At the Eberbach estate in the capital, Sodina had approached Zwei after she saw the swift bird that delivered daily reports about Elrich's campaign. Though she was confident about her father and his subordinates, she was taught that there were always unexpected things that occurred on the battlefield.

"Eh? Father took the Sabretooth tribe with him to battle?" Sodina was surprised after she asked Zwei who her father took with him to the Keller territory.

"That is correct young miss. Though Elrich-sama wanted to hide them from prying eyes, the tribe was adamant about going to battle after they heard why the duke himself was leading the forces to battle.

Sodina had just been a child when she first encountered the sabretooth tribe. They were brought into one of the strongholds she was visiting with her father after they had lost the battle at the Keller territory.

Elrich wanted to learn why such a reclusive tribe tried to attack their kingdom so suddenly. The captured warriors were asked to stay in one of the Eberbach strongholds while a few of them were sent back to their tribes so that they could talk to their elders about the situation.

After just facing each other in battle, both sides were not on good terms with each other. Even Elrich couldn't control such things as both sides were quite prideful. It lasted until a small little girl approached the ferocious-looking beast men and immediately hugged them while calling them cute without any fear.

She protected them and scolded anyone who spoke or even looked badly on them. This was the reason why the sabretooth tribe was quite attached to the young miss of the Eberbach family. Sodina was the bridge that brought the two together.

"Those guys…" she sighed. They were the last group of people who she wanted to know about what happened. She now felt pity towards duke Keller and whoever decided to go up against the forces that her father bought with him.

"I hope those guys don't go too wild…"

-

The Sabretooth tribe was one of the beast races that struck fear into the hearts of those who had served the Keller Earldom. Some of the soldiers even used stories on their own children in which the Sabretooth tribe was used as the representation of fear.

Over a hundred tribesmen had attacked the Earldom in the past. These units had been enough to strike fear into the hearts of those who fought against them at that time. Now they were standing in the midst of 500 of them led by none other than the b.l.o.o.d.y duke himself.

"Attack!" Paul panicked as soon as he saw one of the elite soldiers at the back, dropped his weapons and knelt down. This would have caused a chain reaction so he had no choice but to order his men before they began to harbor such thoughts.

"Do not kill their commander. He's mine." Elrich commanded. "Everyone else who doesn't surrender is fair game."

*ROAR!!* the sabretooth tribesmen gave a fierce battle cry before charging forward.

Paul stood at the back of his subordinates and moved slowly. He looked back at the soldiers that remained in their makes.h.i.+ft stronghold and was immediately angered. While there weren't many from his elite forces that kneeled down and cast away their weapons, all the others who he had brought along with him had succ.u.mbed to fear and looked like they were scared s.h.i.+tless.

*SLASH*

Paul struck down one of his own men who had frozen in fear after hearing the intimidating roars.

"All those who dare stop will not be given a glorious end in battle! They will be labeled as cowards who refused to face their enemies!" Paul declared loudly.

*ROAR* one of the sabretooth clansmen leading the charge leaped right in front of Paul's men.

"AHH!!" one swipe from the tribesman's arm had decapitated the elite soldier.

While they indeed carried weapons with them, there were very few sabretooth clansmen who drew their weapons. Their claws were enough to deal with enemies who obviously feared them after their last clash.

To those who were observing the battle, it was now obvious that the armors that these beast men had taken off were nothing but a mere disguise. They were much more ferocious and fearsome with the armor off than on.

"GAHHH!!"

"NOOO!!"

"SAVE ME!!!"

These were not the noises that should have been made at the battlefield. These were the sounds that were made during a slaughter.

The battle that was supposed to be in favor of Paul Keller's thousand elites had been unfolding like no one had antic.i.p.ated. It was too one-sided. A new unit that had only been revealed today had proven that the power of the Eberbach house had not declined. It only continued to grow stronger.

"GAHAHAHAHA! Death to all those who stand against Sodinchan!" one of the sabretooth commanders shouted as he crushed the head of one of the Elite commanders.

*SLASH* a sneak attack suddenly came from his flank.

"Huh?" he scratched his head after nimbly evading. "You're that Keller guy right?"

"…" Paul barely maintained control of his mount that had started to show fear in front of the sabretooth commander.

"As much as I would like to tear you to pieces, I'll leave that to Elrich-san. He's been holding back all that rage since that happened after all." He smirked and threw the corpse he still held towards another soldier who was coming to attack him.

*CRASH*

"Your kingdom is made up of a pretty dumb bunch. Going against each other instead of just conquering other places? Going against someone like Elrich-san who has done so much for this human kingdom? This is why I don't understand humans." He ignored Paul and leapt to another pack of soldiers.

