Breaking the Stronghold

Suddenly, the roof began shaking, explosions rocked the area around them as crates turned over, spilling arrows and explosive balls around the area. Venator began running away from the explosions as the front of the building's roof began breaking down. On the a different side of the wall, untouched by the explosions and fire, Venator stood next to the crates, he turned around, seeing a plan with the explosives.

As he looked back, archers already formed up onto the remaining outer towers, Bellunamien archers let loose their arrows despite the fire burning around them. Hails slammed into the wall of loosely formed wall of shields, upon realizing the new enemy, they began forming to a circle, fully sealing themselves from any outer attack with spears pointing out.

"Hope the roof doesn't fall because of this." Venator grabbed an explosive out of the box, lighting it with his hand he threw it back inside, sealing it with a lid. With both hands, Venator hastily threw the box of explosives towards the wall of shields.

The box slammed into them, sending its contents clattering in front of the wall. In an instant, a large flash of light blinded the entire formation, the shockwave threw Venator back, his hand managing to grab onto the railing to not fall, his ears were deafened by the massive sound the bombs have created, destroying an entire half of the formation while the rest were thrown around the roof. Venator continued holding for dear life, slowly hoisting himself back up.

After getting back on the roof, he saw the carnage he had wrought. Craters of different sizes were strewn around where he had thrown the crate, soldiers lie dead or wounded on the roof, some crawled towards different parts of the wall, their army broken and their shields heavily damaged. Arrows continued firing into the roof, striking the leftover soldiers as they helplessly crawled away.

The fires spread to other parts of the wall, explosives were ignited, shattering the railings and even chunks of the towers they stood next to, the fight came to a quick end, as he looked around for a possible way down. The roof was in shambles, further destruction rocked it with larger pieces of the wall breaking off from the intense explosions. Venator ran back to the front part of the roof, now destroyed and portions of it barely hanging, rubble falling down to the ground below.

Bellunamien warriors ran all around, scattering into the field. The General walked with them, looking around, he looked up at Venator, the two locking eyes with one another. He signaled for him to get down, Venator nodded his head.

The roof was now beginning to fall on itself, the large towers of the stronghold began breaking, their entrances being sealed by rubble. He quickly began trying to climb down the shattering stronghold's rooftop, clutching onto gaps and broken parts of the wall.

As he got down the shaking and breaking wall, he met the General, now walking towards him.

"Excellent work Venator, but now you must stay alongside us, we need to break down that door and breach the inside." The General patted him on the back, ordering him to follow. Both of them stood behind the soldiers, already trying to tear apart the barricades on the door. The General took out a pouch, similar to the one the mage carried. "Hopefully this works on that door." He handed it to Venator, walking closer to his army.

"Soldiers move away from the door, defensive formation around the doorway!" He yelled out. Th soldiers responded quick, moving back away from the door, their shields facing the gate. They formed a round wall of shields, Venator and the General stood closer to the door, looking at the damaged but still standing barrier.

The General handed Venator one of tthe balls, "Ignite it." Venator neared his burning hand to the wick, igniting it. The General, now holding a lit fused explosive, dropped the ball into the pouch, with all his strength, he threw it at the gate, it slammed onto the wood of it, plopping down. Both began moving backwards, awaiting the explosion to start.

A shockwave shook them, causing loose parts of their clothing to fly backwards. Through the dissipating smoke, a large gaping hole into the thick wooden gate was formed, soldiers began rushing into the breach with little regard, shouting loudly as their metal armor clunked on the ground. Venator could smell the faint scent of burnt wood from the explosion.

He ran through the packed doorway, seeing the inside of the stronghold. The room he entered was a massive hall, a large stairwell splitting to both sides provided easy access to the next floor, multiple pearly white decorated windowed doors stood everywhere heading to different rooms, a large platform stood above the doorway, all lit up by chandeliers and lamps hanging on different parts of the room providing great amounts of light. The rooms however were sealed in layers of wood or piles of crates among other things, the stairwell was completely covered in planks of wood, metal, and crates of different sizes. The soldiers poured into every part of the hall, running to different rooms as they began their raid.

Before Venator could step past the platform's shade, arrows let loose into the unsuspecting soldiers, striking them as they pierced the armor of a few soldiers, many began facing their shields towards the platform above, the arrows buried into their shields, stalling the battle once again,

As the hail continued, explosive balls began falling down from the platform towards the soldiers. "Get back!" The General yelled too late, explosions sent many of the soldiers back, slamming into different parts of the ground floor, their armor and shield taking up most of the damage as they lay on the ground, still trying to cover their bodies with their shields.

"Venator deal with those ones at the top, be careful." The General ordered, carrying a shield and sword, he stood just at the edge of the platform's shade.

Venator suddenly dashed through, stopping in the middle of the large open hall, with one motion, fire crashed into the railings of the platform above, littered with more armored soldiers, their attacks ceased, many now fell back, taking their equipment with them towards somewhere beyond the platform.

The soldiers lowered their shields, realizing the attack stopped.