As the severely overweight airship drew close to the mountain path outside Xeto, everyone in the Four Winds mercenary legion was shocked to the point of speechlessness by the sight that they were greeted by. They were finally able to understand why Georgina had looked so astonished upon his return. In fact, looking at everyone's expressions now, Georgina's reaction had been quite understated in comparison.

There were all types of flags extending from the provincial road at the foot of the mountain all the way to the city gate at the mountain's peak. Judging from the diversity in the flags, there seemed to be around 20 to 30 mercenary legions crammed along this mountain path. The mountain path was only around five meters wide, and it was absolutely packed with Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries, all of whom were jostling for position. Thunderous war cries were ringing out from the top of the city wall, and there was already a massive pile of bodies gathered at the foot of the wall, while the rest of the mercenaries were still charging toward the top of the city wall one after another.

Due to how narrow and steep the mountain path was, no siege weapons could be used to break down the city gate. Thus, the only way for the Skycourt Kindgom's mercenaries to attack the city was through the use of ladders. Aside from the powerful martial artists who were able to leap onto the top of the city wall to attack the soldiers guarding the city, the rest of the martial artists, who were more lackluster in power or were clad in suits of heavy armor, could only scale the impregnable city wall using ladders. In this situation, the side that was guarding the city held an absolute advantage. The momentum of the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries could easily be halted through the use of things like hot oil, tumbling rocks, and bows and arrows.

Meanwhile, the magicians among the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries were hovering in the air far away from the city, but they didn't dare to get close to the city wall and unleash their spells there. This was because the city wall was lined with archers that had been trained by Prince Lazaar. All of them possessed astounding draw strength that granted them exceptional range, and any of the magicians who attempted to approach the city were quickly shot down. After a volley of arrows, the Skycourt Kingdom's magicians were too afraid to advance any further, so they could only linger in the back and attack the city from afar.

Even though the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries hadn't made much progress yet, their massive numbers were striking the 5,000 soldiers guarding the city of Xeto with a sense of concern and hopelessness.

In situations like this, where there seemed to be no end to the enemy soldiers, this was a very normal reaction.

In contrast, the two leaders of the Four Winds mercenary legion on the airship were still quite calm and collected.

"The Skycourt Kingdom has a massive advantage in numbers, but it feels like that advantage isn't doing much for them on this narrow and steep mountain path," Erwin remarked as he cast his gaze toward Larwood.

"You're right. There are only so many people who can attack the city at once, while the rest of the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries can only stand behind them and watch," Larwood replied with a nod as he calmly observed the battle unfolding on top of the city wall.

"You're not going to lead our men to attack them, right? We only have several hundred men, while they have tens of thousands!" Chase said in a concerned voice. He still hadn't recovered from his injuries yet, so his face was still quite pale. Looking at the sea of enemy mercenaries gathered on the mountain path, his complexion had become even more ashen, making him look as pale as a sheet.

"Don't get so anxious, I'm not going to lead everyone to their deaths for no reason," Larwood said with a smile as he gave Chase a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"This is insane..." Kaiba couldn't help but exclaim at the sight of the countless enemy mercenaries down below.

Kaiba and Chase were the two who had suffered the most severe injuries from the battle against Talan. With that in mind, Larwood had told them to rest and sit out this battle. However, as soon as the two of them were carried onto the airship, they complained that the wind noise was too loud for them to fall asleep. Now that they were standing on the deck and witnessing the tens of thousands of Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries gathered on the mountain path, there was most likely even less chance they'd be able to fall asleep.

"Don't be afraid. Just guide the airship directly into the air above the mountain path," Erwin said with a faint smile as he made his way over to the steering wheel at the center of the airship, where Christine was piloting the vehicle. Prior to this, Christine was extremely fearful at the sight of so many enemy mercenaries down below, and her complexion had paled significantly. However, she was instilled with a sense of confidence at the sight of Erwin's calm smile, and she nodded in response.

As the airship drew closer and closer to the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries, it was naturally noticed.

Many of the Skycourt Kingdom mercenary legions gathered on the mountain path had seen this airship, and they knew that it belonged to the Heavenly Star mercenary legion. As such, they were feeling rather perplexed. Luphen had told them that there were too many people here for his liking, so he had led his men southward toward Haggardy. In that case, why had he suddenly returned?

Upon closer inspection, the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries notice the golden lion's head embroidered on the corners of the flags waving on the airship, and only then did they realize that Luphen had been defeated in Haggardy, thereby losing his airship to mercenaries of the Effer Kingdom.

The soldiers of Burmen had already been guarding Xeto for a day and a night up to this point, and morale was instantly elevated by the sight of the golden lion's heads on the airship's flags. For the soldiers who were warding off the mercenaries of the Skycourt Kingdom, the number of troops that were sent to reinforce them didn't actually matter. What mattered to them was whether they had already been abandoned by their higher-ups.

Of course, Larwood and Erwin's primary intention wasn't to reinforce the city of Xeto. Instead, they were more interested in proving themselves.

