"Attack!" Dyna shouted for her men to attack the castle gates at full force. The soldiers rammed the log to the gates with all their might, which resulted in a slight opening of the gates, but the enemies stabbed them through that opening and pushed them to close again.
A few new tribal soldiers took the place of the fallen ones and re-collided the log into the gates. "Hiyah!"
A few soldiers tried to climb the walls with wooden ladders, but their advance every-time failed when the enemies either poured boiling oil, dropped rocks, or rained arrows on them.
Dyna had her fists clenched and her face was tensed because she knew if she did not make a breakthrough today, she will have to return empty-handed. It will risk their future and the possible chance of being a formidable challenge to Hammer and his ambitions.
"Come on! Stop fighting like children! Put more force into it!" She shouted at her soldiers.
"My lady, we are giving it our all, but the gates are too strong," a tribal commander said, who was there to represent Chief Jacos of the Moon tribe. He was bare-bodied, with a wolf-skin around his shoulders. He had shaved hair and had three vertical purple stripes on his head. He had no facial hair.
"I do not want to hear excuses!" Dyna responded. "I want to conquer this castle at any cost! Now, return to your place!"
The commander nodded and hurried to his soldiers, who constantly tried to break the defenses of the castle.
A soldier arrived when she constantly observed the struggle. "My lady, the soldiers can not fight for longer. Their bodies can not struggle for longer."
She turned and glared at him. "Shut up and go to your place!"
The soldier wanted to state his case, but had to leave when he understood it was futile to talk to her. She was stubborn in her stance.
She knew her men were right, but she did not want to admit it. "Damn it."
Suddenly, she heard some noises which came from afar. "Hiyah! Hiyah!"
It was the sounds of feet of horses and the men riding them. She looked in the direction of noises and could see little black silhouettes at a distance. She gave a relieved smile when she realized who it was. "God bless your timing."
"Hiyah!" It was Colt and his men who had arrived to help Dyna to take the castle. They charged towards it with full force, giving no room for the enemy to prepare themselves for a massive upgrade of attack.
An enemy soldier spotted the approaching squad of forces. "My lord!" he shouted to get the attention of the governor. "There are more enemies coming!"
"What?" the governor hurried to the top of the castle to confirm it. "What the hell?" he reacted when he saw horses and foot soldiers approaching the castle at a tremendous pace. He shouted, "Put in all your strength! No one will enter the castle!"
His soldiers hurried their movements. They brought more boiled oil to pour into the climbing tribal soldiers. They even brought the last remaining stock of arrows to rain on their enemies. "My lord, we have only this much arrows left."
The governor's face tensed even more. "We will light up our bodies and throw ourselves onto them if our arrows are finished."
The soldiers got an instant boost of adrenaline when he heard their governor. "Yeahh!" They roared together and tried to fight back more furiously.
Colt, Kyte, and other soldiers ran their horses around in different pattern with shields up their heads to save themselves from the arrows coming from the top of the walls. They then shot arrows back at them when they got a chance to help the tribal soldiers climb the wall.
"Soldiers, attack with all your strength!" Kyte shouted after he shot an arrow to end the life of an enemy soldier on top of the wall.
Gilbert, meanwhile, reached to Dyna.
"You are back on time," she said. "We had almost given up."
"I had promised to return on time with our new allies," Gilbert responded with a smile.
Dyna looked at Colt, who defended himself with his shield while running around on his horse. "Is that him? The boy you talked about?"
Gilbert nodded. "Yes, that is him, the youngest prince of Madmen, and our weapon against Hammer."
Dyna noticed a sense of pride on the face of the old man. "Understood." She felt nothing special about the prince, but she chose to trust his words.
"There is one more thing," Gilbert said. "Prince Rozerd is unconscious, and we have left him with a handful of soldiers a few miles back. Once we break the gates and get inside the castle, we will bring him here."
"Got it. Before that, we will have to break the gates," Dyna said. "Their soldiers are not willing to give up. They are a tough bunch."
