Smiting them would have been more efficient, but then again, I don’t need to turn the whole town into a smoking crater. This is good enough.
That was an understatement.
Leonard had not used this specific spell for a long time, and certainly not since achieving his last Blessing. His control was too great for it to escape his grasp, but [Earthly Fissure] was still incredibly powerful.
As soon as he completed it, the ground began to rumble ominously. A second later, while the mages on top of the wall had only started to grasp the immense amount of mana that had been used, the entirety of the killing field that Lamprey Port’s defenders had painstakingly prepared heaved upwards.
Tons and tons of packed dirt and stone flew into the sky in a great plume. The southeastern side of the wall, where most of the gunnery was amassed, ready to punish any foolish charge, fell back into the city as the spell’s furthest edges caused the stout enchanted stone to crumble.
Leonard had cast precisely and was rewarded for his efforts upon seeing the wards fall apart, no longer supported by the local mages and missing a good chunk of their underlying rune work. Soldiers fell from the ramparts, screaming. It was chaos.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/Kc01kB8M/persimmon0-Completely-destroyed-white-walls-crumbled-stone-uptu-789c8488-c3b4-4eab-b1a5-20a56c1e2230.png]
Ordinarily, competent mages would be able to extend what remained of the town’s protections over the breach, and while Lamprey Port didn’t have an Archmage, it still had enough Experts and a Master to make up for it.
Unfortunately for them, their reliance on the Silver Wind’s runes meant that the entirety of the wards fell apart the moment they were interrupted. They were strong enough to resist anything up to the fourth tier, but Leonard was in another league entirely.
As a bonus, he was confident he had managed to keep the damage to the artillery pieces to a minimum. Mana cannons were surprisingly resilient, being enchanted to hell and back, after all. But they would remain under the wall’s rubble for the moment, well away from any soldier trying to prevent the Revolutionary Army from using the breach he had created.
Before he could call the charge, Leonard had one last thing to do. He could feel the bloodlust and energy vibrating through his soldiers. [Halo of the Righteous] was in full force, and everyone was ready to go, but with the mile beyond them made up of jutting stones and deep chasms, it would take them far too long to get to the breach.
Stomping his foot to the ground, Leonard cast what he hoped would be his last spell for the day that wasn’t meant to heal. While most mages, and paladins more so, were limited to middling reserves and thus developed extremely specialized spells to take care of problems with the least expenditure possible, Leonard had always been overflowing with mana. He had found that even the basic [Shape Earth], usually used only as a training tool by most, worked just fine when fed enough mana to make a Master go green with envy.
His power once again swept over the empty plain, but this time, he used it to mend the broken ground. Stone flowed like magma at the touch of his will, plugging any hole and smoothing sharp rocks, and within a minute, the entirety of the field was back to what it used to be.
“Now! Chaaaarge!” He roared. His men followed, too amped up by his buff to stop in wonder at the massive elemental spells he had just used. They followed his order without hesitation, and the ground began to rumble again, though there was no magic to it this time.
The vibration caused by two and a half thousand men charging toward something was an entirely natural phenomenon, especially when they wore enchanted armor that should have slowed their movements but aided them instead.
Leonard led the charge as the Revolutionary Army surged forward, closing the distance with supernatural speed. His eyes were fixed on where the main gate had been, now a gaping wound in Lamprey Port's defenses. The defenders were still scrambling, their initial shock giving way to hurried attempts to organize a response.
Despite the town being home to two Army Corps and a Navy detachment, the first line of defense Leonard encountered was not the hardened soldiers he had expected but hundreds of slaves, forced into the frontline with crude, barely passable armor. The fear and resignation in their expression were more than enough to understand they were there against their will, if the magical collar around their neck, glowing with a sinister light, wasn’t enough.
Leonard's heart ached at the sight, and he shouted orders over the rumble at the approaching revolutionaries. "Capture the slaves, do not kill! They are brothers, not enemies!" His voice, amplified by magic, carried clearly over the plain, and he saw the beginning of relief appear on the slaves’ faces.
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His soldiers adjusted their tactics on the fly as they smashed into the line, using the flat of their blades and non-lethal spells to subdue the unwilling combatants. The effectiveness of [Halo of the Righteous] ensured they moved with a precision and unity that was almost balletic despite the chaos of battle.
Leonard slapped a few away, careful to only injure them enough that the collar couldn’t force them to get up, before he noticed the riflemen behind the rubble trying to form a cohesive line.
Allowing his momentum to carry him forward, Leonard bowled past the remaining slaves in his path and moved to the second line, where the town's actual defenders had rallied. The riflemen had almost reformed ranks, using the slaves’ sacrifice without hesitation. Leonard did not give them the chance to complete the maneuver. He cleared the remaining distance with a powerful leap, landing squarely among them.
A spark of mana, not enough to form a real spell but sufficient to affect reality, altered his weight, turning him into a flying boulder for a second. The impact of his arrival created a shockwave, and a dozen soldiers went flying. Leonard was moving before the rest could recover, his blade a blur. For them, he had no mercy.
