"You think you can protect those three as long as you don't let me out of your sight?" the assassin chuckled as he mocked Erwin with a disdainful expression.

Before Erwin had a chance to register what the assassin was saying, the two fiery black daggers flew out of his grasp before flying rapidly toward Onean and the others.

"Those two daggers aren't just normal weapons, they are my little helpers," the assassin explained with a pleased expression.

A serious look then appeared on his face, and he raised his hands as he chanted, "Appless, Falltumn, go!"

Erwin was very perplexed to see this. Has this man gone insane? Why is he talking to his weapons?

However, as he turned around to see what was happening, he was greeted by the sight of an even more astonishing scene.

The two daggers began to move as if they had a mind of their own!

"Look out!" Lana exclaimed as she pulled Theresa toward her.

One of the fiery black daggers flew right past Theresa's cheek, and if it weren't for Lana's fast reflexes, Theresa would've most likely already been disfigured.

"Well done, Falltumn," the assassin praised from afar.

Theresa gently shook off Lana's hand as she said, "It's alright, these weapons can't harm me. I'll go and help Erwin deal with that assassin, I'll leave these two daggers to you two."

Lana and Onean exchanged a glance upon hearing this, and both of them felt this to be the best course of action. After all, Erwin was currently in a very abnormal state of mind, and they were truly worried that he would get hurt, so it was naturally a good idea to have Theresa assist him.

Thus, Theresa immediately transformed into a ferocious wave that surged toward the assassin from behind.

Meanwhile, Lana was facing off against the dagger by the name of Falltumn, thereby leaving Appless to Onean.

At the same time, Duba, who was inspecting the battle from the foot of the mountain, passed his monocular to Sim.

"Who arranged that assassin?" Duba asked with a befuddled expression. "I didn't see him when we set off."

Sim took a glance at the walls of Fort Lungpierce, then smile as he said, "Then he must've been arranged by Duchess Silon. I'm sure she has her trump cards, and it only makes sense that she wouldn't reveal all of them to us, wouldn't you agree, Your Excellency?"

"I feel like that assassin is too powerful to be someone from the Delair Dukedom," Duba mused with slightly furrowed brows.

"That's not something for us to worry about. Seeing as those three girls are unable to get involved in the battle, we have to get Cooper to seize this opportunity to continue their attack on the fortress," Sim said as he turned to the nearby herald.

A short while later, the Delair Dukedom's forces gathered at the foot of Fort Lungpierce again before commencing another assault.

Upon hearing the thunderous war cries and drum-beating coming from the foot of the fortress, Erwin knew that the Delair Dukedom's army was attacking again, and he immediately turned to Sherry, yelling for him to disengage himself from the battle against Kevin so that he could resume his role as commander and instruct the troops on the fortress walls in battle.

Right at this moment, the assassin appeared behind Erwin in a wraith-like manner, and his push dagger was already being thrust toward Erwin's back as he chuckled, "It's a bad idea to get distracted while facing me."

Thankfully, Theresa was able to get there just in the nick of time, enveloping Erwin's entire body before shifting him away to the side.

Even so, a large gash was still sliced onto Erwin's back as he drew a sharp breath through gritted teeth.

Theresa took a concerned glance at the wound on his back, then waved a hand through the air to temporarily seal the gash under a layer of ice crystals.

Erwin's teeth were tightly gritted as he turned to the assassin with a furious expression.

"Were you sent by that old slut, Sanfesa?" Erwin asked in a cold voice.

"You could say that." An ambiguous smile appeared on half of the assassin's face.

Erwin's eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this. "Hold on, that's not right. Sanfesa wouldn't be able to employ the services of an assassin as powerful as you. Could it be that you were sent by the Lodais Organization instead?"

A suspicious gleam flashed through Erwin's eyes as he spoke. The Lodais Organization was the only organization that Erwin could think of that was an underground force capable of striking fear into the hearts of even those who stood at the pinnacle of this world. He had dealt with the Lodais Organization on several past occasions, so he was well aware of just how powerful and fearsome this organization was. Despite the fact that it was constantly lurking in the shadows, it had a massive network of people and resources, making it capable of resolving all types of problems encountered by the wealthy and the lofty of status.

A surprised look appeared on the assassin's face upon hearing this. "Oh? I didn't think you would catch on so quickly. No wonder the organization has such a high appraisal of you."

"How much money did Sanfesa give you? I'll give you twice that sum, all you need to do is take no further part in this battle," Erwin said in a decisive manner, choosing to concede in this situation rather than continue to fight fire with fire.

The assassin burst into laughter upon hearing this, then turned down Erwin's offer without any hesitation.

"You're clearly a smart man, just think about it. If I were to agree to your offer, then I would be comprising the integrity of our organization. Who would dare to employ our services in the future?" the assassin asked. "If we go around switching our allegiances to the highest bidder in the middle of wars, we'd be no different from bandits and thugs."

"So there's no room for negotiation at all?"

"None whatsoever."

