The nightmare began.
Like a disturbed hornet's nest, an endless stream of Knights, using arrows, harassment, and swift kills, continuously routed the chaotic forces, which were disorganized due to their sheer numbers.
Everything was so bad; because it was a tribal formation, there was no unified command, and their deployment and advance were a chaotic mess, spreading out like a fan, disorderly and ineffective.
Some Knights were even able to penetrate deep and quickly retreat before Brown and Bonaparte could react. The harassment by the Knight Order, led by the thirteen Knights of the Round Table, indeed made it difficult for the Barbarians to cope. In just one day, they lost ten thousand men, eight thousand of whom were the good work of the Knight Order, while the remaining two thousand were losses caused by self-inflicted trampling.
But reforms were not possible at this juncture. The unbearable Bonaparte and Brown had no choice but to order the Barbarians to run quickly, believing that once they reached the next city, the Camelot people would retreat into their shells.
However, their idea was good, but reality was cruel. Bypassing Red Leaf Ridge and advancing fifty kilometers further led to the territory of an Earl. His territory had long been emptied; not even a single common person could be seen. Apart from wooden furniture and stone houses, nothing seemed to be left there.
The Barbarian army had no choice but to rest there for a day before continuing their journey. Their path was to the Royal City. The enemy was smarter than them and seemed to have figured out their decapitation strategy. After Bonaparte and Brown discussed it, they made a clever but self-defeating decision: they planned to advance northwest, overflowing into another territory. This way, the enemy wouldn't be able to predict their movements, and the strategy of'strengthening defenses and clearing the fields' would be difficult to implement.
Perhaps... when they self-importantly ordered the Barbarians to advance northwest, the rangers had already detected their movements and reported them to the King.
When Artoria appeared in the tent, draped in a blue velvet robe, wearing Red Dragon skin underneath, and light steel plate armor over it, all the Knights knelt in unison and saluted. The sound of their knightly armor clanking against the ground was astonishing.
"Rise." Artoria said little. Since Kailar had entered the enemy lines, she spoke less and less, and her majesty grew daily. Even among the Knights of the Round Table, few dared to look directly at her when speaking.
All the Knights stood up, their left hands on the hilt of their knightly swords, and their right hands holding their helmets, saluting Artoria with their eyes.
"The enemy has begun to move northwest. The final battle location is here," Artoria said, pointing to the Guildford Great Plains on the parchment map.
She knew that the final decisive battle was not here, but the ultimate strategy to defeat the enemy's main force was correct: it was here!
The Guildford Great Plains!
That's right... the decisive battle is here, the decisive battle is there!
When the Barbarians woke up at five o'clock and marched for half the morning, breathless and almost crawling over the plain's hill to see the next city, a shadow suddenly obscured their vision.
Then, as the sun slowly rose, a shadow, like a cloud, formed a continuous mass at the highest point of the grassland. Then, a golden light appeared, a light like the sun, no, even more brilliant than the sun.
Holding the golden light was a young, beautiful woman whose hair shimmered golden in the sun, and whose emerald green pupils reflected ripples of green water.
Perhaps in normal times, they would have roared and swarmed her with their numbers, then ravaged that woman. But now, they just wanted to scream like women, because the cold, gleaming light of weapons was shining on their faces.
It was the reflection of weapons, appearing as if plated with a layer of gold in the sun.
"Knight's Code!!" The high-pitched female voice cried out, holding her sword aloft, a voice that everyone in the field heard clearly.
"Loyalty, Integrity, Honor, Courage, Fearlessness, Sacrifice." With each word the Knights roared, their momentum grew. When the two words'sacrifice' were uttered, their aura was like a burning flame.
When Kailar's most classic dialogue with King Uther, "The Knight's Dialogue," resonated throughout the world, the Six Codes of Knighthood transformed from:
1.
Never be enraged or commit murder
2.
Never betray
3.
Never be cruel, grant mercy to those who beg for it
4.
Always assist ladies
5.
Never coerce ladies
6.
Never fight or engage in quarrels due to love or sharp words
And became Kailar's "Loyalty, Integrity, Honor, Courage, Fearlessness, Sacrifice," much like Confucius's influence on future Chinese Confucianism: the Six Arts of a Gentleman.
The impact was profound.
Facing such Knights, everyone's fingers turned cold with fear, because the continuous line of Knights seemed to outnumber all of them. Fifty thousand? One hundred thousand? One hundred fifty thousand? Two hundred thousand?! How many damn Knights were there?! And how many enemies?!
The Barbarians were so scared they almost peed themselves, their legs trembling so much they couldn't even properly hold their axes as they watched the Knights raise their horses' hooves.
"Hah!!" All the Knights roared loudly.
Like a mountain torrent bursting, the sound of hooves charged towards them.
The so-called Barbarians, the so-called raw meat eaters, the so-called numerous people... everything was truly ridiculous, like a joke.
The first row of Barbarians yelled, dropped their weapons, and ran backward, followed by the second, third, and fourth rows... Behind them was a flood, in front of them were their comrades. How to choose?
Does it even need to be asked!?
I don't need to outrun the tiger, I just need to outrun you!
This kind of thinking is by no means exclusive to China.
All the Barbarians began to turn their weapons on their own people. Even the elite troops at the back who wanted to resist, facing tens of thousands of their tribesmen fleeing, hesitated for just a moment... and in an instant, they were knocked to the ground, then countless people trampled over them... Like cattle and sheep being driven, they began to trample each other, kill each other, and chaos could not stop them... But the Knights could.
The slaughter continued, because Artoria had given the order, because Artoria knew that if so many Barbarians were allowed to rush back to Red Leaf Ridge, the final plan would not be realized, and... "Capture the leaders for me! I need precise information about Kailar!" A bloodthirsty Artoria raised her golden longsword and shouted loudly.
"Hah!" All the Knights raised their spears in salute.