His forces had already constructed many ladders and a few catapults and towers. By midday, they would have many more constructed. He had formed his army up into ranks earlier this morning, both as a practice manoeuvre and to confuse the defending army. He had also sent out a group of orcs last night to locate as many human traps as they could and mark them with a small red flag. He'd not lose so many orcs this time to traps. Yes, preparations were coming along nicely.
* * *
"The orcs are forming up again," shouted Captain Hillsworth to General Kehar who was taking a brief rest down behind the city walls.
"Coming right up," shouted back the general. He was standing atop the wall next to Captain Hillsworth within moments and watching the orc ranks form up.
"Can we expect the orcs along the northern wall are doing the same, general?" asked the captain.
"Almost certainly. I'll send a runner around now to confirm though."
The runner was just behind the general, and so with a nod of confir-mation from him the runner set off at once. General Kehar had pulled a company each from the southern and eastern walls to strengthen the defence of the northern wall, as well as sending a few companies from the western wall. He was somewhat confident the orcs wouldn't try to attack from three sides of the city, but they were dumb orcs after all and so he left enough there to keep watch and defend if needed until help arrived.
Looking at the rear of the attacking army, General Kehar noticed the large towers on wheels come into view. He yelled out to the closest catapult crew to focus on those towers and to pass the word to the other crews. When he turned back to the west he noticed large ogres pulling and pushing these towers toward the front of the army. Once all the towers had reached the front an orcish war horn was blown and the army started its charge.
The towers were quickly overtaken by the charging army, but they were still advancing at quite a speed and there were twenty or so towers and many, many ladders being carried toward the walls. Once the charging force was within range, General Kehar gave the order for the catapults to fire at will. A second later he heard the closest catapult launch its load and watched the large boulder land atop a group of orcs and roll forward over yet more of them. The towers weren't yet in range and so the first round of catapult fire didn't destroy any of them but certainly upset the charge of the orcs.
As the army came into range of the longbow archers, General Kehar commanded them to fire and his command was carried the length of the wall by the captains. A stream of arrows went out, and the battlefield was so crowded that few missed a target, but still the orcs charged and it seemed as though the numbers weren't even reducing. A second round of catapult fire went off and this time the towers were obviously in range as one was smashed to bits by a flying rock hitting the centre of the tower. Only then did the general realise that the towers were loaded up with orcs. The tops of the towers were all sealed up to protect them from arrows and had a drop door at the front to quickly release the orcs. General Kehar now wished that more than one tower had been destroyed. The catapults were likely to only get one more shot before the towers were too close.
"Flame arrows," shouted the general, "and focus fire on those towers." The archers set their arrows in their bows while men with flaming torches ran in front of them to set the specially designed arrows alight. The arrows took flight and within seconds the towers were struck by many flaming arrows. As the flames started to spread on the towers, General Kehar smiled and relaxed thinking the towers were unlikely to even make it to the walls before they were burnt to the ground. That smile soon faded as the orcs inside the towers doused the flames with buckets of water they were carrying with them.
"Focus fire on the ogres," shouted the general, seeking to at least slow the progress of those towers. Moments later the ogres pulling and pushing the towers were beset by volleys of arrows and before long all the towers stopped their forward progress. That didn't last long though as groups of orcs picked up the ropes and started pulling the towers again while more orcs pushed from behind. It did however give the catapults more time to aim and fire and as a result five more towers were utterly destroyed. But the orcs had now reached the wall and were throwing up their ladders.
* * *
"Get those squish ramps loaded, lads" shouted General Ludko to his dwarves. He needn't have bothered though because they had mostly been loaded. The 'squish ramps' were basically just large ramps which could be angled over the edge of the city walls. They were designed so that they could roll along the length of the wall, or could even be pushed forwards to aim their 'ammo' further away from the walls. The 'ammo' was large rocks, roughly formed into spheres so that they would roll with ease. The ramps could tilt back so that rocks could simply be pushed into them, and then the rear could be raised with ropes and pulleys until the ramp was angled steeply towards the ground.
