The Regressed Mercenary's Machinations-Chapter 279: Live Together, Die Together (2)

The emissary, oblivious to the truth, had confidently reported his “success” in persuading Gillian. Now, clinging to Gillian’s leg, he pleaded desperately.

“Please... spare me. If I don’t bring you back today, I’m as good as dead. Didn’t you say you’d surrender? Haven’t we given you enough time?”

“I said I’d do it once everyone was convinced. Give us another week.”

No matter how much the emissary begged, Gillian remained unmoved. In the end, the emissary returned to report with a pale, trembling face.

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“They... They said they still need another week. Just one more week.”

Harold’s eyes filled with a cold fury as he glared at the emissary. He wasn’t a fool. Judging by the time wasted and the emissary’s reactions, he quickly understood the situation.

With a sharp scrape, he unsheathed his sword, growling in anger.

“Because of your premature boasting, I’ve been humiliated by those lowborn scum.”

Harold’s pride lay in his noble dignity and reputation, and now, this humiliation only reignited his old rage from the past confrontation with Ghislain.

The emissary fell to his knees, groveling.

“P-please, spare me! I’ll go back and convince them for sure...”

“Convince them? After wasting a whole week and staining my reputation, you think you can simply convince them again?”

“Y-yes! This time, I swear...”

“Silence!”

With a sickening thud, Harold brought his sword down, crushing the emissary’s head in a single blow. Yet even after that, his anger didn’t subside. He continued to hack at the corpse.

“You worthless fool!”

Thud!

“Can’t even persuade scum like them!”

Thud!

“How long do I have to endure this humiliation from Ghislain and his lackeys?”

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

No one dared to interfere as Harold furiously desecrated the body. His pent-up rage, amplified by the pressure of time slipping away, had exploded.

At last, when the corpse was little more than pulp, Harold stopped, brushing a hand over his disheveled hair. Gone was his usual composed and dignified appearance. Looking at the mangled body, a renewed killing intent filled his gaze—not toward the emissary, but toward the Fenris forces holed up in the fortress.

“Those insolent scum dared to play me for a fool...”

Though it wasn’t entirely his fault, as he’d never met them personally and had relied on the emissary’s report, he still couldn’t forgive the insult. The Fenris forces had likely taken advantage of this time to recover completely.

With a clatter, Harold tossed his sword aside and looked at his lieutenant with a fierce glare.

“Destroy that fortress completely.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Capture them all, and tear them limb from limb.”

Now, he would take his time to ensure a thorough victory, planning to crush the fortress with his overwhelming numbers. It was both a necessary step to capture Ghislain and a lesson in terror for those insolent enough to mock him.

Harold ground his teeth in anger. “You have three days. Inform Willow to kill as many as possible with magic attacks—they won’t be able to defend against it perfectly.”

At Harold’s enraged orders, the trebuchets and mages resumed their relentless assault. Though they had battering rams, there was no need to break through a single gate; he planned to tear down the walls and storm the fortress from all sides, making the most of his army’s numerical advantage.

“Attack!”

At the commanding shout, Desmond’s forces launched their assault.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

Boulders from the trebuchets and powerful spells from the mages pounded the fortress walls. As the Desmond forces advanced, the Fenris troops prepared for battle.

“Fall back!” Gillian shouted, ordering his men to withdraw from the walls. With such overwhelming firepower raining down, there was no point in staying near the walls—they could not effectively counterattack and would only be putting themselves in danger.

Gillian, watching the Desmond forces with a deep sigh, muttered, “This might be a blessing in disguise.”

The enemy seemed to be aiming to reduce their own casualties by destroying the fortress, but Gillian’s priority wasn’t necessarily to defend the structure. His goal was to delay the enemy as long as possible.

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

After all, they had already stalled for a week thanks to the emissary’s negotiations. Now, they could buy even more time while the walls held. This situation was ideal—except for one problem.

A terrifying figure hovered over the fortress, casting a spell—Willow, the enemy mage.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Rocks from the sky rained down within the fortress, wreaking havoc on buildings and supplies alike.

“Damn it! That bastard’s back again!”

“If only Vanessa were here, you’d be dead by now!”

“Shut up, you piece of—!”

The Fenris soldiers cursed and scrambled for cover, while Willow sneered from above.

“Pests... Why waste time persuading such lowly creatures?”

Though he had followed Harold’s orders to try persuading them, Willow hadn’t approved of it. In his mind, these vermin should have been exterminated from the beginning.

He felt particularly regretful about not finishing them in the last battle. Back then, he had been unable to intervene due to the clash between Gillian and Baron Hutton. But today, he had no such limitations—his spells could be cast without any concern for allies in the fray.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Even as Willow rained destruction upon the fortress, he observed the situation with keen interest. His spells and the trebuchets’ attacks were gradually eroding the walls from the outside.

“Let’s see... I’ll leave the rest to others while I hunt down a few of these pests.”

But then, he noticed something strange—some of his spells were disappearing as they approached a group of knights in black armor within the fortress.

With the magic around them neutralized, the soldiers near these knights remained unharmed, the falling stones only damaging the fortress structures.

“Interesting. They have some sort of defense against magic. But they’re not mages... could it be artifacts? Frustrating that I can’t see them up close.”

As a mage, Willow’s curiosity was piqued. Still, he could not imagine that all of the Fenris knights’ armor were enchanted artifacts.

Seeing Willow observing the chaos from above with a smug grin, Gillian gritted his teeth.

“If only it weren’t for him, we could hold out longer.”

Mages like Willow were always a problem, especially high-circle mages who could tilt the battlefield with wide-range destructive spells. Dealing with them was nearly impossible without their own mages for counter-spells.

“Fire!”

