Mercenary Wars

Chapter 156 The Ring of Faith Duel
Shadow Guard.

A shadow guard who blends into the shadows, capable of providing truly inseparable protection. The gaunt man who emerged from the shadows and retaliated against the assassin was clearly His Highness's shadow guard.

For most ordinary people, Shadow Guards are almost as rare as dragons, existing almost exclusively in the mouths of bards.

This is the first time they've seen a real Shadow Guard in person.

After the assassin's weapon was knocked away by the prince's shadow guard, he vanished into thin air without hesitation.

The shadow guard showed no intention of giving chase. Instead, he flickered and instantly merged back into Prince Eric's shadow, silently disappearing as if he had never been there.

The assassin appeared, the shadow guards retaliated, everyone exclaimed, the assassin disappeared, the shadow guards disappeared... The whole process was very brief, not even half a second.

Those who were slow to react looked around blankly and asked, "Assassin? Where's the assassin?"

However, most of the people around Prince Eric were high-ranking named individuals. Even if they couldn't keep up with the assassins and shadow guards' movements, they could still keep up with their eyes to some extent. Therefore, they saw everything that had just happened clearly, and couldn't help but show solemn and angry expressions.

"These insidious heretics!"

"How dare you assassinate His Highness the Prince!"

The mage following behind Prince Eric immediately brandished his staff and said, "Watch me drag him out!"

Prince Eric said calmly, "There's no need to waste time. These assassins are at least level ten thieves, and they usually have multiple holy names related to assassinations. With your abilities, it's almost impossible for you to find them."

"No matter what, we cannot stand by and watch you be in danger!" the monk insisted.

As he spoke, he began to cast spells, using a variety of techniques that could potentially reveal the assassin's whereabouts, such as concealment, dust, and cloud formations.

Others followed suit, employing all sorts of bizarre methods in an attempt to find the assassin.

But as Prince Eric said, no matter how hard they tried, they could not find a trace of the assassin.

“Stop, everyone. The assassin should be gone by now,” Prince Eric said. “Why don’t we give his dagger to a fortune teller? Perhaps we can get some clues through divination.”

"But Your Highness..."

“I have shadow guards protecting me closely, so I’ll be fine.” Prince Eric paused for a moment. “Besides, I’m a paladin. In this world, no paladin would be afraid of an assassin who only attacks from the shadows.”

"Let's go." With that, he continued westward.

The group had no choice but to continue westward, gradually forgetting the fleeting assassination attempt amidst their discussions.

"Is this the power of a high-level thief? I can't sense his presence at all. By Mosa, this is truly terrifying!"

"What are you afraid of? Do you think you'll be assassinated by a level 10 thief?"

"To be honest, I think he will try to assassinate His Highness again..."

"Of course, haven't you heard of Emperor Camonsis' famous saying?"

"What famous quote?"

"A king needs to survive 638 assassination attempts to become a great monarch who will be remembered in history!"

"If I remember correctly, Emperor Camonsis himself was assassinated, wasn't he?"

……

With one border outpost eliminated, a gap appeared in the Dibto people's veil of observation, preventing them from accurately grasping the strength and movements of the Mosa army.

Just in case, they had no choice but to activate the denial screen of the Labzat fortress early on and be on high alert.

Therefore, when the Mosa army arrived near the Labzat fortress, what came into their view was a fortress shrouded in a huge light curtain.

The battle begins.

The first, naturally, is the magical combat phase.

At Prince Eric's command, several carriages carrying enormous connecting crystals arrived at several locations outside the fortress, where the crystals were unloaded and intervention magic circles were set up.

Compared to the Battle of Presto, this intervention formation is significantly larger in scale, with several times more nodes.

Each node has several named individuals of level six to eight, with a maximum of five people – this is the upper limit for each node.

Under the mage's coordination, the high-level recipients formed connections with the crystals at each node, and magical arcs of light, like threads, floated between them and the connecting crystals.

This is a connection related to holy names. The effect of the connection is directly influenced by the holy names; the more holy names there are, the more powerful the intervention array will be.

