Otherworld Adventure 287 Serilla's Prowess And The Feas

Fatima already knew that this chokepoint was probably within the range of the cannon, but before she could get any indicator that the cannon was ready, it was abruptly fired and she couldn't even relay any orders to temporarily stop the troops from moving in.

"d.a.m.n!" Fatima smashed her fist on the table in front of her. At least a quarter to almost half a battalion of soldiers was lost from that one attack.

She remembered from Lucia's explanation that this thing could fire off 5 shots in one go before the battery needed to be replaced. She couldn't help but grit her teeth in anger. With the cannon aiming down the path and at the chokepoint, Fatima couldn't send any more soldiers in... And the soldiers already inside couldn't get out...

"Where are the mages?! Send them to the front lines and have the earth mages chisel a hole in that G.o.dd.a.m.ned wall!" Fatima ordered.

All the earth mages that were left behind immediately set out to the front on her orders. Once they got to the wall, they began to slowly grind it away. The wall was about 10 meters thick, so it would take a while before the mages could create a large hole on that wall, but she needed to at least do something.

Her brother's wives were stuck inside that place and if anything happened to them—no, Fatima didn't even want to think about that. Just as she was eyeing the battlefield and coming up with a plan, a large part of the eastside wall immediately began to crumble and a large gash opened up.

"Did our mages do that?! Are we able to use mana again?" One of the generals exclaimed in excitement.

Fatima was also puzzled, but in the next instant a pink-haired lady appeared on top of the large opening before she swung her sword down onto the ground.

Serilla had infused her sword slash with her intent and carved out another portion of the wall which opened up the gash to the ground. Once the task was complete, Serilla looked towards the general direction of where Fatima was supposed to be at and raised her thumb in the air.

"Hahaha! Nice one Serilla! Have the soldiers on the eastside march into that opening!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

The battle once more resumed. The ones on the west side couldn't do anything, but once Serilla opened another path on the wall, the Regulus soldiers began to stream into the battlefield. When most of their forces that were sent as the vanguard had successfully gotten into the battlefield behind the walls, the battle quickly turned in the favor of the Regulus Army.

Just as Fatima thought that maybe flooding the rivers weren't needed, large black cylinders began popping out from the battlements on the fortress. She widened her eyes in horror when she saw those mini Mag-Cannons.

Now she understood why the large Mag-Cannon didn't even need to bother rotating to aim at another location other than the main path. When she saw the disastrous outcome of the Mag-Cannons' first volley, Fatima decisively sounded the horn for the retreat.

"Lulu, let's get going! That's the call for the retreat!"

"Alright...but I think we should at least do something about that stupidly large cannon!" Lucia said as she eyed the large Mag-Cannon sitting comfortably in front of the fortress' gates.

"I'll go and crush the power relay and try to destroy the cannon. You head back, now!" Serilla ordered.

"Okay, Seri...just be careful!" Lucia said as she cut down another enemy soldier before retreating.

Serilla made her move once she saw that her sister had retreated. She enhanced her body and senses with Ki and immediately flashed towards the large Mag-Cannon situated in front of the fortress' gates while dodging the mini Mag-Cannons' shots.

She appeared right below the large cannon and her figure was visible from where Fatima and the rest were overseeing the battle.

"W-what is she doing?!"

"Serilla!"

Serilla spun around and sent sword waves all around her and immediately dispatched all the large cannon's operatives and any enemy soldier around her. She had even sent some sword waves to attack the soldiers manning the mini Mag-Cannons on the fortress' battlements.

Having a little bit of room to breathe after taking out some of the soldiers around her, Serilla slashed upwards and cut off the cannon's barrel. She then jumped back and concentrated a large amount of her sword intent and a little bit of her ether onto her sword before slashing out.

"Ascending Blade!"

A large energy wave was ejected from her sword and it immediately bisected the Mag-Cannon and the fortress's gate behind it.

