บท 158: C158
"Artoria!"
Artoria heart tightened at the sound of her sister's voice. She turned to face Morgan, who was calling out to her.
"What's the matter, sister?" Artoria asked, trying to maintain a serious tone despite her growing apprehension.
Without explaining, Morgan simply said, "Come with me." Artoria followed her sister, unsure of what was about to happen.
Morgan led Artoria to her makeshift magic workshop. As they approached the entrance, Artoria hesitated and spoke up, "Merlin warned me that entering a magus's workshop can be seen as a challenge."
"What are you afraid of? You are my sister, How could I possibly harm you?" Morgan took her hand and walked into the workshop.
As they stepped into the workshop, Morgan snapped her fingers, and suddenly the room came to life. A secret ritual was activated, and the mythril that had been flowing around the room transformed into a humanoid shape. It walked over to Artoria and presented her with a complete set of mythril armor, including gauntlets, pauldrons, and greaves. The armor was dazzling and emitted a powerful steel aura, complete with a helmet that resembled the fierce face of a lion.
"Sister, what is this?" she looked at Morgan and asked.
Morgan responded, "Last time when you visited me, I had only prepared a gift for Arthur and had forgotten about you. But now, as a knight serving under Arthur, you are bound to face danger on the battlefield. This mythril armor will greatly improve your safety and offer protection in times of need. Our family, the Pendragons, has always carried the responsibility of protecting the island and its people. The lion is the symbol of the Pendragon family, and as a member, you must be stronger than anyone else. Do you understand?"
"I understand, sister," she nodded. She understood this better than anyone else because she was made for this purpose.
"Try it on."
She donned the lion-like armor, revealing a lily-white skirt that peeked out from underneath the upper armor. The golden lion fur on the pauldrons billowed in the wind like a majestic cape of gold.
Extremely handsome!
Majestic!
She gripped the helmet, remarking, "It fits well, sister."
Morgan replied confidently, "Naturally so. I refined it with mythril using my secret ritual, which enables it to adjust to the perfect size for your body."
She went on, earnestly explaining the benefits of mythril, "You see, mythril possesses remarkable resistance against magecraft. And I've personally enhanced it with my own anti-magecraft enchantment, making it capable of nullifying most spells. However, it wouldn't hurt to ask that white furball to further enhance it in the future." After a brief pause, Morgan begrudgingly admitted, "Though it pains me to say it, I simply can't match up to that white furball when it comes to magecraft."
Artoria feigned ignorance towards Morgan's jab at Merlin and responded with a serious nod, "I understand."
Watching as she vanished into the distance, Morgan grumbled to herself, "Not even a simple 'thank you,' and she still looked at me with suspicion... What an unpleasant child. But despite everything, she is my sister. Even though this is my first time playing the role of an elder sister, I must learn to be tolerant of her rudeness."
...
Artoria and her troops assembled outside the city gates.
Shirou's army was reinforced by Morgan's 1,000 Orkney soldiers, while the remaining troops joined his ranks voluntarily from the other kings' retinues. After counting Aggravain's inventory, they totaled 2,272 people.
The troops were in a state of disorder, with no opportunity for specific specialization. As a result, they could only be roughly divided into three categories: archers, cavalry, and infantry. The infantry comprised the largest group, exceeding 1,300 soldiers, and was thus placed under the leadership of Gawain and Gaheris.
Tristan commanded the archers, with a total of 400 individuals. The cavalry was the smallest group, consisting of slightly over 200 soldiers, and was under Artoria's leadership. Regrettably, the cavalry was in need of horses, and with the steeds obtained from the local area around Caerleon, there were only a total of 243, which included some older horses.
Caerleon Castle primarily served as a defensive fortress, and as such, the majority of its supplies consisted of defensive materials like rolling stones and magical cannons. Offensive supplies, on the other hand, were scarce.
Artoria was in command of almost 2,000 soldiers, while Kay was left in charge of the remaining troops. As these soldiers, along with Lamorak's 500 soldiers, were responsible for defensive operations, they were not included in the count. Bedivere was in charge of the logistics and the supply line.
