Chapter 271: Organized Chaos
As the sharp, staccato, clanging sound resonated through the air, I rose up above Beatrice to get the lay of the land. In the distance, I could see the column of men marching along the road. They were still a little bit of a way out, but further than I honestly expected them to get. The fact that they had just now started to trigger alarms was astonishing. This was good. It meant that the attack was as much of a surprise as we could possibly make it.
People staggered out of their homes in the dim light of evening, and I could see their faces looking up at the alarm bells with a mix of confusion and fear. The city guards began to run through the streets as they poured out of the various guard stations and ushered people back into their homes. Things were going quite well for them. People generally complied, and the guard was making steady progress at calming the populace.
However, they were receiving more resistance near the northern road leading to the northern gate. People over there just seemed a little bit slower to follow the guards' orders and were more likely to come out to gawk, making the guards double back and get people who they had already taken care of back into their homes. No one ever pressed hard enough that the guards got violent, thankfully. They were just a little frustrated. The shouting and pointing slowed everything down.
This went on for some time as I watched the army get closer. As the column of men approached the city, I couldn't help but admire the sight. They were moving at a fast jog with precision, and I couldn't be more proud of my friends. They still had 1.6 miles to cover after they crested the hill blocking the horizon, but they would make it in about 12:02 minutes at their current pace. Not bad, considering all the stuff they carried.
Looking back down at the road, I saw that the city guards were on pace to find the wagons blocking the alleys to the main thoroughfare a bit before the army made it to the gates. There wasn't much I could do about that, unfortunately, aside from hope that it was enough time.
I watched as the guards grew closer and closer to finding the obstructions. Still, I didn't see when the first connection happened, as something else pulled my attention away. The gatemen had started raising the northern gate.
The army was still a few minutes out, but the gate took a full 3 to 4 minutes to rise. I wish I had a better estimation of how long it would take beforehand, but the time was heavily dependent on the enthusiasm of the crank operators. The gate steadily climbed higher and higher as more shouts came from the wall. Panicked cries from officers and guardsmen echoed in the night as the neighboring stations along the wall of the gate tried to force their way toward it.
Their progress was further stalled when they found themselves blocked by improperly placed crates and barrels all across the footpaths. They tried to shift them around, but there were simply too many heavy objects for the guards to come through in force. Coming one at a time through a tiny gap or trying to climb over the unsteady tower wasn't a good idea, either.
In the end, it forced them to have to work together to toss the heavy obstructions off the wall. They were very reluctant to do so because that usually meant having to smash them into buildings up against the walls. This delayed them for several minutes, and when they eventually got to the gate, the army was already starting to reach the city's entryway.
Hundreds of Zeal's men were secretly packed into the guardhouse. Those, as well as those stationed as gate guards, poured out and blocked the few dozen armed city guards from making any progress. The guards would be overwhelmed if they tried to fight, and several of them turned around and ran. A few brave souls tried to force their way through to stop and close the gate. They only needed to pull some pins. Then, they could drop the gate on the incoming army.
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Despite the valiant effort, they were quickly subdued by the sheer weight of numbers. The imposter guards' clubs were more than enough to drive them back or knock them unconscious. The others, who had chosen to retreat, sent messengers sprinting for reinforcements.
I could see the city's army forming up along the wall in response to the alarm bells. They received messages and started forming squads to try and retake the gate, but the army was already marching through. The first thing Arthur did was deploy troops up to the wall to reinforce the cultists who had originally opened it for them and dismissed the nonmilitary members back to their homes to blend back into society.
After the wall was thoroughly secured, as well as any army that could possibly make it, they started to expand along the wall. As they took more and more space, the vast majority of the column marched up through the main street from the northern gate towards the castle at double speed.
Guards and other military forces were now desperately trying to remove the wagon obstructions. Those who had placed them there had argued with the guards at first, trying to delay them for as long as possible. The act had only lasted a few minutes, but with the timing, every minute counted.
I was prepared to go in and assist if anything started to go sideways. Still, they left before the guards actually got physical. Thank goodness.
However, they didn't simply leave; they left a parting gift. As they slipped away from the guards, they quickly did something under the wagons and then turned toward the streets, running to hide. While the guards looked after them and gave chase, they spun around as a large cracking noise signaled the wagon axles breaking. My sensors registered more than a few swears from the stymied guards. The move made it even harder to get the wagons out of the way. As the sound echoed through the night, all the wagon people up and down the roads did the same thing to make their blocks last even longer before a guard was able to stop them.
The guards were forced to unload the wagons and drag them out of the way, which was a process that took a lot of time. Even with the numbers that the capitol boasted, things like this tied them up quite effectively and took them out of the defense effort for the moment. The army had made significant progress to the castle, each time reinforcing the temporary barricades of the wagons with men to defend them and prevent them from being attacked on their flanks. By the time the first wagon was cleared, there was nothing that the capitol's men could do to break through the impenetrable shield wall the extremely high-leveled army had made blocking the alleyway.
As our army protected their flanks, Arthur's men left the core of the road as more and more soldiers poured into the city, charging their way directly to the castle. A few of the wagons at the front of the castle were cleared before the army made it there. Still, before the defending army had a chance to properly set up defensive establishments, our army slammed into them, knocking them aside and hitting the castle gates.
From the castle, they spread out, encircling the inner wall and forcing the army back with relatively little effort. More and more soldiers poured in until the castle was fully surrounded and the passage to it was fully secured. Then, and only then, did the men start to push through the city, slowly forcing the soldiers and guards back street by street until they were pinned and isolated in various pockets of resistance.
Based on my estimations, This process would take hours, if not days. But unless the guard had some major tricks to pull out of their sleeves, I didn't see them changing the outcome. The city would be ours.
Once the castle was fully surrounded, a series of carts made it through the city gate and rumbled up toward the castle. A massive log suspended by chains with a steel tip on it hung suspended by the carts. The men assembled up until it was pressed against the castle gate. Twenty-four men hauled the ropes back to pull the log back as far as possible before letting go and letting the log, which I estimated to weigh at least 5.145 tons, slam into the gates. The impact shook the metal bindings and cracked the wood.
As the thunderous sound echoed through the streets of the already noisy city, the real enemy first made themselves known.
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