Elves

"200 elven archers are marching towards us! This is an unprecedented force!", the scout exclaimed, his words being obviously too loud.

Panic started to arise in the army.

Most soldiers had a family to take care of. Although they knew that their family would be given ample compensation if they died, nobody could firmly go into battle without blinking an eye. It was especially true if the enemies were not only more numerous, but also from a different species.

Legends depicted elves as beautiful nature-loving angels, but the soldiers knew better. Some had heard stories, others had encountered a handful of them. Even elven slaves were terrifyingly fierce. Their hatred towards humands, who were breaking the balance of the world based on their existence laone, was on the same level as the rage that a regular human would feel upon discovering that their hometown had been massacred.

Elves were not beautiful. Physically, they were very attractive, surely. Some noble households would spend fortunes to tame them and use them as servants. However, their mind was not only hypocritical, it was also terrifyingly dangerous.

Arthur, John and Victor were completely taken aback, however.

"Are you telling me that an elven army is marching in the Elderwood Plains openly?", John asked in a flabbergasted tone.

Victor and Arthur were similarly taken aback, very suspicious:

"It's definitely a trap...", Victor muttered, "There is no way elves would dare go out of their forest, would they?"

While Victor and John were discussing what kind of traps the elves were preparing, Arthur was slowly remembering the contents of adventurer's books he had read in the past four years. Although there was little magical gains to earn from these readings, it was a hobby that Arthur had grown fond of. It allowed him to take a peek at the world's biodiversity and strange phenomenon. Winters lasting for decades, intelligent beasts, talking trees and rival species...They were all still foreign to Arthur, even if he had been living in this world for four years now.

Even though Albion was a small planet, there was so much to discover in it.

One particular adventurer, [Henry Von Vetten] was famous in the Porfield Kingdom for his courage and extremely rapid growth rate as a knight. Born into a minor noble family, he accumulated achievements with his adventurer party, completing kingdom-rank missions. Some even led his family to increase its nobility rank, something that was usually done through countless treaties, trade and political alliances.

One time, Henry encountered elves and massacred an entire army of long-ears [Winter Elves], a subspecies of elves coming from northern forests. Naturally resistant to cold and extremely difficult to locate, elves possessed one terrible weakness: their cultural tendency to isolate themselves in their forests.

Although druids learnt knowledge passed down from generations to generations, it was very different from humans who recorded wars, experiences and techniques. Humans were naturally less agile and less proficient than elves in archery, but in terms of war, humans were extremely knowledgeable. It was knowledge that allowed them to rise during the [Magus Era], and that was knowledge again that allowed them to conquer the world at a fast pace during the current [Knight Era].

Elves, who didn't know the first thing about war, were very vulnerable to logistic issues. Even with a good village chief and erudite druid elders, they wouldn't naturally probe their enemies, or try to understand their strengths and weakness.

[Elven Pride] was the reason why elves were declining in strength and influence.

Of course, the western [Elven] Kingdoms were very different from isolated little tribes. The reason was quite simple. In [Elven] Kingdoms, royalty and high-ranking elven noble households were not just elves, but high-elves, who possess much longer lifespans, allowing them to learn from mistakes and become knowledgeable about humans.

Arthur cut his brothers, and simply explained what he had learned.

Still, John and Victor insisted to send a few more scouts just to be safe. Arthur, who walked the path of Knowledge as an acolyte, didn't see any problem with being too careful. One out of the three scouts remained injured, but they confirmed the elves' lack of trump card.

They had marched towards them without even forming a plan. Perhaps they planned of using a certain formation, proceed with a certain rythm for the battle. Individually, the elves were mentally prepared to kill.

However, the elven elders were complete amateurs.

To John, Arthur and Victor, it was like playing a game of chess against someone who played for the first time. It didn't matter whether they had more pieces, or even a better starting position. In the end, they were mostly archers and druids.

Arthur didn't just have soldiers. He had elite an elite cavalry unit personally trained by John for the past ten years. A charge of a 50-unit cavalry was enough to obliterate an army of 100 archers in a battle. And that was taking into account an average cavalry.

John might not be a very strong individual in comparison to Arthur, but he still was a genius knight rising star who had graduated from the [Royal Knight Academy] with very high evaluations from his masters. He learned from advanced-rank knights, and he had the opportunity to meet several grand knights as well after entering a close circle of elite noblemen within the academy.

Arthur might have gotten strong all of a sudden, but he had to admit that in the aspect of army training, army management and strategy, John was a much better commander than he was. Even if Arthur had made many connections, John might not necessarily lose to him in that regards. Even if the original Arthur would have died, the Landragon Household would have risen.

Taking an observer's stance, Arthur was in complete awe upon hearing John's speech to improve the morale of the troops: "Today is our lucky day! I have trained you for the past 12 years. Back then, most of you were lacking a stable household, most of you were sickened by bandits who plundered innocents on a daily basis. I made promises to you. And I kept them all. Who now can say that they lack anything? Who now can say that their family is threatened to suffer from famines? Who now can say that banditry still is a problem within the Landragon Household? With your help, with your courage, I struggled and I overcame the obstacles in front of us. Today, elves are threatening the haven of peace we have created for our families, for ourselves. Today is the day we have to prove our courage once again. Heavens have favoured us. My brother is someone who has overpowered even my father, Viscount Frederick Landragon in a duel. His proficiency as an Intermediate Acolyte is unparalleled as he has graduated from the [Ivory Tower]. He has promised to take care of the druids. Facing us are archers. Are we going to fear archers as a heavy cavalry? I DON'T THINK SO!"

War cries started to emerge.

[Hearing about a powerful speech has increased your [Eloquence] skill profiency by 3 points]

'To think that these soldiers were afraid to die moments ago', Arthur thought upon seeing the horsemen so bloody excited to fight and trample on the elves, 'the human mind truly is a wonder...To think they would shift emotions so fast. John truly is amazing...', Arthur thought, oblivious to Victor's stare of hatred from the sidelines.

Once again, the second Landragon heir was in the shadow. This time, however, he was the only one with no contribution. Usually, there was just his older brother John. But this time, Arthur too was shining brightly. Somehow, a deep envy emerged in Victor's heart, one that would eat him away. That's what people call an [Inner Demon]...