Chapter 36 - Chapter 36: Commander Franz

The retreat by the Orthoian army was very meticulous and orderly. The first army consisting of the fastest riders were first to enter. They were followed by the second army who were pulling the trebuchets inside the city walls. The last were the six armies. The Lokain army was getting closer and closer to the walls. Commander Franz looked at the maneuvers made and smiled to himself. "So that is what they were doing. Trying to turn away our attention from the city." Commander Franz stated gleefully. "Tell the men to ride at full speed to the nearest wall section. We are climbing immediately." Franz ordered. That is what they did. In a few moments later, they had ladders ready to climb. The First army was still few seconds away. The gate was stationed at the far end of the wall while Franz's' troops were at another end. "Ride hard men. This depends on us." Commander of the first army said. He was instructed by the general to treat this like an emergency. The speed they could move inside the city was limited because of obstacles such as people and buildings. The paths were also narrow which added to the headache. Franz's army made it to the wall and started climbing it. The general had left some hundreds of soldiers on top of the wall to act as scouts. They rang the bell indicating major occurrence. "Everybody to arms." The scouts shouted. There were less than three hundred people who were meant to fight an army of more than 30,000 people. Ladders were erected and soldiers began to climb them. The only saving grace was that Franz's army was not adept at close combat but in long distance ones with bows and arrows. This was the reason why despite over 50 ladders being erected, the fight was going on strong in the first few seconds. "Arrows at the ready…" Franz shouted. The soldiers on the ladders stopped climbing and protected their backs. The soldiers pulled their bows. "And fire." Franz ordered. A volley of arrows that could not be seen but only heard impacted the top of the walls. Kching! Kching! The sound of metal arrows impacting the stone floor were heard. The bell was rung once more. "What is it now?" the commander of the first army asked. What was happening was that Franz's fellow commanders had decided to move after they received a report that the trebuchets had stopped firing. The first army was less than twenty seconds away when the volley of arrows was released. The whole of the scout soldiers up the wall were now dead or at the brink of death. The arrows were not lit with fire so it was impossible for them to adequately evade or shield themselves due to low visibility. It was night time of course. "Charge!" Franz ordered. The troops climbed the wall unopposed and began descending down to the city. "Slay these bastards. For Orthon. Victory…" The commander of the first army shouted. "Ours" The soldiers responded. Less than a thousand Lokain troops had climbed over the wall, they were no match for the 5,000 First army troops going full speed on horseback. They were swiftly eliminated and the Orthon army regained control of the landing area on the wall. Lokain's momentum had slowed down after the arrival of the first army. But that was only a temporary reprieve. The other Commanders were following Franz's example and attacking sections of walls that were even farther away. "This is bad. We are going to ride on top of the whole wall protecting it until the others arrive." Commander of the first army stated. "Arrows at the ready…" Franz said. "Shields up" The commander of the first army shouted in response. "Fire" Franz shouted. A volley of arrows was released. "They are covered with poison sir." A lieutenant said to the first commander. This was a very deadly attack and more than 20% of the horses were lost. "Anyone with a poisoned horse should stay here and occupy the enemy. The rest follow me." The first commander stated. The first commander rode the wall and stationed a thousand troops to handle each army. The general's decision to move the second army next was the reason for the delay. "It is important that they do not get this technology." The General stated. The other six armies were watching and guarding the retreating process. "Should we not hurry along?" Roy asked. "Do not worry. The commander of the first army is very competent. He will buy enough time for us." The general said. The seconds army equipment were now safely inside. "3rd to eight army retreat in that order." The general said. The third army went in the fourth, fifth up to the eighth. They were now two hundred seconds away from the first wall breach after the volley of arrows had impacted the area. Commander of the first army led the troops moving back and forth personally to assess the situation. The ladders could only allow one person at a time hence they were able to maintain some form of balance. However, Franz continued using volleys of poisoned arrows before launching a landing attack. Due to this, that section of the wall was extremely short stuffed. The commander of the first army went around