The Battle Begins

An envoy from the nobles' army walked forward to negotiate. 

As a response, Blanc sent Alex forward for the talks.

"We're a large bandit group from somewhere around here. Just give us whatever your little town has and no one shall be hurt."

The enemy envoy said in a threatening manner.

"What a joke. You dare to do it but you don't dare to admit it? We already know that you are all under the orders of the three nobles from the northern side of Terravalle Kingdom."

"No matter, there's no way we will let you through. Go back to your side and tell them to return. If you don't, there's no choice but to slaughter all of you."

Alex retorted with a fierce glare.

"Ha! Does a lowly town think it is equal to three supreme nobles? Know your place!"

The enemy envoy replied condescendingly.

"What do you mean supreme nobles? All three of them are ranked at the bottom in terms of military strength in your Terravalle Kingdom. Aren't you a bit too delusional?"

Alex responded in a mocking manner.

"Audacious! How dare you insult the nobles! It seems like there's nothing to talk about here. I hope you can keep saying those things once we break through your ranks!"

"You won't get the chance to know. You're never breaking through our ranks with that kind of shitty ragtag army."

The two exchanged sharp words before falling back to their own sides.

There was nothing to discuss. The nobles looked down on them and were determined to loot their village. They had to die!

A few moments later.

"The frogs in the well have chosen to die! Glory to the northern nobles! Attack!"

The battle had begun, and the nobles' army charged forward.

They were full of confidence since they knew that they had the numbers advantage.

In addition, they were told that they would only be attacking a newly built town and that their warriors were only farmers who were given weapons.

This misleading information based on arrogance cost the nobles' army a lot of lives. 

They haven't even fought the enemy and a hundred people already fell victim to the traps and died.

After a while though, the nobles' forces started to be a little cautious and they successfully evaded the remaining traps.

The battle has now truly begun as swords clashed against swords.

The nobles' army couldn't break through their defenses. 

Wooden spiked walls prevented them from using their numbers advantage. They were forced to fight in a tight choke point with only a limited number of fighters being able to fight at a time.

Every time someone tried to break the walls, they would be killed using long spears.

Being physically stronger than their opponents due to the body-strengthening pills and their hardcore training, Blanc's troops slowly but surely killed their opponents.

After seeing that they were losing, one of the squad captains couldn't help but complain.

"Shit! What's happening?! Didn't they tell us that these guys were just farmers? I expected them to collapse easily!"

"Shut up! Just focus and try to kill the enemies!"

"How can I kill the enemies? I can't even reach the front! We need to destroy these walls to open up more space!"

"How about you destroy the walls? Eating a spear thrust or two shouldn't be a problem for you oh great one."

Blanc laughed upon seeing the enemy camp starting to fight amongst themselves. He always gets satisfaction when the enemy is starting to lose their composure.

He then ordered the archers on top of the valley walls to rain arrows on the enemy.

"Archers, Fire!"

Archer squad leader Eden ordered his squad to start firing the arrows.

More and more enemy warriors died.

Finally, the man called Iron Tiger couldn't take it anymore and joined the fray.

He targeted the archers on the valley walls.

Holding a big tower shield and a sword, the guy rushed up the path toward the archers.

"So that's Iron Tiger huh?"

Alex narrowed his eyes into slits after seeing the man nicknamed Iron Tiger make a move.

He would likely be the one fighting this guy later. 

Alex observed the guy for the time being as the guy was rushing towards their archers.

He plans to estimate his physique tier and combat technique tier first before fighting the guy.

After seeing a man with a huge tower shield rushing at them, Eden ordered his archers to focus fire on the man.

"Shit! What is this guy made of? He's quite skilled at blocking arrows."

After a few more minutes of trying, Eden decided to order the retreat but he himself stayed to try and fight the man.

He might not be talented at swordsmanship but he was a hard worker. 

Currently, even though he is two tiers behind in terms of swordsmanship when compared to Alex and the others, he is still a solid tier 2 advanced swordsman with a tier 3 elite combatant physique.

A few moments passed, and Eden threw his bow to the side, drew his iron sword and buckler, and assumed his fighting stance.

Seeing this, the man nicknamed Iron Tiger threw his tower shield to the side and drew his two-handed sword.

"What's wrong? You're not going to hide behind your arrows anymore?"

Iron Tiger taunted.

"Fluffy kitten! You talk too much for a warrior. Just fight me already."

After being called a fluffy kitten, veins popped on Fluffy Kitt- I mean, Iron Tiger's head.

He made a mad dash towards Eden and slashed forward ferociously.

"He's fast!"

Eden was startled by Iron Tiger's agility despite his huge build. He quickly raised his left hand to block the blow with his buckler shield.

*CLANG*

"No way…"

Eden was stupefied upon seeing his buckler shield bent in half. It's already not useable after just one block against Iron Tiger.

"Hahahahah is this all you got?"

Iron Tiger continued taunting Eden as he continued slashing.

Eden was able to defend himself for a period of time before his arms started to get numb from clashing repeatedly against Iron Tiger.

A little while later, a sword went flying and stabbed into the ground.

"Why don't you call me fluffy kitten now?"

Iron Tiger taunted as Eden was finally unable to hold on to his sword.

"K..Kuuuhh"

Just as Eden thought that he would die here, three comforting hands from his comrades pulled him up and advised him to retreat.

"Alex! Sabre! Warren!"

"Good work Eden! Return first. You need to get treated. Leave this to us."