~~~~
The battle has been raging for hours with no end in sight. Mitch had been roaming the battlements of the outer wall a killing machine bolstering weak sections where the attacking forces began overwhelming the defenders. Thankfully the black threshold had been closed for some time but not until they put upward to hundred thousand in the field far too numerous to count and at least thirty air ships. The air ships concerned Mitch more than the swarming mass of soldiers below the walls. Why were they not attacking them and where was Bilgrammus he wondered for the umpteenth time?
Working his way around the blood and dismembered bodies on the battlements, he soon found himself next to the duke and his fighting family. The twins stood on either side of their father hacking and slashing anything that tried to climb over the wall. Llyandrus moved up and down the wall using her bow with great effect while Shaylee darted in and out slashing and stabbing with her daggers. Blood sprayed everywhere with every slash or cut with a sword, bodies of the enemy piled up both in front of the wall and behind them in the outer bailey with the defenders that have fallen to the enemy. By now, the manor had to be overflowing with the steady flow of wounded moving through the tunnel.
Glancing quickly to the right he could see his friends and his sister fighting for their lives. Ethan and Celedryl stood side by side complimenting each other as a team with a combination attack with both daggers and a bow. Gilia stood by Celedryl protecting her flank with her daggers making sure that none of the enemy got near her. Orin and Sakura fought as a team with him slashing and cutting with his pure white rapier and her with her flashing daggers. The enemy came on as silent as ever, making nary a sound throwing themselves against the walls to die hideous deaths from burning pitch and boiling oil feeling nothing as if they were already dead inside. The only sound heard this day was the clash of steel on steel and the battle cries or cries of pain from those defending the walls.
Dwarfs, elves, humans, and creatures that have never walked this world until now attacked the castle in force. If not for the river, they would have already been overwhelmed. The enemy had managed to place floating land bridges across the river but at a great cost to themselves as arrows rained down on the attackers killing many of them in the process. Suddenly, it came to Mitch the dark wizards are sacrificing their forces to weaken the castle defenders before ordering the air ships to attack. They will attack when the outer wall falls, Mitch thought stabbing his sword directly into the eye of an invader.
Mitch quickly glanced toward Qenildor noting the town is still burning black smoke from the fires drifting off to the northeast mingling with the smoke from the burning pitch. The three towers on the bridge had gone silent with the heavy wooden doors busted in by battering rams with one tower so damaged it threatened to fall into the river. The barbican fell shortly after when swarm creatures swam right up out the river with suction cup like feet; they scaled the walls and overcame the men there. Mitch saw what was happening too late to save the barbican but did manage to kill most of the creatures with bolts of light from his staff with some escaping back into the water to be killed later when they tried to scale the outer walls of the castle.
Tiring from the exertion of his overuse of magic that he needed to save for when the flying ships entered the fray Mitch watched in frustration, as the enemy's trebuchets were made ready to reduce castle walls to rubble. The trebuchet with its sixty-foot arm and heavy counterweight at the opposite end could hurl a two-hundred pound rock from its leather sling with enough power to slam into walls destroying them. They had spent much of the morning filling the ballast boxes at the rear of them with sand and rocks and now it looked as if they were ready to use them.
Mitch watched helplessly as the arm on one of the trebuchets released and a huge stone flew across the river hitting the top of the wall near the merlons slamming through the embrasures killing those at the wall only to fall to the ground in the outer bailey crushing those below. Before the dust could clear, another quickly followed the first slamming into wall killing scores of soldiers their crushed bodies falling from the wall to the ground below. When the third struck the base of the wall, the whole wall shook from the impact. Reaching the duke's side as a black slimy creature reached the top of the ladder trying to rip the duke’s throat out with its claws Mitch drove his pure white sword deep into the creature's throat killing it. The duke quickly pushed the ladder from the wall with his boot sending the creature and those on it crashing to the ground below.
“Duke Gawain we need to sound the retreat those trebuchets will be our undoing,” Mitch yelled over the din of battle.
“Indeed, I believe you are right Mitch,” he shouted quickly turning to the trumpeter yelling to him to sound retreat. With a single blast of the trumpet, the soldiers waiting in the outer bailey to reinforce the outer walls made a hasty but orderly retreat to the posterns at the bases of each tower attached to the inner walls and the inner gatehouse at the south end of the castle. Fortunately, there have been minimal attacks on the southern walls due to the swamp and the wet conditions at that end of the castle. Once inside, they will man the battlements taking up the long bows and crossbows to cover the retreat of those still on the outer wall. As Gawain ordered the second retreat with two blasts of the trumpet, a second round of heavy rocks slammed into the wall one hitting the far northwest tower in the center and another hitting it at the top blowing the tower into useless rock and mortar that rained down on those below. When the dust cleared, the tower was nothing more than a jagged piece of broken rock sticking up slightly above the walls.
Defending soldiers trying to slow the advancing enemy so others could escape are suddenly dying in greater numbers all along the wall, blood and body parts flying as the enemy hacked their way through the embrasures. Gawain ordered three blasts of the horn signaling a full retreat from the walls also signaling the archers on the inner wall to clear the battlements of enemy soldiers when the defenders have cleared the wall. Thankfully, he had ordered his family and their new friends to leave the walls on the second retreat leaving him and Mitch alone on wall with the soldiers.
As planned, Mitch would be the last to leave the wall. Suddenly, right in front of him the head of some vile creature appeared in the embrasure intent on ripping him to shreds with the massive teeth in its mouth but Mitch with casual ease brought his sword straight down splitting its head in two blood gore spraying straight up into the air to splashing the merlons. Mitch quickly pointing his staff to his right sent a scathing wall of pure white light down the battlements ripping into the invading forces killing them. Turning he ran down the stairs nearly falling over the dead littering the stairs to an open postern door a guard quickly slammed shut behind him.
By the time, Mitch ran through keep and climbed the stairs in the northwest tower where he knew the duke would be the enemy airships were finally underway and fast approaching. The trebuchet operators had not bothered with changing the range so they are still incessantly pounding the outer walls. They were doing extensive damage to the walls and in the process, killing their soldiers mindlessly climbing the scaling ladders. Everything was in place for the airship attack. The wizards had conserved their energy for this and ballista teams are ready as are the mangonels and windlasses teams. Looking to the far west Mitch could see a long line of riders coming at a full gallop heading toward them. Tapping the duke on the shoulder, he directed his attention to the oncoming riders.
“Can you tell anything about them Mitch I for one cannot?” the duke asked.
“Nor can I your grace I hope they are on our side.”
Games of the Powerful Page 75