The Sound of Thunders
The Sound of Thunders
A knightage formed by the knights from the six big families of the stronghold was leading the army. Inequality of power among the families could easily be seen from the armors and outfits of their knights. Duke Ryan's knights were certainly the most eye-catching ones. With a significant air, they all rode on short-tailed horses imported from the king's city. These horses were good at long-distance races and looked much taller and stronger than the other ones. The knights wore unified, shinning armors that were specially made by "Hammer and Dragon Tooth" Blacksmith's shop. A huge lion head was carved into the thick chest armor and a wolf head into each shoulder armor. The lifelike animal heads seemed to be roaring with their mouths wide open. There were also fine patterns on their cloaks and red silk belts around their waists.
Duke Ryan's knights did not only have the look. Each of them had indeed accumulated lots of battling experiences. They had to wipe out the remaining demonic beasts out of the city every year after the Months of Demons, as a way of ensuring smooth land traffic. In terms of personal fighting skills, they were as good as the members of the knightage of the king's city. They were only less in number, compared with the king's knightage. However, for a duke, it was already a huge expenditure to support such an elite knightage of 150 members.
Looking at this elite troop, Duke Ryan was satisfied and absolutely confident that with them, and he would be invincible in the Western Region.
The mercenary fighters were walking casually behind the knightage. They were poorly equipped compared with the knights. Most of them wore old and incomplete chain mails or plate armors. Some had no hand protectors and some no helmets. They carried various kinds of weapons, walking and laughing loudly in groups of two or three. They seemed to be going for a spring outing instead of a battle.
Some free civilians were also press-ganged into the army by the lord. They were plodding on slowly after the mercenary fighters, dragging single-wheel carts filled with foods and tent parts. Due to the speed differences, this army of 1,500 people marched in a really long procession. The knights in the front of the line had to stop every now and then to wait for the troops behind them.
"My lord," Hirte Medde, Earl of the Elk Family, pulled the rein to catch up with the duke and said, "We're going to arrive at Border Town in less than half a day. If things go smoothly, we'll get there at 4 p.m. Are we going to rest for a night and reorganize the army for the battle next morning or directly launch an attack against the lord's castle?"
"Do you want to sleep in the wild again?" The duke smiled and said, "Tonight, we should lie in beds in the castle instead of the damp earth. Of course, as a courtesy to a royal prince, I'll send a messenger to persuade him first when we arrive at Border Town."
Earl Honeysuckle who was slightly ahead of them, turned around to join the discussion. "Our knights have been traveling all day. They and their horses are both tired now. Is it appropriate to launch an attack under such circumstances? We'd better be careful. After all, Roland Wimbledon successfully survived the Months of Demons with just his miners."
"Hah-hah, my old friend. I don't know others, but even you don't know the demonic beasts? They're indeed dreadful opponents in the wild, as they're incredibly fast and powerful, but they'll become easy targets when they're blocked out by a city wall. Demonic beasts are just beasts after all." Hearing this, the Earl of the Elk Family shrugged and added, "Yes, I agree. Though the prince really surprised me by building a city wall so fast, my knights are not dumb beasts who'll be stopped by a wall."
"Exactly, and I've received a piece of news from the north. Hermes nearly fell into ruins, as a huge amount of demonic hybrid beasts attacked Holy City this year for some unknown reason. That means, most of the demonic beasts aimed at Hermes, and only a few of them came to the Western Region," Duke Ryan said casually.
After the Western Region was under his total control, he did not want to confine himself to this remote area anymore. He placed informants who constantly provided him with the most recent news in all the major cities and towns. For him, the bloody battles against demonic beasts in the Northern Region were not as important as another war depicted in a secret report from Palisade City. According to the report, Timothy, the new king, and Garcia, Queen of Clearwater had already fought a fierce battle in Eagle City, but based on the previous information he had got, Timothy's army should arrive at Eagle City a month later.
The report did not mention the process of the war, but described the situation of Timothy and that of Eagle City when the new king had retreated from Palisade City. Timothy who had led an army of thousands of people to the war had left the city with only a few of his soldiers. He had not even been able to block roads again. At the same time, Eagle City had been caught in the fire. Raging flames had lit up the sky, and black smoke sprang up to reach the clouds. The residents of the surrounding cities and towns had all witnessed the scene.
No matter whether the Queen of Clearwater had survived the war or not, Timothy had apparently suffered a heavy loss and a great shock. Stirred by the news, on the same day he had received the secret report, Duke Ryan had sent out his trusted men to the king's city and the Eastern Region, hoping to find out the current situation of Timothy. If this war between the new king and the Queen of Clearwater truly shattered the Timothy regime, he would not hesitate to add fuel to the fire.
This was definitely the best chance for him to declare independence and become a king himself. The Northern Region had seen many of its soldiers buried near the Holy City during the fighting against demonic beasts. The south needed time to recuperate after the recent war. As for the Eastern Region and the king's city, if what the secret report had said was true, Timothy would also need several years to recover. At this moment, if he could conquer the Northern Region and draw some nobles over to join his side, he would be able to split Kingdom of Graycastle. When that happened, he was going to build his own kingdom which would be as large and populous as Kingdom of Everwinter in the north and be able to compete with the remaining Southern and Eastern Regions of Kingdom of Graycastle.
As to him, Osmond Ryan, would become the first king of this new kingdom.
The duke smiled in satisfaction at this thought. He hoped that he could end this farce quickly today and head home tomorrow, bringing the prince as a captive. With any luck, he would be able to receive good news from his informants in his own castle three days later.
When the sun was almost sinking down into the mountains, Ryan saw a vague silhouette of Border Town... and a dense crowd of people outside it.
"Father and Your Grace, those people seem to be Prince Roland's guards with weapons in their hands. It doesn't look like a welcome." Rene Medde who was in charge of guiding the army in the front hurried back and reported.
"It's good, at least we don't have to go to the castle to invite him out," Earl of the Elk Family said while smiling, "Tell the knights to slow down. We still have a long way to go before the charge."
"Yes, father." Rene received the order and left.
Duke Ryan raised a telescope in front of his eye to look at the princes' guards. They were in a strange formation, standing densely in two rows and carrying weird weapons in their hands. Those weapons looked like pikes without pointed metalheads and their handles seemed too short. It just did not make sense to the duke that the prince arranged his guards in this formation. Such a thin, weak defense line would be easily broken through when knights charged toward it.
Seeing that, the duke thought in bewilderment, "Even if the prince has no military knowledge, why did his knights and guards just let him mess things up?" In order to make sure what the prince was planning, the duke decided after a thought to order the mercenary fighters to charge in the beginning of the battle, and the knights to wait for order in the charge distance.
As he had promised before, he needed to send a messenger to persuade Roland first. Duke Ryan sent for a guard and said to him, "You go to tell the prince that I don't mean to hurt him. It's only the order from King Timothy Wimbledon. If he surrenders to me now, he won't be harmed. I'll escort him back to King's City."
It took time for a large army to assemble. When the knights were taking up their positions one after another on both sides, the mercenary fighters were still slowly heading for the center of front line. Right at the moment, four flashes of flame dazed Duke Ryan's eyes, and green smokes rose up after those transitory bright flames. The duke frowned at this scene, thinking he must be deceived by his eyes. He was about to pick up the telescope to look again when there came a series of loud bangs that sounded like thunders.