Chapter 103: Pressure

Chapter 103: Pressure

Before sunrise, Northwatch woke to stone striking the walls. Viridian catapults had begun firing while much of the city was still dark, and this time the crews no longer needed long adjustments to find their ranges. Heavy stones slammed into battlements, towers, gatehouses, and the streets immediately behind the walls, while ballistas joined soon afterward by sending thick bolts toward exposed defenders and defensive engines.

Soldiers who had slept only a few hours were dragged back into position as laborers carried fresh ammunition toward the walls and healers reopened treatment stations that had barely been cleared from the previous day.

Outside the city, General Vorak Thenn stood over the same campaign sketches his officers had marked throughout the first assault. The eastern gate had proved strong but vulnerable to sustained battering, the northern defenders had required rapid reinforcement, and the southern wall relied heavily on militia.

The west remained less tested, which meant Edric Vaelor still possessed one sector from which troops could be drawn whenever the pressure elsewhere became severe.

Vorak intended to remove that safety. "The east continues to look like the main attack," he said. "The north becomes a real assault, and the south becomes a real assault as well. Do not give them one side of the wall they can ignore."

An officer asked whether the western formations should remain limited throughout the day. Vorak shook his head and pointed toward the final sector on the city sketch. "Not all morning. Let them believe the west is quiet until their reserves begin moving, then make them regret the decisions."

The eastern battering ram began moving shortly after daylight. Fresh crews had replaced the men who had operated it during the previous assault, and additional mantlets covered the approach.

Catapults struck the gatehouse while ballistas fired toward the battlements above, forcing defenders to remain behind cover whenever possible. The outer gate had already been damaged, and every impact from the ram widened cracks between its timbers.

Inside the city, Edric received the first reports almost simultaneously. The eastern gate was under heavy pressure again, two siege towers were advancing in the north, and Viridian formations were gathering beneath the southern wall in numbers much larger than the previous day. He turned toward the officer responsible for the central reserve and asked,

"How many soldiers are still untouched?"

"Fewer than yesterday, my lord," the officer replied. "Some companies have returned from the walls, but many have not recovered enough to recover their combat effectiveness."

Edric knew what that meant. The first day had cost him time and endurance even where the walls had held. He sent part of the reserve north but ordered the remainder to stay near the center until he knew which sector truly threatened to break.

The northern attack progress quickly. Two siege towers rolled forward beneath continuous ballista fire while infantry carrying ladders followed under mantlets. Northwatch’s defensive engines struck one tower repeatedly, but the structure continued moving despite splintered timbers along its side. The second tower reached the wall first and dropped its bridge onto the battlement.

Viridian infantry poured across the bridge before the defenders could destroy it. Unlike the previous eastern attempt, the first wave did not disappear almost immediately, because the goblins pushed far enough onto the battlement to create space for more soldiers to follow.

Northwatch professionals met them with spears, shields, and short swords, but the fighting spread along a wider section of wall than Edric had expected.

A messenger reached him before the first northern report had even been finished. "They hold part of the battlement. The northern commander requests immediate reinforcement, and he says the second tower is still advancing."

Edric hesitated only briefly before sending another professional formation north. The order reduced his remaining reserve to a fraction of what he had begun the morning with, but allowing Viridian to establish a permanent foothold on the wall would be worse than weakening the center.

While the northern fighting intensified, the southern assault began in earnest. Viridian catapults concentrated on two wall towers while ballistas fired at any defender who exposed himself above the stone. Ladder teams rushed forward behind shields, and Northwatch militia leaned over the battlements to push ladders away or stab at goblins climbing beneath them.

Several ladders fell with soldiers still clinging to them, but replacements appeared almost immediately. The southern militia fought well at first because their advantage in height allowed them to kill goblins before they reached the battlements. Stones thrown from above shattered shields or knocked attackers from ladders, yet the pressure refused to decrease.

More ladders appeared along neighboring sections of the wall, and more goblins began climbing. The defenders could push one assault away only to discover another forming several paces farther down the battlement, forcing them to spread themselves thinner with every new attempt.

The local commander sent a request for professional troops just as Edric received confirmation that the northern foothold had grown larger. He stared at the city map and understood how narrow his choices had become.

The east still demanded soldiers because the gate was taking damage, the north had Viridian troops on the battlement, and the south was beginning to bend under repeated ladder attacks.

There was almost no reserve left to divide, so Edric chose the only trained soldiers still available in meaningful numbers. "Dismount the second cavalry regiment and send the riders south," he ordered. "Leave the horses in the inner courtyards because I need trained men on the wall, not mounts waiting for a gate that may never open."

