"Everyone, follow me!"

With that shout, Ghislain vanished from sight.

"Ahhh! Master! He's gone mad!"
"Quickly, follow the young master!"

Belinda let out a sharp scream, and Gillian, who had been closely observing the situation, immediately gave orders and charged forward.

"Kahahaha! He's seriously lost it! He's insane!"
Kaor, delighted, drew his sword and rushed forward.

The mercenaries, without understanding what was happening, followed suit.
They had no time to think or hesitate; they simply moved as they'd been trained—following their leader.

But it wasn't just them who were bewildered.

Zebalter and Randolph, who had been in the midst of battle, stood with their mouths agape. Seeing Ghislain and the mercenaries charging forward, they hastily shouted:

"Ghislain! Come back! Just defend the walls! What are you doing?"
"Grand Duke! Stop! Come back! Come back, you madman!"

Who in their right mind would charge out in the middle of a siege?

Of course, the enemies were just as confused by Ghislain's reckless behavior.

Count Thamos turned to Victor and asked, "Uh… the gates suddenly opened? And who are those men in black armor?"
Victor, equally stunned, couldn't respond, his eyes blinking in disbelief.

The Feridium army, which was clearly at a disadvantage, had suddenly opened its gates and charged out. Even with a gaping hole in their wall.

There was no strategy Victor had ever learned that accounted for something like this.

"What is this? What kind of strategy is this? Did I miss something? Why are they coming out? What are they doing?"
Victor muttered to himself, bewildered by the sheer audacity of it all.

Faced with such an unexpected, unconventional event, even the commanding officers were thrown into disarray. Naturally, the soldiers were slow to react as well.

"Uh?"

A soldier, almost at Feridium's walls, sensed something coming toward him. Looking up, he saw a shadow falling from the sky, blocking out the sun.

The last thing the soldier saw was a figure wielding a massive weapon.

BOOM!

"Ahhhhhh!"

Soldiers were thrown in every direction.

"Huuuu…"
Standing in the midst of the enemy lines, holding a massive two-handed axe, was Ghislain. As he exhaled, red smoke billowed out from the gaps in his helmet.

Soon, the mercenaries followed, pouring into the battlefield behind him.

Armed with heavy weapons, they instinctively swung at the enemies in front of them, too focused on the action to think about what was happening.

CRASH! CRACK!

"Aaaaah!"
"Who are these people?"
"Where did they suddenly come from?"

In the chaos of battle, soldiers are trained to move with a singular focus on their orders. Moving independently is dangerous, but even when they try, they can't always see what's happening around them.

So when Ghislain and the mercenaries stormed in, the soldiers were thrown into complete confusion.

BOOM! BAM!

"Argh!"
Watching the enemies fall so easily, even the mercenaries were surprised.

"What the? Why are these guys so weak? Can we just fight here?"
"Shut up and stay sharp! If we lose track of the commander, we're all dead!"

The mercenaries began to feel exhilarated as they cut through the enemy forces. Fueled by Ghislain’s fervor at the front, they grew more and more heated.

"Young Master! We need the next command! The mercenaries don't know what's going on!"
Gillian shouted after destroying several enemies around him.

Ghislain quickly scanned the battlefield and drew a line with his finger.

"Kaor, take half the men and secure a retreat route around the breached wall. Hold out until I return."
"That's easy enough! Let's go, men!"
SHING!

Kaor's men quickly formed a shield wall, pushing the enemies back.

Satisfied with the formation, Ghislain turned his head swiftly.

"Everyone else, follow me! We're going for the siege tower!"

Ghislain shouted, raising his two-handed axe and charging forward.

"Master, what are you thinking?!"
"Ask later! For now, just follow the young master!"

Belinda, Gillian, and the remaining shield-bearing mercenaries chased after Ghislain. The mercenaries from the Forest of Beasts clenched their teeth, running with all their might.

They knew from experience that survival meant following this young commander’s orders without question.
Thinking would only slow them down. They needed to move immediately.

"Move quickly! Follow the commander! Do as you're told if you want to survive! Don't think, just move! Follow the training!"

One of the mercenaries shouted, and the others, as if in a trance, followed.

"Break through!"

BOOM!

Ghislain, cutting through the disorganized enemy lines, advanced. The mercenaries, using their shields, pushed the remaining enemies aside with unstoppable momentum.

