In the deeper darkness, a sudden, heavy thud echoed, a special sound of a heavy object striking the ground. Because it was concrete, the impact was so strong that the concrete ground cracked.
It was as if a hammer was striking the ground, shattering the concrete surface.
The sound was heavy, approaching them quickly from a distance.
This was indeed dangerous.
"Cavalry! There's cavalry charging towards us!" At this moment, a Swadian Recruit turned his head in astonishment, looking towards the source of the sound in the darkness. He gripped his long-handled scythe tightly and loudly warned Zhang Caidong, his master: "We must run quickly!"
"Then hurry up and run, what are you standing there for?" Zhang Caidong had already pulled Zhang Bo back and was running. Behind him, the timid little monsters were also running backward.
Seeing his 10 Swadian Recruits still standing shoulder to shoulder in a square formation, raising their long-handled scythes, intending to block the cavalry charging from the darkness, his face showed a mix of astonishment, surprise, and complexity.
"Get out of here, don't stand there! Everyone, retreat!" Zhang Caidong thought the Swadian Recruits wanted to stand there to protect him, their Spiritual Realm Commander, sacrificing their lives to buy him time to escape.
"Understood." The 10 Swadian Recruits immediately turned and, holding their long-handled scythes, quickly followed Zhang Caidong, Zhang Bo, and the little monsters, charging towards the illuminated area ahead.
Fortunately, they were not far from the light, and the Holy Light from Deherim's Torch Tower could effectively penetrate the darkness. Even as they retreated to a distance of forty or fifty meters, they could still faintly see the light.
It allowed them to easily find their way.
However, as they ran, the sound of heavy objects striking the concrete floor behind them, which should have been cavalry units charging towards them, grew closer and closer.
As a result, Zhang Caidong and Zhang Bo's faces showed extreme anxiety, and their legs moved faster and faster.
They had already guessed what it was: the legendary, elusive Skeleton Cavalry!
Generally speaking, these Skeleton Cavalry rarely appeared in this vicinity; they usually appeared in outdoor environments. Even if they appeared within the city limits, they would immediately retreat back to the wilderness, as if there were some special taboos between them and the city.
But now that they had encountered these Skeleton Cavalry, they needed to quickly avoid them. Otherwise, how could they possibly resist these Skeleton Cavalry among the Undead Monsters?
After all, they were just infantry, and low-level infantry at that. Moreover, even when they had Spiritual Realm creatures like Gnolls, their Spiritual Realm Followers, they dared not confront these Skeleton Cavalry head-on.
After all, these Skeleton Cavalry each seemed to be Skeleton Warriors wielding long spears and long sabers.
Their entire skeletons were as dark and shiny as metal, with a metallic luster.
From defense to combat power, they were stronger than ordinary Skeleton Warriors, not to mention the zombies and Skeleton Soldiers they usually encountered; there was simply no comparison whatsoever.
How could they possibly have the ability to resist?
"Wait! What's that sound in the darkness?" Just as Zhang Caidong and Zhang Bo led the Swadian Recruits and little monsters quickly towards the light, Bestour and the Steppe Bandit Elite instinctively raised their heads, their smiles frozen on their faces. They had clearly heard something.
"It's cavalry," a Steppe Bandit Elite immediately said, identifying the heavy sound as that of horseshoes heavily striking the concrete ground.
"Cavalry is coming?" Hearing the voices of these Steppe Bandit Elite, the surrounding ordinary Steppe Bandit immediately changed their expressions, raising their Nomadic Bows with extremely solemn faces.
"Disperse! Be on guard!" Bestour immediately waved, signaling the 15 Steppe Bandit Elite who had come with him, as well as the more than 40 Steppe Bandit gathered around, to immediately scatter.
They were light cavalry with bows and arrows. As long as they dispersed and maintained distance, and if they didn't encounter similar horse archers, they could use their bows and arrows and their Steppe Horses to show the enemy what Kujit people's most proficient guerrilla tactics were.
