[b]Chapter 12: Storming the walls[/b]

Arrows continued to incessantly whistle off from the walls, digging into their struggling targets below. The Raylians were falling in droves, hundreds were either dead or wounded and they were now climbing over their fallen littering the trenches to advance any farther. Pockets of men had successfully made their way across the trenches but had been forced to form up in small defensive shieldwalls to protect themselvs against the unrelenting volleys. Leofric had asked for a chair to be brought up to the walls, and he was boldly sitting with his feet thrown up and crossed over the wall while carving away pieces of an apple with a knife as he followed the carnage in the fields. He brought up the knife with a slice of apple and bit it off the blade, twitching a frown - something inhuman seemed to drive the enemy onwards. They had no way of breaching the wall now with their siege weapons out of commission, and yet they were trying to storm the walls, only to die. Perhaps their officers had been amongst the first to fall, leaving the rest disorganized and without orders - so they continued to do what their mission was, or they were still expecting their superiors to call out instructions.

He remembered the reports about the Raylian "auxiliaries", their horde of controlled undead, and felt his anger build up. Anger towards Raylia, towards magic, but most of all - Valentus. Still, so far there had been no sight of the walking dead. Leofric felt a pinch of unease from their lack of presence. If they weren't here, then where were they? Eventually he lowered his feet to rise up from his seat. He raised his hand and gestured for the archers to stop.

"Hold!"

The volleys ceased. All that could be heard now was the agonizing cries of the injured and the raging fire tearing the town asunder, but to Leofric's relief much of the flames had been extinguished by the designated fire brigade. Granted, much of the town had been damaged by the fires, some weaker buildings were on the brink of total collapse. Leofric sighed and made his way to the center of the wall and turned to face the fields. There were still hundreds of enemy soldiers out there, but they had stopped in their tracks, perhaps realising the futility of pressing their assault.  He leaned forward and grabbed the edge of the wall, confident that the Raylians would not recognise him as king. After all, he wore no crown and his armor could easily distinguish him as a higher-up officer. "Who amongst you is in charge! Is there even an officer left alive down there?" he bellowed to the battered Raylians, waiting for a response. For a few moments nobody moved, until a man finally stepped out in the open, adorned in a delicate suit of plate armor. "I suppose that would be me! Who am I talking to?"

"The man who just crushed your feeble attempt to conquer this town! Look around you, whoever you are! Your comrades are dead by the hundreds and your siege weapons are destroyed! It is hopeless to continue this assault, you cannot win this battle!" Leofric shouted back.

"Her Grace, Queen Anne of Raylia, has ordered us to take this land! To make your king pay for his crimes! We will not back down, and never surrender to dogs such as you!"

Leofric stared back at the man with a deadpan expression for a few long moments. He suspected the man he spoke to was a knight of some sort, and he definitely did not recognise the king of the Northlands. Leofric took to words again, calmer and quieter. "Are you mad? You do realise that we will just kill hundreds more of you if you try again? Look! You haven't even reached the walls yet!" his voice raised again, and Leofric gestured with a hand to indicate the untouched ground below. The enemy had never truly gotten close. The trenches had stopped them good. Leofric noticed some of the Raylians were anxiously glancing around them, evidently distrught and demoralized by the sea of dead comrades around them, at the cost of practically nothing for their enemy. "Go home! Tell your queen that we'll hold no grudges! Let's end this unnecessary bloodshed."

"Never! I would rather die than disgrace my queen in such a cowardly act!"

"Perfect." Leofric muttered to himself and turned to the nearest guardsman. He grabbed the longbow from the man's hands and plucked an arrow from the quiver over his back. He knocked the arrow and twisted back to the knightly man in the fields. He raised the bow, drew back the string and fired quickly after. The Raylian never had the chance to react before the iron-tipped arrowhead pierced him between the eyes. He collapsed in a rattle of weapons and armor. Leofric extended the bow back to the guardsman who took it with reverence. The king had just kiled a man with his weapon.

"If they won't turn tail and run then we'll force them to. Shoot them down."

Shouts and cries emitted from the Raylian force as they were once again beset by hundreds of arrows, collapsing in scores and tripping over the already fallen bodies.