The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations (light Novel)

Ghislain quickly scanned the area ahead and spoke in a commanding tone.

"Gillian, take control of the right wall. Kaor, handle the left. I’ll break through the center and open the gates."
Once the plan was initiated, there was no room for questions or disobedience.
Without hesitation, the two sprang into action the moment the command was given.

*Boom!*
As Gillian and Kaor, both brimming with mana, charged forward, the ground quaked beneath their feet, leaving deep impressions on the earth.
Some of the knights followed them, rushing toward both walls.

Ghislain gestured with his hand and quickly added, "Belinda, take out the mages on the wall who are preparing spells and the archers too. You don’t need to kill all of them; just create enough chaos to disrupt their formation. Think you can handle it?"
"Of course. Thanks to you, I’ve gathered enough mana to use techniques I couldn’t before."
Belinda, her face concealed behind a black mask, seemed to fade into the shadows as her form wavered and dissolved into the darkness.

The area where she once stood appeared slightly distorted, almost like a person turning invisible.
Unlike the spell *Invisibility*, which would render one completely unseen, a closer inspection might reveal something, but with the chaos of battle in the night, she was nearly undetectable.
"Then, I’ll head off first. Be careful, young master."

*Shhh.*
Belinda moved, leaving a faint ripple in the darkness as if shadows were shifting.
This technique wrapped her body in mana, bending light around her to deceive the eyes of her enemies.

Though it consumed a considerable amount of mana, it was especially effective in chaotic skirmishes where tracking her presence was near impossible. Assassins loved this skill.
The knights who didn’t know about her ability were shocked to see Belinda vanish, but there was no time to answer their questions.
Speed and timing were everything in this operation.

*Boom!*
As Ghislain surged forward, the remaining knights gritted their teeth and struggled to keep pace with him.
The Cabaldi soldiers, cautiously approaching, were stunned when they saw the forces rushing toward them at high speed.
"What’s going on? Are they enemies? Allies? Who are they?!"

Confused, they barely had time to react before Ghislain closed in on them like lightning.
"Who else would it be? Your new lord is here."
*Slash!*

The head of the soldier at the front flew off in a single strike.
This served as a signal, and the knights of Fenris who followed Ghislain began a massacre.
"What, what is this?! Who are these people?!"

"Enemies! We’re under attack!"
"How did they get inside the fortress?!"
In an instant, the scouts were wiped out.

Their dying screams reached the Cabaldi soldiers stationed at the walls and gates.
The wall commander, startled by the noise, turned around in alarm.
*Boom!*

Ghislain and the knights of Fenris stormed in, giving the Cabaldi soldiers no time to comprehend the situation.
"Aaargh!"
The Cabaldi soldiers, caught off guard, were helplessly cut down.

Ordinary soldiers stood no chance against knights wielding swords imbued with mana, slashing fiercely.
With enemies outside the walls, they were now being assaulted from within, leaving the Cabaldi soldiers in disarray.
The confusion spread not only among the foot soldiers but also among the knights.

"What’s happening?!"
"Where did these enemies come from?!"
"Get a grip on the situation! Hurry!"

The Cabaldi knights tried to control the soldiers amidst the chaos, but regaining order proved difficult. It wasn’t surprising, given that they were blindsided from an unexpected direction.
Meanwhile, soldiers continued to die without understanding why.
Eventually, the knights turned to their wall commander, Zamon, urging him for guidance.

"Commander, what should we do?!"
"Enemies have suddenly appeared!"
"It’s a sneak attack! We’re under attack!"

Zamon was as stunned as they were.
He muttered, unable to grasp the situation, "Why? Why are the enemies here? What happened to the tunnel? And what about the lord?"
They had spotted the enemy digging a tunnel and directed most of their forces there.

The Count of Cabaldi had been so confident of victory that he personally went to oversee that area.
Yet now, the enemy was suddenly here? How had they bypassed all the troops stationed at the tunnel?
In that moment, Zamon recalled the strange object he had seen earlier.