"Fine. In that case, you better prepare to die here today!" Erwin said as a fierce look appeared on his face.

The assassin burst into laughter once again upon hearing this, clearly very impressed with the abrupt changes in Erwin's attitude. "To think that you're already so cunning and capricious at such a young age. If I don't kill you today, you're going to stir the entire northern continent up into turmoil!"

After that, Erwin and Theresa threw themselves at the assassin again. With the light shield warding off his attacks, the assassin was unable to find a way through Erwin's defenses.

Meanwhile, Onean and Lana were also locked in arduous battles. Neither of them had anticipated that a pair of daggers would be so difficult to deal with.

The spells unleashed by the two women were unable to damage the daggers at all, but the daggers were able to force the two into extremely perilous situations on several occasions. It was only thanks to their extensive experience in battle that they hadn't lost their lives to the pair of daggers.

Onean's golden eyes were wide open as her head of silver hair danced wildly behind her, and there was a gash on both her waist and her shoulder, clearly indicating that she was having a very hard time dealing with the Appless dagger. Whenever Onean's spells struck the dagger, it would absorb the magic energy imbued within the spells like an all-engulfing swamp. After a few clashes, the Appless dagger was able to absorb more and more energy, thereby granting it greater speed and power. As a result, Onean was in a very precarious situation. If she were to unleash any more spells upon the dagger, she would most likely find herself unable to keep up with it any longer.

Meanwhile, Lana wasn't in any better situation. Quite a few gashes had already been sliced into her legs, and her powerful arcane spells were all avoided by Falltumn with not even a single one of the spells striking their target. Falltumn was like an agile and unpredictable snake, moving as fast as lightning in erratic movements that were very difficult to anticipate. Even with Lana concentrating as hard as she could, she still couldn't anticipate where Falltumn was going to attack her from next. At this point, she had already condensed all of her arcane energy around herself to form a barrier, but the golden runes inscribed upon the dagger harbored unimaginable power, allowing the dagger to slice through the black arcane barrier with ease.

Inside his light shield, Erwin could see the perilous situation that the two women were in.

This was the first time that he had felt so powerless in a battle, and intense fear and unease were welling up in his heart. In his mind, the assassin had to be roughly on par in power with Aglea for just his daggers alone to be causing so much trouble for the two women. If that were the case, then the opposing army had two martial artists roughly at the same level as Aglea. In addition to that, there was a massive disparity between the number of troops in the two armies, and that was only further compounding Erwin's woes.

He knew that he couldn't afford to waver at a time like this, and that he had to grit his teeth and persevere.

All of a sudden, Erwin withdrew his light shield before unleashing his Finger of Destruction directly toward the assassin's chest.

Light and darkness intertwined like the string and woodwind instruments of a band, forming a glorious symphony. It was a beautiful sight to behold, but concealed beneath the beautiful exterior was immense danger and killing intent.

"Looks like time and space magicians really do have more tricks up their sleeve than the average magician," the assassin remarked as a serious look appeared on his face.

Immediately thereafter, he raised his hands, and Appless and Falltumn instantly flew away from Lana and Onean before returning to his grasp.

"Let me see just how powerful your magic is." The assassin crossed his daggers in front of himself to oppose Erwin's Finger of Destruction, and Lana and Onean were finally given the opportunity to catch their breath.

Lana sprang up into the air before landing beside Onean, then said, "Those two daggers are extremely fearsome. I don't think we stand a chance against them unless we work together."

"Work together? I didn't think you would ever suggest something so shameful," Onean jibed.

"Don't pretend like you weren't thinking the same thing," Lana scoffed as she cast her gaze toward the wounds that had been inflicted onto Onean's body.

The two of them exchanged a glance, and both of them fell silent.

Indeed, Onean also had the same idea, but she simply couldn't swallow her pride enough to make the suggestion.

"If we get caught up here, it'll be very difficult for our forces to overcome the Delair Dukedom's army," Lana said.

"Fate is truly a fickle mistress. Never did I think that a day would come when we would join forces," Onean sighed with a shake of her head.

"As long as I can help him win, I don't mind being denounced by you," Lana said.

"So you're saying you're willing to sacrifice more for him than I am?" Onean scoffed with a disdainful expression. "Now that I think about it, when it comes to devotion, I can't compare with you. You followed him all the way from the south to the north. You're like a stubborn scab that refuses to be picked off! I certainly can't match you in that department."

"If you concede that you're not as devoted to him as I am, then why don't you give up? You're inferior to me in all areas, whether it be looks, figure, or magic, yet I don't see you letting go like you should," Lana challenged with a mocking expression.

Onean couldn't help but burst into laughter upon hearing this. "If you were truly superior to me in those areas, then you wouldn't have mentioned them completely unprompted. The fact that you're going out of your way to say this clearly indicates a lack of self-confidence and conviction."

Instead of being enraged by this, Lana chuckled, "I don't think this argument is going anywhere. After this battle, we'll get him to give a verdict on which one of us he thinks is superior. For now, we have to take care of that assassin."