Chapter 190
Chapter 190: Everyone, Stay Away from My Side! (1)
Ghislaine quickly scanned ahead and spoke.
“Gillian, take control of the right castle wall. Kaor, handle the left wall. I’ll break through the center and open the castle gate.”
Once the operation had begun, there was no room for doubt or disobedience.
The two moved into action as soon as the orders were given.
Boom!
With their mana fully charged, Gillian and Kaor surged forward, creating a thunderous sound as the ground buckled beneath them.
Some of the knights followed closely, sprinting toward the left and right walls.
Ghislaine waved her hand and continued rapidly.
“Belinda, deal with the wizards holding the walls. Include the archers too. It’s fine if you don’t kill them all; just create enough chaos so they can’t effectively control the area. You can do that, right?”
“Of course. Thanks to you, Young Master, my mana has increased significantly, and I can finally use techniques I couldn’t before.”
Belinda, adorned with a black mask, began to shimmer and blend into the darkness.
The place where she had stood began to twist, resembling a human form but slightly distorted, as if someone were becoming transparent.
Unlike the magic ‘Invisibility,’ careful observation would reveal something was there, but in the chaos of the night, it would be difficult to notice.
“Then I’ll head out first. You take care of yourself, Young Master.”
Swoosh.
Leaving behind an afterimage as if the darkness itself were rippling, Belinda moved.
This technique wrapped her in mana, reflecting light to deceive her opponents’ eyes.
While it consumed a considerable amount of mana, it was undeniably effective in chaotic situations where detecting one’s presence was challenging, making it a favored technique among assassins.
Unaware of this, the knights were shocked to see Belinda vanish without a trace, but there was no time to solve their confusion.
This operation was all about speed and time.
Boom!
As Ghislaine charged forward, the remaining knights clenched their teeth and hurried to follow.
The approaching forces of Count Cabaldy were stunned at the rapid advance.
“What’s going on? Is it the enemy? Or are they allies? Who are they?!”
In a state of confusion, Ghislaine approached like lightning.
“Who else could it be? Your new lord!”
Swish!
The head of the front-most soldier was severed in one swift motion.
As if that were a signal, the knights of Penris who had followed Ghislaine began their slaughter.
“What—what the hell! Who are these guys?!”
“It’s the enemy! Enemies have appeared!”
“How did they get inside the castle?!”
In an instant, the scout team was wiped out.
Their screams echoed back to the Cabaldian forces waiting by the walls and gates.
As the commander of the walls turned in shock at the loud noise—
Boom!
Without giving anyone a moment to assess the situation, Ghislaine and the Penris knights crashed in.
“Aaah!”
The surprised soldiers of Cabaldy were slaughtered before they could even react.
The knights, enveloped in mana and swinging their weapons, were an overwhelming force that regular soldiers couldn’t withstand.
When the enemy suddenly attacked from within the castle, the soldiers of Cabaldy panicked and began to break formation.
With enemies waiting outside and now storming from within, they had no idea where to focus their attention.
Not only the soldiers, but the knights were also equally disoriented.
“What in the world is happening?!”
“Where did the enemy come from?!”
“Assess the situation! Quickly!”
The knights of Cabaldy scrambled to control the soldiers, but the atmosphere remained chaotic. It was understandable given the surprise attack from an unexpected direction.
In the meantime, soldiers were falling without knowing why.
Eventually, the knights urged Jaimon, the castle commander.
“Commander! What should we do?!”
“The enemy has appeared out of nowhere!”
“It’s an ambush! An enemy ambush!”
Jaimon was equally bewildered.
He muttered, struggling to comprehend what was happening.
“W-what? Why did the enemy appear here? What about the tunnels? What happened to our lord?”
They had been aware of the enemy digging tunnels and had deployed their main forces there.
Count Cabaldy was confident of victory and had decided to lead personally to oversee it.
But now the enemy had suddenly shown up? How was that even possible? Did they break through all the allied troops stationed at the tunnels?
At that moment, an odd object he had seen before flashed in Jaimon’s mind.
“C-could it be… that flying object from the sky… the enemies used that?”
Unbelievable as it was, there was no other explanation.