Serilla felt a little exhausted from using this technique. The Ascending Blade was also much different than how Lucia and Cecil used it. They would send a large beam of sword energy and mana to destroy everything in front of them, but Serilla's Ascending Blade was a razor-thin sharp sword beam that easily bisected anything she attacked.

Unlike Lucia and Cecil who used Ascending Blade with mana, she had to use hers with Ether, or Ki, and Sword Intent, which naturally, took a toll on her mind and body.

However, Serilla didn't have the luxury to rest at the moment. Once the enemy forces saw that their cannon and gate was destroyed, all the mini cannons on the battlements immediately directed their aims at Serilla and began blasting her.

Serilla immediately began to nimbly dodge the cannon fire and hastily make her escape. The entire sequence of her approaching the cannon to when she had destroyed and made a hasty retreat was observed by all the generals and soldiers who weren't at the vanguard.

Seeing the favorable outcome, they all roared and cheered at the woman's heroic feat. The enemy was dismayed at the loss of the large Mag-Cannon, but the Regulus Army's cheers were cut short when another similar Mag-Cannon was dragged out on top of the fortress's walls, it aimed at the soldiers who were making their way back out from behind the earthen walls constructed by the enemy.

It fired off one shot and another part of the Regulus Army was obliterated.

At the army's Main Tent, Albert roared as he stood up from his seat when he saw another one of those cannons.

"s.h.i.t! How many more of those things do those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have?!"

He had just been elated at the fact that Serilla had successfully destroyed one of those cannons, but now another one showed up and replaced it.

"Brother, we should retreat for now. Fatima's call was correct, her plan only needed us to act as a decoy for the other 2 divisions, we've already completed this and we should just wait until the preparations are complete." Rowan said.

"Yes...now we shall wait. Those cannons are useless if there isn't anything they can fire upon!"

"Yes, but brother, have you noticed?"

"Hm?"

"Those cannons, their power seems to be much stronger, but their range also seems to be much lower than what we had initially predicted. They can't even reach us from here. It's like they swapped for power at the cost of the weapon's range."

"...You're right...these are probably just proto-type cannons for ground usage. The ones in the Empire aren't as powerful as this and the range was much farther. I don't know if this is a blessing or not, but we should try and acquire one of those cannons for ourselves once the battle is over!"

"Yes, brother," Rowan said in agreement.

"But that woman...who is she?" Albert asked curiously.

Rowan frowned. He knew that his brother likely referred to Serilla who had just taken down one of those cannons singlehandedly.

"That's Fatima's sister-in-law," Rowan said.

"Sister-in-law?"

"Yes, she's married to Fatima's brother."

"Which brother are you referring to?"

"The lost brother that Fatima had been searching for," Rowan replied. "He's currently not here. He's headed to Revertia to look for his family, but he didn't think that they were in Regulus."

"The lost brother huh... you seem to know about her."

"Yes, I had the good fortune of befriending them. I wanted to try and rope one of them in, but it turns out that the two of them were already taken."

"Two?"

"It's the silver-haired girl that you met earlier. She's also married to that lost brother. Fatima's brother appears to be very capable, judging from the praises I've heard from his wives."

"...I see." Albert couldn't help but furrow his brows in disappointment. Seeing the clear disappointment in his brother's eyes, Rowan released a relieved sigh and turned to walk out of the open tent.

"I'll head out now, brother. I should help Fatima in preparing our camp's fortifications."

"Alright," Albert responded as he saw his brother out.

Right after Rowan walked away, Armano drifted next to Albert's side.

"Brother, I see the regret in your eyes. You didn't expect such a beautiful woman to already be taken, yes?"

"...And you're point?"

"Huhuhu~ brother, having a small taste of her wouldn't be that bad, right?"

"..."

"Don't worry the 'husband' isn't even here. I'll deliver her to your tent tonight, brother. The pink-haired girl from earlier is the one I want, just host a banquet later and award those two for their feats on the battlefield. Take this and have someone spike that silver-haired girl's food with it. She'll be as h.o.r.n.y as a wh.o.r.e soon after and once you have your way with her, the drug's secondary effect will make her forget about what happened that night!"