"No… could it be… that thing that flew through the sky… Did they use that to get here?"
It was unbelievable, but he had no other explanation.
That unknown object, which he had watched in confusion, must have been what brought the enemy inside the fortress.

"Impossible… Such a thing couldn’t exist… Something that could fly…."
Trying to make sense of something so far beyond logic made his head spin. Meanwhile, the screams of his soldiers echoed around him.
"Commander! Pull yourself together!"

"Give us an order!"
"The enemy is too strong! We’re about to be wiped out!"
Zamon snapped back to reality at the desperate cries of his knights. This was not the time to wonder about how the enemy had entered.

He was the commander. It was his duty to assess the situation and give the best possible orders.
And to do that, he needed to understand the enemy's intentions.
He turned his gaze outside the fortress, looking at the Fenris forces.

Unlike the chaotic scene within, the outside was shrouded in a heavy silence.
It was terrifying.
That army, quietly watching the fortress without a word, without a single move, felt like a beast waiting for the perfect moment to strike and end their lives with a single blow.

"They’re after the gates…."
Zamon finally grasped the enemy’s strategy.
They had tricked them with the tunnel, diverting most of their forces there.

The enemy had no need for siege weapons. They only had to slip a few soldiers inside to open the gates.
If that vast army outside entered, even if their forces rushed back, it would be too late.
Their own soldiers were exhausted and demoralized. They had banked everything on trapping the enemy in the tunnel, but now the enemy’s forces were poised to enter intact, in full formation.

In every respect, they were at a disadvantage. This was a certain defeat.
"Is this how I die…?"
The thought sent chills down his spine.

The idea of infiltrating enemy lines by air… It was terrifying that someone had conceived of such a device and this strategy.
A creativity beyond any known military tactic, a boldness to plunge into enemy territory, and the ability to pull it off…
Could he ever hope to stand against someone like that?

"How could I have been so foolish…."
If only he had discovered the decoy tactic sooner.
If only he had intercepted the flying object.

If only…
*Smack!*
"Get it together!"

Zamon slapped himself hard across the face, gritting his teeth.
The enemy numbered about a hundred, while his side still had over six hundred soldiers.
They had been caught off guard, but the enemy was outnumbered. Dividing their forces into three groups had left each faction even smaller.

As unexpected as the ambush had been, if they could rally, they still had a chance to fight back.
"Repel them…."
Zamon’s words trailed off as he took in the battlefield. Repelling the enemy seemed impossible; their side was on the verge of collapse.

The attackers’ momentum was overwhelming. His soldiers were falling in droves, while not a single enemy had been killed.
"With just that few…"
A force of barely a hundred men was single-handedly overpowering several times their number.

He had never seen a force so swift and powerful.
"Are all of them… mana-wielding knights? That’s impossible, that can’t be true."
But his doubts were mocked as swords, shining with mana, illuminated the dark night, swinging everywhere.

"Has Fenris been hiding such power all along?"
The unidentified flying device and the hundred-strong force of knights… The sight was so surreal that it made him dizzy.
"In this situation… we can’t win."

To combat mana users with ordinary soldiers, their whole formation would have had to hold steady. But here, under the impact of the ambush, everyone was in disarray.
That’s the nature of an ambush. If it succeeds, even a larger force can be cornered.
Once caught off guard, it was hard to turn the tide.

"We need to buy time…"
Zamon gritted his teeth. The enemy was powerful, but they weren’t unbeatable.
If his main forces arrived before the enemy opened the gates, they could surround and annihilate them.

They had to hold on until reinforcements arrived.
He began strategizing relentlessly in his mind.
"Pull yourselves together! The enemy lacks siege weapons and archers, so they can’t attack the walls! Leave only the mages and a few archers to cover the walls and bring everyone else down! Establish a defensive line immediately! The remaining half of the troops should focus on defending the gate!"

