dognovel Chapter 225: Undercurrent in the Sewer
Chapter 225: Undercurrent in the Sewer
The fire at Saint-Remy burned for a day and a night without being extinguished, and Charles used this time to count the losses of the army.
"So far, a total of 527 soldiers have been bitten by rats, of which 321 soldiers have developed symptoms such as coughing and headaches, and 59 soldiers are currently in a state of fever and coma."
After listening to what the army doctor said, Charlie truly felt the severity of the plague for the first time. Although he often saw corpses dumped in groups before, he still felt that his mercenaries could withstand the plague with adequate food and exercise. He didn't expect that they would be infected just by being bitten by these rats.
"Isolate the wounded soldiers, give them medicine on time every day, and use the freshest ingredients for their meals." Charlie said to the quartermaster beside him. If they were sent back to Milo Territory now, a group of them might die on the way, and the plague might also break out in the base camp. Even if they set out now, it would be too late. All Charlie can do now is to provide them with fresh meals and medicines. Even if it may not have much effect, he must at least try his best to save the lives of these brothers who have shared weal and woe with him.
Looking at the fire in Saint-Remy in the distance, Charles changed his previous indifferent attitude towards this action and called the officers to discuss how to carry out the next urban street fighting. After a brief discussion, everyone unanimously decided to occupy the main road leading to the church and the town hall first, and then march to other places in the city.
In the early morning of the next day, after no smoke could be seen through the telescope, the soldiers who had been prepared and wearing protective clothing rushed into the city under the leadership of the officers. In order to facilitate the soldiers' movements in the previous battle, Charlie made some adjustments to the protective clothing, replacing the joints with flexible leather so that the soldiers could better use their weapons and improve their efficiency in close combat.
It took the soldiers who entered the city only an hour to occupy the remains of a series of public facilities, including the former headquarters of Blackwatch here. However, most of them have become ruins, with only some broken walls and ruins remaining to prove that there were once buildings here.
However, in the process, all the soldiers saw was nothing but charcoal in the shape of burnt rats. The rats that had once bitten them seemed to have been burned to death by the previous fire. Even when the soldiers went deep into every alley in Saint-Remy, there were no living creatures. The entire city seemed to have become a dead city due to the fire.
After hearing the officers' reports, Charlie, who already had experience in dealing with the situation, ordered:
"Keep searching. We can't end it like this. See if there are any tunnels nearby. If there aren't any, go into the sewers. Anyway, we've injured so many brothers this time. We have to dig them out even if we have to dig three feet underground. Even if they die, we have to find their bodies intact!"
The soldiers who received the order quickly searched all the cellars they could find in the city. After finding nothing, the officers unanimously believed that if the cultist had not escaped yet, he might be hiding in the sewers. Then they blocked all the sewer outlets.
Looking at the dark and deep sewer entrance in front of him, Charlie was about to organize soldiers to explore further when he was stopped by Payen:
"The sewer is too narrow. It will be difficult to move too many people in. My knights have extensive experience in fighting against apostles. Let us lead the charge this time. If we fail to return within a day, you can come to support us."
Seeing his good brother say this, Charlie could only say:
"Well, I wish you a victorious return."
In this way, 200 Crusader Knights armed with various weapons entered the sewer from different entrances. As the knights in armor went deeper into the sewer, large amounts of water were splashed as their iron boots fell into the deep ditch. There was no other sound in the entire sewer except the splashing sound.
Although the foul smell lingered around the knights all the time, they had long been accustomed to it and still went deeper into the sewer according to the sewer map Charlie had given them before. After all, they had become accustomed to the smell of blood and had long been immune to this pungent smell.
The knight team led by Pa Ying went deep into the sewer according to the original plan. His team consisted of forty people including himself. In order to deal with various sudden battles, the knights carried different weapons, from swords to crossbows and muskets, and everyone had his own division of labor.
Suddenly, the knight in front was about to continue moving forward when a huge force from underwater pulled his feet. He was caught off guard and his feet slipped. He was tripped in an instant and fell heavily into the deep ditch.
Seeing this, the knights immediately helped him up. Fortunately, nothing was wrong. When the knight lifted his foot to see what it was, he saw a creature with a rat head and a snake tail wrapped around his iron boot and crawling towards his leg.
“Hiss—”
Seeing that it had been discovered, the snake monster after leaving the water let out a strange cry and pounced towards the knight. Fortunately, it was blocked by the knight's shield and then thrown to the ground. Although its sneak attack failed, it did not seem to give up and continued to crawl towards the knights. Then a knight cut off its head with an axe.
Looking at the rat head with fish gills twitching constantly in front of them, the knights felt a little bit weird. After crushing it into a meat patty, they continued to go deeper inside. While they remained alert, they used their weapons to stir the deep ditch while advancing to prevent monsters from remaining in the sewer waiting to attack them.
Although they encountered several sneak attacks along the way, they were easily resolved with the cooperation of the knights. Countless rat creatures were killed by them and their bodies were scattered in the sewer. Through one battle after another, the knights realized that the cultist had not left and was still hiding in the sewer.
Deep in the sewer, after realizing that his several rounds of attacks had been repelled, the man in black robe fell into an unprecedented crisis.
As the meat used to produce rats was almost used up, and under the joint blockade of the Knights and Black Watch, he not only could not obtain any supplies, but his rat army was also completely wiped out. Although he had completed many experimental theories of biological research, under the current circumstances it was simply unable to help him resist the invasion of the Knights.
In order to make a final resistance, he gathered all the rodents deep in the sewer. When he saw that the rat army he had accumulated over the years was reduced to just a few remnants, he squatted down, touched one of the rats, and said to himself:
"It seems that I have underestimated the mortal army. You came from my body and you have to go back to my body again."
At the same time, all the rodent creatures seemed to have received the same signal and rushed towards the direction of the man in black robe, and kept crawling under his black robe. The man in black robe's body began to expand continuously, so that the human shape under the black robe gradually collapsed, and the entire black robe was torn apart by the madly growing body. In the reflection of the candlelight, his body had expanded enough to fill up the entire basement, as if a behemoth was about to come.