"Tourneys."

"They are a spectacle."

"For the noble class to prance, prune and fight mock battles that are poor imitations of the real thing."

"Even melees are the same, as they do not truly imitate the blood and gore of the battlefield, even if some get injured during them."

"But at least Melees make for good training as pain is a good way to prevent men from making mistakes that may cost them an arm or leg in a real war."

"And if you take them seriously enough...."

"You may even be able to improve your strength as long as you are below the master rank."

Reginald Coulan, creator and head of House Aurellion in Dynasties Online.

....

15th of September 4009 ASA (After Species Awakening) Nartook Fortress castle courtyard.

Railius stood in one of the large castle courtyards of Nartook Fortress, which was being used for the Grand Melee, as 100 men dressed in leather and padded cloth armour, wielding an assortment of blunted weapons, were alert, waiting for the signal for the first round of the Melee to start, when the chaos of combat would descend.

The hidden fallen noble’s eyes scanned his surroundings, taking in his many opponents, knowing that even with his specialised fighting style, it was unlikely for him to get far, as there were tens of thousands of expert fighters in this tournament who each had a good chance of defeating him in a 1v1.

Though because he had long analysed the Nathian way of war, he at least had a chance of victory, no matter how small it was.

And he could see that at least 10 were in his group; hopefully, they would take each other out or be ganged up on by the other contestants, as had happened in previous rounds of the Melee.

At least the 1/10 ratio of adept to expert fighters was low, making him luckier than most in this tournament.

But he would need more than luck to get to the next round.

He would need skill.

There were also two younger Pelican Guards in his group who kept their distance from him, on his orders, only intervening if things got out of hand or he faced a sadistic opponent who would hit him even when he was down and had already yielded.

Railius was under no illusion of grandeur; he knew that he could not win the Grand Melee, but it did not mean that he could not give it a try and get as far as he could before falling.

It also helped that the participants in this Grand Melee were perfect opponents for him to hone his combat skills.

He was so close to becoming an expert swordsman.

So close that it would only take him a month or two of training to break through.

But unfortunately, Railius didn’t have that time.

While most soldiers he would face in the coming months would be at the adept level, there would be no small amount of expert-level veterans and master fighters amongst their ranks.

There would be at least 5 grandmasters, if not more, accompanying the Chavarian army in the various retinues of the invading Chavarian nobility and even in the Chavarian Imperial army itself, which did not include either Amulius Lunaris or Archtorius Shadowspire, who were both acknowledged as being among the best in the world.

Though if any masters or grandmasters came for him, his only hope would lie in both Captain Cedrick and Commander Aldorus to protect him.

To put it simply, the best way now for Railius to increase his chances of survival in the coming war was to increase his personal combat power.

Especially if any old veteran could kill him, even if it would take them some time to kill him and break his defences, but if, for any reason, his men were delayed and could not help him in time, Railius may find his dynasty becoming one of the millions extinguished over the 6 months that the game had been running in reality.

Mainly because currently, House Aurellion has no heir to their power base, meaning that if Railius were to die in this war, then all of his progress in the game would disappear, as it already has for millions of players.

And if Railius lost his house now, then he would lose all his accumulated advantages, advantages that would not be easy to get back especially as he would go from a fallen noble house in favour with the Nathian crown giving him the means to gain land and title again to a commoner who would take decades of in game time to get even close to the, wealth power and influence he now commanded.

So if Railius ever wanted to gain power, influence, and perhaps even a kingdom, he would need to survive this war, which would likely be the most dangerous he would ever fight.

Then he would need to do everything he could to improve himself.

As he scanned his opponents, one man stood out, appearing among his friends, eyeing him with killing intent, which he found pitiful.

The man eyeing him was Lucas Gale, though even the hate of bandits felt more threatening than the offended player did.

Railius had seen him fight, and he could be summed up in one word.

Average.

Painfully average.

Though that did not stop his unsufferable arrogance.

An arrogance many players shared, each thinking themselves the protagonist of the game, as if the game world would bend to their will.

So it would be this average player and his average friends who would try to beat him into the dirt.

Instead of feeling pressured or scared, Railius felt jubilation.

Because fighting against multiple opponents, especially those who were at the same level as he, was exactly what Aldorus had trained him to do over the last year or so.

