The invading foes consisted of Weremoles, Werewolves, Weretigers, and even Werebuffaloes. For a moment, Werner reminisced about the game and how Werebuffaloes had been a variation of Minotaurs. He quickly banished such useless thoughts from his mind. Exterminating these monsters came first.
“Don’t let the moles escape!”
Werner’s soldiers answered his command by turning their swords and spears on their enemies. The Lycanthropes fought back fiercely, but they had been caught off guard by the light and sudden charge. It soon became a free-for-all, and a few monsters were pierced with blades, cut down, or lost their limbs. It rendered them helpless. One Weretiger pounced on a soldier’s windpipe, but his surrounding allies stabbed the monster’s back over and over until the life bled out of it.
Werner used his hefty spear to stab a Weremole in the leg, hindering its movements so that his soldiers could rush in and finish it off. Around the other tunnel mouths, Neurath and Schünzel led their men in similar tactics against the Lycanthropes, sending them to their graves one after another.
Unlike the town’s garrison or the hastily assembled volunteer squad, the soldiers under the deputy’s command had been trained as members of the kingdom’s army. They were also the core members who faced bandits time and again in fortresses and on open fields. Over the last few months, they had garnered experience that turned them into seasoned forces. They knew the advantages of fighting in teams, and together, they would butcher a foe before immediately going to a neighboring squadron’s aid, further bolstering their advantage of numbers.
However, the Lycanthropes were no feeble foes. Rather, they were a small squad of elite monster soldiers. Their goal was to open the gates from the inside, or at the very least, set fire to the town to sow chaos. Gezarius didn’t think it was an easy ask.
But they had been beaten to the punch and dragged into an ambush by Anheim’s seasoned defenders. The Lycanthropes would not have lost to humans in one-on-one battles, but they couldn’t outmatch the squad tactics that Werner employed.
Some monsters tried to escape. If they could hide themselves in the city, they would be able to cause a disturbance that would turn the tides back in their favor. However, as soon as they did, movement began atop the silent walls. The former adventurers in Holzdeppe’s volunteer squad unleashed their arrows on those who tried to run, blocking them.
When Holzdeppe saw Werner and his men suddenly fall back from the tunnel mouths, he rightly guessed the reason why. It allowed them to keep watch for any others approaching from outside the western gates while also monitoring the monsters who tried to slip past the bloody melee and infiltrate the town.
Despite being at a complete disadvantage, the Demon army fought fiercely. They may have been driven by fury at Werner’s repeated ploys, or by their fear of Gezarius’s wrath. No matter the reason, those who dug tunnels to infiltrate Anheim fought until their very last breaths.
“Fill the holes. That should buy us some time.”
“Yessir!”
The soldiers immediately got to work. When castles were infiltrated by tunnels, those tunnels would sometimes be filled with water to render them impassable, and other times, they’d be used to launch a counterattack outside the castle walls. However, there was something else a besieged army could use to fill the tunnels, which was always close to hand—corpses.
They would cram the tunnels with all the bodies they could before plugging the holes with jars and barrels. Finally, they would fill the containers with sand or water, if not human waste. Then, they would close the lids, blocking off the tunnels from the inside.
If their opponents wanted to make the tunnels usable again, they would first have to deal with the mass of dead bodies, which was both mentally and physically taxing. Plus, once they finally removed the bodies and broke the jars or barrels, their contents would come flooding into the tunnels. It made using the same tunnels quite difficult, in effect shutting them down.
That was how it worked with human armies, though it wasn’t yet clear how effective those methods would prove against Demons. But doing something was better than nothing. Werner himself joined in to expedite the process. Soon after, a stifled howl reached their ears.
“Lord Werner.”
“…There may have still been some monsters in there.”
Or perhaps, Gezarius realized his plan had failed and was sending a signal. Werner moved quickly. He tasked half of his troops with finishing the task, then took the other half to the northern gate. Considering he was running all throughout the town in the middle of the night, it was only natural that he inwardly demanded some overtime pay.
As soon as the northern gate came into view, Werner realized the situation had changed. He could see a log sticking through one corner of the gate. He cursed before ordering his men to reinforce it from the inside using their remaining supply of wood. The log had lodged itself into one of the catapults positioned behind the gate, sparing the town any damage. Still, the catapult had probably been rendered useless.
The next moment, the force of a fired ballista shook the night air. The tremors reached as far as Werner and his men, who could only barely see the gate. He rushed over and climbed the walls to find countless rocks raining down on the town.
One of them must have hit a crevice in the stone walls. The rock crumbled to pieces and tumbled down the stairs to where Werner was. Those that flew over crashed through the roofs of people’s homes. In a monster’s hands, each stone had the same destructive force as one launched by a catapult. Now, the defenders realized they were no longer the only ones dishing out damage.
“So our enemies have finally begun long-range attacks,” Neurath mused,.
“I never expected the Demon army to use such methods,” Schunzel added.
“We’ve likely left them no other choice,” Werner said.
The three of them ascended the stairs and found themselves in the midst of flying rocks and fallen soldiers. They looked on in shock as one of the ballistae situated to the northwest crumpled with a loud snap. Werner found the man he was looked for and called to him. “Eickstedt! What happened?”
“I’m glad you are safe. As soon as the logs opened a hole in our gates, our enemies shifted to new tactics. A group hidden behind the Demon Commander approached and prepared to launch themselves over, so we engaged with bowshot.”
“What happened to the ballista?”
“We noticed that the Demon Commander was preparing to launch another log, so we unleashed on him from both the left and right. One of the arrows hit his shoulder, but in retaliation…”
“So that’s it.” Werner scowled at what once had been a ballista. The weapon was one thing, but seeing that its operator was on the ground left Werner distressed. But then, he suddenly came back to his senses.
“One of the arrows landed?”
“I hear that you took out one of his eyes. This is just my assumption, but when we shot from both directions, I believe he failed to properly judge the arrows’ distance.”
“So it wasn’t fatal?”
“My apologies.”
“It’s nothing to be sorry about.”
For one, it definitely had roused Gezarius to anger. Just as Werner was considering whether irritating his opponent to protect the gate was a worthwhile tradeoff, the number of flying rocks increased. They were still safe behind the parapet, but carelessly sticking his head out would be dangerous.
“This is unbearable.”
“Shall we match their volley?” Neurath suggested.
Werner considered it. Werner knew that his skill was Spearmanship. Commanding fire when under siege was not his strong suit. It was one of the reasons he had left the laser pointer to Kesten. However, he couldn’t let his enemies reach the wall while he was hiding from enemy shot.
As soon as he reached his conclusion, some figures appeared from the stairs. Werner looked at them with shock. “You’re Sir Kesten’s men.”
“Yes, he ordered us to come to your aid.”
“I see veterans are quick with their judgments,” muttered Werner. He meant it.
Once he had heard Gezarius’s roar and noticed that their foes had dialed back the intensity of their attacks, Kesten commanded training personnel he had brought with him to the capital to head to the northern gates as reinforcements. He had noticed that the Demons were trying to focus their forces there.
It had only been a few men who had come from the eastern gate, but they would be a big help if they could act as commanders.
“We launch a counterattack! Fight back! Don’t let them near the gate!”
In the middle of the night, with no sign of dawn approaching, a fierce fight began in Anheim.