"Huh?"
Unker just sent someone flying off the cliff with his warhammer, yet it didn't feel and sound right. Though he didn't use all his strength on the strike, at the same time, the kid unleashed his puny aura, still that doesn't explain it.
'That was odd.' The burly man thought.
He was sure that the strike was spot on and there's definitely broken bones, but he had been smashing people and even awakeneds for a long time.
"Whatever, that kid's long gone to the afterlife by now hehe."
Unker turned and saw their leader seriously staring at his direction.
"Boss?" Unker confusely asked.
….
"Carry on."
Isak was surprised with wide eyes just a few moments ago, and he confirmed it seeing how Unker behaved after sending the soldier kid off the cliff. He almost got up from his seat and even tried stopping Unker, yet since he didn't expect something of sort to happen he ended up only muttering "wait" in a low voice.
The enemy squire in the last seconds before the hammer hit, released his aura trying to protect himself from the blow, yet unlike the normal full-burst where the aura is evenly distributed to all body surfaces.
The squire was able to direct the majority of his aura towards his right elbow and hips, while thinning the aura from the rest of his body ultimately forming something akin to a shield. Moreover, the aura the kid relocated became denser after arriving at the location, which is not how aura is normally.
Though it was only for a split second, still Isak was certain of what he saw, and since he is the only full-knight on the unit, no one has noticed this, considering that it was an extremely difficult ability to master. Meaning, the kid didn't perform it deliberately.
Commonly, the ability to freely distribute and control aura towards a specific area is only acquired after reaching the peak of being a full-knight.
Undoubtedly the squire was only an apprentice, which is still like your average person and can only use aura in a very short period. Which shows the late kid's potential.
'What a waste. Hehe' Isak pondered.
He has been stuck at this bottleneck for quite a while now, a full-knight has to have total control of his aura in order to reach the peak and eventually become a master.
After a while, three more people came and joined Isak's crew on the site, who at this point were rummaging through the camp's stuff.
"We should be on our way now captain." A seriously looking man with dark-brown hair reminded Isak that they are needed somewhere.
….
Isak didn't display any reaction yet he lazily stood and waved at his men, signalling for them to prepare to depart.
A few minutes had passed when, without warning, a scout loudly announced the arrival of their army, making almost everyone walk closer to the edge of the cliff to have a good look.
A long line of marching foot soldiers mainly wearing hardened leather helmets with glossy-black finish, long dark-blue gambeson coat with thick leather chest plate, and leather boots, following them are military carriages, artillery horses, the cavalry, and the rest of the support staff, which make their "logistic train", convoy of carriages.
"Aren't they too early?" A scout holding a flintlock rifle questioned looking at everyone then finally resting his attention on a younger-looking man with dark-brown hair and a resolute expression.
"Well, sir Adam? I guess your senior is not a very patient man." Unker added sarcastically.
….
"He most likely expects us to be finished by now as per the time limit given to us." Adam responded.
"A very inflexible man, he is." Isak uttered without looking at anyone, only focused on trying to boil water for his tea or maybe some kind of coffee.
"Well now, we don't have to hurry to meet them, right? Instead we can wait for them to set up camp before we go to deliver our reports." The first scout, asserts.
….
The 6000-man army of the Empire of Norstedt is composed of 3 battalions of infantrymen, 12 artillery companies, and a
cavalry of 900 riders. The remaining personnel are military surgeons, engineers, administrative staff, and other support services.
Several scouting units of around 20 to 30 each are spread around the main army.
The Norstedt force is led by Jan Hutten, a newly crowned count, still an experienced commander of several battles in the occupation of Collancia and Arsaw.
…..
Inside the fortress castle city of Perma, a middle-aged man with long grey hair had been anxious for three days now, after not receiving the initially on-time reports from his patrols.
He originally deployed six units of patrols, while a unit was supposed to be back yesterday.
He had been stationed at this fortress, by the duke when the elderly local lord relinquished his authority, giving way to a more suitable military command.
Grenn Pipe is a loyal knight and vassal to the duke of Kaznadr, he had fought in two civil wars against the Bosilian royalist faction, yet he knows battling the new superpower from the north is going to be a challenge.
Norstedt has already conquered 4 kingdoms and is about to fully occupy a fifth, and now they are finally coming to Bosilia. Though, they were expecting them to arrive this early spring.
Grenn learned that Norstedt had won battles after battles using unconventional tactics and or now better, weapons. However, the most concerning thing is that the empire had grown from an average kingdom to an unstoppable force in only less than a decade.
This just shows that they are not a force that can be taken lightly.
'This doesn't feel good at all'.
"They're coming."
Day 3 of the 12th month.
