(IN) Chapter 016 - The Defense of Kath Part II
"HUP!" Duke greatly shouted as he shoveled the ground with all his might, despite the muscle pains he was having.
Anyone hearing him would've thought he must've shoveled a great amount of dirt!
Sadly, Duke was shoveling... a normal amount
...despite his pained groans.
"""huh..."""
The villagers sighed when they saw their lord. Although they were still extremely grateful at the magnanimous count who, although looked like a corrupt and sleazy official, was actually shoveling dirt along with some of his soldiers and their fellow peasants!
"""Ohh!""" Strangely enough though, the Knights had a different reaction than what the Villagers expected as they were thrilled to see Duke, their lord, shovel an almost normal amount of dirt.
[He's improving!] Byran grinned as he saw Duke consistently shovel a normal amount.
[He was now at a normal level of strength for a boy of his size! A miracle!] Byran and the Knights thought as they remembered the first time Duke swung at them with a sword.
Dan, the Knight currently with Vivian, didn't even parry as he let Duke's extremely weak strike painlessly hit him.
But now they would at least feel A LITTLE pain! And that was a great improvement!
"You're really weak, aren't ya mister?" Annie the curious little village girl asked Duke as she scratched her little chin.
She had this innocent childlike curiosity to her as she enjoyed asking Duke about the world outside the village as Annie was quite young she had never left the village before.
"Ohhh, AMAZING! Then you're a Knight, mister!" Annie was excited when she heard Duke mention his (Lacking) sword training.
"Kukuku, Of course!" Duke proudly smiled... even though he hasn't been Knighted yet...
"I want to be a Knight too!" The excited little girl exclaimed.
*Pfftt* "Impossible, only men can be Knights!" Duke exclaimed... Not knowing some Kingdoms actually had female knights...
"Ehhh?! I'm sure if someone as round as you could be a Knight, I could too!" Annie wasn't discouraged by Duke as she proudly claimed she would one day become a Knight.
"Huh, you make a good point!" Duke realized what she said was true. In fact, Duke might've been weaker than her if she was his age! Duke shuddered as he realized his own weakness.
"If you can't be a Knight of Brune, what other jobs do you dream of becoming?" Duke asked the brave little girl as he didn't want her to be discouraged if she really didn't become a Knight, due to Brune's somewhat misogynistic society so he thought she should have a reliable back-up.
"If I can't be a Knight?... Hmmmmmm" The young girl thought long and hard.
"I wanted to travel the world as a Knight! So maybe if I don't become one, I'd be a traveling merchant instead!" The smart little Annie happily imagined her future, excited to what wonders the future might bring.
"Hoo? What if you become a merchant first THEN use your money to become a Knight? Gahaha" Duke suggested.
"Woah! You're really smart, aren't you mister! Maybe when I become successful when I grow up, I'd come work for you!" The cheeky little girl smiled as she said those words.
[I-I'm s-smart?!] Duke trembled as it was the first time someone had called him that.
Duke felt a strange bond with the little girl in front of him as she gave him one of those big adorable smiles that had one tooth missing.
"Gahaha! Cheeky little girl" Byran came up as he squeezed Annie's cheeks.
That afternoon, Duke and the Knights continued to work the trenches and other defenses.
While Duke was resting he saw one of the villagers throwing pungent-smelling Tatoes away.
The Tato is a red vegetable with a tangy taste native to Brune's southern territory.
"What are you doing with those?" Duke asked.
"Oh these, milord? They've rotted due to the rain coming in one of the warehouses... So we've taken the rotten ones to save the good few left" The villager sadly sighed at the waste of food he was holding.
"Oh, if you're throwing them away, then let me have them! I might have a use for them" Duke smiled at the villager.
[I-Is he gonna eat them?!]
The villagers knew of Duke's appetite because of the constant grumbling they heard coming from his stomach. One time they've even mistaken it for a monster!
"B-but they can no longer be eaten, milord!" The villager worried for the benevolent Count's health if he ate the expired tatoes.
"I-I won't Eat Them!... I have a plan!" Duke confidently smiled as he scratched his chin.
The long-awaited raid finally came as 30-40 bandits came in the dead of night...
"Kukuku, not long now" a slimy-looking bandit laughed next to their bandit boss, Waxer.
Waxer and his group were known for their incessant cruelty and wanton violence as they were considered to be the masters of the southern mountains next to Maine where they established their hideout.
This was the reason why Maine's citizens thought they were doomed as the unreliable looking Knights and their obese Lord didn't look like they had a chance against the considerable group Waxer had put together.
"We attack in an hour... It doesn't look like the Knights will come" Waxer growled as he scratched the big scar on his bald head not noticing the trenches where the Knights hid due to the cover of the night.
Drums and screams for blood sounded an hour later as Waxer had given his signal to attack.
"Wait! What's this?" The Bandits suddenly became wary as they saw the big trench in front of them.
But their wariness disappeared when they saw a group of weak-looking villagers wearing pots and pans for armor and weapons, while the only noticeably threatening thing about the villagers were the big wooden shields some of them carried.
"Kukuku, It must be the villager's doing! But only villagers to protect the storage houses? they'll be easy pickins'!" Stank, the slimy bandit from earlier shouted as the Bandits rushed towards the group of armed villagers.
