Brilliant Mind
The three brothers didn't just focus on raising the morale of the army.
They made sure to explore every possibility for the incoming battle, and try to find the optimal course in order to minimize the casualties from their sides.
"We possess several advantages", Arthur spoke, "Besides the fact that we are mounted, providing us with quite the mobility and the possibility to retreat at any time, we are also heavily armoured made of high-grade ironworks. I don't know how many gold coins you have spent on your personal army, John, but it was definitely worth it"
John revealed a bitter smile: "These armours came with a hefty cost, just so that you know. Of course they have to be of high quality, since they have been made by an [Intermediate] blacksmith. It took him roughly a year to complete all 100 armours, but considering that he was only helped by a couple dozen apprentices, I consider it to be fast and efficient work. I borrowed a lot of funds from Father and friends from the [Royal Knight Academy], and it also cost me the five years' of salary I earned as a teacher associate"
Arthur calculated in his mind how many gold coins such a large-scale purchase would amount to.
Even if John knew the blacksmith, an intermediate one didn't come by cheaply.
'This would cost at least 25 000 gold coins', Arthur thought with a pale face, 'Even as an acolyte, this would amount to more than 250 magic crystals...This far exceeds what the Landragon fief would produce in a year's worth of time!'
Still, a lifetime's investment from a gifted knight like John was only a small fortune that Arthur could make in a couple of months with his subordinates' support.
The more Arthur learned about his older brother, the more impressed he was with him still.
John continued to speak: "Back to the incoming battle, I think we do have the opportunity to charge them. However, a simple charge might be fended off by their druids. Do you know their abilities, Arthur?"
Arthur nodded, having encountered Hildir a few weeks ago: "I actually killed one of their elders in the past. He had infiltrated the castle, so I cursed him. The fact that they decided to march towards us without a plan is probably something they did on an impulse, considering their pride and vengeful nature"
John and Victor's eyes widened.
Arthur, their own brother, casually revealed that he had single-handedly defeated an [Intermediate] druid with ease, without sustaining a single injury. Naturally, the two Landragon heirs had heard about the druids' fearsomeness, and their ability to shapeshift. Although they didn't know the details, they knew that they weren't easy to deal with, especially for acolytes who relied on knowledge.
Arthur continued to speak: "As you probably know, most druids possess nature elemental affinity, so they often have spells enabling them to grow trees at unimaginable speed. We might encounter a [Tree Wall] spell, that might block our charge. If this happen, however, we can just retreat and come back again. Although the spell is very strong and can affect an entire battlefield, it is also a spell that consume enormous amount of mana. A single intermediate druid won't be enough to cast it. They would have to cast it with several druid's mana reserves. As for their ability to shapeshift, it's not something to worry about. I can take care of druids who shapeshift without a problem. Their poison spells might be the most dangerous ones to the army, so I would suggest something else than a frontal charge in order to reduce the casualties"
John nodded: "Knight Gale is an [Intermediate] archer. He will try to hinder them as soon as he spots one of them chanting"
Arthur nodded.
[Strategy skill has ben created]
[You have earned 10 points of proficiency from the [Strategy] skill]
"Their shapeshifting ability will make it difficult for us to lead a surprise attack", Arthur said
John planned: "We don't have to make it a surprise. To them, humans are chaotic creatures bound by their desires. They won't understand that we are charging them from two opposite side until it is too late!"
Victor spoke: "What about encircling them?"
John dismissed Victor's opinion: "Brother, have you learned nothing from [Black Owl]'s massacre?"
Victor felt attacked. Over the past weeks, Arthur had been kept updated on the main incidents that had happened over the past few years.
The [Black Owl] incident was one of the first bandit subjugation that John had completed. He had followed his father's suggestion to take Victor with him. After all, Frederick wanted to allow Victor to prove himself in battle, so that he could at least pretend not to give away his position in the Household to John.
However, Victor blew away this opportunity, insisting on taking a few men to encircle the intermediate-rank knight, surnamed [Black Owl] for his assassin traits. It would have been easy to capture such a man by using the cavalry in a frontal charge. Even advanced rank knights would be troubled to face such a cavalry force trained by John for years, not to mention a assassin-type knight with very few untrained men, without good quality equipment. Plus, Black Owl was a crippled knight, whose left leg had been amputated in the war, making him very weak in comparison to average intermediate rank knight.
Still, Victor's strategy had caused dozens of John's subordinates to lose their lives.
Cavalry was only strong when it was an overwhelming wave. The more horsemen there was in the wave formation, the more powerful, the deadlier, the more unstoppable it would become.
[Your skill [Strategy] has undergone some changes upon understanding the essence of the [Black Owl Incident]. Your proficiency in this skill has risen by 3 points]
After a few dozen minutes, John had settled on the location and strategy. He had even calculated the elven army's speed based on the scout's constant feedback in order to accurately pinpoint the time at which the battlefield would take place.
The Landragon three-wing formation.
It was the name John had come up with.
John would lead the main wing, the [Head Army], with 50 subordinates, including 5 knights. Most of his men had already reached the preparatory knight realm, and considering that each one of them had above 20 points of proficiency in the skill [Horsemanship], they could all ride the powerful Northern Stallions. With spearmanship and formation training, the power they could display was incredible, to the point that even 30 knights would not be able to face them.
This was the power of [Heavy Calvary]. Strong, unstoppable, overwhelmingly powerful. The only way to stop a heavy cavalry was to stop the charge with a powerful heavy-infantry unit of spearmen. However, only a handful of people could produce such an elite unit.
Arthur originally thought that the army John had raised was a child's project.
However, now that he saw the quality of the men that his brother had produced, he could affirm without a shred of hesitation that even the Viscount Frederick Landragon's personal guard, the [Dark Legion], was inferior to John's personal [Dragon Army], as he liked to call it.
Besides the main wing, both Arthur and Victor would each take 25 men to lead. Three front in the battle would emerge.
Arthur would target the druids.
John would target the archers.
Victor would take on the elven swordsmen.
This was the essence of the [Landragon Three-wing Formation]
---
By now, any human commander would have noticed the issue. But the elven elders were oblivious to the human strategy.
The Landragon Army possessed only cavalry.
Just that would make any archer-based army cower in fear.
But despite the numerical disadvantage, the Landragon Army didn't escape. Instead of thinking that they might lose, the elven elders were actually looking at the incoming Landragon Army with scorn and disdain.
Elder Freya Grinhil, who was the only elder against waging war against the Landragons, could not shake off her screaming instincts.
Other elders were laughing at the young Arthur Landragon: "He must have thought himself to be invincible after going to the Ivory Tower...What a fool! Does he not know that there are 4 intermediate druids in our army?"