The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations

Chapter 280: Chapter 279: Living Together, Dying Together (2)



The envoy, oblivious to the truth, reported his "success" with pride.

Now, he clung to Gillian's legs, begging desperately.

"Please, please spare me. If I can't bring you with me today, I'm as good as dead. Didn't you say you would surrender? Haven't I given you enough time?"

"I said I'd surrender once I convinced everyone. Give me another week."

No matter how much the envoy pleaded, Gillian remained steadfast.

In the end, the envoy returned, his face pale, and reported.

"Ah, there are still a few who haven't been convinced... They're asking for one more week."

Harold glared at the envoy with murderous eyes. He was no fool. Judging from the envoy's reaction and the time that had passed, he grasped the situation.

Swish.

Drawing his sword, Harold growled.

"Because of your foolishness, I've been mocked by those wretched scum again."

Honor and dignity were Harold's pride. The humiliation he suffered reignited the fury he'd previously felt when Ghislain had insulted him.

The envoy fell to the ground, prostrating himself as he begged.

"P-please spare me! I swear, I'll convince them... I'll convince them this time!"

"Convince them? After wasting a whole week of precious time and tarnishing my name, you dare say that?"

"Y-yes! This time, I'll—"

"Silence!"

Thud!

Harold, a high-level knight himself, brought his sword down with all his fury, instantly crushing the envoy's skull as he prostrated.

Even then, Harold's rage wasn't satisfied, and he continued to slash the envoy's body. "You pathetic fool!"

Thud!

"Unable to persuade even those lowly scum!"

Thud!

"And I! I have to endure such humiliation at the hands of Ghislain and his wretched underlings!"

Thud! Thud! Thud!

No one dared stop Harold as he mutilated the corpse with a face twisted in rage.

Everyone understood that his pent-up anger and the urgency of the situation had exploded uncontrollably.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

"Whew..."

By the time the body was reduced to a pulp, Harold finally stopped, running a hand through his disheveled hair.

For someone who always presented himself as dignified and composed, he looked utterly disheveled now.

Staring at the mangled corpse before him, Harold's eyes reignited with killing intent.

But this time, the killing intent was directed not at the envoy, but at the Fenris forces holed up in the fortress.

"Those wretched fools dare to play their petty tricks..."

It wasn't Harold's fault. While he had his prejudices, he hadn't met them personally and had to rely on the envoy's report.

The envoy had seemed competent and confident, so Harold had granted him the time he requested.

But the effort to persuade them had ultimately failed. The thought that those lowly scum had mocked him and wasted valuable time was unbearable.

In the meantime, the Fenris forces must have recovered their strength and tended to their wounds.

Clang.

Throwing his sword aside, Harold glared at his adjutant.

"Destroy that fortress entirely, right now."

"U-understood."

"And capture every one of them alive. Tear them limb from limb."

Now, the only option left was to take their time and ensure a decisive victory. He planned to crush the fortress completely, leveraging his overwhelming advantage in strength.

Not only was it necessary to capture Ghislain, but it was also a way to instill fear in those insolent, lowborn fools who dared to mock him.

Grinding his teeth, Harold continued.

"You have three days. Send word to Willow. Those wretches won't be able to block magic attacks completely. Kill every one of them you can."

Following Harold's enraged orders, the catapults and mages were mobilized once again. While battering rams were also brought, they weren't used.

There was no need to breach the narrow gates for a staggered assault. They planned to demolish the walls and attack from all sides, leveraging their superior numbers.

Calmly exploiting the advantage of their overwhelming force, they aimed to press the Fenris forces to the limit.

"Fire!"

At the shout of Desmond's commanders, the attack began.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

Magic spells from the mages and massive stones launched by the catapults relentlessly hammered the fortress walls.

As soon as the Fenris forces saw the enemy's movements, they immediately prepared for

battle.

"Fall back!"

At Gillian's shout, everyone scrambled to get off the walls. Remaining on the walls during such a massive assault was pointless.

They couldn't counterattack anyway, and staying nearby would only get them killed.

Gillian let out a deep breath as he glared at the Desmond forces.

"At least this is good."

The enemy seemed to plan to destroy the fortress to minimize their own casualties. However, Gillian's goal wasn't to defend the fortress-it was to stall for time and delay the enemy.

"For now, we can avoid direct combat."

They had already bought a week by dragging things out with the envoy. Now, they could buy even more time before the walls came down. This situation was welcome.

