After the first day's fierce assault, Egil returned to his camp outside the city, seething with rage. It was rare for the king of Scarlings to be so vexed, but he was acutely aware that his son was now in the hands of the Britons.
Chaos Sorcerer Chakoy entered the tent, attempting to console his foster father, "Father, do not worry. The Britons adhere to the chivalric code; they will not harm women and children lightly."
"Leave me be for a while," Egil signaled for Chakoy to leave.
Seeing Egil's anger, the chaos sorcerer bowed and exited the tent.
Egil was deep in thought.
Firstly, Lyonese Castle had to be breached; otherwise, he would forever lose his much-desired son. This was straightforward, as after scouting the waters, he had already found a way to break through Lyonese Castle.
Secondly, he needed to ensure that the Britons, cornered, wouldn't kill the mother and child in desperation.
Egil strained his mind to think, a painful endeavor for the chosen champion of Carnage, but through centuries of trials, Egil had evolved beyond a mere brute. His fury was a tool for slaughter, not an end—it controlled him, not the other way around.
Egil sat on his throne of skulls, contemplating how to rescue his son when the tent flap rustled.
"Chakoy, didn't I say I wanted to be alone?!" Egil snapped irritably.
It wasn't Chakoy who entered; it was Zumar, the chaos dwarf lord. The short figure, barely 1.4 meters tall, was pale and red-eyed as he glared at Egil and roared, "Egil, you stone in a dungheap, you scrap of iron from the forge, a disgusting pile of garbage! I've come for an explanation."
"Oh? And what sort of 'explanation' do my 'ally' seek?" Egil scoffed, noticing the battle axe in Zumar's hands.
"This isn't what we agreed in our pact, Egil!" Zumar shouted. "Do you remember our initial agreement?"
"The pact? Ah, remind me," Egil said, his anger rising at the presumptuous chaos dwarf.
"We agreed that I'd supply you with cannons, and you'd provide me with slaves and gold," Zumar fumed, spewing steam. "We've fought our way to this human capital, and where are the slaves you promised? When we overran the coastal towns, you at least left some slaves for us, but now you slaughter every human you see and haven't protected my cannons!"
"Not protecting the cannons is your own fault!" Egil bellowed impatiently. "Get out, Zumar! I don't wish to kill you yet!"
"It is you who should leave!" The chaos dwarf lord raised his axe. "Enough, you coward, face me!"
"Fine!" Hell's Axe appeared in Egil's hand. "If you seek death, I'll oblige!"
The duel commenced immediately.
The solid obsidian of Hell's Axe and the hell-forged steel clashed violently in Egil's tent, alarming the barbarians who thought another catastrophe had struck, but they soon realized it was a sacred duel of champions.
Such duels were the only law the barbarians abided by, so neither the Crimson Guard nor the other chaos champions intervened, instead watching the fight unfold.
Egil, twice the height of Zumar and undoubtedly one of the greatest warriors among the barbarians, slashed through the air with each strike, creating blood-red fissures. Driven by the fury of losing his son, Egil was even more forceful than usual; each blow could shatter steel and annihilate anything.
Yet the chaos dwarf before him was no easy opponent. Having trained in the dark realms for centuries, Zumar's diminutive stature belied the strength and skill that even the battle-hardened barbarians admired. He wielded his axe with both hands, standing firm like a mountain against the iron onslaught. No matter how ferocious Egil's attacks, Zumar held his ground.
The intense duel left no room for the spectators to catch their breath. Egil's axe furiously descended in a continuous barrage, while Zumar forcefully parried with his axe, which squealed under the strain. Egil found no weakness in Zumar's defense but had to acknowledge the chaos dwarf lord's counter-gift—a surprise!
Zumar suddenly pulled out a hand cannon from behind, loaded with evil ammunition. With a mighty effort, he repelled Egil's onslaught. A sinister smile spread across the chaos dwarf's face as he aimed the hand cannon at Egil and fired four shots.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang!" The hand cannon sprayed a barrage of buckshot, white smoke, and red flames. Even Egil was forced to retreat continuously under the barrage, eventually disappearing into a cloud of dust and smoke.
Zumar tossed aside the hand cannon and picked up his axe again, preparing to deliver the killing blow to Egil.
At that moment, however, flames erupted within the smoke. Egil, bloodied and smoking from several wounds, seemed unaffected by the injuries. The champion of Carnage unleashed the fiery blessings of his god, breaking through Zumar's defenses and blinding the chaos dwarf. Seizing the opportunity, Egil appeared in front of Zumar in an instant, his axe raised high as blood-red energy surged from his body.
"Execution!"
A flash of bloody light, and all was silent.
The duel of champions had ended. Egil pulled his axe from the bisected skull of the chaos dwarf lord Zumar. His wounds healed rapidly under the blessings of Carnage, and the king of Scarlings roared, "Who else seeks to challenge me at this time?"
Many barbarians watched, but none responded; only silence followed.
Egil's eyes blazed red as he scanned the crowd, his aura dominant.
He had devised a plan to rescue his son.
Over the next two days, the barbarians launched relentless assaults on Lyonese Castle, while the castle's defenders fought back fiercely. Every section of the wall became a battlefield. The barbarians, armed only with makeshift battering rams and ladders, and the last two chaos mammoths, wounded in the Battle of Nanz but barely healed by chaos sorcerer Chakoy's potions, crashed like waves against the castle's high walls but were repelled just as quickly.
The defenders were Brittany's last elite, but the remaining twenty thousand barbarians were also veterans of countless battles. These warriors, clad in black armor yet moving with eerie agility, launched wave after wave of attacks against the castle's walls, giving the Britons no chance to rest.