So it would be nice to face people who weren’t experts, trained as one of the game’s strongest, unique units.

Maybe he would actually win for once.

A horn blew, signifying the start of the melee. While many of the participants eagerly rushed towards an opponent, Railius just stood in his corner, waiting and watching others tire themselves out in a misplaced vain attempt to gain glory.

But there were a group of 5 approaching him, led by Lucas, arrogantly swaggering towards him, and who had positioned themselves deliberately close to him before the melee had even started.

Their intentions were obvious, and the cruel gleam in Lucas’ eyes made it evident that if they had anything to say about it, Railius would leave this field with no small amount of bruises and injuries, even if they were using tourney weapons, which were far less deadly than ordinary ones.

That was clear, as many held what looked to be blunted maces, which did little to lower the damage they could cause compared to a blunted tourney or training sword.

Seeing that the other participants were busy with their own fights, Railius sighed at the inevitable, bringing his blunted sword, which had been resting on his left shoulder, into a guard posture, though he did note that the two young hidden Pelican Guards were making their way towards him to help should things look to be going poorly doing an excellent job at holding their own though it would take about 30 seconds for a winner of those fights to be decided.

Not that the winner would ever be in doubt, as the men they faced were not royal knights, Chavarian imperial guards, or even part of a unique unit, so Railius had full confidence in the outcome of those duels.

The first of the 5 men that Lucas had gathered swung his mace in a predictable motion which Railius easily dodged with a sidestep before bringing his tourney sword to strike the unfortunate man’s shoulder as he passed making the man grunt in pain a second man this one with a tourney sword swung in from the right but this blow was swiftly parried at which point Railius with a flourish used the hilt of his sword to smash into the second man’s face breaking his nose with blood gushing out of the broken appendage like a flowing river.

Clang!

Sword and mace met as the third man engaged quickly after seeing his friend fall to the floor with a bloodied nose, his eyes filled with an anger which promised vengeance as he quickly bashed Railius with his shield making the hidden fallen noble stagger back and it was only Railius’ calculated specialised swordsmanship skill which allowed him to recover quick enough to calculate the angle needed to block the sudden strike that came after.

Dodging another shield bash, this third man overcommitted, stumbling past Railius, who kicked backwards, hitting the attacker’s ass. Railius’ strong leg muscles, trained constantly since childhood through rigorous training, sent the unfortunate man flying to the floor. Lucas and his last brigand were momentarily stunned, and Railius used this time to bring his tourney sword hard down on the third man’s wrist.

Crack!

Bones groaned under the power of the strike, the wrist bruising and turning purple as the unfortunate Nathian soldier let out a shriek of pain, clutching at his wounded wrist, which was only just short of being broken.

One man was already eliminated, that was for sure.

Railius’ gaze was like stone.

He showed no mercy.

No compassion.

He didn’t hold back.

He just took his enemies out ruthlessly in a matter of seconds.

It didn’t even take 10 seconds for Railius to have hit the three of them once the glaring gap in their skill was shown clearly to all.

How calmly Railius handled this situation was unsettling to those who watched him, though few took note of a fight between adepts, as it was the confrontation between experts that drew their attention, not the small conflicts of small fries, so this moment passed unknown to the world.

Lucas and his last remaining companion froze in shock, giving Railius time to hit the second man again in the head, knocking him out and picking up his fallen sword, as it was far easier to defend against multiple opponents with two swords rather than one.

As Railius’ cold eyes landed on Lucas, sending a shiver down the arrogant Nathian soldier’s spine, his lips turned upwards in a slight smile.

"Are you surprised?"

Railius asked his voice even, yet every word cut through the clamour of the Melee like a blade clearly entering Lucas’ ears.

"Did you not expect this outcome?"

The lord of House Aurellion continued resting one of the two swords that he now wielded on his shoulders.

"Or did you think that this was the first time that I have faced multiple opponents that are either my level or higher?"

Railius finished as fear etched itself onto the faces of Lucas and his remaining followers.

The sound of shuffling, leather boots creaking, and a few pained groans could be heard from behind Railius as the first man, who was only hit on the back by a blunted sword and had recovered from the blow standing up, turned back around ready to fight once more though all arrogance was gone from his expression as he realised that the man Lucas had said was nothing more than a weak lucky pup instead turned out to be a snarling hungry wolf.

