“Aim for the spots we have already hit!” The corporal shouted with a large grin across his face. Each of his subordinates following his orders fired close to where the crossbow bolts stuck out from the earthen barrier creating larger and larger cracks.
While this was happening Arthur started creating small little holes along the bottom of his barrier to roll out the fire seeds in his possession. The only two problems he faced were where to place the holes and by extension where to roll them out to deal the maximum damage. He was only given five fire seeds after all.
To determine where the largest groups of enemies were Arthur closed his eyes and listened to the shouting on the other side to gauge where they were. The corporal’s shouting made it quite easy to locate him.
‘I know where their leader is, now do I attack immediately or wait and use all the fire seeds at once.’ As if the universe was responding to his question personally, one of the cracks gave way to a small hole from the bombardment of bolts and arrows and awoke him from his thoughts.
‘Shit! I need to fix that before it becomes a larger issue.’ But Arthur wasn’t the only one who noticed the small hole.
“We have an opening! Keep firing!” The corporal shouted at the very top of his lungs as every single one of his subordinates aimed towards the small hole. Arrow after arrow, bolt after bolt, they kept firing while Arthur attempted to mend the damage before he was hurt.
For what felt like an eternity Arthur held the barrier and kept it from breaking at a large amount of his mana, he was left with only about a third of what he had to start with.
/- - - - - -\
Mana : 11/36
\- - - - - -/
‘That isn’t good.’ While Arthur managed to keep from being harmed he only managed to close the hole by a little, and that said nothing about the other cracks that were spreading all across the barrier with high amounts of crossbow bolts. His situation was looking dire but thankfully he bought enough time for his allies to reach their target.
The five elite guards wielding halberds bursted out from the door behind the traitorous guards who had kept their back towards not thinking anyone would attempt to attack from such an easy choke point. They only needed to keep a handful of their bows or crossbows to keep them from entering, but with Arthur as a distraction they managed to pass without any resistance.
While at first none of the traitorous guards noticed them at first the sounds of bodies hitting the floor alerted most of them to what was happening, the first one to notice being the corporal himself.
‘No! No! No! Not now! I was so close!’ He stepped back watching his subordinates closest to him fall to the might of their halberds with little resistance. The corporal looked around the wall for any way to escape.
By the time that several of the traitors were killed all those remaining had noticed the five elite guards cutting down their allies and turned to face the more immediate threat. They just need to keep their distance and follow their corporal’s orders, then they will come out on top like before. Right?
‘Right?’ The corporal’s second in command thought to himself as he looked around for the corporal, only to see his horrified face and to watch him run and jump off the side of the wall outside the city.
‘But how are we supposed to win if you leave us?’ He watched his leader and mentor leave him men behind and simply jump ship. ‘Why? Because we are too weak? Because we aren't winning?’
He did not have the answer, and he never would as soon after he turned to face the oncoming guards he felt his face sear with pain as one of them swung their halberd and struck his face with the axe blade almost killing him on the spot.
*********
Arthur could hear the sounds of battle from outside his barrier and noticed that all the attacks against him had stopped, giving him an opportunity to fully repair it and open a small peep hole to watch what was happening.
He saw the five elite guards attacking the remaining traitors in an impressive display of teamwork and tactics. Each and every attack served a purpose even if it didn't deal any damage by opening up their opponents to further attacks.
To help his allies Arthur took control of some of the outer bits of his earthen barrier and slowly turned them into spikes about the same size as crossbow bolts. He then used them to attack the traitors from behind and both surprising and hurting them.
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But not all of the traitors stayed to fight, some upon seeing their leader flee decided to follow him as the fight would unquestionably lead to their defeat and even if they weren't killed in battle they would still be executed later for treason after being interrogated in the dungeon.
In total about ten or so aside from the corporal fled the battle by leaping over the walls, but even then they weren't safe. The fall itself over the wall was enough to hurt their feet and make them feel numb, but once the remaining traitors are killed or captured the guards would most certainly open fire with their own crossbows.
