21 Dahlia's First Death

Between the narrow paths of the verdant forest, the dust rose and the birds dispersed with the march of the cavalry formed by 21 horsemen.

While twenty of them followed in four ranks of five, the captain who was alone in the lead raised his right arm and closed his hand into a fist.

Seeing this signal, the twenty horsemen had slowed down and were now galloping slowly behind their captain.

Between the visors of their helmets, there was a bit of surprise in their eyes as they spotted a team of eight young men in black armor blocking the way not far away, but it was soon replaced by contempt as they saw that among them was even a 10-year-old girl year holding a black spear nearly twice its size. From their understanding, this little girl should have just awakened her vital seed and should be training with the other Apprentice Knights. Blocking their paths seemed to be actions taken by ignorant commoners.

The captain stopped about 15 meters away with a little doubt in his eyes. He didn't understand why Makai hadn't recruited more experienced knights or even some elites. After all, even if Makai was a bastard son, he is still the son of a duke and his escort shouldn't just be these few Apprentice Knights before his eyes.

When Makai left for the Royal Capital to study at the Knights Academy, he had been escorted by the Bloodthirsty Saber Queen, Ashley, the fierce general in the realm of a Gold Knight. Now that he was leaving to develop in forbidden territory, his escort should have been stronger than those few young men, right?

This was the captain's doubt since he received this mission from Baron Kirov who had already anticipated his conquest and called himself a general for him and his twenty Knights who set out on this mission.

The captain found it strange that his Baron had styled himself a general as only Gold Knights can qualify to be titled generals and his Baron was still stuck at the peak of a Silver Knight since he encountered a bottleneck many years ago. However, no matter what his Baron did, he was just a captain and had to follow his orders as he had sworn allegiance to Baron Kirov when he was still very young and ignorant of this world.

Putting his doubts aside, the captain looked around as he surveyed the terrain.

Soon, he saw that beside the youths in black armor blocking his path, there was a small open space where the commoners watched them with curious eyes and he could not help but despise, 'Tsk. Commoners are always the most ignorant. They have no idea that they will soon be in the stomachs of forest wolves.'

After thinking that these commoners might run for the forests, the captain knew that attacking horseback was not feasible. He got off his horse and tied it to one of the trees next door.

The twenty knights did the same and then followed behind their captain while the tinkle of their armor was the only sound produced in this silent environment.

As they walked until they were 15 meters ahead of Makai and the others, they stopped and both groups looked at each other in silence making the air heavy.

The commoners who looked curiously at this cavalry realized that these knights did not seem to have good intentions. After all, this is the Crimson Duchy and the chariot Makai is traveling in is the symbol of the Collins family's main bloodline. These knights are not blind and they should have shown proper etiquette upon sighting Makai's chariot, but they seemed to be assessing each other's strength and this made some commoners uncomfortable as they worried about the safety of their fellow children.

Lampard had a serious look in his eyes as he looked at the cavalry made up of 21 horsemen. During his many years working in the mines, he had witnessed many knights confronting the magical beasts and he could tell that this cavalry is an experienced squad.

At that moment, the captain was the first to break the silence. With the sword still dangling from his waist, he lifted his hands to his helmet and removed it, revealing the face of a middle-aged man.

"For a few young Apprentice Knights to block this old man's path, it seems that spending years slaying magical beasts still doesn't earn enough reputation to compare with those who served in the War of Kings, after all."

Hearing that sarcastic tone, Lionel looked furious as he shouted, "Smug! Haven't you realized you're standing before our Young Lord Makai, the Crimson Duke's youngest child? Where are your respects?"

Hearing Lionel's tone, Makai didn't feel comfortable at all, as he didn't like being known as the Crimson Duke's youngest son. However, he understood, that if he wanted to get rid of that title, he needed to create an even greater reputation than his father's.

The captain looked surprised to hear Lionel, "Hmm? Your Young Lord Makai? Do you mean the Crimson Duke's bastard youngest child? Where? Can I not see him?"

Listening to their captain, the twenty knights had a sneer in their eyes.

Lionel and the others looked furious and were about to say something, but Makai stopped him by raising his right hand.

