232 Exposed To The World (1/2)

Crawford Kingdom Eastern Border Pass, Azure Verdant Plains.

The war between the three kingdoms had already commenced over the tri-bridge in the past few days.

The Crawford Kingdom was outnumbered by the alliance between the Durham Kingdom and the Valaran Kingdom, but both sides were evenly matched on the battlefield without any clear advantages.

The Queen's arrival had been a great boost to the morale of the soldiers of the Crawford Kingdom.

With her at the hem of the battlefield with the 20 thousand strong soldiers gathered from various regions of the Crawford Kingdom, they were able to fend off the 40 thousand invaders.

During the first confrontation, the enemy had sent out their full force in a bid to take down the Eastern Border Pass as swiftly as possible.

However, the strong Crawford Kingdom soldiers were alert under the Queen's command and retaliated. A great battle was fought over the central tri-bridge.

Sparks of gunpowder exploded all over the battlefield while bullets ricocheted off the great shields of both sides. In this bout of crossfire, the Crawford Kingdom held the advantage.

Their bullets and firearms were all designed to penetrate the tough hides and shells of the beasts from the Wildlands. Thus, it only took a few rounds before it broke through the enemy's steel shield.

The enemy generals were quick to notice the unfavorable situation their troops were in but pressed forward and forced the Crawford Kingdom's troops into close combat.

The casualties on the Crawford Kingdom's side quickly rose to 2000, while the enemy's losses tallied up to roughly 4000.

Their bodies piled up like mountains, while some directly fell into the Azure River to become food for the fishes.

At the rate the battle was progressing, both sides would just suffer mutual destruction if no changes were made. As such, the Queen changed tactics and went from offensive to defensive.

She ordered the kingdom's troops to retreat behind the safety of the walls where they would make their stand.

The two sects controlling the Durham Kingdom and the Valaran Kingdom might not care for the lives of the soldiers lost, but it was not the same for Elizabeth.

Every life lost in battle was a loss for the Human Domain.

With the wall as the cover and the soldiers managing it, the Border Pass was like an impregnable fortress. The enemy troops could not take down the Border Pass and both sides ended up in a stalemate.

This was the situation for the last couple of days.

The enemy did not send out their sect members to join the battle, so neither did the queen nor the two daughters-in-law she brought along.

In the end, the big battle ended prematurely, and only small skirmishes broke out at irregular intervals in front of the wall.

As the attacker, the enemy's tactic was to harass and wear down the garrisons before they launch their next big attack with the main army.

Elizabeth had realized their intentions and divided her troops to take shifts in guarding the walls through the night. This way, they would get adequate rests.

The enemy had also realized that strategy was rendered useless. They could only helplessly throw out taunts in front of the wall to provoke the Crawford Kingdom into sending out their troops to do battle.

Naturally, as the chief commander of the Border Pass defense, Elizabeth was the focus of their taunts and provocations.

To such taunts and provocations, Elizabeth responded with a flying sword and lopped off the heads of her taunters.

Since then, the enemy could only retreat in fear and taunt from afar that could barely be heard.

Presently, Elizabeth was overlooking the situation of the tri-bridge from atop the Border Pass walls. Lynne and Aria stood behind her with similar gazes.

The experience in the last few days had caused slight changes to their mentality. They appeared more mature and the naivety brought by their youth was less evident.

Elizabeth had been strict in her teaching during resting periods. Not only did she taught them sword arts, but she also shared her insights in the way of the sword.

Formless Sword Art was the name of the sword art she taught them. It was the most appropriate one to teach. It was foundation level sword art that is easy to learn with no upper limit to its potential.

As the saying goes, there are no invincible martial arts, only invincible martial artist.

Fixed sword arts were too rigid and inflexible to changes, but the Formless Sword Art allows the user to be formless to counteract all changes in battle. The form of sword art was never fixed and differs from users to users.

Apart from this, Aria and Lynne were giving magisteel swords and learned how to enchant their weapons with elemental attributes to increase their striking power.

Elizabeth really wondered how her son managed to find such talented ladies. They were also considered geniuses in her books.

It wasn't like she was doubting her own son's charms.

After all, his face shares resemblances to his father— Ahem, never mind the face. He was driven and motivated. Women find men most attractive when they are serious and hardworking.

While facing the empty horizon, everyone on the wall thought that the enemies were not going to come out to taunt them today.

However, everyone became shocked when the earth suddenly quaked, and the direction seemed to have come from behind them in the west.

When they thought about the enemy's inaction of the day and the sudden earthquake that just happened, they all came to the same conclusion.