At Gillian’s command, soldiers loosed arrows into the sky, covering the airspace around Willow. He scoffed as he watched the arrows fly.

“Pathetic.”

Tat-tat-tat!

The arrows harmlessly struck the shield around him. Ordinary soldiers stood no chance against the defenses of a sixth-circle mage.

Sneering, Willow gathered more mana in his hands.

“Tiresome... I’ll just kill them all and search for those artifacts later. Let’s see how they fare against this.”

When casting a wide-area spell, each individual attack’s power would be slightly weakened. But what if all his mana was concentrated into a single, devastating spell?

Seeing that some of his magic had been blocked earlier had bruised his pride, so he poured an enormous amount of mana into his next attack.

Crackle!

A powerful bolt of electricity formed in Willow’s hand. Under normal circumstances, he would avoid using such mana-intensive magic, but with his allies nearby, he felt secure enough to go all out.

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

Noticing the immense gathering of mana, Gillian shouted, “Throw the spears!”

Shwing!

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

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Willow’s eyes widened at the impact.

“Hmm?”

Each spear struck his shield with enough force to destabilize it, showing the power behind their attacks.

“Are they all intermediate-level knights or higher?”

To damage his sixth-circle shield, their skills had to be formidable. Willow was genuinely surprised at Fenris’s strength.

His eyes hardened. “As the Count said, I’ll kill as many of them as I can.”

Fenris’s soldiers had taken refuge within the fortress, out of reach for now. But killing even one would reduce his allies’ losses later.

Crackle!

The electric charge gathered in Willow’s hand grew, crackling with deadly energy.

“Let’s see how you handle this.”

He scanned for a target below when, suddenly—

Whoosh!

A massive axe hurtled toward him at a frightening speed. For a split second, he thought he might die if it hit.

“You dare?!”

Scowling, he unleashed the electric charge toward the direction of the axe, intending to kill the impudent attacker.

Boom!

As the crackling energy discharged, the axe collided with his shield, shattering it with a deafening blast.

“Arrgh!”

Willow clutched his left shoulder, screaming in agony. His shield was broken, and his left arm, severed by the axe, fell away.

Blood gushed from his shoulder as he plummeted to the ground. Without the knights and mages below cushioning his fall, he would have been smashed to pieces.

“Ahhh!”

Willow, who had lived a life of luxury, was overwhelmed by the excruciating pain he was experiencing for the first time. In that moment, all thoughts of magic, war, and orders vanished from his mind.

“Quickly, escort Sir Willow to the rear!”

A sixth-circle mage was a rare asset, and everyone nearby rushed to move Willow to safety. They poured the finest potions into him, and every available medic worked frantically to treat his shoulder.

Inside the fortress, the Fenris soldiers stared at Gillian in disbelief.

Hiss...

Gillian wasn’t in great condition either. Having taken the brunt of a sixth-circle electric spell, steam rose from his entire body.

“Urgh...”

Unable to withstand it any longer, Gillian collapsed to one knee. His body was covered in burns, and the stench of scorched flesh filled the air.

“Instructor!”

The knights rushed to support him, but Gillian waved them off, struggling to stand under his own strength.

“He’s... strong, I’ll give him that,” Gillian thought. The immense mana Willow had gathered had caught his attention, and he’d acted swiftly, drawing the mage’s focus onto himself. He threw the axe, pouring all his remaining mana into it, while his fellow soldiers’ enchanted armor helped mitigate the magic’s effects.

Still, Gillian’s condition was dire. His chest wound from Baron Hutton remained unhealed, and the magical assault had nearly killed him.

If the dispel enchantments on the knights’ armor hadn’t weakened Willow’s spell, he might not have survived.

“Whew...”

Gillian’s entire body ached, and he could barely stand straight due to the accumulated injuries from both the baron and Willow’s magic. Despite this, his gaze burned with determination. He was resolved to delay the enemy as long as possible.

Seeing this, the knights around him fell silent, deeply moved by his unwavering spirit.

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

Boom! Crash! Boom!

Desmond’s forces continued their relentless assault, hurling spells and boulders into the fortress. Any remaining defensive equipment had been destroyed in the initial skirmishes, leaving the Fenris soldiers with no means of counterattack.

The Fenris forces pulled back to regroup. Gillian took a moment to tend to his wounds, though by now, there was barely any part of his body not wrapped in bandages.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Desmond’s army attacked day and night, creating a constant, deafening noise that made sleep impossible.

“Just a little longer...” Gillian prayed, eyes fixed on the fortress walls. The longer they held, the more time they bought.

All they could do now was hold the line against the overwhelming enemy forces.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

By the third day, the upper sections of the walls had completely crumbled. Yet, it was still difficult for the enemy soldiers to breach easily. Harold frowned as he observed the fortress.

“It’s incredibly sturdy. It wasn’t this tough when Count Cavaldi ruled... How much reinforcement did they do?”

Despite three days of relentless bombardment with no counterfire, the fortress walls still stood.

Ghislain had prioritized durability when fortifying the strongholds like Stonehaven, making them far sturdier than other fortresses in the region.

Harold clicked his tongue in frustration. They were losing precious time.

“Don’t stop! Keep pounding away!”

Though tempted to send in the troops through the now-lowered walls, Harold shook his head, recalling the bloody skirmish of the first day.

Though the fortress was tough, it wasn’t indestructible. Desmond’s forces pressed on, never ceasing their assault on the walls.

Boom!

Finally, a section of the wall collapsed, and other areas soon began to crumble.

After days of non-stop assault, the fortress was left in ruins. It had held longer than expected, but it couldn’t hold forever.

Harold, with a savage look on his face, wasted no time in issuing the final order.

“All troops, seize the fortress immediately.”