The central tower was the one part of the Black Citadel that had been rebuilt somewhat, its walls patched up in the time since my brother Velwin lost his life overloading its mana core. Arrows burning with magical fire continued shooting from its heights, burning out our archers from the broken Citadel walls we had taken.

Around the central tower was a chaotic melee, their frontline infantry having been softened by our archers then broken by the charge of our cavaliers. Our cavaliers rode freely, cutting down soldiers of the Black Legion from above, while some of the enemy attempted to fight and some of the enemy attempted to flee.

Towards this central tower, the last stronghold of the Black Legion, my men ran, shields interlocked, spears bristling outward, a triangular formation of death moving at full clip. The enemy soldiers parted before us, fled seeing us coming, and any who did not move away were impaled by our spears, pushed aside by our shields, or trodden underfoot.

We reached the central tower formation intact. The men at the back of my formation turned to hold off any enemy soldiers, and I gave the great doors at the tower base a shove. No joy, barred from the inside. I looked through the narrow gap between the doors, and beheld the shadow of the bar behind the gap.

I handed my spear to the man to my right and drew Swelfalster, blade of the fallen star. I raised my sword above my head held in both hands, assuming the stance of jōdan-no-kamae. I willed my chi into the blade and felt it blaze within my hands, then brought it down forward with all my force in between the two door panels, bellowing a roar as I struck. The sword cleaved through the gap and the door bar beyond. I resheathed it, took back my spear, and relocked shields with my men.

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"On three, we push these open and run in. Keep formation," I ordered. "One. Two. THREE!"

The men to my sides shoved the doors with their shields. They swung open and we ran in, to a hail of crossbow bolts bouncing off our shields and helmets. The door was a choke point, and the enemy planned to play it for all it was worth. I witnessed a broad arc of enemy soldiers waiting for us, crossbows leveled at us and swords ready to draw.

"Front: Throw!" I commanded, and my men at the fore let fly with their spears to the soldiers of the Black Legion in front of us. Many of the ones ahead of us went down as our wedge continued to pour into the room. We continued running forward, our front rank drawing sword, and cut down the remaining soldiers to our fore.

To our left and right the arc of Black Legion soldiers drew sword and approached our men, but were shieldless. Sword and crossbow had proven weak against our kit. "Split left and right and approach!" I called. Our wedge opened up and we became two lines of men, pressing towards the soldiers at the side of the room with our shields held before us to fend off remaining crossbows. Now my front rank curved around and flanked the soldiers at the side. They fought valiantly with their swords as a group, but could not face the line of shields and spears pushing in on them and my swordsmen getting to their side and behind them as they fought. We cleared the tower entry without losses from our side.

Now came the hard part. We closed the doors and used the split remains of the door bar to keep it closed, however imperfectly, and began to clear the rest of the floor. No more did we have large open areas where our interlocked shields would prove a supreme defense and our long spears had room to play, but had to fight door to door, corridor to corridor, sword in hand and shields before us. My men took some licks as we cleared the remaining rooms of the bottom floor. We bandaged the wounded as best we could, and prepared to take the rest of the tower.