Unlike the rest of the army, my approach was not hidden from Zolast, not with the security wards he was keeping around to prevent an accident even as they moved as fast as possible. He was alone on a cart filled with crates and other critical supplies.
However, the bolts that we requested from Jertann were not a part of it yet.
"How's the siege?" Zolast asked as I suppressed the concealment after hiding behind the crate filled with mana stones.
"Better than we expected," I said. "Karak and Limenta truly impressed me with their efficiency, and Mahruss is showing he's comfortable with his new class. Though, the real surprise is Takis," I said, before I gave the breakdown of his achievements.
I focused on those topics, because we had already discussed all the vital information through the connection, and there was little point discussing exactly how to react against the cultist counter-attack without seeing the exact nature of their response.
Containment until the trap was finally sprung, or destruction.
"He sounds like a smart young man. And, a scholar class is not bad depending on his god. Do you think we can recruit him to the guild? I wouldn't mind having a proper apprentice. I'm sure we can use some of these achievements to trigger a class promotion for him as well."
"Possibly, but I had a different plan in mind for them," I said.
"Their own guild," Zolast guessed.
"That, unless you want to be the high priest of another church," I offered with a chuckle, earning a scowl.
"Yes, church of the hero," Zolast scoffed. "Pity that we need a god to be the divine patron to officially recruit. It might have actually worked."
"Or we need to find a way to fake my name when we let people join the Heroic Party."
"That's actually not a bad idea," Zolast said with a sigh. "Too bad we don't even know where to start.."
"True. Then, another guild, it is," I said, wondering for a moment if increasing Authority might actually allow me to achieve such a thing, but I ignored that thought in favor of more practical concerns. "They seem to choose destruction," I said as I pointed at the small army that they had dedicated to assault our position.
It wasn't the size of the army that they assigned that gave me that clue, but the number of summoned beasts that accompanied the force.
Two dozen.
Just another piece of evidence that they were deliberately delaying their assault on the town.
"Yes, not exactly a good sign," Zolast answered as he watched them approach, but he was just as calm, aware that the force wasn't as deadly as it looked at first glance.
Especially not after all the levels I had gained during the siege.
"Do you think we can split a smaller force to trick them into following us while we somehow sneak the bigger force into town?"
"No, not without another mage to continue the ruse," Zolast answered. "Without that, which group I'm with will look obvious.
"I see, then we need to decide on what to do," I said, quickly considering the tactical requirements of the situation. "How do you feel about building a new magical encampment just at the edge of the army and constantly harassing them?"
"Do you think that'll be better than just bringing all the forces into town?"
"Without a doubt," I answered. "The only way for us to bring the army to town is to trigger an attack from both sides and cut through the siege."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"And, without the assistance of the wards, it'll probably cost us more than what we could bring inside."
"Exactly. But, if you stay with the army outside and harass, it'll force them to commit either to another attack force to destroy you, or assign a smaller force of mages to contain…"
"And, let me guess. Either will give some important opportunities to our assassin," Zolast said.
"That's right," I said. "Do you want to see an example?" I said as I looked at the approaching force, which was not as big as the army we had fought back at the hills, but was clearly much more elite. Even without the two dozen summoned beasts they were driving forward, they looked strong enough to erase our army.
If Zolast and I weren't a part of the equation.
"When I give you the signal, I want a showy spell from you. I don't care about the damage, just make sure that their mages are distracted.
Zolast nodded. "That's it?" he asked.
"Yes—" I started before pausing. "Actually, can you add that light spell on the spear as well? Let's not ruin our brand."
"Of course," Zolast chuckled as he cast that spell.
I pulled the hood of my cloak on, let Concealment to the surface once more as I dashed forward, drew a large circle, and approached them from the rear, where they were paying no attention.
Why should they, when they had their overwhelmingly strong army at their back? I moved through their forces, near the center, where their casters were, surrounded by a layer of guards. Unlike the rest of the army, they were paying quite a bit of attention, making it difficult to sneak through.
At least without creating a commotion.
I didn't give a signal to Zolast immediately, but examined the location of every mage, carefully tracking the near-invisible red lines that were between them and the creatures — which I could only see thanks to my own Destruction skill, making this trick a unique one for me.
Maybe not completely unique to me, but Zolast had admitted that he lacked the ability to replicate it.
And, I used that to identify which casters were busy controlling the beasts, and which were there to take control in case one of them made a mistake.
Then, I sent the signal to Zolast, and a bright wave of mana exploded off him, falling down like a golden tsunami. Completely harmless, of course, but it was hard for the army to ignore it.
Especially after watching some kind of holy knight killing many beasts with a sword that glowed with the exact same color.
Reputation mattered.
I waited until all those casters that were waiting to take control of the beasts in case they were unleashed committed to casting their barriers. And, when the last one committed to it, I rushed forward.
As a benefit, the guards might be high-leveled, but they weren't disciplined enough to remember their mission when there was a wave of mana pushing toward them, threatening to drown them. Their formation shuffled as they turned their attention to it.
Under different circumstances, it wouldn't have been a big mistake, but for me, it was the last thing I needed for my mission to turn from extremely dangerous to trivial. I charged, using the gaps in the formation to move unnoticed.
Unnoticed until my borrowed spear glowed with a bright gold spell before I skewered the first mage. After perfecting my attacks on the summoned beasts, taking down a mage with one hit wasn't exactly a great challenge.
Yet, that was just the start of my plans. I hit one of the summoned creatures — the fastest among their numbers — with a blast of my Charisma. I doubted the trick to push them away with Charisma would work … but aggravating them further was much easier. With a dangerous roar, it turned and charged toward the crowd, too close for the mages to react to the sudden change.
I killed three more mages, but even the last one was unnecessary. The summoned beast was already in the middle of the caster squad, busy teaching them just how bad of an idea it was to rely on something that they couldn't fully control — a lesson that had been learned by any historical army that weaponized elephants at some point.
As more casters died under the claws, paws, and teeth of the summoned monsters, the rest of the beasts got free of their control, all running back to the nearest source of conflict.
And, soon, the army shattered.
I watched the destruction of the army, wondering whether I should try leading those animals back to the main army. However, after considering a while, I decided against it.
Ultimately, the only reason twenty summoned beasts were able to destroy their forces completely was because they decided to keep their casters together, and the beasts dealt with them before they could try to reestablish control.
Expecting the same to happen with the main army was not realistic.
However, I didn't just watch as the cultists' army was destroyed. I stayed near, occasionally killing the beasts as the cultist army started to get too small to hold their attention. After all, once the cultist army died completely, there were only two options. The beasts would either turn and attack Zolast's forces, or disperse into the wilderness.
Neither was ideal.
And, as a nice side benefit, killing the beasts was particularly easy while they were busy nibbling cultist corpses.
[Invader Slain]
[+3,471,220 Experience]
[+31 Authority]
[Invader Slain]
[+2,891,331 Experience]
[+26 Authority]
…
[Invader Slain]
[+3,582,072 Experience]
[+32 Authority]
A small army was destroyed with no effort, giving me in excess of sixty million experience and six hundred Authority as a result.
Altogether, not a bad result…