He fully intended to absorb a good portion of the local garrisons into the army once the town fell, but he had no reserves in eliminating men willing to sacrifice hundreds of innocents.
Heads rolled, and limbs flew. Every thrust, every slash claimed a life. At one point, five Journeymen tried to corner him, coming from different sides. Leonard could see in their eyes they understood that whoever he settled on attacking would die, and they still went through with it.
He could appreciate that kind of resolve, even if it came from the enemy.
Enchanted with [Medium Durability Boost] and [Medium Agility Boost], enough to make them worth a dozen gold coins each, their long white spears fell apart like sticks before Dyeus. Heavenly Steel parted flesh and ironwood with the same ease.
Leonard didn’t stop to sigh at the unnecessary loss. There would be dozens more like them who didn’t order innocent slaves into a suicidal charge.
Around him, the Revolutionary Army advanced steadily. His order to spare the frontline had cost them some of their momentum, which would have been a fatal mistake in any other situation, but [Halo of the Righteous] made up for it, granting the men unending stamina and strength. They subdued the slaves and kept running forward, reaching the second line with shouts of exhilaration.
Amused despite himself by the display of battlelust, Leonard decided his men would be more than enough to handle the riflemen now that he had eliminated the worst dangers, and resumed his charge.
He rapidly scaled the rubble made by the fallen wall, and the sight before him made him halt in surprise.
"Looks like my spear will taste more cowardly mage blood today. It’s Lunar Ray’s favorite.” Gareth’s voice came as he joined him, staring down at the thirty or so mages just completing a spell.
The air around them crackled with magical energy, the telltale signs of a powerful spell in the making. Sweat dripped down their faces, and there was no doubt in Leonard’s mind that they had a talented commander to have organized a ritual so quickly.
He grunted in agreement with his General, his focus narrowing on the mages. He could see the spell taking shape, a swirling mass of fire mana coalescing into a dragon's maw. It was the Master tier [Fire Dragon's Hunt], powerful enough to incinerate hundreds of men in a heartbeat. But Leonard also knew that such a spell, while devastating, would indiscriminately consume friend and foe alike if not cast with precise control.
It seemed that even the riflemen were considered an acceptable loss if it stopped the Revolutionaries from taking the gate.
Without further hesitation, Leonard charged forward, the rubble beneath his feet exploding as he propelled himself with a burst of Holy Light. He reached the mages just as the spell neared completion, the air searing hot around the fiery construct.
With a mighty roar, Leonard raised his sword, Holy Light surging from the blade in radiant waves. As the fire dragon bore down upon him, vast enough to rival a galleon in size, he slashed upward in a mighty arc. For a split second, there was a tense stillness, the battlefield holding its breath.
Then, with a thunderous boom, the fire dragon split apart, losing cohesion as the Holy Light obliterated its underlying mana.
The crescent slash of light continued its path, reaching the mages behind the spell. It struck them with devastating force, obliterating the group in a blinding explosion of light and heat.
The mages' demise sent a shockwave through the entrance plaza, toppling a two-story building behind them. The leftover flames dispersed upwards, turning the air above their heads into a superheated gas.
With the entrance secured, Leonard slowed, coming to a stop where a single mage had managed to escape, mostly unscathed. From the corner of his eye, he caught a flickering shadow, which told him how the kid had survived. Well, if Amelia likes him, he must be worth something.
Behind him, Gareth grumbled at the stolen prize before jumping away, alighting on top of a building from where he entered the town proper. He had his own mission to accomplish.
With a blink, the haze of fighting lessened enough for Leonard to speak. “I will give you one chance to surrender. Swear an oath on the Light you will not attack my men, and I’ll have you taken away from here.”
The boy, and he could see it was a boy no older than Oliver, visibly collected himself in a surprising show of resilience. Leonard had seen grown veterans fall apart after their comrades had been killed, but the young mage seemed made of sterner stuff.
“I swear! I swear on the Holy Light, may no shadow hide any lie, that I won’t ever attack you or your men, Hero!” As the oath settled, strong enough that Leonard could feel the boy meant it, he subtly gestured with his free hand, and before the captive mage could wonder what that meant, a [Nightstalker] emerged from his shadow, grabbed onto the boy, and dragged him back from where he came, so fast that not a sound was made.
Putting the lucky mage out of his mind for the moment, Leonard cast his senses back and noticed with satisfaction that his men were almost done taking the entrance. Only a few pockets of resistance remained outside, but Gerard was there to handle them.
The bulk of the army was busy scaling the broken wall, which Leonard was tempted to flatten but decided against. It would work well to contain any fugitive; his men wouldn’t tire just from that.
That done, Leonard stepped beyond the entrance square. Already, he could see a column of black smoke rising from the distance, which he knew meant the small force led by Amelia had managed to halt the Navy from joining up with the Garrison.
Since everything was under control, Leonard waited a minute longer until Oliver reached him. With a glance, he confirmed his squire seemed okay, though a bit banged up, and refreshed his energies with a wave.
“Let’s go.” He said, and the two moved deeper into the town.