That thing he had blankly watched had surely transported the enemy into the heart of the castle.
“Unbelievable. There can’t possibly be such a thing… How can it fly like that…?”
Trying to understand something that defied common sense left him utterly perplexed. Meanwhile, the screams of his allies continued to resonate all around.
“Commander! Get a grip!”
“Please, issue your orders!”
“The enemy’s momentum is too strong! Our troops are on the verge of annihilation!”
Jaimon’s mind snapped back to focus at the knights’ screams. Now was not the time to be curious about how the enemy had entered.
He was the commander. He needed to assess the situation and give the best orders possible.
And for that, he needed to understand the enemy’s intent.
He slowly turned his head to look at the Penris forces outside the castle.
In stark contrast to the chaos inside, a heavy silence prevailed outside the castle.
It was terrifying.
The dark mass of soldiers silently watching the castle, with no words or actions, was frightening.
Like a beast lying in wait, looking for just the right moment to strike.
“They were aiming for the castle gate…”
Only then did he understand the enemy’s plan.
The ruse of the tunnels had lured most of their reinforcements there.
The enemy didn’t even need siege equipment. A few could enter and easily open the gate.
If such a large force entered, it would be too late for them to arrive.
At that moment, they were already severely underfed and demoralized. They had pinned all their hopes on a trap targeting the tunnels, and with the enemy army entering safely and forming ranks, they were utterly outmatched. It was an inevitable defeat.
‘Am I going to die like this…?’
A chill ran down his spine.
The idea of entering the enemy lines from the sky had never even crossed his mind, much less imagined it could succeed.
He was horrified at the ingenuity of whoever had devised such a strategy and created such an apparatus.
The creativity to conceive a new tactic that wasn’t found in any military textbooks, coupled with the audacity to plunge right into the enemy’s heart—and the ability to succeed at it…
Could he possibly contend with someone like that?
‘I’ve been so foolish.’
What if he had noticed the enemy’s diversion a bit sooner?
What if he had intercepted that flying thing?
What if…
Slap!
‘Get a grip!’
Jaimon fiercely slapped his cheek and gritted his teeth.
The enemy’s numbers were about a hundred, while theirs were around six hundred.
While he was flustered by the sudden situation, the enemy was still small in number. Their division into three groups meant that each group was even smaller.
Even if they were ambushed, if they just focused, they could still put up a good fight.
“Immediately drive them back…”
Jaimon hastily began to speak, but stopped as he assessed the battlefield. Instead of repelling the enemy, they were on the verge of annihilation.
The strength of the ambushers was overwhelming. Their allies were falling one by one while not a single one of the enemies had died.
‘Just with those few…’
The scant hundred had overwhelmed their much larger force in an instant.
He had never seen a military this fast and powerful.
‘Could all of them be… mana-wielding knights? That’s impossible!’
But, as if to mock his thoughts, swords wrapped in mana shone brilliantly in the darkness, striking everywhere.
‘So Penris had been hiding such power?’
Between the unidentifiable flying object and the hundred knights, the scene was so unreal that his head was spinning.
‘In this situation, we absolutely can’t win.’
To combat those who could harness mana, all soldiers needed to be properly arranged. Yet, caught off guard, everyone was in disarray.
That’s just how ambushes worked. If successful, they could trap even much larger forces in desperation.
In a situation like now, where they were already ambushed, turning the tide was a daunting task.
“I need to buy time. I need to buy time.”
Jaimon gritted his teeth. The enemies were undeniably powerful, but it wasn’t impossible to win.
If their main forces could arrive before the enemy breached the castle gates, they could surround and annihilate them.
He had to manage the situation and hold out until his allies arrived.
His mind raced relentlessly, searching for a solution.
“Get a grip! The enemy doesn’t have siege equipment or archers, so they can’t attack the walls simultaneously! Leave only the minimum number of wizards and archers to hold the walls! Everyone else, down to the ground to create a defense line! The rest of our troops must focus on defending the castle gate!”
“Understood!”
Count Cabaldy’s territory was not simply renowned as the northern powerhouse because of the soldiers’ armament.
The soldiers underwent rigorous training commensurate with their equipment, turning them into elites, and the knights and commanders leading them were equally skilled.
