Not even three minutes later, two enemies rode forward with something in their hands. Sam could see them carrying flasks and immediately ordered the archers to shoot them.

Unfortunately, they were inexperienced and had difficulties with hitting moving targets. Nissa was the only archer to be successful. One rider fell off his camel with an arrow pierced in his heart. The camel hurriedly ran back to the tribe warriors.

Finally, the remaining rider seemed to have reached a distance for a successful throw. A flask flew through the air and shattered after hitting the wooden gate.

Black liquid splashed on the gate. Next up, three new riders made their way towards the gate with torches in their hands.

" That must be oil! Quickly, shoot the riders! They will burn down the gate if they incinerate the oil! "

The archers madly shot their arrows hitting the enemies mounts multiple times, however they were tough and still managed to take their riders to incinerate the oil before retreating.

" Get away from the gate! Close combatants form a line five meter away! Archers to the back!"

The gate slowly started to burn, therefore Sam ordered his soldiers to leave the gates and regroup behind them.

" They were willing to sacrifice themselves in order to enter this village! We have to be careful."

Sam took a look at his comrades. In the foremost line stood the knights everyone of them held a shield and a spear. Behind them were the warriors with their two handed weapons, as well as the twins.

Nissa ordered the archers to take positions on the rooftops of the surrounding houses to support the melee fighters.

Sam stood at the foremost position, waiting for the moment the gate couldn't hold any longer.

It took a while but finally the gate crashed and the tribe soldiers started advancing.

Sam grabbed a long spear and his shield and positioned himself in the middle of the knights. At the moment the first enemies entered through the gate the 18 defending archers started to shoot arrows. Sam and his fellow knights stepped forward and used the width of the gate to defend the village.

Only four camel riders were able to enter at the same time, which made it easier for Sam and the other melee fighters to stop them.

The knights stabbed with their spears, trying to push the riders off their mounts. Arrows were flying over their heads but the attackers used their ranged weapons as well. Multiple javelins were thrown at Sam and his men. He saw a young knight getting stabbed through the eye by a javelin, dying on the spot.

A warrior with light armor tried to take over the knight's spot, only to get hit immediately. His chainmail was not enough to block the incoming weapons, resulting in a deep shoulder wound.

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Sam saw the chaos and stepped forward to attack himself. He used his full strength and struck an incoming rider. The force behind Sam's attack shattered the spear he held but also send the rider flying off his camel.

Nina, who had stayed behind the knights sprinted next to the fallen rider and used a swift movement to cut his throat with her shortsword. She immediately returned behind the knights before she could get surrounded.

A handful of riders were lying on the ground around ten meters in front of the gate. Most of them were dead or heavily injured after getting struck by a volley of arrows from the defenders. The battle behind the gate intensified and more soldiers started to fall to the ground.

A few riders decided to attack the archers and threw their javelins at them. The surprised archers didn't have the time to evade, resulting in two of them getting killed.

Anna and Nina had started to run in between the enemies and attack the legs of their mounts. Their strategy worked and the attackers slowed down or completely stopped after their mounts fell down. More attackers filled the space in front of the gate but couldn't do much because of the strong defense line of Sam and his fellow knights.

The fight lasted for more than ten minutes before a horn was blown outside the village. It was a retreat signal of the enemy forces.

The riders turned their camels and retreated to the place their leader was still standing. The fallen riders tried to retreat too but were shot down or assassinated by the twins.

Sam looked at his soldiers after all the enemies had retreated.

Three archers had been impaled and killed by javelins. They had also lost two knights and two warriors, however the enemy had a lot more casualties. 15 riders had been killed in the earlier clash. Actually most of them died by the hands of Anna and Nina. They used the moment after the riders had fallen of their mounts and killed them before they had the opportunity to stand up.

Like this the first clash came to an end. Sam climbed the wall and looked outside at the enemy army. Only 30 men remained while Sam had 25 soldiers who were able to fight. The leader shouted again.

" You won't be able to win in an open field battle, therefore you can't leave your village. What are you doing now? "

The man seemed to mock Sam, who only responded with a smile. He decided to gamble and called Linda.

" I need you to help me out! Take Jack and 15 more men and come to Woodchester as quick as possible. If you hurry up you might be here in 30 minutes. We have a group of enemy riders attacking us here and I don't want them to flee and return with more men.

Go through the forest and try to get behind the enemies. Contact me when you are ready. We will charge out of the village and attack them from the front and the back!"

Linda ended the call to gather the soldiers as fast as possible. Sam wanted to stall the enemy and stop them from leaving, so he decided to taunt them.

" The question is what you want to do. We kicked your asses a moment ago, are you running away now?"

His provocation worked and agitated his enemies, especially the leader, who countered with a speech of his own.

Sam used the time to convey his plan to Kain, Nissa and the twins. While he argued with the enemy leader his men prepared their counterattack.

40 minutes later Sam got a call from Linda.

" We are here. The enemies are right in front of us."

" Ok, stay there and wait for my signal. I will pretend to lose my composure and charge outside."

Sam ended the call and continued the exchange of provocations but this time he seemed to get more and more angry, to the point where he actually charged out of the city together with his remaining soldiers.

The leader of the enemies laughed and was about to let his men charge, when a massive lightning strike hit the left flank of his riders. One of them died instantly and two others fell down their camels while trembling. The leader turned around only to see a volley of arrows and a small group of melee fighters coming out of the forest.

The archers in Sam's group also returned to firing their arrows while the melee fighters moved closer.

Finally, the archers on both sides stopped their fire and the close combatants engaged in battle.