As the coalition welcomed their new members and the numbers they brought with a feast in the evening, a group of people received a very different welcome elsewhere, not too far away. Under cover of the night, when the scouts of the steppe people were distracted with the festivities in their camp, a shadowy party crossed the river further upstream, rounded the abandoned earthen forts, and approached the one Mong Rau called his base.
The southern gates, out of view from the other riverbank, were opened to let them in. The street beyond was lined with shield bearers, and crossbowmen aimed down the rooftops. Despite this reception, the envoys walked confidently, glancing at the Samagshin soldiers with disdain.
They were Selemur, saber-toothed, hunched-backed, and brimming with a violent aura. The dozen warriors were led by none other than Tadai, the sixth son of Chief Khaguran of the Ishtemur tribe. He ignored the countless crossbow bolts pointed at him and marched down the street toward the town's center, where a tent stood instead of the wooden town hall that used to tower over the rest of the settlement.
"Welcome, envoy of the mighty Ishtemur," Mong Rau emerged from within, flanked by a dozen of his commanders. Fau Tu was among them, having been promoted to second-in-command after his achievement in the battle against the coalition. The general walked with a noticeable limp; his rounded shoulders and lowered head were a sign of advanced age and a weak will.
"Black Beast. I see through your act," Tadai snarled in broken Omagalan, glaring at the general. He pointed at a necklace made of claws and teeth. Trophies from Baagai all. "Your kind strong until they die."
"You dare insult a general of the empire?!" Fau Tu and the other Samagshin officers prepared to draw their swords, but Mong Rau let out a rumbling noise from the depth of his throat. His men understood the wordless rebuke and backed down.
The Black Beast's expression shifted, and he straightened his back, towering far over the Selemur. But even then, Tadai and his guards did not show a hint of respect before his stature. They were not intimidated when surrounded by thousands of Shaankhor sycophants, so they would not be intimidated by any number of Gadat led by a beast they hunted for sport.
"Now, we here to talk. So, we talk," Tadai said and pointed at the tent. "You prepared this, yeah?"
He had noticed that most buildings in the city were in various states of disrepair. But instead of being burned down or destroyed by catapult fire, they seemed to have been dismantled by hand. Were the Gadat freezing under the first snow already and using the wood from the houses to warm themselves? Did they not know it would only get worse from here?
"Yes. We talk over food and drink," Mong Rau nodded and responded.
"No, speak here and be done with it. No time to waste," the Ishtemur prince demanded with a growl. Mong Rau's officers glared at him furiously. This creature from the steppes did not know an ounce of respect. They hoped their general would give the order and be done with this contemptuous animal.
Tadai only deferred to the strong, such as his father and some of his many brothers. Those who needed to use ranged weapons did not count among them. He would speak to weaklings like they deserved, regardless of the crossbows pointed at him. They would fight their way out of this if they had to, and without losing a single warrior, no less. Such was the self-confidence radiating from every hair on their bodies. The common soldiers were rooted to their posts in fear, unable to take their eyes off the beasts in their midst. Even the officers understood that perhaps they would not be able to stop them if they wanted to kill their general.
"Very well. I offer you peace between your people and the empire," Mong Rau started, but Tadai clicked his tongue and spat on the ground.
"Empty promises are for your courts and nobles. We need no peace," he declared, making his disdain known with the limited facial expressions his species was capable of. "Speak about plans first."
"The coalition will besiege us soon. But they know not that we have reinforcements inbound," Mong Rau did not react to Tadai's provocative attitude and spoke calmly.
"General, we should not reveal such information! What if they go and tell their fellow barbarians?" Fau Tu objected to the almost flippant reveal of this military intel they had kept hidden at all costs until now.
"When?" Tadai ignored Fau Tu's interjection and inquired with a curious tilt of his head.
"Thirty-six days from now," Mong Rau did the same and responded.
The Ishtemur prince looked around, noting the state of the walls. These earthen forts were meant to be a place of refuge for settlers during raids, not to withstand a proper siege. Ten out of the twelve forts along the river fell to the steppe people within a month, even though they were inexperienced at overcoming fortifications.
"Do not worry. We can easily hold out for that long," the general said, realizing Tadai's dubious look.
"I don't worry. You worry. Even if they are weaklings, band together with Shaankhor, they better than you Gadat," the pack leader said with a condescending sniff directed at the Samagshin. "We do our part. Now, speak about reward."
"The Emperor will grant your father the rank of marquis-" Mong Rau began, but Tadai interrupted him with an impatient roar.
"Does your emperor feed his people with ranks?" It was a rhetorical question, and the general knew not to fall for it. But the other officers took offense to his disrespect and were about to speak up again. However, Tadai waved his hand in a sweeping gesture that caused them to flinch. It was not even directed at them but at the surrounding soldiers, as he gave his demands, "Weapons, armors. Ten thousand each. After this, we fight the tribes who band against us. Those who seek revenge."
