Serilla would normally be able to reel in her anger, but not this time. She had half the mind to send Quinn over on a mission to a.s.sa.s.sinate this repulsive creature.

When Fatima had come over to look for them, she immediately apologized to the two for the trouble that had happened last night.

Upon seeing how Fatima was somehow glowing and the exhausted Rowan on the side, the two girls immediately smirked at the couple.

"Huhuhu~ looks like you two had fun last night~"

Fatima only chuckled at her teasing and said, "While I had fun, you two look like you haven't gotten much sleep..."

"We're alright...but I'm only going to say this...we're retracting our partic.i.p.ation in this war..." Serilla said.

Fatima nodded in understanding. They were only mercenaries and they could come and go as they pleased. After experiencing what had happened last night, it was only natural that the girls didn't want to help the Regulus Army anymore.

"Once this battle is over, you're free to go back. For now, just stay within our ranks. You both no longer need to partic.i.p.ate in this war, but stay by my side and act as my guards."

Lucia and Serilla both nodded at her words. They could come and go as they wished, but this didn't mean they could run away from a battle, that'd be desertion. Fatima's suggestion was the only solution so that Serilla and Lucia wouldn't be branded as deserters while at the same time allowed them to not partic.i.p.ate in the war.

Since they would act as Fatima's Personal Guards, no one could force them onto the battlefield later.

And that's exactly what they did for the following few days before the construction of the dam and artificial basin were finished. Many questioned Fatima's decision to keep them off of the battlefield, but she only replied that the two girls were her guards and only the first day's battle was an exception where she let them partic.i.p.ate in the battle.

During these couple of days, the girls and Rowan were alert and on guard against any of Armano's schemes, but for some reason, the days pa.s.sed peacefully. They didn't even see Armano at all and thought that the Prince had disappeared again like he usually did, or he had just given up, but they knew that this wasn't likely.

It didn't matter what the prince was planning, but Lucia and Serilla were honestly glad that they hadn't caught a glimpse of that imbecile, out of sight out of mind.

The past few days' battles were only small skirmishes compared to the first day's battle. The army would only bombard the fortress with their siege weapons from afar because it was too dangerous for the kingdom's soldiers to approach the fortress because of those black cylinders hiding behind the battlements.

However, just like Fatima had dreaded, the magic formations bolstering the defenses of the fortress were active while even under the M-Jammer's influence so their long-ranged attacks were doing little to no damage on the fortress.

Thankfully, Fatima's flooding plans were almost ready and they would need just about another day or so before they could commence the operation. However, Fatima was a little worried at how lacking the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality's actions were.

They should have at least noticed the dams being built by the visibly lower water levels of the river, but the princ.i.p.ality hadn't once sent any of their soldiers to go inspect the cause of this.

Despite being on the defensive, the princ.i.p.ality's actions were a little too pa.s.sive. The soldiers that were supposed to be stationed in the front of the fortress walls just behind the earthen walls that had created were all pulled back into the city and would only ever come out when the kingdom sent their troops behind the earthen wall.

Fatima couldn't help but grow suspicious at this. If all the troops were inside the fortress, later when the flash flood comes, wouldn't they all be thoroughly wiped out?

It was too convenient for them so Fatima wanted to check what was happening behind those walls, but it was nigh impossible to send anyone into the fortress without being noticed.

With things falling into a stalemate, Fatima and the kingdom army could only wait until their plans were completed before they'd be able to launch their attack.

And soon enough, the day when they could enact their plans arrived and this time, Albert was going to lead the charge alongside Armano who had finally come out of hiding. His gaze as he eyed Lucia and Serilla, who was hidden behind their cloaks, had grown ever more obsessed and possessive.

Lucia had to use every ounce of her mental strength to hold back her body from immediately attacking the lecherous prince when he had showed up.

Once Fatima received the confirmation that the water level behind the dams had reached the point where it was overflowing the river and dug-out basin, she immediately gave the 2 divisions the go-ahead.

After her orders were relayed, it didn't take long before the once empty river began to surge with water once again, but instead of the usual flow of water, it was like two large water dragons were surging furiously in the rivers as they rushed towards the city.

