Regressor of the Fallen Family - Chapter 149
Regressor of the Fallen Family Chapter 149
The faction alliance forces, having drawn back due to the overwhelming number of troops of McLaine and the injuries of Luther Kaihl, did not immediately advance again. Although it was anticipated that their movements would be slower due to the split in their command, it still did not mean that one could be at ease.
The McLaine troops of Aegis operated a double shift for the watch, keeping an eye on all sides, and the key leaders including the knights almost stayed up all night with open eyes.
“Has there been any contact from His Grace the Sword Sage?”
“……The neutral forces’ troops haven’t fully gathered yet. Plus, considering the time it takes to march, it would take at least a month more. So, that’s why they too would have such a leisurely attitude.”
“That’s a grim prospect.”
“We can hold on. We must make something out of nothing if we don’t have it. And we’ve already succeeded once.”
However, even with Logan’s confident expression, it was impossible to fully erase the anxiety from Patrick.
“But they say the Blaze Sword and the Ice Mage are a cut above the Storm Sword and the Half-Giant. Can we stop them too?”
“Those individuals can’t stray far from the side of the first and second princes—the reasons for war. Like yesterday, we’ll likely have the magic of Juan Douglas flying at us occasionally. And that level is……”
“Right, my daughter-in-law managed to block them well. That was a good sword to give her.”
“Daugh… Hmm. Hmm. Yes.”
“Sigh, my apologies for always speaking of weaknesses. Let’s muster up a bit more strength.”
The next morning after Patrick regained his composure once more, McLaine witnessed a slightly different scene.
“Lengthen your necks, McLaine’s cowards, who cower!”
A booming voice echoed throughout the entire battlefield. As the gray-haired giant started to move, red wraiths flickered around his body. The moment the giant charged, the wraiths turned into a giant flame, creating a mirage as if a red meteor was rushing towards them.
At first, the distance was too great for many to recognize him, but soon the presence of one of the most famous individuals in the kingdom, a symbol, made them recall the name immediately.
“The Blaze Sword!”
“It’s Duke Valdermaine!”
Unlike the previous day, the superhuman who emerged from the second prince’s camp wasn’t the Half-Giant Luther Kaihl but The Blaze Sword, Yordan Valdermaine, a well-known Aura User and one of the leaders of the opposing enemy forces.
“Kill him!”
“If we kill that man!”
Before Logan could issue an order, several soldiers shot crossbows. The projectile happened before Duke Yordan had even entered their range. Subsequently, the soldiers around hurriedly fired their crossbows as well.
Ultimately, it looked as if an oddly accelerating fireball(?) had jumped right into the shower of bolts. As Logan was about to erupt in rage, he hesitated.
Sure enough.
Pop-pop-pop!
The bolts were ineffectually deflected away, and the fireball surged up towards the city wall as if unaffected.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Before Logan could even make a request, a vast magical power could be felt behind him. The ascending fireball then suddenly plummeted down to the ground.
Gravity Control.
It was Clayton’s magic, which had knocked down Luther Kaihl and gained him confidence, now working against the higher-ranking superhuman, Yordan.
“Throw!”
Knights nearby quickly scooped up and hurled red-hot stones toward Yordan.
Instantly, over thirty Liberatios hit the fiery target accurately.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
With a massive explosion, a huge cloud of dust rose into the air.
“We got him……!”
“Keep throwing! Don’t stop!”
Just as the soldiers were about to prematurely cheer, Logan’s shouts spurred the knights on.
“Annoying pests!”
From within the dust cloud, a growl resembling a giant beast or demon resonated along with the surging red aura.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
The repetitive barrage of Liberatios pushed the uprising Yordan Valdermaine back to the ground. However, the impact of McLaine’s new weapons on the superhuman was merely that brief.
The red aura, visible through the dust, did not lessen but instead grew stronger.
“First, second, and third squads focus only on the duke! Keep throwing!”
Following Logan’s bellowing commands, the knights’ throwing continued.
“Patrol Teams 1 to 5! All focus on that target only! Think it’s me because of the hair color! Assume I’m the one and kill me!!”
