ALL NOVEL Chapter 16: New Training
"Prince Benton, what will be your judgment for these traitors?" Sir Dolven asks Prince Benton after William executed four of Sir Bullen's men. Meanwhile, William maintains his bolter pistol at Sir Bullen's head and pulls out a power sword, intimidating everyone including his allies.
"Of course, Sir Dolven. I, Crown Prince Benton, have witnessed the traitorous act from Sir Bullen as conspire against the Kingdom of Alderim by allying himself with a vampire faction. On behalf of my father, King Benton the 3rd, immediately, Sir Bullen is stripped from the noble title of Viscount and all his followers will face the same charge until the end of the investigation." Prince Benton announced his judgment to everyone in the hall in which minor nobles of Sir Bullen's side started to show panic and great fear.
"You hear that? Your lord is no more, so drop your weapon right now or else I will start chopping heads!" William gave a commanding shout in which the majority of enemies dropped their weapons due to the survival instinct. Still, few of the enemies maintain their ground but it was pointless as more of Sir Dolven's soldiers come in and apprehend enemy soldiers. Eventually, all of the soldiers on the lower tables surrendered, leaving Sir Bullen and his remaining men all alone.
"I advise you to surrender, but one wrong move and I will remove your head in a second," William said to Sir Bullen, as he secretly hoped to have an excuse to execute the traitor. Sir Bullen's face turned pale as he realized he had no chance to survive this confrontation. In the end, he and his men surrender their weapons and are apprehended by the soldiers.
Just as tension in the hall slowly died down, a soldier covered in blood rushed through the door to give an urgent report. "Report from outside. One of the soldiers freed himself and escaped on horseback." A soldier said out loud as the hall once again went rowdy. Sir Dolven was about to order but William stepped forward as he put his helmet on.
"I'll handle it." William went outside which the sound of his footsteps disappeared as he increased his speed. The moment William exited the gate, he used his helmet to track and found the soldier in the distance. Seeing a good distance between him and the soldier, William increases speed to full gear as he now runs at 40 miles per hour. As William started to close his distance, he equipped one of his new war gear, the jump pack and took a huge jump across and over the soldier. After landing 20 yards in front, William turned around to stop the charging horse head-on.
"Are you crazy? You can't possibly stop the warhorse all by yourself!" The soldier yelled, but William didn't budge as he caught the horse's neck and front side and flipped the animal with the rider on top of it.
"Be glad I didn't kill you on sight. I need to know who you're going to report to." William grabbed the soldier with one hand and gave him a small smack on the head which he went unconscious. William puts his jump pack back into his inventory and walks back to the city with an unconscious enemy soldier in his hand and warhorse's leash in his other hand. After walking through the gate, William dropped the soldier in front of Sir Dolven's men and gave the warhorse to one of the knights.
"I just smacked him a little, he isn't dead," William said to Sir Dolven and Prince Benton as he approached them.
"We need to redefine the term 'smack' for you as you are not a normal person unlike that fellow there." Sir Dolven said to William and pointed it at the enemy soldier who is being dragged by the foot soldiers. Meanwhile, Prince Benton flinched for a moment as he experienced William's punch 8 days ago.
"I know my strength, I'm sure just smack him without any permanent damage." William gave his excuse and turned around to see soldiers escort the prisoners to the dungeon. Seeing this, William asked Sir Dolven a question that was in his mind all night.
"What will happen to the soldiers? They are just foot soldiers and have nothing to do with treason."
"They are soldiers but until we remove the Bullen's family and his followers we can't use them in our fighting force. For now, they will be confined in the dungeon, including Bullen and his followers." Sir Dolven explains the process to William as Prince Benton nods his head, agreeing with the old commander.
"Does that mean we will postpone the second part of the mission?" William asks as he points out the main reason why Sir Bullen's army came to Deron in the first place.
"Probably, Prince Benton and I already sent the message to the capital, so it will take about another 2 weeks for them to send a relief force to Deron." Sir Dolven said as he took a deep breath. It seems this will impact him and others as 2 more weeks of delay will reduce the morale of the troops.