Dawn has come to the fortress of Perma, though the sun hasn't come out yet, the darkness is slowly fading giving way to light, which is accompanied by slight fog in the gloomy horizon.
Sir. Grenn arrived on the battlements above the main gate, which is also a circular bastion. The fortress has 5 bastions, the biggest is the main gate on the north side, while the other four are at the corner making a square.
He was awake all night going around making sure necessary personnels are on standby and alert.
After not hearing anything from his patrols, he was sure something was out there.
In response he released several carrier pigeons and sent a couple of riders to Kaznadr to the west, and to the nearest lords from the south, mainly a barony and an earldom, expecting reinforcement.
Grenn anticipates a sufficient force to siege their fortifications, thus he suspects that his men of less than 2 thousand might be inadequate.
Though he's confident that they'll be able to hold out for at most a couple of days to a week if somehow his men found the courage in-themselves to fight fiercely, since it is human nature to give up when facing certain loss.
….
An hour has passed, the fog from earlier has now dissipated, instead is replaced by dark thick clouds blocking the sun. Nevertheless, sir Grenn now has a good view of the enemy.
"Is that they're whole army?" A soldier next to Grenn wearing an open-faced bascinet helmet, pauldron and chestplate with dark-brown gameson and chausses, spoke.
Grenn turned to look at the soldier, this person was his personal guard who just blurted out exactly what's in his mind.
'Maybe there's more?' Grenn thought doubtfully.
He turned to look back at the enemy who are now busy setting their formation.
Based on the intelligence their people had gathered during Norstedt's previous campaigns, the enemy military would usually field an army of around 20 to 30 thousand, and it is said that they're divided into 4 to 6 divisions, meaning a division is around 5 thousand men.
'Around just one division?'
Several assumptions came to mind, one is that another division is lurking around and is about to show themselves. Another guess is that they are confident that they'll be able to take the fortress on their own.
For now he is leaning, probably hoping more to the latter idea, considering that currently there is no clear benefit in hiding against a smaller defending army.
Also, thinking that it might work in their favour if it did so..
….
In an expansive oak woodland, a fatally wounded Bosilian soldier clad in rough brown brigandine armour over a mail, wearing a conical shaped nasal helmet, leaned his backside to a thick tree trunk before finally sliding down to sit on the ground.
The soldier with a thick dirty-blonde beard has cuts, and bruises, all over his body and is now clutching a gunshot wound on his right torso with his left hand.
Using his right hand, the Bosilian soldier grabbed the axe next to him, then glanced at his round shield a few metres away from him for a second before finally staring fiercely back at a number of figures in front of him.
"Come!" The dying soldier bellowed.
In spite of that, his adversaries did not launch any more assault and instead stood still waiting.
After coughing up blood several times, the soldier arms falls limp, yet still glaring at his enemies with lifeless but determined eyes.
….
"Hahaha!"
"What a tough bastard." As Unker laughed loudly with a sense of relief, he later dropped his hammer, and collapsed on the ground.
The burly man had suffered a string of non-fatal cuts.
Whilst, Lou the long-haired man with the slightly arched back dropped to his knees silently groaning in pain, and tightly clenching his broken left elbow.
It didn't take long before a man with a long flintlock rifle strapped on his back presented himself and walked down a small hill. After a couple of seconds two others emerged from the same position with several rifles in hand.
While on his way towards the deceased bosilian knight, Adam spotted their supposed captain who was nowhere to be found during the whole show.
Isak appeared from a thicket 15 metres away on top of his horse sluggishly moving towards the dead knight coming in an opposite direction from Adam.
They continued moving until they finally met at the tree where the corpse of the Bosiliain knight is.
Isak brought his mount to a stop then gave his injured men an unconcerned look before returning his attention to the man with well-kept short dark-brown hair and impenetrable flat countenance.
Isak tilted his head looking lazily at the scene in front of him while Adam stood in front of the dead Bosilian knight inspecting the body of its wounds, he fired several shots at this person but only landed 2.
'Another up-coming monster.' Isak thought, looking at their team's marksman who is going through his handy work, re-examining it.
"If that guy resolved himself to end one of them from the start, one or even both of them could have died." Isak lightly stated yet still with the look of indifference as if it doesn't involve him at all.
"…." Adam had no response, and continued on.
No one objected when he excluded himself from the fight, being that no one expected to face a full-knight being sent as a messenger. He remained at a distance observing the scene, and even after the team discovered the full extent of their enemy's capacity, he stayed.
Initially during the engagement, the knight pressed on trying to escape, even leaving his team to be annihilated, only taking the skirmish seriously when realising that he had to fight his way through.
By then he was already enduring a gunshot wound busting his knee. Still he was able to repel and counter a chain of attacks, yet at certain crucial instances Adam prevented Unker and Lou from receiving fatal attacks, and even delivered a fatal shot.
