Chapter – 60
*Whoosh!*
The surrounding wall, more precisely the palisade, began to glow with a green aura.
*Ding!*
A series of notification windows scrolled before Carlisle’s eyes.
[Notification: The <Iron Fortress> effect has been activated!]
[Notification: Structure Defense has increased by 200%!]
[Notification: Ally Morale has increased by 150%!]
[Notification: All Ally Stats have increased by 30%!]
‘If only the wall were made of bricks.’
Carlisle bit his lower lip in regret.
[Iron Fortress] was an item that, when embedded into a fortress wall, could increase the structure’s defense by up to 300%.
However, Bowden Fortress was built by surrounding an earthen mound with a wooden palisade, conditions under which the [Iron Fortress] couldn’t fully demonstrate its true power.
Even so, it had managed to send the seven barbarian warriors performing [Destruction Charger] flying far away.
“Private Carlisle…?”
“Yes?”
“What was that just now…? Was that the effect of the brick you embedded?”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
Carlisle shrugged as if it were nothing.
“Puhahahahaha!”
“Serves them right!”
“They must have died from the fall!”
In this astonishing situation, the soldiers of Bowden Fortress burst into laughter.
“You bastards! How does it taste!?”
“Come and try it again!”
The soldiers’ faces were filled with fighting spirit and confidence, as if they had never been trembling in fear just moments before. It was a complete contrast to their previous terrified reactions.
This was also an effect of the [Iron Fortress].
It raised not only ally morale but also their stats.
“Private Carlisle.”
“Yes.”
“What happens now?”
“Well.”
In response to Helen’s question, Carlisle answered as if he wasn’t sure.
“For now, we hold out. We don’t know how long the wall will last.”
“I see.”
“But it shouldn’t be breached easily, so we should be able to hold for at least a couple of hours, right?”
“A couple of hours won’t be enough.”
Helen’s expression darkened somewhat.
For reinforcements to arrive, they would need at least a few more hours, up to a full day at most.
“What choice do we have? We hold out. If that doesn’t work, there’s nothing we can do.”
“Unexpected.”
“What is?”
“You… aren’t you afraid of death? You didn’t seem the type.”
What kind of type is that supposed to be…?
Carlisle felt slightly dumbfounded, but he decided to accept it as karma for being possessed by a good-for-nothing.
“Is dying such a big deal? If I die, I die. Living is the tiresome part.”
“Living is tiresome…”
“And what about you, Commander Helen?”
“Me? I… I’m not afraid of death either. This is a place where people die left and right every day. If I were afraid of death, I couldn’t have served here for years. However…”
“However?”
“The fact that my subordinates die due to my incompetence, or by my orders, is not easy to bear. That too is a responsibility and duty a commander must rightfully shoulder, I suppose…”
While Carlisle understood Helen’s words intellectually, he did *not* understand them emotionally at all.
If he said he understood, it would likely be a lie.
Why?
Because Carlisle had never experienced being responsible for someone else’s life.
“Well, at least today, you probably don’t need to worry about that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Since we’ll all die together anyway, will there be any room to feel something like guilt?”
“……”
Helen frowned as if she found it absurd.
However, since Carlisle’s words weren’t exactly wrong, Helen didn’t bother to nitpick.
Right, if we die, it’s all over anyway, isn’t it?
“Right, perhaps you are correct. Guilt is probably something one can only feel if one is alive. Your words about life being tiresome… I can sympathize to some extent.”
Carlisle couldn’t immediately respond to Helen’s words.
“Valhallaaaaaaaaa!”
“Guwaaaaaaaaah!”
The enemies—the Butcher Tribe warriors and the undead monsters—were advancing.
***
“Fire!”
*Whoooosh!*
At Helen’s command, the soldiers rained arrows down upon the enemies.
“Come on! You bastards!”
“I’ll kill you all!”
The soldiers, gripping their respective weapons, unleashed a fierce assault on the enemies climbing the fortress wall, that is, the palisade.
“Va, Valhal… Keheuk!”
“Guwaaaaak!”
The Butcher Tribe warriors and undead monsters fell one by two, unable to scale the palisade.
This was possible thanks to Bowden Fortress’s topographical advantages and the effect of the [Iron Fortress].
Typically, fortresses are located in strategically and tactically advantageous positions.
Bowden Fortress was no exception.
Although it was a small fortress made by surrounding a mound with a palisade, its location was specialized for defense.
Adding the effect of the [Iron Fortress] on top of that, the Butcher Tribe warriors and undead monsters couldn’t easily cross the palisade.
When they tried to climb over it, they would slip as if lying, and when they tried to break it, its strength was harder than stone or steel, making it impossible to breach.
“So, there *was* a trick up their sleeve after all.”
Zarkhan, chieftain of the Butcher Tribe, frowned as he watched the battle unfold.
He had found it strange that they hadn’t retreated despite the fortress being tiny, which led him to that judgment.
In reality, the Decaron Army’s 2nd Corps Command had ordered them to carry out the mining operation, but Zarkhan had no way of knowing that.
“Our warriors’ casualties are accumulating. Isn’t there any method? Black Mage?”
Zarkhan turned to look at the old mage watching the battle beside him.
The gaunt old mage, reminiscent of a skeleton, frowned as if to ask why he was being asked that.
