24.

At the enemy camp, 6 commanders were having discussions on how they will break through that wall of fire.

"What should we do about that fire? The water mages lost quite a chunk of their mana on extinguishing that fire but it was ineffective." A commander said.

"I told you already, just use our earth mages and create a deep pit and have it be swallowed by land." Another commander voiced out his thoughts and he was quite annoyed.

"But creating such deep pit... we would lose our 4th circle earth mages. It would severely weaken our ranks." The 3rd commander retorted.

"We still have two 5th circle mage, what are you afraid of? We can use them to create a hole in their walls and we will swarm them with our numbers." The annoyed commander said.

The other 3 commanders were silent and were thinking deeply on what to choose.

"2 hours have already passed by and we have to choose quickly. I got word from the scout that went ahead. He said that reinforcements from the nobles will arrive the next day or so. Since we can't afford to lose time, let's decide by voting on what plan we'll take." One of the commanders who stayed silent suddenly voiced out his opinion.

The result was 5:1 in favor of sacrificing their 4th circle mage.

They quickly put the plan in motion, the longer they waste time, the more they'll be at a disadvantage.

*

'That was fast and decisive.' I clicked my tongue in annoyance. The Earth mages used their spells to pull down the landmass that was oiled up and buried it with their spells. With the Earth mages out of commission, they retreated into the back to recover as fast as possible to return to the battlefield.

I was also surprised to see them take out their siege weapons, a huge tower with wheels. Soldiers were using it as a fortress and hid behind them. Without shieldbearers, they are vulnerable to arrows so they had to use the siege ladder as hiding spots. (A/N:The ladder siege tower in the beginning of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.)

"Looks like they wanted to quickly take us down." I said after throwing away the surprise I felt.

"Should we use the magic cannons now?" Wilhelm who was beside me the whole time asked for our next move.

"I think we should be able to hold out. They still haven't sent any powerhouse knocking into our doors." I said calmly as I observed the slow moving ladder fortress.

"Bring out our own anti-siege weapons." I ordered and 10 normal cannons were placed in position.

"Cannoneers, destroy those siege ladders. Bring down as many as you can. Archers and mages, pull back. Sword and shield warriors come up and prepare for battle!" I ordered. The siege ladders were getting closer and closer the walls. The sound of explosion shook the wall and the cannonball flew towards a siege ladder and destroyed the front shell exposing the ladder inside that the soldiers will use to come up.

Cannons continued firing on the siege ladders and they managed to destroy 4 out of 15 siege ladders.

"Damn it. Their frontal shell is tough." I cursed as the ladders slowly attached itself to the wall.

The sword and shield warriors had already formed a line, prepared to engage the first wave of soldiers that got close. The tower's head was like a huge mouth when it opened and inside them contained the soldiers from the western coalition. The newbie soldiers definitely flinched when they felt the murderous aura of the enemy soldiers. Charles, the commander of the sword-shield warriors shouted.

"Stand your ground! We don't want to return as a corpse like the Duke said!" Charles shouted as he wiped their hesitations away, his words kept repeating inside the heads of the sword-shield warriors like a hypnotism and it wiped their doubts as they turned to look at their enemies like they were dead meat.

The enemy soldiers jumped down from the platform and without waiting for them to group up, the sword-shield warriors slammed them with their shields in the initial charge, the first batch of enemies, who accepted the initial charge were, stumped. Some of them were pushed out of the edge while some of them got bashed by the shield and became groggy allowing our army to kill them at ease.

The enemy expected them to wait for them to form a line before fighting as it was the common tradition in war, an 'honorable battle'. I made use of that bullsh*t and struck first.

'Idiot, this is war, no one will happily let you group up.' I thought as I was glad to see them using Dirty tactics in an 'honorable battle'.

Meanwhile, in the heads of the sword-shield warriors, the words of the Duke kept on repeating over and over again.

'That's right, what use is honor if you're dead. So what if we go down as a shameless soldier in history, what matters is that we're alive and they're dead.' The soldiers thought as they continued to hack away at the enemy.

"Shall we join them?" I asked Wilhelm, slightly pumped. Its been so long, the smell of blood and war. It was a normal scent in the shadow world, and being away for quite a while, it sure brings back memories.

