Chapter 273: Chapter 288: Night Raids

With Dragons Talon holding two forts, and successfully repelling an attack, it was almost childs-play for Mo, Kai, and the remainder of the guild to pincer and sweep through the two castles between, taking the entire western front. They then teamed up with Airsidh to pincer the northwestern corner as well. After the Mafia helped my brother take the diamond turtle castle, I ordered them to completely abandon their old fortress, littering it with traps to make it not so free to take. After the traps went off they devastated the opposing guild so much that they not only took the fortress back but then also eliminated the guild that seized it in the first place.

By nightfall 4 guilds remained and all of them were to the south or the east. I was no longer surrounded. By all rights, I should have won already… But as I stared out over the southern battlefield I had a lingering feeling of dread…

Of the four guilds remaining, there was the hilltop castle with the flag of a black swan. No one had moved out from it since the beginning, and no one had dared try to lay it to siege either. The walls were reinforced with not just stone, but sheets of metal early on.

Then there were three castles nearly touching each other all flying the flag of the blue snake. They had tried to expand but were pushed back repeatedly. No one could ever finish them off though.

The one that was statistically the biggest threat was a series of five castles, each one fully manned with archers and watchtowers flying flags with a golden triskelion.

But the one that frightened me the most was undoubtedtly the castle flying the flag with a golden bear… There was no doubt in my mind that it was Lu…

I stood atop my castle walls staring at it, watching it wave. ‘I’m happy she made it so far… But… If I have to fight her again… Could I? Even if I choose to do so… Would I be able to give it my all? Probably not…’ I lifted my hand, rubbing my neck. ‘So what if the blades were dull… If that meant all that much… He wouldn’t have bothered catching my sword… Instead of letting it hit her…’

“Siya…” Mo grabbed my shoulder, stepping up to my side and lightly tugging for me to turn toward her.

“Right… The sun is down… So it’s time for a night raid.”

Bear hit his hands together, cracking his knuckles along with his neck. Isy carefully traced her fingers down the bowstring that was starting to show wear, and Mo smiled softly, pulling up her hood and locking her mask across her face.

“By the time the sun rises, this war will be over.” ‘For better… Or for worse… I guess I don’t know how to settle things with Airsidh either… I could duel him. Maybe we should just resolve it like that?’

I took a deep breath. ‘First things first…’ “We attack Blue Snake. Theoretically, they should be worn down by now with all the battles they have fought, they have three castles in one though. Mo can take care of that on her own though, right?”

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She nodded. “Take out the guards atop the keep and change the flags, then come sunrise they’ll all be in for a sweet surprise.”

“We will gather our armies then siege down the five forts of Triscelion. After that, we will meet back up with Mo and take down the final hurdle… Finally… I’ll meet with the leader of Golden Bear…”

After I spread the word I fired my arrows as messages to the others and the plan was set into motion. With my brother's backing, the five castles were brought down one after another. While they were well guarded by numbers, the castles had plenty of holes. It was easy to penetrate and breach, and while we certainly didn’t get out unscathed, we quickly made it to the last standing fortress, which was by far the most healthy and manned, as all the retreating members eventually wound up there, or in an army at our flanks as we marched on it…

“Ok, sis… What’s your plan for this one? Or… Do you want us to just charge in again and hope for the best?”

I sighed. ‘I wish… That would be more simple…’ “We took the forts in order of most to least sturdy… In other words, this one has very little structural integrity…”

“You’re saying–”

“We bring it down on top of them and fly Our flag from the rubble…”

He let out a puff of air. “So we ride in on horseback and start breaking down walls and hope for the best?”

I shook my head. “I’ve been through a dozen other castles just like this one. I know which walls need to come down. We ride in, I knock down a few walls, and then we ride out, all while our troops cause chaos.” I tossed him a smoke bomb. “We use these to cause even more confusion and block sight lines. It’s dark already, but with these–”

He pocketed it “How will we know where we are going?”

I growled at his interrupting. ‘He’s not even a little excited, I thought for sure out of everyone he would at least know how to have fun… It’s not often you get to level a whole fortress.’ “We tie a rope together around our waists and try to stay close. It will just be you, me, and Kai.”

He let out a heavy sigh. “Do I have to? What if I lend my horse to that big fella in your guild that you were so close to? He seems like he could take care of you.”

‘He makes saying things improperly a skill…’ I Tied the rope around my waist and tossed it to him. “I can’t figure out if you just want to do the opposite of what’s expected of you… Or if you just think I won’t do anything with a guy…”

“Would you?”

I growled again. “That’s not the point!” I shouted, my voice cracking, and the others around us started to look, making me lower my voice. “Just shut up tie the rope…” I muttered.

He called Kai over and once we were all set the plan was set into motion.

Smoke bombs burst in the air, war cries sounded out in unison, stone walls ruptured and collapsed, and in the midst of it all was me and Fritz. I had a perfect layout of the castle in my mind, and with how worn out the building was to begin with I felt pretty confident I could get it to fall down. Once we entered the keep I quickly ran through the halls, Airsidh and Kai keeping the enemies off my back while I searched for the right ones and started knocking them down, slowly but surely draining every bit of manna I had. By the end of it, I was exhausted and needed my brother to help me knock down the last one, which thankfully we could break from the outside. The moment he struck it he jumped back on his horse and I led them out of the smoke, a loud rumble echoing through the whole plain as stone crashed into stone creating more dust and further obstructing vision, allowing for me, as well as the Mafia, which Mo had briefly trained, to make quick work of most of the enemy forces.

We all pulled back, and as the dust settled it was clear we had the advantage, but they still didn’t want to surrender. Thankfully, I swapped out the flags in the chaos, so even though I couldn’t convince them to surrender… I did manage to convince them they were already eliminated.

War cries turned to victory cries met with gritted teeth and the bitter defeat.

‘Just one castle left now before I have to face her… I didn’t think this would be over so soon…’