Especially Jaimon, who was entrusted with this task by Count Cabaldy, was exceptionally capable.
As the knights joined forces and Jaimon took charge, the confused Cabaldian forces began to gradually form ranks and resist the intruders.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Like the foremost iron ore mountains in the North, the soldiers were clad in steel shields and steel armor.
They could barely form ranks thanks to the sacrifices made by the soldiers falling in front.
“Send a distress signal to the lord! Everyone must hold the line! Holding is the priority! If we just hold on for a bit longer, salvation will come soon!”
The alarm sounded that the walls were in danger, and fireworks shot up into the sky several times.
From now on, it was a race against time. It was a showdown between whether the gates and walls would fall to the enemy or whether their main forces would arrive first.
‘Somehow, somehow, we must hold on. Hurry, please come quickly!’
The castles of this era had evolved to contain cities within their walls, making them quite expansive.
Even the smallest and poorest territories had to enlarge their castles, as they had to prepare for both human and monster attacks.
That’s why Jaimon also took immense pride in the large Cabaldy Castle, but now, its size felt like a bitter curse.
‘Is it too late?’
They had just barely established a defensive line, but their forces were still being pushed back without resistance.
Even though the soldiers on the walls were firing arrows to hold back the intruders, it was ineffective.
The invaders were so skilled that they blocked every arrow with small shields, meticulously killing off the allied soldiers one by one.
In a panic, Jaimon shouted loudly.
“Wizards! What are the wizards doing? Don’t worry about the damage to our forces, just attack immediately!”
The wizards had to unleash powerful firepower to break the enemy’s momentum.
The enemy was small in number. If the wizards hit them head-on with their spells, the enemies wouldn’t walk away unscathed.
Jaimon called out to the wizards, prepared to accept a few sacrifices, but still, no signs of attack came from the walls.
Why weren’t they attacking now, when the enemies had yet to reach the walls? This was the last chance!
Frustrated, Jaimon turned his gaze toward the castle walls and was met with a shocking sight.
The remaining wizards and archers on the walls were falling one by one.
“You rotten bastards, I’ll kill you all!”
One wizard, with a frantic expression, raised his hands high, summoning a massive sphere of blazing fire into the air.
Even knights couldn’t survive the full force of magic unleashed by a wizard.
Just as the wizard was about to launch his attack—
The space behind him quaked as someone emerged.
Swish.
“Cough, cough…”
The wizard’s throat was sliced by a dagger, and he fell, blood spilling forth, causing the spell to fizzle out.
“It’s the enemy! An enemy has appeared on the walls!”
“An assassin!”
“The wizard has fallen!”
At the commotion, everyone on the walls turned to look, but the assailant had already vanished.
Swish!
Moments later, another soldier holding a bow fell, his throat cut.
“Ahhh!”
“I can’t see the enemy!”
“Kill them!”
The soldiers trembled in fear. An unseen enemy concealed in the undulating darkness was murdering their allies.
A delayed realization struck another wizard, who swiftly turned around.
He attempted to cast a spell at the area where the space had distorted unnaturally, but the assassin was faster.
Swish!
The assassin burst through the darkness, severing the wizard’s neck as he passed by.
“Ha!”
The assassin, wearing a black mask, let out a snort and melded back into the shadows.
The knights commanding from behind finally moved to catch the assassin. But by the time they did, the soldiers and wizards on the walls were dropping one after another.
They hadn’t slain many at once, but seeing the death toll steadily rise plunged the Cabaldy forces into disarray.
“This… this madness…”
Jaimon, having assessed the state of the walls and watchtowers, ground his teeth in frustration.
With an assassin running rampant, no effective counterattacks could be mounted. Everyone was paralyzed with fear, unsure when the assassin would strike them.
Thanks to that, the Penris forces charging towards both walls showed no sign of slowing down.
‘How on earth did they raise those knights?’
While the skill of the assassin was impressive, the knights leading the charge were equally astounding.
With each blink of an eye, their hands swept away the allied soldiers.
As he blinked again,
“Ha…”
He was too stunned to even speak properly.
The attackers had reached both walls and begun their slaughter.
