The Antlaturer assault began on the 25th of Ninsum, and their first step was to take down the preliminary wall. Andrew had sent Lucius Alvarius to command the Eastern assault while he commanded the Western. The preliminary wall had a trench in front of it but no guards on top of it. This meant anyone could attack it safely without fearing arrows or magic. The city had two anti-magic barriers, one shear in front of the preliminary wall and the other in front of the main wall. To get through the preliminary wall, one either needed to break it with hammers or go behind it and smash it with magic. The Antlaturs chose to break it with hammers. After passing through a hail of arrows from the wall and getting to the preliminary wall, the Antlatur soldiers who had been given this task smash the wall with their hammers. They only had minor casualties, but more importantly, there was a time delay.
It took about an hour to dismantle the preliminary wall completely. They also had to remove the rubble to position their battering rams against it properly. But Andrew didn't wait for that. Instead, he sent the Affiliated kingdom's archers and heavy infantry to assault the walls. The archers suppressed enemy-range forces while the heavy infantry filled the moat before the wall. The moat went all the way around the wall from the river, protecting four sides of the wall. The river protected the last side; the moat flowed like an ordinary river. They used heavy rocks in boulders collected from the area instead of dirtbags as the dirt would dissolve in the water. They couldn't use lighter items, as they would flow from the moat. However, they did use parts of the preliminary wall.
Soldiers from the Affiliated kingdoms tried to protect themselves with their shields or dodge arrows, and their archers attempted to kill as many enemy archers as possible. Still, more and more of their allies died, becoming pincushions with javelins and arrows. Finally, an improvising lieutenant colonel from Monica directed his men to use logs and boulders to block off the moat from the river on the west side. This plan worked, and the Prince of Monica sent word back to Andrew, who ordered the moat to be blocked off from the east side. Whatever the Antlaturs threw in, the moat stopped flowing into the river. They began making progress. Bodies, boulders, bricks from the preliminary wall, and everything else the Antlaturs had thrown into the river began flowing into their dams on either end.
Once the makeshift bridge was big enough, Andrew ordered a battering ram to be moved and attacked that wall section. The first division of Antlatur managed the battering ram. This was the first time soldiers from the kingdom of Antlatur were personally involved in this battle. The battering ram was pushed to the river bank before being turned with difficulty and finally started rolling towards the wall.
Linnea and Andrew watched eagerly as the weapon of war approached the wall. But before it could reach it, Andrew spotted something out of the corner of his eye flying towards the Battering Ram. Bang, the noise echoed across the battlefield, momentarily drowning out the sounds. Andrew and Linnea, despite watching closely, were momentarily confused. Before Linea pointed, “elder brother, look.” Andrew didn't need her to point it out. A stone rolled across the ground after it slid off the battering ram's roof.
“The enemy has Siege engines.” Andrew muttered under his breath, “Fuck.”
“Where did it come from?” Linnea asked. Her aide, Charles or something, pointed to the Tower, connecting the river section to where they were attacking. “If it's just that one siege weapon….” Linnea started. Before another object hurtling through the air this time, there was a thunk, and sprouting from the roof of the battering ram was a Ballista Bolt. The battering ram was continuously attacked with stones and bolts, some rolling off or hitting the ground. Instead of hitting the battering ram, one stone hit the unit of soldiers guarding it from behind, smashing several of them into meat paste. Finally, the inevitable happened - a stone broke through the roof before smashing straight down, breaking one of the axles.
The Antlatur soldiers retreated from the line of fire. The Blacks continued bombarding the battering ram until it was completely destroyed. Andrew growled in frustration. He only had four machines, and now we only had three. “Tell Lucius to avoid using any battering rams. We assault the walls only with ladders for now.”
Following Andrew's instructions, the Affiliated Kingdom’s soldiers began swarming up the walls with ladders wherever they could. They swarmed over the walls again and again, and again and again. They were repelled, and casualties started mounting. What little motivation they had quickly faded as they realized they were making almost no progress and they were dying for no reason.
Lucius located a potential weakness and requested permission to move in a battering ram. Andrew was also worried about the ever-worsening situation and so gave the green light for the assault. Lucius chose his spot well; he made sure that he was only in the range of one of the towers, and it was a tower equipped with a bolt thrower and not a stone thrower. The battering ram managed to reach the wall, and Andrew's theory that large battering rams could take down the thick walls of the Lepetra was proven correct. For the first time since the city's construction, an actual breach of its walls was made.
