Chapter 4

The Baron, along with Udo and the rest of his company made their way to the town of Baktenburg. The Baron’s intelligence network informed him the garrison was made up of 125 city militia men with swords and shields, and 40 knights, meaning their defenders made up 165 men in total. They were being organized by a Mercenary they had brought in from the Orkney Isles named Seamus Craobhn. The men that the Baron brought with him numbered 264 in total.

Conventional wisdom said that a successful siege requires at least 3 times the number of the defender, and the Baron was quite short of that so he would have to get creative. If the Baron wanted to take the town quickly he would need to figure out a way to make the defenders surrender quickly. The Baron sat down with Udo and a spearman named Hans to discuss what should be done. Hans was sitting on a cut log, drinking the tea the Baron offered and looking

confused.

“Um, sir, I hope this doesn’t come off as rude, but why am I here? I’m just a foot soldier.”

“Well Hans, for lack of a better way to explain it, we need a person to tell us if what we are planning is reasonable for the average person.”

“Yeah, we don't know what it's like to be normal, so we kinda need to know what normal people can do. And we gotta know what you guys can do in case we decide to do something...cool.

Without our fellow powerhouses, we're kind of limited on what we can do without fancy formations and stuff.”

Udo looked proud of his mediocre explanation. Hans still looked slightly incredulous. The Baron smiled and tossed the man a small leather bag.

“Also, you will receive an extra 50 Reiksgeld for your time.” Hans raised the bag slightly and nodded his head in gratitude.

“Good enough for me.”

“Excellent! Then, Hans, what do you think about us infiltrating the town and opening the gates? Some of us could scale the wall and get into the gatehouse. Deal with whoever is there, open the portcullis and the gate, and then we are in. Our men could make quick work of the militia, and there are too many of them for the knights to hold off for any extended period of time.”

Hans again looked incredulous.

“Well Baron, with all due respect, shouldn’t we just wait here for the other mercenary companies to reinforce us?”

“Well, we would like to keep as much of the glory we can, and what could possibly speak of our superiority other than finishing up our battle and taking the city on our lonesome? We have a reputation to protect!”

“And, the Empress will give us a bunch of money if we succeed, and she'll probably think we're real strong, meaning more work and more Reiksgeld for us!”

Hans nodded sagely.

“Fair enough.”

“Well...do you think we can do it? Climb the walls and take the gatehouse without our aforementioned ‘powerhouses’?”

Hans scruffed his goatee in thought.

“Well...we could probably pull it off. If your information's right, and we had some climbing gear and time to catch our breath after climbing...it would be hard but we could do it, especially with you two leading us.”

"We have climbing claws I commissioned from the Hou during my time in Der Dschungel, they are designed to bite into wood enough to climb. I have enough for 10 men, do you think that would be enough?” Wait, who are the Hou? That just kind of came out of my mouth but I have no real idea what that means.

“Well, it’d be pretty hard, but we could probably pull it off. Probably.”

“Great! Then we will get started immediately. Hans, how good are you with a sword and shield?”

“I mean, I’m just a spearman. I haven’t been in your company long enough to consider learning other weapons besides the spear.”

The Baron stood up and slapped him on the shoulder.

“Then it was nice talking to you friend! Your extra payment will be given out after this campaign ends as usual.”

Hans shot up and saluted, then walked away. Udo and the Baron sat back down and continued their discussion. Wait, I already gave him his extra payment...oh well.

“Well, if we’re gonna climb the walls we need to make some noise somewhere else so we don’t get noticed and torn to ribbons while climbing.” The Baron scratched the side of his neck as he briefly thought up possibilities.

“Well...we have explosives. Not enough to break down the gate but it makes a lot of noise. And we could have our musketeers fire at the walls and try to hit people. Do we have any drums or loud instruments? Remember, I am brain damaged, I don't know what we are carrying besides weapons.”

“Oh, right. Almost forgot. Well, I got no idea, we don’t use drums to help with marching like the elves do, so I assume any instruments we have would be personal things the men left at camp.” Elves? Did he say elves? Is this some fantasy world or something? I have so much reading to do when this campaign is over.