...

After discovering that the airship had fallen into the hands of the enemy, all of the Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries gathered on the mountain path immediately began to prepare for an enemy attack. Many of the archers among them had already nocked arrows onto their bows, ready to shoot at the airship at any moment.

"All archers, get ready!" Larwood commanded in a loud voice. Initially, the Four Winds mercenary legion only had less than 30 archers, but after the battle at Haggardy, many bows were salvaged from the battlefield. Thus, regardless of whether the martial artists in the legion were capable archers or not, all of them had been equipped with bows anyway.

"All magicians, adopt your positions and prepare to attack!" Erwin also issued an order of his own.

As soon as the airship entered the shooting range of the Skycourt Kingdom's archers, a string of loud clangs immediately rang out from the bottom of the airship. That was the sound of arrows striking the airship's armor plating.

"Fire!" Larwood commanded, and a volley of arrows was fired down in retaliation from the airship.

"Now! Aim your spells at the densest groups of enemy mercenaries," Erwin yelled as bright purple light began to radiate from his staff, and a storm of purple flames began to rain down upon the narrow mountain path.

There were tens of thousands of enemy mercenaries, all of whom were confined to the mountain path, resulting in the ideal target for magicians to aim at. All large-scale destructive spells were able to affect many enemy troops at once, so they could fire their spells with reckless abandon and have virtually no risk of missing. There were a total of over 150 magicians on the airship, and with all of them firing spells at once, many casualties were immediately inflicted upon the enemy mercenaries.

Strings of agonized howls instantly rang out from down below, and upon close inspection, Erwin discovered that around 3,000 to 4,000 Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries had already been killed by the volley of arrows and spells. This was far more efficient than engaging the enemy in direct combat. Thinking back to the battle that had taken place at the foot of Haggardy, even the three mercenary legions combined hadn't lost this many troops after such a prolonged battle. 

Some of the more alert Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries had already begun to flee down the mountain in the face of this unfavorable situation, and the entire mountain path was quickly plunged into chaos. The mercenaries charging up from the foot of the mountain still had no idea what was happening up ahead and were rushing forward with all their might, while those further up the mountain were fleeing back down the same way they had come. As a result, the two forces moving in opposite directions clashed with brutal force, resulting in horrific incidents in which countless people were trampled underfoot. Many of them didn't even have a chance to cry out before their lungs were punctured by their own broken ribs, thereby quickly putting an end to their lives.

Of course, there were some powerful martial artists among the Skycourt Kingdom's mercenaries as well, and they immediately realized that the only way to retaliate was to strike back at the people on the airship. Thus, they leaped up from down below to land directly on the airship's deck. At the moment, the airship was still hovering 70 to 80 feet above the ground, so all of the martial artists capable of jumping so high were quite formidable indeed.

The sudden arrival of these powerful enemy martial artists was something that Larwood had failed to anticipate, but there was no time to think and adjust the plan in this situation. All he could do was draw his sword and retaliate. As he did so, he yelled, "Sherry, we have to take care of these bastards on the airship first!"

Sherry reacted extremely quickly upon hearing this, rallying all of the most powerful martial artists in the Four Winds mercenary legion to surround the enemy martial artists.

Chase and Kaiba's wounds had only recently healed, so they were still unfit for battle and could only look on from the sidelines.

"Lanyon, keep up the output of spells and make sure no more enemies jump onto our airship!" Erwin yelled at Lanyon, who was instructing all of the magicians. Meanwhile, Erwin himself had made his way over to Christine's side to protect her.

He knew that the most important part of the airship was the area around the steering wheel. If something were to go wrong there, the entire airship would be felled, and that would result in catastrophic consequences.

In total, around a dozen Skycourt Kingdom martial artists had jumped onto the airship, and there weren't any monsters like Talan among them, but all of them possessed powers that were roughly on par with Sherry's. Larwood was also carrying injuries of his own, so his effectiveness in battle was limited. As for Erwin, he couldn't leave Christine's side. As a result, the Four Winds mercenary legion was forced onto the back foot by this group of powerful martial artists.

Just as Erwin anticipated, as soon as the enemy martial artists broke through the encirclement, they immediately began to rush toward Christine. Erwin didn't hesitate in the slightest as he unleashed a barrage of instant-release spells in retaliation.

He was facing three martial artists on his own, and he didn't dare to stray too far away from Christine, so the battle was very much against his favor from the get-go. For a magician like him, challenging three martial artists at once was definitely not a good idea. Even though he was able to use his space split technique to distance himself from his adversaries, there simply wasn't enough space on the airship, and the martial artists were able to quickly reach him again.

Through his battle against the three martial artists, Erwin quickly noticed that they most likely weren't normal mercenaries. Instead, all three appeared to be commanders of different mercenary legions. Upon closer inspection, Erwin discovered that all three of his adversaries were clad in suits of expensive leather armor, and all of their weapons were also forged from diamond copper ore, so they definitely weren't cheap.