Theo was a retired soldier. Like most soldiers in the Black Army, he had signed a 20-year-long contract and completed it. However, when the capital was threatened, they drafted him and his comrades back into active duty. Like most of his comrades, he was so influenced by the army that he didn't even mind being drafted. He was eager to return to doing what he was best at—killing. Not every soldier was as eager as him to leave their peaceful lives, but their city was under threat, and they knew all too well what happened to a city when it got conquered.
“My only worry is that I'm still a bit rusty,” Rick commented. He was one of the few Theo knew from his time in the army. Many of his comrades had gone off to live in the countryside, primarily The Plains of Francis or the Atlas Hills, a former monster domain that was still quite dangerous but being opened up for livestock grazing. Many retired soldiers moved there due to their skill at Arms and experience in dealing with monsters. Theo sometimes wished he had gone with them but stayed in the capital because his sister still lived there.
“If you were smart like me, you would have kept up your training,” Albert said, snickering.
“Fuck off,” Rick said as he adopted a basic form. The shield in front of him he was slightly hunched, with his sword hidden behind a shield. “Watch me, Theo, tell me if I can still kill some Antlaturer bastards.” His sword thrust from behind his shield like a snake striking.
“You're a bit slower than you used to be, but you can still kill an Antlaturer. They're pretty difficult to miss in all that golden armor.” There was a round of laughter from all of the gathered soldiers. Due to their lack of ornamentation, Foreign kingdoms often call soldiers of the Kingdom of Black undertakers or funeralgoers. However, the soldiers from the Black Kingdom mocked the ornamentation and individuality expressed by soldiers of foreign kingdoms.
Stolen novel; please report.
Soldiers from foreign kingdoms would often weigh themselves down with tokens and keepsakes from relatives. They would even weigh down their armor with additional ornamentation. Soldiers in the Kingdom of Black did keep tokens from their relatives, but they were light - a lock of hair or broach to fasten a cloak, and they wore no additional ornamentation. Nothing compared to the weighty tokens and charms of foreign soldiers. Soldiers from foreign kingdoms also habitually painted their shields with myths they liked or their family crest. The Kingdom of Black presented the united front, gold crowns dripping red with blood on a black field. This led to the long-standing joke among the knights, “The Knights of the Golden Spurs.” And the joke among the soldiers, “The Infantry from a thousand kingdoms.”
Theo watched an orderly run up to the retired officer captain assigned to this temporary unit. The orderly appeared to be a young noble around the age of 15 with blonde hair and red eyes, considered too young to go to war even by the standards of the Kingdom of Black. “Now they're drafting kids, " he said to the captain before running off.
“All right, you old geezers, it's time for battle.” The captain barked out, and the soldier snapped to attention. Rick sheathed his sword and picked up his shield. “The enemy is about to bash down a part of the wall so that we will guard the hole in it till death. I know peace made your skills rot. But I still expect you to die in the line of duty, or I'll kill you myself.”
“Yes, sir,” they shouted back in chorus.
The captain nodded approvingly. “Marching formation, please.” The soldiers scattered around a small plaza and quickly assembled into three lines on the street, as indicated by the captain. Theo, Rick, and Albert formed one squad and lined up together. Theo was on the left, Rick was in the middle, and Albert was on the right. “On me, double quick, " the captain shouted. Theo couldn't see the captain and only saw the man before him. However, the whole column started moving. They only moved at a brisk jog and not a full sprint.
Theo heard the sound before he saw the battering ram, like a giant fist, repeatedly ramming against the wall. They finally arrived at a section of the wall with spiderweb-like cracks, which quickly spread. They didn't have to wait long until the wall came crashing down. It fell forward, smashing a portion of the road. The city had no buildings lined up against the wall for structural purposes, and a wide road was in front of every portion of the wall. It was illegal for anyone to go on it or build anything on it without permission. Peacetime was used primarily for soldiers' training. Still, more time allowed for soldiers to maneuver better in defense of the walls and act to ensure the structural integrity of the walls.
Theo and his comrades saw the ram and its wooden frame but they don't only see the front half the air was filled with dust from the wall. “It's fucking massive,” someone muttered, probably Albert. It was several times taller than a man with a ram as thick as a tree trunk with a steel cap. The ram was being pushed back desperately, and the soldiers guarding from behind were swimming up. The Black soldiers hastily got into position, but the broken ground of the hole in the wall covered in stone fragments wasn't a proper place to form a formation.
