Assault On Eichenwalde

As Alaric Hearthstone exited the large square like portal, he immediately focused his senses towards the massive majestic castle known as Eichenwalde. The Castle had 3 enormous towers all dooming over the keep, the towers were placed perfectly with the same space between them, and could easily be used for large magic arrays or destructive spells. The Castle itself was built in a gigantic valley, although it seemed like there was one large hole in the middle with probably more than a kilometer in radius. And inside the glooming hole was cliffs formed as spikes shooting up from the unreachable bottom, the castle was built on one of such spikes. From the main gate was a bridge reaching all the way over to the mainland. The bridge was decorated with statues ready to defend against whoever trespasser they may encounter, and infinitely long pillars war stabilizing it from the deep.

It was beautiful and often referred to as one of the most spectacular structures ever discovered.

The portal had appeared on a cliffside a mile or two away and was towering over the castle like a parent over a disobedient child. Alaric walked out to the very end of the cliff and took in three big sniffs of the surrounding air, something was wrong, he could feel his demonic instincts warn him against the upcoming battle, yet he chose to ignore it. How could he not? This chance would likely never appear again. You see the problem with taking over the castle was in truth not the army Amon had at his disposal. But Amon himself.

20 years ago he was not heard from in months, but it was said that he was creeping around in a lab somewhere in the capital of demons. But after 6 months of thinking he was dead, there was suddenly a big attack on Eichenwalde, and not more than 48 hours later news was spread all over the country that Amon had walked straight into the castle and assassinated the former noble demon residing there, the whole country was now referring to him as 'The Mad King' Since we all believed that he must have discovered a way to boost himself with immense power in those 6 months. Some even said he brainwashed all the citizens of Eichenwalde to serve under himself.

Some faint steps could be heard walking up to him, if it had not been for his ridiculously keen senses he would have never noticed that the hooded figure had approached him.

"Are you ready to go, master? The men are all awaiting your signal" spoke the mysterious man while gazing over the breathtaking castle. Alaric turned around and observed the army, he had butterflies in his stomach, he couldn't wait to own the castle. Maybe he would finally get the recognition he thought he deserved. "Men I will see you all in the great hall of Eichenwalde, until then. Fight for us all!"

The men all lifted their weapons of choice as one last battle cry together in unison. Then scattered out and followed whichever group they had been assigned to.

As Alaric and the hooded man stood together looking at the men running straight for the bridge, they only had a handful of the best demon warriors at their disposal left. The still unknown man began to inform everyone how they would access the dungeon, and flank the enemies. "You probably didn't see it before, but if you look very close, there is a bridge at the very back of the castle leading straight down into the body of another cliff spike". It was remarkably difficult to spot but doable nonetheless. And all the experienced soldiers nodded and understood how this plan would go.

There was a reason why all of them had wings after all.

--> The Main Gates <--

A guard was heard dozing off at the guard post above the gate, while another was yelling at him to pull himself together... "Get up ya' sleepy head, this guard duty ain't for slackers like you, do you want Mr. Gibbs to hear bout' this eh? Or have you woken up already?" A Small but large man spit at the all of a sudden well awake guard. "No need to go so far, it's just guard duty? Who would you expect to attack Eichenwalde?" The guard muffled back as he was clearly embarrassed about the episode but too proud to admit his mistake. "Damn dwarves." he cursed under his breath as he turned away and kicked a stone flying into the endless shadows.

The dwarf let out a displeased grunt as he also turned away and began to march into the darkness. Or he would if not for the sudden splatter sound he heard behind him. The Dwarf spun around ready for anything but what he saw had him stunned for a few seconds, before bolting towards the now headless soldier. An arrow had pierced right through his head and ripped it off his body, and was now stuck to the wall, alongside a lifeless body emptied of a good amount of blood was the aftermath of the episode.

The dwarf was in a state of panic, he had gasping wide-open eyes and narrow yet constant twitching pupils. He ran straight to the wall on top of the gate and did a little jump to look over it. It was unimaginable that something like this was ever to happen to Eichenwalde. No one since Amon had been crazy enough to attack the castle and for good reason at that. The castle was already difficult enough to infiltrate due to only being conquerable from the bridge. As all these thoughts ran through his mind he couldn't stop screaming in his head 'Why! WHY WAS I ON GUARD DUTY TODAY!'.

The sky was lit up with flaming arrows ready to crash down and eat away anything burnable. If you looked straight up at the sky you could see the usual dark blue matter filling half of your sight, and yellow shining stars, accompanied by the so-called Mana-Moon, which was one of the two moons in this world smiling down upon the small castle.

The other side was lit up by hundreds of wild burning flames bigger than any of the stars. And behind them was the biggest moon called the Blood-Moon, glaring over its army of flames as was it a game of chess, ready to fire down anything in its path.

