Thud, thud, thud!

The dark road leading from the south to the capital was filled with the sound of horse hooves.

“It looks like we’re almost there.”

“I know.”

Gilbert, the leader of the Golden Lion Knights, was driving his horse while grinding his teeth.

He had suffered a humiliating defeat by a young girl who was not even half his age.

‘I had no face to see His Grace after losing the grand prize as well.’

But finally, he had a chance to redeem himself.

According to His Grace order, he was to engage in a full-scale power struggle with the First Prince in the capital.

‘This time, I must crush the First Prince’s knights.’

He had faced some of them before, and some of them were indeed formidable, but the overall quality was still inferior to the Golden Lion Knights.

He was confident that he would win if it was a clash between knight orders, not a one-on-one duel. The skill of a knight was not something that could be cultivated overnight.

“…!?”

But he had to stop his horse before he could see the city gate.

He saw flags with lights in the distance.

“Those flags are?”

Gilbert’s face hardened.

The flags bore the emblem of Scharnos Empire, a golden sword and dragon crossed.

But what really made him tense was not knowing who they were.

His deputy Hendrix also spoke with a slightly panicked tone.

“They have red bands on them.”

“Hmm…”

The meaning of putting bands on the flags that symbolized the knight orders varied depending on the color of the bands.

White meant unconditional surrender!

Green meant peace!

Yellow meant friendly match to strengthen friendship!

And finally, red meant the most brutal intention.

“Do they want to fight us with full force here, when the capital is right in front of us?”

“There might be some trap.”

As he said, the red band meant that they wanted to fight until one of the two knight orders was annihilated.

It was an extreme intention that was rarely seen unless the other side had an overwhelming advantage or was desperate.

Gilbert thought for a moment and gave an order.

“Everyone, get off your horses!”

He did not know what kind of trap they had set up in the pitch-black night.

If he fell off his horse suddenly, he would become a good target for their attack, so he needed to organize his formation first.

‘The numbers seem similar. Are they trying to buy some time?’

The numbers were about a hundred for each side.

Of course, the Golden Lion Knights had more reserves, but they had only brought their elite members, so their quality was much higher.

‘There doesn’t seem to be any trap?’

The road leading to the capital was well-paved and wide open.

It was not an environment where they could pull any tricks.

But he had been warned by His Majesty before he came, so Gilbert had to be careful.

“The First Prince, that snake, might have prepared some tricks. Your goal is to join me as soon as possible.”

‘First of all, I have to follow His Grace orders.’

He thought so while time kept passing by. Eventually, Gilbert made a decision.

“We will break through as quickly as possible. Everyone, get ready to charge.”

What he thought of was a frontal breakthrough.

It was a natural choice since he had confidence in his strength.

Squeak!

The knights of the Golden Lion Knights began to sprint towards the flag like a gust of wind.

‘It may be a full-force battle, but I don’t have to accept it! If I break through the front line, I can still run all the way to the capital even if I get tired.’

He followed His Majesty’s words faithfully.

But who would have known that it would be the worst choice for him and the Golden Lion Knights?

Swoosh.

The knights of Scharnos Empire did not receive their frontal attack.

Rather, they moved aside and let Gilbert and his front line pass through their formation.

And then, in the next moment, they moved swiftly and surrounded the Golden Lion Knights.

Their movements were so smooth as if they had practiced countless times together, but Gilbert looked puzzled.

“…!?”

Normally, surrounding was something that should never be done unless you had an overwhelming advantage over your opponent.

Otherwise, you would risk dispersing your strength and being defeated one by one.

‘Are they just trying to hold us back?’

Then he just had to concentrate his breakthrough power on one point and break through.Gilbert drew his sword and charged forward.

Clang!

His sword pushed back the Sharnos knight who blocked him.

He swung his sword again to cut his throat, but two more swords stopped him.

Clang!

‘Damn it.’

Gilbert clicked his tongue and poured more force into his sword, intending to deal with the three knights at once.

But his intention was thwarted again.

“Damn it!”

Two more knights joined from the side and stabbed their swords at him.

He could not handle the five knights’ attack at once, no matter how great he was.

‘But while I’m holding them, the other elites should be able to break through.’

Gilbert was one of the best knights in the empire.

He resisted the five knights’ attack and even maintained a slight advantage.

Clang, clang, clang!

He momentarily unleashed a fierce attack and made the five knights retreat.

He had a chance to look around the situation.

But he turned pale when he saw the surroundings.

It was a sight completely different from his expectation.

‘They can’t break through?’

He and the other elites of the Golden Lion Knights were fighting against multiple knights, but there was no hole in the encirclement.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Every time we try to break through where the wall of knights is thin, they reinforce that spot like ghosts.”

“How can that be? Their numbers should be similar to ours, but they have enough power to surround us so tightly…”

The next moment, a loud noise interrupted his words.

“Hendrix?”

His eyes went to where his deputy Hendrix was spitting blood and retreating.

His attempt to break through the thin part of the encirclement also ended in failure.

Gilbert finally realized that something was wrong and carefully observed the surroundings. He could only figure out the reason after watching for a while.

‘It seems like the encirclement itself is alive and moving. And they are supporting each other by alternating between attack and defense without any waste.’

As he thought, the Sharnos knights’ encirclement was moving like one body, replenishing their strength wherever it was thin.

This series of movements was so fast and swift that it felt like they had twice as many as them. And they were constantly moving around, making it impossible for them to tell where their main force was.

“Cough…”

Gilbert had been leading the Golden Lion Knights for over a decade, fighting in battles.

He groaned as he realized that breaking this encirclement was no easy task.

‘This is a very elaborate formation. Where did they learn such a method?’

***

“Formation?”

“Simply put, it’s a way of arranging the troops more finely than the usual formations.”