"No, let me. Its been a long time since I've taken a stretch. Let me have a go to act as a warm-up for this old bag of bones." Although Wilhelm called himself an old bag of bones, he said those words with a serious face.

"Alright. I'm itching for a fight as well but I'll let you handle it." I said as I continued to scan the battlefield. Seeing that their siege ladders worked, they sent out another batch of 10 siege ladders and behind them is a siege weapon to break down the door. I could see it all as they slowly moved forward. Huge amounts of soldier were following them as well.

'Are they aiming for a ground battle or is it just a distraction for the climbing troops?' My mind started spinning faster thinking of a way to keep buying more time.

"Cannoneers! Shoot the incoming towers, keep shooting them! Archers go shoot those people pushing the siege ladders to slow them down." I ordered the soldiers.

"Pikemen, prepare for battle, once they break the doors, they will come rushing and you guys know what to do!" I shouted at the pikemen at the bottom of the wall.

The pikemen commander had a solemn expression as he watched the sword-shield warriors gaining meritorious deeds as the slay the enemy foot soldiers.

'Damn, I wish magic guns were already invented. I wanted to snipe people from here!' My thoughts shouted in frustration as my hands itched to join the battle. I gripped my spear tightly as I looked at the incoming siege ladders with anticipation.

My anticipation was not disappointed. A powerhouse has come knocking to our doors.

Wilhelm also noticed the presence and looked at me who's been looking at my prey. Wilhelm shook his head and wanted to make it quick so that he can help me as soon as possible. He casually sliced forward and a gust of wind was sent towards the enemy troops. The wind was like a swing of a scythe from the Grim Reaper as their midsections were cut.

The casual swing made all the soldiers from our army and the enemy party look at Wilhelm in shock.

"Looks like you guys we're having fun. How about you let this old man join?" Wilhelm said with a bright smile on his face.

'Having fun? You see us killing each other and you thought we're having fun?' The enemy soldiers thought to themselves.

Charles and those under him were elated though. They have heard of the legends surrounding this old man from the retired veterans but they had never seen it themselves.

"Incredible." Charles said as he looked at the enemies' bodies scattered in the floor. Although he could bisect a normal soldier in their midsection, he couldn't do it in group, meaning he could only do it one by one. Charles was so pumped and he immediately ordered the soldiers to continue attacking.

"Attack!! We can't let an old man best us!" He shouted and his comrades' blood were boiling as they shouted as they strike.

Wilhelm looked over and saw that his objective to raise their morale was successful and returned to my side quickly.

"Huh, that was fast." I said and looked at the sword-shield warrior's fight. Seeing them fare better, I was relieved.

"This old man has only stretched out his right arm. How about giving me that powerhouse?" Wilhelm said which made me chuckle.

"Really now? Let me have some fun as well." I said and Wilhelm just smiled.

'This old man is overprotective.' I laughed in my mind and considered jumping inside the siege ladder to slay some enemies. Wilhelm won't let me fight that powerhouse so I can only release this pent-up stress against those normal soldiers.

And so, I did. I jumped and stabbed the frontal shell of the siege ladder. With the help of Vasavi Shakti as my foothold, I maneuvered and circled around the tower and found a hole I can get into. Soon, screams were heard inside the siege ladder.

With more time shooting, the cannoneers managed to destroy five siege ladders including the one I just jumped onto. Our cannons were only able to damage the remaining five because the siege ladder's frontal shell was just too hard.

The siege ladder latched itself near the gate entrance. Wilhelm without a word, sent a casual swing towards the siege ladder containing the powerhouse.

The casual swing dented the siege ladder but it was stopped when the gust of wind tried to slice all the way.

"Looks like we meet again, Sword Saint Wilhelm." A man with disheveled red hair said.

"Who would've thought that I will see you here, Brutus." Wilhelm said still smiling.

No more words were needed and Brutus jumped forward and attacked Wilhelm. The battle between two people who pursued the way of the sword at its extreme started.

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This is my first time writing a war scene so it looks messy with the PoVs. I want to focus on other characters in the war, like Wilhelm and not just the MC.