Zich and his companions instantly destroyed the top of the tower, but they didn’t stop there. The more space they had knocked down inside the fortress, the better. Zich encouraged Hans and Snoc to move spots next to the crumbled fortress walls, and Snoc placed his hand on the wall again.
“Block!” He heard someone yell above him. His enemies felt an intense sense of danger after the fortress’ wall suddenly broke. A flurry of attacks flew toward Zich’s companions, but again, Zich and Hans’ swords blocked all the attacks. Like he did before, Snoc pulled out all the stones at the foot of the fortress wall, like he had done to the adjacent one.
Crumble! The wall fell, and another entrance formed. Zich was still not satisfied with just this, and his companions moved to the next wall.
Their wall-crumbling efforts only came to an end when the soldiers started reaching the fortress. If they broke walls now, their allies might get swept by the fortress remains instead.
There were three entrances broken into the fortress now. If Steelwall tried to rebuild the fortress again, it would most likely cost a significant amount. However, it couldn’t be helped. They needed to investigate the Horus Gorge as soon as possible, and in order to minimize their sacrifices and save time, they needed to destroy parts of the fortress. After finishing his work, Zich turned to Hans and Snoc.
“It’s good here. You guys go and do what you have been doing,” Zich said, hinting at protecting Elena and Lara. The two nodded and moved instantly. They had already planned out Elena and Lara’s positions. When the two went farther away, Zich stared at the last hole they had made. There was still a hazy cloud of dust settling in the area, and Zich thought as he looked at it, ‘Should I go up the castle walls and crush the enemy’s troops? Or should I jump inside the fortress?’
Zich didn’t contemplate for long. ‘I will clear out the castle walls first.’
If this had been a battle between humans, Zich would have chosen to jump past the castle walls since if he got rid of the commanders first, the flow of the battle would turn in their favor or might even mark the end of the battle. Yet, this war wasn’t a normal war. It was a war with the undead led by Bellids. The concept of captives didn’t even exist on this battlefield, and it was a battle that would only end if the very last Bellid followers and undead were killed.
‘Right now, the more I get rid of, the better.’ To do so, Zich needed to sweep away the enemy forces attacking them on top of the fortress wall. Zich had no problem jumping on top of the wall even when it was completely fine; but now, as the wall remains acted as pedestals for him to step on, it made it even easier for Zich to jump over.
Thud! Zich lightly landed in the fortress, and all the enemy forces there rushed toward him. Sharp spears flew toward Zich, and Zich’s sword moved gracefully against them.
Sling! Sling! Sling! Rough metal clacked in quick succession and the spears that the undead were holding bounced off. The undead were not empty-handed with nothing to protect them as Zich swung his sword at them.
Slice! Slice! Slice! With slicing sounds, the undead running toward Zich shattered into pieces. Zich treaded forward while stepping over these remains and continued to swing his sword.
Swish! Swish! Sharp water trails flew between the undead. They were the Bellid followers’ attacks.
‘As expected, they are weak.’ Zich narrowed his eyes at the water squirts flying at him. Even though they had taken full control of a fortress, there weren’t many Bellid followers. If there had been more, they wouldn’t have shot these small water squirts, but used the stream flowing next to the fortress with their ritual.
‘Maybe this is more proof that there weren’t many Bellid followers that seeped into the fortress in the first place.’
There didn’t need to be many followers for a city sacrifice ritual. Even in the scheme to sacrifice Porti, the only one pushing the plan forward was Grotim, the vice-mayor of the city. At the same time, there could be another explanation for the lack of Bellid followers in the fortress.
‘The Bellid guys could be too focused on something else.’
They could be focused on something so important that it took precedence over protecting a fortress, and there was only one thing Zich could think of. Zich stared at the area beyond the fortress where the Horus Gorge was. Two cliffs stood facing each other proudly, as if they were higher than the sky. They seemed to be standing upright and boasting to each other that their height was taller than the other. If a landmass of their size crumbled, it was evident that the river would be blocked. The cliffs would lose their aloof atmosphere and take their anger out on the surroundings for their fall until they passed over the stone wall blocking their way.
‘Perhaps, it could be both.’ It was pointless to think about that now, and taking over the fortress took the utmost priority right now. Zich focused more power on his legs and sliced everything in his path.
Baaam! Then, Zich heard a faint explosion from afar. He glanced behind and saw a large explosion from inside the fortress. Elena had officially entered the battlefield. As expected of a talented pupil under a great master, Elena’s skills exploded as a result of many experiences. Now, she was annihilating her enemies with impressive fire magic, as if she was trying to boast.
‘She’s doing well.’ This battle was on a different scale than all the previous ones she had participated in. Without experiencing something like this first-hand, she wouldn’t know how to deal with the number of forces rushing at her.
‘Snoc is helping her well.’ The stone clumps scattered everywhere along with the explosions added validity to this thought.
‘I’m sure it helps that Elena’s mentality is strong too and that the undead are also her enemy.’ Magic was an outstanding ability to annihilate a large number of humans. However, if her enemies had been really humans instead of the undead, Elena wouldn’t have been able to unleash a string of spells without hesitation.
Baam! There was another explosion inside the fortress. This one was caused by a sword rather than magic. Hans and Lara were slashing their swords at the forces rushing at them. All the undead and Bellids blocking them were cut into pieces. Zich considered Hans as one of the three most talented people out of everyone he had met. Hans and Lara were both showcasing brilliant skills.