When the flash flood struck against the fortress, everyone could visibly see that a small part of the fortress had collapsed due to the initial impact. The soldiers cheered when they saw the city being flooded.

Fatima, however, couldn't help but frown when she noticed something odd about all this. The magic formations on the fortress hadn't activated and there were no screams from the enemy soldiers.

Just before she could tell the First Prince to prevent the army from charging into the city, Albert had already raised a battle cry and was the first to rush into battle. He led all the soldiers to charge behind the earthen walls and straight-up march towards the fortress gates.

After a few attacks, the gate was immediately broken down and a large amount of water surged out of the gates. The soldiers had already taken shelter and they let the water flood into the trenches and holes that their enemy had set up.

Once the water stopped flowing too strongly from inside the fortress, Albert immediately led the soldiers into the fortress.

Fatima and the girls followed after, but they were near the back of the formation so it took a while before they could get inside. When they got inside, Fatima knew something was wrong when she saw the entirety of the fortress was devoid of all human beings.

"RETREAT! IT'S A TRAP!" Fatima yelled out as she blew the horn to sound the retreat.

Albert wasn't slow and he immediately knew it was a trap the moment he came in and saw no one firing arrows or attacking them. Fatima was one step ahead of him, but he immediately had his adjutant sound the horn for retreat as well.

A part of the kingdom's army was already inside the city and it would be hard to get back out now since the place was flooded and the only way in and out of the fortress was too small for the sea of people inside to quickly exit.

It was then that a large beam of mana struck the soldiers near the gate. Fatima immediately snapped her head at the weapon that had caused this and noticed that it was the same Mag-Cannon that should have been set up on the walls.

This Mag-Cannon was currently mounted on the other side of the fortress' walls. When Fatima turned around and saw the other cannon still up on the walls close by, she cursed under her breath, "Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have 3 Mag-Cannons!"

With the Mag-Cannon killing many of the soldiers near the gate, the remaining ones inside immediately scattered into the fortress and began to take cover behind buildings while the ones outside could only retreat and continue to fall back.

This was because some Merkruz soldiers had suddenly appeared on the walls from out of nowhere and immediately began manning the mini Mag-Cannons positioned on the walls. They began firing volley after volley of cannon fire onto the kingdom's soldiers.

Lucia and Serilla immediately flashed onto the city walls and tried to take out as many enemy soldiers as they could, but there were too many soldiers suddenly appearing on the wall so Lucia and Serilla couldn't possibly deal with all of them.

"Just where did these people come from?!" Lucia yelled anxiously.

"They were hiding in the walls of the fortress...somebody leaked out our battle plans and so they had long since prepared for the flood! That's why their defenses over the past few days were a little too pa.s.sive!" Serilla responded solemnly as she sent sword waves at the enemies around her. She took a look at the unmanned cannons near her before quickly giving Lucia an order. "Lulu, go back down the walls and have Fatima guide some of our soldiers up here so they can man these cannons and use them against the enemy!"

"O-okay! I'll go let sis-in-law know!"

Lucia immediately rushed down the walls and quickly made her way to Fatima. She immediately informed her sister-in-law of Serilla's intentions and Fatima quickly began organizing the soldiers around her.

Once they were ready, Fatima's unit immediately rushed up to the walls where Serilla and Lucia had already taken down all the enemy soldiers who were manning the cannons. They met a little bit of resistance when some enemy soldiers began popping up from inside the walls and onto the walkway, but Lucia quickly made short work of them.

It took some time before Fatima and her soldiers were able to figure out how to fire the weapon, but once they knew, they sent a large volley of mana beams over at the unsuspecting enemies who were happily shooting down their allies.

Once the first few volleys connected, Fatima immediately had her unit stop using the cannons and split into two teams. One side would run along the east side of the walls while the other would run along the west side and sweep through all the enemies on both sides of the wall.

It was dangerous, but staying in one place to fire the cannons was even more dangerous. When Fatima saw that Rowan and Albert were leading some soldiers onto the walls, she immediately let out a sigh of relief, however, she couldn't find Armano anywhere.

Fatima only frowned at this, but she didn't have the time to think about that fool right now.

"Lucia, Serilla, with me! We're going to attack the west side! Randolph, I leave the east side to you!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

"Alright, let's move!" Fatima loudly ordered.