Chapter 46: The battle of Bear Forest.

Beta Castle.

The winter is about to come, the first snows have been raining on the Peninsula. I believe winter comes earlier for Iceland than other regions, but winter comes to mean we'll have certain advantages in defending our kingdom.

My spies and assassins organization, The Shadow Ranger, led by Hanzo has worked hard these days. Every man is sent to gather information about the progress of the war as well as news about our enemies. Some of them do not come back, though, this is a dangerous job. But I pay them much more than a normal official in my army so I expect them to risk their lives to gain useful information. Varnasiga, the Holy City has been razed to the ground. Luckily, the citizens there manage to escape from the raiders and now they are protected by the Church's army. This is very bad news since the Lyrions have gained a significant amount of food from Varnasiga, which help them to survive through this winter.

Rose Harbour has sent messengers to as for food, men, and weapons. A general of the Lyrion called Eunice the Impaler has been constantly sieging the city for about a month. My uncle pushes the enemies back to the sea many times but we are greatly outnumbered. I send him more Greek fire powder and militaries supplies. 10000 recruits have also departed to Rose Harbour, which is the maximum number I can send since these levies need to be trained properly before being sent to the battlefield. The Lyrions are professional pirates so an army of farmers can not harm them.

Impetus manages to defeat the Lyrion army in Summervalley recently. he captured about 6000 Lyrions from the battle of Summervalley and forced them to build a fortress by the sea and Bear Forest. The Holy Army has contacted him and I believe they'll cooperate to attack the Bear Castle soon. I hope they manage to take down the city since if my information is correct, the people of Varnasiga have run out of food. There are no supply lines available from here to the Holy Land so I can not support them.

Never mind, there are several settlements aside from Varnasiga in the Holy Land so they'll work out somehow. The real problem now I'm facing is Rose Habour being blockaded, which means no trading with other kingdoms. Golds flow into my coffee have decreased these months, if everything continues like this, the Kingdom budget can not maintain such a huge army I currently have now.

But the Lyrion fleet which attacked Varnasiga has disappeared, my rangers can not track their movements. The shipbuilders in my kingdom are working to their best to build more ships, although the strength of my vessels is higher than the Lyrions', their number is far superior to mine, so winter is a good chance to increase the strength of my fleet and if possible, I can destroy the Lyrion fleet attacking Rose Habour before their main army comes back.

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Bear Castle.

The city gates are breached open while the banners of house Crayton burned, the civilians' corpses are pierced by spikes and many of their heads are used to decorate the walls of the city. This city's population has been massacred by the Lyrions when they take this castle a month ago, the ones who survive from the sack of the city are now slaves of the Lyrions. However, since the Lyrions have left their ships by the shore, their supply lines are cut so their food is running low.

To tackle this problem, the leader of the raiders, Transvysic has decided to leave 10000 men to defend the ships by the shore while other 5000 patrols the area to protect the supply lines from local people. However, although their main army has sacked Varnasiga, the food they obtained is not enough for a giant army like them.

As a result, after leaving 15000 men to defend Bear Castle, Transvysic has led the rest of his army, which is about 23000 men to launch attacks on Metus Gladius and its' surrounding land, to destroy the Alleinstein Kingdom once and forever.

The Lyrions are strong warriors and their number is extremely high. However, these advantages can become their weaknesses, Transvysic has ignored the possible threats to his army, believing that the enemies are only able to defend and not able to repel them.

The shore, where there is a camp built by 10000 Lyrions to protect their ships. The sky is getting dark and the Lyrions are cooking their food. Many are laughing while distributing their loot from raiding the nearby villages or playing with their slaves. The winter has not come to this land yet so the morale of these raiders has not been damaged and only sky-rocketed from their successes of raiding.

But about 3 miles from their camp, the danger is slowly approaching. An army of 30000 men, wearing armors with the sigil of the Church hiding in the bushes and trees along with their horses of which mouths are sealed, not to make any sound. A pigeon lands to the hand of a man, he takes the letter from the leg of the pigeon and informs the man beside him:

- Bishop Richard, news from Lord Greyrat, the commander of the Fortunian Army, Transvysic has led most of his men west. The Fortunians have blocked all the roads from here to Bear Castle, 10000 of their cavalries are hunting down the patrols of the Lyrions. We should attack now.

- Thank you, Sir Rodric.

Lord Bishop Richard stands up, mounts his horse and begins his speech:

- My brave warriors, the people there are the ones who destroyed our holy city, bring destruction and savages to our lands. And tonight, under the names of the gods, we will destroy them and send them to the fire of hell, where the gods will decide their punishments.

Led by the holy knights, the army of the churches charges forward the beach, the Lyrions are caught off guard, their bodies are crushed by the steps of the warhorses while their heads are sent flying by the swords of the holy knights. The ships are burned, lighten a corner of the sky, the patrols of the Lyrions and the men staying in Bear Castle see the fire and quickly grab their weapons and march toward the camp to save their supplies.

However, the Lyrions on the beach are slaughtered mercilessly by the holy knights, some fight desperately waiting for reinforcements. But 5000 men patrolling the area are ambushed by the Fortunian soldiers and have to fight for their lives too. Those from the Bear Castle are attacked by the Grasslanders, the natural-born horsemen. An army containing of Lyrion marauders and raiders who do not have horses is quickly defeated by the skirmishing tactics of the riders and run for their lives to Bear Castle.

But luck isn't on their side, the general of the Fortunian army, Impetus Greyrat has launched siege to the castle right after they leave to reinforce the beach camp. The city gate is destroyed by battering ram in 30 minutes and the elite legionaries pour in the castle, killing or capturing every man left here.

When the sun rises, the Lyrions have completely lost control of the Bear Forest.