Age of Warriors

[Dugan195]

Lady Beauboun laughed, "So you want to follow my plan of attacking full force you say? Risky, but they are few in number it just might work. We will finish gathering up material for Muez to throw while we summon the rest of the troops encamping around the fort back here. We will be able to attack by midday." With that siad Lady Beauboun left to go send runners to summon the troops. The troops were terrified of Muez's war machine, but the three champions knew the destructive power that it had.

Soon it was midday and the attack was about to begin, Lady Beauboun stood in full armor before the troops that were lined up in three separate bodies that would attack opposite sides of the side of the fort as well as the fort's entrance under Crux's protection. The men were still hyped up from their previous victories against the southern troops. They cheered as Muez had his creation pick up the first of the boulders that had been gathered. Muez flung it at the wall. The boulder fell just short of the wall, leaving a huge crater in the ground where it fell. "Adjust your aim Muez and we will have those bastards keeping their heads down in no time." Lady Beauboun cheered as Muez picked up the next boulder that had been gathered. This one flew over the wall and into the courtyard that lay beyond it.

The troops cheered as the boulder flew into the court yard and the cries of fear from the men inside spurred the men of the Northern-Eastern alliance into action. The men started to charge without orders towards the wall. They didn't have any fear of dying they knew they would win the battle without any difficulty. They had swatted the Southern men twice already, they would do it a third time. The boulders, logs, and debris have begun to do their work, but it did not shut the defenders down entirely. Archers on wall started to sling arrows into the rushing troops and they started to take some light casualties.

"Damn these eager bastards how dare they charge without order!" Lady Beauboun screamed as she stomped her foot. "Crux move with the center attack, bash in the gate. Muez keep the rain going, stop for nothing. I will hold the reserve of 800 men here."

(Curx has a 1000 swordsmen with him. Each corner has 1250 and Beauboun has 400 in reserve Muez has 100 men helping him. Muez cannot move his creation, if he does then he will not be able to keep hurling things. If leaves his spot then he will not be able to hurl more things)  

[Joa-Boo]

“Muez you must hit the main gate. We need to get in there before we all die. I am relaying on you!” Crux yelled back as he charged with the men rushing the wall. They would be sitting against the wall while they waited, some may climb, but with archers bringing them down, it was doubtful they would climb it. At least they had their forces split. That helped.

Crux knew they would be sitting ducks if they just waited against the wall so he called most of the men around him to form up defensively. Those with shields pointed them upward and those with out them hid underneath.

“Damn we need archers to return fire. Where did all our archers go?” Crux yelled out loud as he looked around at a bunch of swordsmen. They were still eager to get inside. It must have been in human nature to fight. It had been so long since the normal man picked up a sword that they all had become blood thirsty after killing their first. Crux wasn’t just running around with soldiers, he had killers on his side. He wasn’t sure if that was good or not. They moved as a slow block, waiting for Crux to remove the door before they charged fully.  

[Dugan195]

The archers that Crux had called for where in fact there, they were just on the corners with the other men. As the blocks of charging men appoarched the wall the archers started to pause to take shots back at the men on the wall. This helped Muez put the heads of the archers down. Muez kept on chucking objects at the wall. When Muez heard Crux's cry for him to aim at the door he started to adjust his aim. "No you full! Don't throw the boulders at the door. Curx is a moron who only cares about his own progress." Lady Beauboun shouted as Muez threw the first of the boulders at the door but missed, it hit the wall next to the door and crack a rock or two , but did not real damage. "Do not stop throwing at the top of the wall." She protested in rage. As Muez hesitated, distracted by the multitude of orders the archers on the wall jumped back up and started to let more arrows fly, causing men in all three groups to drop. "Muez the gate is not important, only Curx's group benefits from them breaking in."

The two groups on the corner of the wall were nearing the wall, but were starting to take noticeable casualties, they still greatly outnumbered the South, but that gap was closing unless a breach was made soon. Scigle sat atop the walls above the gate looking at Crux's block moving slowly towards the gate, "Curx you are a great warrior, but a full you will never break through that gate, I have seen to that personally." he said to himself softly as he looked towards the groups moving towards the corners of the fort.

The first of the men had started to reach the wall and were starting to climb it. The archers on top of the wall were shooting them straight down the wall like fish in a barrel. The only thing that helped them was the archers amongst them could focus their shots at the area around the points they were trying to climb. Archers from atop the walls started to fall on the front of the wall with arrows pricking into them, one of the falling corpses knocked a swordsman from the wall to his death as well. The death count was already in the hundreds and would just keep increasing if this kept going on.  

[Joa-Boo]

“I don’t know about this Lady Beauboun. The archers don’t seem to care much for these giant rocks I’m throwing. It wasn’t pulling affecting them enough. I’m with Crux on this one. He may benefit but what he does is for us all. They will have to bring all the attention to him and that is what he wants. I would continue with your command if it was affecting the archers a bit more.” Muez yelled taking another shot at the wall. Muez was worried. He had to focus more. Everything was riding on what he could do with his puppet. “Don’t fail me now war machine!”

Crux knew things were getting grim. They needed to get into that fort and they needed to do it fast. A strange though came to mind. It was crazy but if Muez couldn’t take down the door they would have to find another way in. He was ready for either to happen.  