Albert only glared at his brother, but Armano didn't mind the glare and just stuffed the small bottle of drugs into his hand.

"You... what will happen if Fatima finds out about this," Albert said in a low voice.

"Fatima? Heh, what can she do? She's only a princess of some backwater kingdom. Why treat her so seriously? Her kingdom is probably only on the same power as those in the neutral territories! It's hardly anything we should care about!"

"..."

"Just sit tight brother, I'll deliver you your present later tonight~," Armano said as he walked away.

******

"Looks like someone wants to die..." A man quietly mumbled as he observed the two princes talking to each other. He eyed the younger one dangerously before he disappeared from his spot.

The man next to Prince Armano immediately whipped his head behind and frowned. Gildart thought that he just felt a cold, venomous gaze cast onto him and his liege.

He was a little suspicious, but he was once a renowned a.s.sa.s.sin and sensing that there was no one around, Gildart thought it was only his paranoia kicking in.

This symptom would always happen whenever his liege was going to do something unscrupulous again.

'It's just my imagination... There's just another year left before our contract expires then I'll leave this pathetic excuse for a prince. Other than his face and sword arm, this worm doesn't even have any other redeeming feature.'

Gildart inwardly thought as he cast his gaze at the Second Prince. He couldn't help but lament at his misfortune for actually being saved by this person and being tied into a contract with him.

******

Serilla and Lucia had regrouped with Fatima and their sister-in-law was commending them for their achievements on the battlefield and invited them to join the banquet that the First Prince will be hosting later.

The First Prince wanted to award Serilla for her achievement of taking down the walls surrounding the fortress and the destruction of the first Mag-Cannon.

Later that night, after the awards, Lucia and Serilla were slowly eating the food placed in front of them. Quinn was standing behind the two girls and he was personally serving the food for them. He didn't allow anyone to pour drinks or place food on their table.

"Quinn, what's up with you? Just kick back and relax." Lucia said.

"Lady Lucia, this is just naturally my duty as your butler. I serve you food, I won't allow anyone else to do so," Quinn replied.

"Suit yourself~"

Armano was smirking at the protective butler and he eyed one of his men. This person nodded and immediately went to the Wanderer. The person quickly found Sleipnir sleeping by the wagon and shot an arrow onto his rear end.

This naturally startled Sleipnir awake and he began kicking up a ruckus in the middle of the camp. One of Fatima's people informed them of the situation and Quinn had to go check what happened to their horse.

"S-sorry, Your Majesty," Serilla and Lucia both apologized.

Lucia couldn't help but frown suspiciously. Sleipnir should be asleep right now and there was no way that he would suddenly kick up a fuss without reason. She reminded Serilla of this and the two girls began to cautiously eat their food.

What no one knew was that everyone's food was already spiked with the drug. Armano had arranged for this without his older brother's knowledge and so he couldn't help but smile in satisfaction when he saw that Lucia and Serilla were both eating so much earlier. Their butler had even served them the drugged food and he couldn't help but chuckle in satisfaction.

They did grow cautious when Quinn went away, and although they began to eat their foods cautiously and didn't let anyone serve them, they hadn't stopped eating.

He was antic.i.p.ating the moment when they fell into a stupor later when they fell asleep inside their wagon. Armano would have his men move in, take them out of their wagon, and bring them to his tent. As for the butler, he'd have Gildart quietly and quickly take care of him.

He'd have a taste of them both before he would deliver Lucia to his brother. He also eyed Fatima who was also eating the drugged food in the banquet before a dangerous and avaricious glint flashed through his eyes.

"Hmhmhmhm~ maybe I'll take all 3 of them tonight," Armano let out a devilish smile and chuckled. He took a sip of wine from his wine as he waited patiently.