“Listen well, barbarian chieftain. I am a scholar seeking the truths of darkness. Do you think it’s sensible to ask someone like me to do something using physical force?”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I have no proper method to collapse the fortress wall.”
“You’re weak, in other words.”
“Hoho.”
Crowley simply let out a dry laugh.
Black Mages are a class specialized in Necromancy, Spirit Magic, Curses, and other anti-personnel magic.
Whether or not they can wield large-scale destructive magic isn’t a crucial factor in evaluating a Black Mage, isn’t that right?
But to define it simply as [weak], ignoring those characteristics…
‘What an uncultured barbarian.’
While cursing Zarkhan’s ignorance inwardly, Crowley didn’t bother to argue the point.
Barbarians typically had not a speck of magical knowledge and didn’t even try to understand it.
“Anyway, breaching the wall is your role, not mine. Handle it yourselves.”
“Hmm.”
“Just bring down the wall for me, and as promised, I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Then it can’t be helped. We’ll find a way to break through the wall with our warriors. But you must keep your promise for what comes after.”
Zarkhan’s gaze turned towards the undead warrior standing guard right beside Crowley.
That undead warrior had a massive build, and his lifeless, rotting skin was covered with cadaveric lividity, suggesting he hadn’t been dead for long.
Furthermore, his bluish dead skin was covered with tattoos carved by barbarian shamans, indicating he had been a barbarian warrior in life.
And the severed neck section revealed a gruesome cross-section, while his head was being held in his left hand.
[Dullahan].
A death warrior whose head has been severed, or who carries around their severed head.
An undead that novice Black Mages wouldn’t dare attempt to create.
“The promise that you would let my younger brother go to Valhalla, even if belatedly… you must keep it. Understood?”
“Of course. If I can just have Sigurd’s corpse, what’s a mere promise? I’d keep it a hundred, no, a thousand times.”
Crowley readily nodded.
“If you hand over Sigurd’s corpse to me, the promise will undoubtedly be kept.”
“Good.”
Zarkhan nodded and looked at his brother Bjornsen, who had now become a Dullahan.
If they were continentals, imagining sitting face-to-face and talking with the Black Mage who turned his brother into a Dullahan would be unthinkable.
For continentals, turning a person, especially kin, into an undead was considered an act of desecrating the deceased and necrophilia.
However, since barbarians were a people with different cultures and customs from continentals, it wasn’t much of an issue.
In Zarkhan’s case, he was actually quite pleased that Crowley had made Bjornsen into a Dullahan.
“My brother. This older brother will somehow wash away your dishonor. Even if you’ve become undead, if you succeed in your revenge and fight honorably, even in death, the ancestors in Valhalla will greatly welcome you.”
“Val… halla… Val… hallaaa…”
The head held in Bjornsen’s left hand muttered [Valhalla] like a parrot.
Perhaps because he had become a wandering spirit, his obsession with Valhalla, where only honorable warriors go, seemed immense.
Meanwhile, Crowley could barely contain his excitement at the thought of turning a direct descendant of Sigurd into an undead.
“Making Sigurd my thrall… To think such luck would come my way… Karlail van Sigurd, was it…? In my entire life, I’ve never seen such a handsome man… Haaa…!”
“Ugh.”
Zarkhan was disgusted.
The sweet moan coming from the old man’s mouth was highly unpleasant even to the barbarians, who were tolerant of sexual desires.
And that wasn’t all.
“Haa, haaaa…”
Crowley’s wrinkled hand caressed his own neck area and chest.
‘Disgusting mage.’
Zarkhan couldn’t bear to look at Crowley lost in his deviant sexual desires and turned his head away.
He felt like cutting off that disgusting head right then and there, but Zarkhan wasn’t that foolish.
Moreover, they were currently in an alliance formed on the premise of restoring his brother’s honor and securing control of the region.
Zarkhan couldn’t afford to pick a fight with Crowley just because he found him disagreeable.
Furthermore, even as an uneducated barbarian, he knew just how dangerous Black Mages were and that they could be armed with all sorts of tricks…
***
Bowden Fortress managed to hold out for a full two hours against the enemy’s full-scale assault.
Despite the attacks from the Butcher Tribe warriors and undead monsters, they defended the fortress without major losses.
That was solely thanks to the [Iron Fortress].
But even that had its limits…
“Th, the enemies are coming over!”
“What are you doing! You bastards! Block them! Block them!”
As corpses piled up, the enemies began using their own dead as stepping stones to climb over into the fortress.
*Kwaaaaang!*
*Jjeeeeek!*
Moreover, the continuous attacks from the [Destruction Chargers] were gradually reducing the palisade’s durability.
It was an expected progression.
The difference in troop numbers was too great; no matter how well they fought, it was inevitable that they would eventually collapse.
‘This is the limit.’
Carlisle thought that this was the end of reaping the full benefits of the [Iron Fortress].
Of course, the morale boost and stat increase would remain, but if the palisade, which served as the wall, collapsed, it was obvious that the fortress would be annihilated in the blink of an eye.
And Carlisle’s expectation soon became reality.
‘At this rate, we won’t last even 30 minu…’
*Crash! Bang! Shatter!*
The wooden gate shattered into pieces, and enemies began pouring in.