Here, Jegal Unhyeon puffed up his chest proudly.

“Fortunately, our Jegal family has many people who are good at military tactics and formations, even though our martial arts are weaker than other four great martial arts families.”

Eurius tilted his head after hearing the brief explanation.

Could they fill the gap in their strength just by forming a formation?

‘Help open’

[Formation – Basically, it refers to the three elements of heaven, earth, and human, and more broadly, the nine palaces, the trigrams, etc…]

‘What kind of nonsense is this?’

It seemed to be a method that contained some profound (?) principles, but he couldn’t access more detailed information with the help function.

Hmm

[Check out X Martial Arts Wiki.]

“…!?”

Hwangryong Sword seemed to be nagging him again, but he couldn’t understand what it meant either.

‘Anyway, it sounds unpleasant.’

Clang!

Eurius lightly stabbed his sword into the muddy ground and opened his mouth.

“Can you explain more about this formation?”

Jegal Unhyeon gladly explained.

“There are two main types of formation. The first one is to avoid interfering with each other when attacking together.”

This method was the simplest form of formation. If they coordinated their movements when facing a smaller number of enemies, they could maximize the effect of their attack.

“Isn’t this method also used in the Western Continent?”

“We learn how to synchronize with each other when we join the knight order. But isn’t that just a way of surrounding them?”

“That’s right! But what I recommend is the second method, which is a bit more difficult to get used to.”

The second method was the one that could make the power of the formation vary greatly depending on the completion and the members of the formation.

“It’s to move the remaining troops according to the master who is the core of the formation.”

“What’s the difference from the first method?”“If you train properly, you can increase your strength by two or three times depending on the ability of the master who is the center. But there is a drawback!”

That drawback was that they needed an outstanding martial artist who could be the core of the formation. And if that core fell, the formation could collapse and the troops could be destroyed in an instant.

“We don’t have much time and the knights of the Western Continent are not familiar with formations. So I’m going to teach you a basic formation that starts with the most basic three elements.”

“Three elements mean heaven, earth, and human?”

“That’s just a symbolic meaning. Since there is a number three in it, there must be three axes in the formation. That is, three supreme masters have to be the pillars of the formation.”

“Supreme masters mean master-level knights at least.”

“That’s right. And they have to understand formations in a short time, so they need outstanding talent as well.”

Even though it was a basic formation, it required a lot of practice to set up the axes and move them flawlessly. And since they had to change their positions constantly, it also consumed a lot of stamina.

All of the group battles that Sharnos Knight Order had received so far were for getting used to formations. And the most important thing was the three axes needed for formations.

***

“This is crazy. If only one of those three falls, we can make our way out.”

Soon after, Gilbert noticed that this formation was revolving around three knights.

In fact, those three were moving diligently to maintain the encirclement.

Gilbert also tried hard to gather his elites and make a hole in the formation, but every time those three appeared like ghosts and helped out, he failed.

‘One of them is weaker than me and Hendriks. I’ll target him.’

His eyes sharpened and turned to one side. He had set his target.

“You bastard!”

Gilbert quickly closed the distance with his target.

He swung his sword with a fierce look in his eyes, determined to catch the knight he had chosen.

Clang!

The opponent exchanged swords with him a few times and then staggered back as if he was pushed back by his strength.

‘Now’s my chance!’

Gilbert smiled triumphantly.

As expected, one of them was not strong enough to face him head-on.

Wasn’t it Sharnos Knight Order’s biggest weakness that they had few knights?

But his carelessness brought a fatal mistake.

As he confidently rushed towards his opponent again, a cold sword light flashed in front of his eyes.

Swoosh.

“…!?”

Surprisingly, the sword of the opponent who seemed to have retreated cut through Gilbert’s attack like a ghost and grazed his chest.

Splash!

Gilbert’s chest split open and blood spurted out.

“Cough!”

He had no choice but to retreat with a groan.

His expression also turned gloomy.

He couldn’t think of any way to break through this strange formation now that he was injured.

‘This is the worst. I didn’t know he was such a skilled knight.’

On the other hand, the knight who inflicted a deep wound on Gilbert was also sweating coldly.

‘That was really dangerous. If he hadn’t let his guard down at the last moment, I would have been done and the formation would have collapsed.’

His identity was none other than Kains.

“Are you okay?”

Beatrice finally ran over to him.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Cains answered with a stiff voice.

Thanks to the special training, he had been beaten up by her so many times that he felt a chill down his spine just by hearing her voice.

“If you’re in danger, ask for help.”

“I understand.”

There were a few more minor crises after that, but Kains managed to survive them and breathed a sigh of relief inside.

‘Phew… If it weren’t for His Grace gift, I would have died several times in this battle.’

That’s how the Golden Lion Knights, who were the pride of Grand Duke, were slowly crumbling inside the encirclement of the formation.

“But I have one question…”

“What is it?”

“Don’t you already have enough strength in your army? Why do you gamble by making them learn formations?”

Jegal Unhyeon’s question was natural. If he mobilized the masters of Jegal family together, he wouldn’t have to bother with formations to annihilate the Golden Lion Knights.

Eurius smiled slyly.

“I didn’t know about formations as you don’t know about knights.”

“…!?”

“My knight order lost to them in the group battle of the last martial arts tournament. And there are many who blame themselves for receiving the excessive name of Sharnos.”

“You mean revenge for their defeat?”

Eurius shook his head.

“That’s only half right. The other half is the honor as a knight.”

“Honor?”

“Grand Duke will be destroyed anyway. This is their last chance to redeem their defeat. But if they work with outsiders, what will happen to their morale?”

“…”

“You seem to understand roughly.”

Jegal Unhyeon couldn’t help but smile faintly at Eurius’ answer.

‘They and I seem to have a good lord.’