Kayal was stunned, then immediately reacted.
The girls were worried he would get hurt.
While touched, he didn't hesitate to act.
For Artoria, he showed no special consideration to establish her authority, because any strategy would be seen as a trick and earn the knights' contempt. But the Claymore girls and he knew each other well; why bother with such concerns?
First was "Light of the Mind." Because the Yoma tumor was located in the uterus, every time the girls used Yoma energy, it was equivalent to an orgasm. Therefore, any girl who couldn't endure it would directly go berserk. It's said that the 'Organization's first three generations were all male, but male Claymores couldn't endure it and all awakened, which is why they eventually resorted to female Claymores.
The reason Claymores appear cold is due to long-term suppression of their sexual desires.
Thus, the second spell was a strength buff.
The third… he added a total of five buff spells to the Claymore girls, more than doubling their strength. Kayal's value was finally not just in politics and intelligence: his buff and healing magic were also incredibly important on the battlefield!
Without making a fuss, merely twenty Claymores struck fear into the hearts of fifteen hundred men, making them more terrifying than one hundred and fifty titled knights. While titled knights, no matter how strong, were still ordinary humans when not on the battlefield without their title's buffs, vulnerable to crossbow bolts and dagger ambushes, these Claymores could maintain their human state at all times.
Perhaps saying this would make them seem invincible, as if even the Abyssal Ones, who could easily slaughter Claymore girls, were unrivaled in this world.
However, Kayal saw their, and its, and their weaknesses clearly. Yes, their individual combat power was indeed extraordinary, but when humans gathered, their combat power would increase exponentially once they exceeded a thousand people. If you add the cheating existence of titled knights, the probability of winning is greatly increased.
If a thousand knights facing a thousand Claymores meant a loss, then five thousand knights facing five thousand Claymores would be a draw. If ten thousand knights and ten thousand Claymores clashed, the Claymores would surely be annihilated!
Kayal hadn't seen an Abyssal One, but according to Teresa, an experienced Claymore warrior, Priscilla was already in the super-Abyssal stage. So, after estimating the strength of an Abyssal One as one stage below Priscilla's, Kayal was confident he could use ten thousand ordinary infantry to encircle and kill an Abyssal One.
As for saying 'using more to fight less'?
Isn't that a joke!
Humans have always been at a disadvantage in nature: not as strong as a rhinoceros, arms not as developed as an ape, claws not as sharp as a tiger, teeth not as fierce as a lion. What they rely on is intelligence and tools!
While Kayal was lost in thought, the battle had already concluded.
Aside from grand battles involving tens of thousands, where could a skirmish be slow?
In just four minutes, Artoria, along with the titled knights, broke through the enemy's formation. With the formation shattered, the titled knights expressionlessly followed Artoria, crisscrossing to slaughter the remaining enemies.
Meanwhile, the knights on this side had already collapsed: anyone who saw a group of silver-haired girls in white leotards, with sweet smiles on their faces, sweetly smiling while dismembering heavily armored knights and their horses, would collapse.
The collapse spread like a chain reaction, as if one could see their teammates retreating and fleeing on the opposite side of the battlefield. The knights, who had been hoping for their teammates to come to their rescue, spun around like ants hit by raindrops under the double stimulus.
What followed happened naturally: the fleeing knights were incorporated, the culprits were found, then beheaded for public display, and their roots pulled out.
Even Grand Duke Andrei was secretly surprised by the power and wealth of these nobles – a total of sixteen marquises and twenty-two counts were involved. This was precisely why they could gather three thousand knights: fifty knights per person was roughly right. However, during the confiscation of their homes, they met resistance of two to three hundred or even one to two hundred, clearly indicating that even when united, these nobles harbored selfish motives: if Artoria were eliminated, it would obviously be an era of warlords, and the military forces they possessed would be their guarantee of power and wealth.
They were truly too clever!
Kayal couldn't help but sigh. If they had been a little dumber, and each kept fifty men for self-defense while all others attacked Artoria, even the strongest titled knights couldn't have won: all of them combined would have been at least twenty thousand!
Thankfully, they were too clever!
Kayal couldn't help but sigh internally.
They were truly too rich!
The national treasury, due to the knights' competition, had supported one hundred thousand people for half a month. Food supplies were almost depleted. Kayal had even planned to 'beat the autumn wind,' plundering all grain in Scotland except for a small amount of fodder.
But the grain and money confiscated from these nobles' homes were enough to feed a fifty-thousand-strong army for several years!
Old grain was rotting at the bottom, and the rats inside were as big as house cats!
Kayal calculated that these nobles had probably been accumulating grain for fifty years, but the accumulation of grain in the last decade had risen sharply. Connecting this with himself, Kayal understood what was happening—the time when Red Leaf Ridge's grain began to appear.
As mentioned earlier, Red Leaf Ridge's grain was plump, each kernel suitable for use as a seed, and the price was only two-thirds that of other grain-producing areas. Merchants naturally flocked to Red Leaf Ridge. Even after they obtained Red Leaf Ridge's seeds and started planting, Red Leaf Ridge's brand was already established. Under the brand effect, merchants coming to Camelot only did so to make a trip to Red Leaf Ridge for trade; where would they have time to visit other territories?
Therefore, Kayal's control over the actions of traveling merchants was correct. By controlling the bloodline, Kayal firmly held a monopolistic position—this was precisely why he could support three thousand magic horse knights, five thousand infantry, and still enable the King to do various things.
Faced with such immense wealth, Artoria's face was flushed. In her view, since this wealth was hard-earned, it should naturally be distributed among the people.
However, Kayal painstakingly persuaded her for two days before she abandoned this ridiculous idea.
One reason was that while unearned gains might give the populace an initial impression of the King, if their demands were not met during natural disasters, wars, or other reasons for lack of food and clothing, they would likely develop resentment and aversion. In reality, the government has no obligation to do so—much like economic subsidies in the United States.