The middle of the sky was a battlefield between moons, and the fire army was slashing and whipping out after the dark blue. You could see the Mana-Moon slowly being pushed back then pushing forth again as the arrows were descending upon the poor castle, soon enough more than one guard was lying lifeless yet so full of flames that you could almost see the fire burning his struggling spirit.

Yells and screams were heard throughout the valley as alarm clocks began to go wild, innocent people were running around grasping their family and what little they could from their houses before bolting towards the castle in hope of security.

As Alaric's army of over 100 men was pushing the bridge, they were suddenly stopped by a magical barrier that seemed to be charged by the 3 towers. The barrier had a blueish shine to it. As there was little the soldiers could do they had to either wait for the array to run out of mana or find a different solution, but the time was not on their side, they couldn't outwait an array, and especially not one charged by such large towers. But to their surprise, forth stepped 3 humanoid figures in white robes, they had all horns coming out of their forehead and demonic energy could be felt all around them. "Protect us from any incoming attacks, and we'll take down that barrier!"

The experienced soldiers were acting as one as they formed a defending stance around the 3 mages. The men in white then began to chant something that sounded like a long prayer.

The soldiers on Eichenwalde was not taking a break either, as they had gotten up the barrier they spun to the walls and mounted themselves with arrows and other defending equipment. Some began to activate abilities such as fireballs or Ice shards.

Since this was an advanced type of barrier, everything that tried to get through from the outside was automatically pushed back, and not allowed entrance. However, everything that tried to get out from the inside was allowed to do so no matter the size. As so the defending soldiers began to fire with all they got, fireballs, arrows, Ice shards were flying through the air and raining down on the poor soldiers. As they had nothing to defend with, most either tried to use their shields against the impaling arrows. But as soon as the Ice shards hit, their shields were offering little protection. People flew around in all directions, some went to defend their comrades while others were trying to combine shields for more powerful defense, a futile struggle. A few were skilled enough in the arcane arts that they had put op some barriers around them and the chanting mages, but it couldn't cover the whole army on over a hundred men.

Soon twenty percent of the Alaric's army were either injured or had died by the raining arrows, impaling ice or, the exploding fireballs. Some begun to hack and slash on the barrier but achieved nothing short of a rough landing on the bum as they were pushed back. Others thought the men in the white robes were playing games with them and wild aggressive tones could be heard battling forth and back at the bridge. "I swear if this barrier is not down soon I will kill you mages for my lost brothers!"

was heard coming from a large man supporting himself with a big Warhammer, while sitting with a knee on the ground and held a thinner but tall young man in his arms, the man had gotten his left shoulder and arm blown off by one of the fierce fireballs.

"One of the men who had casted a quick protective barrier around the three mages and a couple of soldiers yelled back. "People will die here, you knew that! And so did your friend! These mages are our only hope of getting through this barrier, so pull yourself together soldier and be ready for taking down those bastards anytime now!".

The large man swallowed a big lump in his throat as he saw the truth in what the soldier yelled.

He then turned around with a determined look on his face as he caught an arrow right in front of himself and snapped it over in pure madness. "Fine then, I'll smash the head of these sons of bi.." a Large shard of ice get swung through his left hip and the man fell multiple meters backward and roared out in pure pain. Soon after he got his throat cut by a fellow soldier just to put him out of his agony.

A big beam of light could be seen from everywhere on the battlefield, extruding from the middle of the three men in robes and straight at the barrier. It began to meltdown completely as if it had been shut down from within, soon after the struggling soldiers were allowed entrance to the castle.

They stormed in through the dissipating barrier and begun their slaughter on the unprepared defending soldiers.

It was a mad slaughter that happened for fifteen to twenty minutes and the bridge to the wall on the main gate was painted in dark red colors as demons and humans were scattered lifeless round. Lost limbs were lying everywhere and it would be impossible to send back complete corpses to families at home.

About half of the army still stood strong and were ravaging through the burning city.

They soon entered the main square where you could see some still standing shops with anything ranging from bread to weapons, and others were completely and utterly destroyed.

Alaric's army had occupied about half of the space available on the market, and under any normal circumstances they would simply keep running for the castle. But on the other side was another small army of about 60 soldiers with one man standing in front.

He was old and had an iron leg, his outfit was that of a butler but his presence was that of any superior. A few soldiers gulped down their nervousness about this unknown enemy.

then he began to speak in this formal yet monotone voice. "For formalities, please let your leader come forth". the soldiers were dumbfounded, who in their right mind would think about that in a battle? yet one person came forth. He was the one who had cast the protective barrier over the three mages clad in white. "I am Baldur, I serve under Alaric". The old gentleman seemed to notice several demons in the enemy army as well as a great power in the so-called Baldur.

"This will be exciting, glad to make your presence Baldur". The old man spoke as he adjusted his glasses on his nose.

"Die" was the last thing heard from the unknown enemy, as he vanished out of sight.