The same applies to the Rejection Array; the number of linked holy names determines its performance in magical combat.

Once the Holy Name connection is established, the various magical nodes are interconnected, and the intervention array is officially formed.

After a period of time.

Several dazzling beams of light shot simultaneously from various nodes of the intervention array toward the denial light barrier of Labzat Fortress, immediately erupting into thunderous roars: "Boom!"

The scene that followed was similar to the Battle of Presto.

The beams of light from the intervention array and the light curtain from the rejection array clashed together, advancing and retreating, back and forth, looking just like a tug-of-war.

The biggest difference is that this magical confrontation is on a much larger scale, with the roaring sound even causing many low-level soldiers to involuntarily cover their ears.

In addition, the back-and-forth between the two sides was significantly faster.

The magical conflict in the Battle of Prestor took about two days to reach a balance, but this time it only took about half a day.

Once the magical balance was achieved, a mage immediately reported to Prince Eric: "Your Highness, the denial range has been compressed to level five and above. Now soldiers of level five or lower can begin the siege!"

“Very good.” Prince Eric nodded. “I will then order the Redemption Chapter and part of the Faith Chapter to launch an attack! Once the first breaching scroll is nailed to the city walls, the Faith Chapter and the Second Legion of Nordanron will all be mobilized!”

"Yes!" The siege immediately began.

Tens of thousands of low-ranking soldiers charged toward the Labzat fortress with shouts, launching the first fierce attack.

At the same time, the large Yemeni faith aura of the Labzat fortress was also activated.

Unlike the small halos of faith at border outposts, which are almost invisible to the naked eye, the large halos of faith have a very obvious visual effect. A faint golden light emanates from the fortress, shining on the defenders and also on the tens of thousands of attacking Mosas. The two sides clashed under this holy light, and amidst the deafening shouts of battle, corpses quickly began to pile up.

Under the influence of the large-scale Yamen faith aura, the Mosas are equivalent to a decrease of half a level on average, while the Yamen followers are equivalent to an increase of half a level on average, creating a power gap of about one level between the two sides.

In this situation, the performance of thousands of Mosaic followers on the battlefield can almost be described as "giving up their lives." They couldn't even run fast, and some of them, under the halo of their Yemeni faith, shouted the name of Mosaic, only to be killed before the enemy even had a chance to attack.

Of course, their participation was not without significance. The power that the aura of faith can spread is limited; with each additional person sharing the burden, its influence diminishes. While chanting "Mosa" will certainly evoke a strong reaction from the Yamen aura of faith, it will also significantly deplete the aura's power.

Therefore, very few people would remind the soldiers of the Redemption Chapter not to call out the name of Mosa under the halo of faith. Their senior commanders would not, and their well-informed comrades might not either. Most of them came from the lower classes, had limited experience, and some were even fanatical in their faith. So some people would shout Mosa to their deaths as soon as the war started.

Therefore, despite the large number of Mossadists, they still suffered heavy casualties, and most of the bodies under the city walls belonged to them.

The wounded Gaucano merely stood at a distance and watched, but he quickly sensed the ferocity of the battle.

As the air began to fill with the stench of blood, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. Thankfully, he possessed the privilege of being a siege leader, sparing him from participating in such battles.

Otherwise, they might also be assigned to the war. Even if they didn't participate in the first round, they would have to participate in the second round. After all, once the war started, the denial network was directly pushed to level five, which theoretically made every Mosaic who was not above level five obligated to participate in the war.

Following this trend, it won't be long before level six or even level seven named individuals join the battle.

This is a war between infidels, or a "holy war".

Of course, even in such a brutal war, there were relatively peaceful places on the battlefield.

The main gate of Labzat Fortress is the only peaceful place.

Every magic circle has flaws, and the flaws in a large magic circle can be so large that they can form a "backdoor".

In small places like Prestoburg, loopholes in magic circles are often not specially addressed. In many cases, even the designers of the city don't know where the loopholes are, and when they will be exposed is entirely up to fate.

But for a military fortress like Labuzat, which guards the border against infidels, unknown vulnerabilities are intolerable.

