The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations - Chapter 279

Chapter 279: Live Together, Die Together (2)

The envoy, oblivious to the situation, intoxicated by his sense of accomplishment, had rushed back to report his success.

Now, he was clinging to Gillian’s legs, pleading desperately.

“P-Please spare me! If I return without taking you today, I’m as good as dead. Didn’t you say you’d surrender? Didn’t I give you enough time?”

“I said I’d do it if everyone agreed. Give me another week, and it’ll be done.”

No matter how much the envoy begged, Gillian remained unmoved.

In the end, the envoy returned with a pale, stricken face to make his report.

“There… there are still some who haven’t been persuaded. They’re asking for just one more week.”

Harold fixed the envoy with a murderous glare. He wasn’t a fool. Judging by the envoy’s reaction and the time that had elapsed, he quickly pieced together the reality of the situation.

Schwing.

Harold drew his sword and growled.

“Because of your incompetent blustering, I’ve been humiliated by those wretched fools once again.”

Harold prided himself on his lofty honor and dignity. But now, faced with such an affront, the fury he’d felt when dealing with Ghislain surged anew.

The envoy fell to his knees, prostrating himself as he pleaded.

“P-Please! Spare me! I swear I will persuade them this time!”

“Persuade them? You’ve already wasted a week of precious time and disgraced my name. And now you want another chance?”

“Y-Yes! This time, for sure—”

“Silence!”

Thud!

Harold, a knight of significant skill, brought his sword down in a flash of fury. The envoy’s head, pressed against the ground, burst apart in an instant.

But Harold’s rage wasn’t sated. He continued to mutilate the envoy’s lifeless body.

“You pathetic fool!”

Thud!

“You couldn’t even sway those lowly scum!”

Thud!

“Me! Humiliated by Ghislain and his underlings! How much longer must I endure such disgrace?!”

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Harold’s face contorted into a demonic visage as he hacked away at the corpse. No one dared to stop him, knowing all too well that the rage and anxiety he had bottled up were now erupting uncontrollably.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Haah…”

Only when the body was rendered completely unrecognizable did Harold stop, wiping his brow and running a hand through his disheveled hair. Unlike his usual poised and dignified demeanor, he now looked utterly undone.

As he glared at the mutilated remains before him, a renewed murderous intent gleamed in Harold’s eyes.

This time, it wasn’t directed at the envoy but at the Fenris forces barricaded within the fortress.

“Those despicable wretches dare to try such a petty ploy…”

It wasn’t Harold’s fault. While he had harbored preconceived notions, he’d had no choice but to rely on the envoy’s report since he hadn’t met the Fenris forces directly.

The envoy, who had seemed competent and confident, had been convincing enough for Harold to give them time.

But in the end, the persuasion had failed. To Harold, it felt like those lowly scum had toyed with him and wasted his precious time. The thought was unbearable.

By now, the Fenris forces had likely recovered their strength and patched up their wounds.

Clang.

Harold cast aside his sword and turned his sharp gaze toward his adjutant.

“Destroy that fortress completely. Immediately.”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

“And capture every single one of them. I want their bodies torn limb from limb to limb.”

Harold now resolved to ensure a definitive victory, even if it took time. He planned to use his overwhelming military advantage to crush the fortress entirely.

This wasn’t merely about capturing Ghislain. It was also about instilling fear in those lowly and insolent fools who had dared to mock him.

Grinding his teeth, Harold continued.

“I’m giving you three days. Relay this to Willow: they may not be able to completely block magical assaults, so kill as many as you can.”

Following Harold’s furious orders, the trebuchets and mages were mobilized once again. They brought along battering rams, though there was no intention of using them.

There was no need to breach the narrow gate and conduct a piecemeal attack. The plan was simple: collapse the walls and surround the fortress from all sides.

Harold intended to methodically leverage the army’s superiority to corner and pressure the Fenris forces.

“Fire!”

At the command of the Desmond army’s officers, the assault began.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

Magic spells launched by mages and massive boulders hurled by trebuchets pounded relentlessly against the fortress walls.

The Fenris forces immediately responded, preparing for battle.

“Fall back!”

At Gillian’s shout, the soldiers quickly descended from the walls. Under such a relentless bombardment, staying atop the walls was meaningless.

There was no way to retaliate, and anyone lingering too close was bound to be killed.

Taking a deep breath, Gillian glared at the Desmond forces.

“Well, this might actually work in our favor.”

The enemies appeared to be planning to destroy the fortress to minimize their own losses. However, Gillian’s goal wasn’t to defend the fortress itself. The top priority was to stall for time and hinder the enemy’s progress.

“At least we can avoid direct combat for now.”