Though Paul's elite forces were one of the strongest in the kingdom, they couldn't do anything to fight against the fear that had been ingrained in them for a long time. They would have put up a much better fight if they were focused, but many of them could already tell that while the sabretooth tribe's attacks were ferocious, they had not been giving it their all.

They would leave their allies to fight with the capable ones by themselves and look for other prey. It was like they were playing with them and with such ease. Many of the onlookers could not stop thinking what would have happened if Elrich had not given them the chance to surrender and paved a path of blood all the way to the Keller stronghold.

"Elrich Eberbach!!!" Paul screamed in rage as his advance towards Elrich was left unhindered.

The sabretooth clansmen only spared a glance to make sure that they weren't going to get attacked. Other than that, they didn't pay any heed to Paul. They all knew how important the young lady was to Elrich so they were not going to take the privilege of making Paul regret for taking such actions away from the father who had been enduring a lot for the sake of the kingdom he served.

"I've been waiting for a while, Earl Keller." Elrich wasted no time and immediately leaped from his horse towards Paul.

"!!" Paul immediately pulled the reigns back on his mount.

*Slice*

Elrich had moved swiftly but did not strike at Paul. Blood sprayed all over as the head of the warhorse that had accompanied Paul throughout countless battles flew through the air after that decisive attack.

*THUD* the large horse fell to the ground.

Paul jumped off before his mount fell as he did not want to give Elrich the opportunity to follow up. Contrary to his expectations, Elrich had remained standing in the same spot and continued to stare at him right in the eye while holding a large battle axe with one arm.

"Is this it? Is this what my so-called next generation is capable of?" Elrich showed an extremely dissatisfied expression.

To him, Paul being called the next him was a big insult. He initially did not mind it when he first heard of it but after what happened recently, this was something that annoyed him greatly.

"Don't get so full of yourself after launching a surprise attack!" Paul held his sword with two hands and immediately imbued his mana into it.

While he was called the second coming of the b.l.o.o.d.y duke, Paul had other nicknames. Because he was often compared to Elrich who wielded a battle axe, he was called the blade of the kingdom.

A large amount of mana was concentrated into Paul's blade. This was a reward given to him by the king after returning from one of his campaigns. The inferno blade, a sword that had been forged in the previous era.

"No need." Elrich waved off the subordinates that tried to approach.

"You'll regret doing that!" Paul's inferno sword was covered in flames and emitted a crimson color.

The temperature continued rising but Elrich remained unfazed. He stood his ground and waited for Paul to try and strike him down with his strongest attack.

"Inferno Cutter!" he dashed towards Elrich and swung down with all his might.

*CLANG!*

"!!" Paul was dumbstruck. Elrich did not counterattack or block his attack. He caught the blade with his free hand that was protected by Elrich's signature gauntlets.

*rumble rumble rumble*

The earth started showing cracks. No matter how effortless Elrich made it seem like when he caught the blade, it was evident that Paul's swing indeed carried a lot of strength.

"This is it? This is all that you're capable of?" Elrich sighed. He was truly disappointed. "Your fame, not to mention this enchanted sword is wasted on you." He shook his head sideways. "I wanted to see what kind of strength and confidence the person who ordered the death of my daughter had but…"

Paul tried to pull the sword back so he could attack again but despite trying with all his strength, Elrich held onto the glowing blade of his inferno sword. It was like a child trying to take away something an adult did not want to let go of.

*CHOP*

"Huh?" Paul was immediately taken aback. He had been trying hard too pull back but he was suddenly thrown to the ground after all the resistance suddenly disappeared. When he tried to check if he was able to retrieve the sword that was bestowed to him by the king, he froze.

"I no longer have any interest in you." Elrich didn't care if Paul heard him or not. He kicked the fallen arms aside and held the sword he had just obtained. "This would be an appropriate present for the hero." He glanced at the sheath that was still on the dumbfounded Paul's waist.

He couldn't believe it. Paul wasn't even taken seriously by his opponent at all. He always thought that it wouldn't take him that long to surpa.s.s the legendary Elrich Eberbach since he had blazed his way through the battlefields he had partic.i.p.ated in. He was greatly praised by his teachers and superiors for his talent but what had just happened was a clear demonstration of the clash between a legend and a wannabe.

"I…" he looked towards Elrich.

*CHOP!*

Paul's head was cleaved off before he could say anything more. Elrich was not interested in anything he had to say nor did he want any information out of him. It was already clear that although it might have been him who had given the order, it was impossible for him to have acted alone. A mere general of his caliber doesn't have the pull to make the royal shadows make a move of that magnitude.

Elrich looked at the b.l.o.o.d.y corpse before glancing towards the direction of the capital. 

"(This is the only warning that I will be giving you, Benino. The next time you try to involve my daughter in your plots, no matter how loyal I am to the kingdom, I will make sure that you and your ambitions will turn to ashes.)"

.