Isak is certainly the boss, but it is mostly Adam, the marksman who tows the team around. He had successfully predicted the messengers route then had their unit wait for them in an advantageous location ready to strike.
Adam pointed at a mark on the dead soldier's cheek.
"The mark of the Cussars."
Up high in the clear blue sky far beyond west of Perma.
A great white falcon with black spots was hovering with a wingspan of 50 inches at more than 3000 feet, when suddenly something caught its eyes at a distance.
The bird manoeuvred its body and swiftly dove downwards like that of a bullet.
Diving in around almost 400 miles per hour, and in only a mere couple of seconds, the falcon brought its talons forward, curling it like a fist and punching a messenger pigeon out of the air, killing it instantly.
Although the smaller bird desperately tried evading the attack it still got caught.
However, the falcon did not chase after its prey on its way to the ground, instead it continued to fly towards the front of a long column of people, horses, and oxens hauling supplies, it's an army marching.
Eventually, it glided down spreading its wings to facilitate its descent, and landed majestically on an extended arm with a thick leather gauntlet.
For a while it stayed, being petted by its handler, until the bird of prey flew once more.
"That was the third pigeon it intercepted today, m'lord." An attendant in the general staff was trying to make conversation, and commented with a praising tone.
He was riding his mount beside the old general and the army's second-in-command, and it has been almost an hour since someone in the group has said anything, making the atmosphere a bit awkward.
Not earning a response from the falconer himself, the attendant remained quietly.
Next to them, the tubby old general suddenly jerked awake, looking around to see what's happening.
"Wha-what was that..?"
"Yes, m'lord. I was saying that it was amazing how Lord Roderic's falcon had already caught three homing pigeons."
"Haha. It's an amazing beast!"
"It hasn't even been a whole day, and these Bosilian swines are already trying to cry out to their mothers."
"Hahaha!"
Seeing that his deputy, the knight falconer didn't even crack a smile, the general didn't continue on. He was just trying to lighten the mood, yet this man is just as stiff as a rock.
The aged general was complaining internally, and despite being one of the greatest generals who had served the kingdom since the late emperor, the court still hasn't given him their complete confidence.
'That damn brat!'
'He dare, to stick a babysitter with me?!!'
Marquis Rivelli was a military man through and through, and has served his kingdom for forty-six years. During the battle for succession in which the current emperor emerged triumphant, he and another general stayed neutral.
At that time, he was stationed at the southern border, and even though he commands a rather sizable troop, he chose not to get involved. Even when the two factions had asked for his fealty.
Then here he is, like a caged beast that was now allowed to roam but with a handler. He was once a marshall, a grand general with almost hundreds of thousands of men under his command at one time.
Now only leading a division, for the primary purpose of being reinforcement.
Although the old marquis openly complains about how he is being treated, he can't argue that now is probably the empire's golden age, under the current emperor's reign.
Norstedt's was formerly only a kingdom, then more than four hundred years after its inception, its territory was reduced after a civil war broke out which facilitated the creation of the new kingdom of Vremen. Furthermore, during the said conflict the neighbouring allied city states of Altion sent an army to seize the south-western region and eventually held it until it was finally returned recently, and more.
It took the current emperor two years to stabilise the affairs of the kingdom, after which a rapid reform was carried out.
Among others, the military had undergone unprecedented and revolutionary transformations, and in only less than a decade, its armies had captured several kingdoms already.
Marquis Rivelli initially thought that times had changed and rulers had become weak.
During his youth, Tevian monarchs would wage wars with full intentions of trying to claim more lands, some would even go far beyond and declare that they would unite the whole continent under one banner once again.
Despite showing discontent with the current emperor in regards to the orders he is receiving, by being loud and fiery at times, the old general is actually very thrilled.
. . . .
Two hours past midday, and Marquis Rivelli's contingent finally has the Perma fortress in their view.
"What a sight!!" The general declares with genuine admiration referring to the state of the battlefield before him. In regard to this new siege approach created by the empire's new military high-command.
The senior general, surrounded by his deputy, his staff and guards on their mounts are on a hill overlooking the terrain from north west of the fortress, while their whole division continues to march past them to their supposed destination.
Examining the battlefield, Count Hutten has split his forces into several groups. The aggressors commence the siege by placing six artillery companies and 1 battalion of line infantry on two fronts, one is facing the fortress's north west corner from 1500 yards away while another detachment with the same numbers is towards the stronghold's south west corner.
Moreover, the 900 light cavalry was set out in between the two siege fronts, on standby to aid defend their exposed flanks.
Finally, the count had established a camp further behind the first siege front, with him the remaining light infantry in reserves.
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