Leave a comment

Lucas. The guild master of Shining guild was a close combat damage dealer who also used two-handed swords. As number 3 in the top-ranking users, he was truly a powerful user who deserved to be in that spot.

If I or Katalina didn’t exist in this server, he would definitely be in the number 1 spot for England, and even when comparing his levels to other country rankings, his number of levels would be similar to or higher than the number 1 ranking user of those countries. On the other hand, that meant that I and Katalina’s level numbers were insanely higher than others.

The reason why all that was possible was because she and I had begun playing at the very beginning of the game and we had also invested enormous amounts of wealth into it.

There was also the fact that Katalina and I were more diligent and had more courage than the average high-class people, which was a compounding factor in having such a high number of levels.

On top of that, there was no denying the fact that I had an extremely high amount of luck attributed to me which helped me achieve this level.

Thinking this way, it also meant that Lucas must have been pretty lucky as well, more than others. But perhaps he also had some bad luck as he ended up playing on the same server as us.

“I wish to give suggestions to the Lord of Camelot, Madame Artoria. To try and block the hole created on a ship that has begun sinking is for naught, as by logic you would only delay its inevitable drowning. How about casting away your vestige of the past and old name and come join the Shining guild? You shall be given the title of Lordship not just in name but in practicality gain the power of being the guild leader of Shining guild as well as have a secure seat as the lord.”

I heard a declamatory speech from Lucas. It was a clear provocation as he was assuming I was a materialistic person.

“If that’s the case, please join our side, Sir Lucas. I think I can spare you at least the title of Charge Captain.”

Everyone waited with bated breath as they listened to how I was going to respond, but all I did was simply throw his question right back at him. The expressions of the guild members around me looked as if they felt delighted by my retort.

“What a shame. Personally speaking, I didn’t wish for us to meet each other as enemies like this.”

Since all I needed to do was reduce the Siege battle time as much as I could, I enjoyed his little attempt at persuading me since all it did was waste time for his siege. I was utterly indifferent to the conversation we had anyways, so it seemed like he also knew that the discussion would be of no use to him.

It looked like he had finally made the choice as the Shining guild’s army stationed outside started to jolt and move. As the number of mercenaries they had was little, they had no choice but to send out their true military forces first, meaning that the siege towers and catapults started to move out and deploy.

“Everyone, let’s move to the outer wall.”
“Yes, my lord.”

As the main forces of the enemy military were moving in, there was no way to believe that our mercenary forces would be able to defend against them, so I ordered the army to move towards the outer walls.

With no complaints coming from any of them, they obeyed without question and moved out to the outer walls. I divided the troop numbers proportionate to the number of enemies that were coming from that particular direction.

“Mr. Vane, bring the 10th division with you and go to the West.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Mr. Ex, please go with the 6th division to the East.”
“Yes, my Lord.”

As the troops were already divided into divisions, spreading their numbers to each area was a perfect match. On top of that, their absolute obedience to my orders made sure that there was no hitch in making the army generals follow my will.

“Oh! It’s Madame Artoria.”
“It’s the first time I’m seeing her face to face!”
“I’ll have to record some videos.”

As I stood on top of the outer walls, I gained the attention of all the mercenaries that were guarding that area. Though I had never shown my real face except to the guild members, I had already shown my face in a grand fashion, so there was no one that wouldn’t be able to recognize it.

Considering that there were quite a lot of users who were not on ‘real mode’, they would probably be able to discern just from looking at my ID anyway.

Putting on my best public smile, I greeted them as I went to the castle walls. Even though the number of mercenaries was small, a huge number of Shining guild members were surrounding the entire castle as they moved in.

I didn’t have a sense of dread as I did in the previous siege battle. Instead of low and dilapidated castle walls, we had a tall and strong wall as well as numerous defensive weapons, so I felt that we were perfectly suited to defend against the attack. The deep and wide moat located outside of the castle walls was perfect to stop any siege towers from moving in as well.

It was up to the Shining guild to use any method they wished to attack us with, but it seemed to me like there was no way for them to easily get over the outside wall without suffering heavy casualties first.

As opposed to how I was feeling, the other guild members around me were tense. Even if they were veterans that had experienced numerous battles, unless they had an absolute guarantee that they would be able to overpower any enemy force that came to them, they were sure to be tense about the possibility of losing.

