I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 215: Hydrogia’s First

Chapter 215: Hydrogia’s First

Two of the greatest knighthoods in all of the kingdom coming together to face the goblins that had been driving the north to ruin. It would have been somewhat beautiful if it weren’t for the circumstances of introducing the strange poison to the men who were only there to help.

Sir Gunnar could only warn them so much. They would have to experience it on their own to know the severity.

And experience it, the Knights of Hydrogia did.

Without hesitation, they rushed into battle, some on horseback but most on foot, and they raised their swords to the goblins, taking them down effortlessly. At first, it seemed like the circumstances didn’t befit the explanation they were given before by the knights.

However, they quickly learned that the goblins didn’t merely attack. They never seemed to end from wherever they came on the hill.

What kept the knights from pushing them forward more was the black poison.

As Commander Lothian sunk his large, dark metal blade into the chest of a massive goblin that had been giving one of the Chemoian apprentices trouble, he was shocked when a cloud of black rose into his face. Whether it came from the goblin’s body or something around it, he wasn’t entirely sure. All that he knew was that if he were to have directly breathed it all in, he would have been in much worse shape. He only caught a small breath of it, but it still made him cough. Since he wasn’t someone who ever got sick, it was a miserable feeling being unable to catch his breath for a few moments.

That wasn’t enough to keep his blade from swinging. He took down more of what he could reach, but he soon noticed that, rather than the knights being able to keep up with the sheer amount of goblins that had attacked, the monsters were able to retreat to wherever they came from.

Cutting them off at the source would be the only way, but how?

What was once a sea of dark goblins, clashing blades, and plate armor became men standing amongst body parts and monster blood that had covered the plains they stood in. A foreboding feeling rose in Commander Lothian’s chest as he looked around.

However, he heard someone running up to him, and he was surprised to see one of his knights, Sir Maximus, wearing a terribly shocked expression on his face.

"A body, Commander!" the knight shouted. "We lost an apprentice. One day and we’ve lost one."

The knight was out of breath as he explained the circumstances to the commander.

"Shit," Callum uttered and strode to where the knight was indicating where the body was.

His dark eyes went to the edge of the field, surprisingly close to where the ancient wall stood proudly. There were knights already picking up the crumpled body of the apprentice.

In his 38 years of life, it never got easier to see the young die. Even as a peasant where death was always around the corner, he would never find it any less significant.

A man loyal to his knighthood, he rushed forward and removed his gloves until he got to the knight who had the misfortune of carrying a dead child. The commander held out his arms, asking for the apprentice instead.

That was when he decided to take him to the infirmary and get him comfortable so the others could say goodbye to the child, but he would pay his respects first.

Taking it upon himself to be the one who determined the child’s death, it was easy to tell by the way his eyes were rolled into the back of his head and blackness dribbled out of his slightly parted mouth. He cleaned off the black liquid and closed the child’s mouth as well as closing his eyes a bit more permanently.

When the kid was cleaned up, Callum felt a pang of sadness at the thought that the fifteen-year-old looked like he was napping rather than the horrible truth. However, a purple mark had started forming around his mouth, and he knew that it wasn’t something the others should see.

He gently covered the boy with a sheet and stood there in contemplation for a few significant moments. He knew he needed to go back out and lead, but it put a bitter taste in his mouth for a while.

War was something he was more than familiar with, but this was the first sign for the Knights of Hydrogia that it truly was what they were going toward. Such a senseless death, surrounded by a mysterious force that they didn’t quite know how to handle, was a sign of true war if he ever saw one.

He got himself together and faced the others. He would allow them to say goodbye to the child as they saw fit.

Since duties never ceased when they were on the front lines, Callum took to the fields once more with the other knights, and they all began the cleanup of what they could of the monster bodies.

"Take weapons that are of use to us," Gunnar ordered the others from where he stood deeper in the plains. "We are running out of arrows. If armor is worth taking, don’t hesitate."

The highest ranked knight for Chemois had already explained to Callum that the armory was ransacked and they were unable to retrieve much of anything from that point of the Duke’s Tower. What a shame it had to come to taking things off the bodies of dead monsters to protect themselves.

By that point, the sun was starting to set, and Callum wondered what sort of schedule the Knights of Chemois were following.

However, his thoughts were cut short when he heard a murmur that struck the groups on the outer edges of the encampment to the east.

"Christ, they’ve returned," Gunnar uttered from where he stood.

"Who?" Callum wondered.

"Apprentices and hopefully healers who know more about this poison than we do."