"What did he say?"
"Nothing." Eileen replied casually, sitting back in her seat, expressionless as she watched the "Giant" roaring in the center of the field.
Abe Robert glanced at Gray from afar...
...
"Pas, it's your turn!" Horsche shouted.
Pas sighed as he sat in his chair, slowly standing up and flexing his muscles, muttering to himself, "As expected."
Gray looked at him with doubt.
Pas glanced at Gray and whispered, "I knew it was my turn when Mike went up earlier. Obviously, Mike is good at ground battles, and Horsche wants to force the other side to send people who are good at ground battles too. So, they will choose ground battles, and most of the people in our mercenary group are only good at ground battles, so we can be sent up, and the other side must send more people who are good at ground battles. He wants us to be cannon fodder first... hahaha. In the end, even if we stand on the same side, the nobles are still nobles, and the commoners are still commoners."
"Do you think she will keep her promise if I succeed?"
"She should, if you can really do it."
With that, Pas flipped over the fence, drew two curved knives, and walked towards the center of the field.
Pas is only about 1.7 meters tall, much shorter than Mike, and standing in front of the "Giant" is like a small dot.
The Casper camp has already started booing, but the audience surprisingly chose to support Pas.
"Pas! Pas! Pas! Pas! Pas!" The cheers were getting louder and louder, making Pas a little embarrassed, and he had to wave to the audience in acknowledgment.
Many of these people are his loyal "patrons."
"Who is this?" Count Casper asked the steward next to him in a low voice.
"Pas, the leader of the Red Scorpion Mercenary Group. Pas Kyle." The steward replied quietly.
Count Casper nodded silently, and pursed his lips.
..........
The seventh round began, and Pas ran towards the "giant" with a run-up.
The giant swung his hammer.
Pas jumped high over the giant's head and left a wound on the giant's shoulder with his curved blade. Then he landed steadily. The movement was so smooth that only an expert could describe it.
The audience burst into thunderous cheers.
Even Gray couldn't close his mouth.
"This mercenary leader is quite impressive. Can you do that?" Black Cat whispered from inside the helmet.
Gray shook his head. "No. I can enhance myself with four layers of Wind Magic, making me faster than him. But I might not be able to land steadily and might fall apart."
"So how do you plan to do it when you go on later?"
"I want to do it in a simpler way."
"Oh." Black Cat responded noncommittally.
Turning around, Gray squeezed through the crowd and looked around, as if he was looking for something.
In the center of the arena, the fierce battle between Pas and the giant had entered a white-hot stage.
The giant was hit six times, and his helmet and neck guard had been knocked off by Pas, and he was covered in blood, but he still had fighting strength.
Pas was hit hard with a hammer, spitting out blood, and coupled with the serious loss of physical strength during the fight, he was already panting.
"It seems that the mercenaries you hired are not that good. However, they are still worth the money. Hahaha." Casper mocked Eileen.
Eileen still had no expression on her face, just watching the fight quietly.
"The giant" once again charged towards Pas with his giant hammer. Just when everyone thought Pas was doomed, he gently dodged the attack. Then, taking advantage of the opening created by the "giant" not being able to retract his giant hammer, Pas jumped lightly on the hammer and slipped behind the "giant".
He raised his sword and struck.
The "giant's" head turned and flew towards the sky, his expression full of fear and unwillingness. His body collapsed with a loud bang, and the blood sprayed and soaked the sand.
There was another earth-shattering cheer in the square, and every audience member was applauding. The members of the mercenary group were hysterically shouting.
Caspar slammed his fist on the armrest, so angry that he couldn't speak.
Eileen breathed a sigh of relief.
"Next!"
Almost without giving Pas a chance to catch his breath, the eighth round began immediately.
A burly knight with heavy armor, a large shield and a short sword, and blue feathers on his helmet, appeared on the stage.
Normally, with Pas's strength, defeating this knight should be easy. However, he already had injuries on his body and had consumed too much energy in the battle with the "giant". This would be difficult.
The eighth round was even more intense than the seventh round. Pas barely defeated the knight, but he also received a cut on his thigh and shoulder. He was already having trouble standing steady.
In the ninth round, when the opponent stepped into the center of the arena, Pas didn't even look at him and directly threw away his two swords.
"What are you doing?"
"I surrender."
"You surrender before even fighting?"
"Can't I surrender before fighting?"
The audience erupted in cheers again. Pas waved his hand like a triumphant warrior and left the center of the arena, leaving the master of ceremony stunned.
"What do you mean? You surrendered before even fighting?" Before he could even step over the fence, Horsche had rushed over to question him.
"What do you mean by 'before fighting'? We've already won two rounds, doesn't that count as fighting?" Pas flipped over the fence, took a towel handed to him by his subordinate, wiped the blood off his face and laughed. "Besides, among those two rounds, the opponent had sent out the ones with best gound battle skills. Ehem...I guarantee you, they won't be able to produce someone as strong as those again."
"Where's your knightly spirit?" Horsche was itching with anger.
"Are we knights?" Pas winked and continued, "We're just mercenaries hired by you to do the job for money. I can only assure you that you're getting your money's worth."
Helplessly, Horsche had to turn around and leave in a huff.
"Where's Gray?" Horsche looked around but couldn't find him.