‘How could he try to make such a talented fighter give up on her sword?’ Zich clicked his tongue. Lara was someone who had joined the hero party that had defeated Zich while using a shield that wasn’t even her expertise. Her innate talent was astounding. Even though it wasn’t as great as Hans’ talent, Hans was a monster that even Zich was amazed by, so he couldn’t be used as a comparison.
Zich turned his gaze away from Lara and stared at the person who had treated Lara as a sidekick or an accessory. Glen was currently rushing towards the fortress with great speed. To no one’s surprise, Glen Zenard was participating in this battle. Zich felt Glen’s desperation to make an achievement greater than anyone else in this battle.
‘It would have been great if he had pure intentions.’ Zich barely repressed his desire to immediately jump over the wall and smack the back of Glen’s head. Glen’s companions seemed to be also showcasing their skills, but their impact wasn’t as great as Zich’s companions, so they didn’t get as much attention.
Bam! Bam! Zich saw Weig at work on another fortress wall. The priests, including Lubella, let out an extraordinary amount of holy mana toward the undead and melted them. Moreover, the knights from the Steelwall Estate swept through the battlefield like a tsunami. The combination of the Steelwall and Karuwiman forces, Glen’s party, and most of all, Zich’s party, was enough to mercilessly destroy the Bellid forces despite their geographical advantage. The battle lasted less than half a day, and ended with the joint forces’ perfect victory.
* * *
The state of the Steif Fortress after the end of the battle was appalling. Piles of undead corpses and fragments scattered between the crushed and burning fortress and buildings. The fortress’ walls had hit the peak of this devastation. However, this sight also meant that the victor and loser had been decided in this battle.
Normally, the victor would be happy without thinking about future events and celebrating their victory, but the joint forces were different. Their goal wasn’t to raid the Steif Fortress but to crush the conspiracy at the Horus Gorge. However, the Horus Gorge was large. Moreover, its terrain was extremely rough and rocky. True to its name, there were two enormous cliffs on both sides of the gorge. Since they didn’t know where the Bellids were plotting and causing chaos in this gorge, they needed to climb up dangerous cliffs and search all over the top of the cliffs to find the Bellids. This was no ordinary feat.
Since they didn’t have much time, the people going to investigate the top of the cliffs had to be superhumans such as knights or holy knights, but ordinary soldiers were going to also help investigate the bottom of the gorge. The best way to investigate with limited time was to employ as many people as possible. However, even then, they couldn’t immediately take their forces to investigate.
Even though they easily achieved victory, they still took control of the fortress. The soldiers were fatigued from their fight, and they didn’t know how long it would take to investigate the Horus Gorge. Naturally, they needed to spare time to rest.
Mihen first ordered the soldiers to organize and clean up the fortress. The soldiers began cleaning up the corpses and undead. The knights headed towards the camp they set up outside the fortress. Their plan was to take a short break at the camp that was quickly made for them to sleep and immediately be deployed to investigate the gorge.
On the other hand, some were full of energy, and Zich’s group was one of them. Zich asked, “Are you all ready?”
Hans and Snoc nodded. Lara and Elena decided to step out. Since Elena was a mage, she had exerted a lot of energy in this battle, and Lara hadn’t fully adjusted to this party yet. However, Hans and Snoc had been constantly dragged into battle and also received Zich’s extremely strenuous training in-between, so they were full of energy.
Zich thought about also bringing Grieg along, but Greig was also quite tired from the first major battle he had just experienced. Zich thought about forcing Greig to come, but raising Greig to such a level wasn’t necessary. His treatment was slowly starting to show some effect, and there was no need for him to force Greig to go to such a dangerous place.
“All right, let’s go.” Zich led Hans and Snoc towards the Horus Gorge. Commander-in-chief Mihen was worried, but Zich went to the Horus Gorge with the excuse that they were merely going to scout the place out first. However, Zich’s group wasn’t the only one heading toward the gorge.
“Mr. Zenard, are you also planning to investigate the gorge?” As expected, Glen was not going to step out for a matter like this. Glen met Zich’s group in front of the gorge’s entrance, and he nodded.
“Every moment is precious right now, so I think people who can afford to should start moving.”
Zich suppressed himself from spitting at Glen’s shameless, smiling face and glanced at the gorge. He was sure that the Bellids were plotting something somewhere in the gorge.
‘If we destroy the gorge, there’s a high chance that they’ll continue their work on the cliffs.’ Even though their plan to make a lake was crushed by the joint forces, Zich didn’t think they would stop their plans at all.
‘They’ll at least continue for the sake of revenge.’ Rather than making a large lake in front of the temple, they would continue their plans with the goal of causing damage to nearby estates. The Bellids were like that. To ensure that their plan went smoothly, it would be best for the Bellids to make both cliffs collapse at once to damage nearby estates, but since the joint forces were right in front of them, there was a high chance that they would quickly sabotage one side.
Zich pointed at one cliff. “We’ll take this side.” He implied that Glen should take the other one and carefully checked Glen’s reaction.
“…Since there aren’t many people, don’t you think it’s better for us to join forces and carefully observe each side? Regardless of how little time we have, it’s too dangerous to randomly scan the area and miss the Bellids.”
Zich smirked inside his mind. ‘I chose the right one.’