The first batch of squires was halted just like that. Four participants fought against four chosen knights and all four lost the challenge.
Lucas said to him "Lanzo, this is... amazing! This… this must be the princess' doing!"
The next four squires came and the knights fighting them were replaced with a different group. They gave everything they could and fought hard with their blade and shield, but yet again, though they fought valiantly, all four of them lost.
The group of veteran squires was standing next to Emery and watched the fight go on with elation, including Mark, who smiled with each squire's defeat. It seemed that for them, this was a usual occurrence. For them, the assessments were not used to be this strict but most importantly the knight fights without differentiating the squires.
The group laughed hard when they saw a young thin looking noble squire screaming to his father for help during the fight.
Though it was fun to watch the fight, still none of the squires succeeded. Another batch of squires was called and all defeated.
Emery heard the sound of hurried footsteps and he saw a veteran squire running towards the group. He took a moment to catch his breath before saying. "Guys, it is confirmed. All 20 knights prepared for the assessment test are all from Knight Yvain's own personal forces."
Some of the group cheered, some whistled and the others smirked. It was certainly a strange sight, considering the information would mean their chances of winning would decrease. A difficult fight awaited them, but they talked and laughed merrily.
"This year will be interesting, Lanzo!" Mark said. "Probably we'll only need to win one time and there'll be a high chance we get selected! With this kind of test, we will really be chosen for our skills, not because of our status."
They watched another fight, then another, then another. Time passed quickly, the squires falling down one after another and before they realized it, they went through ten batches without a squire winning. 40 squires and none of them managed to defeat the knights.
The audience who were invited to watch all turned rowdy. No one liked the way the assessment was going and some protested when their favorite squires just dropped to the ground like flies and lost.
In contrast to the rage and denial shaking from the audience seats, the veteran squires smiled with each defeat.
After a moment Emery realized what's happening. There were 123 squires participating four times. While there were only 20 knights prepared. Therefore in the long term, the squires would tire out the knights and be able to win a fight or two... eventually at least.
Come to think about it, this is actually a very good practice prepared by the assessors. With this, the talented squires could use this chance to get used to fighting knight level opponents and become more prepared for the real tournaments in Camelot later.
While he was busy thinking, cheers erupted from the audience seats. One squire was finally able to defeat a knight.
The veteran squires and the king looked at the first lucky candidate. Everyone could recognize the young man as Abe, the son of the Fantumar family. The win made him smirk.
"That Abe has really improved since the Dread Knight took him as one of his personal squires…" One veteran squire mumbled.
Emery stared at the boy. Of course, he remembered Abe, he's the boy who used to mock him, But though he still felt hate, his hatred didn't burn as it used to.
"Lanzelot Dulat!"
The call broke Emery away from his reverie. It was time for him to show what he was capable of.
Emery grabbed the set prepared for the assessment. A thick leather armor, a long sword, and a wooden shield.
With confidence, he walked towards his assigned knight opponent. No cheers could be heard, no one even paid attention to him, all busy discussing the next candidates or talking down about him. Emery was aware, no one expected anything from him.
But he wasn't here to put on a show, anyways.
The referee signaled the start of the fight and the knight in front of Emery immediately drew his sword and dashed towards him. Emery took one step to the side and dodged just out of the knight's range and struck his back with the flat end of his sword.
The knight fell to the ground just like that and awake to see Emery's sword welcoming him. Emery wins his first fight easily and the crowd immediately roared in excitement.
"Who is this kid?"
"How can this be possible? He made it seem so easy!"
"This must be a mistake by the knight."
"Either that, or he has quite some luck."
Emery took off his equipment and stacked them neatly before going back to his bench. As he arrived, all the lower-ranked squires stared at him, unsure what to say.
"Lanzo, what was freaking going on there?!" Mark shouted.
Unsure on how to answer, Emery scratched the back of his head and laughed. "I'm just lucky, I guess…"
"No way! There's no fucking way I can just accept that as an answer."
Emery racked his brain, trying to come up with something general enough to appease them while still sounding helpful. "Okay, uh, I think you just watch the opponent's movements carefully and strike back without hesitation when you see an opening. That's it, really."
He didn't expect anything from that general answer, but to his surprise, the veteran squires followed his advice literally. In the next few rounds, the veteran squires all moved carefully and watched their opponent and thanks to that, during the second round two other squires managed to defeat their assigned knight.
The victories encouraged other squires to try harder and eventually, more people managed to defeat a knight at least once.
Meanwhile, Emery and Abe managed to win all four rounds.
All the audience was captivated by this turn of events. A previously unknown young man managed to win the challenges alongside a well-known candidate that was expected to win. Of course, such a thing would attract discussion and rapt attention.
"Who is this Lanzelot?"
"He was either really, really lucky or he cheated."
Fantumar, who watched the stage from up above, seated in his seat right alongside the king, gripped the handles of his seat in irritation.
"My king, there was no clear winner and we should not leave it as it is, it would leave a sour aftertaste to the event… To settle this, shall we let them both fight?"