"Stay alert, this one's another dirt-dweller," Daniel said, pointing toward a small hill ahead.
The knights had no trace of doubt left in their eyes; weapons drawn, they were ready for the thrill of battle!
The iron-clad horses thundered over the ground, sending clumps of earth flying in their wake.
In the distance, a horde of Demon Clan soldiers shouted and charged forward, but after chasing for a while, they stopped, panting heavily. The Demon Clan troops spat curses after Daniel's group, their words falling on the backs of their retreating figures. Their attempts to ambush and surround these knights had all failed. There had always been bold humanity knights who dared to rush out of formation, using their warhorses' power to steal kills.
Yet, Demon Clan's layered traps and inventive ambushes usually stopped those knights cold; catching even a few knights was considered a gain for the Demon Clan.
It was just a warm-up before the real battle at the front lines.
But today, frustration gripped the Demon Clan soldiers hard. Each demon, no matter how unique, cursed under its breath, wishing it had wings.
"Arrgh! They have to die! Damn you, humanity!"
"Kill, kill, kill!"
Thud, thud, thud.
Nine armored warhorses, along with the white Unicorn, galloped across the desolate land. Each rider had rows of demon ears dangling from their saddles, proof of their bloody triumphs. Their eyes now held a new, hardened gleam.
"These Demon Clan ambush tactics are so repetitive. Why do they all love hiding in the dirt?" Jolene grumbled.
She had killed many demons, each one staring back at her in disbelief before death, unable to understand how humanity's knights detected them so easily. Jolene glanced at Daniel, a smirk playing at her lips.
As Daniel's group reached the hill, they split into positions, quickly surrounding it.
Daniel narrowed his eyes, fully in command of the situation, his gaze falling upon a pair of large eyes hidden in the dirt, glinting with bloodlust and a hint of smugness.
This demon clearly believed its ambush would remain undetected by humanity's knights.
With a faint smile, Daniel flung a Demon Clan soldier's trident toward the hill.
Whoosh.
The trident sank diagonally into the ground, and dark liquid began to seep up from the soil.
"Roar!"
A towering, black-skinned demon, standing over two and a half meters tall, leapt up from the earth and landed with a heavy thud. Flames flared from its nostrils as it angrily scanned its surroundings, only to find that not a single human knight seemed intimidated. This only fueled its rage, making it stomp the ground in frustration.
"Attack!" Jolene shouted urgently.
In the distance, hordes of demon soldiers surged forward from multiple directions, swarming like ants. It was definitely time to head back to the fortifications.
The clashing of metal filled the air.
The knights tightened their reins and lunged forward, thrusting and slashing with their knight swords, tearing chunks of flesh from the massive demon's body.
The demon was robust, swinging its nearly two-meter-long arms wildly, coming close several times to crushing an unlucky knight. When its hammer-like fists struck the ground, the force sent dirt and stones flying up over a meter high.
All the knights felt the pressure of this formidable demon, moving with an extra dose of caution.
Whoosh!
A flash of Holy Light sliced through the air, striking the demon right in the head, leaving a bloody hole that spurted blood.
"It's time to go," Norn said, having unleashed the attack. As an experienced knight of Coruna Heights, Norn's mastery of Holy Light magic rivaled that of a professional mage.
Daniel urged his horse forward, leaping over the demon as it slumped to the ground.
With two swift strikes, Daniel sliced off the demon's ears.
"Move!" Daniel raised the blood-streaked ears high, shouting to his group.
Boom!
At that moment, the demon's massive body collapsed, life extinguished.
The group cheered in victory.
Quickly, Daniel and the others headed back toward Outpost 22, with countless demon soldiers swarming the various strongholds behind them, their war cries echoing through the hills.
Along the way, they crossed paths with other knights who were out hunting as well. Their eyes widened at the sight of Daniel's team, with strings of demon ears hanging from their saddles.
"My god, we lost two men just to collect a dozen demon ears," muttered the newest High City Knight, who was also mounted on a Unicorn.
