Overwhelming Firepower

The news of Marquis Valeire declaring a Styrhord against Duke Vardon Thornehart spread quickly.

The word alone carried a weight that chilled even seasoned nobles. It was not a declaration of war, but a declaration of extinction, a challenge that left no room for compromise, negotiation, or retreat.

It has been ages since someone declared a Styrhord. The last time was when the Judicar family was still a baron family.

When they saw the injustice that a former Ducal house did, they challenged them to Styrhord.

In that battle, the Judicar Family won and replaced the ducal house and became what it is now.

As for the former ducal family, their bloodline, their achievements, their very names have been erased from history. That is what happens to those who lose in Styrhord.

The Styrhord was created for this purpose. It gives a chance for a lower noble to devour the stronger one.

In a Styrhord, there was no other rule except that it only ends when the leader of each side surrenders or dies.

There were no appeals, no royal intervention, and no authority, save the outcome itself, that could overturn the result once the challenge was accepted.

Of course, no matter if the leader surrenders or dies, if he loses, he loses not only his life, but the lives of those of his direct bloodline, his family name will be stripped from history, and everything that person had will be given to the winner.

Records were burned, monuments torn down, and even spoken mention of their name became taboo. To lose a Styrhord was to be unmade, as if one had never existed.

Another thing was that during a Styrhord, no matter what external thing is happening, once the appointed time to start has come, it will start.

So that means even if they’re being attacked by monsters, it does not matter; the enemy can still attack them and use those monsters to their advantage.

Each party can also call for allies, such as other nobles or help from outside the kingdom. Victory will come to the warrior who overcomes all obstacles.

That was how cruel a Styrhord was. A challenge so absolute that even ambitious nobles recoiled from it. That was why, despite the rewards upon victory, no one had declared one in centuries.

The only reason one would initiate a Styrhord is that the person has no more options and is desperate.

The fact that Marquis Valeire had initiated a Styrhord told everyone the same thing. He was desperate.

It was no secret that the Marquis did not like the ducal households, and he had been gathering allies to take them down, but to do it now, of all times, without warning.

It meant that he either was already fully prepared or he truly was desperate. Most people think it was the latter, since if it was the former, the Marquis would have just initiated a normal territory war, but now he instead initiated a Styrhord.

Of course, there were some that think that the reason for Marquis Valeire’s actions was that he was sure of victory.

”Maybe he has hired powerful mercenaries.”

”It could be that he allied himself with someone from a different kingdom.”

There were many such discussions. No one was even talking about the command the King gave about allowing Lucen to make train tracks in their territory. Everyone was focused on the Styrhord.

***

Marquis Valeire started gathering all the forces he had. He made his allies give him their armies for this battle; he used almost all his wealth to hire mercenaries from far and wide.

Despite not being able to figure out how to create the guns Lucen was using, he instead had someone make rune-engraved shields that could withstand the gunfire.

The army he had gathered was twenty thousand strong. The more surprising part was that in that army, several thousand of them were either aura users or mages.

When the people heard of that, their confidence that the Iron Duke would definitely win began to waver.

Numbers alone did not decide battles, but numbers of this scale crushed even legends through exhaustion, attrition, and mistakes that no warrior could avoid forever.

Seeing as the entire army of Stellhart, with Thornefang, the Stellhart knights, and the regular army with a few tower mages, was only five thousand at most.

Not to mention the number of aura users and mages were only slightly above a hundred.

However, one of them was the Iron Duke, who was at the sixth aura mantle; even so, the sheer quantity of the other side could possibly match or surpass the quality of the Iron Duke’s side.

***

In the Runescar estate, hearing the news about the Marquis’s army, Elyra spoke to her Father about the situation.

”Father, will you not aid the Duke Vardon?”

”No, I will aid him in this battle,” Kaelvar answered without hesitation.

”Why? You keep on saying he’s your best friend. Then shouldn’t you help him in his time of need?”

Kaelvar looked at his daughter in confusion, then he shook his head and sighed.

”It seems that you have misunderstood a few things, or you just forgotten. First, Vardon will not allow us to help. Even if we send someone, he would shoo them away, especially if I go.”

Kaelvar then patted his daughter’s head. ”Also, he’s not just my best friend; he is also my rival. Someone I call my rival would not fall from just a mere twenty thousand-strong army. It would take so much more than that to put that man down.”

Hearing the confidence in her father’s voice, Elyra decided to believe as well. She was worried about Lucen, but she knew from the fight they had he was not someone who would fall here.

’... Lucen the ever-victorious... I hope that nickname of yours proves true even now.’ Elyra thought to herself.

***

Viscount Cedric Darenthal, one of the neutral nobles of Norvaegard, was reading the many reports coming he sighed.

’To think Marquis Valeire would make a move at this moment. Not only did he make a move, but he made such a reckless move like a Styrhord.’

Cedric knew that there was no turning back now for either the Marquis or the Duke. Still, for the future of Norvaegard, Cedric understood that the Iron Duke, no more specifically Lucen Thornehart, was needed.

This was why Cedric, despite being a neutral noble, spoke to the Iron Duke and told him that he could ask a few more neutral nobles to send reinforcement, but to his surprise, the Iron Duke answered in a way he did not expect.

”I appreciate the offer, but there is no need to shed more of Norvaegard’s blood than it has to. We of Stellhart will deal with this Styrhord with our own power.”

Hearing that answer once again reinforced the idea that it was the Thorneharts who should survive.

’But since he denied my offer, I cannot do anything about it. Still, I can disrupt the reinforcements from Marquis Valeire’s allies.’

The second Cedric thought that, he could already imagine the Iron Duke’s response to his move. Telling him that it was an unnecessary action, and it might affect the Iron Duke’s honor. In a kingdom of warriors, aside from strength, honor was also valuable.

”I guess the only thing I can do now is pray to Varkun for the Thorneharts’ victory,” Cedric spoke with a sigh.

***

Lysette Crowlorne was reading a message she received from Lucen and gritted her teeth, but after a while, she sighed.

The second she learned about the Styrhord declared by Marquis Valeire against Duke Vardon, she understood that the other party was desperate and was going to use everything at his disposal.

So she sent a letter to Lucen that if he wanted, she could convince her father and his allies to send troops, but Lucen replied, telling her that there was no need for such actions.

’If I forcefully send troops, he might resent me.’ Having that thought, Lysette shook her head as she hated the idea of him resenting her.

She then placed the letter she received on the table, and her deep blue eyes looked at the night sky. She thought about Lucen and the upcoming Styrhord heart beat grew ever louder.

The Thorneharts were a powerful force; they were not called the unbreakable shield of Norvaegard for nothing.

There were also the new weapons Lucen had created alongside two of the most powerful knights in Norvaegard, Vardon Thornehart and Thalos Stonemaul.

Still, the other side had twenty thousand people under them, not to mention thousands of mages and aura users. She truly could not help but worry.

Even the mighty Stellhart knights could fall under such overwhelming numbers. She then imagined Lucen dying from the Styrhord. She quickly denied the thought.

’Someone like you dying from something like this. That won’t happen, right? You who have always seemed to know what’s coming, who were always prepared. Surely this time too, you’ll remain ever-victorious... Right?’