WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Inept Mage’s Infinite Regression

Chapter 56

Though Dilloso was a cramped fortress, it could still house up to 4,500 soldiers. Rather than devise some cunning maneuver, Count Osmal Saikal chose a more straightforward approach. The fortress’s reception hall became the command center, where Osmal, Baron Yocamna, and their knights, along with Ethan and Boen, held meetings. It would be three days before they faced the Undying King’s forces.

“We’ll block both ports with scuttled ships,” Osmal said. “If the enemy draws near, burn everything. If that still isn’t enough, we’ll destroy the docks completely.”

Though Yocamna looked displeased, he had accepted Osmal as the commanding officer.

“What about guarding the walls?” Yocamna asked.

“The Undying King’s troops will be here in two days,” Osmal answered. “So, until then, have your people requisition as many supplies as possible from the domain, especially metals. We’ll be dangerously short on arrows.”

“Even though it’s winter, seizing farmers’ tools will stir resentment.”

“I’ll wager the Undying King is aiming for a short, decisive fight. Don’t expect them to burn through their rations and wait us out.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Even for the Empire, supplying thirty thousand men is a strain. But more importantly, the Undying King is arrogant. He’d ask himself why he should waste several days on a war he can settle in one.”

Though some of Osmal’s knowledge came from what Ethan had told him, he likely would have inferred the Undying King’s intentions on his own. Anyone with a basic grasp of military history could figure out that much.

Ethan believed that this time, they might finally defeat the Undying King.

‘It’s generally said that you need more than triple the defending force to storm a fortress,’ Ethan thought. ‘If the attacking side only has double our numbers, then it’ll be tough even if they’re the Undying King’s troops. Especially since the Undying King himself won’t be commanding them in person.’

Classified as battle mages, Ethan and Boen were not stationed atop the walls. Typically, a unit of battle mages would remain on standby, waiting for the commander’s orders to engage wherever a problem arose. There were other battle mages in the fortress, though Osmal, in deference to Ethan and Boen, had given them a separate chain of command. They only knew each other’s faces, and they had even less interaction with the knights.

In siege warfare, the attackers sometimes employed battle mages to cast siege magic—spells capable of breaching walls. Rather than a distinct field of magic, “siege magic” referred to powerful destructive spells from the general realm of combat magic. Such spells demanded extensive preparation and concentration and required the caster to be somewhat close to the target, which made them easy to spot. Because they were such vital assets, they typically accompanied siege equipment under the guard of multiple knights. In response, defenders might send out specialized mage-hunters or their own battle mages to cast counter-magic and neutralize the enemy spell on the spot.

However, Ethan and Boen were not given such duties. Instead, they were assigned to standby reserves within the fortress. Osmal reasoned that Ethan was more of a knight than a mage, while Boen couldn’t be effective on an open battlefield. That didn’t mean they were useless, though. Rather, their abilities would shine in the cramped confines of the fortress.

For Ethan’s part, he appreciated that he could still overlook the situation from within the fortress.

“Do you think we can hold them?” Ethan asked.

“...Probably?” Boen replied.

This time, the Undying King’s forces did not send ships, apparently aware the ports had been closed off. A mass of troops holding up shields surged against the walls, as though about to climb them at any moment, only to cycle back in partial retreat. But it played out differently from last time.

Osmal ordered the archers not to lose their nerve and to fire aimed shots at any enemy who reached the base of the walls. Those who broke rank or failed to hold their shields properly were struck by arrows and fell. This break in formation exposed other soldiers transporting the wounded, who in turn became easy targets. It was a countermeasure made possible because Osmal understood the enemy’s ploy.

Within an hour, the Undying King’s troops changed tactics, bringing up various ladders under guard. Enemy archers joined them, forcing Osmal’s men to switch from aimed shots to more flexible measures. Under orders from field-command knights, they launched volley fire at the archers and the soldiers carrying siege gear. With the walls heavily manned, the Undying King’s forces could scarcely breach them. After nearly two hours, they had succeeded in placing only three wooden ladders against the wall, all of which were quickly destroyed.

The Undying King’s troops retreated, and a fresh contingent from the enemy camp replaced them, but Osmal likewise rotated in fresh defenders. This time, the enemy managed to set ten ladders and even got a squad of soldiers onto the wall, but they were swiftly subdued.

After that, the enemy’s trumpets sounded a withdrawal. Corpses were piled so thick at the base of the wall that the ground was barely visible. Some were still alive, screaming in pain or crawling blindly across the earth. Osmal ordered soldiers to venture out, clear the dry moat of bodies, retrieve any usable arrows, and end the suffering of those too wounded to move. His scribe reported that more than seven hundred of the Undying King’s soldiers lay dead, while less than ninety of Osmal’s had fallen—a decisive victory by any measure.

Still, Osmal did not rejoice. “They’ll likely attack again at night,” he remarked.

Curious, Ethan asked, “What leads you to that conclusion?”

“Compared to the assault on Cora, they didn’t bring much siege equipment. It hasn’t arrived yet.”

