Chapter 190: Stay Away From Me, All of You. (1)
Ghislain quickly scanned the front and spoke.
“Gilllian, take control of the right wall. Kaor, the left wall. I’ll break through the center and open the gate.”
Once the operation begins, there’s no room for doubt or disobedience.
The two immediately sprang into action upon receiving their orders.
BOOM!
As Gillian and Kaor, brimming with mana, kicked off the ground, a deafening noise erupted, leaving the ground caved in where they had stood.
Some of the knights followed them, rushing toward both walls.
Ghislain waved his hand as he continued briskly.
“Belinda, take care of the mages suppressing us from the walls. The archers too. You don’t need to kill them all; just create enough chaos to disrupt their control. Can you handle that?”
“Of course. Thanks to you, Young Lord, my mana has increased a lot, and I can now use techniques I couldn’t before.”
Belinda’s figure, wearing a black mask, began to waver and melt into the darkness.
Where she once stood, a faint distortion in the air remained, resembling a transparent human figure.
It wasn’t like the invisibility spell “Invisibility”; while careful observation might reveal something, in the chaos of a nighttime skirmish, it would go unnoticed.
“Then I’ll head out first. Be careful, Young Lord.”
Swoosh.
Leaving behind a faint ripple in the air, Belinda moved.
This technique cloaked her body in mana, reflecting light to deceive the opponent’s eyes.
Though it consumed significant mana, it was highly effective in chaotic battles where detecting her presence was difficult, making it a favored technique among assassins.
The knights unfamiliar with this skill were startled to see Belinda vanish, but there was no time to address their confusion.
This operation was all about speed and timing.
BOOM!
As Ghislain charged forward, the remaining knights gritted their teeth and rushed to follow him.
The cautious Cabaldi forces, advancing carefully, were stunned when they spotted the rapidly approaching attackers.
“What’s going on? Are they enemies? Allies? Who are they?!”
Before they could resolve their confusion, Ghislain darted forward like lightning.
“Who else would it be? It’s your new lord.”
Slash!
The head of the foremost soldier flew off in one swift motion.
As if it were a signal, the Fenris Knights who followed Ghislain began their slaughter.
“What, what’s going on? Who are these people?!”
“Enemies! It’s the enemy!”
“How are they inside the castle?!”
The reconnaissance unit was wiped out in the blink of an eye.
Their screams echoed, reaching the Cabaldi soldiers stationed on the walls and at the gate.
The wall commander, startled by the sudden commotion, turned his head.
BOOOOM!
Ghislain and the Fenris Knights charged forward, giving the Cabaldi soldiers no time to comprehend the situation.
“Uwaaah!”
The Cabaldi troops, caught off guard by the ambush, were slaughtered without resistance.
Ordinary soldiers stood no chance against knights, who wielded weapons brimming with streams of mana.
With enemies suddenly attacking from within the castle, the Cabaldi forces began to break formation in panic. Having to deal with enemies stationed outside the castle and an assault from inside left them utterly disoriented.
It wasn’t just the soldiers who were thrown into confusion. The knights were equally flustered.
“What is going on?!”
“Where did the enemy come from?!”
“Assess the situation! Quickly!”
The Cabaldi knights scrambled to regain control of their troops, but the chaotic atmosphere remained. It was no surprise—being blindsided from an unexpected direction was enough to disrupt anyone.
Meanwhile, soldiers continued to die without even knowing the cause.
In the end, the knights turned to the wall commander and Master of Arms, Jaimon, for guidance.
“Master of Arms! What should we do?”
“The enemy has suddenly appeared inside the walls!”
“It’s an ambush! An ambush by the enemy!”
Jaimon, too, was utterly stunned. He mumbled in confusion, unable to grasp the situation.
“Why? Why are the enemies here? What about the tunnels? And what about the Count?”
He had dispatched their main forces to guard against the enemy’s tunneling strategy, having anticipated their plan.
Even Count Cabaldi, convinced of their victory, had gone to oversee that area personally.
But now, the enemy had abruptly appeared inside the castle? How? Did they somehow break through all the forces stationed at the tunnels?
At that moment, an image of the strange object he’d seen earlier flashed in Jaimon’s mind.
“Could it be... the thing flying through the sky... did the enemy use that?”
It seemed implausible, yet there was no other explanation.
The soldiers underwent rigorous training matching their high-quality equipment, transforming into elite warriors. The knights and commanders leading them were also of exceptional caliber.
In particular, Jaimon was a figure so competent that Count Cabaldi entrusted him with this location.
