18 The Assault

The remaining days passed by quickly and soon enough the ladders had been built. In total there were ten ladders. Not much really but what could you expect? Or at least this is what the engineer had said. He had to cut the trees down and process them before even being able to make the ladders and in the short time that he had, he was impressed that he had done so much anyway.

Meanwhile, within the fort, they had pilled up barrels and crates and an allover assortment of objects which had all been used to make a barricade in place of the destroyed gate. The scouts had also reported that there was always people on guard now and any kind of surprise attack would be impossible. Though some good news did come, no kind of reinforcements had arrived and the fort was still left with the same amount of rebels who were already there, though it was mentioned that some could have deserted from the fort.

Pavitra looked behind herself as the sun looked down on them. Around her was every soldier she had available. Each ladder had been assigned to the normal soldiers. Leaving her with the merchants and adventures to assault the gate itself and also having one regiment in reserve. This was argued by all of her commanders but she still chooses this idea anyway. You never know what kind of surprise will spring up in battle and it was all better to have reserve force that could be chucked into the fight to change the course of it at a critical moment.

Then as she swung down her right arm. WIth that the drums began to beat out a steady and load beat.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

On the third beat, everyone began to move out. The ladders had been dived eventually on both sides of the gate, with the general idea being, take both sides of the wall and secure the gate allowing for soldiers to get easily within the fort.

Pavitra herself was leading the gate attack from the front. It worked best with mercenary and adventures who had very little respect for anyone who led their soldiers from the back of their formation.

The drumbeat began to get louder and as the soldiers crossed the line which marked the maximum range of the archers, everyone began to run forwards.

Whoosh!

A volley of arrows, as well as the ballista bolt, were all let loose. Smashing into the assaulting troops. The clanking and thudding of arrows on shields and armour could be heard and as the ballista bolt smashed into the ground. Screaming and crying was heard as well.

All of these made up the first part of the battle. The smell of blood and mud would come soon.

Pavitra began to pick up more speed as she rushed forwards, the soldiers following her could barely keep up. Soon enough she had reached the blockade of the gate and with one swing of her sword, a wave of fire blasted out, incinerating the feeble blockade in seconds.

As the wooden shards blasted back, people could be heard screaming as they had been impaled by them. Even more, though were killed instantly as the wooden shards smashed into the eyes and head or some was even caught by multiple shards of wood.

Apart from that, the smell of burning and burnt flesh could be heard from the rebels who had been behind the barricade as well. Soon enough though, the rebels began to charge forward at her. Then as if out of nowhere the mercenaries and adventures had finally caught up and they rushed into the courtyard in which a massive melee soon broke out.

Right in the middle of it was Pavitra, her sword swinging left and right. Cutting people down all around her without any shred of mercy. Even those that began to surrender she cut down. The courtyard especially around her was soon stained in blood.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Shourya was carrying one of the ladders alongside his fellow soldiers. Arrows were constantly whizzing past his helmet. Then the person in front of collapsed with blood spraying back into Shourya as an arrow went through his neck.

A soldier quickly took the dead man's place as they all carried on rushing towards the fort.

Crack!

The ballista bolt just ploughed straight through the ladder next to them, killing all of the soldiers who were carrying it, if they were not dead they were almost certainly wounded from the attack.

Seeing that caused SHourya to gulp and start to make a prayer to the gods that he had not prayed to in a long, long time. Then they had reached the bottom of the wall.

The people at the front dropped the legs of the ladder into the ground, causing in to begin to tilt up as the rest of them began to push and push.

With a bang!

It landed on the wall, after making sure that it was secure tey then began to climb up. Shourya ended being the sixteenth person going up the ladder. Arrows were constantly going around them, causing him to flinch again and again. But he never stopped climbing. Soon he had gotten close to the top, he began to hear screaming and the clashing of weapons.

At the top of the ladder, he jumped onto the wall drawing the sword which he had been given. A quick look around was all that was needed as he saw where the closest stairs were. The ballista itself was right about the gate, which would require them to smash through the rebels in their path. I took a slow and deep breath. Then he began to push his way to the front.

When he was close, there was suddenly a spear coming from his head!

Tilting his head to the side be managed to dodge the lethal attack but as the sear was pulled back, it yanked off his helmet, leaving him that bit less protected. He groaned at this, then stabbed the sword in his hands forward, with a small twist he pulled back out of the man he had killed.

As that person's body fell to the ground lifeless, his eyes couldn't help but follow it. He has just killed a person. Just like that. As easy as that.

Then more attacks began to reign down on where he was, causing him to be forced out of his thoughts and carry on the attack, trying to force his way through. In the end, though everything that he seemed to do was just ineffective and nothing was working. He wanted to scream but he had no energy for that, then he was pushed.

Someone on his side pushed him.

He didn't see who and was soon hurtling off the wall.

He could feel the air flying past his skin as he fell.

Accepting his fate, he closed his eyes waiting for his end to come. Then he landed through the hey roof of a stable and after going through that, landed in even more hey. He was alive!

Slowly he got out of the hey and looked around. There was no here as well!

He slowly looked back only to see that no one had noticed him fall or if they had, they didn't care about it anyway. Remembering that push, he then spoke out loud. Swearing to himself. "I will find who did that and I will have their head."

Then he raced off heading towards the stairs which would lead straight up to the ballista. There were no guards at the stairwell and he quickly raced up. Stopping only briefly as he passed by the exit for the walls, the fighting was fierce there but the soldiers had finally started to push forward, little by little. Seeing this he carried on heading up to the top of walls.

On top, he rushed out and into the few rebels manning the ballista. In only a few swings he was able to kill them, before he was noticed by the rebel officer on the wall, he then grabbed a sword and charged forwards at Shourya!

Shourya noticed the charge quickly mainly due to the loud roar by his attacker. He quickly raised his sword and held it with both hands as he blocked the overhead swing.

Ting!

He tried to counter but was forced to block again and again as his opponent just proved to be too quick and was chaining the attackers one after the after. Then he stabbed forwards, causing Shourya to jump back. Finally making some distance.

The two then began to circle each other a little before Shorya finally stole the initiative and launched his attack. A quick stab, then he followed up with slashes on both sides of his opponent. Each one was blocked and then he was attacked after a quick parry, forcing back onto the back foot again. Each attack, that came in he was forced to block and block and block. Though with all of this blocking he was finally able to notice that there was a fault in his opponent's attacks and defence.

He swung his sword out, knocking the rebel's sword away and in the next second, he dropped his sword and rammed his shoulder into the rebel causing him to fall to teh ground. Then within a second, he was on top of him. Punching his face over and over. He carried on long after the sickening crunch that marked the rebel was dead.

He only stopped when he finally saw that he was hitting not stone not the face of his opponent anymore.