Though not as effective as a cavalry charge, the sudden attack had a significant impact.

As both sides struggled to adapt, Ghislain and his men reached the entrance of the siege tower.

"Hold this position! Shields up!"
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The mercenaries formed a two-layer shield wall, surrounding the entrance of the siege tower.

The enemy archers, realizing the situation, ignored their previous orders and redirected their arrows.

But it was too late. The mercenaries had already set up their formation, their shields raised.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Once satisfied that the formation was solid, Ghislain shouted again.

"Cover the troops from the wall!"

With the enemy archers’ focus shifted, the walls gained some breathing room.

Randolph, who had been fighting on that side of the wall, finally snapped back to reality. Though stunned by Ghislain's actions, his battlefield experience helped him quickly regain his composure.

As soon as Randolph assessed the rapidly changing battlefield, he shouted until his voice was hoarse.

"Shoot! Aim at the enemy archers and fire!"

The soldiers atop the wall, still in shock, quickly got to their feet and started firing arrows.
Caught off guard, the enemy archers fell, their lines collapsing.

The shield bearers scrambled to protect the archers, but the way to the siege tower was already lost.

"I’ll handle the siege tower alone! Hold your position until I return! Belinda, help Gillian with the mercenaries!"
"What?! Master!"
"Young Master, you can’t!"

Belinda and Gillian tried to stop Ghislain, but they were too busy fighting to respond properly.

Ghislain was heading toward the most dangerous part of the battlefield, where soldiers were clustered around the tower.

And he planned to face them alone.

"Don’t worry about me!"

Ghislain repeated, charging alone into the group surrounding the siege tower.

Victor clenched his teeth as he watched the chaos unfold. His carefully laid plans had been torn apart by these madmen.

"Did they just pull their best troops from the gate?"
He had never expected them to charge out in the middle of a siege.

The battlefield was in complete disarray. Soldiers fought on the walls, with screams echoing everywhere. It was chaotic enough that you wouldn’t even notice your ally dying next to you.

"In this chaos, they managed to read my strategy and take advantage of it?"

No matter how superior your forces, you cannot avoid casualties in war. Victor had planned to wait for an opening, preserving his troops while exhausting the enemy.

He hadn’t expected such a bold move, certainly not one that would challenge his overwhelming numbers.

To his horror, the gates had already closed again, leaving him to wonder if he should press the attack or hold back.

‘No, pushing further would lead to heavy losses,’ he thought.

Victor quickly reassessed the situation. One of his flanks had collapsed under the sudden attack.

"That speed… are they relying on sheer brute force?"

Even if the siege tower were destroyed, he could still redirect those troops to the other side. Though taken by surprise, it wasn’t enough to change the tide of the war.

"Send knights and more troops to the left tower! Quickly, secure the tower! The soldiers inside must turn and strike the enemy from behind!"

Those men in black armor were clearly skilled, so knights would be needed to retake the tower.

Despite the chaos, reinforcements of twenty knights and additional troops headed toward the left siege tower.

"Once we push them back, we’ll strike the gate as well! Move the battering ram and ladders forward! Prepare to advance!"

At Victor’s command, the troops began to reorganize.

Meanwhile, the soldiers waiting to enter the siege tower noticed something strange and turned around.

"Who is that guy?"

One of the knights looked at Ghislain, who was approaching the tower alone, dragging his massive double-headed axe behind him.

"Does he really think he can block the rear on his own?"

The knight smirked, shaking his head.

With over a hundred soldiers waiting to enter the tower, the idea of a lone man holding them off was laughable.

"Ignore the ones climbing up! The rest, hit them from behind!"

At the knight's command, the soldiers turned toward Ghislain.

Whatever their thoughts, it was clear that in Feridium, no one of such power should exist.

'He’s just being reckless,' the knight thought, ready to cut him down and then crush the rest blocking their path.

"Charge!"
The knight, releasing his mana, leaped forward, closing the distance between himself and Ghislain in an instant.

But just as he was about to strike, Ghislain swung his axe in a massive arc, slamming it into the ground.

BOOM!

SPLAT!

The soldiers behind the knight stopped in their tracks.
The knight, who had been at the front, was cleanly sliced in half.

As his body split in two, the space between his severed halves revealed a black-helmeted figure, glowing red eyes gleaming from within.