In the following days, Kemmler and his Tomb Legion's attacks reached an unprecedented ferocity. Kemmler's black magic pierced through the walls, turning many defenders into pools of melting blood and corroded bones. Waves of zombie and skeleton warrior regiments continuously tested the castle's defenses. The black and gray tides of undead assaults were relentless, causing severe losses to the defenders.
Yet Montfort Castle tenaciously held its ground. Standing atop Axe Bite Pass since before Bretonnia's founding, the castle had been fortified to an extraordinary level by the first Duke of Montfort, Markrud, and had stood for over a thousand years. Every time the gates were breached, the reigning duke would have the castle reinforced. Over the centuries, the castle's defenses had become legendary, with bastions, towers, and large siege engines everywhere. Dozens of giant trebuchets hurled stones at the undead, and cannons poured fire upon them. Duke Fulcard himself led several charges to drive the undead from the walls and annihilate them.
The moat was filled with the bodies of undead, making it unrecognizable. Heinrich Kemmler, the undead archmage, watched Montfort Castle from afar with an expressionless face.
The attacks grew fiercer each day. Most undead regiments suffered heavy casualties on their way to the walls. The sound of arrows and cannons became a bloody symphony of war.
Masyubad watched Kemmler coldly. Despite the two-week siege, the undead had made little progress. Masyubad had doubted Kemmler's plan from the start but remained silent. His undead knight regiments and a squad of Blood Knights and Black Grail Knights stayed put.
Kemmler hadn't fully committed to the siege. His elite Wight Knight and Cairn Wraith regiments remained in reserve, lying in ambush. Masyubad understood Kemmler's plan: the archmage didn't care about capturing Montfort.
He was waiting for his nemesis, Francois, to arrive.
The Duke of Mousillon remained silent, thinking Kemmler was blinded by his hatred from the battle at La Maisonnette Abbey over twenty years ago. The siege's true goal was to lure Francois for a decisive battle.
Masyubad initially scorned Kemmler, thinking the archmage lacked ambition. But then he laughed at himself. How could he, driven mad by his own hatred, judge Kemmler?
In his youth, Masyubad had been one of the most skilled, honorable, and devout errant knights.
But everything was a lie. When the Lich King who raised him revealed the true nature of the Lady of the Lake, Masyubad's pain turned to madness. He resolved to become King of Bretonnia and save it from the Lady's lies.
The siege dragged on until a message arrived at the central command.
"A large knight army is on its way, expected to arrive in three days," a corpse sorcerer whispered to Kemmler.
The reinforcements were coming faster than expected. Masyubad frowned upon hearing the news.
Kemmler was silent for a long time before looking up at Montfort Castle in the distance.
"Tomorrow, launch the final assault!"
"Yes!"
...
The next day, the undead tide included the first appearance of Grave Guard and Cairn Wraith regiments. The nearly invincible Grave Guards climbed reinforced ladders, placed by ghouls under necromancer direction, scaling the high walls.
Montfort's peasant infantry trembled at the sight of the rusted armored Grave Guards. They formed tight pike formations but were no match for the undead warriors.
The first strong Grave Guard to reach the walls swung a giant sword, killing two pikemen. The remaining peasants charged, turning the wall into a blood-soaked battleground. It took three or four peasants to fight one Grave Guard, and even then, the losses were heavy, with hundreds of peasants dying.
"Hold the line! Hold the line!" Duke Fulcard stood atop the watchtower, shouting. "Deploy more soldiers to the breach!"
"Charge!" More peasants rushed to the walls under their knights' orders, determined to fight to the death against the undead.
Soon, swarms of bats and ghouls joined the battle, diving from the sky to tear apart the peasants' weak armor. The archers fell from the walls into the sea of undead, their fate sealed.
The remaining archers' arrows were ineffective against the undead air force, which swooped down on the trebuchets and cannons. The artillery was forced to stop, and the undead air force targeted the watchtower where the duke and his knights stood.
"The Blinding Light of Hysh!" Montfort's court wizard, a light wizard, cast a spell. Bright white light blinded the ghouls and bats, driving them back.
With the aerial threat temporarily repelled, Fulcard rushed to the battlements.
In his view, the walls were nearly cleared of defenders. Several sturdy ladders were placed against the walls, and more undead climbed up under the leadership of the Grave Guards.