The only problem was...

There was a monster in the enemy camp that was capable of attacking them inside the

fortress.

Bwooong!

Hovering high in the air, Willow looked down at the fortress and began casting magic.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Countless boulders rained from the sky, devastating the interior of the fortress.

"Damn it! That bastard's back!"

"Shit! If Vanessa were here, you'd be dead!"

"Shut up, you idiot!"

As the Fenris forces dodged and cursed, Willow smirked in amusement.

"Pathetic worms. Why waste time trying to negotiate with such scum?"

The sight of those lowly fools acting so insolently despite being just a bit strong irritated him. Though he hadn't opposed Harold's plan to persuade them, he had secretly disliked the idea.

Such worms didn't deserve negotiation. From the start, he should have wiped them out

completely.

It was regrettable he hadn't finished them off in the earlier battle. Back then, Gillian and Baron Hutton had been evenly matched, making it impossible for him to intervene. But today was different. It was much easier to use magic without having allies nearby.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

As Willow continued to obliterate the inside of the fortress with his magic, he kept a close eye

on the situation. The walls, already battered by the catapults and mages, were beginning to crumble from the outside.

"Leave the other areas to themselves. Let's see how many of these worms I can squash."

But then, he noticed something unusual. Some of the spells he cast inside the fortress had

disappeared.

It was near the knights clad in black armor.

Thanks to the magic disappearing, the soldiers near the knights remained unscathed. The boulders merely destroyed the buildings and supplies within the fortress. "Hmm, interesting. They seem to have prepared countermeasures against magic attacks. They don't seem to be mages, so how are they doing it? Are they carrying artifacts? It's frustrating not to see up close."

As a mage, Willow's curiosity about the situation grew. However, even he couldn't imagine that all the Fenris knights' armor were artifacts.

Who would think that one knight was wearing armor worth the annual budget of a small

estate?

Trying to reason within his own logic, Willow couldn't arrive at the correct answer, though he

came close.

Watching Willow leisurely observe from above, Gillian ground his teeth.

'If only it weren't for that bastard, we could hold out even longer.'

It's always mages like him that are the problem. Especially high-circle mages, who could tilt

the battlefield in their favor.

Their overwhelming destructive power and wide-range attacks made them exceedingly difficult to deal with.

Particularly when they were far away and protected by their allies.

If they had their own mage, they could have countered and disrupted the enemy's magic.

Unfortunately, they had no mage in their ranks.

"Fire!"

At Gillian's command, the soldiers released their arrows. Nearly a thousand arrows soared

through the air, blanketing Willow's location.

But Willow merely sneered at the incoming arrows.

"Pathetic."

Tat-tat-tat-tat!

The arrows failed to penetrate Willow's shield. There was no way ordinary soldiers' attacks

could pierce the magic of a 6th-circle mage.

Mocking the Fenris forces to his heart's content, Willow began gathering mana in his hands

again.

"This is getting boring. I'll kill the curious ones and figure it out later. Let's see you block this

one."

Large-scale area magic naturally loses power in individual attacks.

But what about a spell that concentrates all its mana into a single, powerful point? Could

those insignificant tools block it then?

His pride was slightly wounded by the fact that some of his magic had been neutralized, both

a few days ago and now. Enraged, he poured an enormous amount of mana into his spell.

Crackle!

Powerful lightning energy began surging around one of Willow's hands. Normally, he wouldn't use a spell that consumed such an immense amount of mana. But in

the safety of his position, shielded by his allies, there was no reason to hold back.

Crack-crack! Crackle!

Noticing the overwhelming mana concentrating in one spot, Gillian shouted.

"Throw your spears!"

Swishhh!

The knights hurled their mana-infused spears with all their might.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Oh?"

Willow's eyes widened at the surprisingly strong attack.

Every time the spears struck his shield, its magic power fluctuated significantly, weakening

its integrity. Each attack carried tremendous destructive force.

"All of them must be at least mid-level knights, if not higher."

To deal this level of damage to a 6th-circle mage's shield, they would need to be at least that

strong. Willow was newly impressed by Fenris' hidden strength.

But soon, his gaze sharpened.

"As the Count said, I must kill as many of them as possible."

The Fenris forces were all hiding within the fortress. No one could be killed by the current

long-range attacks outside the walls. It was up to him to reduce their numbers now to minimize allied casualties in a direct assault later.

Crackle!

The lightning energy concentrated in Willow's hand grew even larger, far surpassing its

initial intensity.

