Sam wasn’t sure how he should feel, his friend had just been crushed in front of his eyes and all he could feel was nothing. All around him troops rushed down streets becoming more crowded as Bernard the man who had pulled him out of his house rushed beside him. Behind him the city was slowly burning as numerous siege weapons rained fire down on it. Bernard finally spoke again for the first time since they started running. “How in the gods- do they have so many- siege weapons?” he panted, every other word a gasp. Sam’s mind felt slow for a moment he had forgotten what he was even doing, until the words were spoken. “Oh.. yeah, probably spent the last week preparing those” he responded, voice calm, his face slowly forming into a deep frown betraying his tone. Things were going far too fast for him and the loss of his friend combined with the chaos around making him incapable of fully grasping everything.
“How come we were warned so late?” Sam asked, Bernard took a moment to respond, his house was on the other side of the city. For him to have reached where Sam lived in that time is impressive, but he was clearly winded. “I don’t know- Sergeant Colliver...” before he could finish one of the boulders crashed down into a nearby brick house causing a plume of dust, showering both of them with shards of rock. Coughing Sam checked Bernard who was laying face down while moving his head around “Are you ok?” Sam asked while offering a hand. “Yeah just scared me enough to wish I had used the bathroom before leaving, damn near pissed myself.” he said with a mad chuckle a small line of blood running down his cheek, he took Sam’s hand pulling himself up with a wobble. “We need to keep moving. Sergeant Colliver will literally have our heads if we are late.”
They began moving again while passing the collapsed house not 20 feet ahead, its brick and mortar laying in the street, part of the building blocking half of the road. “Really hope no one is under there.” Bernard whispered “be one hell of a way to die.” around the building several soldiers were steadily getting to their feet, one of them went to help another up only to gag and turn away letting him drop. The man on the ground remained still, neither Sam nor Bernard asked after seeing the look on the soldiers face who tried to help. The closer they got to the gate the more crowded the streets became officers yelling orders and troops moving to obey. The sounds of hundreds of men in iron and leathers rushing either up the walls or gathering in front of the boarded metal gate. Every home near the gate being used for archers and even one ballista being put together on top of the tallest stone house.
“Get your asses in gear men! I want every archer on and in those buildings!” Sergeant Colliver yelled pointing out buildings that had line of sight on the gates. Both spearmen and archers still filtered in by the dozen, standing in front of the gate was every company that had trained with the Sergeant when he wasn’t training Sams company. A total of 200 spearmen and 50 archers had gathered under his command, today those men would show their worth.
Once the flow of human traffic had slowed to a crawl and a majority of the men under his command had entered the sergeant gave a short briefing. “Listen up!” the sound causing everyone to turn silent “This morning those bastards out there decided today was the day they wanted to die!” a couple of men in the crowd raised their spears yelling their approval. He paused scanning over the assembled men “If they hit this gate your job is to hold until reinforcements arrive!” Everyone had already been told what the general idea was for when the assault started, hold the street. The Imperial army camped in a half circle around the town meaning the east, west, and north gates were potential targets. The commander decided that having the spare men in the center gave them the most mobility to help any of the three. “Remember your wifes, your family! Because the only thing standing between them and hell is you!” putting on his helmet he finished his speech “We will kill every last Imperial bastard that comes through this gate!” This caused almost every man to raise their spears in a battle cry with several curses aimed at the Empire. At that moment one of the men on the walls yelled down “Siege towers, Battering ram moving!” his hand cupped around his mouth as he leaned over the wall to yell, his voice just barely audible over the cheers of the men. The sergeant made an irritated click before sending a messenger off to command.
The Imperial legion moved by the thousand, lines of men marching in sync, the ground itself trembling in fear. Beasts of war roaring as their riders spurred them forward, overhead fire streaked through the sky into a burning city. One of them cleared a tiny section of the wall as it cleaved through the top throwing men like ragdolls to the streets below.
