The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations

With that shout, Ghislain vanished from sight.

“Aaah! Young Lord! He’s gone mad!”

“Hurry! Follow the Young Lord!”

Belinda let out a sharp scream. Gillian, who had been observing the situation closely, immediately issued commands and dashed forward.

“Hahaha! He really is insane, isn’t he? He’s not normal!”

Kaor, clearly thrilled, drew his sword and charged after him.

The mercenaries, without understanding the situation, simply followed along.

They were given no time to think, no time to hesitate.

All they could do was move as they had been trained, following their leader’s steps.

But they weren’t the only ones caught up in the chaos.

Zwalter and Randolph, forgetting they were in the middle of a battle, stood with their mouths wide open.

Then, seeing Ghislain and the mercenaries rush forward, they shouted urgently.

“Ghislain! Come back! Just hold the walls! What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Young Lord! Stop! Come back! Come back, you madman!”

Who would charge outside during a siege, throwing themselves into the fray?

Of course, the enemy was just as startled by Ghislain’s bizarre actions.

Count Tamos glanced at Viktor and asked, “Well… the gate suddenly opened? And who are those guys in black armor?”

“…”

Viktor couldn’t utter a single word; he just blinked in disbelief.

He hadn’t imagined that the vastly outnumbered Ferdium forces would open the gate and be the first to rush out.

Especially when there was even a breach in one part of the wall.

There was no such tactic in any of the military doctrines Viktor had learned.

“What is this? What kind of strategy is this? Did I miss something? Why are they coming out? What are they thinking?”

Viktor, bewildered, muttered to himself in confusion.

Faced with such an unexpected and irrational situation, even the commander was caught off guard.

Naturally, the soldiers couldn’t react immediately either.

“Huh?”

A soldier who had nearly reached Ferdium’s walls suddenly sensed something flying towards him.

Looking up, he saw a black shadow descending from the sky, blocking out the sun.

A figure raising a massive weapon.

That was the last sight the soldier saw.

Boom!

“Uaaah!”

Soldiers were sent flying in all directions.

“Hooo…”

The one who had jumped into the heart of the enemy, wielding a massive double-headed axe, was none other than Ghislain.

As he exhaled, red smoke billowed out from the gaps in his helmet.

Soon, mercenaries began pouring into the battlefield, following in Ghislain’s wake.

Armed with heavy weapons, they swung at the enemies in front of them without a second thought.

There was no time to consider the current situation or what strategy they were supposed to be following.

Crunch! Crack!

“Aaah!”

“Who are these guys?!”

“Where did they suddenly come from?!”

In battle, soldiers remain highly tense, moving only towards their designated objectives.

They’re not supposed to move as they please, and even when they try, they can barely see what’s around them.

But now, with Ghislain and the mercenaries charging in out of nowhere, the soldiers were thrown into complete disarray.

Boom! Boom!

“Arghhh!”

Watching the enemies fall so easily, the mercenaries were actually taken aback.

“What’s going on? Why are these guys so weak? Do we just fight here?”

“Shut up and stay sharp! If we lose sight of the Captain, we’re all dead!”

The mercenaries started feeling a rush as they watched the enemy being swept away.

Following Ghislain’s lead at the forefront, everyone’s spirits began to heat up.

“Young Lord! We need the next orders! The mercenaries haven’t grasped the situation yet!”

After smashing the enemies around him, Gillian shouted loudly.

Ghislain quickly scanned the battlefield, then pointed his finger in a long line.

“Kaor, take half the men and secure a retreat path around the breached wall. Hold out until I return.”

“That much is easy! Let’s go, you lot!”

Shhkk!

With Kaor leading them, the mercenaries pushed back the enemies and quickly formed a shield wall.

Confirming the shield formation, Ghislain’s head whipped around again.

His target was the siege tower.

“The rest of you, follow me! We’re going to the siege tower!”

Ghislain shouted as he rushed forward, gripping his twin axes.

“Young Master, what on earth are you thinking!”

“Save it for later! Just follow the Young Lord quickly!”

Belinda, Gillian, and the remaining mercenaries with shields followed Ghislain.

The mercenaries from the Forest of Beasts especially gritted their teeth and chased after him with reckless abandon.

They already knew from experience.

They had learned that their chances of survival were higher if they moved exactly as that young captain ordered.

Hesitating and thinking would only delay them. They had to follow his lead the instant he moved.

“Move quickly! Follow the Captain! We need to do as we’re told to survive! Don’t think, just move! Follow the training!”

One of them shouted urgently, and the rest of the mercenaries followed as if in a trance.

“Break through!”

Boom!

Ghislain broke through the confused enemy lines as he advanced.

The mercenaries, with their shields held high, pushed through the remaining enemies like an unstoppable force.

Though it wasn’t as powerful as a cavalry charge, the sudden assault was proving highly effective.

As both the enemy and allies reeled from the surprise attack, Ghislain and the mercenaries reached the area near the siege tower entrance.

“Block this area! Shields up!”

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The mercenaries lifted their shields in a two-layer formation, surrounding the entrance to the siege tower.

Belatedly realizing the situation, the enemy archers disregarded their previous orders and turned their arrows toward them.

But by then, the mercenaries had already set up their formation with raised shields, rendering the arrows useless.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Seeing the formation hold steady, Ghislain called out loudly again.

“The wall! Cover our allies!”

With the enemy archers shifting their focus, there was now some reprieve on the wall side.

The one fighting on this section of the wall was Randolph.

He had been momentarily stunned by Ghislain’s unexpected actions, but his battlefield experience quickly brought him back to his senses.

As soon as Randolph took in the rapidly changing battlefield, he shouted until his voice was hoarse.