Therefore, at the beginning of construction, the designers would spend a lot of time and money to repeatedly test and adjust the loopholes in the denial light curtain to a visible place—such as a city gate—and then make up for them through various means.

However, making amends in this way is not easy.

Just like patching clothes, patches can never achieve a "seamless" effect.

Moreover, the patching process will inevitably cause some damage to the clothes themselves.

For repairing magic circles, the damage caused by "patching" is particularly severe. Many patches will produce counterproductive effects. To this day, no magic or magic circle master has found a perfect solution. On the contrary, many scholars have tried to prove from the perspective of magic theory that a perfect solution simply does not exist.

After a long period of exploration, the mages finally discovered that the best way to close this loophole seemed to be to establish a "circle of faith duels".

The Circle of Faith Duels, or simply the "Circle of Duels," is a basic magical facility in some large dueling arenas.

Within its boundaries, both sides first swear a duel oath in the name of God, and then the duel can begin.

Once both parties solemnly swear an oath of duel, the Duel Ring area will become a space completely isolated from the outside world, where no object or spell can enter or leave.

This allows the Duel Ring to be used as a defensive magic circle.

The defending side only needs to send two of their own people in to pretend to duel, which can keep the duel ring closed for a long time, making it difficult for the enemy to enter. The defensive effect is no worse than the denial light curtain.

However, such "fake match" behavior is obviously undignified and may invite divine punishment, so it eventually evolved into a real duel between the attackers and defenders.

As a result, the world of Farallo developed a tradition of holding duels on the battlefield during sieges, which became widespread among various intelligent races.

Therefore, during every siege battle, while most areas are in a state of fierce group fighting, there is always one area—usually in front of the city gates—where each side only sends out one person or a few people to duel.

Right now, there is such an area in front of the main gate of Labzat Fortress.

A Jehovah disciple clad in armor stood among them, with a banner symbolizing Jehovah behind him. Facing the Mosas, he swore an oath of duel: "In the name of my Lord Jehovah, I, James, a fourth-degree named one, accept a duel from any fourth-degree named one, in accordance with the natural principle of fair duels!"

Besides the siege fighters, many members of the raiding battalion did not participate in the siege.

But they also have their own tasks.

Their mission is to deal with the battles of the Duel Ring.

This is an opportunity to gain prestige and honor, as well as a chance to prove one's strength and faith.

Prince Eric, watching from behind them, asked, "Who is willing to take on the challenge?"

A voice immediately rang out: "Me!"

Gaucano turned his head and saw that it was a thief.

The thief took a flag from the commander of the raiding battalion; the flag was decorated with a triangular symbol representing Mosa.

He then strode confidently into the Duel Ring area, planted his flag on the ground, and stood opposite the Yemen flag.

Planting a flag is also a common part of the Ferraro dueling tradition, especially on such occasions, where both sides will plant a flag symbolizing faith and honor.

"In the name of my Lord Mosa, I, Jack, am willing to duel with you, James, in accordance with the principles of natural and fair duels!" the thief said, drawing two daggers from his waist and holding them in his hands.

There was no aura of faith within the Duel Ring area, allowing everyone to shout the name of their god. As Jack also swore his oath, the Duel Ring space immediately sealed off, isolating it from the outside world.

"Let's see who believes in the true God and who will receive God's blessing!" James said, then grabbed his longsword and charged forward with astonishing speed.

With a whoosh, James was in front of Jack in the blink of an eye.

Jack was prepared; just as James was about to arrive, he vanished into thin air.

For a level four rogue, mastering stealth is no easy feat. But since he dared to participate in the Challenge of the Duel Ring, his strength is certainly not comparable to that of an ordinary level four rogue.

This principle also applies to James.

It might even be more applicable.

Therefore, upon seeing Jack become invisible, James showed no surprise or panic. Instead, he revealed a mocking expression, and then suddenly opened his mouth, letting out a sharp shriek.

As the shriek rang out, he turned and swung his longsword fiercely into the air!

(End of this chapter)