The boy's squad nodded in admiration at how Thiule's company dispatched the Centurion. They commented on the side as well, how lucky that bastard Thiule was that the Lady herself seemed to take a liking to him. After Auburn returned with his, probably at this point, permanent smirk, he gathered them around. As the highest level and most experienced of them all, he was agreed upon to be the party leader. Hilvar grinned at Auburn and pointed out his head towards the Captain.
"Do you think he will manage to date a noble?"
"Ummm... You may not be aware of this, but all the Flower Girls are not only noblewomen of Avalon, but are also Ladies-in-waiting. They’re also close enough to be called friends by the Royal Family." Auburn chuckled with laughter, but he then suddenly turned serious and looked deep into their eyes. "But if you are not ready to settle down or you are not serious about them, you better give up right now. If you plan to just to play and run, rethink immediately, because while the King or the Queens might just exile you from Avalon, Dahlia and I will hunt you down and crush your balls."
Their playful attitude vanished extremely quickly when Auburn took out a vicious-looking mace from his pocket dimension. His cold gaze pinned them, and they instantly knew he was not joking.
"I recently started dating Dahlia. The rest of the Flower Girls, as well as Idna and Gloria, are like sisters to me. So consider this a serious warning from a guy who allows his friend to date his sister." All four of them, for a moment, felt the intimidating aura of sure death that surrounded Auburn. But then he smiled. "Any questions?"
"You really think so low of us?" Tulir looked at Auburn with a hard to read expression.
"Of course I do. What kind of brother wouldn't?" Auburn shrugged, and with a big smile, shouldered his mace.
"Good. I couldn't stand it if you just joked like that, while knowing the stories about them." Tulir nodded and raised his hand, at which Auburn high-fived him, making a loud clap.
Hilvar, Daniel, and Re'kari stood awkwardly, looking at each other. While they do not know the girls’ stories, they suddenly were certain that Tulir would join their hunt as well. However, they raised their heads proudly up, knowing that while their intentions were not pure white, they were sure as hell they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with their chosen girl. Even if they were not exactly sure which one of them it was.
"Now focus. Our task is completely different from the others. We are going to fight a much stronger opponent than we should. Imagine a Boss fight with just a party of five men."
"Wow, wow... wait!" Re'kari raised his hand. "We don't have a mage! How do you expect us to win that fight?"
"Dude... We have the two Tanks, the two damage dealers, and the healer." Auburn pointed at himself with his thumb. "Besides, this is the point of the test! We are about to check if we can win against a lesser Boss class monster without the classic oversized party."
"Okay..." Re'kari sighed and prepared his heater shield. "But I don't see why..."
"Hey! I am going to win that battle even if I land in bed with broken limbs later!" Hilvar drew one of his swords and activated his magic that enveloped his left hand.
"Indeed. I am ready!" Daniel drew his sword as well.
"All right. Daniel, you are the main Tank. Re'kari would be better, but he screwed up with that pessimistic attitude of his, so no showing off for him!"
"Hey!" They couldn't see the Elf's facial expression from under the helmet he already put on, but he surely sounded rancorous.
"La, la, la. I can't hear you!" Auburn laughed with everyone else before turning his gaze to Tulir and Hilvar. "You are our main damage dealers, so don't let the boss knock you down!"
"Yes, sir!" Tulir took out his rapier, causing Hilvar to gasp in surprise.
"I would never expect an Assassin to wield a rapier!"
"Yeah." Tulir nodded. "And that's exactly how you would die. Everyone expects Assassins to be some sneaky-ninja-shadowy-bastards. While I can be sneaky, you see... Stealth is optional for this mission."
"Right..." Hilvar scratched his head and shrugged. "I trust you guys!"
"All right, boys. This is our enemy." Auburn pointed at a single Legion Centurion, consisting of a Skeleton Paladin. "He is level 85. Way below my level, but trust me, he will kick our asses if we slip just a little. You are around level 78, so he has the level advantage over you. Daniel and Re'kari, keep him occupied and, for Eriar's sake, don't dare to lose aggro!"
They felt incredibly light and invigorated right after Auburn smashed his mace over his shield, activating his auras. The green, faintly glowing large circle marked the boundaries of Auburn's Healing Aura, being a very visible range to which his party has to adhere. Daniel was approaching the Boss head-on, while Re'kari started flanking him. Hilvar and Tulir waited for the Tanks to engage and distract the boss.
