Abe the Wizard

If the five duchies’ head knight commanders weren’t so greedy, they would have last just a bit longer. That didn’t matter now. They were all dead, and the fourteen thousand men they led ran all about.

Abel didn’t do anything. He just watched the massacre happening on the ground. Yes, this was a massacre, not a war. The knights had no ways of fighting the consecutive ballistas, the lightning spirals, and the fourteen sphinx knights. There was a limit to how many lives these terrifying things and soldiers could take, but the outcome of this battle was clearly one-sided, so much that the fourteen thousand knights all gave up within less than a few minutes.

This was when Head Commander Bodley and his three hundred knights went back to the frontline. By using the combat qi recovery potion, they replenished themselves to ready for a second wave. The combat qi recovery potion was usually very expensive to obtain, but with Abel’s craftsmanship and the wealth of the duchy of Carmel, they all managed to get their own bottle.

It was three hundred disciplined soldiers against fourteen thousand men in panic. Without a formation and someone to lead them, it wasn’t hard at all to defeat these fourteen thousand men. Of course, some of the smarter ones formed their own units, but they would almost always be hindered by those too busy trying to protect their own lives. It was the same for the beginner wizards. They wanted to flee with their carriages, but no one was calm enough to take the reins to change course in this kind of situation.

Soon, the sphinx knights found a target more worthy than the human knights. They found the carriage that the beginner wizards were riding. If they had shot regular arrows, the beginner wizards would have defended with their defensive spells. Still, the Harry bow possessed the deadly ability to infuse elemental powers in the arrows.

These beginner wizards had very little resistance against elemental attacks. Also, given the Harry bow arrows’ unmatched speed, they were all shot down as soon as they tried to get out of the carriage. No one was there to try to protect them. Wizards were supposed to be the most important military assets, but everyone was too busy watching out for their own lives.

Combat qi flashed out from Head Commander Bodley’s body, “Earn your glory with the swords in your hands, soldiers!”

The three hundred knights did the same. By connecting their combat qi, they formed a line that separated the battlefield. They made a giant combat qi scythe. The fleeing knights were like crops that were ripe for harvest. They tried to run, but they could never run as fast as the sphinx knights and the sky ships. Once they fell, Head Commander Bodley and his men would chase them down for a clean finish.

War horses could never be as fast as the flying enemies. It didn’t take much time for the knights to realize that. After realizing that all efforts were futile, one of them decided to jump down from his war horse. He threw his weapons away and raised both of his arms. Many more did the same. They were spared instantly, but those who pretended to surrender were shot down without a second chance.

From these men’s perspective, surrendering wasn’t a choice that would bring shame to them. They came here to fight, not to throw their lives away against enemies that they had no chance of winning. There was nothing they could do against the ballistas and the lightning spirals in the sky. For the sphinx knights, only the flying mounts could match them, but the Kingdom of St. Ellis was not on their side this time.

According to the knights’ tenets, if the enemy was simply too powerful, the knights had every right to surrender on the battlefield. This was exactly the kind of situation where this rule would apply. All the head knight commanders and intermediate wizards were dead. Without anyone to take the lead, the five duchies were in complete disarray.

Abel didn’t expect something like this to happen. There were still about thirteen knights down below. His sky ships and sphinx knights were very powerful in what they did, but so far, only about a thousand of the enemy soldiers were down. He didn’t expect the enemies to give up so quickly.

Actually, he didn’t even want to take this many hostages. His original idea was to kill everyone in the invading army. That was why he decided to kill the head knight commanders and the intermediate wizards in the fastest way that he could. He wanted to make sure that there was no time for the rest of the soldiers to surrender. Still, now that they’ve dropped their weapons, it wouldn’t be right for him to keep mowing them down.

Abel spoke through his sign card, “Head Commander Bodley, I want you to confiscate all their equipment. Take their horses as well. If you need more men to do it, you can call for support from Morry City.”

Head Commander Bodley didn’t tell his men to go right away. When enemies surrendered, things tended to get very messy. It wasn’t like he could just tell the soldiers to give their gear to him. Most of the knights would be wearing gear passed down from their families, so they needed to be registered stored in the warehouses.

