The captain of the Tiberius family really had an ugly look on his face now.
Even though he wanted to retaliate he knew the soldier in front of him was stronger than him and his soldiers to were inferior to the rose troops.
"Fine we'll leave but know you are not the only strong family around" leaving that remark behind the Tiberius family captain left with his troops.
"Thank you for the help sir" bowing to the Rose family's peak Tier 1 knight Pedro thanked him.If the rose family troops hadn't arrived early the store might have ended today.
"Don't thank me thank my lord countess Rose she sent me to provide help" the peak Tier 1 knight didn't want to receive the thanks at all.
"Alright I'll be leaving send a message if you need any help" after saying his piece the knight left with his men.
Far away from the city on the Grey rock island outpost soldiers on the fort patrolled as usual at night.
The fort was a large one built by the kingdom of Avalon to serve as an advanced base for the army and navy.
The soldiers stationed here were all elite soldiers who had gone through the baptism of war.
And the general in charge here was a bonafide Tier 3 peak mid stage grand master who was one of the five strongest experts under the duke.
At this moment a soldier who was patrolling the tall walls of the fort heard some splashes on the ocean and had gone to check.
He pulled his lantern nearer to the ocean and tried to see if he could spot anything.
After observing for a minute he was about to leave when he spotted some faint silhouettes on the sea.
Realizing that it could mean trouble he was about to shout when a sharp arrow found it's way into his forehead killing him before he could sound the alarm.
Suddenly from where he was looking countless boats with blue armored men sailed across the water silently.All lookouts on that side of the wall were silenced quickly before the boats docked.
Soldiers got out of the boats and headed for the tall walls of the fort. Amongst these men were a small group of black clothed men who radiated aura's of knights. These men were about a hundred but the least of them had a Tier 1 knight cultivation making it shocking. and they were the ones who took out the lookouts.Grappling hooks were thrown onto the walls and the invaders climbed over silently.
They moved inside the fort and began to slaughter whoever they came upon quietly whiles more continued to climb.But a soldier who
had gone out to take a piss noticed the the abnormalities and sounded the alarm.Soldiers of Mildred city began to move out of the fort and gather at where the invaders were coming from.
"kill them all don't let anymore of them inside" at this point the Tier 3 mid level general of the fort had come out with his two early stage Tier 3 vice commanders and was slaughtering the invaders. He was a buffed up man who wielded a large bastard sword and reaped the lives of the soldiers like wheat.
The grey rock island housed 10,000 soldiers and all of them were experienced in battle.There were a dozen Tier 2 captains and close to 300 hundred Tier 1 soldiers they all rushed at the invaders rallying behind their general trying to regain the part of the fort that had been taken over.
The enemy to just kept on coming like an endless tide. For a moment all that happened were men stuck in a frenzy trying to kill each other. It was bloody but beautiful.
A Lucian soldier has been fighting with a defender and had just struck him down only to find a sword shoved into his head from behind.
A defending Tier 2 captain had finished off a Tier 2 from the other side only to be drowned and hacked down by numerous Tier 1 soldiers.
"General we can't hold on there's too many of them" one of the defending vice commanders saw things weren't looking good and shouted out to the general.
The general looked around and noticed that they were truly getting overwhelmed
"Charge all troops charge towards the western wall and retake it back" while shouting he led by example and Charged towards the west.
The soldiers of Avalon had been reduced and now there were barely 6,000, the general knew it would spell doom if he continued to fight like this. He had to take back the wall and fight a defensive battle against the enemy, it was the only way to survive.
The Avalon soldiers inspired by their general fearlessly charged at their opponents.
The general was almost there when four early stage Tier 3 commanders from the other side dashed at him trying to stop him.
"It's futile" with a great shout he activated a high grade human rank technique mountain god slash.
A gust of wind surrounded his sword, it carried momentum and power and swept towards the enemy bringing along anything in it's path.
The four Tier 3 soldiers were hit by the full force of the strike and blown away with various fractures and wounds.
" haaaaaa" the Avalon soldiers gave a loud shout of victory upon seeing the strength of their general.
"Hahahaha" The general laughed out loud while continuing to head towards the western wall, with confidence he jumped high into the air raised his sword and was going to perform his technique on the enemy soldiers when he felt something pass by him , he arrived on the wall and turned around to see a swordsman sheathing a blade back into it's sheath.
The general then looked at the man dressed in black who had his back turned to him whiles pointing at him with a trembling finger with his other hand trying to stop the blood that was ceaselessly flowing out of his throat.
His head then gradually slid from his neck whiles his body fell towards the ground.
"General!! General!!" the vice commanders and soldiers called out in grief.
They stared at the black clothed man in both fear and anger. Having seen what their general can do, to decapitate him in one strike was something only a Tier 3 late stage or peak stage grand knight could do.