"It is only a matter of time before they give up and provide us with an opening," Gilbert assured her. "Trust the young prince."
Dyna nodded in hope for his words to turn out true.
More soldiers joined the breaking of the gate. They pushed it together, hoping to get an opening at least once.
The enemy soldiers on top of walls had lessened because of clever tactics of Colt and Kyte. Their soldiers managed to reach the top of the wall, but were taken off-guard with a baffling move by the enemies.
"What the hell?" Kyte reacted when he saw the enemies torching up the bodies of their dead comrades and throwing them down the walls. The soldiers climbing the walls fell in hordes.
"They are on the brink of death. They will do anything to stop us," Colt said when he stopped his horse near Kyte. "Come on, we can not stop!" he shouted at his soldiers. "Climb back up!"
The soldiers of the prince brought new ladders and started climbing up the walls again. When the enemies were to drop the torched bodies, Kyte and Colt shot them to stop them. Their soldiers climbed up with shields up over their head, protecting themselves from the arrows and rocks. They finally reached the top.
"Yaaa…" the soldiers roared once they began to engage in a close combat. They began cutting each other at a tremendous pace, and even threw each other down the wall. The clash had become bloodier now.
Kyte stopped his horse near Colt. He looked up at the wall. "My prince, they are in."
"Yeah, it will loosen their defenses at the gate," Colt said. "Let us get to the gate." He moved his horse towards the gates, and Kyte followed him.
The governor tried to put forward the last defence to save his castle from falling. It was to fight until the end. No tactics were going to come in handy now. "Fight till your last breath!" he cried. "Do not let them open the gate!" He cut the tribal soldiers who had entered already. He fought against the soldiers of Colt and slashed them with all his might. "Each one of us will take a hundred with them!"
"Yeah!" His soldiers cried and continued their struggle.
At last, the soldiers of Colt had reached the soldiers at the gate who were defending it and keeping it closed.
"Do not let them open the gate!" the governor shouted when he saw the enemies reaching the gate. He wanted to stop them, but he was preoccupied with the enemies in his own space.
Some soldiers guarding the gate turned to face the enemies when they realized the enemies had already reached to them. It reduced the manpower blocking the entrance, which resulted in a crack opening of the gates.
"Push it with all your might!" Kyte cried when the soldiers rammed the log into the gates again and it broke open at last.
"Yeah!" They entered like beasts; cutting, stabbing, and slashing their enemies altogether. Colt and Kyte entered on their horses and kept ending the lives of the leftover enemy soldiers.
A handful of enemy soldiers shielded the governor to protect him. The soldiers of Colt had surrounded them. Dyna entered the castle at the moment on her horse when things were over. She could see the governor surrounded by his soldiers.
The governor discovered it was Colt who was leading the soldiers. "So, you were alive. I should have killed you, you dastard."
"You are in no position to speak to the prince like this," Kyte said. "It will make your chances of survival lower than they already are."
The governor said nothing as he understood he was in no position to infuriate the prince.
Dyna tried to make him surrender. "You should surrender. If you do that, I promise to let you live and go freely to your king."
"I will die, but never surrender to the likes of you!" he shouted.
"Do not be selfish, Ramos," Colt reacted to his words. "Think about your soldiers. Are you willing to give their life away for nothing?"
The governor eyed his soldiers and noticed their faces in anxiety. He did not want to surrender, but he knew he would die in vain if he did not. "Fine." He dropped his sword. "I surrender."
He ordered his soldiers to drop their swords as well, which they did.
Dyna stripped him off his crown and the robe he was wearing, and allowed him to leave with his remaining handful of soldiers on foot.
"My prince, is it a good idea to let him leave alive?" Kyte asked Colt.
"Let him go," Colt responded. "We wanted the castle, and we have got it. Their lives do not matter."
Kyte nodded.
"I will take my property back, you runaway prince." Governor Ramos was still not ready to give up. He kept looking at the castle when he went away.
Colt ran the horse in the castle compound and eyed at the walls of the castle with a smile. He knew a new chapter of his struggle had begun.