Siege towers and battering rams, being heavy, moved more slowly. They often lagged a couple of days behind if the supply lines were stretched.

“Besides, there were no knights or mages. They were testing the fortress’s defenses to see if there was a weak spot. They’re not going to deploy their key assets blindly.”

“So where do you think they’ll strike?”

“The south wall. The port is right behind it, so access is narrow. If our numbers drop on that wall, reinforcements will be slow to arrive. The enemy won’t miss that,” Osmal said. “And once you secure a victory, complacency begins to creep in. That’s exactly when the Undying King likes to pounce. Considering his reputation, it’s only natural that some of our soldiers might get carried away. Tonight will be the real crisis.”

Osmal’s prediction proved correct. After the daylight battle, a ferocious nighttime engagement erupted. It was so ferocious that it made all the daylight skirmishes seem like mere preludes.

Fighting with depleted strength ultimately hinged on the troops’ level of training. The Ysoren soldiers were accustomed to both real combat and rigorous drills. Osmal’s troops were comparable to Ysoren’s in capability, but Yocamna’s were not. The discrepancy in quality caused more enemy soldiers to breach the walls.

Before long, the siege engines made their appearance. Two siege towers were neutralized using flaming arrows, but a battering ram broke through. Though boiling oil and boulders killed many of the soldiers operating it, more troops followed behind, pushing the battle to the foot of the wall.

“Mage sighted! We’ve got an enemy mage!”

Amid the confusion, one of the Undying King’s battle mages showed up at the southern wall.

He was escorted by knights on horseback carrying large shields, making him nearly impervious to arrows. Roughly thirty paces from the wall, the battle mage dismounted and began chanting and carving a magic circle on the ground.

The command staff, observing from the second wall, sprang into action, but they were too far to discern what sort of magic was being cast.

Ethan handed Boen a monocular. “Can you figure out what it is?”

“Let me see.”

Boen squinted through the lens for a moment, then dashed off to the command post, saying he recognized the spell. Through some means of communication magic, they managed to stall the siege spell for a full ten minutes, presumably by using counter-magic on the battlefield.

All magic could theoretically be countered. However, to do so, you had to know precisely what kind of magic was being cast, grasp its structure and theory, and use the corresponding reverse spell, which was an exacting task. Moreover, practical combat magic was designed for rapid casting to minimize opportunities for counter-magic, so it was rarely successful in real battles.

There weren’t that many siege spells, though, and there was well-documented research on them. Multiple battle mages could combine counter-magic on a single spell to keep it from being used. To onlookers, it might look like lunatics painting the ground and reciting poetry in the middle of a war zone, but in reality, it was a duel that could decide the outcome of the entire battle. Still, a single caster’s prowess wasn’t the sole factor in siege spells.

As arrows rained down on Osmal’s battle mages performing the counter-spell, the enemy mage picked up speed with his incantation. According to Boen, the enemy was attempting a mid-tier siege spell capable of ripping through the fortress walls “like paper.”

Just as the enemy mage was quickening his chanting, a spear-like arrow flew in from far off the battlefield and pierced the enemy battle mage’s chest.

It had come from the riverside, the blind spot behind the mage and his escort knights. Alarmed, the knights spun around and rushed to mount their horses.

The source of the arrow was an anti-mage soldier under Osmal’s command. Because a battle mage could never be left unchecked in war, every method was used to kill them, even at the anti-mage’s peril.

Luckily, Osmal had stationed that soldier near the closed port with a small boat, to creep along the river under cover of darkness. The anti-mage had been waiting there since the enemy’s target, the southern wall, became obvious. Upon confirming the kill, he fled back by boat, avoiding capture.

Six hours into the second battle, dawn broke. Two more battle mages had arrived, one of whom even helped the enemy nearly overrun half of the first wall. But each time, the anti-mage unit finished them off, and Osmal’s troops recaptured their positions. The bloodshed on the ramparts stained the inner walkways, and despite their victory, no one was smiling. Only the groans of the wounded and the wails of those who had lost friends echoed through the fortress. Another 900 of Osmal’s soldiers had died, while the Undying King’s casualties exceeded 2,400. In the end, the ratio of friendly to enemy losses was about one to three—enough for Osmal’s defense to serve as a textbook example in any military academy.

They destroyed the battering ram, repaired walls and gates, cleared corpses, and treated the wounded. Anyone not standing watch took what little sleep they could manage. By afternoon, 6,000 troops from Yekatan, rushed forward by their king, were expected to arrive. That might not suffice against the Undying King’s main force, which was still two days away, but if they could annihilate the remaining vanguard within those two days, they could use the fortress to mount a winnable campaign. And according to reports, other allies were also coalescing. A prolonged siege would put the Undying King at a disadvantage.

But everything went off script. Before noon, the Undying King himself appeared. Rather than his well-known war carriage, he rode upon a skeletal horse, trailed by 5,000 of his tireless skeleton soldiers. Upon hearing the news of Dilloso’s struggles, he had left his living troops behind, leading his undead forces in an unrelenting march to arrive in just half a day.

The command staff fell into disarray, but Osmal said, “No… this might be our chance.”

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