Chapter 396: Just Destroy It (3)

Linderstein's commander, Reynan, stared blankly at the enormous catapults lined up in the distance and muttered, "What, what is that? What's going on?"

No one could have expected such massive siege weapons to appear out of nowhere.

"Is it... magic?"

It was said that mages—those at the 8th-circle or higher—could use warp magic to transport objects and people.

But there wasn't a single 8th-circle mage in the kingdom. That level of mastery was said to occur once in a thousand years, even among humans.

"What in the world are those things?"

He shouted in frustration, but no one could provide an answer.

One moment, it seemed like they were hastily building something, and the next, fully functional catapults stood ready. Who could possibly explain such a process?

Of course, catapults could be constructed on-site, but such makeshift siege weapons were usually crude and ineffective against a fortress like this one.

No one could fathom what kind of technology had gone into creating these siege weapons.

"No, it can't be. Those must be fakes. Look at them! They're ridiculous! Those stones must have been gathered for some other purpose."

Reynan bit his lip, muttering to himself.

The catapults resembled standard ones in shape, but their skeletal framework and strange construction seemed bizarre. Despite their immense size, their odd, bone-like structures made it hard to believe they could unleash powerful attacks.

Trying to calm his uneasy soldiers, Reynan shouted, "Do not worry! Look at those things! They can't possibly breach the fortress!"

The soldiers nodded in agreement. Even to them, it seemed unlikely that such machines could hurl heavy stones.

However, the cautious Reynan added, "They might use those to throw rotten corpses or lightweight, poisoned items! Be ready to clear them away immediately!"

Throwing corpses and spreading disease within a fortress was a time-honored strategy.

Even if those peculiar catapults couldn't hurl heavy stones, they might still manage lighter payloads.

Following Reynan's orders, the soldiers quickly divided into teams, donning deerskin gloves and masks.

While the fortress soldiers busily prepared, Ghislain looked at the Galbanium catapults and smiled.

"Their first real test, huh? This should be fun."

The power of these siege weapons had already been proven in his previous life. The enemy would be utterly dumbfounded.

Just then, Dark, who had been out scouting, delivered a report via telepathy.

— Master! The pursuing forces have reached the place we passed earlier, near that canyon.

"They've reached the western outskirts."

For such a large army, their speed was impressive. But it wouldn't matter—they would fail to achieve their goal.

Linderstein would fall today.

"We have enough stones."

To bring down a fortress like this, continuous, overwhelming force was required.

Hundreds of knights and thousands of soldiers had gathered massive stones from nearby, using horses and nets to haul them.

Some had even gone to the mountains to carve out large boulders.

"Begin."

At Ghislain's command, soldiers attached counterweights made of stone to the catapults.

Knights, using their mana, loaded the enormous stones onto the catapults, aiding in faster preparation.

The 4th-circle mages who had been brought along cast spells to further harden and weigh down the stones and counterweights.

This had been rehearsed numerous times. Moving with flawless coordination, they shouted in unison:

"Catapult one, ready!"

"Catapult two, ready!"

…

"Catapult ten, ready!"

Once all was prepared, Ghislain extended his hand forward.

"Fire."

A knight standing beside him repeated the order in a booming voice.

"Fire!"

Boom!

With a thunderous roar, the stones were launched. The soldiers in Linderstein froze in place, stunned.

They had doubted the weapons could function, yet here they were, hurling massive stones—not corpses or light objects—straight at the fortress.

As the stones arced through the air, the soldiers felt as if they were trapped in a surreal dream.

Their "dream" shattered with an earth-shaking crash.

Boom! Crash!

"Arghhh!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The battlements splintered apart, and soldiers caught in the shockwave screamed as they were thrown into the air.

Those were the lucky ones. Others were crushed outright, their bodies obliterated under the massive stones.

"It's a real siege weapon!"

"Take cover! Take cover now!"

"Scatter, quickly!"

The soldiers, tightly stationed along the outer walls to repel any scaling attempts, were caught completely off guard by the sudden bombardment.

Before they could even regain their composure, another barrage followed.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

"Arghhh!"

Many soldiers were crushed before they could even attempt to evade. Several battlements were already reduced to grotesque rubble.