"Let's see how this goes."

As Willow casually scanned the interior of the fortress, searching for a target to attack-

Whoosh!

"Hmm?"

A massive axe came hurtling toward him at a terrifying speed. For a brief moment, he thought

he might die if it hit.

"How dare you!"

Frowning deeply, he unleashed his lightning attack in the direction the axe had come from,

intending to kill the insolent attacker.

Boom!

As the blue lightning burst forth, the axe struck Willow's shield.

The resulting explosion was deafening, as if the world itself had shattered.

"Arghhh!"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Willow screamed, clutching his left shoulder.

His shield was destroyed, and his left arm was gone, severed along with the axe.

Bleeding profusely, Willow plummeted to the ground. If the Desmond knights and mages waiting below hadn't caught him, his body would have been shattered on impact.

"Ahhhhhh!"

For the first time in his life, Willow, who had lived in luxury and elegance, experienced pain so

intense that he couldn't think straight.

In that moment, neither magic, war, nor orders crossed his mind.

"Quick, get Lord Willow to the rear!"

A 6th-circle mage was a precious asset. Everyone nearby rushed to move Willow safely back to

the camp.

They poured the highest-grade potions over him, and medics frantically worked to treat his

shoulder.

Inside the fortress, the Fenris forces all stared at Gillian with blank expressions.

Hissss.

Gillian's condition was far from normal. Having taken the brunt of a 6th-circle lightning

spell, steam rose from his entire body.

"Ugh..."

Unable to hold out any longer, Gillian collapsed to his knees.

His body was covered in burns, with blisters bubbling up all over. The stench of burnt flesh

filled the air.

"Instructor!"

The knights rushed to support Gillian, but he waved them off and struggled to rise under his

own power.

'He's strong, I'll give him that.'

He truly lived up to the title of high-circle mage. Seeing the enormous mana gathering,

Gillian had intentionally drawn its focus onto himself.

Fearing that the knights and soldiers would suffer heavy casualties, he had poured every

ounce of his mana into throwing the axe.

At the same time, he had stepped forward to absorb the magic attack with his body. If the

dispel magic embedded in the knights' armor hadn't weakened the spell, he might have died

outright.

"Hah..."

Gillian's body was in tatters. Between the wound in his chest inflicted by Baron Hutton and

the damage from Willow's spell, he could barely stand upright.

Yet, his eyes still burned fiercely, filled with a will to fight and hold the enemy back no matter

what.

The knights around him, seeing his determination, couldn't bring themselves to say

anything.

"Fall back a little further. There's nothing we can do until the walls completely collapse."

Boom! Crash! Boom!

The enemy's assault was relentless. Magic and boulders occasionally rained down inside the

fortress, destroying buildings and supplies.

Their weapons for counter attacking were already few, and most had been destroyed in the

first engagement.

The Fenris forces retreated further and took time to reorganize.

Gillian, too, began tending to his wounds and resting. His body was now covered in bandages

from head to toe.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Desmond forces' attacks continued day and night, the constant noise making it

impossible to sleep.

'Just hold out a little longer...'

With a desperate heart, Gillian stared at the walls. The longer they held, the more time they

could

buy.

Against such overwhelming numbers, all he could do was endure and fight as long as possible.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

After three days, the upper sections of the walls had completely collapsed.

Still, it wasn't enough for the enemy soldiers to enter easily. Harold scowled as he muttered

to himself.

"Stubborn walls. They weren't this strong when Count Cabaldi ruled. Just how much reinforcement has been done?"

Despite launching unrelenting attacks for three days without facing counterattacks, the walls

still hadn't fully crumbled.

When fortifying the fortress, Ghislain's first command had been to maximize durability.

Major fortresses like Stonehaven were made far sturdier than others. Clicking his tongue, Harold realized that time was slipping away in an unexpected area.

"Keep firing. Don't stop."

He briefly considered sending in his troops now that the walls had been lowered, but he

quickly dismissed the idea. It would only result in a battle like the first day.

Though sturdy, the fortress wasn't indestructible. The Desmond forces continued their unceasing assault on the walls.

Boom!

Finally, one section collapsed, and cracks began forming in other areas. After several more days of relentless attacks, the fortress was left in ruins, its walls crumbling

in multiple places. It had held out longer than expected, but its collapse was inevitable.

With a savage expression, Harold gave the command without delay.

"All troops, storm the fortress immediately."

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