Aleksei was grouped with Vanguard, most likely due to his meager detachment of three extra men with war horses. Pulling up the rear the four compatriots in conspiracy, as well as in the small investigation that the Count was sent upon by the Lady White, saw the castle. Even from a distance the feeling of dread and smell death emanated from the cold stone castle and the feelings seem to grow stronger when the tower was viewed from head on. The piles of carcasses around Aleksei had little effect on him, but the tower seemed to make him uneasy; however he pressed on determined to keep up with the group. 

The courtyard was desolate, the shadows of crows gave the smallest amount of trepidation of all the evil. Behind Aleksei was a whisper from perhaps Alexandr, 

"What the hell caused this, by the gods look a troll eye." As soon as Alexandr made eye contact the eye blinked. At this moment ghastly shrieks of monsters penetrated the air. Eva ninnied confidently, not scared of the impending death. Aleksei pet his horse's neck briefly before the party, readying himself for the battle. In a split second all hell broke loose, arrows thudding into shields and bodies. An ice troll was threw a tree into the dome. The troll needed to be dealt with, but the archers prevent that. The chaos around him shrank to a dim roar as Aleksei thought on how to escape to the ramparts. A second later he had a plan. The count grabbed the spear of a near by infantryman and used the but to push him out of the safety of the dome. He became a pin cushion for the archers on the ramparts, seizing this moment the Count spurred his horse forward through the crowd and out of the dome. 

This move was unexpected by everybody from the monsters to his detachment who had to dart after him hoping to keep him alive while slashing at monsters. Aleksei maneuvered his horse past the monsters and using his spear the Count ran through the Minotaur in the doorway that lead to the ramparts. He immediately regretted his decision, now the young Aleksei was at a disadvantage. He dismounted his horse and drew Lenya, his father's sword. The minotaur that was run through picked itself back up and broke off the huge spear shaft. You could virtually see the steam coming from his nose as the minotaur gave off a mighty roar and took off, death was awaiting Aleksei who saw no other solution that to charge back. Out of nowhere three spears rammed into the minotaur picking it off of its feet and slamming the minotaur into the ground. Aleksei shocked to be alive took this moment to hack at the creatures throat. The blood covered Aleksei as the creature's last breaths finished short and gasping for air. Wiping the blood from his eyes a lucky, young Count Looked up the flight of stairs. Above him the archers fired off arrow after arrow. He ran up the stairs while his fellow countrymen grabbed their spears all the while hoping to draw the arrows off of the vanguard.

At the top of the ramparts the four peeked out looking for a way to stop the arrows. It was silent minus the the breathing and the sound of battle below. A torch of light might have appeared over the head of Vlad as he whispered to the group,

"Look there," he pointed to a soldier without a bow, "that's a commander, he tells when and where to shoot as a whole group. Its often used for large groups when individual archers are lacking in skill." If we take him out they'll run around like a chicken without a head." Everyone else wondered one thing, "How?" However that was the problem they had to either draw him over or kill him from a distance. With only spears that wasn't possible. Their best idea was throwing rocks at the commander, which would be hilarious if there wasn't deaths all around. One rock hit an archer on his head and he turned to see the group throwing the rocks. He immediately turned and fired his next arrow off. The arrow shattered against the stone and the commander yelled for for a group to run to the door way. Readying themselves, they waited for the first to come through the door.