Two rocks were loaded at a time onto these ramps and were held back by walls connected to a triggering lever. Once triggered, the wall would drop down in front of a boulder, releasing it down the ramp and 'squishing' any orcs below. The second wall would hold back the rear boulder allowing for a second shot. The dwarves had a number of these devices set up along the length of the walls with ammo piled up beside them and a small crew of dwarves operating each one.
General Ludko watched as the orcs approached the walls. He saw the towers being smashed apart, but realised too that the majority of those towers would reach the walls. He also noticed another machine being pulled along in the centre of the battlefield. A large log, hung from ropes from a supporting frame was being pushed along on its huge wooden wheels. The purpose of this machine was easy to see; a huge swinging battering ram for opening the city gates.
"That's one way of knockin' on the door," said General Ludko to himself. He couldn't worry about that now though as the orcs reached the bottom of the walls. "All right lads, let's squish 'em," shouted the general.
The dwarves were quick to reply and the ramps were pushed forwards and the first boulder on each contraption released. The rocks rolled down the ramps and fell onto the orcs below trying to set their ladders and throw up their hook ropes. Soon after, the second rocks were released squishing even more orcs. The dwarves wasted no time at all in reloading their weapons. General Ludko was well pleased with the results of his design. Many orcs were being squished and orcs were scattering below him trying to get away from the falling rocks. Then the general saw the flaming bird appear.
* * *
Master Pilk watched on with interest the unfolding of this battle. He saw the effectiveness of the dwarven squish ramps and silently applauded the general for his ingenuity. Master Pilk and General Ludko had never really got along very well, but Pilk knew they both held a great deal of respect for the others abilities. Pilk wanted to do something about those approaching towers, but he was saving his strength for what he was almost sure would come. Moments later a smile found its way to the wizard's face as the orc shaman did the predictable. The large phoenix formed in the air and started flying toward the wall.
"Ignore the bird," shouted Pilk as he noticed a few arrows speeding off towards it, "I'll deal with it." He began his spell casting. As the bird was almost upon the wall preparing its first dive toward the defenders, a rain cloud formed above it and started raining directly onto the bird. The phoenix screamed in pain and changed course suddenly to escape the rain cloud. But it was pointless, Master Pilk had been working on this spell and perfecting it since seeing the phoenix at the fort, and the cloud followed the bird, relentlessly dropping rain upon it. The phoenix screeched and howled and rolled and dived, but all to no avail. Eventually it went dark and vanished, returning to its home world. Master Pilk knew that the conjuring of a phoenix was quite taxing on a spell caster and therefore he didn't expect too much more from that shaman. On the other hand, the rain cloud spell barely drained Pilk at all. Now, perhaps he could focus his attention on some of these towers.
* * *
Decke
r positioned himself front and centre atop the western wall. Being not of the Arthean army, technically he was not under the orders of anyone. He was still determined to help out wherever he could, and every general, major, captain, sergeant and squad leader knew that the ranger would know exactly where he would be of most use. He saw the phoenix in its death throes and finally winked out of sight, and silently applauded Pilk for his handling of such a dangerous foe.
His attention now though was on the giant battering ram which was quickly approaching the gates directly under him. He took his time lining up the shot with his bow before finally releasing the arrow. It sped out toward the machine and clipped the side of one of the ropes supporting the giant log, weakening the rope but not snapping it like Decker had wanted. His bow was already set before that arrow had even reached its mark and he lined up his shot yet again.
The second arrow missed entirely and Decker cursed himself. It was a difficult shot and few archers on Ka'ton would even come close to the mark, but Decker was always hard on himself and expected perfection. He quickly calmed down and set another arrow. This one struck true and severed the rope, making the huge log hang a little awkwardly but still perhaps functional. Decker couldn't have that and so he set about taking out a second rope. But as he loaded his bow, an orc appeared directly in front of him on top of a ladder that had been swung up from below.
