The shoals were a flat expanse of land at the edge of the Barand Fief, formed by the waters of the Little Ling River.

Currently, the shoals were rather noisy, as several noble families had assembled there with over a thousand men and horses for a gathering of alliance. If not for Richard’s standards for the quality of the troops, perhaps the nobles could have brought even more. In any case, the most worthless resource was the peasant infantry.

In the past, these people would not have been so cooperative, nor so generous as to actually mobilize their own armored cavalry for this cause. At the very least, they would have padded their forces with two-thirds peasant infantry.

But now, with the onslaught of the cannibals right at their doorstep—even though no castle had yet been besieged—the tales of ruined noble estates and massacred families had instilled a deep sense of dread among the nobles. If it were possible, half of them would have fled already. However, their fief and castle were the very foundation of every noble family, and none were willing to abandon their home without a fight.

After all, these families had already proven themselves willing to spend large sums on reinforcements; they were not unreasonable hoarders. When it came time to put everything on the line, no one held back. Each family brought their all.

“What exactly are the Hunter family and Bande family doing? It’s way past our agreed upon time, and we’ve kept so many people here just waiting around. What big shot do they think they are?”

Richard’s army had fallen behind schedule because they had first eliminated a tribe of cannibals. The tardiness caused by this unforeseen delay had left the early-arriving nobles rather annoyed.

“Don’t you dare open your mouth later,” one of the knights whispered to another, “or we’ll be lucky if the Banders are the only ones who get upset. The Hunters sent over twenty knights, remember? Don’t make them unhappy or they’ll turn around and leave.”

“Oh, come on, I was just venting.”

Upon hearing this reminder, especially upon hearing that the Hunter family had sent over twenty knights, the man immediately retracted his sharp tongue and grumbled, “Here they come, here they come!”

Just as the noble families were beginning to lose their patience, a large army finally appeared at the horizon. When this army drew closer, the assembled nobles realized that many of the soldiers’ armor and weaponry were still caked in mud and blood. It seemed this army had just fought a battle and emerged victorious.

Although the Hunter-Bander allied forces had not had much time to regroup after eliminating Nuer’s tribe, they had quickly tidied themselves up and rushed to the shoals. Their uniforms were slightly disheveled, but anyone with eyes could tell from their high spirits that this was a victorious army. Furthermore, the grisly cannibal heads hanging from the saddles of their vanguard made for a frightening sight.

As the Fifth War Zone’s nobles inspected Richard’s troops, Richard, seated on his horse, also took a good look at the allied army before him. The most eye-catching thing was the multitude of banners embroidered with insignias unfamiliar to Richard. Compared to these strange insignias, the three arrows on the Hunter family’s crest that Richard had mocked earlier looked significantly better. At least it was still possible to discern three sharp arrows from the design, befitting the hunting background of the Hunter family.

Based on Richard’s quick scan, the quality of this allied army could be considered passable. Everyone wore armor, and even the auxiliary soldiers were covered in leather armor. The only issue was that the formation was somewhat disordered. After all, they had lacked a unified commander, so some degree of disarray was understandable.

“Baron Bandel, what is this?”

While Richard inspected the troops, several lords had approached, though they did not recognize Richard and thus began their conversation with Baron Bandel instead.

“This is Archduke Richard, the commander who led reinforcements to our aid.”

Richard did not put on airs and instead dismounted from his horse to greet them. In truth, among this group, he was the only one without a noble title.

“We encountered and annihilated a tribe of cannibals along our way here. We apologize for any delay and hope you will not hold it against us.”

Richard’s words were calm, as if wiping out a tribe of cannibals was no big deal, an easy task. But the nobles present had been driven to near madness by the cannibals, so Richard’s actions amounted to a demonstration of his capabilities, alleviating their concerns. If this group could wipe out a cannibal tribe so quickly, they likely had at least ten or eleven knights, even without the twenty-some the Bander family had claimed.

Once the nobles recovered, they flattered Richard, recognizing that current capabilities held more weight than noble titles.

But Richard had become practically immune to such flattery. After a few perfunctory words, he moved on to business.

“A snake without a head cannot move. Our allied forces must have a commander-in-chief to coordinate our efforts. How can we fight the cannibals if we are scattered like sand?”

“Archduke Richard is right. I propose Archduke Richard take up the mantle of commander-in-chief,” Baron Bandel responded promptly.

“I agree, Archduke Richard must lead us,” another noble echoed.

The other nobles chimed in, albeit somewhat belatedly, and made their positions clear. Richard’s question had been merely symbolic, a gesture of courtesy, as none of them possessed the capability to challenge him for command.

With the Bandel family’s forces included, Richard commanded over eleven knights, plus ten or so from the other families, totaling twenty-one or twenty-two knights under his direct command.

After the position of commander was settled, Richard chose to spend a day in their current encampment, where he organized the various units into a single force.

Including Baron Bandel’s troops, five noble families contributed five knights each, more than thirty quasi-knights, and some eight hundred professional soldiers with formidable combat power, about three hundred of whom were cavalry. They also had a thousand auxiliary soldiers of good quality, representing the maximum mobilizable forces of the five noble families.

Richard spent a day at the shoals standardizing basic orders, which would have been impossible without the cooperation of the other noble families. Of course, a day was only enough for basic orders, and they could not yet achieve the level of efficiency of the System’s military or even the Flying Bear Army. Achieving such a level of discipline would require two or three months of rigorous training.

Early on the second day, the allied army set off toward the last remaining tribe of cannibal demons in the Fifth War Zone.

Compared to the few hundred soldiers Richard had led when departing Tie Mu Fort, the allied army had swelled to over two thousand men. Although the overall quality of the troops had decreased, their morale remained high. To boost morale, news of their two decisive victories and the fact that nearly thirty knights fought alongside them was propagated among the ordinary soldiers. This eased their anxieties somewhat, convincing them that cannibal demons were not invincible and that their own forces were strong.

Dozens of kilometers away, several high-ranking leaders of the cannibal tribes gathered in a large tent, engaged in some discussion.

“Sir, something must have happened to both Nuer and Bruce. The movements of the humans here are quite abnormal.”

This tribe was clearly stronger than Nuer’s and Bruce’s combined, and the destruction they wrought was also significantly more severe. Their forces numbered nearly one thousand, and they brought five to six thousand dog-headed people as their allies. A few villages could not satiate their hunger, and they had razed a vast expanse of dozens of kilometers into a wasteland.

Among the tribe’s warriors, Rutz stood at the threshold of promotion to chief. Even the combined forces of several lords around Richard would not be enough to defeat this tribe.

Initially, Rutz had thought the humans posed no threat, but the loss of contact with both Nuer and Bruce, along with the unusual movements of the humans, had raised his vigilance.

“Contact the other tribes via long-distance communication. Send the dog-headed people out farther and keep an eye on the movements of the humans. Have the warriors raise their guard.”

“Yes, sir.”

The other two cannibal warriors acknowledged him.

At this time, Rutz still had no intention of fleeing, for he had been grossly misinformed about the strength of the allied forces, or rather, Richard’s strength. He remained confident in his own tribe’s capabilities, never imagining that they needed to flee, thus missing their best opportunity to withdraw.

Several griffins soared through the skies above the cannibal camp as Richard locked onto the location of the cannibal tribe…