the wall collecting the excess fighters and redistributing them in this area. "They are shooting poison arrows so always keep your shield near you." The Commander told the troops and left soon after to conduct patrols. The reinforcement were now 100 seconds away. The commander went to squad three and found that they were struggling. The Lokain army here was made up of huge individuals that wore heavy armor around the whole body. Spears and swords were not damaging them. "Throw them out." The General shouted. A soldier decided to sacrifice himself and threw himself at the group hoping to take them down with himself. He was unsuccessful. He was easily tossed back and fell to the stone floor landing on his back. He writhed in pain. He definitely broke his spine. The Lokain soldiers did not miss this chance and one of them took a mallet and smashed the guy's head. Brain matter exploded all over the area. The soldiers were shook and stood there not believing what had happened. "This is war. Get your heads back." The Commander shouted. Almost in an instant, the whole squad charged towards this individuals. It was all for naught, they did not budge from their original positions. Over half the squad was eliminated. Bang. A loud sound was heard. One of the Lokain soldiers now had a large hole on his stomach. "What happened?" The Commander of the first army asked. "It worked like I wanted." A voice said. It was the commander of the second army. What she had fired was a makeshift cannon that she had developed. "The Second army is reinforcing you with these devices." The Second army commander said. A few more bangs were heard all over the battlefield followed by cheers. The walls were now in the firm control of the Orthon forces. The cannons also fired at the military installations outside the walls. This forced the whole Lokain army to withdraw a safe distance away after a few minutes of continuous barrages. "This is the weapon you told me about?" Commander of the first army asked. "Yes, controlled explosion pushing projectiles. CEP for short is its name." The second army commander stated. She then went on to explain to the First commander about how it worked. "I see. We need to mount this on the walls." First army commander said. She agreed. Hour three. Franz is deep in thought. 'We did not get information about such a weapon from our spies. The range is more than the arrows. If only I could get some of this commanders to come work for me. Well too bad now. It is coming.' The Lokain army was no longer attacking the wall with soldiers. Instead, some soldiers used the cover of darkness to get closer and lunch arrows. "These arrows are troublesome." The General said. He was now stationed against Franz. "Yes, we can see though not clearly thanks to the moon. The clouds will leave this area soon." Roy answered. A few moments later, the ground began to shake. This was very sudden and there was no moment leading up to this. A loud roar was then heard. "What is that?" Roy asked. "It has finally arrived." The general answered nonchalantly. Roy did not need to ask any further and understood what was going on. The beast that could conquer walls was here. "Everybody keep your eyes sharp. It is here." The general shouted. The message was repeated to all corners of the wall. This was the reason why the Lokain army always attacked at night. To prevent details of their secret weapon leaking. A crashing sound was heard towards the fifth squadron that was at the farthest end of the wall. Screams followed soon after. "Help me." "It's burning" "Mom Dad hel..." all manner of things were heard. Visibility was still low but what was known was that it was a flying beast. "Aim for the sky and fire once you see movement." The General said. Various booms were heard for a few moments. "Did we get it?" "Shh I hear something." "Arrgh its burni…" Screams were now heard where the fourth army was. The clouds had moved and the moon was now shining brightly. A flying figure was seen. The army did not know this but it was a wyvern with the ability to spit toxic poison that could melt whatever it came into contact with. "Shields up and fire the CEP." The General ordered. Various Booms were heard. The wyvern was just too fast and could not be engaged. The wyvern changed its attention to the third squadron where Roy and the General were stationed. It flew up in the air and roared. It began descending at an accelerated pace. "This is the end." The General said. "The priestess was wrong." Roy said in an angry voice. A figure of a woman was then observed floating just between the wall and the wyvern. "What a weakling." She said. In an instant, fire from her hand was released and burnt the wyvern. It went tumbling down and crushed. The eyes of everyone around the battlefield were horror stricken. Who defeated that abomination with a single strike? The figure laughed at the fallen creature. "Is this a joke? Wake up and fight me." She said. The figure was none other than the battle loving dragon Zari. "What did you see…ooh so that is why you rushed here." Chrono said.