“Well, then I guess we just need to get the powder and whatnot ready and eight other men prepped and briefed. Ask them for volunteers who have experience climbing but prioritize the best fighters, understood?”

“Alright Baron, I’ll get on that right away.”

It took Udo only 15 minutes to gather the volunteers required and to get them geared up. The Baron informed them of the plan as they prepared for the climb.

“Ok! First, we wait for the explosives to be set off. That should draw their attention and some of the patrolling militia should rotate over, leaving a lighter presence in this gatehouse and allowing us to take it much easier. After we take the gatehouse we open the gate and signal the rest of our men to begin the assault by shooting a flaming arrow into the air.” He held up a small jar filled with a clear liquid.

“Someone will wrap an arrow in cloth and dip it into this solution. When you light it on fire the flame will be green, green means go. It may be hard for them to see the color, but, well, I have the chemicals so we might as well use them. Anyways, afterwards, we will go around and hunt their leader, Seamus of the Orkney Isles, and his knights. Taking out their leadership takes away the men who could rally them to the town's defense. If everything goes well, they should surrender quickly, and we can sit back and relax with the knowledge that we are getting paid extra for our hard work.”

A few minutes after briefing everyone, there was a deafening BOOM and the crack of musket shots. They waited a minute before climbing the wall, to give the militia time to rotate. The men found their climb to be relatively easy, the climbing claws and rough surface of the wooden wall made for easy foot and hand holds. It took the men about 15 minutes to all climb up the wall, reaching the top without any resistance.

The Baron gave them a minute to catch their breath, and then led them to the gatehouse. They were all carrying small crossbows, not big enough to puncture plate armor but big enough to get through anything the militia was wearing. In addition to the crossbows, the Baron had his four pistols and four flashbombs. After walking around for a short time they got to the entrance of the gatehouse. There were two guards posted outside of it. The Baron made a hand signal and two of the men unslung their crossbows. He grabbed two other men and posted them behind the crossbows.

“I want you two to shoot them in the neck as simultaneously as possible, and then I want you two to rush forward and grab them before they can hit the ground, if they make enough noise when they fall the men inside will come and investigate.”

All four of them nodded and took up their positions.

One of the guards sneezed and the Baron signaled to his men. The guards were dead before they could even process what happened, the only sounds coming out of their mouths were the wet gurgling sounds of a throat filled with blood. The other two men rushed forward to grab them, but one of them stumbled, grabbing the falling man a bit clumsily, allowing his arm to hit the ground, making a dull but very noticeable thud. He quietly cursed and hoisted the man up, getting him out of the line of sight.

“Damn it, well, can't have everything. I wasn’t going to use this because it’s loud, but, time to improvise!”

The Baron pulled out a small black ball, grabbing a ring attached to a bit of twine. It made a satisfying click as he pulled the twine out of the ball and began to spit out sparks. At the same time he grabbed a crossbow from one of his men and pointed it at the door. A second later the door opened and the Baron pulled the trigger, sending the bolt into the militia man’s eye, killing him instantly.

Almost as soon as he pulled the trigger he dropped the crossbow and threw the bomb over the guards shoulder, it exploded in a blinding white light, engulfing the 20 or so men guarding the gatehouse. The Baron drew his pistol and saber and charged in, followed shortly by his men. He slammed into the first man he saw, shoving him into the wall with the blade of his saber against the man's neck, pushing the blade through using the force of his charge and the leverage of his forearm. He felt the blade bite into the man's spine and sever it, there was no coming back from that wound. He pulled out the blade and spun around to see the carnage. Most of the defenders were being cut down without a fight, being completely blind and deafen made it rather hard to fight back.

Most were killed before they even knew what was happening. The Baron did a quick headcount of the room, in total five of his men charged in, three of them had most likely stayed behind in case anyone came to investigate the noise from that direction. There were 17 enemies in the room, right now seven of them were lying on the floor or slumped against the walls, either dead or dying. There were four knights in the room, but the rest were militia. None of the knights were yet dead but some of them likely got caught up in the flashbomb. One of them was trying to rally the men around him, but his attempts were unsuccessful. They were all either busy fighting or busy being stunned by the flashbomb.