"Yeah, these demons are so cunning! If I'd known they loved ambushes this much, I would've just stayed back at the outpost and waited for them to come to us," another elite knight grumbled.
A dirt-streaked elite knight's eyes gleamed with ambition. "That's not the same! Right now, these demon ears go toward our own merit points. During the real battle, everyone's points are lumped together. We'll only get credit after the whole wave is over. How long do you think we'd have to wait to become aristocrats?"
Knights from other outposts looked on enviously, while Jolene's group was elated. Watching Daniel's unsmiling figure leading them, they were filled with admiration and a bit of wonder. Who would have thought that a once-ordinary classmate could surpass them all by this much?
[Ding! Jolene feels increased submission and admiration toward you. She now sees a real chance for her ambitions through you…]
[You've received random Attribute Points… Your chaos attribute has increased by 2.]
Daniel had little understanding of his chaos attribute. He knew strength generally correlated to attack power, agility to movement speed, spirit to mastery of various magical energies, and constitution to his physical resilience. Ordinary common knights typically had strength around nine or ten, agility at about seven or eight, and their spirit and constitution levels didn't come close to matching Daniel's, thanks to his system.
"See you around, lucky ones!" The envious High City Knight soon parted ways with Daniel's group; he had his own outpost to defend.
Daniel raised a hand in a brief wave.
Outpost 22 was just ahead.
As waves of demon soldiers surged forward, the knights were all in position within the trenches. On elevated platforms, overseer teams operated the catapults, launching stones intermittently. Each boulder crashed into the clusters of demon soldiers below, shattering on impact and sending powerful shockwaves that tore the surrounding demons' flesh.
Daniel's team returned to the outpost under the watchful gaze of all those present.
Behind them, the sky darkened as countless black dots—each representing a Demon Clan soldier—filled the horizon.
Dismounting from their warhorses, Daniel gathered all the demon ears they had collected and handed them to the knight in charge of recording battlefield merits.
The merit officer stared, biting his pen in disbelief as Daniel tossed down string after string of demon ears.
"Hell! You took down this many Demon Clan soldiers in just one morning? Norn, you're sure you didn't lend a hand?" The merit officer frowned; technically, veteran knights were not supposed to assist in a rookie battlefield. But on second thought, who would dare cross a knight favored by the Holy Maiden?
Norn insisted, "I only helped once. Just a single Holy Light attack."
The merit officer nodded, choosing to let it slide. "Alright, alright, Norn. I'll take your word for it. So, how do you all plan to divide these merits?"
Everyone looked toward Daniel.
Before the mission, only Jolene had pledged to follow Daniel's lead.
But now, they all waited for Daniel to speak, and in their minds, they even thought it would be fair if Daniel claimed more than half the merits for himself. Without Daniel, some of them might not have made it back alive, and they certainly wouldn't have amassed this much merit.
After a brief pause, Daniel spoke. "I'll take one-fifth, Jolene one-fifth, and the rest will be divided equally among the others."
What?
Everyone stared at Daniel in disbelief at his generosity.
"No, no, Daniel. You don't have to be this generous. I'm not an idiot; without your command, we'd never have managed to kill so many demons," one of them, who was actually a senior to Daniel, quickly shook his head.
The others echoed this sentiment. Anyone who wasn't a fool understood the critical role Daniel and Jolene played in the operation.
"Demons are about to breach. Hurry up and decide," the merit officer urged, glancing at the clouds of smoke rising in the distance.
Daniel raised his hand, silencing the group's objections. "It's settled for today. We'll go out again tomorrow morning, and the day after."
"…Alright!"
"Yes!"
"Understood, Sir Knight Daniel!"
Their spirits lifted immediately.
Jolene stood quietly to the side, deeply moved. Of everyone present, she was the most affected.
Daniel's distribution clearly gave her a larger share of the merit. He could have easily taken two-fifths or even more, with the remainder divided among the others.
But he hadn't.
Why would Daniel do this?