Fate: The Forged Arthur Pendragon

Within two days, Suya needed to rally the routed army, stabilize their morale, reorganize the remnants, and complete their new structure.

Within five days, he had to break through the enemy's blockade, led by multiple heroic figures, from the Bern territory to the Buttercup Plains, and then proceed northeast to the Golden Curtain.

Achieving the latter could be accomplished by referencing Spitamnes' breakthrough tactics. However, Suya had no clear idea how to achieve the former. Still, there were methods he could refer to:

In 1396, during the last major Crusade of the Middle Ages, at the Battle of Nicopolis, the Hungarian Crown Prince Sigismund used 900 remnants as a seed to reorganize 23,000 routed troops and break through the Ottoman encirclement.

However, this method relied on Sigismund controlling water and food, holding a position of great moral authority, and being able to incite hatred among the soldiers. Suya, on the other hand, had neither food nor a means to provoke hatred in these soldiers.

Due to King Uther's various questionable actions in this world, Britannian soldiers had extremely low loyalty to Britannia. Everyone Suya had seen, without exception, had entered this battlefield simply to "survive." Going to war carried the risk of death, but not going to war might lead to even greater dangers than death.

The glory of the kingdom, the spirit of knighthood—these originally pure concepts had all been twisted into excuses for survival. It was impossible to motivate a group of people whose fundamental drive was merely "to live" through mere words.

After much thought, the only thing that could save them, ignite their fighting spirit, and win their wholehearted allegiance was faith!

Therefore, in the early stages of the standoff between the two armies, when Lucan proposed that all four of them attack simultaneously—Lucan providing a frontal diversion, Suya and Merlin offering support from the flanks, and Dagonet secretly assassinating the peak master-level spearman Hammond—Suya decisively rejected the proposal.

Without a second thought, he chose to face the enemy alone!

He killed Hammond, performed a simple identity confirmation ritual, temporarily established a mobile system of kingship with the royal banner, and finally, appointed Dagonet to reorganize the routed army, integrating over 27,000 scattered troops into ten new warbands.

After completing all of this, Suya silently turned and entered what had been Hammond's main tent. He immediately ordered Dagonet to summon Lucan and Merlin to proceed with their pre-arranged plans.

Then, exhausted and in pain, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

At the same time, he heard the sound of dice clicking against a skull.

[Talent: Legendary Heart, triggered!]

[You have successfully held a medium-scale scamming ritual.]

[Your 'King (Ex)' path progress (23854/1000), progress met, ritual conditions met—]

[You have gained a new D-rank class: Instigator.]

[You have gained a class-exclusive conceptual armament: Cards of False Magic (D).]

[Specialty: Scammer's Aura, promoted to: Instigator's Aura (D).]

[Your oration, deception, negotiation, and observation abilities receive additional bonuses.]

[Exceeding the set objective, the remaining legendary bonus from class promotion has been converted into a class-exclusive item.]

[You have additionally gained a one-time Noble Phantasm: Miracle of Divine Performance (C+).]

[Holding a large-scale instigation ritual, instigating ten thousand people to act with you (0/10000) will grant the next class in the path: Arsonist (C), and the class-exclusive inherent ability: Fire Thief.]

On the second day after the breakthrough plan was implemented, at 6 PM, Suya slowly opened his eyes to see the pointed fabric ceiling of a tent. His mind was muddled, like a rusty, creaking machine. It took him a while to remember that he had just ambushed and killed a powerful peak master-level enemy with a Noble Phantasm earlier that day.

In this world, a "master" was someone who possessed and could skillfully use Qi. After their basic attributes reached the human limit of E-rank, one of their abilities would break through to the superhuman D- rank. A "peak master" had at least two abilities reaching D-rank.

A D-rank attribute, according to Merlin and others, was roughly eight to ten times the human limit. Hammond, whom he had killed, was such a peak master-level powerhouse.

Thinking of this, Suya began to recall the details of the battle, reflecting on his shortcomings and trying to simulate what he could have achieved against such an opponent without a Noble Phantasm.

At that moment, a pale arm pushed aside the tent flap. Merlin entered the tent, followed by four soldiers in half-armor, carrying a massive, half-cooked black dog on two poles.

Merlin looked at the awakened Suya and chuckled, "I figured you'd be awake by now. How do you feel?"

Upon hearing this, Suya looked down at his body. His body was wrapped in layers of blood-soaked white bandages, mostly from burns. This was the cost of sacrificing part of the Noble Phantasm's self-protection to increase accuracy when hitting Hammond. The chainmail lining of his armor had heated up and melted, scalding his skin. Additionally, the impact of breaking the sound barrier had reverberated, injuring his hands. The pain was secondary; his hands were still somewhat numb, and bending his fingers had become quite difficult.

Watching the soldiers set down the half-cooked black dog and leave the tent, Suya's face fell, and he looked at Merlin with a distraught expression, saying, "Do I look like I'm fine!?"

"And you're laughing! Don't you have any healing magic? Help me out!"

Merlin shook her head. "No, I'm not good at healing magic. But you, you clearly have the Pendragon family's Magic Crest, right? Why didn't you use it to heal yourself?"

The Pendragon family's Magic Crest... While a family-inherited crest magic in an era that used magic cores sounded a bit strange, this particular magic was actually quite high-ranking. Unlike traditional family crest magic, this was a practical magic, not one seeking the root. It involved using [Third True Magic: Soul Materialization] as a basis to perform necromancy and refine one's soul into the shape of a scabbard, leveraging the power of Avalon, the unreachable ideal land for countless Britannian kings. This granted abilities close to conceptual levels, such as instant healing, immortality, extended lifespan, and invincible barriers. In terms of practicality, this magic seemed very promising, and its appeal to generations of Britannian monarchs seeking longevity was self-evident.

However, Suya struggled to raise his right hand, activating the magic power within him, causing 1440 crimson magic circuits to light up on his skin. As Merlin had suggested, he activated the crest, attempting to heal himself.

However, in the next moment—

"Pfft!"

Suya suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. As blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, the bandages wrapped around his body rapidly turned red with blood. The healing ability gained from the crest itself clashed with the characteristics of Suya's awakened Quack Doctor class. The combination of this class and magic, while equating attack with healing, healing with failure, and failure with severe injury—even allowing him to cross several tiers and inflict severe injury on enemies who should otherwise be immune—also restricted Suya from healing himself.

Seeing this, Merlin's pupils constricted slightly, and her brow furrowed. "So that's it... Insufficient crest compatibility causes magic to rampage?"

"There's a snot-nosed kid in the capital who could solve this problem... But that kid named Galahad seems to have bigger problems than you. I don't even know if he's still alive."

She shook her head, pulled out a dagger, cut some of the black dog meat from the rack, and placed it on a plate. She sat by Suya's bed, handed him the plate, and looked at him sympathetically, clucking, "My King, you'll just have to tough it out with your physique now."

"Since it's come to this, eat first."

"In five hours, according to your plan, we'll begin the breakthrough."

D-rank attributes:

Strength manifests as instantaneous burst: 0.3 * 8 = 2.4 tons (normal state around 1.5 tons).Agility manifests as: 80 meters per second (twice the speed of a cheetah, able to exceed human eye capture speed at close range), vertical jump of 5 meters.Endurance manifests as: Being struck in the face by a high-speed train traveling at full speed; though near death, still able to barely get up.