As the three formed a triangular formation around him, Railius raised an eyebrow in amusement.

’Oh, it seems these arrogant fellows had at least learned something over their two years of training in Nartook Fortress.’

Railius idly thought as he readied himself for round two of their confrontation, which, due to their teamwork, would likely require far more effort on his part.

It was just unfortunate for them that Railius was an expert-level military strategist, and such a formation was easy for him to see through and break.

To be perfectly honest, Railius almost pitied the fools who didn’t understand who they were going up against and thought that such a simple formation would be enough to defeat him.

Almost, that is, after all, they did come together so that they could bully him and revel in his suffering.

Now, Railius may have a better temper than many of his subordinates, who bristle at every insult or threat made towards him and his house, as the Kingdom of Nathia had already had an experience of the chaos the retainers of House Aurellion were capable of unleashing onto the world should they feel inclined to do so.

And he may be able to forgive an elven noble who sent an assassin after him over pride, because he was undercover and did not want to expose himself to the world yet, and risk causing a major incident that would only lead to more attempts on his life.

After all, he was posing as a common sellsword, so the ignorance of his abilities and the abilities of his companions was acceptable, as few mercenary leaders can survive an attack by a master assassin.

But gathering together a group of people in a grand melee to bully and injure him, despite knowing that your own skill is the reason for your loss, was a step too far.

Especially when the person in question had no special status or nobility to fall back on if things went poorly.

Why was Railius able to act as he did, even if it was somewhat arrogant?

Because he was a noble and had a noble house behind him, alongside all the benefits that status would give him.

It may be a fallen noble house with no lands or title, but it was still a noble house and a renowned one at that, with loyal soldiers and skilled retainers who were still willing to serve it.

So if the worst happens and the young lord ended up arrested for one reason or another, all Railius needed to do was request a trial by combat, request Leon as his champion and all would be well.

A trial by combat can be requested by anyone with a noble or knightly title, but not by commoners. This includes fallen nobility; however, if they are seen as traitors by one country and their titles are forfeited, the request would be denied.

A good example would be if Railius were arrested in the Chavarian Empire because House Aurellion are attainted for treason, Railius would not be able to request a trial by combat.

While many nobles like to settle disputes in a court of law, those nobles with strong grandmasters at their command, like Railius, tend to just ask for a trial by combat to avoid a prolonged court dispute, especially if they know that they are guilty of a particular crime.

In this way, the powerful noble houses can act as they wish without too many consequences unless they meet someone with a grandmaster as a backer, in which case they may decide that a court dispute is less risky.

Ignoring the complicated and tangled net of noble infighting, Railius attention was swiftly brought back to his current fight.

His eyes glanced at the information that he had of the simple, rudimentary formation that these people had formed.

.....

Triangle Formation (beginner Formation):

Description: a simple triangular formation used to surround one combatant, allowing him to be attacked on 3 sides, increasing the chance of defeating him.

Effect: Increases the chance of hitting an enemy.

Increase damage dealt by 10%

Note, because of your high level of military strategy, the effect of this formation has been neutralised.

.....

Railius sneered when he saw the stats increase of this simple formation, and the note the system had given him at the end of the information made all their efforts be for nought, as it would seem that military strategy had far more uses than he had expected.

There were many stories in Dynasties Online’s history.

Stories of smaller armies, even those that were outnumbered more than 2-1 on the field of battle, defeating and even crushing their opponents.

Railius had found it hard to believe those tales; even if there were a few instances of such events in the real world, they were far more common in Dynasties Online, especially when master and grandmaster strategists were in command of an army.

But seeing the effect that military strategy had now in the game, he could finally believe it.

If any formation a strategist came up with could be seen through, and neutralised with just a glance, while at the same time having to suffer against formations that would have far more terrifying effects than this simple, rudimentary one, then Railius could see even the largest of armies failing.

Let alone the fact that a poor military strategist would struggle to effectively control such a force.

The game was even kind enough to clearly highlight where the formation was weakest, or, more specifically, which person was the weak link.

And it was the man who had attempted to strike the young lord first who lit up like a lighthouse on a dark night, whether it was because he was the more incompetent of the three or due to the fresh bruise that Railius imagined he had caused on the man’s back, paining him, the young fallen noble could not say.

It was then that Railius realised.

This fight was going to be far easier than he had originally thought.