In a twisted, unknown space, a crimson rift spanned the sky. The entire area looked as if something terrifying had torn it apart, and the black clouds surrounding the tear pressed down, making it hard to breathe.
Red lightning flashed continuously, creating a scene of what looked like the end of the world, filling one's heart with sorrow and despair!
Marco opened his eyes and found himself floating in the air. The flapping of wings behind him made him realize he had a pair.
Before he could even be surprised, a swarm of angels rushed him forward, bringing him before a Seraph.
This Seraph, clad in a red, white, and gold-trimmed robe, held a judgment sword burning with holy flames. The crimson wings behind him exuded a chilling killing intent, as if they were about to drip blood.
He turned to all the angels and declared:
"Servants of the Dragon of Light! The call to battle has been sounded! The Dragon of Chaos' minions are ravaging the world! Kill! For order! May Light endure forever!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he flapped his wings and charged towards a one-way portal in the distance.
Marco also charged into the portal with the angelic legions. With a loud bang, the portal instantly exploded!
The explosion startled Marco awake from his sleep. He quickly put on his fur coat and climbed out of the makeshift tent.
It was already the morning of the fifth day. They were resting in a "U-shaped" valley about 200 meters from the Abyss Fortress. Seeing Marco awaken,
the archer captain, Lauren Hawk-eye, handed Marco a bowl of hot soup. It was a mixed stew of venison and black bread, and due to the lack of spices, it had a strong gamey smell.
Marco endured the smell and drank it down. During the march these past few days, he had taught everyone how to use smokeless earthen stoves, so everyone had been eating hot food in the evenings.
Marco turned his head and saw the soldiers were gradually climbing out of the earthen pits and tents to start preparing food. He, himself, dispatched the Griffon, Swan, and Fang to scout ahead, planning to launch an immediate attack after assessing the situation.
After determining the distance, Marco began to arrange the work for his subordinates. This time, the mission was for Marco to first attack the Unicorn, followed by the soldiers providing support and ambushing any pursuers. After arranging everything, Marco mounted the Griffon, Swan, and took to the sky.
The cave where the Abyss Fortress was located was a natural limestone karst cave. There was a large fir tree on the top of the cave, and beneath it was a silver Unicorn lying down.
Its coat was incredibly luminous, radiating an aura of holiness. Its massive, spiraling horn looked remarkably similar to the narwhal Marco had seen at the seaside.
No wonder the Bloodstone Elder had said that merchants often came here to collect narwhal horns to sell on the continent; the two were indeed identical in appearance.
The Unicorn had just finished eating the food the humans had offered, which consisted of nothing but apples and grass. After so many years, it was already tired of it!
It had always wanted to go out and explore, but the human who could communicate with it had told it that humans outside would slaughter Unicorns, and that only the Abyss Fortress was a place that truly protected it.
Although the Unicorn didn't completely believe this, it had grown accustomed to a life where all its needs were met, so it could only stay, as if "resigned" to its fate.
Suddenly, the Unicorn's keen sense of smell detected two unique scents. It looked around, but didn't see any creatures matching the scents.
Then, the Unicorn's ears twitched. It raised its head and saw a Griffon-like monster descending from the sky, and a silver-haired human instantly jumped off the monster and appeared before it.
Looking at the human standing in front of it, the Unicorn was startled. It immediately rolled over and stood up, its face wary as it watched the human before it.
Marco looked at the unicorn in front of him and found that it looked very similar to the sacred unicorn of the forest faction, only it looked much shorter and was a bit dirty.
Looking at the beautiful creature, which was full of wariness, Marco smiled at it and said:
"Hello! Unicorn! My name is Marco Bellerris. I am the master of a castle. Can I invite you to become my companion? I can make your life better! You'll have clean food and spring water!"
As soon as he finished speaking, an interface popped up in front of Marco, which read:
"Diplomacy skill activated! You have eloquently persuaded a wild unicorn, and it has decided to join your team, but you need to spend 1800 gold. Do you want to spend it?"
Marco didn't hesitate to choose yes, and 1800 gold resources disappeared instantly, but Marco didn't feel the least bit distressed. The success of this step in his plan would bring him more rewards.
After a flash of dazzling golden light, the unicorn became more beautiful and taller. It turned its head and looked at its own body.
Excitedly, it rubbed its head against Marco. Marco gently patted it, flipped over, and mounted its back, saying to it:
"From now on, you'll be called Silverflash! Let's go! Leave here with me!"
The Unicorn, Silverflash, let out a long, mournful cry into the sky, then bounded a few times before reaching the entrance of the Abyss Fortress. It neighed a few times towards the Kraul Clan members, as if bidding them farewell.