"Holy Smite!" Daniel used his holy magic, starting the combat.
The Boss roared, acting more like a mindless monster than a Legion Centurion, and responded with a devastating charge that would knock out anyone lighter than David. The Human warrior, however, was prepared and covered himself with his large kite shield. Despite that, he was pushed back a bit, leaving twin trails on the ground.
"Stunning Blow!" Re'kari, who had approached the Boss from the left side, hit it with his sword. The Boss suddenly stopped moving and was just standing still with his hand hanging freely. His large scutum shield and broadsword were useless now while he was stunned.
"Stunning Blow!" After a half minute, when Boss started moving again, Daniel used his own skill and started laughing when it landed successfully as well.
"Stunning Blow!" Auburn used his skill when Boss was about to move again and all five men started laughing like maniacs. "I think the King was not expecting THAT!"
"Hahahaha! Did you guys just stun lock him?" Hilvar approached the half-relaxed Tanks and heavy healer who had just smashed the Centurion in turns.
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"It looks like it... But don't get too cocky!" Auburn replied with a big grin on his face. "You are free to attack it. Just be careful in case your attack somehow breaks our stun!"
Hilvar took a stance right next to Daniel, where in normal combat he would be considered an asshole for blocking a Tank’s movement. Right now, though, Daniel was more than okay to allow his friend to try to attack from that position. Around Hilvar's longsword, blue lighting began to form and the Arcane Fencer was almost ready for one of his most devastating attacks.
"Raging Thunder!" He yelled and thrust his weapon right into Skeleton Palladin's visor.
The internal explosion shook the Boss, making him recoil even in his stunned state. The smell of burnt air spread around the Centurion, but he was just standing with a lowered head and murmuring something silently. The dent in the Boss’s health bar was significant. Hilvars' attack added the Paralyze effect to the constant Stun served by the Tanks and Auburn.
"Triple stab." Tulir quickly attacked the vitals of the Boss, but how the Assassin managed to even find them was a complete mystery. Tulir's attack was like a blur, but his thin rapier hit the tiny gaps with honed precision between the Centurion's armour.
They replayed their tactics until the Boss's health bar dropped to 30%. Hilvar used a few more magic skills before Tulir swiftly put his rapier into his scabbard and took out his dagger. He suddenly started moving blindingly fast, blurring out of focus from anyone who was looking at him.
"Back Stab!" The blow of vicious blue light pierced the Boss's heavy plate armour and Daniel could see a large part of the Assassin's dagger sticking out from the chest of the Skeleton where its heart should be.
Right after the Elf took out his weapon, their enemy stumbled and fell to his knees. After a few moments, the Boss crumbled to dust, leaving a handful of silver coins behind. Everyone except Auburn levelled up after the fight, but they were looking at themselves without any satisfaction or smile.
"That was..." Tulir scratched the back of his head, sheathing his dagger.
"That was not cool at all..." Hilvar drum rolled his fingers over his angrily crossed arms.
•••
"Oh wow... I did not expect THAT!" I scratched my head after the shocking display of my Centurion’s powerlessness.
"That was the smoothest Boss fight I have ever seen." Irene took a sip of her tea and shrugged. "It's clear now that some changes are more than unavoidable."
"You don't say..." I exhaled slowly, looking into the fake sky while my wives started laughing. "I deserve that... Probably."
•••
"You saw that? The Boss couldn't even move! They are so cool!" Gloria clapped her hands, carelessly staring at the boy's party before laying down near Rose on the grass. She was still exhausted after using the advanced healing skills that Lanka had used so effortlessly.
"You know what, Lanka? I call dibs on Tulir. You can take Thiule, you cheater!" Iris showed Lanka her tongue, but the Nekomi played innocent.
Before Lanka went to help Thiule and his company, she left Iris with a paralyzed leg so she couldn't interfere, but before Gloria managed to heal her, Lanka had already returned.
"In that case, Hilvar is mine!" Idna pointed her finger at the rest of the girls.
"Xavier!" Lilly quickly made her choice.
Rose was sitting on the ground enjoying the warm, artificial sun, and Gloria lay near her. Contrary to Lanka, Gloria was putting incredible effort into her advanced healing spells, which were extremely exhausting.
