And so, I took the user called Omega down, after which I looked around to check the situation. The allies looked to be an even match against the enemies, perhaps because I had taken down the leader who was the most dangerous out of the group.
"Ellie!"
Katalina yelled at me as she was continuously dodging the enemy's attacks, irked because I was standing there with a stunned look as the battle was still going on.
"Sorry, sorry."
After apologizing, I escaped from a daze-like-trance and joined forces with the allies for real.
"Wha!"
"Argh!"
When an overwhelmingly powerful force joins in a battle with equal sides, the effectiveness of the powerful force is maximized to its potential. They already had a tough time fending off the enemies in front of them, so having an extremely powerful top ranking user attack them from behind meant that there were no users that could hold out.
Among them were a few that tried to attack me first before I did anything, but…
"Die…! Blegh."
They simply ended up as kill points for me.
My kill points kept exploding. Looking at my numbers, Katalina kept grumbling to herself, but since mages can only maximize their killing potential in wide-open areas where they can have space, there was nothing she could really do about it.
"S… Save m… Argh!"
After the allies were successful in removing the last of the enemy soldiers from the area and pushing out the enemy forces from the castle walls, they collapsed in exhaustion. This was much more exhausting than just hunting AI controlled monsters.
"We're really indebted to you both."
One mercenary among the group who wore a red outfit came up to me. With a powerful body structure reaching 2 meters high, he was a knight class character with an axe as his main weapon, which was actually quite uncommon. He seemed to be taking up the temporary leadership position of this group, as he had the highest level among them before the two of us came over.
The second wave of enemies started to attack.
The numbers they had were still greater than ours, and they didn't seem shaken by our last successful defense. If I considered them as just experience points, it sounds good for me, but they're not AI. They can always turn a situation to their favor completely, and it means that I could end up with a Game Over at any moment.
"Ohh? Ellie, are you nervous?"
Katalina spoke to me with a playful tone as she watched the enemies coming in.
"Instead of nervousness, I'd say I'm feeling hot."
"Hot?"
Her voice became curious and high pitched towards the end.
"I mean that the tension I feel from knowing that this is a close battle makes me feel more pumped up. I kind of like that feeling. Don't think of any weird stuff now."
"I… I wasn't!"
I couldn't see her face, but I assumed that it's probably quite red with a blush right now.
"Die! Die!"
Katalina fell into an obsession of trying to level up as much as possible as she massacred the enemy forces, and the allies simply stood far away from her, fearing her violent nature.
A mage that had been given enough range and space to cast all of her spells is something to be fearful of. It looked akin to watching a natural disaster happen in front of me.
"Aaargh!"
I wasn't sure how many siege towers had been burnt down by now. It was to the point where the remaining siege towers all headed towards the walls while specifically avoiding walls where Katalina was.
Of course, we weren't just standing around watching that happen. We would be on the move, intercepting their movements and achieving more victories by taking the towers down. However, to cast magic, let alone advanced high-level magic, you needed to be stationary in order to do so. Naturally, I would end up lucky sometimes and come across siege towers that had already been deployed on the castle walls.
"Kill 'em!"
"Die!"
And those places were in pure chaos, filled with screams and curse words all over the place. Now came the moment where ranged magic attacks lose their potential as the enemies were already in close range.
"Tsk…"
She looked disappointed, but this is when having skills effective in close-up battles are most important.
"Lina."
"I know, I know!"
Katalina's body glowed brightly, and the magic effect flowed from within her and spread towards the ally mercenaries.
"Oh? This is the first time I'm seeing this kind of buff."
"You're right…"
With mages that specialize in offensive attack spells, they don't have that many supportive magic spells, but once they reach higher levels, they gain one or two useful spells. They're usually buffs that give them additional elemental damage, and it certainly helps to make allies stronger.
Of course, if you are hunting down AI monsters it would be more effective to shoot one more offensive attack magic rather than casting supportive magic, but that changes if you have plenty of mana potion.
But who would waste a precious and expensive potion when hunting monsters? It meant that it was very rare for the average user to receive a mage user's buff spell.
Their reaction to the spell was quite understandable from my point of view.
The battle was truly fierce from both sides. Those trying to get over the walls and those stopping them from getting over were both fighting for their survival, so the battles were fierce and chaotic.
There were few users that looked to be top ranked ones, and they would always be very careful in picking their battles and assessing the situation. They would sometimes just escape the dangerous situation by jumping off the castle wall, and some would just drink down some potions.
And it was also natural for those high-level users on both sides to identify each other on the battlefield and avoid a confrontation as much as they could. Katalina and I acted this way as well.
Of course, it was more apt to say that instead of us avoiding a confrontation with them, it was the enemies that were trying their best to avoid us.
"Hmm, looks like these battles are going to take longer to finish."