[They fell for it!] Duke excitedly sighed in his mind.
"Shoot!" Waxer shouted to the Bandits at the back as the bandits let loose a flurry of arrows.
"Shields up!" Byran commanded for the villagers to hurry behind their shields, protecting them from the fatal arrows.
"A-attack now!" Duke shouted as the Knights came out of their hiding positions.
15 Knights and 20 Soldiers came out of their positions wearing a combination of plate and leather armor since Maine wasn't rich enough to fully gear them all.
Maine had a total of 30 Knights and 50 Soldiers, 70 if you count every conscriptable male in the fief.
Half of Maine's total defense force was practically on this mission.
Waxer's forces might've outnumbered Duke's men, but Knights were still Knights as they forcefully surrounded the Bandits, even with their inferior numbers.
That, and the trench behind the Bandits, Duke ordered to be dugout, cornered the dirty Bandits.
[Amazing! And they called him stupid... Just wait until he gets the chance to show the world his genius!] Byran awed in excitement as Duke's simple tactic worked.
Byran disagreed that a trench should be dug out of the entrance of the village as that would alert the Bandits, removing the knight's advantage of the element of surprise.
But Duke responded with: "Lets put the villagers in the middle so the Bandits would lower their guard..."
"Then what if the villagers get his by arrows?" Byran refuted.
"We'll give them our shields..." Duke revealed his simple plan. Not knowing how ingenious it was for Byran as the biggest problem in subjugating bandits was, if they escaped they'll just grow back like cockroaches.
But with the trench, the bandits had a hard time escaping as they had to climb down and up to escape the Knights.
A surprisingly ingenious plan for Duke whom society labeled as "Stupid"
As the saying goes: "Never dismiss an idea from someone stupid, as you'll be the stupid one when they succeed... and you don't"
But this wasn't the end of Duke's plan.
The bandits grit themselves for a melee as they realized there was no other choice than to fight, their numbers helped them counter the Knights as the battlefield balanced out.
Seeing that this was the right time to come out, Duke came rushing out with his different contrasting pieces of Armor slathered in rotten juiced up tatoes that made him look like an insane bloodthirsty warrior.
Duke used a blunt mace as he was not yet accustomed to killing with a sharp sword as Byran knew the boy might stagger from feeling human skin getting sliced by the blade he was holding...
Byran knew the feeling of being like a butcher, slicing living human flesh that wreathed in pain was not an easy barrier to overcome.
Besides, due to Duke's lacking sword skills... Byran knew there wasn't really any difference if he used a sword or not...
Seeing the mountain-like mad berserker, demoralized the bandits.
Covered in blood wearing heavy armor that contributed to his mace's heavy blows scared the Bandits. (Duke's fats made the armor look heavier! A bonus of being obese!)
"Runaway! The Bloody Mountain cometh!" A Bandit ran away from Duke in fear, disrupting the already undisciplined formation of the Bandits.
"RARGHHH!"
Duke shouted in pain as some Bandits hit him... The Bandits, on the other hand, mistook the pained shouts for great battle cries that lusted for blood as fear was inspired into them.
Sadly, the Knights weren't very inspired as they knew it was just Duke shouting in pain.
[W-who is this Great Warrior!?] Waxer became afraid as he saw the "The Bloody Mountain" - the "Great Warrior" charge through the battlefield.
But fear soon became laughter as he realized this "Great Warrior" they were facing was just fear-mongering, and nothing else, as he saw the bandits hit by the so-called "Bloody Mountain" get back up as if nothing happened...
[Idiots!]
Waxer cursed as he saw his men still running from the irrational fear they had of the Bloody Mountain despite not really feeling any life-threatening blows from this so-called "Great Warrior".
There was only one explanation that came to Waxer's mind...
"This Bloody Mountain is actually weak!"
"Follow me!" Waxer shouted instantly regaining some of the lost morale his men had.
Waxer knew the raid was lost and so he ordered Stank to burn down the Grain warehouses instead.
"T-the warehouse?... I-I thought you said, Hahaha sure boss" The slimy bandit happily complied with the order as he set the wooden warehouse on fire.
"No!" Duke shouted. He knew the children and some of the elderly were hiding inside the warehouses.
Waxer rallied the bandits as he pushed through Duke along with Stank who burned down the warehouse.
*BANG* Waxer, with his large muscles, collided with Duke's soft chubby body knowing Duke was the weak spot of the Knight's defensive line.
*PAG PAG* Duke bounced as he hit the floor.
"""Woah!""" The bandits cheered when they saw their boss defeat The Bloody Mountain in one blow.
Byran who was next to Duke confronted Waxer, but due to Waxer's momentum, and Byran's tired body from old age, non-stop digging, and continuous fighting with the Bandits, Waxer managed to stab Byran as he escaped for his life.
Waxer bought enough time as he and his remaining men escaped.
As the Knights were about to follow them, Duke ordered:
"Stop! Let's put out the fire first!"
Byran managed to nod as he saw Duke grow in leadership and learn how to prioritize things, despite the bleeding Byran had sustained, it was pride that glittered in his eyes, not pain.
But priorities and leadership weren't what was occupying Duke's mind right now...
Right now, Duke's mind was only occupied with one thing:
[Annie!]
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