"Yes, sir!"
The Count of Cabaldi’s forces weren’t considered a northern power just for their armor quality.
Their soldiers were rigorously trained to match their elite equipment, and the knights and commanders who led them were also of high caliber.

Zamon, entrusted with this position by the Count of Cabaldi, was a highly competent leader.
As the knights joined and Zamon himself took command, the Cabaldi forces, previously mired in chaos, began forming a defensive formation to counter the intruders.
*Clang!

 Clang! Clang!*
The soldiers, equipped with steel shields and armor made from the finest iron ore from the northern mines, gradually regained their composure as they organized.
"Request reinforcements from the lord! Hold the line! Endurance is key! If we hold on just a little longer, help will arrive!"

The alarm horns sounded, and flares burst into the sky, signaling the danger to the outside forces.
It was now a race against time. Would the enemy seize the gates and walls, or would reinforcements arrive first?
"We have to hold on… Just a little longer. Hurry, reinforcements, please come quickly!"

In this era, forts had evolved to encompass entire towns within their walls, making them expansive.
Even the smallest and poorest domains had to maintain large forts to defend against monster attacks.
Zamon had always taken great pride in the vast Cabaldi fortress, but now, he cursed its size.

"Are we too late?"
A defense line was barely established, but his forces were still being driven back.
The archers on the walls and towers attempted to suppress the attackers, but it was futile.

The intruders, exceptionally skilled, blocked every arrow with small shields and steadily picked off his soldiers.
Zamon’s frustration made him shout desperately, "Mages! What are the mages doing? Don’t worry about collateral damage, just attack them immediately!"
The mages, with their potent magic, needed to suppress the enemy’s momentum.

The enemy was few in number. If they took a direct hit from the mages’ spells, they wouldn’t survive.
Zamon was willing to risk some sacrifices to counterattack, but there was no response from the walls.
Why hadn’t they attacked when the enemy hadn’t yet reached the walls? It was their last chance!

Looking toward the walls, Zamon saw a shocking sight.
The mages and archers stationed on the walls were falling one by one.
"I’ll kill all of you!"

One mage, in desperation, raised his hands, summoning a massive ball of fire into the air.
Even knights wouldn’t survive a full-force spell.
But just as he was about to launch his attack…

The space behind him wavered, and someone appeared.
*Slash.*
"Guh… guh…"

The mage choked on his blood and collapsed, his neck slashed. The spell fizzled out as he died.
"An enemy has appeared on the walls!"
"An assassin!"

"The mage has fallen!"
All eyes on the wall turned toward the commotion, but the intruder had already disappeared.
*Slash.*

Moments later, another soldier with a bow fell with his throat cut.
"Aaaah!"
"I can’t see the enemy!"

"It’s a demon!"
The soldiers were terrified. An unseen enemy lurked in the shadows, killing them one by one.
Another mage spun around, trying to cast a spell at the distorted space, but the assassin struck first.

*Swoosh.*
The assassin, emerging from the darkness, swiftly slit the mage’s throat and vanished.
"Hmph."

The assassin, wearing a black mask, snorted before disappearing back into the shadows.
The knights began to mobilize to stop the assassin, but in the meantime, soldiers and mages on the walls continued to fall.
Though only a few were killed at a time, the steady rise in casualties threw the Cabaldi forces into greater turmoil.

"You… insane…"
Gritting his teeth, Zamon observed the state of the walls and watchtowers.
With the assassin wreaking havoc, their suppressive attacks were faltering. Soldiers were panicking, unsure when the assassin would strike next, running in confusion.

Meanwhile, the Fenris troops charging at both walls faced no resistance and maintained their pace.
"How did they train knights like that?"
The assassin’s skill was astounding, but the leaders at the front of each unit were just as formidable.

Each time Zamon blinked, more of his men were cut down.
Another blink.
"Hah…"

He was speechless.
The attackers had reached both walls and begun a massacre.