Chapter 30: Blood on the Walls

Since there would be no more talk, Braydon saw Baron Monrow back off from the battlements. Not a few seconds later he could hear the man shouting followed by dozens of archers appearing from the crenellations. It was obvious to both sides that if he made it onto the walls there was not much stopping his army, he had just over double the men on hand.

"Shields!" The arrows could be heard impacting the shields of his men. It would seem as though only the front of his forces were in range, though that would soon change, taking a town required being in it rather than looking at it.

"Get those ladders on the walls!" Braydon started to command his own forces, though he would leave most of it to Rhydian when he entered the battle for himself. He could hear the command being relayed to the specific squads by their leaders. The quads that carried the ladders started to march forwards, the rest of his men staying back.

The majority of his men were mercenary swordsmen with a couple dozen archers mixed in. And it would be these swordsmen who were to go at the front, being backed up by his archers. Though they would not be much help to start with, walls were unsurprisingly good at blocking arrows. The rest of his army consisted of spearmen, the ones that had been trained over the past month, who were about as numerous as his mercenary archers. They would be going up the ladders after the swordsmen, close quarters combat could be quite deadly for spearmen. And it was these men that he would have to rely on to keep the territories he won.

While it was the case that he did not have to worry as much about losing the mercenaries as his regular troops, it still hurt to see tens of men dead before one could even set foot on the walls. Whilst shields were good, they were not omnipotent. As the fallen men with arrows sticking out of their bodies showed.

"It looks like all of the ladders have gone up." Rhydian commented.

"Then it is time for the rest of the swordsmen to go forward."

"Remember to be in the middle of the group if you actually want to fight." Rhydian said when he saw Braydon was raring to go. He would have preferred for his liege to go with the spearmen. But Braydon was smart enough to know that most of the fighting would be over by the time they got to the walls, and that would defeat the purpose of him joining the battle in the first place.

"Then I better get into position now. I leave commanding the troops in your hands." Braydon said quickly, before promptly disappearing into the crowd of mercenaries. Rhydian shook his head before turning to speak to Gerald, who had disappeared at some point.

"Not him too…" Rhydian knew exactly where Gerald had gone and it was not too dissimilar to Braydon. 'Just when did I teach those two to be so battle hungry?'

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It had taken about an hour since the battle had started but Braydon finally found himself on the walls of Mapjess. There were pools of blood everywhere, but no corpses. He presumed that they were either below the ladders or had been pushed off into the town to make room, both equally grim ends.

He got to look around, there were no enemies in the immediate vicinity, the mercenaries had already claimed this portion of the walls. He could see some fighting down below but not much, most combatants would be on the walls or defending the manor of Baron Monrow. Braydon guessed that was where his adversary was too. He decided to make his way to a different section of the walls, where there was more fighting happening. There would be time to go to the Baron's manor later. And it was not long before he got himself into the thick of battle.

Braydon found himself squeezed between several mercenaries as they tried to dismantle the wall of shields in front of them. Their enemies chose to forego their spears for the more maneuverable shortswords they had as side arms. It was a fight over the guardhouse, if they could take control of this then Braydon's remaining troops could walk through the front entrance.

The mercenary next to him took a swipe at one of the enemies, only to be blocked by their shield. This happened again for the man on his other side. It was at this moment of stalemate that a slight gap opened up in the shield wall. Perhaps it was carelessness, perhaps over confidence. Braydon did not let it go to waste. He stuck his sword through before it could close.

"Argh!"

One of the enemies pulled back, breaking formation. This was all that was needed. There was not enough time to rebuild formation. Braydon and his men pushed into the guardhouse, the mercenaries behind him dealing with the rest of the shield wall.

*Bang*

Not a moment sooner, he had to raise his shield. The man he had stabbed was out for blood. Braydon swung his sword in a counter attack but it was pushed to the side by his opponent's sword. The man wanted to follow up with an attack of his own but Braydon had different ideas.

By the time his swing had been nullified, Braydon slammed the man with his shield. This gave no time to react, leaving the man dazed. Now pressed against a wall he tried to swing at Braydon again but was disarmed for his trouble. Now without a weapon and against a wall, Braydon had no trouble putting the man out of his misery. He quickly pulled back and swung at the man's neck, giving no time for him to raise his shield.

*Clang*

Upon hearing the sound directly behind him Braydon nearly had a heart failure. He turned to see a sword clearly swung at his head being blocked by an outstretched sword from the side.

"You should really look around you more in a fight, this isn't a duel you know." Gerald commented before turning to face the man who he had blocked.

"Noted." Braydon noncommittal responded before doing to an enemy what had just been done to him. But this time there was no one to block his strike. His sword hit the man's helmet, the force knocking him out cold.

There was not much more to do in the guardhouse, the defenders having quickly been overrun. Once the shield wall had been crushed, nothing had stopped his men from rushing in. Braydon saw Gerald finish his opponent with a sword through the gut, the last enemy in the guard house.

"Quickly open the gate, I am sure Rhydian will be thrilled to join us." Braydon told the mercenaries. They were more than happy to get more reinforcements from Braydon's army.

"Yes, he'll really be thrilled to learn that you were almost out cold after beating one man." Gerald could not help but quip as the two of them moved on to their next battle.