Mercenary System: I can increase innate potential !-Chapter 228: Protection of Plouta (2/2)

"We, the Saber-toothed Tigers, are afraid of people!"

Obviously, the 6 mercenaries were not going to give up so easily, even if their lives were in danger.

"Don't be fooled by appearances, these mercenaries are already at the end of their tether!"

An apprentice knight among Baron Barthon's soldiers shouted back, also to boost the morale of the soldiers in the surrounding area.

Three apprentice knights and a dozen or so soldiers also shouted in response, while showing their determination by increasing the intensity of their attacks.

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At that precise moment, Liam brandished his sword and threw himself into the fray, blocking with a swift blow the weapon of an enemy about to strike one of their men.

Ivan, for his part, used his brute strength to violently repel a group of soldiers who had just managed to bring a mercenary to the ground and were about to finish him off.

"The captain is here! Hang in there, guys!" Ivan cried out as he fought off another opponent.

The mercenaries and allied soldiers, although exhausted, found a second wind when they saw Liam and Ivan appear and fight alongside them.

And especially when they heard Ivan's words.

All had been able to see the power of their leader on the dimensional battlefield, and so they were all reassured.

Especially as it also meant for them that many of their comrades were nearby.

They could not know that Maxime had come on the back of a wyvern, but the assumption that their comrades were arriving did much to boost the morale of the six mercenaries, who seemed to gain a second wind.

Little by little, they began to gain ground, taking advantage of the momentum provided by the two combatants.

With a sword stroke, Liam beheaded one of the three apprentice knights, while Ivan, not far away, thrust his sword into the body of a second apprentice knight.

Seeing this scene, the last of the apprentice knights fled without saying a word, as did the other soldiers.

They weren't going to stand around here waiting stupidly for death.

"Sandrine, I think we're saved."

"It certainly seems that way," replied Sandrine, letting out a slight smile while holding her daughter against her chest and reassuring her.

Seeing the opponents flee and, above all, noticing something else, Liam jumped onto the roof of a house, raised his sword in the air and shouted in a loud voice:

"It's over, soldiers of Baron Barthon, our leader has arrived!"

His voice was heard not only by the six mercenaries who had just escaped death, but also by all the mercenaries and soldiers in and around the center of the village.

Everyone turned their heads towards him, with different expressions on their faces.

The mercenaries were at first confused and then extremely excited, while Baron Barthon's soldiers and apprentice knights did not understand why this would be the end.

"Indeed, if he is there, then it's game over," whispered a middle-aged man, who had a very powerful aura compared to the other soldiers and mercenaries on this battlefield.

It was Killian, and he had learned many things about Maxime from the mercenaries.

Thanks to the mercenaries, he was somewhat familiar with Maxime's strength, although he did not understand exactly how the mercenaries had news of their captain.

But there were many talents in this world, so he didn't ask too many questions. Misplaced curiosity could be seen as an offense to the group of mercenaries, and he definitely didn't want to give the slightest wrong impression to these mercenaries.

So he contained his curiosity both about this and about the fact that the mercenaries were getting stronger at a tremendous speed.

Meanwhile, Liam slowly raised his finger to the sky.

Everyone who was watching him instinctively followed the direction he was pointing.

There, hovering majestically at a low altitude above the village, was a huge wyvern.

"Roahhhh!"

Maria's roar caused a slight shockwave throughout the village of Plouta, momentarily freezing everyone in their tracks, including the mercenaries.

On her back, the clearly visible silhouette of Maxime dominated the scene.

A silence fell over the square. Even Baron Barthon's soldiers stopped fighting when they saw this surreal apparition.

The baron's apprentice knights, who were leading the remaining troops, exchanged uncertain glances.

"What the...?", whispered one of them, eyes wide.

The silence was broken by Maxime's powerful voice, which resonated across the battlefield:

"Soldiers of Baron Barthon, surrender immediately! Your two knights are dead!"

A murmur of shock ran through the enemy ranks.

"Impossible..." whispered a soldier, overcome with despair upon hearing the news.

"Knight Argan is dead?" muttered an apprentice knight, himself not believing what he was saying.

"It's a lie..." stammered another apprentice knight, trying to convince himself that it wasn't possible.

...

But in the face of the wyvern hovering above them, the truth seemed obvious. Such a creature could only be defeated by a great knight, and none were present in this battle or even in their entire army.

"We had two knights? I thought only Knight Argan was with us." commented a more reasonable soldier.

"Probably an insurance provided by the baron if things went wrong, but I imagine that even the baron would never have imagined that a young man commanding a wyvern would appear." commented another, also surprisingly calm.

