Turning to face the remaining paladins he was forced to move once again to prevent them from surrounding him but upon looking around more closely half of them were already on the ground. Not all of them were defeated by him. It was only now that many of these men realized why the Ulv family was so feared by other nobles, even without armor or weapons they were a force to be reckoned with.
One of them took out an item and called out, "All of you give me aura. This device will end him!"
The item looked like a sphere with spikes extending in four directions around the sphere. Chronos wouldn't let that be used.
"A wolf does not fear steel. It fears hesitation!" Chronos howled as he charged at them.
Gregory reappeared behind the man who was acting as the core for the item. He used the hilt of a dagger he had picked up to knock him unconscious before disappearing into the crowd of men once more, having stolen the item.
Chronos vaguely wondered how he did that? No matter where he was, he always had this weird ability to disappear whenever he needed to.
Once more in the middle of the enemies Chronos prepared to let loose on them when a loud angry voice interrupted them.
"Stop!"
Turning to face this newcomer Chronos saw a paladin in full armor and sporting the symbols of the first order's first vice-commander.
"Boy, does he look furious. Kinda reminds me of Uncle Braur." Chronos reminisced before standing at attention and awaiting punishment rather than trying to explain himself.
Seeing Chronos' rapid response, he became annoyed at the second order for being slower than a mercenary.
"Why are you not at attention? Form ranks now!" First vice-commander yelled while glaring at all of them.
The other men finally snapped to attention and Gregory silently slid into Smith's shop and out of harm's way. The first vice-commander saw him but chose not to bring it up now.
"Now who wants to explain to me why all of you are fighting less than an hour before we deploy?" First vice-commander demanded.
All of the second orders paladins looked at each other, not sure how to explain that they were trying to throw Chronos into prison for something as minor as insulting their vice-commander. Especially when their vice-commander started it by trying to suppress him with his aura.
He didn't want to waste time waiting for them to come up with a story, so he pointed at Chronos, "You! Tell me what happened here."
"Sir, Yes, Sir. Smith, the personal blacksmith of the first order, had agreed to repair my gear before I was deployed when these men of the second order came to interrupt his work, sir. They insisted that paladins were more important than mercenaries even when we have been hired as specialists for this deployment, Sir!" Chronos stated while giving a sharp salute to him.
"Is this true?" He turned on the other men now with a vein pulsing in his forehead.
"T-that's not it, sir. He insulted our vice-commander." One of them stuttered under his glare.
"T-that's right he started this fight. He punched us first."
"Yeah, we can't be punished for this."
They clamored as each of them tried to give their version of what happened.
"Silence!" He turned back to Chronos "Is this true?"
"Sir, I did throw the first punch but only after they had been ordered and started following said order to drag me to the punishment hall. Sir." Chronos said with a straight face.
"And this all started because of an insult?" First vice-commander asked.
"No sir, they were insisting on disturbing Smith's work and I refused to move. They tried to force the matter with aura pressure, and I only insulted them at that point. Sir." Chronos responded.
"I see." Looking at all of the injured men on the ground he felt a headache coming on, "All of you pick up your men and get them to the hospital. I don't want to hear about any more trouble from the second order from now on. Am I clear?"
"Yes, sir." They shouted as they moved to collect their brothers.
While they were being collected, the first vice-commander turned to Chronos. "Do you realize how much trouble you have caused?"
"To be fair sir, if they couldn't even hit me properly when they had me so badly outnumbered, they weren't going to be of any use on the battlefield." Chronos relaxed as he spoke.
"I understand that, but they are the children of nobles in the eastern plains, including a high noble."
While the vice-commander started to scold Chronos, Smith came out of his forge.
"Just tell their parents to complain to the Ulv family. That was clearly the Fangbound martial arts he was using earlier and only direct members of the Ulv family know that martial art." Smith said.
"Oh, you recognized it?" Chronos asked.
"Hard not to with how you rapidly close the distance and the teamwork between you two that's like a wolf pack. You were even dumb enough to say one of the Fangbound arts famous sayings near the end, I would be surprised if there was anybody that didn't recognize it in these parts." Smith said with a grunt.
He waved both of them inside and went back to his work now placing runes on Gregory's daggers. Stepping inside the vice-commander now had an intrigued expression as he had often heard about this martial art but was only transferred to this Dragon Church last autumn. He hadn't met anyone from the Ulv family yet.
"Is this martial art really as terrifying as I've heard?" he asked.
Smith snorted this time, "Half a squad of paladins losing to two men isn't enough to convince you?"
"There were only two of them?" He practically jumped out of his seat when he heard that. "I thought there were more that were hiding, like the one that entered your shop. If they can do that much damage with just two men, I don't want to think how bad it would be with more."
Chronos sat down beside Gregory who had exited the back of the forge to join them. He decided to educate this new vice-commander so that he would be prepared when the Ulv family showed up to help them in a few weeks.
"The Fangbound martial arts is meant to be used with three to five men and only when we lose our weapons or feel that it would be faster without them. If we had a third man none of them would have been standing when you arrived. You'll get to see the Ulv family in action soon enough, they won't let the Church fight on its own."
"If they are all on your level then I look forward to their arrival."
"I'm at the rank of fang, it's equal to a veteran in your orders rank." Chronos then asked him, "How are men like those in the second paladin order paladins? I thought the dragon gods were very strict with who could wield their power."
Sighing, the vice-commander replied, "The dragon gods are strict. The men of the second order are regular paladins not dragon paladins, however they are rich which gives them the ability to buy items with the power of dragons in them."
Gregory understood immediately, "And your techniques work as long as they have the power of a dragon."
"Yes but they aren't able to use all of our techniques and most of the techniques they can use are weaker than they should be. The only reason the church accepted them at all is because we needed a connection to the nobles in certain areas. The first order are the only ones accepted by the dragon gods. At any rate I'm Adam and I will be in charge of your and Captains groups in the future. Can you tell me about both of your groups?" He asked.
The three of them continued their discussion and worked on battle formations to take advantage of Captains weapon breaking techniques. They had only discovered that Captains techniques were mainly weapon breaking ones when some of the paladins' weapons broke during sparring matches.
If they could use the formations correctly, with the Captains men in place, they would break any charging enemy that tried to break through.
They ended up discussing combat methods and battle formations so much that Smith had to remind them when it was time to leave. They grabbed their gear then rushed out running all the way to the staging area where the paladins and mercenaries had gathered barely arriving 5 minutes before Commander Stan.
Standing on the stage Commander Stan gave a short, prepared speech to his men.
"Men, we're heading into battle against an unknown enemy, but there is no reason to fear. We've already discovered their weakness to even the smallest blessings—any stable hand could defeat them with the favor of the dragon gods. We have more training and skill than these hollow foes who crumble under the slightest pressure. We carry the blessings of gods and spirits, the loyalty of the mighty swamp warriors, and an unbreakable will to crush them beneath our feet. Remember, our allies are counting on us to protect their children and villages, and we will. This is our land to defend, so don't hesitate to draw your swords for your brothers. Now, let us march on our enemies and show them the wrath of the dragon gods!"
As the cheer went up and they left the church Chronos thought it wasn't a bad speech, but it showed a clear lack of practice. He must have had the Matriarch or one of the other head priests write it for him and memorized it later.