The speed and power of these attacks were unlike anything a conventional catapult could achieve.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

The walls crumbled, and the soldiers' screams echoed ceaselessly.

Reynan watched, trembling uncontrollably.

It felt like a nightmare. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, his vision filled with crumbling castle debris and the mangled remains of his soldiers.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"How... how could it have this much power..."

A typical catapult couldn't cause significant damage to this fortress. But these strange siege weapons wielded by the Fenris army displayed devastating power.

Bit by bit, the massive walls were being torn down from the top.

Reynan snapped out of his stupor when a knight shouted beside him.

"Commander! You need to issue orders immediately!"

Having assumed the enemy lacked siege weapons, no preparations had been made for this kind of assault.

The defenses were solely focused on countering Count Fenris and his knights scaling the walls.

But Count Fenris himself had yet to appear. Only stones rained down relentlessly, battering the fortress.

With no options, Reynan shouted, "Use our catapults! Attack their camp! And order the soldiers to take cover below the walls!"

There was no staying on the walls with such an assault. The soldiers needed to retreat to safety.

Following his orders, the soldiers quickly descended beneath the walls.

Screeeech... Boom! Boom!

Rodrick territory's catapults launched stones toward the Fenris camp.

But Reynan didn't have much hope for their success. The Fenris army was well outside the range of their catapults.

This was why they hadn't used them before. They had been held in reserve for when the enemy charged.

Yet, from such a distance, the Fenris catapults continued to relentlessly pound the walls.

"What... what kind of range is that..."

Their loading speed, destructive power, and range were all on a completely different level.

It was an utterly one-sided attack. There was nothing they could do.

"Mages! Can't the mages do anything?"

Rodrick's mages all shook their heads.

The most skilled among them was only a 4th-circle mage, while the rest were at the 2nd or 3rd circle at best. There weren't many left, as most capable mages had been taken by Marquis Rodrick.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

Reynan could only watch in despair as the walls slowly crumbled.

The soldiers, knights, ballistae, and catapults—all the defenses they had prepared—were useless.

Boom! Crash!

The catapults themselves were destroyed under the relentless assault.

Boom! Crash!

The large ballistae stationed across the walls were no exception.

These weren't random attacks. The Fenris catapults were striking their targets with astonishing precision.

"How can such catapults even exist..."

The technological gap was insurmountable. Defending against such weapons was impossible.

Boom! Crash!

After breaking down Linderstein's defenses, the Fenris army concentrated their attacks on several sections of the walls.

And Reynan knew all too well what that meant.

"Everyone, form ranks and prepare for battle!"

Hearing his order, the soldiers' faces turned pale with fear.

Boom!

After hours of nonstop bombardment, several sections of the walls finally gave way.

Rumble!

Parts of the wall collapsed under the concentrated attacks, leaving behind debris that created ramps easily scaled by cavalry.

Seeing this, Ghislain smirked coldly and pulled on the reins of Black King.

"Let's go."

Neighhh!

The Black King let out an exhilarated cry and charged forward. Behind it, the Fenris knights and soldiers followed in turn.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

Reynan could only watch helplessly. Trying to counterattack from atop the walls was a fantasy at this point.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

The remaining Fenris soldiers continued to fire stones, preventing any retaliation.

All the siege weapons had been destroyed, and no one could even climb the walls. Reynan's face turned ashen with despair.

"This... this is the so-called 'Strongest of the North,' Fenris…"

He had scoffed at the stories when he'd first heard them, dismissing them as the arrogance of poor provincials.

But it was he who had been mistaken.

This army, forged in the harsh conditions of the North and tempered by unending wars, had developed a level of skill far beyond his imagination.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

As nearly 10,000 cavalry began to move, the ground trembled. The soldiers of Linderstein could only breathe heavily, trembling in fear.

The army they had heard so many rumors about was here—the one that slaughtered its enemies without mercy.

Unconsciously, they began to step back, inch by inch.

And then, it happened.

Neighhhh!

With a thunderous cry, a lone man charged through the broken section of the wall.

Crash!

"Arghhh!"

Ghislain plunged into the enemy ranks in an instant. As he swung his spear, Rodrick forces' formation crumbled in the blink of an eye.

Boom! Crash! Boom!