“Fire! Aim for the enemy archers!”

The soldiers on the wall, who had been bewildered, all stood up and began to shoot their arrows.

One side of the unsuspecting enemy formation fell helplessly under the volley of arrows.

The shield-bearers hurriedly moved to protect the archers, but the path to the siege tower had already been taken.

“I’ll head to the siege tower alone! Everyone else, hold your positions until I return! Belinda, help the mercenaries with Gillian!”

“What did you say? Young Master!”

“Young Lord! You can’t do that!”

Belinda and Gillian tried to stop Ghislain, but he was too busy fighting the enemies around him to respond properly.

Where Ghislain was headed, soldiers who had been inside the tower and those trying to enter it were swarming—a dangerous spot.

And he intended to go there alone.

“Don’t worry about this side!”

Ghislain emphasized again as he made his way solo toward the siege tower where the enemies had gathered.

Watching the battlefield descend into chaos in an instant, Viktor ground his teeth.

The neatly laid-out plan had been thrown into disarray by these lunatics.

“Did they just pull out the elite forces from the gate?”

He hadn’t anticipated anyone would burst out in the middle of a siege.

The battlefield was a mess. Soldiers clashed along the walls, and screams echoed without pause.

It was hard to keep an overview in such turmoil, where you might not even notice if the ally next to you fell.

“In this situation, they’ve read my mind and struck at a weak point?”

No matter how much of a numerical advantage you have, you can’t completely avoid losses in war. The more you push, the greater the casualties.

He had planned to conserve his forces for a day, waiting for the right moment. Even with their supply lines cut, he figured the Ferdium troops could hold out for that long.

If he could use the siege towers first, he could exhaust the enemy while minimizing his own losses.

Once the enemy grew weary with their smaller numbers, he planned to press forward with his main force.

In short, the earlier skirmishes had been about gauging the enemy’s strength.

Victory seemed certain, and he wanted to avoid a costly battle.

He assumed that even if the enemy sensed his intentions, they would be unable to respond effectively.

The Ferdium forces were mostly concentrated along the two walls, and they had not even properly stationed troops at the breached section.

“No, it’s not over yet. If I can spread the gate’s forces further and drain their strength, I can launch a full assault…”

Viktor’s strategy was almost textbook.

It was a fortress with no moat, no towers. There weren’t even crude traps in front of the gate, yet he had carefully accounted for everything to avoid any losses.

If he could use the siege towers to wear down the enemy, they wouldn’t be able to hold the gate for long.

This was the perfect way to minimize his own casualties.

Even as his soldiers climbed up the breached section of the wall, he remained confident.

Ghislain and the mercenaries had just barged in when Viktor was on the verge of moving his other troops.

“And now, of all times, they make a move? Did they actually wait for this opening?”

It was a move that had seized upon the slightest gap in his thinking—a split-second opportunity exploited with speed that outpaced reason.

Amidst all that chaos and danger, the enemy had somehow read Viktor’s thoughts, grasped the flow of the battle, and seized this one chance.

To open the gates and come out like that, right in the face of overwhelming forces.

The enemy was either a clueless fool… or a beast with a terrifying predatory instinct.

“Damn it, the gate! The gate!”

Viktor’s eyes widened as he surveyed the battlefield.

But the gate had already closed once again.

Did he need to press forward with everything?

‘No, no. At this rate, the losses would be massive. I’ll have to push harder than I’d like.’

His mind raced.

One of their flanks had already collapsed after being hit in the side, succumbing almost instantly.

“What speed… Did they just throw themselves out here on faith in their combat ability?”

If the siege tower were to fall, it would deal a blow, but he could reallocate those forces elsewhere.

Though caught off guard, it wasn’t enough to alter the outcome of the war.

“Send the knights and troops over to the left siege tower! Re-secure that tower now! Tell the tower soldiers to turn and hit the enemy’s rear!”

Those men in black armor seemed competent enough that securing the siege tower would require knights.

Their formations had been broken, and their ranks were disrupted, but they still had forces below the tower—plenty to surround the enemy commander.

Twenty knights and additional troops moved towards the left siege tower.

“Once those fools are pushed back, their forces will thin. Attack the gate at the same time! Move the battering rams and ladders forward! Prepare to advance!”

At Viktor’s command, the soldiers began to shift formations.

The troops waiting to enter the tower also noticed the disruption and turned around.

“What’s with that guy?”

One knight stared incredulously at Ghislain, who was approaching alone.

Rumble.

The double-headed axe that Ghislain held was not only enormous but had a long handle as well.

He dragged it along the ground with one hand as he approached the siege tower.

“Is he coming alone to block the rear?”

The knight smirked as he turned around.

The enemy troops blocking the path to the siege tower were busy holding back his own soldiers.

Beyond those who had already entered the tower, more than a hundred troops were still waiting here.

With their backs exposed, a strike from this side would allow for a quick encirclement.

“Don’t worry about those climbing up! Everyone else, hit their rear now!”

The commanding knight’s shout sent the waiting troops into motion.

He didn’t know who this lone figure was, but as far as he knew, there was no one in Ferdium with that kind of strength.

‘That guy’s just being reckless.’

Taking him down in one blow, then killing those idiots clogging the path, would wrap this up nicely.

“Hah!”

The knight, his mana surging, closed the distance between them in an instant.

Just as he reached Ghislain and prepared to swing his sword—

Ghislain’s axe traced a broad arc and slammed into the ground.

Boom!

Squelch!

The troops following behind the knight froze.

The knight’s body had been cleaved cleanly in half.

As the two halves of his corpse fell apart, a demon with a black helmet stood between them, emitting a red, menacing glow from its eyes.