Chapter 38: The Battle for the Fortress

The bonfire in the dense forest burned bright all night long. The rhythmic thudding of axes felling trees and crafting scaling ladders, accompanied by the harsh reprimands of officers berating lazy soldiers, traveled far into Arlsburg. The mountain bandits huddled within the fort were slightly tense, yet they did not fear that the cowards who had failed several times at the gates possessed the courage to face heavy casualties. After all, they had spent the entire winter transforming Arlsburg into a formidable stronghold.

In the open ground between the dense forest and Arlsburg, nine figures moved under the cover of darkness, skirting around toward the right flank of the fort.

According to the plan agreed upon by Art and Baron Antayas, Art was to lead the elite soldiers of the patrol unit, carrying a lightweight ladder under the cover of night, to sneak around to the rear flank of Arlsburg and lie in wait. Baron Antayas, meanwhile, would lead the main force and the hastily constructed ladders in a fierce assault on the front at dawn, when the enemy was at their most exhausted. Naturally, the frontal attack was merely a feint designed to force the bandits to concentrate all their strength on the front. Art would then lead his men to force an entry over the right wooden wall, strike at the heart of the enemy to shatter their morale, and seize the opportunity to open the gates for the main force.

Art had selected Odo, Bass, and Ron from the patrol unit, along with Tuba’s three-man combat squad and two other soldiers who had been wounded in the Winston Manor ambush, forming a nine-man assault team. These were the most capable fighters in the patrol; each was a veteran of battle with strong offensive power and decent defensive capabilities.

For the sake of stealth, aside from Art, who carried a cavalry bow on his back, the others carried only round shields and weapons like arming swords, battle axes, or flails. Baron Antayas had stripped a few pieces of leather armor from his own garrison guards to provide to the team, ensuring that everyone had at least one piece of leather armor for protection.

Crawling to the shelter of a large boulder, the wooden walls of Arlsburg appeared before them. Through the darkness, they could even make out the silhouettes of the bandits standing guard on the ramparts.

At this point, they could no longer walk hunched over. At Art’s command, everyone dropped to the ground and began to crawl toward the wall, inch by inch. Every movement was extremely cautious; any sound that alerted the sentries would render their plan useless.

The distance was less than a hundred yards, yet it took the group the time it would take to finish a meal to crawl there. Perhaps they were truly silent, or perhaps the noise from the dense forest was too loud, but by the time the nine men reached the base of the wall, the bandits keeping watch had not discovered them. They lay in the grass at the foot of the wall, holding their breath and resting, not daring to make a single sound.

Spring nights were not overly cold, but the biting chill of late winter still lingered in the air. Waiting was the greatest torment; after lurking under the wall for most of the night, their hands and feet were numb and stiff. They prayed for dawn to arrive quickly.

The sky finally began to show a faint, hazy light. As a sliver of white appeared on the eastern horizon, the main army in the forest finally began to move. Eighty or ninety soldiers, carrying five or six makeshift ladders, roared as they charged toward Arlsburg.

The sentries on the right wall were distracted by the thunderous noise at the front gate. They turned their heads toward the main entrance. Before long, a man who looked like a minor leader ran over and ordered half of the guards on the right wall to reinforce the main gate.

"My lord, should we move?" Odo whispered to Art.

Art pricked up his ears, carefully distinguishing the sounds from the main battlefield. According to the plan, once the Baron’s team cleared the deep pit obstacles and arrived at the gate, they would sound the horn—ostensibly an order to attack, but in reality, a signal for Art’s team.

...

Only two sentries remained on the right wall; the rest had been pulled to the front to resist the "tide" of enemies.

The two bandits on the right wall, holding crude long blades and wearing linen tunics, glanced toward the flank. Satisfied that there was no possibility of an attack there, they turned around, stood on their tiptoes, and focused intently on the heated scene at the front, listening to the deafening shouts of the enemy beneath the wall.

Suddenly, a low horn blast echoed—the general assault at the front had begun.

The hearts of the two bandits on the right wall tightened; they prayed that their brothers at the front would hold the line.

They did not notice that, at the edge of the wall behind them, a ladder had been raised in total silence.

Art, holding a dagger in his teeth, scrambled up the ladder first. He leaped behind a bandit, took the dagger from his mouth, and slit the man's throat in one fluid motion. A thick, crimson spray of blood erupted from the deep wound. The other sentry was quickly tackled and stabbed to death by Odo, who followed close behind.