"I can use that time to train the troops, not just riflemen but the footmen as well. I believe I can make them more effective in close combat and siege for the second part of the mission." William said to two leaders as he volunteered himself for more troop training. It is good to keep the soldiers busy so for William, he will be busy with a new training regiment and development of the next generation of rifles in the future.
"Thank you, William. Soldiers look up to you ever since you defeated the vampire beast, so I believe you training the troops will increase morale until the relief force." Sir Dolven gave his thanks to William while Prince Benton raised his hand to ask William a question.
"Can I join the training? Not the training itself but I like to compare the strategy and tactics of my lesson to yours." Prince Benton asks William with great interest as he wants to see the training regiments of the mysterious black knight.
"Sure, bring all your gears and I will see you first thing tomorrow morning. Which is about 5 hours from now on." William gave an evil smile and walked away to prepare new training programs for the troops.
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10 Days Later,
William focused more on endurance and teamwork than strength as fighting an undead army is a battle of teamwork. Undead soldiers do not communicate with each other or display teamwork to defeat stronger opponents. For them, the strategy is all about overwhelming their enemy and replacing fallen soldiers with new corpses. So, William decided to work on the soldier's endurance to strengthen their defensive line while teamwork to help each other to maintain the line.
"Keep your shield above your head! Take each step one at a time together, one misstep will bring down the whole formation. If I break the wall, it is another 30 laps with the full gear." William said to the soldiers with tower shields as he prepared himself to charge the shield wall. At first, he did this with his power armor on, but after full protest from the entire army, he decided to test it without the armor.
Bang!!!
William slammed the shield wall with full strength, but it managed to withstand the impact with no one falling out from the formation. The soldiers who were watching the training cheered as they finally witnessed the possibility of passing the impossible task.
"Not bad, you can break the formation now." William gave an order to the soldiers and tower walls break the formation to show fully armed soldiers, including Prince Benton.
"I can't believe we passed the test. I swear when you told us about this, I thought you went crazy due to lack of action on the battlefield." Prince Benton said to William as he removed his armor and dropped his tower shield. Prince Benton didn't have to participate in this part of the training but he decided to join the soldiers to lead with example.
"I told you it is possible. I knew you guys have shield formation already but it lacks endurance because you guys didn't have me to break your shield wall. Now, the soldiers can withstand even if they get slammed by the cavalry head-on. That is if cavalry survives the riflemen and spearmen." William said as he waited for the next group of soldiers to form up the shield wall. Suddenly, the sound of the horn can be heard from the western gate as it signals an incoming friendly army approaching the city.
"Deja Vu, this is familiar. Sergeants prepare the troops for the incoming army. I will be at the gate to see who it is this time." William instructed the sergeants and left the training field to welcome the new army.
"I'll come with you, I'm sure my father sent someone from my branch family this time to make sure there is no more delay." Prince Benton said to William as he gathered his gears to walk next to him.
"Get yourself cleaned up first. If your father did send someone he trusts, you need to be presentable. I'll buy you some time." William said to the prince and went to his room to put on his power armor. When William finally made it to the western gate, Sir Dolven greeted him as they waited for the relief army. Soon, the gate opened and they saw an army with a flag colored white and gold with a lion in the middle.
"Oh no, Of all generals, King Benton sent her?" Sir Dolven whispered in silence the moment he saw the army flag.
"Her? Who is it?" William asks as he has no idea who the flag represents.
"Rana Bassilo Beckett, Duchess of Agrus and King Benton's second niece. She is infamous for defending and launching counter-attacks against invaders three years ago. She is different from other nobles, so watch out." Sir Dolven warns William, as they see a single rider ahead of the army in full gallop. The rider stopped her horse a few feet from William and made a full circle around him.
"You are Sir William the Giant? I expect you to be much taller for your given title." Duchess Beckett said to William as she removed her helmet.
'Oh, she is going to be one of those noble.' William thought to himself as he prepared for another energetic trouble maker in military rank.