The Gate Is Now Shut

The Ottoman commander yelled to the top of his lungs for his men to not panic, stay put and form a circle, but no one can hear his command now, his chain of command has totally faded away as one after another Janissary officers gets picked out one after another by the calvaries and the Genoese crossbow men on the walls.

The end is truly near, it just needs that one event, one man to close the gates of Kerkaporta, and that shall be the end of everything.

But how?

The Ottomans, including their commanders, is still stubbornly and persistently trying to strike back while maintaining control over the gate. Now, the Janissaries cannot come into the city, but the Varangians also cannot chase them out of the gate. Things are coming into a stalemate. Each second passes with the gate's control not back to Constantine, it increases the possibility of end up letting Ottomans back into the city again.

Suddenly, a shouting that sounded so close and familiar, but yet so foreign to the ears of Harald, came from the back once again that startled both Harald and his Varangians.

"The admiral of the Romans advanced forward by two hundred meters!"

Harald frowned his eye brows, feeling surprised and astounded he looked back tilting his neck for a brief moment while his men guards the attacks of the Janissaries. He saw his admiral, Antonius De'Ricci, with no emotions on his face, is walking towards him towards the gate, with all those banners and flags flying high behind him and another sailor there counting the steps of the admiral.

Harald took a deep breathe and shifted back his head holding his axe so tight that he felt he almost bent it. He was just about to warn the admiral to stay away from the danger here, but when the words reached his mouth he halted. He thought about his lord's actions through in his messed up single wired head. Why is the admiral here? How did he even reach here in the first place? What is his purpose here among all these chaos where a single bolt or arrow and end his life?

The whole thinking just took place for a brief moment as Harald suddenly realised something. He looked up at century old ceiling bricks of the gate and sighed, then cried out bursting with laughter as tears erupted out of his eyes melting the blood clots away clearing the redness in the eye sclera, making his eyes as pure as before again without the pollution of blood and war, like when he was back to the time when he just joined Yuri's gang and boasting about his adventures in the vast Nordic lands slaying wyverns, climbing the roots of Yggdrasil and the tales of the most renowned warrior back in Småland.

"The admiral of the Romans advanced forward by two hundred and twenty meters!"

Without anymore thoughts, Harald roared following the path of his Viking pagan ancestors, he flung his battle axe out of his hands out right towards the Ottoman Janissary commander Kudret Suvari, who swiftly blocked it with his hammer. However, the sheer force of the axe almost broke the knuckles and bones of his hands, blood emerged from his lip sides and right purlicue. For one moment he entirely could not feel any strength in his hands. He watches with fright in his eyes as his hammer drops from his hand palm onto the ground.

But Harald is not done yet. Blessed with superb agility for the first time in his life, he leapt out of the Roman crowd like a leopard leaping for his prey – and sprung directly onto the Janissary commander, pushing him down lying onto the ground while drawing out his dagger at the back of his belt, jabbed the dagger repeatedly into the neck of Kudret Suvari while strangling and staring at him consistently, until he is finally out of breathe.

Blood gushed out of Kudret Suvari's neck like a fountain spitting onto the walls of the gate painting it entirely red. It is the very first time Harald realised that a man's body can hold so much blood as it surged continuously for a long period of time.

The Janissaries around reacted with god speed as they also did the exact same thing to Harald. In a few seconds time Harald's back and neck is already full of injuries but not vital due to the protection of his armour, and perhaps the lack of strength of these strength depleted Janissaries.

Harald crawled up from the ground, failing one time in the process as the muddy ground dampened by blood is way to slippery for a burly giant in armour, making him suffer a few more slashes and hits on the back, neck, and head.

"Close the gate!" Harald shouted out without looking back as he tried to crawl up for one last time with blood, his own this time, sweeping down his face and hands. "Do not care about me! Close the gate!"

Then, with his last bit of strength, he stomped the ground with his undamaged feet and launched himself directly towards the centre of the Janissaries like a ram, ramming all of them backwards clearing the path. In Harald's last consciousness he vividly heard Antonius shouting something, but he could no longer hear him as his brain is already damaged after the hits and blows, the last thing he sees is the unnerved eyes of the Janissaries, no shapes of familiar people around, no angels or saints to guide him, not even the god of death to bring him to hell, nothing, only the slow fading of senses, until his world falls into an eternal darkness.

The Gate of Kerkaporta is now shut.

Antonius stopped moving forward.

He watches with a complicated mixture of feelings inside his eyes and remained silent in front of the gate. Behind him the battle prolongs as the Romans continued to encircle and slaughter the hard witted ones, while the other Ottomans are slowly forced into submission and taken into prisoners of war. But all of these does not affect Antonius at all, he just stood there, silently, accompanied by all those imperial banners and flags, for a long lasting time.