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Knight Commander, Weiss Stollen stepped up for the duel.
One of <Hundred Ogres Subduers>, a bear beastman called Baragua took him on.
Despite Weiss's reputation as a mighty gallant warrior, the match was pretty much a one sided beatdown with him on the receiving end. He would have died if not for a God Cure the king let them carry.
Next up Zaifad Kacchin a vice commander stepped up.
A crocodile beastman, Girigug, another <Hundred Ogres Subduer> accepted the challenge.
At first they seemed to be an equal match, but Zaifad found himself in a precarious state once his <Shield of Wolkan> got blown away, and lost after suffering a serious injury.
Next, vice commander Neisan Aspell stepped up.
And yet another <Hundred Ogres Subduers>, Ios, a silver fox beastman took him on.
Ios made a mince meat out of Neisan by employing high speed movement and sharp rapiers. Neisan fell down the ground all bloodied and minced up.
Afterward, Royal Mage commander, Rushid Niro challenged them.
However, the beastmen refused to accept this. Boudo told them that representative duels would end with the third one, since that's the rule.
Afterward, none could really explain what actually happened.
Either some of the Mage Knights, or the Royal Knights or perhaps even both of them flew off the handle. With Zaifad and Neisan incapacitated, Weiss was unable to stop them on his own.
Both the Royal Mages and Royal Knights are drilled with strict disciplines, but they lack experience in actual battlefields. They could not bear the tension and pressure. That was seen as the cause of the breach of commands.
Without effective command chains, it turned into a huge scuffle, the Royal Knights and Royal Mages managed to escape with 52 casualties.
12 of which were knights, and 6 mages.
The beastmen did not make any attempt to capture nor go after them.
"The chaotic panic that ensued once that news came through was simply horrible. I had already dispatched 150 knights to the Royal Capital, yet I still got asked to send more, directly in person without going through PM Office. By several people."
"Is the royal palace not the same thing as the PM Office?"
"Those with official positions possess great authority on them in our kingdom. Below the king is Prime Minister, and below that is Prime Minister Office. Every single policy is managed there. Even high ranking nobles cannot ignore decrees issued by PM Office, publicly at least. However, the royal palace is the house of royalty with a traffic of all kinds of nobles going in and out. Some of which hold influences in some regions to some people or to some businesses. Even PM Office is aware that going through these certain individuals would be less headache inducing. Thus even without official positions, these individuals effectively intervene with PM Office and hold a certain amount of sways. Also, civil and military officials who maintain the royal palace's functions may publicly be under PM Office commands, but the reality isn't so simple."
The royal capital believed that Guido Imperial Army would immediately move out of Daina to launch their assault on the capital, yet the army kept maintaining their position at Daina.
Meanwhile, Zaka Kingdom finished amassing their knights as more and more assembled in the capital.
200 Marquis of Mashajain knights.
200 Marquis of Tranche knights.
50 Egis adventurers.
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
100 Tsubolt adventurers.
50 Wado adventurers.
200 Marquis of Gido knights.
350 Marquis of Smarch knights.
And 30 Earl of Daina knights.
80 Royal Knights and 15 Royal Mages.
A total of around 1300 knights and adventurers have gathered in the capital. Adding squires, foot soldiers, spearsmen, archers and mages, the number gets to 5000.
Palcimo mages have yet to arrive even now, but with so much forces concentrated in one spot, many started voicing the urge to take the initiative and launch an assault.
Thus, on the 35th of month three, the first detachment of the knights departed the capital to repel the invaders.
"Two knight groups sortied out here. 350 Knights of Smarc with 50 Wado adventurers under their commands. 200 Knights of Tranche with 50 Egis adventures under them."
Smarc Knights didn't have foot soldiers or spearsmen, but they had 100 powerful archers, 50 mages and 350 squires with them. Their total forces amount to 850. With adventurers this number swelled up to 900.
Tranche Knights were accompanied by 100 foot soldiers, 100 archers and 30 mages. 430 in total.
Marquis of Smarc dispatching 350 of his knights is quite on the numerous side. Apparently he wished to make amend for the fiasco of dishonoring Zaka king by accusing Lecan of not being an otherworld noble in the king's presence before.
"We only found out later that Guido Imperial Army had left Daina on the first of month four."
"So those guys ended up staying at Daina for, err, a hundred days."
"It would be 135 days. I do wonder what they had been doing staying for so long there."
"Hm? Course it's Daina. They went and explored the dungeon."
"Hahaha. So you are saying they went and decreased their forces even further in a dungeon right in the middle of a war with another country. But if the commander is as much a dungeon lover as you are, it might not be far fetched indeed."
"Then whaddya think they were up to."
"PM Office hypothesized that they were observing humans, gathering information on Zaka Kingdom and refining strategies."
"Oh yeah, just remembered. I got stronger once I started diving in this world's dungeons. The rate of which was a bit abnormal so I asked a certain individual the reason."
"A certain individual huh."
"That individual told me that I had reached my growth limit in my world, but by defeating magic beasts in this world, ones I had never encountered before, I hit a new growth spurt."
"Curious, but what does that have to do with Guido Imperial Army?"
"Got a feeling that those guys been diving in dungeons in their country. And they beat new kinds of magic beasts in this country. Lots and lots of tough magic beasts in a Grand Dungeon."
"...Do you mean to say that they have attained an even higher height of strength then."
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