The enemy didn't wait to get into formation. Instead, they rushed up, climbing over the rubble to attack the Black soldiers as fast as they could, hoping to get them before they were in formation. Dust from the wall got into Theo's mouth and nose, and he coughed. He could only imagine what he'd be going through if he wore a full-face helmet. An Antlatur Soldier rushed up to him, and he came out of nowhere through the dust. However, Theo hadn't Slogged through 20 years of hell just to have a bad reaction time. Not even bothering to draw his sword, he used his kite shield like a spear and bashed the enemy in the helmet. He further augmented his physical strength with magic; he hit the helmet so hard that he might have bashed his brains, but he wouldn't know because the enemy slipped and rolled away, disappearing in the dust.
An enemy soldier jumped over his comrade and moved towards Theo, cautiously raised to his chest. Theo drew his sword and hid it behind his shield. He crouched down and lowered the shield so that his chin was unprotected by his shield, leaving only his face exposed while guarding the rest of his body with his shield. This would naturally draw the enemy's attention towards his face. Most people would fall for it instinctively, even if they knew it was likely a trap. The Antlatur fell for it, thrusting a spear towards Theo's face. His sword darted out, deflecting the spear and knocking him off balance. Before he moved into a kicking stance, Rick behind him braced him with his shield as he kicked forward his boot, landing directly on the enemy shield before pushing off, and just like his friend, he was sent rolling in the dust. But unlike his friend, he didn't roll down the incline. Theo moved forward and, while he was still on the ground, stabbed him through the throat.
The enemy attacks died off afterward, but Theo remained guarded until the dust cleared. Once it did, he was greeted with the familiar sight of the idyllic field of black and white flowers, with the beautiful blue sky above it, nearly a cloud in sight, only marred by bodies littered everywhere. The soldiers from the kingdom of Esterberg were dressed in white and blue uniforms. The enemy battling ram had pulled away, attempting to escape, but somehow, it was on fire. Before he can think too deeply about it, he hears the captain shouting and the bugles blaring, “Switch out.” This particular order involved the front line falling back to the backline to rest well, and the second line became the new Frontline.
Theo fell back and took the opportunity to rest and mentally recover. Actual war takes a lot of physical and mental energy out of you. Risking one's life and using all one's strength to kill one's opponent was deeply taxing. Theo was a veteran of 20 years and was largely immune to the mental exhaustion of battle. He was familiar with it and, at this point, did not even fear death. But being old, he wasn't as physically robust as he once was.
A wave of Esterberg knights attacked their formation. Knights were trained from age six and awakened at that age. Since magic grew with time, they were more powerful than soldiers who awakened at 15-20. That being said, knights weren't always superior to soldiers. One main reason was that most countries required their nobles to serve only 5 years in the army, unlike most soldiers, who served 10 to 20 years. Most nobles from foreign kingdoms got it done when they were around 20 to 25, meaning that a veteran soldier was on par with the average knight. Theo and his comrades were nothing if not veterans and repelled them easily. Afterward, they shifted the line again, so Theo stood in the third rank.
Allied reserves arrived, and another attack came, this time of a wave of heavy Infantry who were more prepared than the first. Once again, they were repelled fairly easily, and the line shifted twice more so that Theo was in the front line again. He looked downward and saw Rick's familiar face; he was dead. He had rolled down the hill to join the Antlaturer and bodies. This didn't cause him much emotion as he had seen many of his comrades die before, even though Rick was an old comrade who fought with his life and death on many occasions. He only felt the tiniest bit sad, but he'd already vowed to avenge his other comrades who had died upon the Antlaturers, so he felt no reason to swear his vengeance anew.
Theo saw a new group of riders approaching at first. He thought it was just another group of knights. Although it was difficult to attack this portion of the wall on horseback due to the obstacles, remnants of the walls, and the moat, Knights insisted on traveling everywhere on horseback. They would approach the walls and then dismount, just like the Esterberg knights had done when they attacked. But something felt different about them. Once they arrived, they dismounted, and Theo prepared himself for death. One was wearing green armor, and his helmet sported two large antlers. “Marshall saint,” Theo called out a last warning to his comrades.