The moment that the gate's harrow got lifted, Xantia's troops poured inside. While they were far better equipped and trained, in the narrow and cramped passage those advantages didn't amount to much. That's where the attackers commanding structure came into play.

After just a few initial clashes, soldiers backed out from the gate and set up a semicircle around the entrance. Putting great shields on the front with pikemen in the second row of the formation, this point of the battle stalled. With the cavalry clearing out the remaining troops on the plains, officers at the game simply waited for the rest of their army to arrive.

Noble's side didn't waste this opportunity. Realising what happened to the gate, some witty officer gathered some troops under him and launched an attack at the gatehouse, intending to put the harrow down. Due to the intricate mechanism, without doing this it was impossible to close the gate!

Mike had his hands full with tending to the wounded when he saw the soldiers emerging on top of the stairs and rushing towards the room. Making a decision didn't take him even a second.

"Help your friends!"

Throwing a bandage roll that he was using to the woman, he jumped to the doors and barricaded them with all the loose furniture laying around. While the doors were rather heavy and durable, with enough determination and numbers, enemies would easily burst them open. With everything he could think off to secure their place already done, he jumped towards the outer window, opened the wooden cover and leaned outwards.

"Hurry up! We won't hold them for long!"

The young man shouted from the bottom of his lungs towards the troops at the bottom of the walls. Even before he managed to get back into the building, the tiny cracks started appearing all over the doors. While they were reinforced with the metal fitting, under the relentless hits of swords, axes and hammers, they had to give up sooner or later.

"We will hold the door, figure out how to break the lifting mechanism!"

One of the wounded noticed how dire the situation was. Without caring for his health, he lifted himself, raised one of the shields lying around on his side and slammed his body on the door.

Luckily, either someone from the Xantia heard Mike's desperate plea or their reinforcements arrived. With an entire unit of archers located right behind the shield wall, they took aim and send salvo upon salvo of arrows into the narrow entrance.

Everyone that was there and was inexperienced in the ways of war, died instantly. Everyone with brains or at least some degree of previous experience either rushed inside the city. In just a few short moments, the passage was clear.

Not going to waste the opportunity, heavy armoured footsoldiers rushed inside and instantly started pouring on the gate plaza. Mike's previous shout quickly proved to be effective, with more than a hundred people rushing up the stairs to clear out the enemies near the gatehouse. With that, the gate was lost to the Nobles.

Finally able to go outside, Mike was greeted with a beautiful sight. With line formations blocking the street entrances to prevent any trouble for the fresh units entering the city, Xantia was forcing its way into the town. Enemies outside were already either rooted out or captured, allowing for the core forces to make their way towards the heart of the enemy. Closed between the City Hall defending forces and the Xantia's army stepping on their backs, Noble's were surrounded. As long as other gates wouldn't fall, it was just a matter of time before the victory would be secured!

Standing on top of the walls, Mike's had a great vantage point that allowed him to see the events taking place far into the city. Only when he focused his sight in the far-off distance, did he notice the scale of the uprising of the town's residents. While it would be normal for the Aristocrats owned areas to stand up against Noble's intrusion, even their own population has risen against them!

With the current state of the events, what was the regular Hikar's army, already turned into nothing more than a crowd bound by the constant small fights into small groups. While his elites were donned in heavy armour and wielded great weapons, Mike could only look at them with pity when they tried to cut down those pesky peasants who dared to oppose them.

This was the greatest of Noble's mistake. Heavy units were one of the most dangerous weapons of the current times. On the open plains, no matter how many lightweight troops were thrown against them, only bad luck could make them lose that fight. In the case of the better-trained soldiers, even a cavalry attack was powerless against them!

But all this armour that made those warriors so durable in the open, proved to be fatal in the tight spaces of the alleys. Oversized weapons capable of cutting entire rows of the enemies in front of them were only hindering their movements if they weren't able to take a swing. Placed against a massive crowd of commoners, those elite troops mired in place.

While the commoners didn't have the proper weapons capable of tearing the metal can that called itself a heavy soldier apart, they had more than enough tools to bring them hell. You can't land a hit against an enemy? Then just go back to your home, boil calmly some water and pour it through the small gaps in the helmet. You can't strike any vitals of the warrior? Then just pull him inside the crowd and hammer the soldier into the ground with chairs, wooden maces or just a piece of rubble that lies everywhere around!

When Mike looked to the side, he saw the first sparks of a fire, set up by an unknown party. It didn't matter who started it, as it now was spreading downwind, towards Noble's position. While it was a nice stroke of fate for now, if no one were to stop it soon, it could devour the entire city!

