The gruelling battle took its toll on the Cridians and their crumbling ranks served as the evidence that Colonel Forak Ban was losing the battle. His adjutant was badly wounded, and he was just one of many wounded soldiers who might not survive. Fort Crissna had many talented and powerful healers, but even their powers had limits. The Colonel knew it was all his fault. With powerless anger, he looked upon the ranks of the enemy knights, who were pushing his troops towards his position. For one brief moment, he saw an open field behind the enemy, when suddenly one of the enemy’s soldiers was killed.
"Spear formation! You must break their ranks!" The Colonel pointed at enemy formation. "Move!"
He threw all his elite warriors in the wedge formation towards that weak spot and gritted his teeth. The command chain was broken and without communication, his officers had to fight on their own, and the only comfort he had was that friendly forces were behind them. The enemies were insanely disciplined, which, combined with their gear and obvious level advantage, made a very powerful army. What was even worse, Forak couldn't recognize their heraldry: a blue and white shield with a goblet of some kind, adorned with a crown while two other crowns rested on either side of the goblet. Whoever they were, their commander was a monster who rarely made a mistake.
"How did they manage to hide?" He asked himself, knowing fully well it didn’t matter anymore.
•••
Galahad once again adjusted his legions’ ranks in response to the Cridian's actions. Compared to the demons, the Cridians were less flexible and much weaker individually, but they made up with their admittedly crude but sufficient team tactics. However, their biggest weakness was apparent at first glance- an absolute lack of communication. Galahad watched the most elite of the Cridian companies form a V-shaped formation, to push his triarii aside. Unfortunately for them, triarii was an even more elite unit.
The wedge made of Cridians was about to hit the triarii, but the warriors of Avalon suddenly stepped away, opening a free space behind them, which was quickly filled with Cridians. The momentum of the wedge pushed them right into a wide wall of long pikes already waiting for them, created by the hastati lines. The soldiers in front of the Cridian wedge tried to stop to prevent themselves from being impaled, but the ones behind them pushed them forward, straight into their doom. The horrific screams of the dying people weren't enough to stop the ones behind until the sides of the Avalon formation closed and made them stop their progress. The very desperate battle ensued, with just a few fortunate soldiers able to break off formation, retreating towards the Cridians' lines before the legionaries started closing the gap.
The marching column of the Cridian army was fractured and effectively split into three separate groups, with each of them fighting for survival. Galahad shook his head in disbelief, but it seemed that was all that the ambushed Cridian army was capable of. Their mages would be a threat if not for the simple fact of how few of them there were. About fifty relatively high-level mages, averaging around level 55, would be formidable opponents if not for the level differences. The lower-level mages used their mana to fuel the runic siege engines, and while surely they hit harder, their overall fire rate was outrageously slow.
Crissna's garrison averaged at level 60, making it obvious now that their levels were somehow faked, though it was impossible to identify their actual level by any normal means. King Theon was right to hide Avalon's potential until the very last moment, which allowed him to surprise the Cridians today. One of the main objectives would be to find out how they were able to fake their levels. Galahad was observing the entire battlefield from above with the use of the eyes of a low-level eagle and couldn't help but sigh. The Cridian Ranks began to crumble with ten thousand dead or dying. Galahad pitied them but understood the necessity of these actions.
"Shouldn't we call on them one more time to surrender?" Arani asked, looking at the battle.
"If you insist..." Galahad shrugged.
•••
"I won't make it, sir..." His adjutant coughed up dark strings of blood.
"Sir, we can't help him." One of the priests did her best to stop the bleeding, but there was a limit to what healers could do.
"Gods..." The Colonel's voice was interrupted by the thunderous, metallic thumps of shields locking together.
The enemy soldiers stopped their attacks and hid behind their large shields. The most terrifying thing probably was the fact that every single enemy soldier stopped their attack at the same time. Now the Colonel could at least look around and confirm his desperate thoughts- at least twelve thousand of his soldiers were dead, dying or incapacitated. No less than four thousand were wounded and unable to fight.
His disoriented soldiers tried to attack the enemies in front of them, but it was extremely hard to even find an opening big enough to put a sword inside. The low booming warhorn echoed through the frozen landscape, mesmerizing everyone, and its sound was vibrating in the souls of the listening warriors. Colonel Ban was looking off in silence as the ranks of enemy soldiers created a perfectly clean and smooth transition from the ideal shield wall to the ideal corridor. From there emerged a tall knight, wearing golden-black full-body armour and sitting on a large war beast. Behind him were six other knights clad in gold and black armour, however their shields were pitch black without any heraldry.
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Colonel Fornal Ban understood immediately that this was the enemy commander. He played with the idea of ordering archers to kill him, but the Colonel knew it would be hopeless.
"Colonel!" the scout captain hissed near him. He was badly wounded as well, with his arm broken and head bandaged in a way that suggested he could neither see nor hear. "They are gone!"
"What are you talking about?! Who is gone!?"