Katalina spoke while a fierce battle was taking place. Although others may not agree with her statement, as I was taking my sweet time taking down the enemies from my point of view, I agreed with Katalina. Most mercenaries are already locked into a battle with the other's sides. As they've already spent most of their energy by this point, the low level users or those that are greedy for more experience points are the only ones fighting with all their strength. Meanwhile, the high level mercenary users which could be called the real backbone of the army weren't acting that way at all. They knew that the easiest way to dominate over the enemy mercenary forces was to wait for the main allied guild member forces to come over and combine in a joint attack to truly make a fierce attack forward.
However, even though the battles had progressed by quite a lot already, the allied guild members still didn't seem like they were going to join the battle. Naturally, those who have quick wits would have realized that this current situation differed from the usual battles that take place in siege battles.
"Hmm?"
Only then we started seeing movements from afar. The Shining guild's main advance force which had been standing still for the entire time now had suddenly started moving forward.
"Waaaagh!!!"
Shouts of war cries rang out from the mercenaries from the enemy side, which was watching the rear forces finally moving in to help them out.
And as if to retaliate for their advances, the main forces of the Chaos guild slowly moved forward as well.
"Waaaagh!!!"
This time, the mercenary line from our side shouted out war cries.
I thought that the actual real battle was finally beginning. I bet that it's not only me, but Katalina and other mercenaries are thinking the same way as I am as well.
"Huh?"
But my assumption was completely shattered.
"What the?"
The battle clash that had fallen into a lull for a moment became fierce and frantic with the addition of top ranked users from both sides of the guilds. But, I sensed something was strange.
The Chaos guild members were definitely helping us out, but they were locked up in a battle against the enemy mercenaries, and it was the same for the Shining guild as well.
It could be just my imagination, but it became clearer to me as time went on.
"What are they doing!? Why aren't the Shining guild members attacking the other guild's members?!"
Someone shouted out. They seemed to be quite a high level user, as their voice reached all throughout the field even though they were far away.
"He's right…"
"Yeah, I knew something was strange!"
The mercenary users that had been fiercely fighting the entire time suddenly agreed with his statement, becoming hesitant.
They had felt something was strange as well.
"Lina, let's retreat to the back."
As I felt that the situation was definitely strange, I spoke to Katalina, and Katalina also nodded to my suggestion with a serious expression.
Slowly, Katalina and I escaped from the battle on the field. There were several shouts heard from here and there, and they were all sounds of condemnation. They were asking why aren't the two guilds fighting against each other.
Even in that situation, both sides of the guild's members were only battling the mercenaries of opposite sides in complete silence.
"Damn it! It was a trap."
"The two guilds were colluding."
Anyone could understand this situation if you had even a bit of common sense. Who in the world would be crafty and evil enough to use a guild war as bait to destroy the forces of any other rivals that the two guilds have?
But thinking about it, although medium to small sized guilds wouldn't do such a thing, two giant guilds may actually agree to try it out since it's beneficial for both sides.
The problem was that we aren't the attackers, but the victims in this situation.
"Back! Back!"
Though the owner of the voice was unknown, it was the direction where all the mercenaries were heading together. The battle between the mercenaries had suddenly stopped.
"Get those bastards!"
"How dare you backstab us…!"
A counterattack by enraged mercenaries began, and the war took on a different new form.
Although their rage was great for morale boost, the war of attrition had been very unfair for the mercenary's side.
The side that was especially disadvantageous was the mercenaries that were on the defense of the castle, which included me and Katalina.
We already had much lower numbers in the first place compared to the enemy forces, and now that the main force of the army, which is the Chaos guild members, had betrayed us, that meant that we only had a few hundred numbers left while we needed to go against enemy forces that were in the thousands of numbers.
It was around a 10 to 1 ratio, and it wasn't like the average level of the mercenaries were high or composed of users that co-operate and work well together.
And yet, the enemies we faced were a giant guild's top ranking members. They were a group who had been preparing for this moment for at least a few months beforehand, making sure they were completely efficient and working together.
But the one thing that was good for us was that we were in a geographically advantageous location inside of the castle.
Of course, as the Chaos guild had opened up the castle gates completely, it ruined its original purpose of defense, but the situation changes if it is about battles within the halls of the castle.
In a castle, there were many narrow hallways and corridors that made it difficult to penetrate and go through. These places were where the most important battles in a siege war would take place, and often it determined which side was the winner of the battle.
Because of the characteristics of a narrow hallway, only several people can battle in one of them at a time, and that meant that depending on the skill level of these several people, battles could easily tilt one way or another.
"Argh!"
Amidst all that, the screams of mercenaries could be heard. Obviously, the mercenaries could only fight back defensively. Considering how disadvantaged they were, there didn't seem to be any key figure that could recover them from this terrible situation. Some high ranked mercenaries charged towards the enemies in a fit of rage, but it was only a matter of time before they died because both sides surrounded them.
Mercenaries that were lagging behind in the retreat naturally became food for the Shining guild, and most of them were mages or healers who had slow movement speed.
