"My meow-ney is on the 3rd squad."
Lily watched two teams clash in a narrow alleyway. Konrad kept an eye on them all, using fake trails to lure them towards each other—or steer them away.
"You should be rooting for the other one," he muttered, noting "they're your fresh recruits."
"Oh well, but look at that brute," she pointed at the knight leading her new favorites.
The man did not hesitate, swinging his sword with a heft Konrad had only seen from Welf so far. He was also leading his squad despite the tribals outnumbering the knights in it two to one.
"Oof, he took that head-on," the girl scowled, hugging her narrow waist as if feeling the impact.
If they didn't fight with training weapons, that poor tribesman would've been all but cut in half.
Which raised Lily's next question.
"What happens if one team knocks the other out and wants to dissect them?"
Well, of course, Konrad had an emergency plan for that.
"If someone's too injured to fight on or run, the safeguards kick in," he said. "He'll turn invisible, and I'll shift the earth to bury him—creating a primitive golem to take his place."
"Bury him?" The demoness scoffed. "And you can do golems now?"
Her raised eyebrow and the doubt hurt Konrad more than a physical punch.
Not that it wasn't deserved.
"It's a pile of dirt that mimics walking before it collapses," he clarified. "An illusion on top can sell the effect pretty well. And they can wonder about what happened with the zombie later."
Thanks to the brutish champion, Lily could see that safeguard in action soon.
He cut down a tribesman and a knight on the enemy team while his men protected his flanks. There were no gaps to exploit under his leadership, and he even led the fighting himself.
"That's Count Rolalt's champion," Konrad noted as he realized. "I never got to fight him."
And for the love of the spirits, he was glad he missed that opportunity.
The man was ruthless, quick, and strong.
To the other team's credit, they tried to defend their fallen comrades—
Or the illusion-painted golems that took over for them.
But against the overwhelming strength of the 3rd squad, they had to retreat soon.
"I guess I'll have to disqualify them before they're slaughtered," he mumbled. "Can you take care of the wounded? My illusions can lead you there—and lead out the rest of them."
"Ugh, you want me to work?"
Lily rolled her eyes, scanning the other screens before moving.
"You're saying you didn't want to involve Maple in this, but you're aware she has healing magic, too?" she accused him. Konrad could only scratch his head.
"Sometimes I can't tell if you want me to keep her around or not."
The demoness didn't reply, only barking out a 'whatever' before disappearing in his maze.
"Well, that's one team down," Konrad muttered to himself, back at his floating screens.
His men-at-arms adapted faster than he had expected, causing him no small headaches.
Even if they kept their squads separate, they all converged around the same areas.
He had to throw in all his tricks to keep them apart, because he didn't prepare for three-way fights. If a third party appeared, they would've seen two groups of zombies clashing.
A limitation of his complex setup, but this was the best he could do in a day.
And Lily said, it was already a waste of time and effort—
Well, who was laughing now? Things have turned out well so far.
"Yeah, it's quite entertaining," the girl admitted.
She appeared with two knocked-down warriors on her narrow shoulders. Demoness or not, Konrad could never get used to her inhumane strength and speed. Or her mind-reading ability.
"But now that these two are out, and their buddies are on their way—they'll figure it out."
"Well, that much is obvious," Konrad nodded, inspecting the wounded. "But they lost anyway."
They were unconscious, so he didn't have to give them any explanation yet.
It only took a few seconds for his number one haremette to mend a broken arm and stop a bleeding, though. He wanted to learn her spells so bad—along with many more.
"So? You'll kick them out now?" Lily inquired with genuine curiosity, but not a hint of regret.
"No?" The question surprised Konrad. "They fought well and worked together. They lost, but they didn't fail. I can train them to fight better, but I couldn't drill them on growing a spine."
The ginger smirked, her freckles dancing on her pretty face.
"I see. You're starting to get your priorities right," she noted, laying the two soldiers down.
"The main goal of this exercise was to force them to work together and find potential leaders or weak links." Konrad continued. "So far, they exceeded my expectations."
Indeed, many fights broke out, and his men-at-arms never ran from them.
They didn't leave any wounded behind, whether they were tribals or knights. Their formations tightened. Interactions became smoother. And they stayed determined to find the lost child.
He felt a little bad for tricking them with such a thing, but it worked, and they made him proud.
"Look, it's the 6th squad against Welf over there," Konrad pointed at a screen.
"They won't stand a chance," Lily claimed with a smirk as the first beaten party—or what remained of it—returned on foot.
They could now also see the screens, their magic circuits disabled for good.
Recognizing their 'fallen' comrades, they seemed relieved.
But Konrad still had to give them a long explanation about what had happened to them.
By the time he finished, so did Welf's team with the 6th squad.
It wasn't as one-sided as Konrad expected the outcome to be.
They took down Welf's knight-sergeant, forcing the blacksmith to take over for him.
He kept a tight formation around the wounded, chasing off the enemy before recovering.
"Liliske, can you go and heal him on the spot?" Konrad asked. "I don't want to pull out their team yet. The other squad will soon return, though. He sure gave them a bloody nose."
"Once a brute, always a brute," the demoness said with a smirk.
Whether she denied being siblings with the tribesman, she was still proud of his victory.
The others watched the screens with mouths agape—the reaction Konrad had expected.
"T-this is bossman's magic?" one muttered, and at least they didn't seem mad about his trickery.
"It's all an illusion," he explained. "The usual drills didn't seem to forge you together at all."
But the danger—even if it wasn't real—worked wonders.
Apart from some rare instances, knights and tribesmen fought side-by-side as age-old comrades. Winning or losing, they worked together, and he could single out the outliers fast.
Within the first hour, only one squad had to face punishment.
Some champions thought they stood above the rest of their team and tried to sacrifice them. Konrad needed no such cowards or any kind of racism to take root in his men-at-arms.
He lured them to the edge of the maze, where he could confront the men by himself.
Apart from that isolated case, one-third of the squads had to withdraw because of injuries.
They worked Lily to the bone—and often still refused to give up.
The rest kept fighting well into the afternoon, unyielding despite their exhaustion.
Whatever their motivation was, his battle royale raced towards a spectacular end.