Then Makai raised both hands and removed his helmet revealing a young face, deep-set eyes, and long hair. His tall, muscular physique looked even more robust clad in this black armor and he hugged his helmet to his left waist as he stared indifferently at the captain.

"A few days ago, Captain Hayner seemed very well behaved in welcoming me to Greenwood Fort when I returned from the Royal Capital. Now I see that your respect was not directed towards me, Makai Collins, but towards General Ashley. Am I right?"

"Haha! You're right, even if you have some talent, how can a little bastard compare to the Duke's future heir Ferdinand? However, it seems the Duke has other plans and hasn't directly named Ferdinand as his heir. Therefore, we can only keep up with the changes by also changing our plans..."

"Now enough with the nonsense. I will not intimidate young people. I will give you an honorable death. Send your strongest knight and I will send my weakest knight to a duel..."

"If you win, I can bury them and their corpses will be spared from being fed to the wolves of the forest after I take their lives."

Makai had cold eyes, "It looks like a tempting offer. However, your corpses will be those fed to the wolves of the forest."

"Very good, worthy of being a bastard child of the duke. You have some balls and don't fear death, but that's useless in the face of superior force."

The captain looked at his cavalry behind him, his tone was cold, "Fogi, you know what to do."

"Yes, captain!"

From the second rank of five, a tall knight holding a two-foot-long silver spear walked to the center of the path between them and stood like a steel tower.

Makai and the others could see the disdain in his eyes seen through the visor of his helmet and they were eager to cut their enemy's head off and feed it to the wolves.

Seeing how Lionel, Salazar, and Skar seemed to be the most eager to duel, Makai understood their feelings, they are all knights who follow the path of a spearman and they were eager to hone their spear skills in a real clash. Although Rayane and Dahlia seem more reserved, they also use spears, and dueling against the enemy's weakest knight would be more suited to improving their skills.

Also, was still too early for Lionel and the others to act, so he looked at Dahlia.

"Dahlia, you heard. The enemy is the weakest of them and also uses a spear. Can you handle it?"

Hearing her Lord Makai's serious tone, Dahlia was also serious, "My Lord, rest assured, if Dahlia can't even take care of a Bronze Knight with 1-star rune equipment while she wears 2-star rune equipment, then Dahlia is not worthy to be a Sworn Knight of My Lord."

Makai nodded believing his words, after all, Dahlia was not only using 2-star gear, but there were also two 2-star attribute gems that each added a 20% increment to her overall strength.

The enemy believed that he and the others were still Apprentice Knights and Makai couldn't help but chuckle coldly as he recalled Ferdinand's actions late last night, 'Big brother, you tried to get information from the Apprentice Knights, but you didn't get any results, for you have no idea that I accepted everyone as my Sworn Knight...'

'Besides, do you really think that I and the few who follow me are just Apprentice Knights?'

'Or did you purposely not release the information that I could already be a Bronze Knight?'

'After all, you must know the benefits of a Child of Fate...'

'Hehe... All that doesn't matter now. You think you know about my strengths when I revealed yesterday about how many knights I would be bringing with me, but the truth is that you fell like a fish in my net...'

'Let's see how many cards you can play, because I have too many cards... Hehe.'

As Makai was immersed in his thoughts, the knight Fogi was feeling slighted to see that his opponent was just a 10-year-old girl.

Unlike the abyssal dragon armor that covers the entire body of the men who wear them, for women it is different. The armor covering Dahlia's body seemed more delicate and accentuated the small curves of her young body and the women's helmets also don't cover their heads completely, as there is an opening in the back giving space for their hair to flow and, in their faces, there is only a mask-shaped metal covering only the contours of their eyes as it merges with the parts that cover the top and sides of their heads.

So it was too easy to judge Dahlia's age and the knight Fogi was furious as he thought, 'Do they think that just because they're sending a little girl I'll be merciful? Or are they insulting me after they heard the captain call me the weakest knight in our squadron?'

While Fogi was still controlling his inner rage, he heard a slightly childish voice coming from the little girl who was now only a few feet away in front of him, "My lord allowed me to come train and hone my spear skills with you..."

"So, before you die by my spear, do not let me down."

Captain Hayner and his knights were speechless, 'This little girl is very ignorant, right? Or does she really have any confidence?'

