Crossing Swords

Perhaps Im not! Goliath laughed.

Richard just shrugged, So, whats the test?

No need to rush. Youve marched all day and havent eaten yet, come, Ive prepared food; a thousand portions. I dont want people saying I bullied Gatons child.

Richard froze for a moment but then grinned, Alright. My knights eat quite a lot, though, a thousand portions is far from enough. Still, shadowspears!

The elite shadowspear knights uniformly spurred their horses forward, the entire formation moving ten metres ahead as they dismounted under Richards command. All 300 entered Goliaths camp under the guidance of the Earls soldiers, sitting ten people a wok and starting to eat.

As Goliath watched these elite knights eat, his eyelids twitched a bit, Astonishing!

Eh, theyre alright, Richard brushed it off. Now that the broodmother was level 9, the elites she produced could reach level 14. This batch of level 13 knights were destined to be used up sooner or later, so he wouldnt mind the danger of letting them go in.

So, he repeated, Whats the test?

Lets have a battle of rune knights, Goliath suggested.

Richard shook his head, Maybe if Saurons knights joined yours, youd last a few minutes. Right now, its definitely impossible. Even in terms of followers youre no match for me, looks like you havent pulled anything out of your personal plane.

Goliath glanced towards the head of Richards army. His eyes narrowed as he saw Asiris, Senma, and Lina, but the sight of Io, Nyra, Waterflower, Phaser, and Tiramisu surprised him as well. Who wouldve thought the knights Gaton left behind would come under you so quickly, he commented.

Theres still two who arent as nice, Richard stated bluntly.

Goliath nodded, So what do you propose?

Ill use the 300 regular knights I have against your rune knights. We can only command them from the outside, no assistance from the rest of our armies. How about that?

Interesting suggestion Alright, lets do it. I want to see how good Gatons kid is at command!

Richard, Earl. I am not Gatons kid.

Win the battle and you wont be anymore! Goliath laughed loudly.

It wasnt long before the shadowspear knights regrouped. Opposite them were Goliaths rune knights, arrayed into a square formation. The Earl himself mounted an abnormally tall, dark horse with blood-red hooves and galloped around his soldiers a few times. He then waved and pointed towards Richards own formation, bellowing, Knights, advance!

Dazzling lights shone on these fifty rune knights as they activated their runes. Most of them were only grade 1, but a gathering of so many was still significantly loud and threatening. Richard felt his blood heating up, pointing ahead himself and roaring, Charge!

The elite shadowspear knights immediately split into two, one going to the left and the other to the right as they charged towards the rune knights at an angle. Goliath was immediately stunned, not having expected a change in formation in such a short distance. He was at a disadvantage from the start; if his company couldnt break through one of the sides, his flanks and even the back would be exposed.

There was usually no need to worry about rune knights ability to break through enemy formations, but having seen these knights eat and line up, Goliath had instinctively felt threatened. Thankfully, he was a decisive person and immediately had his men try and break into the left flank.

The square formation angled into its target, greeting the shadowspear knights head on. The collision was brutal; in a mere instant, more than twenty of Richards drones had been pierced by spears. However, those that were attacked held onto their opponents weapons with a death grip, legs firmly held against the mounts. The mounts did their part as well, roaring as the muscles on their bodies flexed and the four hooves dug deep into the ground to resist the momentum.

These mounts from the broodmother had stamina and strength that could outlast an actual rune knights mount, but they couldnt stop the full-strength attack of a rune knight himself. The berserking energy drilled into their bodies and crushed their bones, slowly sending them crumbling to the ground.

However, the charge had been stopped. Goliaths eyes narrowed; his first assault, the strongest, had only killed twenty ordinary knights? The enemy formation wasnt even messed up, and the flank was starting to close in!

Raise your spears! the Earl yelled, and the rune knights in the front immediately did as ordered. This was a common move used by rune knights in their assaults, lifting man and horse into the sky and throwing them away to free up space to maintain speed. The standard rune knight was capable of swinging away multiple tonnes without issue.

However, as these rune knights tried to do so, they found that the enemies seemed to weight more than fifteen tonnes each! Even though they put in their all, their spears barely moved! To make matters worse, the knights that had been pierced were still trying to neutralise the gushing energy so they couldnt even do anything about it. Two free knights pulled up next to every pierced one, crossing their spears to neutralise the attacking rune knights completely. It was almost like they were facing a bunch of six-armed monster that was almost purely focused on defence.

The charge thus came to a complete standstill. Goliaths expression warped as another group of shadowspear knights darted into the formation, the frontlines not even caring for personal safety as they ignored all attacks to thrust their lances into the opponents body. The assault formation was unimaginably tight, three knights crowding into the space that one would occupy in any other army. With the limited contact on the battlefield, every rune knight was going up against three opponents at a time!

The rune knights were not infallible. The full-power attack from the elites could still break through their armour, leaving terrifying and sometimes lethal injuries on them. These knights didnt even care about the retaliation, content with trading blow for blow and life for life.

On top of that, the entire formation seemed to be a single body. Every injured knight stopped the weapon of his attacker, giving a chance for those on his left and right to attack. Some rune knights were even attacked by six or seven at once!

All this while, Richards unicorn was galloping around the battlefield while he was yelling commands non-stop. Team 1 defence! Team 2 one metre forward! Team 3 attack the left!

The elite shadowspear knights utterly crushed the rune knights under Richards commands, attacking the heads, legs, mounts, all in tandem without affecting each other. The formation seemed to be harvesting lives one after the other.

Most terrifying was just how precise Richards commands were. How could the knights follow through on the orders in the middle of this fierce melee? Goliaths commands were a stark contrast from Richards: Hold on! Behind you! Careful!

The rune knights were now in complete disarray. As more and more collapsed, the empty space expanded and gave the shadowspear knights even more flanking opportunities. Now, there were five or six attacking every single rune knight.

Goliath did his best to decipher Richards commands, but he couldnt see the order in the chaos at all. He didnt understand what team 1 was, what team 3 was. There were times that Richard called for defence, but all of the knights seemed to be on the offence. The thought that it was a farce crossed his mind, but then how was the formation so exquisite and coordinated?

Of course, Goliath didnt know that Richards commands were just meaningless words he was shouting to add to the confusion. The real commands were being transmitted directly to the minds of the shadowspear knights. Although 300 was too many to command individually even if he had another upgrade to his blessing of wisdom, he could group them into threes and thus command a hundred nodes simultaneously.