However, as they left, they did not forget to warn the Swadian Commoners and Blue Star Humans who were still fighting the Undead Monsters, telling them to leave quickly.
"The situation is special now, you must leave here!" These Kujit Steppe Bandit called out to them.
Meanwhile, the executives and middle managers among the Blue Star Humans looked at the Swadian Commoners with bewildered expressions, and the Swadian Commoners likewise looked at these Blue Star Humans in confusion.
Neither of them understood what had happened.
However, at this moment, the Swadian Commoners seemed to hear something, and they suddenly turned their heads to look into the depths of the darkness. Their expressions suddenly changed, and they too recognized the heavy sound of striking the ground as coming from cavalry.
"It's cavalry! It's cavalry units! A force of nearly thirty or forty! Many cavalry units are charging towards us!"
One by one, they warned the Blue Star Humans, and as the Blue Star Humans understood the seriousness of the situation, they quickly began to retreat backward.
These Blue Star Humans naturally understood the seriousness of the situation. At the same time, they saw Zhang Caidong running quickly from the depths of the darkness, his face also showing panic, and waving to them to leave quickly.
"Quick, quick, quick, hurry up and go, hurry up and go! Skeleton Cavalry have appeared in the depths of the darkness. This is no small problem; it's not something we can solve now. We must rely on Lord Shen Mu's troops to resist them." Cai Dong urged these people to leave quickly and retreat.
"Go, go, go." These Blue Star Humans followed Zhang Caidong's footsteps, leading their Swadian Commoners quickly out of the darkness, looking at the light appearing ahead, and then directly rushing into it, completely escaping the pursuit of the death spirit rules, gray mist, and Skeleton Cavalry in the darkness.
And just as they all left the darkness, almost within arm's reach, a Skeleton Cavalry, radiating a dark metallic luster and riding a Skeleton warhorse, immediately charged out from within the gray mist.
He held a dark and shiny long spear in his right hand, and a similarly dark and shiny scimitar in his left.
In his two eyes, the eerie blue soul fire emitted an extremely strong cold aura, and in the eyes of the Skeleton warhorse beneath him, the same eerie blue, cold soul fire burned fiercely with terrifying power.
Even when they charged out of the darkness and the area of death spirit rules represented by the mist, and arrived in this place illuminated by the Holy Light and protected by the Mount & Blade Rules, they did not immediately die, nor did Holy Light flames immediately ignite on them.
'Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!' Instead, thick black smoke billowed from their entire bodies, and streams of black mist appeared within them, seemingly in fierce opposition to the Holy Light shining on their surface.
These Skeleton Cavalry even had remaining strength. Looking at the Swadian Recruits who were only seven or eight meters away, they still wanted to urge their Skeleton warhorses forward, using the long spear in their right hand and the scimitar in their left to slaughter these living humans and turn them into Undead.
But at that moment, a series of sharp whooshing sounds instantly appeared before them.
'Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!'
Before these Skeleton Cavalry, shadows suddenly appeared. They were the Steppe Bandit and Steppe Bandit Elite, who had dispersed twenty or thirty meters away, collectively raising their Nomadic Bows and firing arrows at them.
This forced the Skeleton Cavalry, who were urging their Skeleton warhorses forward to charge and slaughter, to stop their advance. They passively raised their hands to shield their heads, preventing the incoming arrows from hitting the soul fire in their heads.
These Skeleton Cavalry knew where their vital points were and where to protect themselves.
So, amidst the crackling sounds, these four or five Skeleton Cavalry who had charged out stood their ground and began to defend.
The incoming arrows directly hit the Skeleton Cavalry, causing cracks in the dark, metallic-lustered bones on their bodies, and even knocking off some of the more fragile small bones.