That wasn’t very easy in this kind of situation. The thirteen thousand knights were in a complete panic. If Head Commander Bodley didn’t give out the right instructions, things would only become even harder to settle down. While following the years of experience he accumulated, he led the three hundred knights behind him to travel across the battlefield. By not ordering his men to attack, the surrendering soldiers eventually let down their guards without resisting.

Soon, a group of men was sent from Morry City to register the surrendering soldiers’ names. Once the names were put into the record, all the weapons, armors, and war horses they were wearing were all put into the record. Transporting the captives was the difficult part. Since Morry City wasn’t a big city, to begin with, a lot of the men had to be moved straight to Bakong City. No one tried to pull anything strange because they were all afraid that they would be the next one to be shot down by the lightning spirals.

Given how few the men from Morry City were, only three thousand men were registered by night time. Abel couldn’t help but frown at how slow things proceeded.

Abel ordered, “Use the teleportation circle. I want officials from Bakong City to come straight here. Get this sorted as fast as you can.”

As the order was sent out, many officials that were already asleep were woken up in the middle of the night. They were transported to the battlefield without even knowing what was happening.

The first group cheered when they saw that the war was won, “My spirits! Praise the name of his Majesty! May his victory last forever!”

The officials had no idea when the war began. All they knew was that the duchy of Carmel won a battle that was certainly going to be written in the history books. The thought alone was enough for them. As soon as they came, they immediately went to work and brought the surrendering knights in.

When the sun came out, the last surrendering knight was put into captivity. A giant team of surrendering soldiers were about to be transported to Bakong City. Head Commander Bodley, the sphinx knights, and the three sky ships moved with them as escorts. It was probably the largest escort mission ever taken place in the history of the duchy of Carmel. Again, this was not what Abel wanted. He wanted to go straight after the five duchies after declaring victory, but these hostages were slowing everything down for now.

Holding captives was a very costly thing to do. If any of them tried to resist, a vast amount of resources would’ve been put into sorting them out. The duchy of Carmel didn’t have a lot of knights under its command. It was one thing to be able to kill everyone who dared to escape, but if those who didn’t were too fearful, it was just going to get harder to keep things under control. Anyway, his priorities changed. Getting revenge on the five duchies could only be done after moving the thirteen thousand knights to Bakong City.

And no, he didn’t go to reclaim Neking City. Neking City fell because of its noblemen and residents and their loyalty duchy of Thunder. Of course, it didn’t mean that he planned to keep things as it was. As long as no one bothered to steal Neking City away (not that anyone dared to), he was willing to let its people do things their own way. He was going to stop supplying food to them. A city that betrayed his state, in his mind, was not deserving of any more generosity.

There was a part of this that Abel really liked. The duchy of Carmel didn’t have to spend any food on these thirteen thousand captives because it managed to capture the supply team that was with them.

Once the captives were all moved to Bakong City, the entire human world was shocked by the military might of the duchy of Carmel. On the one hand, a weak, small duchy just had its new king enthroned. On the other hand, there was the joined force of five duchies. It was a battle between three hundred knights and fourteen thousand knights, including fifteen head knight commanders. The difference in military size was worlds apart, but the weaker side had an overwhelming victory.

Needless to say, the Kingdom of St. Ellis was the most affected. It had scouts who reported everything that happened during the combat. When the outcome became clear, a giant force that was hidden in the duchy of Thunder quickly retreated to the Kingdom of St. Ellis.

For the first time in many years, Kind Ambrose had a worried look on his face.

King Ambrose said to Prince Derek, “Go to the duchy of Carmel now. As a direct representative, tell Abel about our empire’s firm support for the duchy of Carmel. We strongly condemn the behavior of the five duchies. If there is anything that our empire can do to rebuild the relationship between the duchy of Carmel and the five duchies, I want to make it clear that we’ll do everything in our power to make it happen.”

Prince Derek knelt, “I don’t think now is the right timing, Father. It will take at least ten days for Grandmaster Abel to reach Bakong City. He should be busy transporting the captives he took.”