After stalling the envoy for a week, they were buying even more time until the walls collapsed. This situation was unquestionably favorable.

But there was one significant problem.

A monster capable of attacking their allies within the fortress was present in the enemy’s ranks.

Bwooong!

High in the air, Willow hovered and cast his magic while looking down at the fortress.

Boom! Boom! BOOM!

Countless rocks rained down from the sky, wreaking havoc even inside the fortress.

“Damn it! That bastard’s back again!”

“Shit! If Vanessa were here, you’d already be dead!”

“Shut up, you moron!”

The Fenris soldiers cursed and scrambled in confusion to dodge the attacks. Watching this, Willow smirked derisively.

“Vermin. Why waste time trying to negotiate with such creatures?”

The sight of these insignificant beings daring to act as though they could fight was laughable. Although he didn’t oppose Harold’s orders to negotiate, Willow found it personally distasteful.

Such pathetic creatures didn’t deserve negotiation. They should have been annihilated from the start.

It was unfortunate they hadn’t ended the battle during the last skirmish. At that time, Gillian and Baron Hutton had managed to match the enemy forces, preventing Willow from intervening effectively.

But today was different. Casting magic was far easier without allies nearby to worry about.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

As Willow’s magic devastated the interior of the fortress, he carefully observed the surrounding situation. The catapults and mages were gradually wearing down the outer walls with their attacks.

“Let the others handle the rest. I’ll just kill a few of these pests myself.”

At that moment, Willow noticed something strange: several of his spells targeting the interior of the fortress had disappeared.

It was happening near knights clad in black armor.

Thanks to the spells vanishing, the soldiers near those knights were unharmed. The boulders continued to destroy the fortress’s buildings and supplies, but the knights and their surroundings remained intact.

“Hmm, interesting. They’ve prepared countermeasures against magical attacks. They don’t seem to be mages, so how are they doing it? Are they carrying artifacts? It’s frustrating not being able to see them up close.”

As a mage, Willow was intrigued by the situation. Yet, he couldn’t even fathom that the knights’ armor itself might all be artifacts.

After all, who would imagine that a single knight could be wearing armor worth several years of a mid-tier estate’s budget?

Attempting to rationalize within the bounds of his own understanding, Willow could only arrive at incomplete answers.

Grinding his teeth at the leisurely spectacle of Willow observing them, Gillian thought to himself:

‘If it weren’t for that bastard, we could hold out longer.’

Mages like Willow were always a problem. High-circle mages, in particular, could easily tilt the tide of battle in their favor.

Their sheer destructive power and wide-range attacks made them incredibly difficult to deal with.

Especially when they were stationed far away, protected by their own forces.

If the Fenris forces had a mage of their own, they could have countered Willow’s magic to hold him at bay. Unfortunately, they had no such luck.

“Fire!” Gillian shouted.

At his command, the soldiers released a volley of arrows. Nearly a thousand arrows soared toward Willow, covering the sky where he hovered.

But Willow merely scoffed at the sight.

“Pathetic.”

Tat-tat-tat-tat!

The arrows couldn’t penetrate the shield surrounding Willow. It was laughable to think that ordinary soldiers’ attacks could break through the defenses of a 6th-circle mage.

Mocking the Fenris forces to his heart’s content, Willow began gathering mana into his hands once more.

“Even watching this is getting boring. I’ll kill everything unusual and search for the rest later. Let’s see you try to block this one.”

Large-scale area spells naturally dispersed power across a wide range, reducing the impact of individual attacks.

But what if all the mana was concentrated into a single, powerful spell? Could their feeble tools withstand even that?

Irritated by the partial success of blocking his spells in the past few days, Willow poured all his mana into this attack.

Kwakkkkkkk!

Willow began gathering a powerful surge of electricity in one hand.

Normally, he would have avoided using such a mana-intensive spell. However, in the safe conditions provided by his allies’ protection, there was no need to hold back.

Crack! Crackle! Crash!

Noticing the immense mana concentrating at a single point, Gillian shouted urgently.

“Throw the spears!”

Swoosh!

Knights hurled their mana-infused spears with all their might.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

“Oh?”

Willow’s eyes widened in mild surprise at the formidable attack.

Each time the spears struck, his shield’s magic wavered significantly, weakening its durability. The attacks carried enough destructive force to visibly impact the shield.

“Are all of them truly mid-level knights or higher?”

To inflict this level of damage on his shield, crafted by a 6th-circle mage, they had to be at least that strong. Willow found himself impressed by Fenris’s hidden strength.

His gaze sharpened.

“As the Count commanded, I must eliminate as many as possible.”

