Midday, Camelot City.
A large group of armored horses galloped into the city known to be the largest in all of Britannia. As soon as the riders arrived, fervent cheers could be heard from every part of the city.
It was a welcome cheer from the citizens of the capital, their faces brimming with smiles as they awaited the joyous news.
They all knew that King Arthur and his knights had returned victorious from his first battle against the Norgales invaders.
"Booorrr!!!" One of the knights enthusiastically shouted his own name. It felt quite peculiar to them, but at the same time, it convinced the onlooking crowd of their victory even further, raising their spirits to a new height.
"It was a great victory!" The identical-looking knight riding next to him shouted in turn, noticing the liveliness of everyone in the city.
These two were the famous golden knights of the Gangani Kingdom, the two brothers: Bors and Dagonet. The two were great knights from the land of the horses.
The brothers made a great spectacle, but ultimately, what the people came to see was the king of their kingdom, the one who led the victorious battle, Arthur Pendragon. After a minute of cheering, they finally saw their king riding among half a dozen other golden knights.
"King Arthur!!" When the people filling the street saw him, they could not help but shout his name in jubilation.
The king tried his best to keep the spirits high for the citizens to see, but deep down, he was still anxious. Not to mention, seeing how packed the city was, he grew even more concerned.
With the help of the joint forces of 2,000 cavalry riders of both Logress and Gangani, they manage to ambush and kill almost all of the Norgales riders. It was definitely a victory worthy of celebration, but Arthur couldn't get his mind off how crowded Camelot City was at the moment.
From their clothes and faces, he could tell that more than half of them were refugees who came looking for safety, hoping their king would win the war, so they could return to their land.
Seeing the faces of his people filled with hope strengthened him, but at the same time, it filled him with even more concern for the upcoming battle. After all, he knew the enemy was already at the gate.
Four days had passed since the massacre of the Golden Knights. Arthur did his best to use the knowledge he had of his land to ambush the Norgales knights, but now, with the increasing number of enemies that were rapidly closing in, he could no longer do such skirmish attacks and was forced to return to defend the city.
In a slight hurry, he moved toward the castle hall, which had already been made into the war room. To his delight, he found that many of the nobles had come to heed his calling.
"Sir Jols! You are here!" Arthur called when he saw a familiar face.
"Of course! How could I miss such an important battle!" Sir Jols jovially said.
The two exchanged brief greetings before Arthur turned to the others.
"Sir Marius!"
"Yes, King. I came to answer the call. I brought all 50 of my men."
"Thank you! Everyone, thank you for coming."
Arthur was glad all these nobles came, but his heart couldn't help but beat faster for the concern, as he approached the main table where Sir Gwain and his queen, Gwen, were.
The beautiful queen gracefully bowed to him, "Congratulations for your victory."
Arthur nodded and, without wasting a moment, he asked the question he had been worrying about since he started riding back to Camelot.
"How… how many have come?"
Gwen gave a small smile before answering, "Not enough."
As Arthur went to battle, Gwen had been welcoming all the nobles and their knights in Camelot City. The combination of Logress, Gangani and Demeate should be able to make at least a solid 15,000, most likely more. He was hoping that at least 12,000 would come.
Unfortunately, from the looks of it alone, only about half the number he expected from the combination of the three came.
"Counting the Logress knights, we only have a little over 8,000 soldiers," Gwen reported.
Arthur took the note that Gwen was holding and looked at the number. Not all of the nobles answered the call, even out of the expected 5,000 Logress, only 4,000 men had gathered. As for the two other kingdoms, the Gangani sent a thousand of their best armored riders and 1,500 infantry, while the Demeate sent their strongest 1,500 archers and knights.
Although these numbers didn't seem too bad, knowing they would be fighting against almost 30,000 combined forces of invaders in total, their numbers were far from enough.
"Don't worry, more will come. How long do we have until they arrive?" Gwen asked, thinking about if the rest would be able to arrive before the enemy forces.
"One day. Those people will most likely have reached us by noon tomorrow."
That afternoon, more did come. However, none of the nobles and soldiers present could be happy about it. Instead, the arrival of these people quickly turned the situation chaotic.
The newly-arrived group that came was a group of Iceni knights.
"They are enemies!!" shouted many of the people present. They didn't believe these Iceni knights actually came to help and, deep inside, neither did Arthur.
Arthur approached and observed the 500 Iceni men of the eastern kingdom. At first glance, he could see these Iceni knights were led by Sir Percival, one of the youngest members of the Golden Knights.
"King Arthur! We came to defend our land! My friends and I here, we would never fight alongside those barbarians from across the sea!" Sir Percival exclaimed, knowing what was on the minds of the people present.
But seeing this, the nobles and knights from the other kingdoms were even more unconvinced.
"We shouldn't trust them," said a few of the knights that had gathered. A few of the knights surrounding them could be seen openly nodding their heads, showing their agreement.
But contrary to their expectations, Arthur approached Percival and asked in a serious tone,
"Will you, Sir Percival, swear on your honor that you will follow my orders with courage?"
Without hesitation, Sir Percival answered, "Yes, King Arthur, I will!"
Although it was the king's decision, many of the people present still expressed their disagreement with it. They almost descended into further chaos when, fortunately, another group came and brightened the mood. They were knights from the Lioness Kingdom.
Looking at their number, there seemed to be about a thousand of them. Even though a thousand could not be said to be a lot compared to how many the other kingdoms sent, it was a surprisingly huge number for them knowing half of the Lioness was taken over by the Cantiaci now. These soldiers who came were led by Abe and the other Lioness knights.
Arthur was undoubtedly elated seeing that more had come, but the group that came behind these Lioness knights surprised him even more than the Lioness knights. In fact, not only him, but it surprised everyone who had gathered in Camelot Castle.
Behind the Lioness knights, they could see 300 stern-looking fighters in unique clothes made of animal skin.
They were the fey people.
As these warriors arrived into Camelot Castle, whispers could be heard from all around them. Seeing this situation, Arthur quickly welcomed the group together with Gwen.
"Miss Quintin, thank you for coming."
"I came following the request of the queen," Luna said with a smile. Soon after, she hugged Gwen and congratulated her for her recent marriage.
The two whispered a few words, which then made Gwen blush.
Knowing they did not have much time, Arthur immediately asked, "How about Merlin?"
"Don't worry, he will definitely come. He still has something to prepare for the time being."
At the mention of Emery's name, Gwen fell into deep thoughts, and it was quickly noticed by Luna. "No, no, you're taken and not in the game anymore," she whispered to Gwen with a chuckle.
"With this, we have more than 10,000 men," Sir Gawain reported after counting the approximate number of everyone who came.
Hearing the total number, Arthur once more tried to be optimistic and said, "We'll just have to make do with what we have! We should have a strategy meeting immediately."
He then turned to Luna, "I really wish Merlin could joined the discussion."
Right after he said such words, as if listening to him, a distortion in space suddenly appeared near them. Soon after, a dark circle of light formed and a gate opened.
Walking out of the circle were Emery together with the four fey girls.
"You were looking for me?"
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v..e.l,