Chapter 177: Chapter 38 – The Laufgraan War 13

Matthew was sitting at the top of the earth wall that surrounded Farzan’s encampment. He watched as the elven mages conjured huge boulders and set them ablaze to be shot at the fortress walls.

When the projectiles hit their target, they exploded, shaking the fortress, but almost doing no damage. A blue mana wall shined every time.

From the sea, the ship Vissof fired its cannons against the walls as well.

The fortress shone red, yellow, orange and blue from the explosions and the mages inside protecting it the best they could.

"It’s almost beautiful." Mia said, sitting beside Matthew. "If it wasn’t scary." She added.

"Yeah." Matthew agreed.

"It’s the second day already?" Mia asked.

"It is. But it seems we haven’t made a dent on them." Matthew sighed.

"I wonder if it will ever fall." Mia pondered.

400 men arrived later in the day. They were fighting in another region, defending a small fortification that protected a supply line, but were now free to reinforce the main army since the enemies in their area were defeated.

Morale was unusually high. Bards sang songs around camp and soldiers drank wine. Laughter erupted here and there and few fights were resolved with long lasting friendships.

The attack broke the melancholy of the wait and the sounds of the siege weaponry reassured the men they were on the winning side.

A huge cheer was heard at night when a part of the wall crumbled after being hit. It was only a couple of merlons that fell, but it was a sign that the attack was causing damage to the seemingly impenetrable fortress.

On the morning of the following day, the men were told to prepare. They would attack in the afternoon.

That’s when the happy sounds on camp turned silent.

The bards stopped singing, the men stopped drinking.

A stillness took over the air as worried faces were everywhere in the encampment.

The attack plan was very straightforward. Mages and archers would provide cover to the men who would use ladders to climb the walls. Meanwhile, Farzan’s armored vehicles were to charge the gates and forcibly open them.

Farzan himself was to lead that charge.

Faralynn was to stay at camp with Mia, Helen, Erin and Tina guarding her.

Matthew, however, had the most dangerous mission. To infiltrate the castle through the beachside and capture Farynn. For that, he would have the help of Faynn, who spent the whole war gathering information to feed the army until now.

"Jealous?" Faynn teased Faralynn who just looked at her with a murderous stare.

"If you 2 succeed, you’ll shorten the battle in days." Farzan revealed the intention of such a mission.

They weren’t expected to actually manage to do it. However, having 2 people who could turn into shadows created the opportunity to try.

"You 2 run away if it gets too dangerous." Faralynn pleaded with them after the war council ended for lunch.

"Don’t worry." Matthew hugged her.

When the troops advanced on the fortress, the siege weapons stopped. Arrows flew from the fortress together with spells and cannon shots. Farzan’s mages tried their best to protect the advancing soldiers with mana walls, but some of the attacks managed to kill and maim some of them. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Farzan drove one of his humvees himself just behind his tanks that accelerated through the cobbled road that led to the fortress’ gates. The vehicles were too sturdy to suffer damage from the attacks.

They opened fire when they got close enough to the gates that resisted the assault being protected by mana.

The humvees used their machine guns on the gate’s barbican, keeping the archers hidden behind the stones while the tanks tried to bring the gates down.

One or other enchanted arrow was shot exploding on the tank’s armor, making it shake, but not causing enough damage.

When it seemed certain that the modern weaponry was too much against the medieval defenses, the earth shook violently. Two tanks flew high, landing on their backs when two pillars of stone surged from under them.

And then a laser beam came from the sky cutting the tanks in half, melting the metal.

A black haired elf was flying up high surrounded by light balls that he threw against the humvees exploding the ground around them.

Farzan came out of his and threw his spear upwards clad in electricity, forcing the flying elf to stop his attack and dodge.

Another elf pulled out of the gatehouse with an armor made of stones and ran towards Farzan.

Before he could reach him, Firynn jumped out of another humvee with his sword and axe and engaged the stone armored elf.

Farzan summoned lightning bolts trying to hit the flying elf that dodged them masterfully and counterattacked with laser beams against the elf.

The other soldiers inside the humvees also got out of their vehicles, leaving only the ones manning the guns, and engaged the enemy who was now leaving the gate walls to stop their attack.

Meanwhile, the assault on the walls was progressing slowly and with heavy casualties.

Matthew came out of the water with Faynn, who was only wearing a black bikini, while he was wearing his gambeson and chausses.

The elf shook herself sensually and gave a teasing smile at Matthew, trying to fish for a reaction.

Matthew, however, just used Ffyr fire mana to dry himself up.

Faynn pouted and conjured a shadow around herself that soon turned into her black leather armor.

"How do you do that?" Matthew asked.

"What?"

"Getting dressed like that. Using shadows. Your armor is not made of mana, is it?"

"No. I too have an Inventory." Faynn explained as she guided him through the stones to near the wall without being seen by the sentinels.

"Yeah. But when I try to put on my armor like that, it never comes out right. I even got injured one time." He explained following her quietly.

"You need to make your armor into shadows as well, when you take it out." Faynn said, like it was obvious. "Then you can just mold it around you."

Matthew stopped for a second and tried putting on his armor that way. Taking it out of his inventory, turning only the armor into shadow and then moving in around his body.

"See? Easy." Faynn smiled at him as the armor materialized perfectly on him. "Now take it off before you make too much noise."

From where they were, they could clearly hear the sounds of battle coming from the other side of the castle. Especially the sounds of cannons.

"Stay close to me." Faynn said while touching his shoulder. "I can’t hide your mana if you get too far." She added while turning into shadow.

Matthew turned with her and, in that form, they sneaked up the walls and inside the fortress.

With the attack, most of the soldiers were on the front, while guarding the rest of the walls were servants and civilians.

They managed to sneak in unnoticed past the wall and found themselves in the bailey. Relying only on their Sense Mana, they moved about in the shadows trying to avoid the sunlight the better they could.

A slightly darker shadow didn’t draw much attention, but a shadow in the middle of a sunny courtyard with no object casting it was easy to spot.

They found their way into an armory where they could come out of the shadow to rest a bit and drink some mana potions.

"You ok?" Faynn asked him.

"A bit dizzy. Never stayed in shadow form this long." Matthew answered, drinking a mana potion. "But I have enough mana."

"Good. But the closer we get to Farynn’s quarters, the more likely they’ll find us."

"How strong is Farynn?" Matthew asked.

"Stronger than me, weaker than Farzan." Faynn said. "He’s a great archer and very good with a sword. But he doesn’t cast spells. The real problem is his elite guard. He has 4 soldiers always surrounding him. Be careful with them. Especially since one is a priest."

Matthew remembered the shield test. A bless spell locked away his Unholy Mana, his greatest weapon. That meant that he could not count on it in this battle. He decided to keep it hidden and use it as a trump card. His Secrecy skill would make sure no one could find out he had it.

The fortress then shook violently.

The battle on the front gate was getting fiercer.

"Let’s move." Faynn said, returning to the shadows.

She knew the castle in and out, perhaps even better than Farynn himself. Not only did she spy it during this war, but she also served there before going to Earth with Farzan. Moving about in the narrow corridors and the maze-like architecture designed to confuse enemies was easy for her.

That’s until they reached the main residence.

It was the centermost structure of the fortress, a court with living space constructed upwards in high towers. Farynn’s room was in the top most tower.

However, when they reached the court, they found Farynn seated on the throne there surrounded by an elven woman and an elven man.

"I know you’re there Faynn." The elven woman said.