"What about you girls? Which one of them do you want?" Dahlia looked at them from above, holding her hands on her hips.
"I'll think Daniel is my type..." Gloria turned red, embarrassed.
"So Re'kari can be yours, Rose!"
"I'll pass... You’re not the only one who can find herself a boy without help, Dahlia." Rose smiled lazily and stretched herself on the grass.
"Oooo!" The surprised choir voices and their owners quickly surrounded Rose.
"Who is he?" Lanka leaned over Rose, ready to start tickling her. "Speak or we will interrogate you!"
"What's his name?!" Iris asked, standing nearby, ready to capture her friend.
"And most importantly, how have you managed to hide him for so long?!" Lilly asked, outraged.
•••
The last week passed so fast that I barely registered its end. My Queens pushed their work on their assistants and locked themselves in the Magic Tower, where they experimented with different builds. However, we noticed something unexpected. While my wives could pick almost whatever skill they wanted, no one else could do that. There were serious limitations for Irene or Luna in the form of contradicting elements that could be only offset by racial perks or special classes. Amber was especially affected by special classes. She was an Elemental Sorceress, a legendary class of nearly infinite capacity for learning and using the magic of almost all elements. I say nearly because the only magic Amber couldn't use was the most forms of Holy Magic, which appeared to be reserved only for healers. But yet again, there were exceptions, like lesser healing magic. In all seriousness, my head began to ache after spending the entire day trying to make sense of it all, but I had to give up.
I spent most of my time reforming my Legions. I tried as much as possible to salvage the structures, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't fix their skill lists. After two days, I gave up, and I finally decided to dissolve the previous Legions’ structures. The new Legion units were called just Hastati, Principes and Triarii, which formed the core of the infantry units. Hastati, which formed the first line of the Legion, specialised in close-quarter combat, using mainly halberds interchangeably with a gladius as their main weapons while utilising large scutum shields to form the signature shield wall of the Roman Legion. The Principes were close to my Mortal Guardsmen; a mix of heavy, close-range units that could use heavy war bows. My preferred weapons of choice for them were heavy war bows thanks to the projectile weapons proficiency, though they could also use broadswords and scutum shields interchangeably. Triarii were similar to Hastati, with the difference being they had polearms and heavy weapon proficiency, so they could swap between various heavy weapons. Similarly to the previous legionnaires' types, they used the scutum shields as well, but with longswords.
The biggest change to the Legions was their size. So far I had aimed for my Legions to be five and a half thousand strong. From now on, my Legions would number ten thousand each, consisting of 2200 Hastati, 2200 Principes, 2200 Triarii, 1000 Longbowmen, 1000 Hussars heavy cavalry, 1000 Fairies to for a Mage detachment, and 400 Nagas Healers. Depending on the mission, my legions could use all varieties of conventional and enchanted siege engines, like catapults, onegars, trebuchets or scoripos, as well as the proper amount of wagons for the entire legion. I reworked the Longbowmen as well, turning them into solely range units. To my surprise, the Hussars, Mages and Healers did not need any or only limited changes in their builds, so I managed to apply the needed alterations quickly.
Their skill builds were optimised for exactly what I needed them to do. While their individual performance improved significantly, their overall performance depended heavily on the commander. This was the main weakness of the Legions of Avalon. The Boss class monsters were much more intelligent than normal and Raid Bosses were selected as the Legion Commanders; Raid Bosses were made up of Legates while Bosses were Centurions. However, the amount of Centurions I had to raise caused them to be far weaker than the normal Boss class monsters. Quid pro quo, I guess. I asked Luna to prepare much more skilled commanders for my Legions. They would learn at the Royal Army Academy, which was previously known a few days ago as the Guardsmen Academy. Luna changed the name faster than Bjorn managed to provide them with official seals.
Speaking of the devil, for some reason, no one knew where he or my other Master Artisans disappeared to, so I had to resort to my dungeon skill, only to find out how hard it is to find five people among thousands. The number rose to ten when it turned out their women disappeared as well. I finally found them in their insanely large, underground secret workshop I had promised never to peek inside, so I had to shrug off my curiosity.
They were apparently working on something "big" and I had no clue what it was.