Sellia Town was not small in scale, and due to various reasons that had caused population loss over time, the vast majority of the houses there now stood empty.
Accommodating the Drakeblood Knights along with their Dragonbeasts was more than sufficient, there was no shortage of space at all.
The Drakeblood Knights were quickly assigned lodging and then began a full night of rest.
After traveling and fighting for an entire day, and with another battle awaiting them tomorrow, maintaining good condition was essential.
Meanwhile, the Sorcerers of Sellia began packing up their few remaining belongings, preparing to migrate to Stormveil—
By the next day, the Drakeblood Knight Legion advanced in great force toward the Sellia Crystal Tunnel.
Unless the Drakeblood Knights encountered enemies they truly could not handle, Lucian had no intention of intervening personally, instead allowing them to fight on their own.
Although seeing casualties would undoubtedly cause him pain, what Lucian needed was an army capable of fighting and killing on the battlefield for him, not a group of useless soldiers who could only advance under his protection.
Lucian led the Drakeblood Knights into the interior of the tunnel.
The narrow entrance of the tunnel severely limited the speed at which the Drakeblood Knights could enter.
Due to the size of the Dragonbeasts, only three or four knights could advance at the same time.
If the walls on both sides were taken into account, a few Dragonbeasts could also climb along each side.
However, as the Drakeblood Knights had only recently begun working with these Dragonbeasts, it was clear they were not yet accustomed to this kind of side-climbing that resembled a stunt performance.
After all, gravity was still functioning perfectly.
This crystal tunnel was located within the mountain itself, and the internal terrain was extremely complex.
Not only did it extend deep horizontally, but there were also significant vertical drops inside, often requiring stairways to move between levels.
The tunnel could be considered a location that was easy to defend and hard to attack, capable of using elevation differences to block enemies.
However, for the Drakeblood Knight Legion now riding Dragonbeasts, it was no longer such a major obstacle.
The Dragonbeasts possessed extremely strong vertical climbing abilities, this kind of tunnel terrain was precisely where they could shine.
Just after entering the crystal tunnel, the Drakeblood Knights encountered a large number of rotspawn.
This was a cavern somewhat wider than the connecting passages, divided into upper and lower levels by stairways.
The rotspawn had originally been resting there, lying prone on the ground with their tails raised high, their tendrils swaying idly.
Upon seeing the attackers enter, they were startled, then immediately scrambled to their feet.
The rotspawn raised their Glaives and blocked the path of the Drakeblood Knights' advance.
Behind them, several more rotspawn began destroying the stairways leading upward.
One of the rotspawn let out a loud, piercing screech from its mouth—an incomprehensible sound to human ears.
The screech echoed throughout the cavern, quickly spreading news of the enemy invasion to other companions in nearby tunnels.
In an instant, screeches of all kinds rose and fell throughout the cavern.
After relaying the information among themselves, all the rotspawn within the tunnel became aware of the intrusion.
The few Drakeblood Knights who had rushed in first immediately urged their Dragonbeasts to accelerate again, launching a fierce forward charge.
Although this cavern was relatively wider, it was still not wide enough to properly deploy forces.
The rotspawn had already been alerted, and it was inevitable that large numbers of enemies would soon pour out from deeper within the tunnel.
If they became bogged down in direct combat in such a confined space, only the few knights at the very front would be able to fight, isolated and overwhelmed.
Therefore, this vanguard force had to break through immediately and reach the larger caverns beyond, where the army could fully deploy its formation.
Several rotspawn swung their glaives, attempting to stop the charging Drakeblood Knights.
The Drakeblood Knights merely blocked the attacks with their shields, ignored the enemies entirely, and charged straight through.
These vanguards did not need to kill the rotspawn here—they only needed to keep advancing and break open the path.
The comrades following behind would deal with them.
In fact, before the knights behind could even strike, the rotspawn were already crushed beneath the Dragonbeasts' pounding footsteps.
As the Drakeblood Knights continued their relentless charge, they quickly broke through the passage and caught sight of the massive space beyond.
However, just one step away from exiting the passage, countless rotspawn appeared at the tunnel's end, packed so densely that their numbers were impossible to estimate.
The rotspawn raised their weapons high and sprayed countless threads of insects from special organs in their bodies.
The dense insect threads came down like a torrential rain, blotting out the sky.
The Drakeblood Knights raised their shields in front of them, letting the dense threads strike with clanging impacts, never once slowing their charge.
The insect threads left pockmarked dents even on the shields—clearly, their destructive power was not trivial.
Armor not covered by shields was quickly pierced through, spraying blood.
The Dragonbeasts were in even worse condition, their bodies riddled with holes, large amounts of silvery blood splattering out.
Upon realizing that the insect threads caused severe damage to the Dragonbeasts, the Drakeblood Knights shifted their shields to protect the beasts' heads.
The Dragonbeasts were the key to breaking through the blockade, they absolutely could not fall.
Fortunately, although the Dragonbeasts were heavily injured, as artificial creatures they did not lose their ability to act.
Ignoring the damage to their bodies entirely, they slammed through dozens of rotspawn in one charge, finally bursting out of the passage into the vast cavern beyond.
Although the vanguard was immediately surrounded by rotspawn, behind them, large numbers of comrades were already pouring out of the passage in succession.