"You will have your reward and more. After you complete your task," the towering Baagai announced.
"Of course. We keep our word. Your emperor keep his," with this final provocation, Tadai turned around and walked back down the main street. His warriors glared at the Samagshin, still aiming their crossbows at them, and snorted in disdain. Soon, they were back at the gates, which were opened quietly. They slipped out like blurs and disappeared into the night.
"Why do you bargain with such beasts?" Fau Tu asked Mong Rau, his brow furrowed in consternation.
"You ask this knowing my epithet?" the general responded, causing the Samagshin officer to blink in surprise.
"No, that is not-"
"They may be beasts, but they can be helpful beasts. What we need right now is to break up the barbarians' coalition. An enemy from the outside could never achieve that. Every victory we take from them will only strengthen their bonds against us," Mong Rau proceeded to explain to Fau Tu and the other gathered officers. "Betrayal never comes from without."
He looked up at the moonless night sky and took a deep breath of the cold air. It was nothing like the freezing temperatures of his lost homeland, but such times made him think back to his past. He had been in a similar situation to the steppe people's coalition once. That was why he knew what to do to bring about their downfall.
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"Now, we have to complete our preparations before the enemy attacks. Return to your posts," the general waved his clawed hand and turned around to enter the command tent. His officers scattered to convey his orders. He walked over to his giant seat cushion and sat down on it heavily. With a long sigh, he picked up a brush and started writing a letter to the emperor.
Viyal's eyes were fixated on the bird sitting on Altuna's padded shoulder guard as she approached on her Hyarul. It closely resembled a falcon, but its head sported extra tufts of feathers, shaped like a baseball cap worn backward. She did not know the steppe people practiced falconry, but that was not the only reason she stared so intently.
"A bird sitting on a bird riding a bird," commented Yunil with an amused chuckle, speaking her sister's mind.
"What's wrong?" Altuna floated down from her mount gracefully and gestured for the falcon to climb onto her hand. "This is Ravi, my bonded Sanhor."
"Why have I never seen him before?" Viyal wondered. She had been to the Shaankhor camp many times but had never seen Altuna play with Ravi before.
"He and many other Sanhor were away delivering messages to the Shuva tribes," the bird girl explained while scratching Ravi's neck. He seemed to enjoy it and closed his eyes contentedly."He finally returned today, so I wanted to introduce him to you."
"He returned on his own? That's a smart bird," Viyal praised Ravi and carefully raised a hand toward it, worried about its sharp beak. She knew of carrier pigeons in her previous world, but those could only fly routes they were familiar with. Finding a nomadic tribe on this vast steppe and then returning to the owner, who was also on the move, was something beyond their abilities.
The moment that thought entered her mind, a terrible realization burned within her. She stopped her hand, and her breath was stuck in her throat.
The empire would obviously realize something was wrong if they received no communications from Mong Rau for a long time, but they would send scouts before committing to sending an entire army. That was why they had fast riders patrolling the routes leading back to the empire, aiming to intercept all messengers. But not a single person had left the forts since he won them back. She had been wondering what he was doing with his time, but they had not detected any movements from him at all.
However, now that she knew there were birds capable of carrying out complex assignments and traveling with their own judgment rather than on predetermined routes like carrier pigeons, things were different. Mong Rau could have had a steady stream of communications with the empire for all they knew, and there would have been no way to intercept them.
"What's wrong?" Yunil inquired, worried that Viyal had frozen in place.
"Again, did nobody else think about this possibility?" the young Mosyv held her head and shouted to the sky.
As it turned out, nobody had thought of the possibility that the Gadat kept messenger birds with capabilities similar to those of the Sanhor. The lookouts they asked reported that they had seen plenty of birds fly between the earthen forts as well as toward the Zarukhan Mountain Range but thought nothing of it. After all, wild birds were nothing special on the steppe.
In other words, Mong Rau had indeed been communicating with the empire over the past two months. Their reinforcements were most likely not too far away and contained overwhelming numbers to put this pesky frontier war to rest. Once they linked up with the bear general and entrenched themselves, they would be here to stay.
The coalition's allies had already arrived but were settling down, so they had to strike as quickly as possible. They knew from the Samagshin prisoners that the empire had nobody else like Mong Rau. If they removed him from the equation, they would not have another commander capable of taking on the steppe people's fighting style.
Whatever the case, time was of the essence. An emergency meeting was called, and the chiefs discussed how to approach the situation. They were at a disadvantage against Mong Rau's professional soldiers manning the walls, but numbers would make up the difference. They had constructed new siege weapons already, and all that was missing was a strategy.