[Dugan195]

Crux's men were slowed down quite a bit by the archers pelting them with arrows, but they sustained few deaths. They were making progress towards the door, and that was the important part. The rate the arrows rained down did not stop as they got closer, the archers just had to lean over the ledge a little and fire straight down into the soldiers, that part of the plan was not working like they thought it would. The men on the corners were not in a good position, they were able to climb the walls of the fort, but it was a slow process. Those on the walls were sitting ducks waiting for an archer to pick them off defenseless. Those who sat below the wall waiting for a chance to climb could defend themselves but we re prime targets and gathered like fish in a barrow for the archers on the top of the wall. Without Muez's giant chucking stones at the top of the wall the archers did not hesitant to repeatedly fire into the attacking soldiers. The archers on the alliance's side were returning fire, but aiming so high up against fortification made shooting the enemy hard, plus they were being picked out by the archers up top.

Muez launched another boulder at the gate denting it but the boulder fell back onto the ground, if they hit the gate a couple of more times then Muez might be able to knock the gate loose enough for Crux to break through it.  

[Joa-Boo]

“s**t this isn’t working. Flee men. We will wait outside their archers range like we should have the entire time. Once a hole in the wall presents itself I will throw up my lance to motion for you all to charge. I am going to wait here and fill the hole as soon as it shows to keep it open. NOW FORM UP AND GET BACK UNTIL I GIVE THE SIGNAL!” Crux yelled as they slowly moved back from the wall. “And someone tell Muez to aim for the wall.” Crux stood by the wall, rooted into the ground, and then threw up his shield. He was hopping they would waste all their ammo on him.  

[Dugan195]

Scigle mounted the wall over where Crux had positioned himself and laughed, "Men don't waste your arrows on the shield of the North, nor his retreating men! Use them to kill the men on the corners, if they want to retreat part of their forces make them pay for it dearly!" He shouted excited about how well the battle was going for them. Their causalities were light compared to the ones the alliance's men were taking. With the high walls, the arrows only hit men occasionally, and these weren't even always fatal. The alliance's men on the ground were exposed to arrow fire and formed up into big blocks of men that made aiming easy. A piece of rock came crashed into the wall below Scigle and made it shake, Scigle stood his ground. "These rocks were a good idea Crux, but Muez's contraption will never throw enough rocks to crack this wall, not before we have annilated your forces. You bested my men twice, now it is time for you to feel the shame of losing."

Scigle left the wall to return to whatever he was doing inside the keep. Crux's men proceeded to retreat relatively unharassed. The men on the corners however were taking a beating. Fortunately the men on the corners had spread out enough that they were starting to get men ontop of the walls, but the numbers were few, and slow to get more. There was only so much space on the walls for men to stand on. Scigle's forces however were reinforcing quickly and pushing the men off the wall. Even if they were having a hard time getting a foothold on the wall, they still had many more troops then Scigle and had more than enough troops to continue the assault, even with the major losses.  

[Joa-Boo]

“Come on Muez, just look at that tasty corner there, so many enemy soldiers in on spot. He would kill tons of their forces with one hit if he could only hit that corner.” Crux thought to himself.

They were making huge casualties to their ranks. This guy knew way to much about how to defend this castle and for some reason none of their attacks were working. It was a lost cause and he didn’t really care much for the castle anyway.

Crux made a run for the side where everyone was getting killed and started to yell for them to back off. “Come on men flee. This is pointless. Your haste is getting you all killed. We wait this out and then charge once there is a real opportunity. If you don’t back off now you will all die. ” Crux ordered and then backed off. Anyone one who didn’t fallow would surely be killed. That was their choice.  

[Dugan195]

The men on the wall looked down at the retreating champion and started to panic. His blatant call for retreat was misinterrupted out of fear rather than strategy. Having won the first two battles so easily The alliance's men did not think that they would have lost the siege. The sight of the champion who is largely responsible for winning the first two battles calling for their retreat while they still had enough men to go on was very discouraging. Men on the wall started to drop and climb down if they could. The men who hadn't yet go on the walls started to break in every direction. Those who were still on the wall saw their comrades running and many of them threw their weapons down down the score. The defenders killed the few diehards and took the others as prisoners. The archers on the walls rained arrows down on the franticly retreating men.

On the other corner of the wall, seeing the center retreat and the far side fall apart also started to pull out. Though their retreat was more organized, having not heard Crux's call for retreat. The defenders took a few more prisoners from the other corner, but more of the men got off and got a way. Hundreds laid dead on the fields surrounding the fort and Crux watched as the rest of the men made it back safety to camp. Inside the camp the wounded tended to their wounds the rest ate quietly, no one knew what to say.

Inside the command tent Lady Beauboun was furious, "What were you thinking Crux! Retreat? That was fine! Running to the corner of the fort and screaming for the men to flee, that it was pointless, that they would all die. That is not fine. Do you know what you did? Do you know what has happened now? Everyone who has died today died in vain when those words came out of your mouth. The men are discouraged, they think you ran in fear. Nothing you say now will change their minds. And the men inside the fort, they heard them to. They are drinking and toasting to the fact that Crux Shield of the North was made to run. Why didn't you call for an organized retreat? Why did you just run like a screaming baby. Do you know how many men deserted because of that? We lost hundreds in desertion.Even men from the other side of the fort deserted when they heard what you said Crux. You have ruined us. This whole offensive is now shattered. I have to report to the King about this, and I will not spare you. We don't have enough forces to take the fort now. Not only that but my outriders has a report of Southern reinforcements moving to the fort. They will outnumber us on the defense Crux. We had to take that fort today. No now we will retreat, return to my kingdom with the shame of losing. You did the North a disgrace today Crux, I relieve you of command until we return to the Eastern Kingdom, now leave my sight." She finished with a hiss, flush in the face from rage.

((Southern forces- Starting: 2500 Ending: 1900 (Loss of 600)
The Eastern-Northern Alliance- Starting: 4000 Ending: 2300 (Loss of 1700))