The Lord Of Blood Hill

The royal guard outside Sunflower Fortress is stunned to discover that the castle’s legendary protective spell has been activated.

Clearly, it was triggered from within.

This puzzles the guards. Normally, the castle’s defenders wouldn’t activate such a defense. After all, the enemy has already broken inside.

Could it be that the royal guards inside want to trap the assassins and capture them all at once?

But that doesn’t quite add up.

Though the skirmish was brief, everyone senses these assassins are exceptionally elite.

For now, all they can do is raise full alert outside the palace and watch helplessly from afar.

Inside the castle, after the protective spell activates, Henwell rushes to the fruit and vegetable carts where the hidden weapons are stored.

Henwell only managed to smuggle in fifty recurve crossbows. The time was simply too tight.

He quickly joins the remaining Penitence Squad members assembling the heavy crossbows.

Once ready, Henwell kicks open the wooden planks covering the bottom of a cart, revealing neatly stacked steel plates, each about a foot square.

“Grab these steel plates as shields and follow me!”

Drawing his longsword, Henwell leads the charge onto the gallery bridge.

More guards inside the castle rush to support them.

They have to break through quickly or risk being trapped on the bridge.

A hundred or so knights follow Henwell, flanked by those wielding steel plates as makeshift shields.

Knights armed with recurve crossbows continuously fire bolts at enemy shooting windows, suppressing counterattacks.

But the enemy has also reinforced their numbers.

Crossbow bolts and arrows rain down relentlessly on the gallery bridge.

Heavy bolts from ballistae occasionally strike, forcing the knights to defend and dodge rather than charge full force.

This hundred-meter-long gallery bridge remains the most dangerous stretch.

Henwell punches aside a heavy ballista bolt mid-move, but a Paladin not far behind fails to dodge and is pierced through the chest.

The immense force sends him crashing into a fellow knight, knocking the rider off the bridge.

What was once a dry, empty space beneath the gallery bridge now sprouts countless conical spikes, an effect of the activated protective spell.

As the fallen knight plummets, nearly two-meter-long spikes, some as thick as a thigh, impale his body.

Under normal circumstances, a knight’s physique, bolstered by the Fighting Spirit bond, could survive a fall of over ten meters, even onto spikes, and still resist damage.

But the current situation reveals one thing: these spikes possess powerful anti-magic properties and have been enhanced with extraordinary sharpness.

Henwell senses the situation is dire and immediately changes tactics. “Everyone, full charge! Push through at all costs!”

They have to abandon defense and rush through this deadly stretch. The longer they linger, the more casualties they’ll suffer.

Within three breaths, the group storms across the gallery bridge under a hail of arrows.

Several knights fall to crossbow bolts during the charge; a few are knocked off the bridge by heavy bolts.

Since the battle began, over a dozen knights have died, and twice as many are wounded.

No one expected that arriving just ten minutes earlier with the fruit and vegetable carts would lead to such a dire situation.

Henwell pushes those thoughts aside. It feels like the guards anticipated their arrival, like they were prepared in advance.

Yet judging by the guards’ reactions outside the castle, it doesn’t seem like an ambush.

Henwell can only chalk it up to the fortress’s tight defenses and Ulysses’s concern over Veil’s potential counterattack.

Once past the gallery bridge, plenty of cover appears, giving the teams some shelter.

From behind a pillar, Henwell shouts, “Stick to Plan Three—advance separately and regroup at the King’s Hall!”

Is splitting up a foolish move?

That depends on the timing. Right now, it’s the smartest choice.

The five squads have no history of coordinated combat; sticking together offers no combat synergy.

Splitting up better suits each team’s fighting style and also forces the guards to spread thin, preventing them from forming an effective defense.

Forty-four recurve crossbows remain; the five squads divide them among themselves and each pushes forward along their own routes.

Henwell leads the central path. It’s the most dangerous route, where the guards are most heavily concentrated.

First, as overall commander, Henwell needs to stay central to coordinate support.

Second, his team boasts the most knights, counting Henwell, there are four Grand Knights among them.

The numbers are correct; Leician, the Marquess of Nothing’s personal guard, is also here.

The scroll that activated Sunflower Fortress’s protective spell came from the Marquess of Nothing.

It’s a bloodline-activated scroll tied to the Celtic family’s core. The Marquess of Nothing wouldn’t hand it over to anyone else before entering the castle.

Henwell still leads the way, the team moving quickly in formation.

After passing through two buildings, Henwell suddenly raises his hand to signal a halt. The squad immediately stops.

Staring into the dark hall ahead, Henwell makes a series of hand gestures.

McComb and Sosie, receiving the signal, each lead a small squad to flank the hall from both sides.

Once positioned at the entrance, they pull out scrolls of different colors. After exchanging a quick glance to confirm, they simultaneously activate their scrolls.

Two distinct magical glows envelop their squads.

Silent Sneak!

Dark Sight!

These are the names of two area-effect spells.

If sold as scrolls, each would cost thousands of gold coins.

But the church is wealthy, and these are standard supplies issued annually in large quantities.

Henwell then flicks his fingers, and the four knights beside him raise their recurve crossbows, firing to shatter four large oil lamps in that direction.

The entire corridor plunges into darkness.

Inside the hall, agitated noises rise from the guards.

Before they can coordinate a response, a strange sound cuts through the air.

By the time they realize it’s the gurgling of slit throats, labored breathing, and spurting blood, it’s already too late.

Cold blades press against their necks.

Henwell’s team splits into two columns, hugging the walls as they advance into the dark hall.

At the sound of a bird’s call, several church knights cast Radiance Spells, illuminating the hall.

By now, dozens of bodies lie scattered in disarray.

Each corpse clutches a bow or crossbow, but that’s not the worst threat.

What truly sends a chill down their spines are the two ballistae positioned directly across the passage.

Looking at the heavy bolts etched with armor-piercing and anti-magic runes, the group shudders with fear.

At such close range, with the narrow corridor leaving little room to dodge, being struck by one of these bolts would be fatal to everyone except a few Grand Knights.

The only outcome for those hit is death.

Henwell whirls to face Leician. “Our intel’s been compromised! They were ready for us here!”