Therefore, only Artoria and her troops stood before the city wall, numbering nearly 2,000 soldiers. They quickly surrounded the city wall, blocking all the exits.
Instead of immediately engaging in battle, Shirou summoned the generals and called for a strategic meeting at the temporary headquarters.
He was surprised by Artoria's gleaming white armor, but he comprehended the gravity of the situation, so he set it aside. He instructed Merlin to use Clairvoyance to present the enemy's battle formation layout before the generals.
This time, Merlin, who appeared as the court mage, did not falter and dutifully carried out Shirou's commands.
After Merlin projected the enemy's battle formation layout for everyone to see, Shirou spoke up, saying, "Now that we've made the decision to take the initiative and attack, it's imperative that we defeat the enemy. Everyone, please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas."
Gawain and the others looked at each other and started to offer up various ideas. Without knowledge of the enemy army's situation, they couldn't come up with specific strategies and could only consider taking the initiative to attack. However, with Merlin's help in revealing the full map, their military strategies began to naturally emerge one after another.
Shirou turned to Merlin and asked, "Did your earlier prediction of a 30% chance of victory include this scenario?"
Merlin nodded in confirmation.
Shirou let out a deep sigh and then proceeded to listen to the strategies proposed by the others.
The enemy they faced consisted of roughly 10,000 human soldiers and almost 30,000 magical beasts, making for a total force of over 40,000 soldiers, nearly twenty times the size of Shirou's own army. Additionally, the enemy's troops were well-equipped, and the majority of them were magical beasts whose physical abilities far exceeded those of humans in the late Age of Gods.
Perhaps most significantly, the enemy possessed bipedal wyverns, while Shirou's forces had no means of engaging in aerial combat, giving the enemy complete domination of the skies!
Could they really have a 30% chance of winning this battle?
"We could try implementing the beheading strategy and aim to kill their commander!" Gawain suggested.
"It won't work. In the past, Uther was defeated by this same strategy," Merlin replied, shaking his head. "Vortigern's army typically uses a rotation system, so even if you manage to eliminate the highest commander, they'll just be replaced by their deputy in the next moment."
"What should we do then?" Gawain asked.
"The gap wouldn't be so massive if it was just the Saxons. It's mainly those magical beasts!"
"We need to figure out a way to deal with those magical beasts."
"But how can we possibly defeat them? There are nearly forty thousand magical beasts! Even if we fought for a day and a night, we couldn't hope to kill them all! Only a god could eliminate such a vast number of magical beasts!"
At that moment, Tristan spoke up. "If it's a god...there might be a way."
All eyes turned to Tristan.
"Caerleon is located near Barton Mountain, and to the west of Barton Mountain is a volcano..." he began.
"Wait!" Shirou interrupted. "Barton Mountain is a volcano?"
He appeared surprised. As far as he knew, Britain was generally stable in terms of tectonic plates, with few occurrences of earthquakes and volcanoes. The only famous volcano in the region was located near Cornwall, and active volcanoes were almost unheard of.
Now someone was telling him that Barton Mountain was actually a volcano?
Merlin coughed and reminded him, "Barton Mountain is actually the body of the demon king, the evil eye Balor. He was killed by the sun god, and the mountain still burns with the divine flames to this day."
Shirou let out a sigh as he thought of the end of the age of gods. He then turned to Tristan and asked, "So, you're proposing that we use the volcano to burn these magical beasts?"
Tristan nodded and replied, "We don't have any other options."
"But how do we lure those magical beasts over there?"
Tristan responded, "I have fought against Vortigern multiple times. Although they have a rotation system in place, the deputy commander won't take over until the highest commander is dead. Additionally, the command of the magical beasts is held by the highest commander. Merlin can identify who that is, and we can capture him and use him as bait to draw the magical beasts towards the volcano."
Tristan's proposal was based on Merlin's Clairvoyance and became a mature strategy after many discussions, despite the existence of several potential loopholes.
After a moment of contemplative silence, Shirou spoke up again. "So...who will be the bait?"
The previously enthusiastic discussion came to a sudden halt, and everyone fell silent.
...
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