I stood atop a little hill as I watched the fires rage across the battlefield before me, as I watched arrow and sword meet flesh and steel.
I watched as man died left and right, as magic was launched into soldiers and stone walls, leaving the smell of rotten flesh and dirt to drift around the battlefield.
The great siege ladders were slowly approaching the great cities walls.
A city that none would have ever thought to fall in their life time, or in any life time at all.
A city that was meant to be a safe haven for humanity.
It was now facing the deadliest crisis of its lifetime.
Being so undermanned, so very undefended. It wouldn't last much longer.
It would be the most shameful loss the Lithium had ever received. The most shameful loss in their entire history.
They would lose to a greater force not of Elves, not of Orcs, not of Dwarves or any other race.
They would lose to us. To the people of Yulia.
The second class citizens of the human race.
As the king of Yulians, I was not allowed to join the combat and was forced to sit at the back, in my little defended head quarters as I watched the young men of my land die left and right.
I hated it, but I had no choice. If I died, Yulia would soon follow.
I watched the battle unfold slowly.
The walls of Lith, the second largest city of Lithium was slowly being approached by my forces.
Several ladders had already touched upon the wall and my forces were already climbing them.
The siege weapons also ever so slowly approached the wall.
Those atop the walls were throwing down spells, boiling oil and water and a plethora of other anti-siege weapons.
I smiled sadly as I heard the screams of those poor lads who climbed upwards first.
My catapults launched flaming stones into the battlements of the wall and city beyond it.
Fire and death was everywhere.
No one was spared. Not my soldiers. Not the Lithium defenders and not its civilians.
In fact, I pitied the civilians more than the soldiers.
My people had long since been abused and tormented by the Kalmiran and Lithium populace, and today, my men, the young soldiers who had always lived under the heels of even the citizens of these countries, would finally get their revenge.
It would be a dark day.
I only hoped the events that would soon transpire would not corrupt my soldiers too deeply.
I turned towards Ghum'bil and saw his disgusting smile. The orc was enjoying it, watching us humans die to one another.
He loved what he was seeing.
Seeing me turn towards him he gave me a deeper, more disgusting smile.
Ghum'bil: “You should be grateful, my 'king'” the orc gave me his mock smile “Almost all the defenders of Lithium and Kalmira are at the choke points designed to not let my masters forces pass, but now” Ghum'bil gestured towards the lightly manned city of Lith “You deal a fatal blow to our enemies” and with that he returned his attention to the battle.
Like Ghum'bil, I also turned my attention back towards the raging battle.
Under normal circumstances, forget breaching this city in a day, even a year wouldn't be enough but I had managed to sneak some of my forces into the city who were currently attacking the gate tower.
With a little over a hundred of my men inside, the remaining 25,000 besieged the city.
These men were sent here days before, so when the Lithium guards saw us coming they attempted to close the gate, but my men had long since taken over and had been battling to keep the gate open.
The enemy that had been positioned to hold the front of the gate had all but been slaughtered. The mere 300 soldiers left out to hinder more of my forces from coming in before the gate had been closed.
They had done a decent job, but not good enough.
In total, inside of the city right now, I had 2000 soldiers while the enemy barely had over 3000 men.
They had let in a total of 2000 of my soldiers, thus dooming the city by forcing them to split their forces.
But my question was how would they split their forces?
They had already lost a few dozen men to my soldiers in the gate tower, now they had been forced to man the wall and defeat an attacking enemy on the inside.
The battlements were already slowly being taken over.
The populace inside the city had also taken up arms and rushed up to aid both the battlements and the defenders within the city.
Sadly, it made no difference at all.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
What could barely equipped and trained city folk do to soldiers trained harshly. Even though there was around a good 15,000 city folk who had gained the courage required to fight for their future, it was pointless.
My forces were winning and nobody could do anything about it.
The battle would last a few more hours at most and by that point, there would be no reinforcements coming.
Even the earliest reinforcements to come would take a few days.
By then, this city will be a mere fragment of history and my forces and I will have long since moved on to the Lithium Capital.
Ghum'bil smiled at me once more. No matter how honest and kind he attempted to look, the sinister feel of his would never disappear.
Ghum'bil: “They never expected this, not in the slightest” the orc laughed “For so many years they suppressed and abused your people and they thought that in times of war, you'd simply obey orders?” the high priest clutched his stomach and laughed out loud “Such foolish kingdoms, but after so many years of non-stop corruption and disregard of consequences, it is not very surprising” he mumbled to himself after his bout of laughter stopped.
Jerech Yulia: “It matters little if they are foolish or not, what matters is that we gain as much as we are capable of while losing as little as possible, while making the opposite happen to our opposition” I replied to him coldly.
He had been treating this war between humanity as a joke, as if victory was all but guaranteed.
No matter how confident he was, I would still be worried. It mattered little no matter how much I thought about it though.
At least I would bring the other two kingdoms down as much as possible while this war rages on.
If we, the Yulians were to lose either way, to Kalmira and Lithium or to the Legion, at least we would make sure that humanity shared the fate of slavery.
Ghum'bil merely grunted in reply to me before he turned towards a specific part of Liths battlements.
He smiled widely as he saw something and when my eyes found what he was looking at, I also broke into a grin.
We had taken over one of the thirteen battlements of Lith.
The battle was over.
Another hour at most and the wall would be ours and the gate would be open.
And just like I predicted, my forces took one battlement after another, and my forces might could not be halted.
My forces slowly moved down the battlement stairs and towers, down onto the city and within a few minutes the sounds of tears and sadness echoed throughout.
The gate was opened and my forces broke into a large cheer.
A city had fallen.
The second largest city of Lithium had fallen.
We had done the unimaginable.
Even though we had attacked the city at its weakest moment and through trickery, we had won. That was all that mattered.
We had won.
As the gate opened, thousands of my forces marched into the city.
Almost a million humans lived here.
One of the greatest cities of humanity and now, almost all of its inhabitants would face the darkest day they had ever faced.
A day of murder.
A day of rape.
A day of pillaging.
A day of pure and unadulterated grief.
While for my forces, it was the complete opposite.
A day of pure and unadulterated happiness.
They would now deliver onto their once upon a time superiors what was delivered onto them.
Soon after, over 20,000 of my forces was inside the city.
5000 remained outside to set up camp and heal the injured.
We had won an overwhelming victory.
We had barely lost 1500 troops and we only had 1000 or so injured.
A true victory, it both essence and meaning.
I smiled bitterly as I heard my soldiers relish in their victory. I was not happy with what was happening, but I would not stop them either.
The cries of Lithium's citizens echoed, begs for mercy and forgiveness, pleas to spare the young and old, tears of grief.
Yet almost no one was let off from my rampaging forces.
War was cruel and unforgivable and no one could stop that.
Not even a Monarch.
Not even a God.
----
Hey all, AK here,
First of all, sorry for the late chapter, but be happy that you get another chapter on Wednesday and then another on Friday. So, 3 chaps!
Also, the plot shall thicken.
Anyway,
Love and Peace,
-SlowAss out.