Katalina was kind of the exception and was fine since she had moved to retreat earlier than others, while I, as a knight, had the natural position of leading the group and therefore had no problem lagging behind.
"We should revive the healers first, right?"
"Be careful!"
Katalina yelled towards me as I was slipping out through the back. She also knew very well that you couldn't get out of this situation if all the healers were to fall, so she understood the reason I was slipping to the back.
"Darling, wait for me!!!"
"You bastards! You said you loved me! And now you're dumping me and running away!?"
"Sorry! I'll be ruined if I were to die here, so I can't stay with you."
"I'm sorry, Jessica…"
Shouts of people running away trying to save their lives and those that are cursing them for leaving them behind, like a melodramatic movie. Of course, it wasn't like I couldn't understand those users who had to be abandoned and those that had no choice but to run away.
As they all have their own reasoning after all.
If the past was here at this moment, would I really stay behind like a cool movie action hero and go to save my lover or friend's life, fighting against the enemy forces?
"Heheh…"
If you weren't a saint or something, there was only one obvious answer. It's clear that you'd die a dog's death without achieving anything, so I wouldn't be so dumb to do something like that.
But right now, the situation is different. There was a reason I needed to save the lives of the healers as much as possible, even though there's a possibility I'll die a dog's death.
It's the mages. Putting aside the fact that I am putting a bit more priority on it because it involves Katalina.
"Please save me!"
"Heh… Sorry, but just stay there and become my experience points."
Although they were the leading troops of the Shining guild, they looked more like assassins as they brutally murdered the healers. Although mages can at least fight back somewhat, the only thing that healers could do is put up a defensive magic that can prolong their life just a bit longer.
If it was like any other average hunt, the healers who would receive the most protection and respect from others were now the first to be dumped and left to die horribly.
"Tsk tsk."
I couldn't help but click my tongue at the situation. Although the Chaos guild and Shining guild have their own good reasons to do so, this was definitely not an action that these users should be doing. Who are healers? They are the flower of any hunting party, and the ones that are always sought after the most, are they not? Guilds always have many healers appropriate to their size, and since you would always need a healer in your party when going hunting, you'd need to go hunting with healers from mid-sized guilds, right?
Though high-level users in a guild may have their dedicated healer assigned to them, what about the lower-ranking guild members? If they don't have enough healers, who could they go out to a hunt with? Just solo the hunts? That's only possible for someone with way too much money. Therefore, this act of murdering the healers of mid-sized guilds was to make sure they wouldn't be able to go out to hunt freely in the future.
"Die!"
An assassin from the Shining guild was swinging his sword down onto a healer who had just run out of mana and their magic shield dissipated.
"Nope, you die."
"Argh…"
As I had already come up behind him, I used the chance of his attention being focused on the healer to lightly stab him in the back with my sword. Letting out a scream of pain as he died, I had landed a critical hit which had killed him in one hit.
"Ahh… Thank you!"
The healer thought they were going to die, and was therefore on their butt after their shield magic disappeared. They quickly stood up and bowed to me with thanks.
"Don't worry about the gratitude, just run towards the insides of the castle. I'll cover your back."
"Thank youuuuu!!!"
I wasn't sure if she was genuine in her words or not, as the healer who looked to be female didn't even politely decline at first before right away carrying out my order.
"How dare you kill my friend!!"
At that time, a group of assassins ganged up on me. Though there were four of them, it didn't seem like there was a high level user among them. The problem was that their classes were set to 'Assassin', so their movement was fast.
But it seemed like they were over-reliant on the fact that they had outnumbered me, as they didn't even consider scouting out what kind of user I was before attacking me.
With obvious telling movements and simple attacks that were unfit for an assassin. They weren't even using a skill.
[Gruesome Strike]
I couldn't waste the small opportunity they gave me, and began one of the few AOE skills I had, which was a unique special attack that was at S-tier.
It was an advanced skill that took nearly one-third of my total mana.
"Wha…"
The last words that came out of the four of them weren't even screams.
"My god!"
A gasp of surprise came out from somewhere, seemingly because they saw what I've done.
"Please retreat, immediately."
Saying those words to several healers who were in a daze, I once again went back towards the enemies where there were still several healers who were in trouble.
I wasn't sure how many healers I could save, but in order to maximize my chances of being able to survive this, I had to save as many of them as possible.
"Please save me!"
Hearing someone's plea, I glanced in that direction. Enemies surrounded one mage user. There was no need to think too long about it.
Sorry, but mages aren't high on my priority list.
My first priority was those healers who were surrounded by enemies. Although there were only three of them, there were dozens of enemies surrounding them. As the enemies had come right up to their faces at this point, if I wasted any more time they would be in danger.
I try to calculate the time. In the worst possible situation, both of them would be in danger and in the best-case scenario, I could save both the mage and the healers. If that wasn't possible, I needed to make sure I save the healers first. As there wasn't even time to think this over, I moved my body in that direction.