Mila Lark
--- Elderwood Alliance Settlement ---
A horseman riding on the back of a Southern Stallion and a white flag appraoched.
"Sir! A messenger from Everlasting City has arrived!", a knight spoke clearly as he barged in the commander's room.
This knight was none other than Gabriel Halefire, and meeting the eyes of the Elderwood Army Head Commander, the [Ice Demon] who had single-handedly put a unpregnable city into a desperate city, intimidated him a lot. Unlike Victor who had become a stepping stone he would have to overcome in future, Arthur Landragon was a figure worthy of respect in Gabriel's mind. In a way, he was model for countless knights, which was quite ironical considering that most acolytes were subject to knights' mockeries usually.
"Mm...They must have come to surrender", Arthur said calmly
Count Elderwood's eyes suddenly shined: "Then...You have succeeded, Arthur! Your father Frederick must be blessed to have you as his son"
Arthur shook his head: "You praise me too much...This is their desperate attempt to win. They want us to loosen our guard, and exploit our eagerness to win"
Viscount Palford nodded: "We must strike the enemy when he is down...If we let Baron Lark go this time, he will come back with many more enemies. According to Arthur, Baron Lark possesses the Raveneer and the Nalestone household support"
Baron Halefire: "Let's hear the messenger out at least"
A fair-headed redhead woman entered. Obviously, she attracted a lot of attention. The army was mainly composed of men, and the few women who enlisted were usually not very feminine due to their harsh labour and training. The environment made them quite incomparable to the standards of highborn ladies.
[Name - Mila Lark
Class - Level 6 Acolyte (Flame Affinity)
HP - 20 / 20 | MP - 60 / 60
Attributes:
Strength – 2 | Agility – 1 | Vitality – 2 | Magic Power - 6
Status - Healthy
Skills - Fire Magical knowledge, Etiquette (25), ...
Spell - (?)
Magical Artefact - None]
From a glance, Arthur could tell that Mila had been sent with two purposes.
'First of all, she is meant to deliver the message of surrender. Second of all, she reflects the standards of acolytes defending the Lark Household Castle. If an all-out battle were to start, then there would be countless casualties in both armies', Arthur analysed
However, Mila's words after paying respect to the five lords in the room blowed his mind.
"My lords, I have come with you to discuss of your surrendering", Mila spoke
"...", a heavy silence conquered the room
The party defending a broken city, where half of the habitations were destroyed, with breached walls and no more defence...was asking for the attacking party, which was standing strong, with a morale that could not be any higher, to surrender?
Instantly, Mila felt the gaze and killing intent of the five lords, making it extremely hard to breathe. With her pitiful physique, it didn't even take a few seconds before she felt nauseating, and trembled
Arthur, who was the only one who hadn't released his killing intent, in fear of making her faint, said: "Lords, let's hear her out. It won't be too late to kill her later on"
Mila gasped after the lords retracted their killing intent.
Most of these lords had gone through battlefields, refining their killing intent. However, Arthur was different. In this battle alone, he had killed 268 human soldiers and elves. If you added his murders and subjugation of natives in the Ivory Tower, then Arthur had killed close to 300 people. It was not something that the lords, even the veteran ones, had achieved.
As a result, his killing intent, which was a skill that leveled up very fast, had already reached 80 points of proficiency, nearing the [Advanced] realm of mastery. If used on a normal human, fainting or a heart attack would be possible.
Mila's eyes were full of hatred. She probably was not very old: 19, perhaps 20 at best. All in all, she was only a couple years older than Arthur. However, in the room, two individuals were of her generation. Although she was the most talented acolyte in the Lark family, she had no rights to be called a genius in the room, since it was full of monsters here.
Naturally, Mila had heard of the Landragon heirs in the past month. It was all she heard whenever she walked in the streets, in the castle or even in the Council Room, which only her could enter among her siblings.
The [Three Landragon Demons] had alone turned a losing battle into an overwhelming winning siege. Everlasting City would have easily lasted for two, or even three years against an army of this size, which would have allowed the Lark Household to eventually win the battle with skirmishes, night raids and a final battle with the Raveneer and Nalestone battle.
However, a single month was all it took for the [Ice Demon] and his strategies to weed out the knight-level spies, kill two out of the four intermediate rank acolytes, as well as single-handedly wipe out roughly a third of the Lark army by himself. The worse was the destruction of walls which had never been breached in the past.
The army morale could not be any lower, and it was quite evident that a frontal charge would allow the Elderwood Alliance to secure their victory. But even then, Arthur had not ordered it. He continued to rain boulders on Everlasting City, causing even more damage to their beloved city. Even if the Nalestone and Raveneer Households miraculously appeared like they had promised to do, there would not be a lot to save anymore.
The Lark Household, even if it won the war, would not be able to prosper. Its capital was broken, the trust of merchants lost, and wandering acolytes would no longer dare appear in the territory after the humiliating helplessness they felt against one single intermediate-rank acolyte from the [Ivory Tower].
That's why, Baron Lark decided one last attempt: bribing.
"Arthur Landragon...Baron Lark has proposed to become the vassal of the Landragon Household, and would offer his personal magical library, his magical ingredients as well as 3 000 magic crystals to earn your support in this war"
Any acolyte worthy of the name would jump on the opportunity. The wealth was just that incredible, enough to put the Arcane Faction Treasury in a tough spot. However, it was only natural considering that the fee to stay in Everlasting City was roughly 5 magic crystals a year. With only a hundred acolytes coming and going from the city, this would lead to a 500 magic crystal income.
However...
Baron Lark had missed something.
Why would Arthur change side when he could just plunder it all?
Seeing the worried expressions on Count Elderwood and the other lords, Arthur smiled as his sword was drawn at extreme speed, putting all of his strength in it.
*SWISH*
"Huh...Why is the world upside down", Mila thought. Soon, she felt a sensation of falling. She could see her headless body.
[You have created a knight killing technique [Quick Draw]. You have earned 150 EXP for creating a knight killing technique]
[You have killed [Level 6 Acolyte - Mila Lark]. You have received 120 EXP]
[Frozen Seal]
After casting frozen seal on Mila's body and head, it created a huge block of ice.
"Seeing them so desperate must mean that they are at their lowest. Launch Mila Lark's body on the Lark castle with the longest range trebuchet. Baron Lark must be really desperate, so we have to keep what we are doing", Arthur spoke
The four lords were flabbergasted.
They thought they knew the extent of the [Ice Demon] strength. His magical spells were lethal to Intermediate Rank knights, but little did they know, for his physical strength was on par with an advanced rank knight!
Furthermore, there was no record of this knight killing technique. It resembled the Porfield Royal Family [Lightning Draw], yet it was quite different in its essence. Thus, there was only one reliable explanation for this: Arthur was the one who created it!
'Everlasting City is just the prelude...', Arthur thought, with plans of starting a war artificially. After all, he had already sent John on a very important task...
Decisiveness and precaution.
[Strategy skill has risen by 2 points]
[Cruelty Skill activated...]