It was bad timing for that orc as he received an arrow in his face at point blank range and went tumbling down to his doom. Decker called for a 'pushing pole' while he set another arrow calmly. Soldiers appeared next to him with a long pole with a 'Y' shaped end. They set that end against the ladder and pushed with all their might. The ladder was pushed back down, along with all the orcs that were currently climbing it.
With that threat out of the way, Decker focused again on the battering ram which was now much closer. This made his target much easier to hit and so he was relieved to see the rope snap and the huge log drop to the ground. Perhaps now he could concentrate on killing a few more orcs before he had to fight hand to hand, and so his bow began to sing as arrow after arrow went flying out, hitting their mark each time.
* * *
Master Pilk called six of the closest archers to him and one by one he cast an imbuing spell upon their quivers.
"Split up and start shooting at those towers. Your arrows should now be a bit more potent," said Pilk to the archers. "Don't target anything too close to you though," he warned as the archers sped off.
A short time later he knew that his imbuing had worked as an arrow struck a tower and a small fireball erupted on impact. The fire couldn't take hold on the now wet wood but it had still managed to weaken the structure and burn any nearby orcs within the tower. Pilk looked back to the archer who had fired the shot and saw the large smile that the man now wore.
Even with the help of the fireball arrows, the towers were still rolling in fast. Another four of them did collapse before they edged too close to safely use the enchanted arrows on them. The archers then started firing their arrows into the orc throng, concentrating on the most tightly packed spaces. As the arrows struck home, they exploded killing and wounding any nearby orcs. Many orcs became victims of the fireball arrows, but still they came on.
Master Pilk unleashed a massive fireball in the midst of the charging orcs as he began to think about how next he could be of help. An area ten paces in diameter became devoid of any life as the hungry flames destroyed all in their path. The sudden immense heat also had orcs dropping outside the immediately affected area. Pilk was a little surprised himself. Never had he been able to set off such a massive fireball, and although it did drain him of a fair amount of magical energy, he felt he had plenty of mana left to wreak some havoc. But his magic was now likely to be needed upon the wall as the towers finally reached their destination and the doors were dropped open, releasing the orcs inside in a sudden rush. That thought quickly changed however as lightning bolts harassed the defenders on the walls. Pilk surveyed the battlefield in search of any shamans.
Lightning storm spells could be enacted from a large distance, but the farther away a target, the less damaging the lightning. Judging from the power of the lightning bolts, Pilk knew the shaman couldn't be too far away, those bolts held enough power to seriously wound a soldier or even kill if a soldier were struck a couple of times. The battlefield was so crowded it took some time before Master Pilk finally spotted the offending shaman. He grabbed the archer nearby with the enchanted quiver and pointed the shaman out to him, asking if the archer could hit the target. The archer said that he could and set an arrow to his bow.
"Wait," said Master Pilk firmly, "on the count of three," Pilk prepared his spell so that it could be released with a flick of his finger, then started counting down from three. A second after he said one, the archer let fly.
Master Pilk followed the flying arrow with a powerful lightning bolt. The arrow hit its mark or, rather, it didn't quite hit its mark. The arrow hit something invisible in front of the shaman and exploded. The flame erupted all around the shaman but never touched him. Orcs nearby died from the fireball or were set alight, making them drop to the ground and roll to extinguish the flame, but the shaman was unaffected. That soon changed as Pilk's lightning bolt struck a second later. Master Pilk's guess had been accurate; the shaman had a shield up protecting him from both physical and magical attacks. The arrow and the resulting fireball had weakened that shield too much to stop the lightning bolt. The bolt was still weakened by the remnants of the shield and so the shaman was not killed, but thrown back and to the ground. The second lightning bolt that Master Pilk followed up with, though, did kill the shaman, and the lightning storms on the tower instantly vanished.
