“How long do you think this will take, Sire?” Roan asked, mildly curious of Braydon’s opinion. The siege ladders had already been prepared and now all they were waiting for was Braydon's go ahead to make their way towards the walls.
“An hour at most. Once we have any kind of foothold on the walls it is over.” That was just the reality of it. They had more than 10 times the number of men attacking than defending. And they actually had archers, something that their victims could not boast.
“Our scouts have sent word that the next castle is even less defended than this one.” Roan mentioned. It had taken a while to fashion several siege ladders, enough time for the first report from the scouts to come back.
“Well this one is better defended than I expected. Neither is owned by a particularly important lord.” Braydon had been expecting a nominal guard in both castles as their lords took the majority of their men to fight for their interests in the civil war. For viscounts and barons 50 men was quite the commitment to defending a castle that you were not staying in whilst also out on campaign.
“Once word eventually spreads of what we are doing it will be different.” Neither of them had any particular illusions that the rebel lords would not get word of their castles being conquered and their lands being seized from behind. Even if they could not send all of their men back to defend they would still send enough to make Braydon’s job more interesting.
“Are you two done talking, we have a castle to take.” The mercenary captain finally got bored enough to say something.
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“Ladders to the walls!” Roan shouted once the men were in position. It had taken them several hours but they had made four ladders to attack the castle from different parts of the walls to spread the defenders thin.
“Men follow them!” Roan shouted once more as the men not carrying the ladders slowly followed behind. Braydon’s men held two of the ladders and mercenaries carried the other two. If they were hiring mercenaries then they might as well put them to use. It would also cut down on any casualties that Braydon would have to suffer in getting footholds on the walls.
“Prepare to hold!” Once the ladders reached the walls the guard captain could be heard shouting his own commands.
*thud* *thud* *thud* *thud*
“To the walls!” Roan shouted as the ladders were raised to the walls. All that was left was to see how long the defenders could hold out.
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“Well this should be somewhat interesting to watch.” Braydon commented to himself as we watched the siege happening from the entrance of his tent. Most of his men that were not taking part in the siege had also decided to do the same thing. It was very rare for Braydon to actually watch a siege since if he was close enough to watch it then he was more than likely taking part in it.
“Oh wow, he is brave.” Braydon commented once he noticed that the mercenary captain was actually the second man up the ladder that he was on. Roan had decided to be a bit safer and let a few more men establish a foothold on the walls before he went up. If either of them had decided to be the first man up their ladder he would have called them suicidal. That was just asking to be killed.
“HA Hah! Come fight me you cowards!” Once the mercenary captain was up the walls everyone taking part in the siege and watching it could hear his cry. Quite the feat and just as effective with a number of the men defending that ladder stepping away from him if only just for a moment. But that moment was all that he needed.
As soon as he saw his enemies take a step back, he took a step forwards and swung at the nearest man to him. The strike was devastating as his sword found its way deep into the guard’s shoulder. It was at this point that the next man came up the ladder onto the walls behind him. And then the next man. And they would not be leaving any time soon as more men were hot on their heels coming up the ladder.
Once one ladder had managed to lead to a foothold on the walls it was only a matter of time before another one did. And then the other two as well. By the time Roan made it onto the walls, all four ladders had a foothold but it was clear that his job was not over quite yet as the guard captain had apparently been waiting for him to come up the walls.
“Go to hell!” He was told as much by the shout the captain made before attacking him.
“That eager to end your suffering?” Roan was not averse to annoying an already angry enemy. The strikes made in anger were easy enough to block. Roan assumed that the guards of this castle were not often exposed to battle, sieges or otherwise. There was no way that the captain of such a guard would be so hot headed.
“Ha!” The captain had given up responding, favouring shouting to put power behind both his swings and blocks.
“Suit yourself.” Roan was much more relaxed than his counterpart. The men at his side were already starting to outnumber the enemy on the walls and the guard captain was not showing any great skill at combat.
“Die!” The guard captain made an overhead swing.
“Mistake.” Roan said as he kicked the man in the legs, followed up by a block above his head to make sure that the falling man’s sword didn’t end up getting a lucky hit. And with that it was over. All Roan needed to do then was to bring his sword down on the man’s head and that was exactly what he did.
No sooner than the guard captain died did the news start spreading amongst the few remaining defenders.
“Well that was easy.” Roan commented looking at the downed man in front of him. He was expecting more from someone who told an army over 20 times his garrison’s size to go to hell.