Once more than a dozen Drakeblood Knights had emerged, the rotspawn were no longer able to stop them, only able to watch helplessly as more and more Drakeblood Knights spread their formation along the cavern walls.
The Drakeblood Knights moved to shield the comrades who had charged first, taking over the battle that followed.
The Drakeblood Knights and the rotspawn officially clashed at close quarters, and the battlefield immediately turned into a scene resembling a meat grinder.
Although the rotspawn's weapons had been processed and could be considered passable, they lacked proper armor, relying solely on the natural carapace covering their bodies for defense.
Under the Drakeblood Knights' greatswords, that carapace proved far too fragile.
As the Drakeblood greatswords swept through, the rotspawn were instantly severed apart, flesh and blood flying everywhere.
The sorcerers of Sellia Town also entered the battlefield, providing a large amount of offensive support.
Stella released Eternal Darkness, summoning a massive void of blackness in the center of the cavern.
The dense insect threads were completely swallowed by the darkness, and the Drakeblood Knights no longer needed to worry about long-range attacks.
The Drakeblood Knights continued exterminating the rotspawn, rapidly pushing their battle line forward.
However, among them were certain special rotspawn whose appearance was almost indistinguishable from the others.
Yet the viscous fluid splashing from their bodies was noticeably thinner, and its color far darker.
At first, when this blood splattered onto the ground, no one noticed anything unusual.
But after a few breaths of time passed and the blood evaporated, an anomaly appeared on the battlefield.
Gradually, some Drakeblood Knights began showing abnormal reactions.
One Drakeblood Knight was just about to swing his blade and cut down the rotspawn in front of him when he suddenly felt his entire body go numb.
In that instant, he was hooked off his Dragonbeast by a long halberd, and glaives rained down on his body.
This situation was not an isolated case, and Hakkan quickly realized that the air in the area was poisonous.
He immediately ordered the troops to accelerate their advance, avoiding prolonged exposure in the same location.
After clearing out the rotspawn around their fallen comrades, most of the knights were still able to stand back up.
The Drakeblood Knights' armor had absorbed a tremendous amount of damage, preventing them from being immediately killed by the rotspawn—though the majority had been afflicted with Scarlet Rot by the Pest's Glaive.
However, a small number of Drakeblood Knights were less fortunate, killed through the gaps in their armor.
As the number of rotspawn in the area dwindled, a special screech echoed from deeper behind.
After hearing that sound, only a small portion of the rotspawn remained behind to block the way, while the rest all retreated deeper into the tunnel.
Hakkan did not allow the Drakeblood Knights to pursue.
Behind lay territory that the rotspawn had occupied for a long time, traps and ambushes were likely extremely dense.
Charging in recklessly would not be a wise choice; it was better to first secure this space, which was suitable for combat.
Hakkan instructed the knights to tend to the wounded and began reorganizing the Dragonbeasts.
He ordered the Drakeblood Knights who had previously been positioned at the rear to rotate to the front, while those who had just fought were told to rest.
There was no attempt to count how many rotspawn had been slain.
With corpses covering the ground, it was impossible to tally accurately—but even by conservative estimates, there were at least a thousand.
A quick count of the wounded was conducted.
Eighty to ninety knights had suffered injuries of varying severity, including physical wounds, poisoning, and Scarlet Rot.
Around twelve or thirteen had died outright in the recent slaughter.
Most of the fallen were from the first wave of Drakeblood Knights who had charged in.
Hakkan looked at the bodies before him and shook his head.
To penetrate this far at the cost of so few lives was already an excellent result.
Hakkan took out the Neutralizing Boluses he had received from Lucian and administered them to the Drakeblood Knights afflicted with Scarlet Rot.
The wounded were gathered together, and those among the Drakeblood Knights who could use incantations performed unified healing on them.
Once the treatment was complete, the injured knights all stood back up, lively and vigorous once more.
Lucian had been observing the battle from the sidelines the entire time, wanting to see how the Drakeblood Knight Legion would perform.
Although he had never seen a proper medieval army fight in reality, the Drakeblood Knights' performance was indeed quite impressive.
Aside from their relative lack of ranged methods—only a few were capable of using Storm Blade—their overall combat capability was very solid.
Of course, this was also related to the disparity in individual strength.
The rotspawn were slightly weaker than ordinary soldiers, which contributed to such results.
The Drakeblood Knights secured the entire cavern and sealed off all exits leading elsewhere, preparing to wait for the next stage of the cleanup.
However, at that moment, an enormous disturbance suddenly erupted from one part of the cavern.
The sound was like that of a massive gate being forced open.
Immediately afterward, thunderous hoofbeats echoed from within the cavern, growing closer and closer.
The Drakeblood Knights braced themselves and gathered in formation in front of the passage from which the noise originated.
After a short while, several rotspawn burst out of the tunnel in a frantic rush.
Even upon seeing the path ahead completely blocked by Drakeblood Knights, they were unwilling to stop.
Because behind them, something far more terrifying was giving chase.
The Drakeblood Knights cut down these rotspawn without exception—and finally saw what kind of creature was pursuing them.
A rock-like beast with enormous twin jaws emerged from the passage.
It was none other than a Fallingstar Beast—one of the creatures that had descended upon the Lands Between from the starry sky.