Chapter 38

Edgar's men struggled to survive while climbing those ladders. But the struggle wasn't without its benefits. It didn't take long for Gerald to see Edgar's band gaining two more footholds. The band members who were making it onto the wall at those footholds were hardly gaining any advantage in combat, but they were holding their ground.

Luwin's men were flocking to them endlessly, but it seemed that Edgar had sent a few Warriors up to keep his men from faltering.

Still, Gerald saw one of the three gained footholds faltering then completely collapsing. Edgar's men at that spot were either pushed off the wall or slaughtered on it. Luwin had his Warriors too, after all. In a constricted area like the top of the wall, a Warrior's role became much more crucial. When only three to six combatants on each side could face each other at a time, the side that had a Warrior would be at a clear advantage. So it was natural that Luwin wouldn't hold back either. He'd sent his Warriors to the walls to get back the lost ground.

Almost as if in response, Edgar's band gained another foothold above one of the other ladders.

Gerald sighed. His longbow archers had stopped loosing their arrows. Edgar's men would be hit if they continued raining arrows on the wall. Gerald watched the ten mantlets pushed by the crossbowmen passing between the archer formations and moving forward. They were shortly followed by the battering rams.

He turned to Robard and nodded. "It's time."

Robard returned the nod and turned his horse around. He waved his hand. "Infantry! Forward."

The seven square formations of infantrymen responded with an echo of Robard's command then began marching forward with a steady pace.

Robard turned towards the front again and waved a command towards the commander of the archers. As if the later had been waiting for the wave, he instantly shouted a series of commands and the archer formations began spreading out and falling back. Between each two formations of archers, there was enough space for an infantry square to pass.

While the archers retreated, the infantry advanced and their square formations passed between the archer formations.

Gerald moved his eyes far ahead of the infantry and watched the ten mantlets come to a stop Less than 100 yards from the gate. There was no gatehouse to the rugged fortress. The parapets above the gate were even with the rest of the wall, and there were men up there still loosing arrows at Edgar's men. Most importantly, those men wouldn't let the battering ram attack the gate without giving it any grief.

As the ten mantlets stopped, the crossbowmen that were pushing them began using the openings in each mantlet to loose bolts on the enemies above the gate. Each mantlet had four openings. From the eight crossbowmen behind it, four would loose bolts while the other four would be pulling the strings of their crossbows and nocking new bolts.

The enemies on top of the gate, who'd been ignoring the mantlets before, were now under a continuous hail of bolts. The archers attempted to fight back by loosing their arrows towards the mantlets, but it hardly did anything aside from getting the archers themselves killed. Still, there ranks never emptied. There were always more defenders to replace the fallen ones. The crossbowmen behind the mantlets were just keeping the defenders unpleasantly busy.

Soon, the first battering ram passed between the mantlets and began approaching the gate.

Gerald smile and looked at Robard, only to find the knight's mouth twitching as if he wanted to say something.

"You still think we should breach the walls, don't you?" Gerald sighed.

"My lord, you're letting Edgar have his way a bit too much," Robard said grudgingly. Edgar had asked Gerald to avoid knocking down parts of the wall, since the fortress would eventually belong to the mercenary captain. Gerald hadn't refused his request.

Gerald chuckled. "If we knock down several parts of the wall, who would be attacking those parts?"

"Our men," Robard replied.

"And why should we fight on several fronts while we have a very fine shield right there," Gerald said, pointing at Edgar's men. "It's enough to breach that gate and let our men push the fight into the fortress. Even if we can breach those walls, Luwin will always have enough men to fill the openings. We don't have enough wheeled rams to open many breaches in the walls. Two or three breaches will be of no use. Our advantage in numbers can't be used until we're inside their fortress. And even then, it won't be that great of an advantage. We just need to push behind Edgar with some of our men and breach the gate with the rest of them."

Robard just stayed silent in response. Gerald knew his head knight still didn't agree with him.

He returned his attention to the walls. Edgar's men had now gained a total of four footholds up there, and they were hardly holding on. Gerald spotted many bodies strewn below the walls, most of them belonging to the Red Rain band. Edgar's men had paid dearly for gaining and holding on to those footholds.

Gerald saw that the battering ram had reached the gate. The men hiding under its shed stopped pushing it forward and began swinging the large log hung inside and ramming the gate. He could hear the faint sound of the ram striking the gate from where he was. The repeated collisions sounded like a giant approaching from afar.

The gate was aligned with the wall. The men above it were always under the threat of the crossbows, but some of them still threw rocks onto the battering ram to no avail. Gerald saw them stop for a few moments and then he spotted some bags being thrown down onto the shed of the ram. They also dropped a wooden barrel from above. The barrel landed on top of the battering ram's shed and broke open, spilling its contents on top of it. Then they threw down two more barrels until the whole battering ram was soaked.

"They don't have oil for defending against a siege," Gerald said, frowning. "But they do have some for their torches." He hadn't expected them to use the oil and pitch that are usually used for torches to soak the ram. The revelation didn't unsettle him though, because there were others to replace the battering ram at the gate.

The men under the shed of the battering ram had noticed the danger as soon as the oil had landed on top of the shed and begun dripping down on them. They quickly abandoned the cover of the shed and ran back towards the mantlets. At the same time, a torch descended from above and set the battering ram on fire. As the men who'd manned it before ran back towards the mantlets, a few of them were unfortunate enough to be struck by arrows. But most of them reached the mantlets and took cover behind them.

The problem that faced Gerald's men now was how to put down the fire and move the burned battering ram away.

Gerald shook his head. "I didn't think I'd have to join the battle myself this early." He eyed the mounted elite corps behind him. They were very few compared to the rest of the army. His eyes had even gotten accustomed to ignoring their presence since the beginning of the battle. He signaled for them and dismounted his horse.

The Warriors of the corps quickly dismounted as well.

Robard who was beside Gerald looked bewildered as he dismounted his horse. "My lord, are you planning to join the battle now? It's too dangerous."

"I need to be able to deliver my commands," Gerald said. "I will stop behind the mantlets." He grabbed the shield hung on the side of his horse. It was a large, round shield made of steel. Gerald was donning his black leather armor. He hadn't expected that he'd need to join the battle before the gate was breached, so he had chosen not to wear steel armor.

At least I brought a good shield.

He held his shield in his hand and nodded to Robard. The latter also took a shield from his horse and stood beside Gerald.

"Have someone bring us some ropes," Gerald told Robard.

Robard nodded and shouted his commands towards the 200-man reserve of the infantry. It didn't take long for the ropes to be delivered to Gerald's Warriors.

The Warriors of the elite corps were standing behind Gerald with their heater shields in hand, and some of them were carrying the ropes. They stood in two loose ranks. Gerald ran his eyes over them before he began trotting forward.