"I don't know, he was here just now." One of the subordinates replied casually.
...
The competition had attracted almost the entire city's attention, including the people under Count Caspar.
Gray wandered aimlessly in the corridors of Count Caspar's main castle, but didn't even see half a person. This was impossible under normal circumstances.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for weapons. I definitely can't beat them with a sword, so I need to find some other weapons."
"Are you sure you want to participate in the competition?"
"What else can I do?"
"Um...can you let me out first? I think the competition is scary, and I don't feel safe hiding in armor. Don't worry, I promise I won't run away!"
Gray opened his mask and took the black cat out of the armor.
After resting for a while and eating something, the black cat's health improved significantly, although it still looked weak.
Gray drew a circle at random and then marked the black cat's forehead.
"What are you doing?"
"Soul imprint, like the one Brutu gave me. As long as you're still alive in this world, I can find you."
"Oh, it seems like you really don't trust me."
...
The competition continued, one after another.
Most of the eleven knights who followed Eileen were elite, while the fourteen knights who accompanied her were relatively mediocre, but there were also outstanding ones among them. As for the mercenaries, they lived by the sword and were used to bloody battles.
Compared to Eileen's side, except for a few elites, most of Caspar's side probably had not experienced battles for too long, and their individual combat strength was somewhat lacking.
Overall, Eileen's side won more and lost less. Unfortunately, they were outnumbered.
Fighting requires stamina, especially in such desperate battles, where stamina loss is extremely severe. After two victories, regardless of speed or strength, anyone would drop one level.
Thus, by the time they reached the hundredth battle, Eileen's side had lost four people, had seven seriously injured, five in a coma, and eighteen surrendered. The only ones left, including Horsche, were six people.
Of course, the four who died were definitely not mercenaries.
On the other side, Count Caspar still had sixty-one men under his command.
"Six versus sixty-one...each person can win ten battles, and Caspar side still has an extra person." Horsche wiped his sweat and laughed bitterly.
"In fact, we still have seven people." Pas, who had already returned after being bandaged, said softly.
"Seven?" Horsche looked around himself, but he only counted six people no matter how he counted.
"There's still Gray, but I don't know where he went. He should come back."
"The one who wore the white knight helmet and asked the lady for the title of knight, right?"
"Yes."
Horsche sneered and simply ignored Gray.
The sunset glow had already spread across the earth, but the people in the square were still enthusiastic. The sensitive vendors had started selling all kinds of food. Count Caspar's maids had already delivered a simple dinner to the contestants of both sides.
=========================
Game 101, Eileen wins.
Game 102, Count Caspar defeats.
Game 103, Count Caspar wins again.
Game 104, Eileen wins.
Game 105, Eileen wins again.
Game 106, Eileen wins two games in a row.
...
Night has fully arrived, torches have been lit.
By the time they reach game 116, Count Caspar has 50 people left on his side, while Eileen only has Horsche eft.
"Hahaha, there's no need to continue this final game, is there?" Count Caspar said with a smug smile to Eileen. "A one-against-fifty battle, even if I believe it, you probably won't."
Eileen sat quietly, not saying a word, clutching her skirt tightly.
Looking at Eileen from afar, Horsche took a step forward, ready to jump over the fence, when a voice suddenly came.
"Wait!"
Gray suddenly appeared from an unknown corner, not looking at Horsche, but started counting towards the other side.
"One, two, three, four, five, six..."
Everyone was watching this inexplicable knight, even Eileen stretched her neck.
Count Caspar rubbed his bald head in confusion.
"Forty-nine!? Oh no, I'm late! I'm one short of fifty!"
"There's still one on the field..." Just when Gray was full of regret, Passe reminded him in a low voice.
"One still on the field?" Gray looked towards the center of the field and saw the knight from Count Caspar's side who had just won the previous game, looking at him and twisting his neck with a "crack" sound.
"Great, exactly fifty!" The big rock in his heart finally fell, and Gray quickly turned to Horsche, who was standing there puzzled, "Can I go up? If you go up, I'm afraid there won't be enough people."
"You...,"
"If you don't say anything, I'll take it as you agree!"
Under everyone's gaze, Gray climbed over the fence and walked quickly to the knight in the center of the field.
"Excuse me, is it a ground battle or a on-horse battle?"
The other party looked Gray up and down, probably noticing that he was wearing a full set of horse armor, and said immediately, "ground battle."
"Okay, I'll prepare right away."
"Prepare?"
The audience stretched their necks. They watched Gray appear inexplicably, hurriedly run onto the field, and then run back inexplicably.
Just when everyone thought the knight had a problem with his brain, something terrifying happened.
A huge door panel stood up behind the crowd. It was eight meters high and thirty centimeters thick, made of thick iron!
Suddenly, the people on the entire square were in an uproar.
Even Eileen was so shocked that her mouth was wide open.
Count Casper was even more stunned, because he recognized at a glance that it was the door panel of his castle gate!
Gray appeared in front of everyone, carrying this huge iron and tied with a iron chain as thick as an arm. It was the iron chain of Count Casper's moat drawbridge...
Amidst a burst of exclamation, Gray carried the door panel and staggered towards the center of the field.
The black cat lying on the city wall was so shocked that its jaw "clattered" and fell off.