Torose fortress.

The enemy soldiers were moving about in confusion, unable to do anything about the fire at their feet.

"Next."

I gave our ally soldiers a signal with my eyes and they quickly climbed up the walls.

"T-the enemy is coming. Get ready!"

"Do they intend to fight in this sea of flames!?"

Even in such a chaotic situation, the enemy managed to get into battle positions.

Umu, this was what it meant to be elite.

"Thanks to that, they have fallen into our plan."

As Leonheardt says, I’m glad that the enemy took it head on.

If they ran away, we would have been left in an awkward position.

"We can do this. Be careful not to get mixed in."

The few soldiers I signaled ran to roughly constructed barrel-like turrets mounted on top of the walls.

Well, they were actually barrels.

Obviously, the enemy saw them, but probably weren’t worried as soldiers weren’t stationed on them.

The hammer-wielding soldiers broke the turrets which the enemies were indifferent to.

Myla’s eyes widened while Leonheardt's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

In an instant, flames rose up from the center of the barrels.

It wasn’t on the same dimension as the burning sandbags.

The intensity of the hellfire was as if a great fire magic was cast.

"This is―― uwaaaaaah!"

"Run awaaaaaaay! You’ll get burned alive!"

"Gyaaaaaa!"

The repurposed barrels ――were made to look like quickly-made turrets, to hide the fact they were actually barrels.

Plenty of oil was contained by those barrels.

That oil flowed out and was ignited by the fire at the enemy’s feet, grew the embers into flames of greater size and force, and then assaulted the enemy like a flood.

It was all the oil in Torose, or more precisely the stored oil meant for lighting and auxiliary fuel by the citizens and merchants.

The fluid was collected and used for this plan.

Although the mayor was seething with anger enough to boil water, it didn’t matter as long as our defense was successful.

I told him to go complain to the Count Rikat Guiscard if he wanted.

"Amazing...... the place resembles hell."

"You don’t need light to see with all that fire."

I blow out a candle while patting Mirai’s head.

It didn’t change how bright the night is.

"The enemy night raid units are totally destroyed."

Myla’s report was unnecessary at this point.

No human could fight after being engulfed by that fire.

Enemy soldiers covered in flames try to escape by throwing themselves off the walls.

No way that would help.

"There’s more where that came from."

After the spreading fire burned up the wooden barrels, more oil was overflowing.

The flowing flames were not limited to the top of the walls, they transmitted outside towards the hill of people and also down the stairs leading into the city.

Now, the north wall had essentially become a mass of flames.

"I-is this okay?"

"A shallow ditch was dug so it won’t spread to the city...... probably."

A citizen who ran out of the refuge screamed at the sight of the shocking scene and fell to the ground.

"The enemy’s attempt to ascend the city walls have been halted completely. Stage one is done."

So far, I’d been spectating comfortably, and here was where the real battle began.

"Escort unit, follow me."

My escort unit was already lined up, fully armed and mounted on horses.

This scene wasn’t something you get to see in a siege defense.

The heavy cavalry galloped with a distinct hefty sound as they made their way to the burning north gate.

Even the fences and stakes reinforcing the broken gate were burning.

I followed after Mirai whose horse ran off first.

My horse rushed toward the wall of fire and crashed into the fence.

Fences originally meant to stop cavalry easily getting blown away and we quickly jumped outside the city.

"Eh!? They came out?"

"From the fire...... what’s going on?"

"Fences should have been......"

Dumbfounded enemy soldiers were waiting for us outside the gate.

They gave up their night raid operation when the gate turned into a sea of fire.

It wasn’t as if we broke through with brute strength.

From the start, the fences were thin and fragile so they could be easily bypassed.

A simple tap by the enemy probably would have taken them down.

That’s why we set them on fire before the enemy could touch them, to create a sense of indecision.

Rattle the enemy with fire at their feet, then drive them off the gates.

This is the strategy that Leonheardt thought of to decide the battle all at once.

"The knight and horse is burning......"

"De-......demon of fire......"

Despite running for a short time, I got bathed in a lot of sparks.

My escort squad jumped out behind me.

Warhorses or not, normal horses would hesitate to charge straight into fire.

It was possible because I opened up a path.

With the enemy still in their night raid formation, they couldn’t make any anti-cavalry measures.

The sudden appearance of heavy cavalry threw them into disarray.

Not to mention the cavalry’s disadvantage at night was cleared by the burning wall lighting up the sky like it was day.

In their eyes, it was unthinkable for us to attack at this moment.

"――All units, get them!"

"Lord Hiro, leave it to me!"

Irijina, the tall girl on horse, pointed her heirloom spear and ran past me.

She charged into the enemy’s midst irrespective of the yells and screams flying back and forth.

"We don’t have spears...... so line up the crossbows and stop―― ugyaa!"

She ran past the man who was probably the commander and cut him down.

The confusion must persist.

"Captain! Guh, reorganize the ranks. Take up defensive formation!"

The raiding unit ran at the enemy soldiers who were hurrying to gather their forces into a messy line.

It was clear what would happen when a group of heavy cavalry charged at disorderly infantry though.

Sturdy armored horses send people flying, enemy soldiers get pierced by spears from horseback, and weighty hooves trample over fallen bodies.

They didn’t even put up a paper-thin resistance.

Irijina were fighting against 5 men.

"Mirai, aim for the commander."

I spoke as I ran my sword through the enemy in front of me, then threw  dead soldier’s body at the enemy commander yelling out orders.

"Understood!"

Two daggers thrown one after the other with a slight time difference by Mirai flew at the man in front of her.

"This is nothing!"

The first one was deflected by the man’s shield, however the large object hindered his vision and prevented him from seeing the second which was aimed low at his feet. The knife stabbed the man’s leg and brought him to the ground.

"Gugh......"

That was when Mirai teleported right beside him. She stabbed the shocked man. The third dagger found its way into the man’s eye, killing the man after he let out a bizarre grunt.

Gheyna, the half-elf dalish girl, expertly fired her bow on horseback, systematically taking out the guy standing at the vanguard, the guy yelling loudly and the guy who looked too full of himself.

Among them was a soldier, clearly rank-and-file, who was growing out an excessive beard, and that guy was briefly entertaining.

While the enemy still remained confused, the royal army infantry and bow cavalry also followed the raiding unit out through the gates.

"Retreat――! Everyone fall back! Withdraw――!"

A gong or similar instrument was starting to be banged by the enemy.

Our foes scattered and ran away as fast as they could.

"Give chase. No, run past and rush the enemy headquarters."

We weren’t just going to foil their small hours raid.

We were going to crush the enemy’s attack and then returned the favor by doing a night raid of our own.

"Now it’s a race against time. They should not be prepared for a night raid, so let’s attack before they can set up defenses."

It was difficult to do something as intricate as simultaneously arranging your defenses while organizing an attack.