Chapter Eight - The Second Round

"The first round goes to Hywel Inmos!"

The crowd rose to a unified shout at the prince's announcement. Hywel was astonished at the results, glancing at his cousin. His face was as emotionless as ever, though he was tapping his feet impatiently with his arms crossed. The young master wasn't quite certain of what had happened; he could only guess that there was a sneak attack or something.

"And so, let us move on to the next event. Cue drumroll!"

The crowd fell silent as the prince picked up another piece of paper from the bag. His eyes shone with amusement at seeing the paper.

"The second round will be Barricade Defense'!"

With those words, the two candidates were teleported once more.

Hywel found himself on top of a sturdy structure. Looking down, it looked as if the ‘barricade’ was actually a piece of a castle wall that was made to block the wide dirt path, for there was a giant door which reminded Hywel of a typical medieval castle door. The top of the so-called barricade also reminded Hywel of a castle wall; those ones which shaped like someone aligned blocks of concrete and removed every other block. To the left and right was a dense forest of trees which seemed even denser than normal; possibly due to magic. To one side of the barricade the dirt path stretched to the horizon with nothing of particular interest. To the other side of the barricade there was a small town. Hywel wasn’t sure if it was suitable to be called a town, for it while it had huts and buildings resembling houses, it was awfully silent. Not a single person was visible.

The barricade also had steps leading down to the gates and to the towns if necessary. While he was observing the area, the prince’s voice floated around the forest much like during the event before. His voice was loud and clear, as if he was using a megaphone.

"Barricade Defense! As the name implies, each candidate must defend their barricade from the incoming wave of monsters. The candidate gets five minutes before each wave to assign and arrange their defensive formations."

Suddenly, Hywel's vision changed from the scenery of the barricade to the interior of a certain building. In that building were people clad in armour - soldiers. Confused at the current situation, the young master attempted to move but unlike the wooden floors he could see, his feet felt as if they were on something hard - something like the barricade. After a few more testing and bumping into the wall, it was clear that he did not teleport but rather only his vision was taken to this place.

"Candidates can choose twenty members to aid in their defense, and after each wave of monsters they can recruit more members depending on how efficiently and effectively they clear the waves! Be careful though; some waves contain an abnormally strong monster. If a candidate defeats this monster, then the other candidate's next wave will have twice the amount of monsters as well!

The event will last until one of the candidate's castle wall falls into ruins. Now, get ready candidates. Recruit your twenty men and lead on to victory!"

The announcement ended at that, though Hywel's vision was still magically viewing the soldiers. At least he now understood the situation, although he couldn’t help but get a feeling this was like playing a game rather than being tested of his worthiness of the House. He did not linger on that thought for long, going back to the task at hand.

He wasn't sure how to go about doing this. His time as Hywel Inmos was all about learning the lore of the kingdom and self-defense, while back in his previous life it was full of healing the sick. The closest knowledge to strategic battles were fantasy scenarios in literature.

Regardless, he observed the available soldiers to recruit. There were those in full plate armour, holding a sturdy looking sword and shield. Their sword was thicker and longer than the one Hywel had, while their shield was comparably smaller and round but the main material was without a doubt metal. The way it was almost spherical along with the spikes around the edges made Hywel doubt that it was merely used for defence. It somewhat resembled the round part of a boxing glove which also fueled that impression.

Next to the plate armours were soldiers wearing leather armour. As they were carrying a quiver of arrows and a bow, Hywel figured this was to allow them more freedom of movement, and because archers were usually at the rear of a battle so they won’t need as much protection as those with swords.

Finally, the ones next to the archers were soldiers on horseback. The horsemen, too, were clad in heavy armour but their choice of weapon were different to those of the swordsman. Their lance were made completely of metal, most likely iron. The way it was resting in the hand of the horsemen alone was an intimidating, if not awe-inspiring sight.

If not for the fact that he would have to select his twenty before the timer ran out, Hywel would’ve spent over an hour trying to choose which soldiers to recruit but in the end he had picked ten archers, four horsemen and six swordsmen. He figured having half the forces at the front and the other half of the forces on the rear was reasonable. As for the swordsmen and horsemen, he wasn’t sure which would be of a better frontal team but they probably had some advantages and disadvantages depending on the opponent.

Hywel’s vision reverted to the barricade where he was standing. He looked around and saw that the twenty soldiers that he had picked were appearing from the town area towards where Hywel was.

Twenty identical men assembled, while differing in their attire or weapon, for the soldiers were imitations of humans just like the maiden whom Hywel had to protect previously. The young master looked at them, expecting some sort of reply… receiving none.

“Okay… Uh. Archers at the wall?”

Hywel blurted out a flimsy command. The ten soldiers with bows and arrows instantly moved into position, their bows ready. It was then Hywel realized how this was set up; while the actual fight was done as a small army, he was to give them commands, else they would not be able to attack properly.

“Alright. The rest go to the gates and attack the enemy if they come close.”

With that instruction, the horsemen and the swordsmen also moved into position.