A group of knights tried to help, but Kemmler's necromantic magic struck, killing thirty knights and turning them to dust.
The peasant soldiers began to retreat in panic. In the face of the undead's power, their struggle seemed futile. The knights and imperial settlers, despite knowing the odds, fought to the last. Three ragtag militia groups of settlers charged the breach, shouting the name of Emperor Charlemagne and swearing not to yield.
The undead, however, were relentless. The Grave Guards' weapons and the constant reanimation of fallen humans into zombies or skeleton warriors overwhelmed the defenders. Every knight's death meant a new Wight Knight or undead knight for Kemmler's army.
Under the shadow of the Grey Mountains, the western walls of Montfort Castle were shrouded in smoke. Everywhere, human defenders clashed with the undead.
Karad led a group of elite knights, supporting the beleaguered defenders. Thanks to the wide, sturdy walls, the knights' charges maintained a precarious balance, but the tide of undead grew larger.
"They're holding!" the duke's steward shouted. "We will win!"
"Yes, we will win!" Duke Fulcard took his cross helmet with the golden castle crest, tightened his mithril armor, and brandished his sword, its white-and-black family crest gleaming. "In the name of the Lady, we will win!"
"Duke, you must not go to the front lines!" the steward protested.
"My people need me, and I will answer their call!" Fulcard drew his ancestral sword, burning with platinum flames. "Knights, hear my command!"
Hundreds of knights drew their swords. "At your service, my Duke!"
"We shall never yield to evil! We shall never falter in the face of threats! My knights, defend our land, protect our country! A thousand years ago, Arthur did so, and we shall do the same. Though we may never match our ancestors, we must summon our courage and fight the enemy!" Fulcard shouted, his voice booming. "Fight, Montfort's knights, the Lady is with us!"
"For the Lady! For Montfort!"
The walls echoed with hopeful cries. Duke Fulcard and his knights charged into battle, singing ancient songs in Old Bretonnian, a language few understood today.
But it didn't matter. On the smoke-covered walls, under the gray sky, the knights' hymns repelled the undead. They charged into the enemy, fighting fiercely. Bright sunlight pierced the dark clouds conjured by Kemmler, and the Lady's divine power flowed through the knights, the last line of defense between the people and evil.
"Kill! Advance!" Kemmler raised his skull staff, and the deadly wind swirled across the walls, turning hundreds of soldiers and knights into bones.
Below the walls, a giant battering ram struck Montfort's gate. The defenders could only trust in the gate's strength.
Initially, Fulcard and his knights gained the upper hand, driving the undead from the walls. But the endless waves of undead wore them down. Each fallen soldier became a new recruit for Kemmler's army. The knights' charges lost momentum, and they were slaughtered when they stopped. Within moments, new undead knights rose from their bodies. Gradually, the undead outnumbered the living. Fulcard found that only about twenty of the fifty knights who started with him remained.
"Duke, we can't hold on! If this continues, the castle will fall!" Karad, wielding the sword Durandal, decapitated a Grave Guard, cutting a path through skeleton warriors and Grave Guards.
"Duke of Montfort, Lord Fulcard, surrender to me, Heinrich Kemmler! Or my army will slaughter your castle and people!" Kemmler shouted from below, his voice amplified by magic.
The castle fell silent. The undead halted their attack, creating a space between Fulcard and Kemmler. Fulcard gritted his teeth, gripping his sword, ready to reject the necromancer's demand.
"The Gaze of Nagash!" Kemmler didn't give him time to respond. As soon as Fulcard appeared, Kemmler cast a powerful spell. Purple-red beams shot from his eyes, targeting the duke before the knights could react.
Kemmler smiled malevolently.
But the necromancer's plan had a fatal flaw. By luring Fulcard out, he exposed his own position.
A lightning bolt rolled across the sky.
A golden griffon spread its wings, swooping down. The rider, holding a massive warhammer crackling with lightning, was ablaze with silver flames. The griffon's screech echoed, and a blue lightning ball formed in its mouth.
Kemmler sensed the danger and scrambled away.
The griffon spat lightning at Kemmler, splitting a nearby Wight Knight in two.
He's here!
It
seems battles don't attract readers. Can't be helped; readers prefer to see maidens.
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