Udo rushed at him and swung his sword overhead in a wide arc, the knight threw himself to the side at the last second and his sword smashed through the table, sending splinters flying everywhere. It would take some serious strength to smash through a table like that, is that what medieval knights used to be like? Or is this some sort of fantasy world where some people are unnaturally strong? The Baron mused as he parried a wild strike by one of the militia men attempting to regain his bearings.

The Baron could tell exactly what was going to happen next. The man was going to attempt to stab the Baron, but he would miss by a wide margin. Of this the Baron was absolutely sure. Just as he began to draw his sword back to stab, the Baron stepped into his guard and slashed at his wrist, making him drop his sword and hold his hand in pain. Wait, thought the Baron, what the hell was that? I could see what he was gonna do? He moved over to help Udo deal with the knights.

Udo was locked in single combat against one of the knights, their melee was a whirlwind of feints and parries, but the battle was clearly favoring Udo. He ducked under a swipe that could very well have taken his head and slammed into the knight shoulder first, knocking the wind out of him and sending him crashing into the wall. Udo grabbed his sword by the blade and swung down onto the knight’s head, piercing his helmet with the points of his handguard. Blood dripped down his face and the knight moaned in pain as Udo tried to dislodge his handguard out of the man’s skull.

Another knight who had gotten over the initial blast came to avenge his fallen comrade, and Udo tried desperately to dislodge his sword from the man’s helmet. The knight lifted his sword into the air and began a devastating downward swing, Udo didn’t have time to dislodge his sword or roll away. Just as the strike was about to split his skull, the Baron stepped in, batting the blade out of the way just in time. The Baron spin kicked the knight in the stomach, putting distance between him and Udo. Udo finally pulled his sword out of the man’s skull, it came free with an awful sucking sound. He wiped the handle with the cloth of the knights tabard and lifted his sword up, grabbing it with two hands and resting the blade on his elbow, pointing the tip at the neck of one of the other two knights getting ready to engage them. The Baron assumed his battle stance as well, his sword arm close to his body, holding the sword vertically and his pistol behind him pointing up. The last knight was fighting against three of the Baron’s men, the rest of the militia men were either dead or wounded.

Despite being surrounded, the knight was fairing rather well. Two of them came at him at once, one from the front and one from the back. He moved his torso sideways and dodged both downward strikes at once, pulling one of them to the ground and simultaneously kicking the other man. As soon as the man he pulled was on the ground the knight pushed his blade into him throat, rolling off of him to dodge a swipe from someone else, slicing another man’s hand off at the wrist as he rolled back up to his feet, swiftly decapitating the man as he screamed and grabbed his newly severed hand.

Someone thrusted at him and he batted it aside, stepping in and stabbing his sword into the man's body, grabbing him and using him as a human shield to block another strike. Luckily his armor proved strong enough to deflect the blade of his comrade, not adding to his already grievous wound, but a second later the knight pushed him into another soldier who charged him, spinning around to slam his blade in the side of another man, bits of metal from his armor flew everywhere as the knights sword slammed through his ribs with unreal force, killing him instantly. The knight’s strength proved to be his undoing though, as four men attacked him simultaneously. He tried to pull his blade out to parry some of the oncoming attacks, but it got caught in the ribcage of the newly fallen soldier. Two sword strikes hit home, stabbing through or slashing at gaps in his armor, putting the knight out of commission. One of the men straddled the knight and took off his helmet and mail coif, slashing the man’s throat with his dagger to avenge his four fallen comrades.

The first person to strike was Udo, rushing forward and stabbing at open area of the knight’s conical helmet. He brought up his sword at an angle and quickly parried, allowing the blade to slide off his own blade and quickly making a retaliatory strike aimed at Udo’s shoulder. Udo responded with the same move and same riposte. The knight blocked his strike and locked swords with Udo at the hilt, getting into a pushing match to gain control of the battle.

