In this era, on the European continent, mystery largely persisted only in Great Britain.
This mystical favoritism meant that knights and mages from Great Britain were generally superior to their counterparts on the European mainland.
What did the Coalition of the Five Kings' five hundred cavalry represent? Five hundred knights, five hundred sturdy warhorses, both man and beast clad in complete plate.
Each of them was essentially a walking fortress. The thunder of five hundred hooves, barely audible as they emerged from their camp, was immediately detected by the King of Knights and her party resting in the forest.
Unless... the entire Coalition of the Five Kings lacked a single mage.
Just as Merlin had cast a Concealment spell on the King of Knights and her companions, a similar spell now shrouded the five hundred cavalry, preventing their thunderous hoofbeats from alerting the enemy.
Furthermore, under the Concealment spell, even eagles circling overhead would fail to spot them.
"My King, they're coming."
In the small grove where the King of Knights had encamped, within her tent where she was resting with her eyes closed, Bedivere, her personal knight, suddenly spoke. While the Coalition of the Five Kings had eliminated most risks of detection, the King of Knights commanded too many elite knights for them to remain hidden indefinitely.
Bedivere wasn't the only one who sensed something amiss. Gawain, Kay, and other knights scattered among the ranks had also noticed the enemy's movements.
"Gawain, are the enemy fools? They concealed their deployment but didn't cover up the missing footsteps in their main camp."
"Perhaps they weren't trying to hide the deployment itself, but rather something within the deployed forces," Gawain replied.
As the perceptive knights chatted idly, they waited for the King of Knights' order to signal an enemy attack before preparing the rest of the knights for battle.
At this moment, the knights, already prepared, remained calm. Following established procedure, they instinctively grabbed their weapons and shields, mounted their horses, and spontaneously gathered around their captains.
Their lack of urgency in donning armor stemmed from the fact that knightly armor was notoriously difficult to wear. Putting it on now would be suicidal.
This made the thirty-odd knights who could wear armor stand out conspicuously.
As knights, they generally wielded magical power, capable of single-handedly routing a thousand ordinary soldiers. And as elite knights... no, now that the Round Table had been activated last night, they should be called Round Table Knights under the King of Knights.
All Round Table Knights could manifest magical armor, just like how Guinevere remembered how the Heroic Spirits from her previous life could do the same.
"King!"
"King..."
"King!!!"
Emerging from her tent, the King of Knights was already clad in her silvery-white armor. As she prepared to charge the enemy forces, she chose to wield a lance.
She rode Dun Stallion, her warhorse, a creature whose blood flowed with magical power. This equine Magical Beast could even summon magical armor for itself through sheer willpower.
Fully armored, Dun Stallion carried the fully armored King of Knights as they rode to the vanguard of the knights, ignoring the loyal pleas of some to remain in reserve.
As the King of Knights and her forces prepared to engage, the Coalition of the Five Kings detected their movements. Yet the 50,000-strong coalition halted their advance without entering the forest and maintained their Concealment.
They were gathering their strength, and what they sought to conceal was not the mere 500 knights themselves.
Soon, as the King of Knights led her forces closer to the forest's edge, the Coalition of the Five Kings' temporary commander gave the order.
The Concealment lifted. Twenty-odd Mages raised their staves in unison, causing dense, intricate Magic Circles to materialize across the twilight sky.
Never enter a forest, and since the King of Knights' reckless tactics likely serve as bait, never fight on ground of her choosing. The Coalition of the Five Kings understood this principle well.
Their planned ambush wasn't a conventional forest engagement. They hoped this meticulously concealed bombardment magic would incinerate the forest while minimizing casualties among the knights within.
"Attack!"
As dusk fell, the Magic Circle covering the sky reached its final stage of completion.
In the small grove, the King of Knights and her knights gazed upward. They didn't believe this barrage—capable of scouring the earth three meters deep—posed any real threat to them.
"The sun is still shining, Sir Gawain."
"Yes, Your Majesty. By the name of the Knight of the Sun, I swear to deliver complete victory unto you."
Gawain's sword was named Excalibur Galatine, which translates to "The Sword of Revolving Victory," or more commonly known as the Holy Sword of the Sun.
Wielding this blade and blessed with the Protection of the Sun, Gawain could unleash three times his normal strength under sunlight. At noon, his solar-enhanced power exceeded even this threefold amplification.
The Coalition of the Five Kings, eager for battle, abandoned their planned night assault, granting Gawain a precious window to fight at triple his usual power.
Even if the Coalition had known of Gawain's unique ability, they wouldn't have granted the King of Knights' entire army more recovery time simply because of him.
"Holy Sword, unleashed! This blade is the manifestation of the sun. The other Holy Sword of the Star, rotating... Sword of Victory!"
As a storm of magecraft bombardment rained down from the sky, a sun erupted from the grove. Its blinding light transformed into a torrent of radiant energy, single-handedly devouring the incoming barrage. The blazing stream surged forward, shattering the sky-obscuring Magic Circle and obliterating the crimson sunset clouds beyond.
When the "sun's" brilliance faded, the Coalition of the Five Kings stared in stunned silence. Their painstakingly accumulated Bombardment Magic had been shattered, leaving the Mages who had expended most of their magical energy temporarily unable to fight.
"My King, I fear I cannot unleash the Holy Sword a second time before sunset."
The glorious torrent of light pierced through the Magic Circle and the crimson sunset clouds beyond, bathing the grove in a fleeting, ethereal glow, as if the sun itself favored them, illuminating their path out of the woods.
Under the setting sun, the two armies stood five hundred meters apart. The King of Knights and her companions wore helmets that concealed their expressions, but the knights whose magic could not conjure armor revealed their faces clearly.
Their faces showed no fear, only unwavering confidence in their inevitable victory.
Against them stood a hundred-odd riders—weary from battle, reeking of wine, and mostly unarmored—facing five hundred fresh, battle-ready, fully armored knights brimming with morale.
The clash of gazes revealed the King of Knights' formation, steadfast as a mountain. Among the Coalition of the Five Kings, only the Irish Knights, hailing from Great Britain like her, remained silent.
Before the charge even began, the superiority of the King of Knights' forces was already evident.
Raising her lance, she pointed it forward, its tip aimed directly at the Irish King's contingent, the strongest among the enemy ranks.
Seeing the King of Knights' choice, the Irish King and his knights showed no fear. They spurred their horses forward, silently taking the vanguard position for the charge.
There were no war drums, no trumpets—only the gradual approach of the two cavalry formations.
Now, the thunderous hooves, no longer concealed, and the clang of armor and weapons became the most ferocious battle horn on the battlefield.
"I, Arthur Pendragon, swear to you once more that I will lead us to victory in this battle!"
Finally, when the two sides were only two hundred meters apart, the King of Knights and the Irish King kicked their horses, each choosing to become the foremost arrow of their respective forces.
Following them came the drumming of the earth itself.
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Spy-The Drums of war are a comin