Carter leaned heavily against the inner battlements of the wall, nursing his bleeding arm. The cut was deep, but not so deep as to require a healer.

Gods knew they had so precious few of them now.

His squad mates had pushed forward, giving him the brief moment of rest and recovery. It was much appreciated, even if it was only a few moments. The cut would heal on its own over several minutes, but until then, he had to keep the bleeding to a minimum.

He reached into the small bag behind his back. It was only big enough to carry two rolls of bandages. He grabbed his last roll and wrapped it tightly around his cut, gritting his teeth against the fiery pain. But with practiced hands, it was soon bandaged and tied off properly.

Before the Tarvian Army, Carter had been a simple Adventurer. He helped keep the Monsters away from the city. Occasionally he would assist the City Guard with capturing a criminal, but he had very little experience against other Humans.

He hadn’t been a great Adventurer either. His Hunting Party had been eight and they made enough coin to live comfortably, if conservatively. Now, they were down to four, others being grouped with them to keep the standard ten-man squads.

The siege had been ongoing for over a week by now, but this current offensive had lasted since dawn. Carter’s current squad had been lucky enough to not lose anyone, though they had all taken injuries.

The outer wall was tall and thick, but they would have already lost it if not for the Mages on the inner wall or on the Wall Towers. As it was, it was only a matter of time. Carter expected to hear the retreat horn at any moment. But it had not been sounded, so he fought. They all fought.

If even one of the Towers were captured by the Tarvian bastards, the section of wall on either side of the Tower would very quickly be lost. Then the Tarvians would storm across the wooden bridges between the Towers to the inner wall.

Already, the Onigas Mages had been forced to destroy two of the bridges. There were plenty more, but it was still worrying.

Shorter walls between the two defensive walls segmented the bailey, but they were had no battlements. As the engineers had expected, the outer wall Gate had long been destroyed. There were three segments accessible from the broken Eastern Gate, and they had already lost the middle one.

If the managed to capture either segment to the side, they would be able to open the inner gate, allowing them into the city proper. The fighting down in the bailey was just as intense as on top of the walls.

Carter heaved himself standing and grabbed his short sword. He held his shield in front of him and plunged himself into the fighting once more beside his squad mates. Despite the desperate struggle for both sides, it was repetitive. There were so many people in such a small space that there was no room for any large movements.

‘Keep your shield up, thrust your sword towards any gap, and keep your footing.’ Carter chanted his training in his head.

Just as the soldier was getting into the pacing, an object crashed into the stone walkway between the two forces. Out of habit, both sides jumped back. It wasn’t the first time something had crashed into the battlements, typically magic or projectiles from the Tarvian Siege Mages.

When it didn’t explode, both sides took a step forward to continue the grueling battle, until the object stood up.

“Gods that hurt.” The object said, Carter realizing it was in fact a large, armored man. The armor was black as the night and made the soldier shiver at the sight of it. In the man’s hand, he held an equally cruel looking halberd.

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The man stood up casually and rubbed the back of his head. Carter noticed that as he did, a crude wooden necklace around the man’s neck began to disintegrate.

One of the Tarvian soldiers was the first to overcome their shock.

“For whom do you fight for stranger?” He shouted over the din of the rest of the battle. The fight had been paused in their segment of wall, but it was unchanged elsewhere.

“For whom do I fight for? Wow, you sound old.” The armored man said, turning towards the man, “That depends. Are you part of the sieging army?”

“Yes.” The man answered hesitantly.

“Oh good! Here I was thinking that it would be a chaotic first couple of minutes. Got it, the Green Uniform is the Tarvians and the black and orange are Onigarian.”

“For whom do you fight for!” The man shouted again, clearing irritated at being ignored so casually.

“For myself mostly. But for today, I guess I fight for Onigas.”

“Forward men! Kill that man!”

The Tarvian line charged forward, only to be halted almost immediately by four massive hulks of dull black armor with equally massive shields.

The Battlements were wide enough for a dozen men, and yet these four seemed to fill it.

The four had appeared through a portal so suddenly the Tarvians didn’t have time to stop themselves, nor enough time to defend themselves against the sweeping swings of their glaives. Practically the entire front rank was cleaved into parts. Arms, legs, chests, even heads. Each fell to the ground, paired with sprays of blood.

Once again, both sides froze, both in shock and fear. But unlike the Onigarians, the Tarvians were not allowed to freeze.

With the front rank cleared, eight men in similar dull black armor stepped out of a portal. They held large spears and as they formed up behind the larger ones, they lowered their spears, thrusting them into the second rank.

Before anyone could react, three entire ranks of Tarvians were laying in puddles of their own blood. Only then did they begin to fight back.

Once they did, the large ones were pushed back, but they did hold their ground. The spear users continued to stab between them, eliciting cries of pain with every thrust.

The first man turned away from the fight and turned to the ranks of Onigarian Soldiers.

“If nothing changes, I should be fine here. You can all go reinforce the other sections, though if you could leave a few mages that can attack over my units, that would be very helpful.”

Carter looked around for the highest-ranking officer to speak up, only to find himself to be that officer, not at all a high ranking one.

Resigning himself to that fact, he stepped forward, “We appreciate your assistance, but we can’t possibly give an entire section of wall to bunch of strangers.”

“Strangers? Plural? No no no, Its just me. Those are my minions.” The man said, another portal opening to allow another eight spearmen through.

Carter’s eyes widened. He knew Summoner Types were powerful Mages, but he also knew that they either had a few powerful Minions, or many weaker ones. The man had already revealed twenty Minions, and they were holding back the entire Tarvian force on this segment.

Had they been fighting down in the bailey, then they would have been quickly overwhelmed, but on the narrow much narrower battlements, they were holding their own, without any of their own number being destroyed.

Carter hesitated, but stood firm, “Even more so. If they manage to break past your summons and get to you, then the entire wall would be lost.”

“If the actually manage to reach me, they will quickly wish they had just jumped off the wall.” The man said, emphasizing his point by slamming the butt of his halberd into the magically reinforced stone.

“I will leave three squads here, that should give enough time for reinforcements to come if you falter.” Carter stated.

The man just shrugged and turned his attention back to the Tarvians crashing into his summons. By now, they had begun to stand their own ground against the summons.

The man raised a hand and forty-five bolts of sickly green Mana appeared around him. He pointed forward, and they all shot towards Tarvians.

Carter watched in horror as those hit by the bolts screamed in pain as their flesh began to melt. As if to prove his overwhelming power, another forty-five bolts appeared, these ones appearing more solid.

Carter turned away and ordered three squads to stay. He picked the three most injured, hoping that the strange man would buy them enough time to heal properly. The rest of the Soldiers stationed to that section turned around and rushed to the Tower behind them, where they would pass through and into the section on the other side.

In a battle like this, there was no guarantees, but Carter had the feeling that the man he had just seen would turn the tide of the siege. He hoped with everything he had that he was right.

‘Gods know we need all the help we can get.’