King Ambrose still couldn’t calm himself down, “Do you think Grandmaster Abel’s holding any grudge against us?”

Prince Derek shook his head, “Probably not. We cleared off every witness this time.”

There was a very simple reason that the twenty thousand knights would hide in the duchy of Thunder. They would wait for the war to end, and given the right timing, they would go in and all the valuables that were left. Of course, it wouldn’t be realistic to send out twenty thousand knights without anyone knowing. The order was to kill everyone who saw them, and that’s what they did. Prince Derek led the whole operation, but he was frightened by the military might of the duchy of Carmel. After that, he put a stop to his plan and told everyone to go back.

As the original plan would have it, if the duchy of Carmel lost, all twenty thousand knights would appear and take everything from the five duchies. However, if the duchy of Carmel won, the knights would go in to pretend that they were coming as reinforcements. The outcome was very different from what was expected. The duchy of Carmel defeated the fourteen thousand knights in a very short amount of time. There wasn’t even the time for King Derek to interfere. In fact, he was starting to get worried that the duchy of Carmel would go after them instead. His army had no way of defending against Abel’s air force, so if Abel really planned on going after them, a second massacre was probably what’s going to take place yesterday.

King Ambrose covered his head with his hands, “I should’ve never given the sphinx knights to him. If things keep going like this, the duchy of Carmel will become stronger than us in the air.”

King Ambrose knew where the ten extra sphinxes came from. He knew about what happened to Niyan City, how six advanced orc priests and tens of thousands of orc warriors were all buried within the same day. If this could happen to one city in a day, Abel would have all the power he could to do the same to the Kingdom of St. Ellis. When the thought came to his mind, King Ambrose couldn’t help but think that he already made too many blunders.

Prince Derek tried to motivate his father, “I don’t think you’ve done the wrong thing, Father. The sphinx knights were not easy to train at all. This is the conclusion we came to after experimenting for hundreds of times…”

As he said that, the thought of the four sphinx knights came to mind. They were thought to be men at the end of their career, but under Abel’s guidance, they were now head knight commanders that could lead their own squads. These sphinx knights must be very grateful to Abel. There was even the possibility that they would pledge their full loyalty to him.

…

The king of the duchy of Thunder sat lifelessly. His eyes looked like they were dead. He knew what happened during this war because the duchy of Thunder was the one that started it in the first place. None of the knights that went managed to go back. All the wizards were killed. There was nothing that could support his rule any longer. He could try to buy the captives back, but the duchy could not afford it.

He couldn’t even stop the news from being spread. It was not possible to hide something this major. By now, many of the noblemen were already asking to have a conversation with him. They all had the same request, and that was to have the duchy of Thunder pay ransom to get their family knights back.

It was worse for the wizards. Almost all of the wizards that lived in the duchy of Thunder were planning to leave. The beginner wizards were talking about moving elsewhere. One of them even disappeared after abandoning his magic tower. He didn’t take anything valuable with him because he knew how vengeful Abel could get. After witnessing what happened to the duchy of Keyen, he didn’t hesitate to leave everything that he’s worked for behind.

As for the Wizard Union and the other wizards, they all knew who was behind this. Neking City suffered greatly, and Abel was not the kind to forgive such atrocity. The beginner wizard didn’t think that he could stay in the Kingdom of St. Ellis any longer. It wasn’t just the duchy of Thunder that he couldn’t stay. The duchy of Laka, the duchy of Koror, the duchy of Larvid, and the duchy of Tex were all at a very dangerous position after attacking the duchy of Carmel.

With all the knights captured, the political stage became more dreaded than ever before. There was still the problem with lack of produce, and with the lack of military presence to keep the duchies in control, the commoners had no choice but to take things into their own hands. They started rallying up to steal food from the noblemen. It was the same thing every day. Societies were no longer societies because the laws and orders were no longer in place.

