Chapter 76 - Third Battle

Ten days have passed since the battle against Viscount Sitena...

During them, Duke Galan Bradley went to the capital of the Black Sun and attended in front of the council and Sage Alpert where they tried to make him speak about the origin of this new war invention,

they pressured him too much, but in the end, he told the council directly that he *could not give them details of the identity of the person who had supplied him with the talismans 

but that the inventor was surely someone who worked for the Kingdom of the Black Sun and was ready to help them against Dolivar's bullying.*

The council was not very convinced by his words... but in the end, he is a duke and they can't just torture him until the information comes out.

so in the end the matter was temporarily closed and the duke remained in the capital to follow the development of the war with the rest of the power centers of the kingdom.

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As for the front... 

the situation is getting more and more tense day by day, after the end of the great battle with the Viscount, tens of thousands were killed or captured as slaves

But Sitena herself and about a quarter of her army fled back into the Dolivarian lands and joined the incoming army which gave them more headache. 

the good thing is that they left in a hurry, leaving behind their cities, food, and weapons in excellent condition which further strengthened Edward and his army. 

If Sitena and her men knew this they would have burned everything themselves, but unfortunately... none of them expected that the battle would end as soon as it began.

they didn't even have the chance to take anything with them! all their hope is now bound to the third battle of this war...

Right after the battle ended, General Edward commanded the capture of the castle of the Sitena family and he reinforced everything possible during the ten days. 

He raised the walls, even more, multiplied the guards, and reorganized the ranks of his army for the next huge battle... 

during this period also another batch of saints and knights arrived from the Duchy of Bradley, carrying more than 1500 fire talismans! 

which excited the general more and raised his confidence to a new level, the weird thing is that it was unknown if the 100 knights and 5 saints that he liked the most, or the weak level 6 talismans...

But even though all those reinforcements, the tense gloomy atmosphere didn't leave him... he knows that this stronghold is not impenetrable. 

And the reports says that there is an army of 170,000 soldiers on its way to the castle right now! 

It was an army made up of almost all the standing soldiers available in the duchy!!

and at the speed of their advancement, they would reach the castle in no time...

Soldiers from Baronies, Viscountcies, Earldoms, and Marquesses... every family inside the Tinley duchy was forced to send a portion of their army, even Duke Titus Tinley himself sent a large part of his personal army 

This is in addition to Setina herself and her soldiers who were able to retreat

An army like this, and led by a level 30 general...

in theory, it's more than enough to drive an army of less than 60 thousand from the kingdom's lands and reclaim what they've taken over, 

and it's even enough to hunt down the remnants of the army even inside the Black Sun and invade part of their lands to regain their face and standing that got destroyed in those two short weeks.

*swoosh*

A strong wind passed by the ear of the person sitting on the main terrace of the castle, he opened his eyes and without looking back asked, "Where are they now, Peon?"

"In response to my General, they are about to cross the woods, the distance between us is now about 5 kilometers and they are still getting close."

"Five kilometers, hmmm..." General Edward spoke slowly, then stood and jumped towards the castle wall and looked around, then shouted at the top of his voice, "Start the third formation immediately."

All the officers on the fence bowed and started shouting and issuing orders one by one, quickly the *third formation* began to take a clear shape in front of everyone

The archers lined the ramparts in a strong and prominent form, wearing shining armors and holding majestic shiny bows, 

then 5,000 infantrymen came out of the fortress with heavy, tall shields and lined up outside the fortress one by one until they covered a distance of 300 feet in all directions in front of the main castle gate in the form of a semi-circle.

After the quick line-up, there were a few minutes of intense calm until finally, a voice came from the forest up ahead

*booooooooooo*

The sound of the war horn brought the eyes of everyone to the direction it came from, 

the very first sight they caught was a line of floating men and women, they were a total of twenty saints...

Then the lines of infantry came out, row after row...

The scene seemed as if the enemy army had no end

especially those who were watching from above the castle walls swallowed their saliva without them noticing, 

For this was the most frightening sight a soldier could possibly see...

after the huge number of infantry followed the archers who also numbered in thousands, 

then the straw that broke the camel's back, an army of cavalry came out...  it was not an exaggeration to call them an army of their own as they were about 20,000 cavaliers!!

The whole process of the army coming out of the forest completely took about half an hour!

The distance between Dolivar's army and the castle is now 3 km. 

The attack can start at any moment.

But the General of Dolivar's army did not underestimate his enemy and ordered his army to stop at this safe distance, t

hen he led his horse and stood on the side of his army and watched the fortress and the garrison formation for a few minutes, and at last, he pointed at the archers on the wall, "Sitena, are these arrows what destroyed your army?"

Viscount Cetina advanced took a closer look, and nodded, "Yes, noble Edgar, those hides hanged at the tail of every arrow is what caused the explosions. Without these things, victory would have been mine."

This was The General of the Dolivarian Army, Edgar Tinley, a peak level saint, uncle of Duke Titus Tinley, 

His identity alone shows how important this war was to the Duchy and to the whole kingdom.

"Hmm.. he brought out 5,000 infantrymen with huge shields to prevent our army from getting too close so those crossbows could rain down on us... he still wants to rely on arrows in front of me? 

I was hoping the enemy general would be a little clever, but alas… this ploy wouldn't Pay twice!

Here's what will happen, assign all our 11~20 level knights to the first row of the infantry, 

when I give orders, I want all our infantry to march forward in a tight formation, while the saints will stand above the army all the way, to repel any attacks of those arrows

We will distribute the saints between four teams, each squad having five saints, the strongest one among them will not contribute to the formation of energy shields but will remain vigilant to protect his teammates and repel the attacks of the enemy assassins, so that what happened last time will not be repeated.

When we enter the range they will hurl us once or twice with those explosive arrows, but the saints will stop them or change their course easily

This will enable us to reach the enemy armored infantry without any losses. 

when we arrive, our knights in the first row will quickly remove them from the way and then destroy the gate 

After entering we will focus on killing the archers, then the only danger will be over and we will slaughter the rest easily...

everything is to get our army inside that castle, if we do what I say we will surely be victorious!

we wouldn't even need our cavalry and archers to win this, let them stand ready to hunt down those who try to run from our enemy after we defeat them.

Do you have any questions or modifications?"

"No, General, what you said was eye-opening, I learned a lot today."

"I also agree with your grace."

"Today we will not allow one of them to escape!"

"It's a perfect plan, nothing can break it."

Saint Edgar nodded, "Good, but remember to tell everyone to collect all the arrows in the quivers of the enemy after killing or capturing them, 

we should know what this is and maybe we can make a similar one ourselves... Go and post the instructions, we'll start the attack in ten minutes."

"YES!"