But since I knew that it was a very natural feeling to have in this situation, I didn’t particularly go out of my way to give them a speech. It was obvious that it would only exhaust me mentally, and just having my mind filled with thoughts of how I had to respond to their numerous possible methods of attack was already giving me a headache.

Though each division commander was the one that would be directing their troops in the battle, it was still my role as someone who was at the top to have tactical plans against enemy movement.

‘I’m sure Lina is doing well.’

The thought of Katalina who should be commanding the troops like me in Carlisle City at the moment came to mind. As a mage, defending castles was probably her specialty¹.

She may have already landed a huge magic attack on the enemy headquarters before the battle even began. If I could, I would have landed a meteor strike right in the center of the enemy army that had grouped up right away.

“The enemy catapults have entered the shooting range.”

The Shining guild forces had finally entered shooting range. They looked at me as if they were hoping I was going to give the firing order right away.

Without delay, I raised one arm into the air. That was the signal. The ballistae and catapults aimed towards the enemy forces.

It seemed like the enemy forces must have noticed it turning towards them, as they began moving in a frenzy. It was the sense of fear that struck their hearts knowing that there was going to be a barrage of attacks from the powerful murderous weapons aimed directly at them.

“Fire!”

My raised arm pointed towards the enemy forces, signaling the firing of weapons.

Whoosh…

The sounds of heavy stones rushing through the air rang out as the stones flew high up in the air. As opposed to this, the giant arrows of ballistae drew a more gentle curvature as they were fired towards the enemies.

However they wished to approach the castle, the lethal weapons of the castle brought bloodshed to the enemies.

“Aaargh!”
“Kgh!”

The soldiers that had been inflicted injury from the ballista arrows were the lucky ones, as the soldiers that couldn’t avoid the catapult stones in times were crushed underneath and declared dead right away without being able to properly fight even once. It was truly the worst way to go.

“Retaliate! Fire!”

As soon as their formations broke apart and the number of wounded began to grow, the Shining guild force didn’t just stand by. By force, they moved their catapults as close to the firing range as they could, making sure to retaliate our attacks with their own catapults.

Catapults from both sides loudly threw heaps of rocks at each other, as screams came out from here and there. It was truly a chaotic scene.

However, the true atrocities hadn’t even begun yet.

“Archers, execute your volley!”
“Mages, be on standby as the enemy is still out of range! Save your mana!”

Each division followed their commander’s orders as best they could. The catapults focused their aim towards the siege that was advancing, and the enemies were desperately trying their best to keep it standing. It was usually the mages casting shields on the structure, and the best way to deal with this was to snipe the mages that were keeping those shields up.

“Fill up the moat!”
“Use blizzard to fill it up.”

The mages that were able to advance close with protection tried to use ice magic to freeze up the moat. Though it was a slippery surface, it was still better than being completely liquid where they couldn’t stand.

But we weren’t dumb enough to just stare as they attempt to do that. Soon the volley of arrows that were specifically aimed at the mages attempting to freeze up the moat with blizzard rained down on them, making them resemble hedgehogs as they fell.

Even so, this was the story of only one side of the whole battlefield and it didn’t mean that we were successfully blocking every method they were using to gain access. There was a part of the castle wall that had crumbled to the ground by the focused fire of the enemy catapults, so there were areas where enemies were about to breach and needed defense.

Therefore, I wasn’t able to stay in one place for too long.

Boom!!

A pillar of flame exploded at a nearby location. It seemed like the enemy mages were finally at a range where they were attacking with powerful spells.

The mages on our side weren’t willing to just stand by, as they began their magic attack as well.

“Die!!”
“No, you die!!”

As insults and coarse words were exchanged, powerful spells were being cast from both sides. Though the Shining guild had advantages in numbers, they also had the disadvantage of being on a plain with no obstacles at the same time, so the Shining guild had more damages inflicted on them than ours.

Though there was no siege tower that had successfully reached the castle walls yet, because of the volley of arrows, magic and rocks from the catapults, being on the top of the walls was no longer safe.

I was sure that by now they would send in their elite level special forces. Ones that were strong enough to climb the tall castle walls with ease and speed without being affected by the moats.

Once the attention of the allied forces became dispersed due to their invasion, they’d fill up the moats and advance the siege towers forward.

“It’s the paladins!!!”