"Kill them all spare no one I want this place in our grasp in the next two hours" the man in black gave an order whiles walking away.
Numerous black clothed men giving out frightening aura descended from the air followed by Lucian soldiers in blue armor attacked the Avalonian soldiers and massacred them.
The black clothed men especially were vicious and killed the Avalonian soldiers in cruel ways.
Soon all that was left were bodies and blood. Every soldier of Avalon was killed and not even the Tier 3 vice commanders were able to escape.
A Tier 3 early stage commander of Lucia walked towards a Lucian general who was in a decorated blue armor with a blue cloak to match.He also radiated a Tier 3 late stage aura but compared to the man in black he was just a still lacking.
"General we slaughtered them all no one escaped. Our ships have also taken out all their scout ships they are blind now" the early stage grand knight saluted before reporting to the general with the cloak.
"Good !! continue with the plan we'll use this fort as a supply point and continue with the invasion before they realize what is happening".
"Mobilize the army take a vanguard force of 30,000 men and continue the attack on the various towns and villages we'll take Mildred city after that.Taking that city will weaken their kingdom.
With that a large fleet of ships passed by the fort bearing the blue Lucian flag with a golden Trident held above the blue sea.
In a large compound thousands of city guards trained with swords looking imposing as they shouted whenever they slashed with their swords or thrust with their spears.
Others rode horses as they left to perform their duties.
Companies of a hundred men would occasionally march by.
In a large luxurious room somewhere in the building an older man in the city guard armor was talking with another middle aged man whom even though was bearing a noble aura had a ferocious face at the moment.
"You should have intervened commander Mitch don't forget all that I have done for you" count Tiberius was currently quarreling with a commander of the city guard.
"Count Tiberius it's precisely because you are a friend that's why I prevented my men from stopping yours when you tried to raid that store.Anything more than that would have earned a retaliation from the merchant alliance" commander Mitch calmly refuted.
"And so what if they retaliate? by the gods you are a commander of the city guard directly under the duke's general there's nothing they can do,don't forget who helped you when you were like a dog in the streets" the count kept scolding the general to his face.
The commander who had been scolded so much was really angry at this moment he was after all a dignified Tier 3 early stage grand knight.
Boom!! Boom!! right at that moment explosions happened around the city. They were especially loud at the harbor.
"what the hell is happening!!" commander Mitch asked with alarm as he felt the ground under him shaking.
At that moment a captain rushed in with a panicked expression before the commander
"commander we're under attack the Lucia kingdom lunched an attack on us".
"What?? how come we didn't notice ? what were the scout ships and rangers doing" the commander questioned with anger.
"Am sorry sir they infiltrated silently. We've lost contact with our scouts and we were attacked too fast to react,the sixth and fourteenth battalions were annihilated some surrounding towns and villages have been destroyed" the captain reported whiles keeping his head down. With how angry commander Mitch looked he didn't to want attract his fury.
Mitch was angry but deep within he was also worried.The general populace believed that the duke had an army of 20,000 armed men.
Duke Mildred really had men but for an army he only had 13,000 properly trained soldiers. The rest were just 7,000 farmers he could call on any moment.
They still had to train for a while before they could be properly called soldiers and were useless for now.Besides it took a lot of gold coins to maintain an army and even with the duke's strength he struggled.
A battalion was composed of a thousand men which meant that before the war had started their side had already lost 2,000 properly trained soldiers.
2,000 properly trained men not rabble. These men were garrisoned near the shorelines of the territory near the harbor now they were all dead. This obviously meant the enemy was attacking in full force.
"The general and the duke have called for a meeting with all influential figures of the city at the war council in two days time" the captain added whiles waiting for instructions.
"Alright you are dismissed" the commander gave an order before turning back to the shocked count who was still thinking about the news he had just heard.
"As you have heard count Tiberius the is something i must attend to I'll see you at the meeting" leaving that behind commander Mitch left in a hurry.
Two days later, the city was in a state of panic as squads of fully armed soldiers marched through the streets prepared for war.
The residents had heard about the invasion from the south and everyone was worried and frightened about what would happen because the duke and his people had covered it up the massacre of the two battalions were kept a secret but it had still leaked a bit scaring the people further.
The foreigners were hurrying up to board their ships and sail back to their countries while others were more worried that the Lucian navy would rob them and kill them.
In the castle of duke Mildred all the noble in the city and it's surrounding towns and villages were gathered.
There were a lot of nobles especially the lowest knight and Barron class. They made up two- thirds of the gathering.
Unlike other days the nobles gathered in the large hall were solemn and carried heavy aura's.
Sitting in from of the gathering was an older man with a royal aura around him. He was handsome and had red hair with stripes of silver mixed amongst it.
He looked at the crowd before looking at one of his commanders and giving him the order to report.
"My lord according to our scouts the Lucian army is more than 90,000 men".