What happened on the right rampart was partially obscured by the thatched huts leaning against the wall. Unless one craned their neck, it was invisible from other directions.

After clearing the sentries, Art took a look around. Seeing that the main force of the bandits was fully occupied by the massive frontal assault, he cleared the narrow rampart. The others climbed over the wall and crept into the fort.

Art led his men, dodging several groups of bandits rushing to reinforce the front, and moved toward the main gate under the cover of the walls and huts.

Earlier, before the horn sounded, the earth-shattering noise at the front gate had already awakened the bandits. They had been waiting for this day for a long time.

In front of a two-story wooden house in the center of the village, the fierce-looking bandit leader, clad in chainmail stolen from a previous victim and wearing a barrel helm, stood with a heavy knightly sword in hand, directing his underlings. Over twenty bandits were already stationed on the hundred-and-fifty-foot wall at the front, leading him to believe that those desperate attackers would once again be defeated and forced to retreat.

Indeed, even though the frontal attack was intended as a feint, Baron Antayas had committed his main strength. His household knight, Druid, personally led eighteen guards with spears, axes, and shields in a desperate charge. However, the bandits had concentrated their forces; stones and arrows flew in torrents. The attacking soldiers were wounded as soon as they approached the wall, and after two men were killed, Druid had to drag the wounded back.

The first assault failed.

Behind the siege lines, Baron Antayas, mounted on his horse, realized from the first wave that a direct assault would not succeed. He had to pin his hopes on Art’s surprise attack. Without delay, he nodded to a guard, who took out a bull-horn from his belt and blew a low, mournful note.

After a brief rest, the second wave began. This time, it was a true feint, led by the knights and squires themselves. They wore heavy, thick armor and helmets; though not ideal for siege warfare, they were impervious to arrows and stones.

The frontal battle fell into a stalemate. The attackers could not scale the wall, and the defenders could not push down the ladders.

While the front wall was embroiled in chaos, Art had reached a hut twenty paces from the right side of the main gate. Odo and the others crouched against the wall, hiding their forms.

In front of them lay an open space where five or six bandits were moving stones and boiling sewage to the wall, which the defenders then poured onto the heads of the attackers climbing the ladders.

The wooden gate of Arlsburg stood at the front of this open space, reinforced by a heavy timber beam, guarded by five spearmen.

Art, holding his cavalry bow, looked at his men and signaled. He drew a heavy arrow, notched it, and aimed at the target by the gate.

*Swish!*

The heavy arrow flew over the head of a bandit bending to lift a stone, grazed the ear of a man pouring sewage into an iron pot, and buried itself in the back of a minor leader.

"Argh!" The sudden pain caused the leader’s legs to give way; he stumbled and fell to the ground, spitting blood.

A nearby underling tilted his head in confusion, and just as he turned, another arrow pierced his face. With the crisp sound of a shattering nose, he toppled backward.

After two men were shot down, the bandits at the gate finally realized what was happening, but seven or eight men wielding swords and axes had already charged out from behind the hut.

"Disperse and kill!"

At the command, Art drew his sword and led the charge. As he passed a bandit who had just dropped a stone and was reaching for his short sword, Art swung his knightly sword horizontally. With a sickening "rip," the bandit’s belly was sliced open, and his intestines spilled out. Before the man could scream, Art had already knocked down another bandit charging with an axe.

Odo and the others followed, shields raised and weapons swinging, joining the fray for the gate.

Bass, known as "The Hammer," was particularly eye-catching. With a round shield in one hand and a flail in the other, he roared into the enemy ranks, his flail swinging wildly, crushing skulls and shattering bones. Because of the flail’s unique design, the bandits’ shields were useless; Bass would flick his wrist, striking the top edge of the enemy’s shield, and the heavy, spiked iron ball would swing over with immense inertia to crush the bandit’s head.

The prepared always have the advantage over the unprepared. Within one round of fighting, four or five bandits lay dead. However, as the battle continued, the bandits, having overcome their initial panic and led by their leader, began to react. More reinforcements arrived from the walls and the fort, and with the surviving guards at the gate fighting for their lives, the assault team began to suffer casualties.

