Under the command of Princess Natalie, the Steinbeck Fief’s army was about to launch an attack on Marquis Charles’s army that had forcibly occupied the Summy Plains. Standing at combat readiness, the other party had already set up camp and completed their strategic deployments. They were prepared to take on Steinbeck Fief’s army at any time.
The army here was actually not the personal army of Marquis Charlies; it belonged to a certain big aristocrat of the Adrian Empire who had been dispatched to assist Marquis Charles. On the eve of war, Clyde arrived at the top of a small hill in the Summy Plains under the cover of night. This place was perfect for providing long-range magic support to his army.
At night, the Summy Plains appeared especially quiet, like the brief calm before a storm. According to the latest information the vanguard ghosts had sent, there was an army of over 50,000 people blocking Clyde’s party. Strictly speaking, these were war mercenaries hired to fight here. That big aristocrat had the backing of a tycoon clan, so he dared to spend a ton of money and hire over 50,000 war mercenaries.
Clyde stood on the small hill, and a grey six-edged star magic array appeared below his feet. Following the incantation Princess Annie had taught him, he began to summon Undead. Because Clyde was too powerful, his summons caused the plants on the top of this small hill to wither as skeletons crawled out from underground. These skeletons were junior skeleton mages and could only use basic attack magics like a fireball. Clyde didn’t summon any high-level skeleton mages because the consumption of summoning a single high-leveled skeleton mage was enough to summon over 10 junior skeleton mages, making it less cost effective.
Before the war, Clyde summoned over 2,000 junior skeleton mages and made them stand uniformly on the small hill. Then, several flying demons stealthily flew above the other army to confirm whether the other side had a magic unit, long-range troops, and so on while providing coordinates to the skeleton mages on the small hill. The results were quickly transmitted to Clyde: the other side had no magic unit, but they did have some long-range troops, mainly archers. The cost of a magician was too high. Unless the other party spent a large sum of money, no one could hire magicians.
On the Summy Plains, Steinbeck Fief’s army had already set up battle formations. Princess Natalie rode a war-horse while looking at the distant enemy camp. The other side mainly had infantry that had formed quite a few phalanxes. The enemy’s front mainly consisted of heavy infantry to guard against the cavalry charge of Steinbeck Fief’s army. As for Clyde’s side, the knight regiment led by Paladin Princess Alicia acted as the vanguard.
The chief commander of those 50,000 enemy troops was Gruz, one of the six Mercenary Kings of Ximengsi Continent’s Mercenary Guild. Mercenary King was a professional title that allowed one to command up to 100,000 mercenaries. In terms of numbers, a Mercenary King was equivalent to an ordinary duke and close to a grand duke.
Gruz was known for his ferociousness. Unlike other Mercenary Knights, this person liked to take on war commissions, giving him the title “War Mercenary King.” Although the risk of war missions was very high, second only to dragon slaying, the profits were huge, and there were not many rules. In addition, battlefields could be looted, and that section of black income was often much higher than the amount an employer paid. Moreover, many aristocrats would turn a blind eye to crimes and atrocities committed by war mercenaries. As long as they didn’t go too far or contradict the aristocrats’ interests, no one would care about what they did.
“After this war, we’ll get 100,000 gold coins. That’ll be enough for us to spend for a while!”
“Lord Gruz, bringing along just half of our troops this time… isn’t that somewhat underestimating the enemy?”
“Idiot! With fewer people, we’ll get more when distributing the rewards. The other side has just 20,000 or so people, so half of us is more than enough. There is no need to mobilize the entire army.”
The extremely conceited Mercenary King Gruz underestimated his enemy. At the beginning, he disregarded the 20,000 troops on Clyde’s side, but as this Mercenary King leisurely led his trusted subordinates to the frontlines, he was splashed by cold water. Fireballs filled the sky. The fireballs dropping from the sky threw the frontline defenders into confusion. Many heavy infantry standing at the front were powerless to run away because of their heavy armor. They were swallowed by flames, turning into burning people.
This unexpected situation made Gruz’s side fall into chaos, and many merceneraries fled in disorder. Gruz was stunned. According to the prewar intelligence, the other side had no magic troops, but looking at the scale of this sudden magic attack, it was absolutely the doing of magic troops. In fact, it was the doing of a whole army.