Jarl III was a scout of the Abyss Fortress, and today, he was responsible for protecting the sacred tree and the Unicorn, along with five other clan members.
Just moments ago, a violent burst of light suddenly appeared near the sacred tree. Immediately after, they saw a silver-haired youth riding a significantly taller Unicorn charge towards the entrance of the tribe.
Marco looked at the somewhat panicked Kraul Clan warriors and smiled slightly, speaking to them in ancient language:
"Sacred beast! Belongs to me! Your! Tribe! Weak! Hahaha!"
After saying this, he directed the Unicorn to run towards the mountains. The Kraul Clan warriors, seeing this, were a little slow to react at first. Once they did, they roared and charged towards Marco.
Marco guided the Unicorn towards the mountain valley where his troops were hidden. More than a thousand warriors from the tribe poured out, one after another.
Among the warriors, both men and women, all charged towards Marco, wielding obsidian weapons of various shapes. After running for about 300 meters, Marco led them into the ambush.
When Marco reached the trap, he suddenly shouted. The Unicorn, hearing this, leaped over five meters. Marco then stopped it and dismounted.
As the Kraul Clan warriors charged forward, Marco cleverly hid behind the Unicorn, protecting himself from the tribal warriors' obsidian arrows.
The thirty or so warriors in the lead saw Marco stop and, without thinking, howled as they charged towards him. With a "boom," all thirty or so fell into a deep pit.
Immediately, several bundles of smoking thatch were thrown in, and violent coughing erupted from the pit.
In the middle of the half-dry, half-wet thatch bundles was a dry pine log coated with whale oil. The highly flammable pine, combined with the whale oil, would burn quickly. However, because the thatch was not easily flammable, it produced a large amount of thick smoke.
The tribal warriors who followed were unable to provide rescue before the huge logs rolling down from both sides of the valley disrupted their formation.
Then, a dozen more bundles of smoking thatch were thrown down. The Griffon, Swan, cried out and flapped its massive wings, pushing down the smoke.
In less than three minutes, Marco's initial assault had completely caught this nearly thousand-strong force off guard.
The Kraul Clan warriors scrambled towards the valleys on either side, only to find bundles of thorny vines halfway up the slopes. What made it even worse was that they seemed to be coated in poison.
Warriors who were cut immediately felt their palms go numb. Within minutes, they were unable to grip their weapons. This was a poison concocted by the Bloodstone Elder, often used by the tribe's warriors to hunt whales and seals.
The effects usually didn't last long, about twenty minutes at most, before the paralysis began to fade.
And so, under Marco's skillful maneuvers, this almost thousand-strong force from the Abyss Fortress's Kraul Clan was completely routed.
The captured warriors were all force-fed the poison. They were then lined up, with logs placed on their shoulders, bound together. Their hands were secured to the logs, twenty men to a row, and they were marched towards the Abyss Fortress.
At this time, the Abyss Fortress was filled with the elderly, the weak, and women and children. Fearing that the burning straw would suffocate those inside the cave, Marco spent another ten minutes dealing with the remaining warriors.
According to the prisoners, the chieftain, Henk, had been gone for over ten days and was expected to return to the tribe by tomorrow evening at the latest.
At this moment, the captured warriors were all dejected. In the Kraul Clan's understanding, they had always been the overlords of Skaggs Island. They never expected to fail against these outsiders, who numbered less than a hundred.
Marco told them in the ancient language that he was the Unicorn's master, and the Kraul Clan of the Abyss Fortress must submit to him.
The Unicorn also neighed at the right moment, emitting a dazzling light. The Unicorn had completely grown into the Holy Unicorn from Heroes of Might and Magic.
Marco estimated that the gold resources had played a role. The Unicorn's appearance was now incomparably more beautiful than before, and its power was also much greater.
The powerful aura emanating from it forced all the Kraul people to retreat. Marco patted its head to encourage it, and the Unicorn, Silverflash, snorted contentedly and closed its eyes.
Seeing this, all the clansmen turned their gazes towards a tall and burly man, whose body was covered in knotted muscles, full of explosive power.
He looked at the Unicorn, then at Marco. Gritting his teeth, he spoke to Marco in the ancient language:
"Yes! We pledge loyalty! Okay! You! Defeated me! I am! Mans!"
Marco squinted at him. He'd heard from the Bloodstone Elder that the Kraul Clan of the Abyss Fortress revered strength and magical power.
It seemed he needed to demonstrate the power of magic. Marco looked at the warrior, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"Alright! Come..."
At that moment, an archer ran in, reporting to Marco:
"My Lord! They're here!"