian scoffed, but he couldn’t ignore the loud noise that suddenly came from his side. His eyes widened in disbelief at what he saw.

“What is that?!”

“Aaah! It’s a monster!”

His soldiers’ screams echoed around him. On one side, five soldiers were sent flying, and on the other, three were thrown into the air in pieces, as if they were being hunted by some terrible beast. But shockingly, it wasn’t a beast attacking the soldiers; it was humans—a female knight with red hair and a southern knight with bronze skin.

“Get out of the way, or die,” the female knight said, her words icy and precise.

“If you don’t want to die, get lost!” the southern knight shouted boisterously, sweeping through the lines with each roar. The scene of soldiers being torn apart by their blows was like a nightmare.

“This is… impossible…”

“Seems unbelievable to you, doesn’t it?” Bjorn taunted.

“Who did you bring along with you?” Brian was about to ask, but Bjorn didn’t miss the opening created by his shock. Using all his strength, Bjorn shoved Brian’s weapon aside, causing him to stagger. At that moment, Bjorn’s second axe struck.

Thud.

“Gah!”

Brian fell backward, Bjorn’s axe embedded deep in his chest. After a brief spasm, Brian’s body grew still and cold. Bjorn looked down at the fallen knight—once a friend, now a traitor—and turned away. With the commander dead, there would be no one left to restore order. It was a flawless victory.

The next morning, with everything over, Sylas surveyed the ruins outside the dungeon.

“How many of the enemy managed to escape?”

“Judging by the number of bodies, it seems about a third fled,” a subordinate reported.

“That’s more than I expected,” Sylas murmured, glancing at Brian’s corpse, his chest split open. “Maybe he died too soon.”

Part of a commander’s duty is to keep soldiers from retreating. But without a commander, the soldiers fled without hesitation. This meant their side suffered minimal casualties, but at the same time, quite a few enemies had escaped alive.

“Well, they’ll be back eventually,” Sylas said.

“Even after suffering such a crushing defeat?” one of his men asked.

“I’m sure of it,” Sylas replied, and Bjorn added his agreement.

“My uncle is sensitive to losses, but once he believes the gain outweighs the cost, he ignores any price. He’ll definitely come back.”

“Most people would struggle to resist, even if they weren’t like your uncle,” Sylas mused. “It’s like a trap for catching monkeys. You fill a small hole with something the monkey wants, just big enough for its hand to fit through. When it grabs the treasure, it can’t pull its fist out. It just has to let go, but it won’t.”

“Foolish. If you see a stick raised at you, you should run,” Toby scoffed.

“It’s not that simple. Sometimes humans aren’t much different from monkeys.”

“I’d drop whatever I was holding, even if it was filled with gold and jewels,” Toby declared confidently, making Sylas chuckle.

“Really? What if it was the elixir of immortality in your hand? Would you still let go?”

“…That’s unfair. That’s far beyond just gold and jewels.”

“It’s no different. For that lord, the dungeon is like an elixir of immortality.”

In the end, it was about how much value one placed on something. Most lords couldn’t let go of the treasure they saw in the dungeon, only realizing too late, when they were on their last breath, that it would have been better to give up.

“Well, we’ll just wait patiently,” Sylas said, knowing that prey would come back to them.

“Brian was killed, and only a third of the soldiers returned alive?” Lugues repeated in disbelief.

“Y-yes, my lord,” the aide replied.

Lugues staggered, feeling dizzy with shock. He had prepared himself for some sacrifices in the dungeon conquest, but he had never expected such a devastating defeat at Bjorn’s hands.

“How… how could this happen?!”

Anger, shame, and despair swirled within him, making it difficult even to express his emotions. Taking a deep breath, Lugues forced himself to calm down. Though he wanted to lash out, he knew this couldn’t be solved by emotions alone.

“Should I give up on the dungeon?”

As his rage subsided, he began to see the reality of his situation. Attempting the dungeon raid meant exposing his forces to more attacks from Bjorn. Even if he sent another army, Bjorn would likely ambush them again.

“Perhaps it would be better to attack Bjorn directly with the army.”

If Bjorn were eliminated, the dungeon conquest would go smoothly. But a new problem arose: the longer he delayed, the more news of the dungeon would spread.

“Once word gets out, others will start meddling.”

It wouldn’t even need to reach the Imperial Court. Nearby lords would be more than willing to take advantage of the situation. And if Lugues backed down, Bjorn would surely continue his dungeon raid.

“In less than ten days, he already conquered 20% of it.”

If given more time, Bjorn might gather all the treasure and hole up somewhere. As one dreadful scenario after another filled his mind, a voice whispered within him that perhaps it would be worth the risk to continue the dungeon raid.

After a long contemplation, Lugues finally spoke, “Reassemble the army! We will continue the dungeon raid!”

He had chosen to follow the whisper. If he could conquer the dungeon, the rewards would more than make up for these failures.