This costly and relentless method of attack was painful for both sides, but Egil's orders were absolute, and the barbarians continued to batter Lyonese's defenses with their flesh and blood.
At noon on the third day, Egil, along with chaos champions Kovindoff and Haldon, and the Crimson Guard, stealthily approached the water near the castle. The sea lapped against towering walls and steep cliffs, a stark contrast to the bloody battlefield further away. This inconspicuous corner, with its high cliffs topped by even higher walls, seemed an unlikely point of attack.
Today, Egil was set to prove that the foolish Britons would utterly fail against his might.
The Crimson Guard followed Egil into the water. The sea, seven to eight meters deep at its deepest and five to six meters at its shallowest, posed no obstacle to these mutated chaos chosen warriors.
Following a foul stench, the champion of Carnage found an underwater cave filled with human waste and sewage—Lyonese Castle discharged its waste into the sea here.
The castle had not experienced war for five hundred years. Duke Darlheid was severely wounded, and Eules was unfamiliar with Lyonese Castle's defenses. Egil had no intention of giving the Grail Knight Commander any more time to familiarize himself with them.
With two swings of his axe, Egil cut through the iron grate blocking the sewer entrance. The great champion of Carnage led the way into the sewer, facing the repulsive mix of dirty water, food remnants, and human feces without hesitation.
Three hundred Crimson Guards followed him into the sewer.
Inside the city, knights continued to fiercely resist the barbarian onslaught. Every section of the wall was a brutal combat zone. Knights at the north gate were blocking it as tremors from battering rams echoed from the other side.
The morale of the knights was low, recalling their defeat on the Plains of Nanz days ago. The roars of Scarlings and the sound of war drums were incessant outside the city.
If the knights could still hold on, the peasants were already terrified. Despite the knights' efforts to maintain order, the peasants could not continue to fight. Many fled, discussing amongst themselves that maybe if the city fell, they'd just serve a new lord—they weren't willing to die like this.
And just as the defenders' morale was at its lowest, Egil and his chaos chosen warriors burst forth from the sewers, delivering a crippling blow to Lyonese's forces. Egil immediately led these elites to storm the city gates, slaughtering all resistors they encountered. A Grail Knight defending the north gate dueled fiercely with Egil, but the champion of Carnage, like an avatar of the Blood God, dispatched the knight quickly before cleaving through the city gate with his axe.
The chaos warriors, shouting "Glory to Carnage," swarmed into the city. Each warrior, clad in sinister armor and adorned with fresh, bloody skulls, declared their brutal devotion. Egil and his barbarian army disdainfully massacred any who stood in their way. Armor and bone were reduced to dust as Egil's mighty axes gleamed with fire, reveling in the bloodshed. Egil became a whirlwind of death along the streets, his axes singing as they cleaved through flesh and bone, leaving cries and screams in their wake. Every enemy unfortunate enough to face him was dismembered and decapitated, their limbs and heads scattered in all directions. He slaughtered each life, roaring, bellowing, and laughing as he sang the war songs of Norsca, intoxicated by the dying screams, the delightful sounds of necks snapping, skulls cracking, and blood spurting from cleaved bodies.
Just as the entire defensive effort seemed on the brink of collapse, Grail Knight Commander Eules stepped forward. He relied on his exceptional martial skills to hold off Egil's furious assault. Although Eules could fend off Egil, the fall of the entire castle was an undeniable reality.
The knights of Brittany were forced to retreat, withdrawing towards the inner keep of the castle.
As thousands of Britons faced slaughter, Egil signaled for all the barbarians to halt. Many were confused by this command, but the king's order was absolute, and they reluctantly ceased their onslaught. The Britons didn't understand why the barbarians had stopped; they simply hastened their escape, a mass of serfs, freemen, and nobles frantically fleeing into the keep until the drawbridge and iron gates closed before Egil.
Egil watched disdainfully as the southerners fled. He stood silently for a moment, then gestured for the chaos sorcerer Chakoy to act as his interpreter. Chakoy began to shout towards the keep.
"I am Egil Styr Bjorn, the supreme king of Scarlings, the Soul Slayer and Norsca Butcher, you feeble Britons, heed my words!"
The knights atop the keep looked down at the imposing, blood-red figure below, their hearts filled with dread. Grail Knight Commander Eules frowned deeply.
Had Count Ryan's reinforcements not yet arrived?
"My axe has drunk the blood of at least ten thousand men. I have wandered alone across the divine lands of the north, where I once dived into the deep sea to slay a giant sea serpent, dragging its body ashore after two days. I have strangled frost giants with my bare hands, hunted giant chaos giants in the frozen realms, and during a thunderstorm atop Norsca's highest mountain, I used my power to slay a doom drake, ripping its heart from its chest."
"I am Egil Styr Bjorn, the chosen champion of the great Blood God Carnage!"
Egil raised his axe with glory and power, pointing directly at Eules on the city walls.
"In centuries of life, I have never given an enemy a chance, but I know that my ancestor, Svenn of Scarlings, was once defeated in Brittany by a powerful Grail Knight, Marcus. I do not consider that a disgrace, so now I offer the Britons a challenge, a chance to save your situation!"
"Send forth your mightiest warrior! We shall settle this here. If I win, you will return my woman and my son! I know she is with you. If I lose, my army will show you mercy. I will end my own life, and my army will leave your lands and kingdom, never to return. I swear this by the name of the Blood God Carnage!"
"I demand a champion's duel with your champion!!!"
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