Just as I thought! My predictions were all accurate. Though the paladins were not as powerful as the crusaders, they were still a very powerful force in the Shining guild and even though they were lower in terms of their level numbers, their fame in victories in guild wars was still evident. Their targets were usually medium-sized guilds, but the siege battles in which paladins were sent in to invade brought a 90% win rate to the Shining guild and it was a source of pride for them.

“Stop them, don’t let them get up here!”
“What about magic?”
“The enemies have used anti-magic to freeze all mana usage.”

To stop all casting of magic in a specific area using an anti-magic field meant that they were also not planning to use magic. It meant that they were carrying out a suicidal tactic of attacking with magic disabled on both sides, but in a situation like this, it was a disadvantage for our allies. It was because for the close combat damage dealers like them, magic attacks were their biggest weakness. On top of that, once the paladins started to climb onto the top of the castle walls, the mages and archers wouldn’t be able to keep the enemy siege towers in check.

‘It’s too early to call for a retreat back to the inner walls just yet.’

Feeling the gazes of commanders wanting me to make a decision already, I judged that it was still too early to retreat. Though the enemies were currently climbing up the castle walls, their numbers weren’t too great and the moat hadn’t even been filled up or frozen over yet.

If I did order retreat right now I would definitely be able to preserve much of the forces as they moved back into the inner walls, but there was no guarantee that there would be another disadvantage that could pop out once they were attacking the inner walls. To endure as much as we could for now would be the best thing for the troops who were defending and were in a comfortable position, and even though there would be sacrifices we’d be able to deal a lot of damage to the enemy.

“Move the mages and the healers to the back and prepare the close combat damage dealers for the invading of the enemy forces.”
“Yes, my lord.”

The guild members followed my order without any objection. The paladins then quickly scaled the castle walls in no time. No matter how tall the castle walls were, it was not a big obstacle for high-level elite users like them.

“Heheh, I’ve finally reached the t… Kgh!”

One of the Paladins climbed over the wall triumphantly. Coincidentally I was standing exactly where he was coming up, so he ended up as a bundle of EXP numbers for me before he could even finish his sentence.

Clang! Clang!

But to defend every part of the wall was too much for me to take care of, so the paladins that scaled up to the walls where there were relatively few allied forces stationed were able to begin their combat on top of the walls successfully.

Though it was easy to subdue the Paladin forces if they were separated from the groups, the situation was a bit different when there were two or three of them together. As we didn’t have many close combat damage dealers, we weren’t able to distribute them in even numbers throughout the walls.

Naturally, it was impossible for the allied forces who didn’t receive support from mages to quickly subdue the enemies. I was constantly taking down paladins as much as I could on the move, but these enemies kept appearing endlessly and kept scaling up the wall like relentless flies.

“My Lord! Watch out!!”

Hearing someone’s shout, I killed the paladin that was in front of my eyes and turned around in reaction to his voice. Giant catapult rocks were heading towards me at fast speed.

Though I would be able to dodge it if I wanted to, currently there were a number of allied and enemy forces locked in combat around me. If I did dodge this, their deaths were guaranteed to happen. I didn’t need to think too long.

Deciding for sure that it would be better to block it than to dodge it, I quickly moved one foot back and braced for the impact to go to my back. I then aimed the tip of my Excalibur right up to directly stab at the giant catapult boulder that was hurtling towards me.

Crumble…

A clamor of sound as sword and stone directly impacted each other rang out, as the giant boulder split in half and fell down directly.

Boom!

The rocks that split in half rolled down to the enemy’s side of the wall, and some of the unlucky paladins that were climbing up the wall in that area were crushed by the rocks.

“Argh!”

The paladin that was able to at least scream in pain was the lucky one.

“Whoa!”
“To split that giant boulder in half!²”

All the mercenaries and soldiers that looked at me with respect in their eyes became even more dedicated to my cause. Honestly, if you used a skill, any high-ranking user would be able to achieve this kind of thing but what I had done was destroy a hurtling giant boulder with just a simple attack by my sword.

It was a situation that was impossible to happen if it wasn’t for my insane strength stat, high-level and amazing equipment helping me out, so even I was amazed by the fact that I was able to cleave a boulder in half without suffering much damage.

But I couldn’t just stand there looking stunned for too long so I swung my sword as if it wasn’t a big deal and shook off the shock that was still in my mind by cutting down the paladins that were standing in awe.

1. Robinxen: As would be laying siege to them I assume. Crowd control, the secret meta of warfare.
2. Robinxen: Reminds me of Brynhildr