Book 6, Chapter 163
Breaking The City
Nyris made sure to heed Richard’s orders, not chasing the saint deeper into the city. He instead floated up into the sky, aura flaring as he looked down upon the opponents. However, the remaining saints and rune knights could only look up at him without daring to fight.
The Fourth Prince had shown great combat skills during the chase, making perfect use of the terrain and even flying for some time. He made sure to always remain above the wall, avoiding the interception of anyone who wished to assist the saint he was chasing. It showed the enemies that he wouldn’t be lured into an unfavourable battle, and nobody was confident in actually taking the fight one on one.
After a night of confusion, the Silversword Family finally looked forward to dawn. Richard switched to more traditional-seeming tactics in the day, forming up his soldiers and trying to attack various parts of the wall. However, each attack was hit and run; they never pushed in.
The walls of Swordwind City were a problem for ordinary knights, but they weren’t any issue at all for the magical mounts of the Archeron family. They could sprint thirty metres up vertically in one shot on their own, and with the assistance of their riders the forty metres of the wall wasn’t much different. However, Richard was now focused on minimising damage as much as he could. Swordwind City was built for defence, and the soldiers within the small streets of the city would be problematic for mounted knights. Just the thought of losing a significant number of soldiers made his heart twitch as he thought back to Nyris’s bet.
Time seemed to fly by, the sun floating high up in the sky. When his clock pointed to noon, Richard shrugged and spoke to Nyris who was nearby, “Those old foxes really think they’ll manage anything after this. Well, their loss.”
Even though Earl Robert and Earl Silitus didn’t mobilise their armies, Richard’s attacks continued regardless as he fought all the way into the night. The defenders were thoroughly exhausted, even the saints and rune knights starting to flag. Although they hadn’t lost much physically, the mental stress was enormous. With both Nyris and Tiramisu showing amazing power, and Richard himself not making a move, they didn’t dare to fight in full force.
The sky was overcast by dusk, and as night fell nobody noticed that a few of the clouds were particularly low and growing bigger with time. More than a dozen thunderclouds were booming in the sky, but the faint lightning one could see was crackling between the clouds themselves and didn’t fall down. With the city itself burning and screams resounding through the area, nobody had any interest in looking up above.
With a day and night of intermittent fighting, the ordinary Silversword soldiers were extremely exhausted. Even the veterans who were above level 5 started to grow sluggish, most of their internal energy reserves already consumed. Most frightening was the fact that fear had gripped their hearts; this was something one could not afford in battles of life and death.
Richard’s knights gathered under the city once more, beginning their charge anew. The defenders looked on numbly at these war machines that were reaping the lives of their kin, unable to summon any energy to fight.
“Where are the saints and rune knights? What the fuck are they doing?!” someone shouted on the walls. Of course, most of the rune knights and saints were huddled within the city. The few who dared rush to the walls to fight had been beaten back.
Now was the time! Richard smiled and raised his right hand, bringing it down swiftly. All hundred javelineers took out their last three volleys of explosive javelins and threw them behind the walls, emptying out the area right behind the gate. He then pointed to the gate, prompting thirty of the rune knights to pull out all-black javelins that were much bigger than the normal fare with jagged heads. These were all forged out of lafite, making them extremely expensive, but they could break through steel armour with ease.
All thirty pikes flew across the battlefield and nailed themselves into the steel gate, disappearing until the shaft couldn’t even be seen. Every strike caused the gates and the surrounding stone walls to shake, rubble falling down from all directions. The energy in the spears suddenly flared up, immediately starting to break apart the gate that could withstand most alchemic siege engines. However, the gates still held on.
The earth began to rumble as Tiramisu rushed out, dark red aura rising like a blood fire around his body to deflect the arrows, spears, and even a ballista bolt. Rushing right up to the gate, he lifted Tenton high into the sky as both heads roared loudly. A frightening image of a dragon slowly formed behind him, eyes and mouth opening in a silent roar.
*BOOM!* The incomparably heavy gates of the city were dented in one shot, flying out a few metres and falling to the ground.
Some of the more religious once on the battlefield paused for a moment to look at the illusion behind the ogre in shock; this was no ordinary dragon, but the Chaos Dragon worshipped by ogres, orcs, and many other races! The enormous illusion was tens of metres large, but even so it wasn’t even a tenth of the actual Chaos Dragon’s size. In fact, nobody knew just how large the Chaos Dragon was. Tiramisu summoning this illusion meant he had garnered its attention; this often meant a guaranteed path to the legendary realm!
Back in the keep of Swordwind Castle, Earl Fenlier’s ashen face was only outdone by the sheer terror of his subordinates. They had originally planned to rely on the fact that Richard had no siege equipment to withstand the assault, hoping for the arrival of reinforcements, but now that the gates were blown open their hopes had gone up in smoke.
Those with sharper vision noticed the sheer amount of energy that had been poured into those javelins. Most rune knights would only be able to make three such attacks in an entire day before running out, and even Richard’s men would likely only manage one more. This was an immediate drop in the power of the rune knights, something that would spell disaster for an ordinary army. Even worse, Richard’s ogre had actually used his saint ability as well; from the looks of it, such an attack couldn’t be performed more than once a day. It was an absolute waste of resources.
And yet, Richard could afford such luxuries. Swordwind City’s defences had been broken, and shadowspears immediately charged in for the melee.
“Order the rune knights to block the gate!” Fenlier ordered, an aide immediately blowing the warhorn to pass on the order. The rune knights that were gathered in a small square immediately jumped up and started charging towards the city gates.
“No, wait a minute!” the Earl suddenly interrupted the command, “Have the rune knights stop! The third heavy infantry is to go first, followed by the fifth and sixth guard garrisons!”
When they heard the order, everyone present was ashamed and confused. The situation was critical, it only made sense to mobilise the rune knights. How could they order the knights that were already moving out to return?
“JUST DO IT!” Fenlier snorted, causing the aide to blow the warhorn once more. The rune knights who were moving out slowed down and eventually stopped.
The silversword guards remained behind in the castle itself. They were all the blood of the family, possessing unquestionable loyalty and resolve. Fenlier hadn’t focused on rune knights amongst them, but there were certainly a decent number.
The sharper nobles quickly noticed the black and grey pouring through the collapsed gates in strict formation, immediately recognising the shadowspear knights that were supposed to be rune knight killers. These soldiers were famous for stopping at nothing to kill rune knights, completely disregarding their own safety for the cause.
They finally understood Fenlier’s plan; he wanted to have the ordinary soldiers act as cannon fodder and tire out the shadowspears, lest the rune knights be decimated. It wasn’t a wrong decision exactly, but the moment the orders were changed the heavy infantry which was charged with intercepting clearly understood it as well. Morale plummeted, and after some token resistance they disbanded and ran away. The two guard garrisons that were meant to come after were nowhere to be seen.
The nobles’ attention was suddenly drawn to the clouds in the sky, as the lightning that was flashing between them suddenly started dropping on the city. The first bolt crashed down on a roof and burnt a warrior black, turning a commoner nearby to ash.