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“Fire!” Sam heard as bows snapped in symphony upon the walls, distant screams mixed with thousands of feet marching. Sam stood, Kollin on his left, Kollin was barely sixteen, just old enough to be required to join. His eyes wavered as over the top of the walls he could see towers of wood nearly at the walls. “That sure seems like alot of them” he spoke, his voice shaky. Sam thought he should probably console the kid, so he gave him a slap on the back “Just means you gotta fight harder kid.” The young man smiled meekly “you think we can win?” Sam wasn’t sure himself “just stay alive.” he said, he wasn’t sure he could stomach losing more people he knew. The thought brought back memories of what happened to Fred, He felt sick.
It didn’t take long for the battering ram to reach the gate, the gate groaning with each hit. Sergeant Colliver yelled for everyone to brace closing off the streets around the gate, the archers on top of the nearby buildings knocked arrows. Bang, another hit this time louder as the gate started bulging inwards “Stay alive” Sam repeated to himself as the gate in front of him splintered crashing to the ground, one half swinging on its oversized hinges. The battering ram behind the gate slowly pulled out of sight, behind it lines of foreigners in shiny lamellar armor rushed forwards, the desert sun painted on their shields facing Sam.
The moment the first one burst through the gates a volley of 50 arrows filled the stone archway where the gate once stood. Several Imperials hit the ground, a roar rose in the air as a mass of bodies filled the courtyard, shields crashed into spears and the smell of iron invaded Sam’s nose. His shield up Sam cursed as one got past his spear and took a swipe at his exposed head. Ducking down he blocked making his arms sting when the gladius crashed into the wooden shield. The foreigner screamed in a guttural language as he madly swung his blade again and again into the shield before Kollin stabbed into him from Sam's left. The spear sunk under his breastplate and up into his chest “I got him!” he yelled excitedly at Sam, Sam thanked the kid, turning to look a him long enough to see a blade going through Kollin’s throat. Kollin’s hands went up to his throat while he gurgled, stumbling back into the militiamen behind him and falling over, dead.
“God damnit!” Sam screamed his vision turning into slow motion as similar scenes were happening on both sides of him. Sam’s spear struck out skipping off the armor of the man whose blade still dripped the blood of his comrade. “You bastard!” he yelled again starting forwards before Bernard pulled him back, “There's no point in you dying too! Stay in formation and pay attention!” he shouted at him before letting Sam go. Sam’s vision blurred as tears of frustration burned down his cheeks, first Fred and now Kollin. The kid didn’t deserve to die like that, he was only 16 and didn’t even get to experience life yet.
Sergeant Colliver watched from the back of his men as the line bulged, where are the reinforcements? He thought to himself irritated at how long it was taking. They wouldn’t be able to hold at this rate, but things only seemed to get worse. The ground shook from something massive moving through the gate, Colliver knew how much the Empire loved their beasts and the things that live in the desert country the Empire originates from could make the bravest men shake. “Ready the ballista!” he shouted to the rooftops as the two men cranked and loaded the massive crossbow. A beast like a massive lizard barely small enough to fit through the gate, black plate strapped around it making it look more like a dragon than a lizard. It’s rider held onto reins in one hand and javelin in the other wearing some of the heaviest plates he had ever seen. “Fire!” he yelled as soon as its head poked into this side of the gate, a clank heard over the sounds of battle as the bolt bounced off its armor. The beast shook its head from side to side and roared at the gawking men standing by the ballista. “Reload!” he yelled bringing them back into panicked action as they tried to crank the string back for a second round. The beast charged its body moving in a swaying motion with its feet, even pummeling one unlucky Imperial to the side as its plated head bashed him away in a fit of rage. It reached the line of spears in seconds snapping them like twigs while it bit down pulling a pair of screaming and kicking legs up with it.
Sam watched in horror as a giant lizard gripped Tormund in its jaws shaking him around like a wet towel, blood dripped down its mouth and sprayed in a half circle while it did. The screaming stopped and it threw him with one final shake into the crowd of defenders trying to poke at it with toothpicks. “Fire that ballista!” The Sergeant yelled behind Sam, the bolt flew through the air piercing deep into its eye. With a screech the beast thrashed pawing at its face, the tail crashing into the line denting shields and bodies the same. Sam’s eyes widened when he realized that it was coming right for him, he tried to move back but only bumped into the men behind him. His life flashed before his eyes as the log sized tail smashed into him turning his world into darkness.