Herald of Steel

*Shoo*, *Shoo*, *Shoo*,

With the legionaries's supply of arrows replenished from whatever was left in the camp, they were able to produce a thundering volley in the initial phases of their counterattack, managing to take a large number of the attacking Heeat men using them.

The concentrated fire proved especially deadly due to how the advancing force was momentarily caught out of formation as they had attempted to chase the legionaries before they could enter their camp sanctuary.

Quite a few bodies were added to the list just due to this hastiness.

And upon seeing the enemy had already retreated to their fortified bastions, the attacking officers were forced to decrease the tempo of their advance and take a much more slower, methodical route.

"Slow down! Shields up! Slow down and get your shields together! The cowards have run away to their rat holes" They shouted to their troops in a mocking tone to demean Scorpyo's men, while internally, they expressed their real emotion, 'Not again with this farce! Urgghhh!, they lampooned to themselves.

They felt like so because they had faced a similar scenario before when they had tried to attack the manor along Alexander's dug in lines.

That only ended up with them getting a few corpses and a good, bloody nose.

But even if they knew it was not going to be easy attacking this camp, there was little they could do to avoid it.

Lord Macht had made it very clear during the war room briefing that retreat was not an option. No matter what they were to capture the island or die trying.

This was also why upon reaching the outskirts of the camp, the officers quickly ordered the men to hunker down with their shields and make defensive positions along the perimeter, letting them take refuge from the bolts and flying javelins that were being sent screaming towards them.

The legionaries appeared to be throwing everything they had during this initial phase of the attack, hoping to take as many of the enemy down before they could get their defenses up.

Scorpyo was even beginning to slightly regret losing his only two catapults at this moment, because he thought if he had them now, he would have been able to smash even those hardy, enemy shield formations with his heavy stones throws, opening the enemy up for his softer but much more numerous arrow fire.

His inability to do so was certainly something that the Heeat and Margraves soldiers greatly appreciated.

But even with the absence of the 'heavy' artillery fire, overcoming the large ditch, and the tall, heavy ramparts manned with so many men promised to be a daunting task for the attacking men.

And having brought no siege equipment with them, the officers thus found themselves halting their advance, turning to look at each other in confusion and hoping one could offer the other any advice.

"........" Unfortunately, none had any good answers.

And this problem was grave enough to even reach Lord Macht's ears at some point, with that very scout who was so cheerful till now, suddenly appearing scared and diminutive as he approached,

"My… my lord! The commanders are saying the enemy is too holed in too well. They are asking you to lead them!"

This was their euphemistic way of saying, 'We are stuck! Let's retreat!'

And as soon as he said so, the messenger felt his heart tremble, for he saw the large, black man visibly frown forming great creases in his face, before silently urging his horse forward to get a get look at the 'castle' as described by the herald.

However, upon seeing the fortified garrisoned camp with its wide ditches and tall, sturdy walls that were being actively defended, Lord Macht was forced to change his thoughts on the matter.

For his 'relatively' small force, this appeared almost like an impregnable castle.

And the man was not only impressed by its construction, he even could not help but exclaim with amazement in his heart, 'How the hell did they manage to build this in just three short days? In this cold too? Did they not sleep?'

Lord Macht was indeed right about that last part, as the legionaries as a whole really did not sleep the past three days. They worked in three shifts throughout the hours wishing to complete the construction as soon as possible.

All the practice they had while digging the ditches when attacking Thesalie had quite come in handy this time.

And this was something that would have been something hardly imaginable to Lord Macht as he had never built such large scale temporary fortification.

He and his enemies much more preferred to fight the enemy on an open field, men to men.

This was because, one they found turtling behind walls as cowrdly and dishonorable.

And two, because the steepe like Lynacian land favored such aboveboard tactics since the wide, open spaces gave plenty of spaces for the army to simply swing around and avoid most of such fortifications.

Thus these lands had to be defended by large, solid fortifications such as forts and castles, places that were able to permanently house large numbers of trained units for a long time.

If they were then invaded, these garrisoned units could then pose a threat to an attacking enemy, riding out from these buildings to wreak havoc on the enemy's rear supply lines, and then quickly retreating to the safety of their walls before the enemy could launch an effective counterattack to catch them.

And if the enemy tried to siege their forts, the nearby forts could offer aid, forcing the attackers to divide their attention and thus greatly slowing them down.

All this would give the capital enough time to mobilize their large, main army to neutralize the threat.

Scorpyo however had done something very different- which was build a small, immobile bulwark, that really had no utility other than stationing troops.

At least that was what was Lord Macht's initial assensemnt regarding the camp.

Hence upon overcoming his initial surprise, the man visibly frowned and then growled in an impatient tone,

"What are you getting all flustered about? There are not enough of them to even man the walls properly! Charge them! Show them what the sons of Lynica are made of!"

At this point, Lord Macht chose to be very boisterous and confident here, blowing away all the officers' concerns and ordering a simple rush on the walls.

After having come this far, Lord Macht was unwilling to retreat no matter what.

Thus the order was given despite the fact that his forces did not even bring siege ladders for his attacks, Lord Macht did not think the enemy camp would be anything special during the prior war planning.

Sure, having ladders or battering rams would have been useful. But he did not think they were essential.

The madmen figured courage and zeal would be enough to overcome the 'rickety' defense.

"......" While none of the officers had the guts to argue with a man as prestigious as him.

They would rather follow the order and sacrifice their men.

*Nod*,

So with a sour face, they all nodded, and as the first batch of men was sent out, consisting mostly of the Margraves- because who better to use for this cannon fodder than them?

The Heeat officers were certainly not going to waste their own family men in such a greasely manner.

The down in their luck Margraves thus got the short end of the stick, being asked to launch a 'bare fisted' attack on the fort.

The result of which was very expected.

"The ditch is too wide! Agghhhh the foot!"

"Arrows from the top! Arrows!"

"Cover each other with shields! They are throwing spears! Don't spread out!"

"Ughhhh! Help! Help! My brother got hit in the head by a stone! Help!"

The earthen ditch filled with sharpened stakes, the crossbowmen up top, and the men throwing stones from there all made the fort a very tough nut to crack.

Add to the fact that the Heeat officers sent only a few men in this attack, and it all but guaranteed such a token force would never be able to accomplish anything.

Then again, it could be argued that they were not meant to.

This was more of a probing attempt than an actual offense, with the men being basically used as cannon fodder to look for weaknesses in the camp's defense.

And this was repeated mulitple times, from different directions, with waves of small contingent of men hitting the camp from three sides.

All however produced the same result.

The defenses held up very well and the Heeat officers were unable to spot any glaring flaw.

Without specialized siege equipment, It seemed the camp was impregnable, with the only real constraint being, as shouted out to Scorpyo, "We are running low on things to throw commander! Arrows, javelins, and even stones! Please advise sire!"

The tidal wave like attack of the enemy could only be repelled by the copious expenditure of arrows.

And when his men came begging for more, Scropyo could only silently lampoon to himself,

'What is there for me to advise? We can only hold on until reinforcements get here!'

He could only hope the main camp had not abandoned them.

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