After Princess Natalie received Clyde’s magic communication, she issued the order to charge. Then, Steinbeck Fief’s army, with the knight regiment led by Dragon Knight Princess Verly in the front, launched an attack on the war mercenaries. The panicked war mercenaries hastily fought back but soon fell into a passive state. The charging knights directly crushed the scattered infantry that had left their phalanxes, ramming them to death. The archer unit responsible for providing rear support was unable to do anything because the low visibility at night and the risk of friendly fire.
Princess Verly had intentionally worn ordinary female knight armor and used an ordinary war-horse. At this moment, she appeared to be on the level of a paladin at most. Many senior officers under Gruz were fooled by her outward appearance and rushed towards her without scruples, but she sent them flying in an instant.
“Are you the commander? Your side actually doesn’t have a male commander and is reduced to needing a woman?”
“Mercenary King Gruz, it’s beneath my Master’s dignity to personally make a move against weak individuals. You are also not qualified.”
Facing the taunts of Mercenary King Gruz, Princess Verly was not humble at all. This made Gruz speechless for a moment, and the commanders stood awkwardly facing each other. With short black hair and matching colored armor, Gruz’s stature was doughty at over two meters tall. He looked like a middle-aged uncle with a ferocious appearance. His left eye was covered with a black eye-patch like a pirate. His big machete glimmered with pallid light.
“Woman, don’t be too arrogant! Wait until you are defeated, then you will know what cruelty is!”
“Sorry, I’ve already lost to someone. I don’t need to learn from you.”
Gruz lifted his big machete and hacked at the charging Princess Verly. When that big machete chopped down, it tore the air with a whir. Princess Verly promptly jumped off her war-horse. By the time she landed on the ground, that war-horse had been cut into two halves.
Currently, Princess Verly used ordinary knight equipment, which didn’t even reach the rank of a paladin’s equipment. In such a condition, it was a little tricky to fight head-on against Gruz, but it was easy enough to dodge the other party’s attack. Princess Verly instinctively jumped back to avoid Gruz’s follow-up attack, which only slashed empty air. At that moment, a shadow rushed over and filled the empty position left by her.
Mercenary King Gruz subconsciously raised his big machete to block. Although he was still knocked back several meters by his opponent, his combat instincts saved him. In addition, he felt severe pain from his chest, and even vomited quite a few mouthfuls of blood in succession. The female knight that had rushed over was Demon Princess Andrea. At this moment, she was disguised as a human knight, but the combat power of this Demonic Dragon Knight surpassed many human Dragon Knights.
“Are you worthy of defeating her? Lowly, no, stupid human…”
“Wait for me!”
Mercenary King Gruz flew into a rage from shame but retreated under the cover of his subordinates. Just from that exchange, he judged that the combined combat power of those two female knights was above his. Gruz was unwilling to admit it, but the facts were in front of him. The combat power of that female knight was too powerful. If he fought against them, he wouldn’t have any advantages. His years of battlefield experience told him to temporarily retreat.
Under the command of Mercenary King Gruz, over 50,000 war mercenaries orderly retreated, giving up this temporary campsite. They withdrew to the only military fortress on the Summy Plains, Saka Fortress where they would face Steinbeck Fief’s troops head-on. This night battle was counted as their first contact, so they didn’t truly go all-out and simply probed the other party.
Princess Natalie didn’t chase them and commanded Steinbeck Fief’s army to occupy the temporary campsite left by the war mercenaries. The other party had been confused by the sudden magic attacks and didn’t know how many magic troops Steinbeck Fief had, so they escaped to the farthest place to remove themselves from the other party’s attack magic range.
Clyde secretly observed everything from the small hill. This encounter was just a small victory allowing his side to occupy the other’s temporary campsite. As for the real battle, it would start in a few days. This time, the enemy had suffered over one thousand casualties. As for his side, the casualties had been limited to several hundred people. Neither side occupied a big advantage. What made Clyde feel somewhat unfortunate was that Mercenary King Gruz had escaped too quickly, so he didn’t have the chance to use a few special Undead magic spells he had learned from Princess Annie. Before midnight ended, the fight had already finished.
