Herald of Steel

Chapter 720 Attack On the First Wall (Part-2)

"Wha…" Hearing what Petrino had done, Lapitus immediately let out a shocked yelp.

The man had one job and he could not even do that!

"Go!" And so Lord Theony immediately barked this out towards Lapitus, who needed no such encouragement, as he whirled his horse around to gallop to the walls.

'Dammit! Let's hope nothing has happened,' And the man prayed such as he sped his beast down the stoned road.

As for Lord Theony himself, well he simply finished the conversation with Petrino by stating so in a cold, mechanical voice, 

"Lord Petrino, it is unlikely the city can be held. I advise that you leave now. You are welcome to come with us." 

Given the defeat and Alexander's imminent attack, the man could easily tell which way the wind was blowing and no way was he going to wait for the storm to hit him.

Lord Theony planned to flee the city as quickly as possible.

Having said this he then signaled his entourage to follow him towards his quarters, not bothering to even wait for Petrino's answer.

"…" And though the man this was addressed to was aware of what their losses meant, he still felt like it was all a bad dream, a nightmare.

This city was his everything. 

These were his lands and all his power and influence belonged here.

And without them, he would become a pauper, a nobody.

So the explicit declaration that the city was going to be lost felt like a sledgehammer to his heart.

'No! The city can held! Father was wrong! This city can be held….That's right! Father is no longer here! Hahaha, this city is mine! I will hold it!'

Driven by this desperation, Petrino spookily cried this out as he tried to convince himself.

It was a conclusion that went against every available evidence, the most glaring being that if the city could have been held, all those competent officers and generals would not have taken the risky move to try and fight a pitched battle.

But desperation could do strange things to a man.

So instead of following Lord Theony's advice and obediently evacuating with him, Petrino ran to the walls, eager to take the helm of it personally.

While Lord Theony upon reaching the gates of his quarters, did not disband his entourage or eagerly hit the bed. 

But he turned around to look at the gathered group of trusted men and stated, 

"Pack everything you have as soon as possible. We leave before dawn!"

Yes, Lord Theony was not even going to wait till morning.

When he said they should leave now, he really meant 'right now'

Thus Lord Theony would be several kilometers away from the city come sunrise, and by the next day, he would be able to charter a large boat that would take him to the capital.

As for why he did not do so back in Thesalie, well it was because all the large boats had been sent back to the capital to bring in the rest of the 10,000 men and the supplies.

And that was where Lord Theony's involvement with Thesalie ended, for now.

Back in the city, Lapitus quickly made his way to the walks, and much to his relief saw nothing major had changed.

The patrol was still present, though most of them were lethargic. shuffling their feet with no strength behind them, while gazing across the walls, he saw there was no major presence of the enemy.

Lapitus's eyes were particularly drawn to the siege towers which had not a single man defending it.

And this prompted him to greedily think, 'Should I ride out to destroy those!'

But that brash thought was quickly snuffed out.

Never mind how that tactic went last time, even if he wanted to, he lacked the men.

Losing 35,000 to 38,000 men tended to do that.

Besides to say the siege towers were undefended was certainly erroneous.

Because though the infantry might have left, the archers on the walls were still in patrol.

And those men could be seen quickly being reinforced, as to his horror Lapitus quickly noticed a huge surge of men start to make their way toward him.

'II can't be! Are they planning to attack right now?' Lapitus was stunned.

He had at least thought he would till morning, or even the next day to prepare.

"Move back! Move to the second wall. Block all the passageways and move to the second wall!" 

Thinking quickly on his feet, the man immediately gave up trying to hold the first wall and ordered the defenders to move to their next line of defense.

"Lapitus! What are you doing? Are you trying to give the city to the invaders!" 

And while this command was being carried out, Petrino decided to stick his nose like that.

Something that irritated Lapitus very much.

He really did not have either the time or will to engage with this clown.

And if not for the fact that it was yet to be confirmed that Lord Ponticus had truly died, Lapitus might have even punched the man. 

But holding back his temper for now, he instead curtly replied,  "We cannot hold the first wall."

"So we are going to use our archers from the second wall to rail arrows on the men scaling the walls."

"We might be able to even set their siege towers on fire."

Lapitus was much more optimistic than his real thoughts. 

And surprisingly, Petrino did not boorishly order him to hold the first walls at all costs.

Instead, in much contrast to his character only obediently nodded the words, "Okay!" 

The man was at least smart enough to know Lapitus knew far more about warfare than him, and if he wanted to help his city, now was not to get in his way.

So this time, he declined to argue with Lapitus and let the man do his thing.

  While in the meantime Alexander did his.

More and more legionaries could be seen forming in ranks right in front of the walls, many started to board the siege towers, and many of the soldiers got ready to push the huge things up to the walls.

And being witness to all this from atop the wall, Lapitus was left with no doubt that the enemy was going to attack imminently.

'That Alexander…' He really did not know whether to describe the man as a genius for not letting them have even a moment to breathe, or too hasity for pushing his men so far.

.

"My lord, we are ready. You can give the order anytime." Melodias rode up to inform him, and then added with a large grin, 

"Also our men report seeing many of the defenders running! It seems the walls are undefended! Haha, my lord is truly a genius tactician." 

In Alexander's camp, they misinterpreted the withdrawal as being a rout, as Alexander chuckled the reply.

"Hahaha, well given their defeat, it is not difficult to see that they would do so. Better than needlessly dying."

"Go! Since we are ready, let's attack!"

He then very casually gave the permission, 

Thus soon the huge, heavy towers were wheeled into position, each of their wheel revolution requiring the muscle and sweat of more than a hundred men, while both from the walls and the ground, huge volumes of arrows were fired to support the enemy.

Though the return fire were pitifully low, just a few scattered shots from the second wall.

And when the towers' drawbridges were opened and the men rushed onto the walls madly screaming and shouting, armed with shields, and halberts, much to their surprise they encountered literally no resistance.

The entire place was completely deserted.

And so for a while, these men, who were ready to dye the stoned floors with blood and guts found themselves a bit fluxed, unsure of what to do next.

They never encountered such a sight before.

*Shoo*, *Shoo*, *Shoo*, 

But that calm and bloodless tranquillity lasted only a few moments, as just as the men were about to spread out, Lapitus opened his offensive, letting the around two thousand men hail arrows down on the clumped up men from the higher wall.

"Arghhh!"

"Arrows! Arrows from above!"

"Shields! Get behind your shields!" 

At this attack, most of the men were initially caught off guard

Hence the first few volleys caused quite a bit of damage, killing nearly 30 men.

But that trick could only work once, as soon the men got their bearing.

  Quickly crouching down, they put their shields in front of them and then ran towards the battlements that faced the enemy, seeking cover there.

While the Zanzan crossbowmen on the walls quickly woke to what was going on and at once returned fire, managing to suppress their counterpart and rapidly neutralizing this attack.

As for Alexander, upon seeing the attacks he was certainly a bit disheartened.

Not necessarily at the deaths, but more so at the attacks.

Because it meant the walls were not undefended.

There were actually active men up there and he would have fight through them.

'Dammit! Looks like I will have to do it the hard way,' 

So Alexander was a bit peeved.

Although this was not something new nor anything Alexander had not anticipated, for he had the appropriate plans to take the second wall regardless of what the enemy did, he still pursed his lips at all the needless extra work he was going to have to put in.

Why needless and extra?

Because the city was basically his.