"The enemy! Their kill intent is gone! You have won, colonel!"
"Their killing intent is... Gone?" The colonel asked in shock. "Are you sure, Greg?"
"Yes, sir! I thought we were goners!"
Forak Ban couldn't find the words and just weakly waved his hand instead as twelve soldiers from his personal guard stepped up to accompany him. His soldiers stopped attacking enemies and used these precious moments to regroup and catch a breath. He was slowly walking towards the patiently waiting enemy commander, looking at his soldiers. He saw their desperate and hopeless glances and felt ashamed that he couldn't even look back at them with any certainty of saying they were going to win this. His miserable posture additionally lowered their morale, but he couldn't even pretend now. Hundreds upon thousands of soldiers he knew for years were looking at him and smiling when he passed them, and their smiles gave him the strength he needed.
The Colonel was close enough to take a better look at the unknown army and with surprise; he discovered that he was unable to identify them. They had blank spaces in the air where their statistics should be. The commander of the enemy army was fully clad in incredible armour which put his own, a very good one, to complete shame. The intricate details and decorations looked amazing and Forak, with utter disbelief, looked at the dozens of powerful runes. The armour was closed entirely, so the Colonel was unable to even guess what race that man was.
"My name is Forak Ban, the Colonel of the Cridian army. Who are you and what country do you serve, lord?"
"I am Galahad of Avalon, General of the Undying Legions of Avalon, the Scion of the Righteous Dungeon." The knight clad in black and gold armour spoke without any hatred or sympathy, staying mounted on his majestic war beast. "I came here to accept your surrender, Colonel Forak Ban. You will surrender and you all will be taken prisoners. I promise, in the name of my King, that you will survive. Decline, however, and you all will die."
Forak was about to decline fiercely, but he hesitated and looked around as the full meaning of what Lord Galahad had just said hit him. The Scion? Gods protect us! He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. Behind his closed eyes, tears formed, and he quickly opened them to keep them from falling. He exhaled loudly, finally stopping to care about his future as he was tempted to accept this monster's offer. Without a doubt, they were going to die anyway- all Dungeons were murderous. The Colonel wanted to laugh and cry. They all were going to die in the name of what? The corrupted queen who was allowing for injustice and exploitation of the weak? Older brothers who were selling their families into slavery? He looked around at the tensed faces of his only family he had now. The soldiers under his command were looking at him with hope and faith that he was going to choose wisely, as always.
Even if they were going to die in a few weeks or months, it wouldn't be immediately, here and now. But contrary to his experience, his truth seeker skill ensured him that Scion Galahad was telling the truth. After one heavy breath, he decided.
"I, Colonel Forak Ban, hereby surrender to the forces of Avalon. I will trust in your promise, General Galahad!" He raised his voice so as many soldiers as possible could hear him. "Lay down your weapons, soldiers!"
"I, Galahad of Avalon, accept your surrender and take you under my protection until the great King decides your fate. You will live and one day you will be free, so do not despair, brave warriors!" Galahad yelled with a voice heard by all those gathered here.
Forak Ban felt a sudden and unexpected wave of pure terror and dread that almost made him snap in panic. But before he could even gasp, the most unexpected voice called his name.
"Uncle Forak?" He must have gone insane… or perhaps the ghost of poor Marie was haunting him. "Is that really you?"
A warm, small hand touched his hand, and Forak looked down in shock. "Marie?! Is that really you?"
He could barely recognize his only niece. She was wearing a black coat lined with fur and some kind of hair band with wolf-like ears. She was much more beautiful and much better fed than he remembered her. He dropped to his knees with tears falling from his eyes.
"Marie... You are alive!"
"Yes, uncle. You still work for that bit... I mean, bad queen?" She tilted her head and freed her small arm.
"What?" His eyes widened in shock at his niece, who almost called one of the most dangerous people in the world a bitch. "No matter! What are you doing here?! It's dangerous here!"
"No, it's not. Galahad is here!" Marie tapped her forehead and turned towards the knight of Avalon. "Galahad, when Sebastian told me that my uncle was the commander of Crissna I..."
"Oh, I get it, Marie," Galahad replied. “You went away without telling anyone, am I right?" Now Forak certainly went insane. How was it possible that his niece was just joking with such a powerful monster?! "However... This time, I think Miss Annika will be furious, not to mention King Theon. You will be grounded for a few long years, my young Lady."
"Ouch... That's bad..." Marie inhaled the air sharply. "I brought the wagons with me. Will it count as an extenuating circumstance?"
"Maybe? I think we can bend the truth a little, and tell everyone that you convinced your uncle to surrender." Galahad looked at the breathless colonel and chuckled. “Medics! Heal all the prisoners of war!”
Forak turned around in greater shock when he felt insane magic pressure and saw columns of the white and gold light that fully healed even those who were one leg in their graves, finally understanding he made the correct decision… And then, unbeknownst to him, he looked straight into the eyes of Mr Fluffles.