Even now, the duchy of Tex proposed to form a coalition with the other four duchies. The idea was to find a solution together, but no one dared to accept. The duchy of Tex was the one who organized the invasion. If the other states tried to interact with them, they would get in even more trouble. The four duchies were actually considering something different. By isolating the duchy of Tex, they might just be able to shift all the blame away from themselves.

If it was the past, the other two empires would’ve invaded the Kingdom of St. Ellis already, given that six of its seven subordinate states were in their most defeated state. Still, neither of them dared to make any moves before Abel finished receiving his war compensation. Everyone knew what happened to Niyan City. If someone was bold enough to steal from Abel, they had to learn to bear the risk of facing the exact same consequences.

Ten days passed. While the five duchies were waiting anxiously, Abel transported all thirteen thousand knights to Bakong City. The city gate opened, and countless citizens paused at both sides of the road. Everyone cheered when Abel showed his face.

“Glory to the king!”

Abel was in his sky ship, but the chanting was so loud that even he felt the vibration. Despite being a weak state for so long, the duchy of Carmel gained its first overwhelming victory in all of its history. Its citizens had never been so proud of their identity. They watched zealously as the king led them to a miraculous and glorious victory.

As for the thirteen thousand knights, the people of Bakong City knew why they were here. They were here to steal food from them. They started cursing at these surrendering soldiers. Rubbish was thrown as soon as they showed up. If food wasn’t so scarce, eggs would be flying towards them.

All thirteen thousand knights were humiliated in public. They were moved to a camp designated for them. Eight would be kept in one cell. For the rest of their days, only two meals would be provided in a single day. They were not supposed to have a full meal because the idea was to keep them alive without giving them the power to resist. Of course, this was a violation of the knights’ tenets, which stated that hostages must be given a standard diet and place to live. Still, given how dire the Holy Continent had become, the duchy of Carmel was already very generous for giving any food out to them.

Around the camp that held the thirteen thousand knights, an army of warriors and archers, along with ballistas, were stationed on four sides. Keeping so many hostages in one place was like keeping a time bomb. Abel didn’t feel confident to leave Bakong City as it was. While staying in the sky ship, he waited for the noblemen of the duchy of Carmel to calculate the ransoms for each of the hostages. Of course, he was going to have the five duchies pay for them.

From the battle this time, he became more certain of the strengths and weaknesses that the duchy of Carmel possessed. In terms of its strength, the duchy of Carmel possessed an air force that was unmatched in all three of the existing human empires. It was the only human domain to have possession over the sky ships, the consecutive ballista, and the lightning spirals. With the lightning spirals installed, even the wizards had no way of doing any damage to the sky ships. They could move anywhere with their “instantaneous movement” spell, but the lightning spirals would always shoot them down within the shortest route possible. Even advanced wizards wouldn’t have a way to withstand this kind of attack.

To make up for the problem with range, the sphinx knights would go after enemies that wanted to keep their distances. If the sphinxes were too tired, they could always rest on the decks and replenish themselves. This kind reminded Abel of the aircraft carriers he’s heard of back on planet Earth. If he could bring in more sphinx knights in the future, the sky ships would become even more impressive and invisible than they already were.

That was enough bragging. In contrast to its air force, the duchy of Carmel didn’t have a lot of military presence on ground. It did have a lot more storage of magical knight equipment, and the war horses that it had were much sturdier than anywhere else on the Holy Continent, but there simply weren’t enough soldiers that were enrolled. There was still a long path ahead before the duchy could truly prosper, so it seemed.

Abel sighed as he thought about the work that he had to do. He was sitting inside his palace now. Every day, officials and noblemen reported about how to clear things up after the war. As it turned out, this took even more time than fighting the war itself. Every day, the officials and noblemen would travel to the neighboring states to negotiate about giving the hostages back.

Now that the duchies were bankrupted, many noblemen decided to pay the ransom themselves. Of course, this was going to take a lot more time and money, but they felt very strongly that the duchies they served could no longer be relied upon.

Days continued to pass, but only three thousand out of the thirteen thousand surrendering soldiers were bought back. As for the remaining ten thousand, the duchy of Carmel offered the price to the corresponding states, but none of them sent a reply.