As the knights joined the effort and Jaimon personally took command, the Cabaldi forces, previously engulfed in confusion, gradually formed ranks and began countering the invaders.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Armed with steel shields and armor befitting the region known for the finest iron ore in the north, they managed to stabilize their formation thanks to the sacrifices of the soldiers who had fallen at the front.
“Send an immediate request for reinforcements to the lord! Everyone, hold your ground! Endurance is the priority! Just hang on for a moment longer, and reinforcements will arrive soon!”
Horn blasts signaling danger to the walls resounded, and fireworks shot into the sky several times.
From now on, it was a race against time. The battle hinged on whether the castle walls and gates would fall to the enemy or whether the allied main forces would arrive first.
‘Somehow, we must hold on. Hurry, please, hurry and get here!’
The castles of this era were vast, as they had evolved to include cities within their walls.
Even the smallest and poorest territories had no choice but to expand their castles, as they had to prepare not only for human threats but also for attacks from monsters.
Jaimon had always taken great pride in the vast size of Cabaldi Castle. However, at this moment, he couldn’t help, but cursed its sheer scale.
‘Am I too late?’
Although he had barely managed to establish a defensive line, his forces were still being relentlessly pushed back without any means to retaliate.
Even the soldiers on the walls and watchtowers, firing arrows to suppress the enemy, were failing to make any impact.
The invaders were exceptionally skilled, deflecting all incoming arrows with small shields as they systematically slaughtered Jaimon’s troops.
In desperation, Jaimon shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Magicians! What are the magicians doing? Forget about friendly casualties—just attack immediately!”
The only way to quell the enemy’s momentum was to unleash the overwhelming firepower of the magicians.
The enemy forces were few in number. If they were struck head-on by the magicians’ spells, even they wouldn’t escape unscathed.
Jaimon, prepared to accept some sacrifices, called for the magicians. Yet, the walls remained unnervingly quiet.
The enemy hadn’t yet reached the castle walls—this was their last opportunity. Why weren’t the magicians attacking?
With mounting frustration, Jaimon turned his gaze toward the walls. What he saw left him utterly shocked.
The magicians and archers stationed on the walls were collapsing one by one.
“You damned bastards, I’ll kill every last one of you!”
A magician, panic-stricken, raised his hand high into the air. A massive, blazing orb of fire began forming in the sky.
No matter how skilled the knights were, there was no way they could survive a direct hit from a spell that the magician had poured all his mana into.
Just as the magician was about to launch his attack—
The space behind him rippled, and someone appeared.
Swick.
“Guh... guh...”
The magician, his throat slit by a dagger, coughed up blood before collapsing. The spell he had been preparing fizzled out and disappeared without a trace.
“An enemy! The enemy has appeared on the wall!”
“It’s an assassin!”
“The magician has fallen!”
The outcry drew the attention of everyone on the wall, but the attacker had already vanished into the shadows.
Swick!
Moments later, another soldier, this time an archer, fell with his throat slit.
“Ahhh!”
“I can’t see them!”
“They’re a demon!”
The soldiers were consumed by fear. An unseen foe was killing their comrades under the cover of the wavering darkness.
Another magician, belatedly regaining his composure, turned hurriedly and prepared to cast a spell toward the twisted, abnormal space.
But the assassin moved faster.
Slash!
Emerging from the shadows, the assassin sliced through the magician’s throat in a single motion before vanishing again.
“Hmph.”
The assassin, wearing a black mask, snorted derisively before melting back into the darkness.
By the time the knights commanding from the rear began organizing to catch the assassin, the soldiers and magicians on the walls were already falling one by one.
It wasn’t a massacre in a single strike, but the steady rise in casualties plunged Cabaldi’s forces into chaos.
“Damn it... this is lunacy...”
Jaimon grounded his teeth as he assessed the state of the walls and watchtowers.
With an assassin wreaking havoc, no one could mount an effective counterattack. Fear gripped the defenders, who were too preoccupied with the thought of when they might be next to fall.
Meanwhile, the Fenris forces advancing on both sides of the castle walls weren’t slowing down at all.
‘How on earth did they train knights like these?’
Jaimon marveled at the assassin’s skill, but what struck him even more was the prowess of the leaders guiding the Fenris forces at the forefront of their assault.
Every time he blinked, more of his soldiers fell under their blades.
And as he blinked again—
“Hah...”
He was at a loss for words.
The attackers had already reached the walls on both sides, and they had begun slaughtering his remaining men.