Rise of the Horde

246 Chapter 24The noise of battle echoed all throughout the walls of the City of Desa, the defenders were fighting with all their might as they repel one enemy soldier after the other but the Ereians kept on coming. Freshly crafted ladders were positioned on the walls near the city gates by the Ereians, the scent of freshly cut wood was still present on the ladders but no one was their to pay attention to it as boots covered in dirt and mud dirtied its steps. Above the walls, the few Albernans were doing their best to topple and dislodge the ladders and deny their enemies the path up the walls but the Ereians didn’t let them do so easily as they fought fiercely and defended the ladders.

There were now more than a hundred bodies in front of the walls, the groan of pain of those who were still alive with broken bones after falling from such dangerous height or the wounded ones from the blades and arrows of their enemies and the lucky ones who survived both unlike their unlucky peers who have long gone silent. The Ereians kept pouring into the walls of the city and after more than an hour of struggle they finally managed to establish a stable foothold on the walls as they drove back the defending Albernans. They secured a portion of the walls but the they paid a lot of lives for it; the bodies of their fallen comrades lay among the unmoving upon the walls but no one bothered with the dead for they still had a task to fulfill.

The Albernans who were few in number were kicked out from the walls and the gates of the city slowly opened by the Ereians, the sound of hooves came and the patient Viscount Redore with half of his remaining forces entered the city. Every single man in possession of arms was put down by the riders who went all around the city. They didn’t care if you were old or young, as long as you are in possession of a weapon then you are going to be killed. Panic and fear spread around the residents of the city which then caused chaos as fire started to break out in some portions of the city.

The Ereian Viscount finally arrived at the abode of the one in charge of the city but the place lacked the presence of guards which weirded him out. There were only servants huddled together in some corners of the manor being calmed down by the eldest of the group telling them that everything will be alright. Viscount Redore and hid riders scoured the entire place but didn’t manage to find who they were looking for. After asking the servants about the whereabouts of their masters which didn’t result into anything useful as none of them knew where their master is currently at, some of them stated that they saw the Marquess of Desa a few hours ago with his adviser along the halls of the manor gathered together with his guards before disappearing.

After giving it some careful thoughts, the Viscount realized that the Marquess of Desa might have escaped through the use of some secret passage which is why they didn’t manage to catch a glimpse of him. The Ereians successfully captured the City of Desa but they paid a huge price for it as almost half of the foot soldiers that was assigned the difficult task to capture the city lay among the dead. Their casualties was the greatest at the start of the siege when the ladders were still being set up against the walls and many died without even taking a step upon the walls of the city as they were claimed by the claws of death in front of the walls.

Viscount Redore started giving out commands to his remaining soldiers to stabilized the situation of the city, patrols were sent out to scour the city more carefully than before to make sure that there are no present enemies within the walls that might suddenly come out from the shadows and reclaim the city from their grasp. Announcements came one after the other from the remaining officials of the city who were captured by the Ereians as the Viscount made use of them to calm the hearts of the panic and fear-stricken residents of the city.

“I hope you are still doing well over there…” Viscount Redore mumbled to himself as he looked towards the direction where Tortuga Fortress was located at. The plan to take the City of Desa by surprise was proposed by Commander Nassor and it received a lot of objections at first but after the old commander explained their current grim situation, the voices of objection finally went silent for they all know their current situation. The Ereians were tired and hungry with supplies running dangerously low, perhaps the only thing that still held the army together was the trust of soldiers to the old commander after their recent victories.

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“Everything is going as we had hoped for.” Commander Kontar stood beside the old commander as they observed the defenses of their enemies. The Tortuga Fortress was very well defended with soldiers in all directions, there were no weak spots that they could make use of to launch an attack but the Ereians had no plans of launching a real attack at all. Probes were sent all over the surrounding of the fortress which were repelled again and again by the defenders and as the two continued watching the event that was taking on, cheers suddenly erupted from the walls which caught their attention. The sound of hooves made them turn their heads towards the source and as they did so, they caught sight of their cavalry returning after an unsuccessful attempt at the walls.

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Darkness began engulfing the surroundings as night started its reign, the Ereians withdrew from the battle as they did so many times before after an entire day of probing the enemy’s defenses. From their camp, the Ereians could hear the sound of cheerful celebration of their enemies which they envied since unlike their foes who were well stacked with supplies and can spare to celebrate after a such a tiring day.

“As you have said, the enemy commander had no plans of launching a counter-attack, he is very well satisfied with the fact that he could repel our attacks one after the other for the past days. It seems like you know the enemy commander very well.” Commander Kontar spoke as he pulled a chair in front of the table where the other commanders were gathered at.

“Ah! Drinking wine after such a tiring day is great!” the huge man at one corner of the table exclaimed as he proceeded to chug down more of the contents of the jar in his hand. Commander Kontar turned his head and saw the intoxicated face of Commander Karim with more than five jars of wine near him, if he was to take a guess, those jar of wines are all probably emptied out by him alone but he had nothing to say to him. He can no longer criticized him for his actions of depleting their supply of wine since he knew that out of all those who are gathered together, perhaps beside the old commander, Commander Karim is the one with the most contribution among them.

“So how did you figure out that our enemies wouldn’t launch a counter against us?” Commander Kontar continued to ask as he was truly curious about the fact that for many days that have passed, not even once did their enemies come out of the fortress to launch an assault against them. If it was him who was in command of the enemy army, he would have long made a counterattack after being besieged for many days in an attempt to lift off the siege from the fortress after their many victories of repelling their enemies.

“The enemy commander? I don’t know him very well and I didn’t even know what he looks like but I have heard stories about him from the Albernans that we have captured.” Commander Nassor replied as he took a sip of his wine. He had heard tales of the enemy, commander Count Mero from the loose lips of the captured Albernans after some round of drinks with them. It was quite unexpected that some of the captured Ereians didn’t know that he was the head commander of the Ereian army that has defeated them, well he really can’t blame them as he seldomly fought in the frontline like the other commanders. The only times that he personally took part in a battle was when the army is in a precarious situation where they will need every warrior that they have but such things were rare to occur and he is no longer as hotblooded and eager as he was when he was in his youth where he would actively participate in battles.

It was actually a gamble for him, he had heard that Count Mero was a defensive specialist commander who was in charge of the northern front of the Kingdom of Alberna and successfully held the northern barbarians at bay for many years. He gambled that since Count Mero was focus in defense, he won’t launch an attack if they will continuously win the battles in a defensive way which the sly old commander happily gave.

He had no plans of going head to head with the best defensive commander of the enemy kingdom which is why he sent Viscount Redore and a part of the army to detour around the fortress and head towards the City of Desa which would be serving as a supply point for the fortress. During their first battle, he had sent all of his forces out to fool the enemies that they are going all out from the very beginning but little did they know that a huge chunk of soldiers went missing after the initial fight and they quickly withdrew right before noon then the farce of attacks went on to keep the attention of their enemies on them and not at the group of Viscount Redore that slipped past by the fortress.

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