"Gather the knights and heavy cavalry! Let all the Badaniyan archers who can ride horses follow!" Roland's eyes flashed coldly. No matter what happened, since the other party hurt people, he must ask them for an explanation.
"We can only arm 200 Badaniyan archers at most, and we don't have many war horses left." Kaslo said after thinking for a while.
"Okay, let's gather the troops! Let Renault take charge of the city! Oh, and bring a priest! The wounded need to stop bleeding!" Roland said.
"Yes, sir!" Caslo nodded.
"Boom, boom..." A total of 100 heavy cavalrymen and 200 Badanian archers rode their horses towards the forest where the centaurs appeared.
…
"Let's go! Meet up the knights first!" Roland urged after leaving the City of Rapids. Although the arrow that hit their shoulder blades was not fatal, the huge amount of blood loss was enough to send them to see the Dragon God.
"Okay! Speed up!" Caslo rode his horse from the front of the team to the back, shouting as he ran.
With Kaslo's urging, the marching speed of the entire army increased a lot. The crisp sound of horse hooves instantly broke the tranquility of the wilderness, and the small animals that originally lived in the snow and grass were frightened and fled in all directions.
"Something's happening!" The Badaniyan shooter who was scouting hundreds of meters ahead saw something unusual in the distance with his amazing eyesight.
"What's going on?" Casslo rode over quickly.
"It's our people!" The Badaniyan archer narrowed his eyes and identified them carefully, and found the knights who were covering the retreat of the civilians. The cloaks fluttering behind them became their most recognizable feature.
"Welcome them!" Roland said in surprise.
The massive cavalry instantly formed a pincer and surrounded the troop that was stumbling forward in the distance...
…
"Be alert! It's the sound of horse hooves! At least 300 war horses!" An experienced knight captain suddenly dismounted, put his ear to the ground and listened carefully before shouting.
"Get on your horses! Quick! Throw away all the burdens! Get on your horses! Young and strong men, pick up your weapons! Surround the wounded!" The battle-hardened knights immediately moved. They pulled the reins to make the horses spin around the circle formed by the civilians. The benefits of this were obvious. They could take turns blocking the arrows coming from all directions, and they could also rush up at high speed to engage in hand-to-hand combat when the enemy was close, eliminating the need to speed up.
"Your Highness has come to reinforce us!" When the dragon flag representing Raglan appeared in front of everyone, countless people were moved to tears. When they were being driven out of the attack, their king appeared in person with his troops.
"Praise Your Highness!"
"Long live!"
The simple people of Lagrande knelt on the ground to express their sincere respect for the lord.
"What's going on?" Roland came to the leading knight.
"Greetings, Your Highness! The situation is this: a group of us knights escorted these people who were picking wild vegetables into this woods, and then we were attacked by arrows! These were the attackers' arrows! They only injured our people's shoulders, but didn't kill anyone!" The leading knight said to Roland after paying his respects.
"Are any of the knights injured?" Roland looked around.
"That's not the case. Their inferior arrows can't penetrate our plate armor, and the armor on the shoulders is thicker." The knight pointed to the white spots on his plate armor.
Roland carefully examined the arrow in his hand. The exquisite arrow shaft was completely comparable to the arrow shafts of the elves. The feathers at the tail used to stabilize the arrow's flight were also pasted very delicately. However, the most important part of the arrow head that could kill the enemy was actually made of carefully polished flint. The black, shiny and round flint was polished to an extremely sharp edge.
"What's the use of this thing? What else can it do besides shooting at unarmored units?" Roland tested the sharpness of the arrow with his hand and said speechlessly. His people were actually attacked by a group of enemies holding such weapons, but he also confirmed that these attackers were indeed Centaurs!
"Why would the Centaurs move south from the northern wasteland?" Roland asked puzzledly. In his impression, Centaurs were a race distributed in the far northern wasteland. They had their own tribes, and the largest tribe was comparable to a small human country.
"I don't know. Centaurs love peace and like to live in forests or plains. They have a strong sense of territory. It seems that they regard this forest as their territory." Caslo said, looking at the bare forest.
"That's really strange! Let's go in and take a look. They'll have to give me an explanation no matter what." Roland's eyes flashed with murderous intent. To harm the people of the empire without cause is tantamount to declaring war! Although Roland couldn't restore the glory of the Lagran Empire yet, the empire's flag would not be trampled upon by anyone!
"Is the injured person okay?" Roland came to the accompanying pastor and asked with concern.
"Your Highness, they are all fine now. Although they have lost a lot of blood, it is not fatal." The priest said as he cast magic to heal the injured.
"That's good. The heavy cavalry will escort the priests and the people away! The rest of you, come with me to meet these centaurs and let me see if their bones are harder than those of orcs!" Roland said coldly.
"Yes, Your Highness!" Countless people said in unison. All the heavy cavalry immediately left the team and escorted the huge group of civilians away. The other professional soldiers all moved closer to Roland.
"Let's go! Let's take a look!" Roland kicked his horse and headed into the forest.
"Dang!" A strong wind blew, and Roland subconsciously raised Eliar on his left hand to block it in front of him.
Roland trembled at the powerful force on his wrist, and the arrow that attacked him was shattered on the spot by Eliar.
"Looking for death!" Caslo said angrily. Someone actually dared to attack his lord in front of him. This was simply his dereliction of duty!
A longbow made of dragon bone wood appeared in his hand. Kaslo stretched out his slender arms, and an energy arrow condensed from his fighting spirit instantly formed...
"Bang!" The long arrow shot out with a terrifying sonic boom. The terrifying aftermath of the fighting spirit directly tore through the trees along the way, and it disappeared into the forest in the blink of an eye.
"Damn humans! You have crossed the line!" A roar came from the forest, and then as the shadows of the trees swayed, one human and one horse emerged from the forest.
"Crossing the line?" Roland sneered.
"This doesn't seem to be the Centaur's territory, right?" Roland clenched his sword-grip.
"Damn humans! Why do you want to hurt my people?" The leading Centaur did not respond but questioned Roland instead.
"Hurt your people? Then who shot my people first?" Roland was so angry that he laughed.
"They were the first to step into our territory!" said the Centaur leader righteously.
"Your territory? Are you kidding? This place is less than 20 miles away from our city. When did it become your territory?" Roland asked coldly.
"Since we already live here and there is no one living here, it must be our territory!" the centaurs said in unison.
"Haha, this place is very close to my city, so can I assume that you want to invade my territory?" Roland laughed, a cruel laugh.
"You! Go back and tell Renault to gather my army! I'll see if I can destroy you invaders!" Roland pointed at a Badaniyan archer and said angrily. How could someone be so shameless! Just occupying an uninhabited area and claiming it as their own territory?