* * *
A few orcs had managed to gain the wall using the ladders in front of General Kehar and Captain Hillsworth, but they had been swiftly cut down and their bodies thrown back over the wall to squash and deter the orcs below. But now a tower reached the wall not too far from the men and orcs streamed out onto the wall. The tower had suffered some damage and so some of the orcs within had been killed or injured, but still enough came out to push the defenders back quickly, and more orcs below used the tower to gain access to the wall.
General Kehar rallied some men around him and ran to assist the men closer to the tower. As he neared the breach in the wall, General Kehar overtook some injured defenders, instructing men nearby to get them away from the danger and then he found himself fully engaged in a sword fight.
He parried the first wild swing of the attacking orc with ease and then proceeded with an aggressive counter that had the orc back stepping quickly. The general forced the orc's crude sword up high, as one of the men behind the general jabbed low, right into the belly of the orc. As that orc collapsed in a heap, General Kehar engaged a second orc, not stopping to thank the soldier for his help.
No one became the general of the Arthean army without some sword skills and the general showed everyone now why he was in that position. He forced the orc to parry low as he grabbed a dagger from his belt and jabbed it into the orc's neck. Turning side on, he kicked that orc into his comrade approaching behind. The orc did manage to mainly dodge the dying orc, but was put off balance for an instant. An instant far too long as General Kehar slashed across his stomach, spilling his innards all over the wall.
The general threw his dagger at the next approaching orc, hitting and sinking into the orc's neck. General Kehar rode him to the ground, retrieving his dagger in the same motion as he parried an attack from another orc. Bringing his dagger hand around swiftly, the general slashed open the orcs' arm, severing tendons and muscles, forcing the orc to drop his weapon. The orc took a desperate leap at the furious human, only to end up with a sword through his stomach protruding right out his back. General Kehar almost lost a grip on his sword from that move and was forced to backpedal as another orc came in at him.
He managed to parry that attack with his dagger, while he repositio
ned his sword arm. It wasn't long before the general had his footing again, and not long after that before a fatal strike was struck on the orc. As he continued through the thick traffic he came across more and more of his men and less and less of the enemy, until he was in sight of the tower. He yelled back for a barrel of fire oil and a torch as he charged in at a group of orcs.
* * *
Decker's final quiver was getting low, and no orcs had gained the wall anywhere near him and so he decided to move along the wall a bit, still shooting off his arrows at any target he noticed so as to locate a spot he could be of more use. As he fired off his second last arrow he found what he sought. A ladder had taken hold of the wall and the orcs were pressing hard against the defending army. He took a quick look over the edge of the wall and could see the ladder up ahead, bending under the weight of many orcs climbing it.
He pulled his head back in from over the edge and set his last arrow in his bow. He took a deep breath and leaned out over the wall again, only to quickly pull himself back in as an arrow soared toward him. Deciding it wise not to put his head back out in the same spot, Decker moved back a little bit along the wall. He leaned out again and put his bow out in front of him, leaving himself very vulnerable to attack from below. He pulled back on his bowstring as hard as he could and took aim. The instant he released his arrow, he pulled himself back in behind the wall, not wishing to make himself a target any longer than necessary. He soon knew he had hit his mark as he heard the crack of wood, and the cries and yells from the doomed orcs upon the now broken ladder. Now that he had cut off the flow it was time to push the enemy back and so he threw his bow back behind him, drew out his short sword and dagger and charged to the aid of the pressed soldiers.
* * *
The squish ramps were working perfectly. They were all still operating and as a result, no ladders could be raised anywhere near them. One of the towers had been on a course towards the dwarves who were holding the right flank of the wall, but the catapult crew had reduced that to rubble. The orcs had now realised that section of the wall was a section to be avoided and so worthwhile targets were harder to find.
The Gate - A New Breed of Orc (The Gate Series Book 1) Page 25