The well-known General Instructor, also infamous as the Demon Instructor from Kaisolron, shouted, and again a rain of bolts were cast.
“Worthless mortals……!”
Pop-pop-pop!
Roaarrr!
“Incredibly robust. Well, that’s a relief, I guess.”
Logan gritted his teeth at the sight of the red aura that remained unyielded under concentrated fire. The idea that it could withstand direct attacks after being hit by a 6th circle magic spell was absurd.
However, at least they had prevented the superhuman from climbing the walls. If they could stop other superhumans in that manner, things would undoubtedly be easier…
“His Highness! To the south!”
Crack.
“Let’s go!”
The superhuman from the first prince’s army, Wicken Callian, was an entity that could not be countered by projectile weapons. It was a matter of compatibility with the power difference among superhumans as commonly known.
‘Only I can block him.’
Fortunately, since the last war, it had been proven that he could endure ignoring the aura’s destructive properties due to achievements gained.
‘I can do it. Perhaps even more than that…’
Logan, feeling incremental progress in himself through fierce battles with the superhumans, charged towards the superhuman swirling with a silver wind and soaring over the city wall with reinvigorated morale.
The faction alliance forces did not retreat as easily as before. The unexpected military power of McLaine had been assessed during the last battle, and unlike yesterday, the superhumans were staunchly holding the front lines.
However, the overwhelming firepower of the new weapons inflicted significant casualties on the faction soldiers, visibly demoralizing them in real-time.
The situation on the eastern city wall was slightly different. The firepower focused on Duke Yordan had created vulnerabilities.
Utilizing that gap, knights climbed the slippery, firm walls using their spears and swords as footholds, and one after another, successfully ascended.
However, what awaited them was…
“Swamp!”
“Solid!”
“Clay Binding!”
The ground turned into a swamp, the large, ochre-shining shields held by giant soldiers, and the onslaught of mud that bound them completely.
Due to the heavy presence of knights in the army of the second prince, golem tower mages had been concentrated on the eastern wall.
“Damn it!”
“Damn mages!”
Thus slowed, McLaine’s knights ferociously attacked the immobilized men.
“Aaargh!”
Initially, McLaine’s strategic distribution of forces seemed to shine.
But with numbers alone more than double that of the troops, and an indisputably greater number of knights as the leading force, the alliance’s assaults were relentless, and the number of knights ascending the wall only continued to increase.
“Lord of McLaine……!”
Zshh.
“Cough, cough!”
“Yes. That’s me.”
Cutting down the enemy knights relentlessly and watching his son fighting a tough battle, Patrick saw figures that made him extremely unsettled.
‘Damn it.’
Hovering right below the wall were elite knights, blocking bolts and bombs with their force blades as they looked for a chance to penetrate the defenses.
‘Jorje from Marquis Kaihl’s household, Harvey Milner from Count Tritan’s household, Oliver Ortega from the Cherno family…’
A brief glimpse of the names he knew meant they were all outstanding individuals. Considering more that he couldn’t see, it was expected that there would be more than ten elite knights from the faction alliance forces.
‘If they seriously join in…’
Patrick couldn’t help but be dragged into a gloomy train of thoughts.
However, at some point, he felt a subtle change in the tide of the relentless battle.
Eileen swung her sword into the void every time a foreign sensation was felt in her acute senses. Each time, a surge of chilling cold air exploded from the void.
Fortunately, her sword Frigus neutralized most of the cold, leaving only a cool breeze around them, barely noticeable as it was swept away by the heat of the battlefield.
“Is that a woman……?!”
Slash.
“Gurgh…”
That was the thirteenth fool today who had easily offered his life.
She did not find any joy in realizing that her gender could serve as a weapon as a knight. She simply stayed alert for traces of long-range magic cast by mages, swinging her sword and relentlessly cutting down ascending knights.
Being in charge of the defensive duties on the north wall, the fact that she was now rampant on the south wall had long left her mind.
‘young lord Logan is fighting hard too.’
