Chapter 288.
Yvain and Ovain looked around in a relaxed manner despite the enemy’s gazes focused on them.
"As Crow Prince said, there are five madosas."
"Yvain and I will cover two madosas and magicians each."
"Crow Princess, please deal with one madosa."
Saying so, the twins rushed in at the same time. Yvain threw a dagger at Delta and Lambda each in provocation, and Ovain attacked Mu and Iota on the wall. Naturally, Leisha confronted Beta.
"Jeez, I don’t want to fight women and children,” Beta said but still infused mana into his magic wand. He continued, "Yet, war is violence that doesn’t take age and gender into account, so I can’t help it."
Leisha was nervous about the madosa’s vast and deadly mana. The opponent was stronger than herself. As soon as she could sense this fact through her skin, she could feel her blood boiling.
"How funny, but it won’t be one-sided violence!" Explosive martial aura and mana erupted from Leisha’s entire body.
Beta’s eyes opened wide when he saw this. "Outstanding mana at an early age, at least at the level of being a great magician. A so-called genius. All right!"
Beta and Leisha began a battle of control for the area, painting their surroundings with their mana. It was no exaggeration to say that a fight between magicians was a battle dictated by the amount of control they could each wield over the surrounding mana. The invisible fighting of their auras remained precarious despite the overwhelming difference in level.
"Dube! Merik! Phecda! Megrez! Tie four stars together and become a monster! Come on out, beast of seven stars!"
The tense battle collapsed with Leisha’s advance. A translucent right hand dressed in adamantium armor punched Beta from a magic circle, which was created in the air with Leisha’s incantation.
Beta flew up quickly to avoid the punch and was astonished. "What! That’s not a monster that can be handled at the level of a great magician!"
Even though the monster had only revealed a part of its body, Beta trembled from the power that he could feel from it. Beta’s judgment was accurate. Leisha had only pulled out one arm and attacked, but she was overwhelmed from just controlling the monster.
"It’s no problem!" Leisha bluffed, waving her magic wand and shooting out flames.
The arm that Leisha brought out was an alchemic life form created by her teacher, Mirpa. Its power was similar to a disaster-class spirit that Mirpa had given Leisha to use after crossing the wall of the Magic Way. Leisha failed to cross the wall of the Magic Way, but she had to bring out such a monster to narrow the gap against a madosa.
Beta waved his magic wand in the sky. "Rain falling in the darkness sneaks up and whispers!"
Getting goosebumps from Beta’s magic, Leisha covered herself with her summoned right arm. Immediately after blocking with the right arm, Beta unleashed countless black raindrops, which started to collide with the adamantium armor.
"Ugh!" Leisha clenched her teeth under the pressure of the forceful pouring black rain.
"The breath of life is benevolent, eat! Grow!" When Leisha scattered a handful of seeds and magic reagents from her pocket space around the whole area, trees began to grow rapidly everywhere. Beta magically cut down the trees by making wind blades, but the tree with the magic reagent grew so fast that it had already covered part of the wall.
"Move! Attack my enemy!"
At Leisha’s command, a small forest stretched out a thick branch and attacked Beta. Beta wielded his magic wand, infusing magic power. "Hellfire from hell falls down!"
From Beta’s magic wand, an extremely hot hellfire began to burn the trees. The flaming branches stretched toward Beta but soon became ash and withered away. Yet, Leisha’s purpose was not to attack using the branches. While Beta’s gaze was distracted by the tree, Leisha pulled out a giant left arm behind Beta and stretched it towards him.
"Ugh!" Leisha was sweating like a waterfall from controlling both arms.
Beta instantly created a barrier and prevented his body from being directly grabbed. "Whew, that could have been dangerous."
When the hand initially wrapped around him, he panicked, but as time passed, the force that the large left hand pressed against the barrier became weaker. This was proof that Leisha was having trouble controlling it.
Beta released mana and created a gap in the grasping hand, and escaped. Then, he began drawing a summoning magic circle in the air. "Summon! Watchdog of Hell!"
In an instant, the space within the completed summoning magic circle was distorted, and a giant cerberus with three heads stuck its heads out. Beta looked at the cerberus with sad eyes. "Go, Zeta! No, cerberus of Senior Smith!"
"Kuaaaaaa!" The air trembled as the three dog heads howled.
Cerberus completely emerged from the summoning magic circle, and it rushed toward Leisha as soon as it landed. Leisha returned the summoned alchemic lifeform’s left arm and blocked Cerberus with the right arm.
"Keuk!"
A single head of the Hell’s Watchdog was twice the size of the cerberus that they raised back in her hometown, and its power was unparalleled.
"The breath of darkness is benevolent! Mercy of death to the enemy!" Black fog gushed out of Beta’s magic circle and poured down quickly.
Feeling a creepy aura from the fog, Leisha infused mana into her wand with all her strength and recited an incantation in response. "Dragon howling at dawn! Knight! Where did the morning sun go? Ah! A dragon has eaten the morning sun!"
But before the incantation was finished, the black fog quickly reached Leisha.
Dangerous! As her survival instinct rang loudly, Leisha circulated her mana circuit to the limit and took the risk of attempting a double incantation.
"And so, the dragon’s breath must burn like the morning sun! Dragon Breath!”
"Alioth! Mizar! Alkaid, three stars come together to form the handle of the dipper! So combine seven stars together to form the dipper! Show yourself to the fullest! Beast of seven stars!"