The other knight rushed at the Baron, lifting his sword up, pretending to strike at the Baron’s right shoulder, but the Baron knew he was going to feint and stab at his hip. The Baron didn’t even react to him raising his sword, he was absolutely sure his strike would be a jab at his left hip. Just as he predicted the course of the sword began to change, and the Baron stepped forward to preemptively parry his strike, batting the knight's sword to the side and stabbing at his knee in the same motion. He was barely able to dodge the Baron’s strike, jumping back and almost losing his footing.

The Baron rushed forward and flicked his wrist to bring the tip of his saber down onto the knight's shoulder, testing his guard. The knight brought his sword up and blocked the blow at the last second. The Baron wasn’t really sure how he could even tell what was happening through the tiny eye holes in his great helm, but what really mattered was that he could see what was happening. The Baron used the momentum from the knight's sword to flick his own sword to the other side of his shoulder, stabbing at his mail coif with the dull edge of his saber facing the man. It wasn’t enough to pierce his armor but it told the Baron roughly how much strength he needed to put into his attacks and how fast he needed to move to break the knight’s guard or armor.

Udo was pushing back against the conical helmed knight’s onslaught. He was slowly gaining the upper hand in their pushing match, pushing the knight back inch by inch. Soon enough Udo was completely in control, pushing down on the man until his back was arched at a strange angle. Udo reeled back and punched the man as hard as he could in his exposed face, sending the knight to the ground, his nose a broken, bloody mess. Udo grabbed his sword at the middle and stabbed down at the knight, who rolled to the side just in time to avoid being gored. Udo rushed at him, continuing to stab at the knight as he continued to roll away just in time.

Soon there was a crowd forming, the Baron’s men who were not watching out for approaching militia men or tending to the wounded were watching in a semi-circle around them, deciding to watch the melee unfold and only step in if things were looking bad for Udo or the Baron. The knight finally scrambled to his feet, backing into the wall and ducking beneath Udo trying to slam his guard into the knight’s neck, perching on the balls of his feet and spearing Udo, tackling him to the ground and straddling him.

Udo brought up his guard as the knight began wailing on him wildly. Udo struggled under him, managing to the knight off his hips and get his legs somewhat free. The knight pulled back and went for as powerful a punch as he could manage, but Udo parried his strike and pulled him into a choke, firmly wedging the knight's neck into his armpit. The knight struggled against him but could do nothing to break Udo’s vice-like grip. Slowly, his resistance against Udo started to fade, and his eyes began to roll into the back of his head. Udo released him and quickly went to grab his sword, which was embedded in the wall, and slammed the blade down on the knight’s neck, smashing through the chainmail and severing his head, finishing him off before the knight could get back to his feet.

The Baron and Buckethelm were staring into each other's eyes, waiting for the other to make a move. Both of them shifted in their guards nervously. The Baron dropped deep in thought for just a moment. Am I really ok with this? Shooting people from hundreds of yards away who you can barely see is one thing, but this is up close and personal, I feel as though I should feel something...more. Maybe it’s the Baron. Perhaps his personality and values are mingling with mine or something. Whatever, now is not the time for this.

Soon the knight rushed forward, he was about to slash upward, a straight forward strike, but at an awkward angle. The Baron hit his sword with as much force as he could muster, knocking it down and almost out of the knight's hand. The Baron hit his helmet with a pommel strike and followed it up with a flying knee to the chest, knocking the wind out of the knight and sending him crashing into a wall. The Baron leaned forward and stabbed at the knight, aiming for the gap where his chausses meet his chestplate. The knight dodged to the side and punched the Baron in his covered eye.

He almost fell to his knees completely. His vision was dark and filled with stars, but it quickly recovered. Luckily the Baron also did a number on the knight, he was in no position yet to take advantage of the Baron’s stumbling, and after a short break they both resumed their fighting positions. The Baron wanted to end this, the fight was taking far too long, they came here with an objective in mind, he would have time for this kind of thing later when the plan dictated it. His saber was enchanted, he remembered, and made with extremely high quality steel. It was sharper than almost any sword and it could only be broken by something like the Empress’s Steelslayer or similar enchanted swords. The knight's sword seemed to be just a normal sword, unenchanted, noticeable dents and nicks covered the blade from their engagement.