A trumpet reverberated in the distance. As Hywel watched, a horde of monsters came marching towards the barricade. Having said that, Hywel relaxed a little upon seeing that they were up against what resembled mountain boars and bears. The boars’ coat was sable with a completely white set of eyeballs while the bears, standing on their hind legs, showed to have a light shade to the boars. Their eyes were also completely white. What made them monstrous was their sheer size, each beast as big as the soldiers on horseback and allowing about five or six to march abreast on the dirt path. From the top of the barricade, Hywel counted thirty mountain boars and six bears.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Archers shoot when in range,”

Hywel instructed as the horde closed in at a steady pace. All was silent at the barricade, and so the shrieks and snorts of the beasts approaching which was carried by the wind reached Hywel’s ears very soon.

Ten arrows were loose in the air in unison. Before Hywel could act, another ten were reloaded onto the bows and by the time the first ten landed on the beasts, twenty more were following suit. The archers were aiming and reloading at a rate which astonished Hywel, with an accuracy that he could not believe. About nine out of ten shots landed onto the beasts. Their hide was too thick to give a fatal blow with a single hit, but after third hit the boars in the front slowed in pain.

The bears which were mixed in with the boars noticed the arrows and started to retaliate. The arrows were expertly swept out of their course by the enormous front paws. Once they started protecting the boars, the rate of the arrows affecting the incoming horde decreased by a lot.

“Archers aim for the six!”

The young master commanded, hoping they understood him. As if being severely inexperienced in strategic defense was enough, Hywel had the trouble of knowing the names of the different beasts; his limited vocabulary was focused towards everyday usage and some technical terms from books or history. He knew what pigs were called in the foreign language, but bears he had yet to encounter. To Hywel’s relief the archers understood him perfectly and the arrows focused on the bears. The bears did their best to fend off the incoming attacks but when Hywel commanded them to focus on killing one at a time after seeing that separated attacks were taking too long to take them down, it was starting to look good.

The soldiers in the frontlines were already engaged in battle with the first of the boars. The swordsmen held up their shields at the marching horde which served as a temporary blockade while the horsemen attacked from their rear with their lance. The boars which were weakened by the arrow were sluggish and easily fell victim to this attack, but the ones left over were charging into the swordsman who were using all they have to block their advance. Their feet were leaving dragged marks on the ground as they did so, their swords thrusting and carving at the boars.

The first bear fell from being needled with arrows, letting out a pained howl before bursting into a puff of smoke. Around that time, the first line of boars were eliminated as well much to Hywel’s relief. The archers moved to attacking the next bear, but they weren’t able to finish it off before reaching the swordsmen.

As Hywel watched, the second bear swung its massive forearm at the swordsmen. Their defence was broken easily, four out of the six being flung back to the barricade wall with force. The remaining two got up as soon as they can to establish the defence again while the horsemen charged into attack. their lance were buried deep in the bear’s body and it howled in pain. The arrows kept piling on it, but it still refused to burst out of existence. It swung its forearm once more towards the horsemen whose weapons were impaled, bringing death to one of the horsemen and heavily injuring a horse as it became a puff of smoke.

“Swordsmen and horsemen back to the formation before for the pigs. When the other monster approach, evade the arm and don’t block. Try to hit and run those monsters.”

Hywel commanded the soldiers in the frontlines. The swordsmen got back into the defensive method they had been performing with the boars, while the horsemen supported them.

‘They’re progressing a lot slower,’ Hywel noted. The loss of a horseman and one the injury of a horse meant half their main offense have been decreased, even if the horseman with the wounded horse was still dishing out hits where possible; it was just that incomparable in Hywel’s eyes. The swordsmen were whittling down the boars as they defended, but the boars from behind were pushing as well so if they could not kill the front line of boars, they would be run over.

The archers had moved on to the third bear. It was using its forearms to absorb the majority of the arrows, protecting its vital points. Hywel’s face was grim as he observed this, knowing that he had to do something to improve the situation.

“Try… Yeah. Archers, aim at different points of the same monster at once.”

Hywel voiced an idea that popped up his mind. The bear only had two forearms while there were ten archers. If they could accurately attack ten places at once, even if two were blocked the other eight would land. He wasn’t sure if it would work as it was like attempting to hit a pea-sized target but their accuracy had been amazing thus far.

His command bore fruit with the third bear. The bear crumpled in pain as an arrow miraculously landed in one of its eyes. It attempted to scratch at the protruding arrow, but that wasn’t enough to lessen the pain. The way it was writhing made Hywel feel a certain guilt, but he had to harden his heart. The bear was taken away from its suffering momentarily as the archers continued to volley wave after wave of arrows much to the young master’s relief. The second line of boars were nearly cleared, only one boar remaining. Having said that, Hywel saw that the boars of the third line merged with the single boar.

From then on the bears provided to be of a lesser threat. The archer implemented the strategy of shooting the same target but while aiming different parts of the body, and it was proving to Hywel that it was a decent strategy, as the bear’s advance slowed from attempting to protect itself better. The fourth bear took a fair amount of time to fall as well as it protected the crucial parts of its body with more care, but it was still okay as this allowed the swordsmen and the horsemen time to take care of the boars. In truth they were well-paced and perhaps due to being an imitation and not really humans, but they did not seem to get tired or exhausted. An ideal trait for the lower ranking soldiers of an army, Hywel thought.