Logan, who was turning pale, was engaged in his territory in a battle with the superhuman.
Without the nerve to assist in that fight, Eileen merely focused on her role in front of her.
Then, at some point, something strange caught her eye.
‘They’re retreating?’
It wasn’t a conspicuous retreat, but she spotted knights from the ‘First Prince’s Army’ falling back one by one. And like Patrick, the top-tier knights she had been monitoring also started to return to the main camp rather than seizing the opportunity to climb the wall, seemingly due to an irrefutable order from above.
‘Why?’
From a certain moment, only a few knights remained below the wall, defending against the incoming assault, along with some soldiers who were futilely shooting arrows.
From afar, it might seem like a desperate battle was still ongoing, but the soldiers on the south and west walls, holding back the offensive of the first prince’s army, were feeling in real-time that knights were disappearing from their sight and the battle was easing.
‘What’s happening?’
The incomprehensible self-harm continued for hours.
And then, a furious shout erupted from Yordan, who had been enduring the countless resources on the eastern wall.
“Retreat!! Retreat!”
A command from the head of the second prince’s army.
With that signal, the second prince’s forces began to retreat like the tide, and the first prince’s army, which had been pretending to be engaged, also hastily withdrew.
“Uh…?!”
“They’re retreating!”
“Wowaaah!”
“We’ve won again!”
The weary soldiers filled the city walls with their roaring cheers.
But then, the heads of McLaine themselves, bewildered by the retreat of the enemy, heard a cold voice.
“……The reason is obvious.”
“Excuse me?”
Logan looked coldly at one spot and said,
“Compare the number of corpses beneath the wall.”
“Ah…!”
“The deep-rooted mistrust among themselves. That is the biggest weakness of our enemies that allows us to hold on.”
When Eileen finally nodded, and Logan watched both factions retreat with a chilly smile, a furious outburst tore through the central tent of the retreated formation of the second prince.
Bang!
“What is this madness, Juan?! Are we to overthrow the agreement upon coming this far?!”
[Easy now. Calm down. Our casualties were too high, we had no choice.]
“You mean your casualties were high, so you’ve decided to impose losses on us? In the face of the enemy? Even a three-year-old knows that’s plain stupid! To think a so-called mage could be such an imbecile!”
[Watch your mouth, Yordan. Aren’t you suggesting our army fought ‘harder’ than yours?]
The shameless expression of Juan Douglas visible through the communication device further ignited Yordan’s fury.
“Nonsense! Do not take me for a fool, Juan. It’s just that with Wicken held back by that brat, our casualties increased. If you resented that, you should have propelled yourself to the front lines. Like me! Or were you too cowardly to do so?”
[……With Luther incurring severe injuries and retreating, forcing me to move my large frame is preposterous. I am now worried if Luther can adequately protect the prince in your stead.]
“Threats at this time? Are you insane, Juan? Are we to wage war amongst ourselves again after coming this far?”
[Let’s be honest. Why not consider the essential issues instead of throwing around blame?]
“Are you insane……!”
Yordan was about to spit out curses, but Juan continued his narrative unabated.
[Why did we stay close to the princes? Isn’t it because we mistrust each other? If we briefly trust each other and both you and I, Luther and Wicken, were all to march to the battlefield, how long would those trapped bat brats in that earth fortress last?]
“Hahaha! A backstabber now speaks of trust? You’ve a talent for clowning, Juan. I give you that; it’s quite amusing.”
[I apologize for being the first to withdraw the troops.]
“……What?”
Yordan was taken aback, having never expected to hear an apology from Juan.
[Let’s avoid such situations again and discuss a settlement. If you were in the same position as me, what would you have done? Would you have unilaterally accepted the damage for the sake of the common enemy? Don’t make me laugh, Yordan. You would have made the same choice, wouldn’t you?]
“……”
[Yes, you can’t deny it. And while we’re at it, the ones benefitting the most are those bat brats inside the fortress. Can you imagine how irritating that is? So let’s make a solid promise.]
“……Let’s hear the details.”
The communication between the two superhumans lasted quite a while.