When the Fogi knight heard Dahlia's sneering tone, and that she was still here to train with him, his rage reached its limits and his bronze aura erupted as his spear sliced ​​through the air in one precise swipe. He intended to plunge his spear into Dahlia's small neck, as it was an obvious opening.

However, there was a loud clang of metal clashing and Fogi felt his arm shake with the shock caused by the friction of the force produced by the point of two spears.

The commoners watching from a distance had a look of admiration for the strength of the knights, for although this was just a simple exchange of blows, one had to know that the point of a spear is long and sharp, but the little Dahlia managed to adjust to receive the blow and block accurately.

When Dahlia blocked the silver spear with her black spear, she also erupted with her bronze aura covering her body and the spear in her small hands.

When Fogi and everyone who didn't know of Dahlia's strength saw this scene, they seemed to see ghosts as their eyes revealed shock.

'A 10-year-old girl entered the realm of a Bronze Knight? This is impossible.'

Those were your thoughts.

Dahlia had a cheeky little smile, "Is that all your strength is?"

She had barely finished her words when Fogi recovered from his shock and quickly used the spear skills that he possesses with his advanced mastery. With each blow they began to exchange, the sounds of metal colliding resounded loudly through this once silent forest and spread in the distance awakening the forest wolves from their rest.

To commoners who are still Apprentice Knights, the exchange between the two seemed to be too fast for their eyes to follow and the shock sounds made their eardrums numb, but for those who had already entered the realm of a Bronze Knight, the exchange of blows between the two were easily seen by them and the clanking of metal clashing didn't make them uncomfortable.

Those watching might think that the fight between the two seemed balanced, but only Fogi felt his arm go numb with the exchange of each blow with the little girl and he was starting to get scared, 'How can a little girl enter the realm of a Knight of Bronze?'

'She's still wearing a 2-star rune equipment set. Am I not courting death if I keep fighting it?'

Knight Fogi knew he wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer, as he realized that the little girl was actually using him as a training opponent and her skills, which seemed clumsy at first, were slowly being improved.

As Dahlia had just been promoted to the realm of a Bronze Knight, her mastery was still in its early stages and her spear skills were still a bit rough, however, she was quickly adapting to her advanced mastery and the melee battle between them was getting more and more fierce.

Dahlia delivered more and more accurate blows as her dodging skills also improved.

Seeing Dahlia honing her skills, Makai nodded in satisfaction. That was his intention because, in a duel between knights, it was not enough just to have brute strength, mastery skills were more important, because if you have strength, but not the means to deliver accurate blows or dodge the opponent's blows, you will be no different from a barbarian facing a cunning and slender adversary who could make him bleed little by little with every little accurate blow until you are exhausted and reveal a moment of weakness to receive a killing blow.

"Hehe. I feel that training with you will no longer be able to hone my skills, so it's time to baptize my spear with the blood of your first enemy."

Seeing the little girl's slightly childish smile before him, but who appeared to be devilish at that moment, the knight Fogi wanted to back off and ask his captain for help, but in his carelessness, Dahlia used the black spear to deflect his silver spear into the left in a strong blow, and as his arm was already numb beyond its limits, he lost the strength to regain it and block Dahlia's next blow when he tasted blood in his mouth.

There was a small muffled sound as Dahlia's black spear dug a small hole into the Fogi knight's left chest and he was still spitting blood as his spear dropped to the ground and he raised both hands to grab Dahlia's spear in an attempt to pull it out of your chest, but his frightened eyes lost focus and his arms went limp as his head bent down.

Seeing this scene, Captain Hayner and his knights couldn't believe it, Knight Fogi died like this, standing with a black spear stuck in his heart while the girl of her daughters' age still had both hands firmly on the shaft of her spear in a forward-leaning position as she looked at the already dead Fogi knight without a trace of emotion in her eyes.

'Is that still a little girl? This is clearly a little devil.'

The knights were in disbelief while they thought, for they had never seen a 10-year-old girl be so relentless.

While they were still stunned, they heard a heavy sound when the corpse of the Fogi knight fell before the little Dahlia's feet and she looked at them still with cold eyes when her slightly childish voice echoed like the reaper's bride's call.

"Who is next?"