"And our two knights are probably indeed dead since he said so." he continued.

In an army, there were obviously various characters, some more exceptional than others.

Many apprentice knights gritted their teeth all the same. They wanted to deny this reality, to refuse to believe that they had just lost their greatest strike force. Yet the facts were there.

Among the most lucid of the apprentice knights, one of them took a deep breath before raising his sword high.

"Listen to him and lay down your weapons, lads. Even if we continue to fight, it would be pointless, we couldn't do anything any more." he ordered, while letting go of the sword.

The sword made a metallic sound when it hit the ground.

"To continue fighting in these circumstances would be just synonymous with losing our lives for absolutely no reason," he explained, making various gestures with his hands and speaking loudly.

"He's right, we still have a future ahead of us, and maybe we can still become knights in the future." another commented aloud.

Hearing this, one by one, the other apprentice knights looked at each other.

But gradually, the apprentice knights and soldiers dropped their weapons, and even the most recalcitrant did the same, albeit with bitterness and despair.

The metallic sound of weapons falling to the ground echoed throughout the village, officially signaling the end of the battle.

A huge sigh of relief escaped from the ranks of the mercenaries and allied soldiers.

Some collapsed from fatigue, others raised their arms to the sky in victory.

Maxime jumped from Maria's back in front of everyone and quickly arrived in front of Killian.

"Maxime, you've changed a lot..." Killian commented, his expression complicated.

It was one thing to hear things, and quite another to see them with his own eyes.

Only a few months before, he could exchange numerous moves with Maxime and fight fiercely with him.

Now, he was still a mere knight-in-training at the stage of great success, while the other party had surpassed the power of knights and had even tamed a wyvern.

"Hi, Killian. You think so? I don't think I've changed that much." replied Maxime, unconcerned.

His evolution had been so rapid and events had followed one another so quickly that he hadn't noticed the time passing.

And not looking back, he hadn't particularly noticed his own progress.

But after a moment's thought, and sensing that Killian's strength was still the same, Maxime did indeed realize that he had changed.

In response, Killian shook his head.

"The gap between ordinary people and geniuses can really be huge." he added, but he gave Maxime a sincere and grateful smile.

After all, without his intervention, he and his soldiers would all have died here. Even the friends he had made during that time would all have died. Maxime's intervention allowed many of them to survive.

But Maxime didn't want to waste time needlessly arguing.

"Can you take charge of binding all the soldiers and apprentice knights and making them prisoners? If there are any wounded among them, make sure they survive."

"I can do that, but what do you plan to do with them? There must still be several hundred soldiers alive, as well as about twenty apprentice knights. That represents a huge food expense, even if we only give them one meal a day."

Maxime smiled.

"Don't worry, I have my own plan for them. And provide 3 meals a day."

Hearing this, Killian's expression looked really strange and above all worried.

"The war will have started quickly, and it will end quickly." Maxime added, in a relaxed tone.

...

A week later, secret military camp, Baron Barthon's office.

boom

The baron's fist fell heavily on his desk, creating a huge hole in it.

A few servants outside the room heard the sound and, being used to it, had already started to move a new desk into the room.

Meanwhile, the baron's rage did not diminish.

"Can someone explain to me what's going on!?"

"All our attacks have failed miserably and 30% of our army has already been killed or imprisoned!"

"Now morale is at an all-time low, and we're even starting to get deserters!"

The baron's angry cries were like a deafening storm exploding in his office.

The victims, 5 knights, some of whom were wounded, wore complicated expressions.

But in their eyes, it was easy to see that they had already made a decision. However, the baron had not yet realized it.

"Five of our fellow knights have already been killed: Argan and Tengan by the mercenary captain of the Saber-toothed Tigers, Melissa and Tristan were captured by two knights wearing black masks, and Lambard was literally frozen and then brought back by a terrifying humanoid creature that can fly." began to explain a knight with tousled brown hair.

He seemed slightly lethargic, lacking in energy. The fact that he did not care about his own appearance reinforced the negative image he projected.

But no one here dared underestimate him, for he was a knight at the stage of great success, as well as the most powerful knight under Baron Barthon.

Lambard was the second most powerful knight, while Tengan was the third.

"What do you mean, Marco?" Baron Barthon replied angrily.

But Marco was not lacking in courage at that moment.

"It is necessary to send an emissary to the royal court to obtain peace! As long as we have a mediator from the royal court, we can negotiate peace, even if it requires a huge price to get it signed by Baron Irut."

"How dare you, Marco! You're talking to me..."

"LET ME FINISH BARON BARTHON, OTHERWISE AT THIS PACE, WE ARE GOING TO LOSE EVERYTHING!"