However, these Skeleton Cavalry were not fundamentally harmed. Instead, looking at the gradually weakening arrow rain, they raised their heads to look at the Kujit Steppe Bandit in the distance who were still drawing their bows and preparing for the next volley of arrows. They actually turned their Skeleton warhorses and returned to the darkness.
Then, the heavy sound of hooves striking the ground gradually faded into the distance.
They also disappeared from the vicinity of this area.
"Skeleton Cavalry." Bestour lowered his Nomadic Bow, his expression turning somewhat grim.
"Those guys don't seem afraid of our arrows. But then again, they're just skeletons; as long as their soul fire in their heads isn't damaged, they won't die." Behind Bestour, several close Steppe Bandit Elite rode up to him. Looking at their Nomadic Bows, their expressions were also grim: "Lord Bestour, I think we should tell Lord Shen Mu about this. We should go back now."
"Hmm, indeed. Let's go." Bestour nodded, his face gloomy.
Before this, they had only encountered flesh-and-blood creatures. Even if they encountered some Undead Monsters, they could easily deal with them relying on their powerful combat strength and flexible fighting techniques.
This was their first time encountering such strong Skeleton Cavalry, and he also noticed that these Skeleton Cavalry actually knew to raise their hands to block the arrow rain, or to shift the weight on their Skeleton warhorses to dodge.
If not for that, some of their arrows would surely have hit the heads of the Skeleton warhorses or these Skeleton Cavalry, shattering their skull bones and piercing into their heads, disrupting the circuit of their soul fire.
That would have meant killing these Undead Monsters.
But none of it succeeded. They watched helplessly as the three or four Skeleton Cavalry turned their horses and left this illuminated area.
They returned to the darkness, which was filled with the death spirit rules they were most familiar with.
"And these Skeleton Cavalry seem to be able to operate in illuminated areas, much stronger than those skeletons and zombies that immediately started emitting thick black smoke and spontaneously combusted upon entering." A Steppe Bandit Elite also spoke, sharing what he had seen and heard.
"That's true." Bestour also noticed this. He remained silent for a moment, then after a brief contemplation, he immediately said to the Steppe Bandit Elite behind him: "You all continue patrolling with the Steppe Bandit you're leading; don't slack off anymore. I'll go back to Deherim to report to Lord Shen Mu myself. If you encounter those Skeleton Cavalry again, do not engage them. Immediately retreat behind the low wall and then maintain a regular patrol."
"We understand." These Steppe Bandit Elite immediately nodded, then urged their warhorses forward, leading the Steppe Bandit to continue their patrol.
However, compared to their previous relaxed demeanor, they were now significantly more serious.
After all, after seeing those Skeleton Cavalry, their hearts had already tightened.
Bestour, at this moment, shook the reins and rode his Steppe Warhorse quickly towards Bestour's direction. As for the Blue Star Humans and Swadian Commoners behind him, as long as they entered the Holy Light-illuminated area alive, the mission would be considered complete.
His primary task now was still patrolling and detecting enemy situations. Since he had already discovered an enemy situation and an abnormal circumstance, he needed to quickly return to Deherim to report it.
Soon, Bestour arrived at the entrance of Deherim. Amidst the shouts of the Lake Rat Gang Destroyers, who had already spotted him from afar, the city gate was opened to let him in.
He arrived at the entrance of the Noble Residence.
A Holy Tree Knight was standing guard at the entrance, leaning on his long spear. Seeing Bestour approach, he immediately held out a hand, signaling him to stop: "Lord Bestour, Lord Shen Mu is resting. Please do not proceed further."
"I have something to report," Bestour said.
"Is it urgent?" the Holy Tree Knight asked.
"Not urgent. In that case, I'll come back after Lord Shen Mu wakes up, after dawn." Bestour hesitated for a moment, then turned his horse and walked towards the separate Governor's Mansion next to the Noble Residence.
After all, the Governor's Mansion and the Noble Residence were essentially one entity.
He would rest a bit and report this matter to Lord Shen Mu after dawn. (End of Chapter)