Unable to watch from the side for any longer, Mike jumped down the stairs and found one of the dead Xantia's soldiers. While it could look disrespectful towards the fallen comadre, he needed his armour to blend in with the rest of the troops. While he would never be mistaken for a Noble with his tattered clothes, if he were to join the street fighting, he needed some sort of protection. While he did his best to leave the corpse in the best state possible, Mike quickly dressed up the lighter parts of the Xantia armour. Now, he was ready to take revenge for the entire situation caused by the count Hikar greed!

Reaching the current frontline didn't take him long. While the friendly soldiers were advancing quickly at first, the sheer amount of Noble's forces forced them to conquer every meter of the streets by laying down at least a dozen of enemy corpses down. Despite visibly better organisation and prowess of the Xantia troops, they took many casualties in this process as well. There was simply no way to avoid them during a chaotic city battle!

Squeezed in between the Xantia and City Hall, Count's army had nowhere to run. While some could hide in the buildings, jump from the window to window or escape through the roofs, it was a solution for the individuals, not the numerous group!

As soon as he reached the point of contact between the hostile forces, Mike noticed a small figure commanding her soldiers from the third row. With her petite build, she couldn't join in the slugfest between two lines of shields and pikes, but she didn't budge even a bit when people were tearing each other apart just inches away from her.

Just from those characteristic, Mike was sure that he knew who that person was. While he felt a deep urge to greet her after all those years, a battle wasn't a great scenery to start a reunion. Startling the commander in the middle of a fight would only result in loses, giving the potentially happy event a bad after taste. Holding back for a few moments was a rational price for the life of few men!

The fight itself looked like a stalemate for an inexperienced eye. With two equally matched units baring their fangs at each other, the loses were surprisingly small. Unless the shield wall broke on either of the sides, this skirmish could go on for hours without any results!

With just a few pieces of light armour on him, Mike agility wasn't hindered almost at all. Joining the unit would bring close to no effect, so he had to figure out a way to hinder the enemies in a different way. Daring not to waste even a single moment, Mike knocked the doors to the nearby house open and entered the building.

"I'm only going to pass through! If anyone is here, don't bother with me!"

At this point of the battle, only those who were incapable or unwilling to fight would remain in the houses. Announcing himself like that could save him the trouble of killing innocent citizens, who would only try to defend themselves. Soon, his action proved to be correct. After climbing the small stairs to the second floor, he caught a glimpse of a family of five tugged into the corner of the room, with the parents holding a knifes extended towards him.

"I need to get onto the roof. Can you tell me where the ladder is?"

With the limited space in the city, most of the houses used their roofs as an additional living space. Be it parties or simply lazing around while basking in the sun, they were commonly used for that purpose. With that in mind, there had to be easy access to it somewhere in the building and it was far easier to just ask about it instead of rummaging through the entire house while risking a sudden stab from the scared owner!

"Next room on the right."

With his voice breaking, the father still managed to give a word of advice.

"Thanks."

Noticing the shaking hands of both of the parents, Mike hurried to the place described by the man. Scaring them any longer could result in some unpleasant events that would only sour Mike's mood. If he could avoid bothering them, he was keen on doing so.

Finding the ladder, Mike swiftly ascended to the roof. As soon as he got there, he didn't waste any time, took a few steps to gain enough momentum and jumped. With just a single meter of the pit width between the buildings, he could make this jump from the spot, but he needed some force to what he was going to do next.

Upon landing, Mike didn't stop and kept running to the side. As soon as he closed to the building side, plunged his sword into the corner between the short, stone fence and the ceiling. Using the momentum he had, the young man managed to dislodge some of the bigger stones, pushing them off the building right on Noble's line of shields!

Even if those few stones couldn't break the soldier's line, when Mike started digging out separate pieces and throwing them precisely at the frontline warriors helmets, the effects showed in an instant. Xantia's leader wasn't as dumb to miss this opportunity!

As soon as the first Noble's soldier lost his balance after the direct hit to his head, she instantly pushed her men forward to enlarge the gap that appeared in the enemy line. With three pikes plunged forward and to their respective sides, three enemy soldiers were hit in their vitals! The moment that they staggered upon getting hit, Xantia's line bulged and two men rushed forward. With their formation firmly lodged into opponents force, the stalemate broke up instantly.

The biggest advantage of this kind of formation was how hard it was to break. On the other side, as soon as a single flaw appeared, if the opposing force was able to bank on it, it was doomed to collapse. With the organised unit using the advantage of tight formation against the enemies without the cover, it was just a matter of time before the fight would be over!

Seeing that the events proceeded according to his wishes, Mike jumped over now broken fence, grabbed the edge of the building and jumped down to the street. As soon as his feet touched the ground and he managed to straighten himself, he felt someone jumping into his embrace!

Recognising the familiar smell, Mike closed his arms around the person's back and tightened his grip.

"It's been a while, Revy."