The Fenris forces had all retreated into the fortress. The attacks from outside the walls couldn’t kill anyone. The more enemies he killed now, the fewer casualties his allies would face in direct combat.

Crackle! Zzzzt!

The electricity gathered in Willow’s hand grew far more intense, dwarfing its initial power.

“Now, let’s see…”

As Willow scanned the inside of the fortress, contemplating his target, a loud whistling sound caught his attention.

Whoosh!

“Hmm?”

A massive axe was hurtling toward him at a terrifying speed. For a brief moment, the thought crossed his mind that this could kill him if it hit.

“How dare you!”

With a scowl, Willow discharged his electricity toward the source of the attack, intending to annihilate the insolent foe.

Boom!

As the blue lightning was released, the axe struck Willow’s shield with immense force.

A deafening explosion rocked the battlefield.

“Arghhh!”

Willow clutched his left shoulder and screamed in agony.

His shield had shattered, and his left arm had been severed, vanishing along with the axe.

Willow plummeted to the ground, blood gushing from his wounds. If not for the Desmond knights and mages waiting below to catch him, his body would have been smashed to pieces.

“Ughhhhhh!”

The once-arrogant Willow, who had lived a life of luxury, was utterly overwhelmed by this unprecedented pain.

At that moment, he couldn’t think of magic, war, orders, or anything else.

“Hurry! Get Lord Willow to the rear!”

A 6th-circle mage was a valuable asset. Everyone nearby rushed to carry Willow to safety within their lines.

Top-tier potions were poured onto his wounds, and medics swarmed around him, frantically treating his mangled shoulder.

Inside the fortress, the Fenris forces stared at Gillian in stunned silence.

Sizzle!

Gillian’s condition was far from normal. Having taken Willow’s 6th-circle lightning spell head-on, his entire body was steaming.

“Urgh…”

Unable to endure any longer, Gillian collapsed to his knees.

Blisters covered his body, and the air was thick with the acrid smell of burning flesh.

“Instructor!”

Knights rushed to support Gillian, but he waved them off, struggling to rise on his own.

‘He’s strong…’

Indeed, the high-circle mage was formidable. Seeing the mana gathering, Gillian had immediately acted to divert Willow’s focus.

Fearing that the knights and soldiers might suffer catastrophic losses, he had mustered all his remaining mana to hurl the axe.

At the same time, he had stepped forward to block the incoming magic with his own body. His chest wound from Baron Hutton hadn’t yet healed, and he had narrowly escaped death.

If the dispels triggered by the knights’ armor hadn’t weakened the spell, he might not have survived.

“Phew…”

Gillian’s body was in shambles. With a gaping wound from Baron Hutton and injuries from Willow’s magic, even standing upright was a struggle.

Yet his eyes still burned fiercely, a testament to his unwavering determination to hinder the enemy.

The surrounding knights couldn’t bring themselves to say anything.

“Fall back a little farther. Until the walls collapse completely, there’s nothing we can do.”

Boom! Bang! Crash!

The enemy’s attacks were relentless. Even inside the fortress, occasional spells and projectiles smashed into buildings and supplies.

The few remaining weapons capable of counterattacking had been destroyed in the initial battle.

The Fenris forces retreated slightly and took time to reorganize.

Gillian also took a moment to rest, his body now entirely wrapped in bandages.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Desmond’s army continued its assault day and night. The ceaseless noise was so loud it made rest nearly impossible.

‘Hold out just a little longer…’

Gillian stared at the walls with a desperate hope. The longer the walls held, the more time they could buy.

Against such overwhelming forces, all he could do was keep fighting and endure.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

By the third day, the top of the fortress walls had finally crumbled.

Even so, it was still difficult for the soldiers to breach. Harold frowned and muttered to himself.

“It’s absurdly sturdy. It wasn’t this strong under Count Cabaldi’s rule. How much reinforcement did they add?”

Despite three days of relentless, open assault, the walls hadn’t collapsed entirely.

Ghislain’s first command during the fortress expansion had been to prioritize durability. Stonehaven, a critical stronghold, was reinforced to be far sturdier than other fortresses.

Harold clicked his tongue. The unexpected delay was frustrating.

“Keep up the attack without pause.”

Although he considered sending in troops now that the walls were lowered, Harold quickly dismissed the idea. It would likely result in a repeat of the disastrous first battle.

While durable, the fortress wasn’t invincible. The Desmond forces continued their unrelenting bombardment.

Boom!

Finally, one section collapsed, triggering structural issues in other areas.

After several more days of continuous attacks, the fortress was reduced to a crumbling, grotesque ruin. It had held longer than expected but had ultimately succumbed.

With a ferocious expression, Harold wasted no time issuing his command.

“All forces, seize the fortress immediately!”