The Baron settled on his plan and began to act it out. He rushed forward, making seemingly wild swings, being blocked easily. The Knight must have felt there was something going on, the person who was fighting him a minute ago who showed great skill and years of practice was now hacking at him like a common bandit, so he just blocked, waiting to see what trap he was about to spring. He didn’t notice until too late that the Baron’s seemingly wild swipes were actually very controlled and powerful, striking the same spot on the blade until it broke, flying off and Imbedding itself in the wall. The knight and the onlookers were stunned. The knight tried to back up but the Baron was on him, flicking his wrist so that the top of his curved blade poked over his guard and into his face, stabbing him through the eye. Not enough to kill him but enough to put him out of commission. He stepped back and covered his eye hole, trying to stop the bleeding, but he couldn’t reach his bleeding eye without taking off his helmet. The Baron pointed his blade at the knight’s throat.

“Well? Do you surrender? We will take you alive should you choose to do so.”

The knight vigorously nodded his head and ripped off his greathelm. As far as the Baron could tell, the man was around 30 year old. The Baron turned to his men.

“Tend to him men, unlike his comrade he didn’t take any of us.”

The Baron turned back to the knight who was sitting on the floor holding his ruined eye.

“Also, sorry for taking your eye...and your comrades.”

He gestured meekly towards the dead and dying on the floor. The knight smiled bitterly.

“I will mourn their deaths, but a good mercenary never holds a grudge, especially when on the job.”

“My my, how honorable. Though I took you men for knights.”

“We are knights. Or, at least were knights. Our previous lord died, and we haven't gotten around to signing on with another lord yet, so we’re doing mercenary work.”

“I didn't think knights were a legal classification, we are well past our feudal days, and Bickenstadt got rid of the knight system decades ago. Oh, pardon my rambling. Anyways, I hope you are not too attached to the other knights, or your main leader, because...we are going hunting.”

The knight slumped down against the wall, holding his eye.

“Oh, and we’ll have to tie you up. Udo!”

Udo brought out some rope and tied the knight to a chair. The Baron walked over where they entered.

“Men, has anyone come to check on this gate house?” One of the men poked his head into the gatehouse.

“It’s all quiet out here sir.”

“Excellent, now get these gears moving. And someone rip up some cloth to wrap this arrow.” The Baron grabbed a bow and arrow from the wall and pulled out the vial of clear liquid. His men got the gate’s gears opening and someone wrapped the Baron’s arrow with cloth. The Baron dipped the Arrow into his vial and stuck it in a torch lighting up the room. It caught, glowing a dazzling green flame. The gate was opening and the Baron stepped out of the room onto the wall, nocking the flaming arrow and firing it into the air. After about 20 seconds he heard the sounds of his troop running off in the distance and saw a huge cloud of dust being kicked up. The Baron stepped back into the gate house.

“Alright men, hold this gatehouse. Keep the gate open until everyone starts pouring in, then rejoin them and fight the militiamen. If they surrender, tie them up and leave them somewhere safe. I want no pillaging or burning, but I guess I won’t be there to stop you from taking a thing or too, just don’t go crazy. Oh and absolutely no rapes, these are fellow Empiresmen, and we're mercenaries for God's sake not some raging barbarian horde. Understood?”

They all saluted in unison. And shouted “YES SIR!”

“Udo, we are going hunting, understood?” Udo covered a nostril with his thumb and blew some blood out onto the floor.

“Yessir! We going together or splitting up?”

“Splitting up. Try to take people by surprise, and don’t attack big groups unless you’re sure you can pick some off and disappear. Understood?” Udo quickly nodded his head and sprinted out of the room, jumping off the wall and onto the roofs to stalk around the town and take out any patrols he can find that look like easy targets. After laughing internally about how eager Udo was to find trouble, the Baron did the same.