Seeing more reinforcements arriving, Art grew anxious. After parrying a battle axe, he shouted to Odo and Bass: "Form a shield wall to hold back the reinforcements! Leave the gate to me!"

Odo kicked back a bandit and pulled Bass to the rear, directing Tuba and the others to form an arc-shaped shield wall, cutting off the gate from the reinforcements.

Art turned, removed his round shield, and charged the remaining enemies at the gate. Ron, who had taken a sword wound to the chest, saw Art fighting three men alone and quickly pulled another soldier to take his place in the shield wall before rushing to assist Art.

The reinforcements pressed the shield wall harder, and Odo’s formation was compressed until it squeezed against Art and Ron.

Knowing their lives depended on holding the gate, the bandits fought with desperate ferocity. Art’s sword flashed, but the bandits used the reach of their short spears to parry and thrust.

Outside the gate, the retreat horn sounded. The knights and squires began leading the peasant soldiers down the ladders. As the pressure on the wall eased, the bandits began to swarm down, and the pressure on Art’s group increased exponentially.

If they did not take the gate now, they would all die here.

At this critical moment, Art ignored a spear tip stabbing toward him. He stepped back, raised his shield, and leaped onto a bandit, pinning him to the ground. Another bandit saw Art’s back exposed and raised his spear to stab. In that split second, Ron, who had just forced back an attacker, dropped his sword and shield, threw his arms around the bandit, and wrestled him to the ground.

After pinning his opponent, Art struck the bandit’s face repeatedly with his right hand until the man’s features were a bloody mess.

Ignoring Ron, who was locked in a struggle with another bandit, Art grabbed a dropped shield and hurled it at an attacker who had been forced back by Ron.

In the shield wall, Odo let out a roar. With the bandit leader in chainmail joining the fray, their formation was failing.

Outside the gate, Kazak, who had finished covering the retreat, did not pull back to a safe distance. He led a dozen patrol soldiers, shields raised against the rain of stones and arrows, and rushed toward the gate, having seen through the cracks that Art’s group was fighting desperately.

Baron Antayas noticed the movement at the gate and immediately ordered his rested guards to rush forward under Druid’s command.

Meanwhile, at the gate, Art used a scavenged spear to kill the last standing bandit. He skirted past Ron, who was still strangling an enemy, rushed to the gate, and lifted the heavy wooden bar.

Kazak, waiting outside, saw the action through the gap, smashed the gate open, and led his men in to reinforce the shield wall.

The gate was open, but the main force could not enter, as the bandit leader had blocked the entrance with twenty men, forming a "human wall."

The outcome hung in the balance. Art, exhausted, caught his breath, grabbed his sword and shield, pulled up Ron, and rejoined the shield wall.

The stalemate at the gate continued. Half of the bandits from the walls had been pulled to form the human wall. Baron Antayas, sensing the opportunity, did not waste more men on the gate. He saw the weakened defenses on the walls and decisively ordered the knights and squires to shed their armor and charge the wall.

"Fifty pennies for the head of every bandit!" Baron Antayas’s roar echoed like a thunderclap.

The assault force responded with a deafening war cry.

...

As the knight Chloe successfully mounted the wall and secured a foothold, the battle for Arlsburg became one-sided.

When Chloe and another knight jumped down from the ramparts, the bandit leader, relying on his chainmail and barrel helm, realized the battle was lost. He abandoned his men at the gate and, under the cover of two loyal underlings, snuck toward the rear of the fort.

Ron, who was thrusting his spear, caught a glimpse of the leader fleeing and shouted to Art: "My lord, he’s running!"

"Who’s running?" Art shouted back.

"The bandit chief! The bandit chief!" Ron pointed his spear toward the corner the leader had just rounded.

The patrol unit had suffered several casualties because of this chief, and his head was the most valuable prize. Art could not let him escape. The situation at the gate was settled; taking the fort was now only a matter of time. Art broke away from the fight, pulling Odo with him.

When they reached the rear wall, the chief had already climbed up and was preparing to jump over.

Art took aim and fired a light arrow. It struck the chief’s calf, and the spasm of pain caused him to fall back onto the rampart, then tumble to the ground, unconscious. A subordinate considered rescuing him but, seeing Art and his men closing in, glanced at another companion who had already cleared the wall, and ultimately chose to flee toward the mountain instead.

"Don't chase him! The prey is here," Art shouted to Ron, who was about to climb the wall in pursuit.