Chief Ivakha suggested splitting up the combined army of now fifty thousand into five groups. One would consist of twenty thousand troops to assault the fort commanded by Mong Rau. Four groups of seven thousand each would encircle the other forts and keep reinforcements from coming to the general's aid.
Without further ado, the coalition army set out the same afternoon and reached the unnamed river in front of the line of forts. Small pillars of smoke rose from within the occupied ones, showing they were cooking something over fires. Even after two months, their supplies still had not run out. They must have come here with enough to feed the army of thirty thousand and all twelve forts' inhabitants for at least a month. When a third of that army was lost, and most garrisons had been wiped out, their food situation became more forgiving.
The coalition's main army began to set up the perimeter and assembled the siege weapons around the central fort flying Mong Rau's flag. The signal fire on the gatehouse was lit, requesting reinforcements from the nearby forts. The steppe warriors spotted Samagshin soldiers on the walls, running around and preparing the defenses. Crossbowmen aimed over the battlements but judged the distance too great to waste their ammunition yet.
The siege finally commenced in the evening hours when the sun neared the horizon and shone into the defenders' eyes when they tried to peer out across the besiegers to the west. The coalition warriors brought scavenged Gadat tower shields to protect their ladder carriers on their approach. Crossbow bolts and arrows danced through the air in both directions, most bouncing off harmlessly from the shields or walls. Then, the ladders were in place, and the assault began.
There were more than enough troops inside the fort to man all the walls twice over. Therefore, there was no blind spot to exploit like during the previous sieges, when the Jagul warriors climbed the earthen ramparts with their claws and opened one of the gates from the inside. Still, this was a simple square fortress with low walls and flimsy gates. It would not take long for twenty thousand to overwhelm four thousand.
However, the defenders fought fiercely and kept the ladder assault in check, using long poles to push them away. Whenever a steppe warrior reached the battlements, they were faced with multiple spears or peppered with crossbow bolts. It was completely different from the garrison troops before, who suffered from low morale and had little training to speak of. These were the empire's elite, fully trusting their veteran general to bring them to victory.
What had been a quick assault the previous time turned into a long slog despite their overwhelming number. The coalition army lit decoy torches below to lure the defenders into wasting their ammunition during the night. The species with night vision climbed the walls in the meantime, knowing that Samagshin could not see in the dark. But somehow, the enemy knew what they were doing and beat them back throughout the night.
The battering ram that had broken down the gate in a few hours the previous time made no headway now. The burning oil pots lobbed into the fort with the catapults did not seem to cause much destruction on the other side, either. With the climbers unable to establish a bridgehead, the siege entered a stalemate even without outside help.
When six days passed, the besiegers felt that something was wrong. Their twenty thousand warriors attacked day and night in shifts, not giving the defenders any time to rest. Just the constant threat of rocks or burning projectiles impacting their buildings on the other side of the wall should have been enough to stop them from sleeping. Still, even if the enemy was well-trained and highly motivated, they did not seem to tire at all.
However, cracks finally began to form in the defenders on the twelfth day. Two Jagul climbers established a bridgehead near a corner of the wall by carrying two Gadat shields up and bracing them on the parapets to block all crossbow fire. Two steppe warriors soon became four, then seven, and finally, the stalemate was broken.
Within minutes, the wall section was taken, and the coalition army redoubled their efforts everywhere. As if a dam broke, the wall fell in many places at the same time, and the defenders were overwhelmed. A cheer rang out as the gate was opened from the inside not even half an hour later, and the cavalry finally poured inside.
But soon, triumph turned into confusion. They had expected Mong Rau and his troops to make a final stand on the town square, using their shield fortress as the last layer of defense. But they found the streets largely empty and far too few bodies to account for four thousand defenders to have been slain already. The coalition troops searched the strangely dilapidated houses and found them as empty as the streets. Where had the remaining soldiers gone? The entire fort had been surrounded, so they could not have slipped out.
It took the chiefs some time to question the troops to finally be able to draw a picture of what happened. The Gadat soldiers on the walls had retreated down the stairs and converged on one spot in the town where they all entered a building and never emerged from it again. It was empty, but they found a hidden hole in the floor leading into a tunnel large enough to fit a Baagai. It had collapsed a few dozen paces inside, done deliberately to stop any pursuers. Mong Rau had long since escaped down the tunnel, likely all the way to one of the other forts.
The coalition leaders understood what had happened over the past twelve days. This fort had been supplied with fresh troops and ammunition through this underground tunnel. That was the secret to their tireless defense despite being under constant assault. Mong Rau had anticipated they would not assault all five forts at once since it would result in higher casualties.
Now, they would be forced to do exactly that to finish this war before the empire's reinforcements arrived.