The dragon breath was sped up in its completion and darted toward Beta. At the same time, the summoned giant translucent knight surrounded Leisha’s body and defended her from the black fog. Leisha, simultaneously performing two magics that were challenging for even a madosa, vomited blood as her mana flowed backward.
As Leisha fell, Mac caught her. "Jeez, don’t push yourself too hard.”
Leisha didn’t even recognize Mac, and she checked Beta with blurry vision before she fainted. Beta had blocked her magic, but a huge arrow was stuck in his shoulder. It wasn’t until Leisha saw the arrow that she noticed Mac’s presence, but she soon fainted.
"I was having fun with the Mercenary King hyung, but I can’t help it. Let’s pull out!"
At Mac’s cry, the Yvain and Ovain brothers who were dealing with the madosas and the magicians began to make a retreat. Carrying Leisha like luggage, Mac jumped off the wall, smacking his lips with regret.
* * *
After seeing the situation on the walls with clairvoyance magic, I put my magic wand back into my pocket space. I was preparing for a long-range attack, but fortunately, I didn’t have to waste my mana. While I was focusing my attention on the walls, Caradoc magically mimicked my voice and worked hard on commanding through the radio.
"Good work, Caradoc."
I was looking at the situation from time to time, but it seemed like it would be better if Caradoc conducted the war than if I did. He wasn’t called an unprecedented genius of tactics in history for no reason.
"No, it was fun to be in command after a long time. But the other commander is amazing, too.”
I had no choice but to nod at Caradoc’s compliment. No matter how closely Mac hyung was watching Fourth Sister while destroying the siege defense weapons, the Mercenary King continued to command seamlessly while dealing with Mac hyung.
"If that person is the commander, it’ll be too risky to occupy the fort in three days."
Gwalchavad and Tristan were astonished at Caradoc’s assessment.
"For Ahjussi to say that... he’s that skilled?”
"That’s impressive, to even receive Sir Caradoc’s recognition.”
I pondered over Caradoc’s comments. Tristan asked in a calm voice, having noticed what I was thinking, "Should I assassinate him?"
I shook my head. "No, let’s try to capture him alive if possible."
According to my information, Malecia was a highly cherished subordinate of the Curse Specialist, Aries. His value as a hostage was considerable. Caradoc laughed helplessly at my judgment. "That won’t be easy. I realized from the way he commanded his soldiers that he is the type that’s very difficult to assassinate or capture."
I looked at Caradoc, and he nodded and continued to explain. "My guess is heavily based on my experience, but he is the type to put his safety first over winning or losing. If necessary, he will desert without hesitation."
Tristan smiled bitterly as if remembering something from his previous life. "It’s definitely hard to assassinate that type of person. He’ll survive no matter how hard I drive him into a corner.”
Caradoc looked interestedly at the fortress walls. "I think there’s something more to it than a difference in skills. It’s been a while since I’ve wanted to emerge victorious against someone. That’s why it’s also a shame. The battle would’ve been fierce if we fought on equal terms."
As of now, the empire had an overwhelming advantage, but time was not on our side. I opened the radio channel and gave instructions.
"Command headquarters speaking to the entire army. The 14th Army will return to the rear and rest, and the 8th Army will attack the fort." Four people, including Fourth Sister, had just disturbed the forces on the wall, so there shouldn’t be any threatening magic attacks even if the troops were replaced.
At my command, the 14th Army quickly began to retreat, and the 8th Army filled the vacancy.
Seeing this, I murmured, "Then shall we try to further exhaust him to capture him alive?”
Seeing Mac hyung carrying Leisha noona over like luggage, I got ready to treat her.
* * *
Malecia comforted the soldiers on the wall and looked at the magicians. "Is Beta all right?"
The other madosa were tired, but they weren’t injured like Beta. Beta said, "Ahaha, I’m fine. I’m sorry. I let my guard down."
"No. Rather, I’m sorry. I should have held down that sly Crow better.” Malecia sighed. That person was a powerful individual, one that Malecia himself wouldn’t be able to compete against one-on-one. Nevertheless, he was able to deal with the Crow’s many attacks. However, that was only because the person who introduced himself as Mac was unable to focus entirely on their fight.
"What about the damage to the magicians?" Malecia asked.
Delta sighed and reported, "52 dead, 30 seriously injured. All the rest have minor injuries."
Malecia bit his lips lightly. "The magicians’ power has been greatly reduced. I’m sorry, but can Iota and Mu lead the magicians and deal with the surprise attack that will come from the left and right cliffs?”
At the instruction of Malecia, Iota and Mu looked at Malecia curiously. "Now? No, was it possible to make a detour before? It’s pretty rough."
Malecia nodded. "I think the opponent is looking at the situation as if he were watching from above. If so, then he can guide the troops making the detour."
"What? I’ve never heard that something like that was even possible?"
Malecia sighed at Mu’s rebuttal. "If this weren’t true, how would the opponent be able to pinpoint the location and scope of a great magic attack? The opponent is madosa level. If you act using common sense, you’ll lose."
Everyone shut their mouths at Malecia’s convincing remarks.
"All right. Then, let’s go to the cliff." Iota sympathized with Mu’s words and led the magicians.
Malecia looked at the far-off enemy command headquarters and thought. Just what kind of monster is over there?
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