Those soldiers who didn’t have weapons drawn did so- both those outside the manor and inside. At the same time, those nearest to William attacked with drawn swords, swinging down toward him. William parried one and dodged another as he stepped back, arriving at the gates to his manor at the same time as a hail of arrows.

As the arrows reached the walls and the area of the open gate, they suddenly slowed and then shortly after fell to the ground impotently. In response, William’s guards opened up with their own volley, causing a handful of casualties among the enemy ranks. They still numbered nearly a gross, more than the number of guards William kept at his manor, but numbers weren’t everything.

The center section of the first rank of enemy soldier charged toward the open gate, At the same time, William’s guards stepped up to either side of him, standing about a dozen men wide against a half dozen mounted soldiers.

On both sides of William, his guards set pikes to stop the charge of the enemy, while William himself remained standing still. The enemy soldiers lowered lances and held their shields ready. Then, when they were about to collide with the pikes they angled their shields to deflect them, and then a moment after they would be in range for their lances to strike.

Then there was a clanging sound as pikes collided with shield… after which all of the charging soldiers were dismounted, with their horses continuing to move out from underneath them..

“Tch.” William shook his head, “Not even enchanted stirrups.”

That had actually saved the soldier’s lives, as their attachment to the horses had given out before their shields and armor. William could see that some of them still had broken arms. Though they had tried to deflect the pikes, William’s guards were trained with enough precision that they could still strike a solid blow even on angled shields.

The horses didn’t continue to charge without their riders, but their momentum carried them into the line of guards, who hurriedly dodged the horses. Behind them, other guards caught their reigns.

The fallen soldiers would quickly be able to return to their feet, but the front line took advantage of their prone position to pierce their armor. Though pikes weren’t optimized for stabbing downward, they were still good enough, and with the ground at their backs all of the force of the pike was able to be applied instead of knocking them back.

William almost regretted the damage to the magic armor, but it had to be done. There was no sense in holding back in combat for such a reason.

Of course, in normal cases it would be hard to pierce magical armor- even with equivalently enchanted weapons. That was only true when all other factors were the same, and William’s guards weren’t the same as these soldiers. Although they were likely the elite guards of Lord Heinrich, but they still weren’t as good as William’s guards.

William had personally trained his guards, and while he thought his training methods were somewhat superior, it was also relevant that they grew stronger more quickly just by being around him. As time had gone on, the effect became more pronounced. Humans reached a plateau in terms of bodily strength after a few years of training or less, and gevai also worked similarly. Even in ki training or magic, everyone would reach a point at which their growth seemed to come to a halt- even if it was really just significantly slowed. The same had happened with William’s guards, but the plateau had come later and their growth remained several times faster than others who had reached their nominal limits. Combined with the fact that most gevai only lived a few times as long as humans, after a few dozen years William’s guards were among the best gevai had to offer.

Though nearly a dozen of them were dead, the enemy soldiers weren’t deterred. Instead, they quickly changed their tactics. They started to dismount and draw their swords. They spread out and raised their shields to protect themselves from further arrows, and started moving closer to the manor walls. Several dozen formed up in rows and headed toward the gate, while the rest moved close to the walls to receive cover, and prepared to attempt to climb over.

Knowing the strength of William’s guards, they weren’t careless in moving toward the pikes. While pikes had the great advantage of reach against swords, if they could get inside that reach they would have the advantage. Their organized assault let most of one rank move in unscathed, and those few who were injured were replaced by a later rank. They moved forward to attack the now vulnerable guards. Several of them also went for William.

Their swords thrust out, synchronized in such a way that it would be hard to dodge or block all of them… but William just stood there. As the tips of the swords passed the line of the gate, the soldiers went into convulsions as electricity ravaged their bodies, and they started smoking from inside their armor.

William shook his head and taunted the enemy, “Are you blind? Can’t you even see mana?” Of course, being gevai, they could- but that didn’t mean they knew what it meant. To be fair, the horses had gone through unscathed so they had likely assumed there was no danger… but William had merely manipulated that part of the barrier.

Those who touched the walls found themselves in a similar state, until they fell backwards away from the wall. They weren’t necessarily dead, but they would be in no state to fight. Those at the gate were quickly finished off as they fell in front of WIlliam and his guards.

Now nearly a quarter of the enemy soldiers were casualties, and William had not had even a single injury on his side. Even so, orders were still called out from a person William assumed was their captain… or perhaps vice-captain. William didn’t really want to continue fighting… but on the other hand it gave him the chance to make a bigger impression.