The Fenris catapults had already ceased firing, but Rodrick's soldiers were too busy trying to evade the attacks to even think of countering.

Every swing of Ghislain's spear caused a sound like thunder.

In fact, the mana he was exuding was so intense that even the ground bore marks where his spear moved, regardless of whether it struck a soldier.

"A monster! He's a monster!"

"It's Count Fenris! Count Fenris is here!"

"Run! We can't beat him!"

The Rodrick soldiers immediately recognized the man at the forefront as Ghislain.

A man with blazing red eyes, riding a massive black horse—there wasn't a single person in the kingdom who didn't know who that described.

With their walls breached and their morale shattered long ago, Rodrick's soldiers couldn't even put up a proper resistance.

And then, following Ghislain, the Fenris knights crossed over as well.

Crash!

They advanced without hesitation, mowing down Rodrick's forces.

"Arghhh!"

The soldiers, prepared for a defensive battle, were ill-equipped for this. They had no cavalry and barely any proper heavy infantry.

There was no way they could stop the knights' charge.

Reynan screamed in frustration as he watched his soldiers collapse so easily.

"Fight! Fight, damn it! We outnumber them by far!"

But no matter how much he yelled, it was useless. Once the Fenris cavalry joined the fray, Rodrick's army crumbled like a sandcastle.

"Arghhh!"

"Spare me!"

"Run away!"

The Rodrick soldiers abandoned the fight altogether. With the castle wall they had relied on now in ruins, their will to fight had been completely broken.

As the soldiers fled, what followed was a massacre. On foot and unable to escape, they were quickly hunted down by Fenris cavalry.

Reynan, too, fled with tears of blood in his eyes, accompanied by the knights still loyal to him.

He had lost Linderstein, the heart and pride of Rodrick territory, without even putting up a proper fight.

"Because of those damned catapults!"

If he had known about the existence of Fenris' new weapon, he could have prepared differently. This humiliating defeat could have been avoided.

"Just wait! I'll make sure the Marquis knows about this…"

He never got to finish his sentence. At some point, a red-haired man had approached him.

"There you are! You're the commander, right?"

"W-who are you?"

"I'm Kaor, the man stronger than Gillian. Don't forget that, even in the afterlife."

Gillian had remained behind in Fenris to defend it. For Kaor, this was a great opportunity to build his own reputation.

Unfortunately, Reynan couldn't quite understand what Kaor was saying.

"What? White Lion Gillian?"

"I said Kaor!"

The name of "White Lion" Gillian had become well-known across the kingdom, but Reynan had never heard of Kaor before.

Before Reynan could respond, Kaor's blade struck.

Slash!

"Guh..."

Reynan's head was severed by Kaor's enraged strike. Even as he died, Reynan couldn't understand why Kaor had been so angry.

"I'm stronger, you know?"

Those were the last words Reynan heard.

With their commander dead, Rodrick's soldiers had no reason left to fight.

They threw down their weapons and fled. Those who failed to escape threw themselves to the ground, crying out.

"We surrender!"

"Please spare us!"

"We'll serve Fenris!"

Realizing they couldn't escape from mounted cavalry, the soldiers fell to their knees, repeatedly shouting their surrender.

As the enemy capitulated, the Fenris knights and soldiers raised their weapons and shouted.

"We've won!"

"The castle is ours!"

"Hurrah!"

Their faces were alight with excitement. To think they had captured one of the kingdom's most famous castles in a single day.

They had known the catapults were powerful, but this was their first time using them in actual combat. The results exceeded all expectations.

Ghislain, too, smiled as he withdrew his spear and praised his soldiers.

But capturing the castle was not the end. The next battle was already on the horizon.

"The pursuing forces will arrive soon. We need to prepare for them."

At Ghislain's words, the soldiers' cheers quieted. But it wasn't out of fear. Their faces still radiated confidence.

It was simply a testament to their discipline that they could immediately regain focus at Ghislain's command.

Surveying them with a satisfied expression, Ghislain gave his next order.

"Dismantle the catapults and reassemble them into medium-sized ones to place along the walls. Let's give the next wave of enemies a nice surprise."

At his command, the soldiers quickly sprang into action. There was no time to rest or clean up the battlefield.

Soon, 100 medium-sized catapults were erected atop Linderstein's walls.

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