So they gritted their teeth through the pain and ran like a demon was on their heels, because if they stopped even for a second their chance of death jumped up considerably.
Soon the traitors were all killed or captured leaving both Arthur and the five elite guards without any major injuries. After securing the few they decided to take prisoner they walked up to the edge facing the inside of Antium. “The traitors have been defeated!”
The elite guard that was given command of the mission shouted as he raised his hand above his head in a fist. All the elite guards that were hiding behind cover until now entered into the open and followed him by also raising their fist. Even the captain who was slowly helped out of the building raised his good arm.
After a moment of this strange salute the captain spoke up and began giving out orders to his men. “That's enough for now! We have an important mission to do! All of you will spread out in groups of at least five to seek out any remaining criminals or civilians! Send the civilians to the southern gate if they can walk, if not help them! And if possible take some of the criminals prisoner, we will need as many as we can have to uncover the goal of this attack and find who orchestrated it!”
**********
While Captain Tasius was speaking to his troops Arthru walked over to the edge of the wall on the outside of the city. He could still see a few of the traitors running over the fields trampling over anything growing so that they could escape.
‘They are running directly towards the Pelcester Forest, that's a bit odd. Why would they run there? There are several different ways away from the city, and without a fire and some decent shelter they won't be doing so well in the forest. The only benefit for them is that if they know what plants are edible they will have something to eat, but they don’t strike me as the type to study plants.’
*********
The aftermath of the attack on the southern district was disastrous, many people lost their lives in the ensuing chaos and a large amount of the buildings located were burnt to the ground. The only thing that stopped the damage from spreading was the timely intervention of the guards from the other districts and several powerful mages from the mages guild.
Captain Tasius used the opportunity along with the other captains to eradicate the criminal underworld from their respective districts leading to answers to who orchestrated the attack. A group of bandits called the Rusted Daggers, the very same bandit group that has been hiding within the area under Captain Tasius' command.
After a lengthy interrogation with the warden in the southern districts dungeon each of the captured criminals confessed and told everything they knew. They spoke of the representatives from the Rusted Daggers, what they looked like, and even their names, but nothing about where they were located. They were careful enough to pick an abandoned building for each of their meets with no trace to anyone.
“It appears we are at an impasse lieutenant.” Captain Tasius said while looking over all the reports on his desk.
“Do we have no choice?” Lieutenant Goldenshield asked. The investigation had been ongoing for another two weeks by this point with no new developments on the location of the Rusted Daggers.
“I think so. We need the help of the crown to deal with this. I have neither the knowledge or experience to handle this threat on my own, even the help of Arthur only helped alleviate the problem temporarily.”
Captain Tasius turned away from the papers on his desk and reached for his communication orb and called the secretary to the king himself.
“Good day to you Captain. Is there anything you require of me?” The voice of the king's secretary filled the room with anticipation as the captain prepared to inform him of his assessment of the situation.
“Unfortunately I only come with bad news, I do not believe I on my own will be able to handle the threat of the Rusted Daggers bandit gang, and I am requesting the aid of the crown and whoever they deem necessary to combat said threat.”
**********
Two hours later the council of the Rathen Kingdom had fully assembled to discuss the situation of the Rusted Daggers and amongst other things relating to the kingdom.
“The Rusted Daggers have shown themselves to be a great threat to the people of the kingdom! We must send Captain Tasius aid in his mission!”
“Clearly giving the captain such a position and rank was a mistake, perhaps we should assign someone else with more experience to combat the situation!”
“This all could have been avoided if we had simply enacted my simple plans to keep the roads of the kingdom safe! With several sets of checkpoints and patrols we could have mitigated the threat to something far more manageable!”
The people of the council shouted amongst themselves about what should or should not be done, the mage and priest representatives on the other hand looked as if they were about to slap themselves out of pure embarrassment.
If it was such a problem why had neither of them simply been contacted to help the investigation along. There was no shortage of spells of either divine or arcane origin that could help with extracting information from prisoners or looking through their memories.