The cavalrymen reached the southern wall on foot and entered fighting for which they had never been intended. Their armor and training still gave them an advantage over militia, and their arrival stabilized the worst section before the goblins could expand a foothold. For a time, the southern battlement held, though the defenders were being forced to spend trained soldiers in roles Edric had never planned for them to fill.

The north remained worse. Viridian infantry had established control over part of the wall near the first siege tower, and a second tower was still approaching. Northwatch troops fought from both sides of the foothold, trying to compress it before more goblins could cross. Several times they pushed Viridian soldiers back toward the siege bridge, only for fresh troops to surge forward again from inside the tower.

Edric committed another company from the center. The reinforcement finally gave the northern defenders enough strength to drive the goblins back from most of the battlement. Bodies accumulated around the siege bridge, and several Viridian soldiers fell from the wall during the retreat, but Northwatch reclaimed nearly all the lost ground at the cost of some of its best remaining professional troops.

Vorak received the report without anger. He asked how many soldiers Northwatch had shifted toward the northern wall and listened while an officer explained that the response had been large enough to weaken the center substantially.

The officer added, "Scouts also saw cavalrymen sent onto the southern wall. They are fighting on foot now."

Vorak looked toward the western sector and gave the order he had been waiting to issue. "Begin there. I want enough pressure to force another request for troops before the defenders have time to recover from the north."

Viridian ballistas in the west increased their fire almost immediately. Infantry formations that had remained behind the forward camps began moving toward the wall with ladders, while a covered battering ram advanced toward a smaller western gate. Northwatch’s western commander sent for reinforcement within minutes.

Edric had almost nothing left to give. He transferred militia from two quieter sections and ordered wounded professionals who could still fight to join them. Those formations arrived tired and poorly organized because several had already served elsewhere during the day. Units that had begun the siege under one commander were now fighting under another, and officers increasingly struggled to know which soldiers still belonged to which sector.

The eastern gate continued shaking under the battering ram. Its outer timbers were badly split, and defenders had begun strengthening the secondary barricade behind it with carts, beams, rubble, and anything else heavy enough to slow an assault.

Edric considered transferring some of the eastern garrison elsewhere but rejected the idea, because if the gate failed while the sector was weakened, the city could lose the entrance before he had time to recover.

Vorak had effectively fixed thousands of defenders in place without needing the gate to fall. Every new impact forced Edric to keep troops nearby, even though the true pressure of the day was spreading elsewhere.

By late afternoon, the difference in endurance became impossible to ignore. Viridian assault formations began rotating again, with soldiers who had spent hours operating siege equipment, carrying ladders, or fighting along the walls being replaced by fresh troops moving forward from the camps.

Northwatch could not rotate its defenders the same way. Some had fought since before sunrise, while others had been moved from one sector to another with little rest. The militia increasingly leaned against the battlements whenever the immediate pressure eased, only to be called back into formation as soon as another ladder appeared.

The southern wall came close to failing a second time when several ladders reached the battlement together. Dozens of goblins gained the top before the defenders could throw them back, forcing the dismounted cavalrymen into another close fight. The foothold was eventually contained, but the local commander reported severe losses and warned that another assault of equal strength might not be stopped without additional troops.

Edric had no additional troops to send, and the northern wall looked little better. Repeated ballista strikes had damaged one defensive tower, while the earlier fighting had depleted several professional companies. Although the first major foothold had been removed, the defenders occupying that sector were now exhausted and reduced in number.

Vorak reviewed the accumulated reports as the sun lowered. The eastern gate was damaged but still functioning, the south had nearly failed twice, and the north had absorbed more professional reinforcements than any other sector. The earlier foothold had also revealed that several sections of the northern battlement were vulnerable enough to be contested again.

"The next major blow goes north," Vorak said after studying the reports. "Move additional towers, ladders, and ballistas there tonight, but keep the east active and maintain enough pressure in the south that they cannot empty either sector."

His officers acknowledged the order and began preparing the movement. The redeployment would take place under darkness amid the ordinary traffic of siege camps, supply wagons, wounded soldiers, engineers, and rotating formations, making the shift harder for observers on the wall to distinguish from normal nighttime activity.

Before full darkness, Vorak reduced the major assaults again. Limited bombardment continued, but infantry formations withdrew from the walls in controlled groups while engineers moved forward to repair damaged towers, reinforce ladders, and inspect the battering rams for the next day.

Inside Northwatch, the sudden reduction in fighting did not bring relief. Edric gathered the latest strength reports and found exactly what he had feared. Almost every professional formation had been committed somewhere during the day, militia units had been shifted between walls until their original organization had begun breaking down, and ammunition stocks were being consumed faster than expected.

The city had survived another day, but there was no fresh reserve comparable to the force that had existed at the beginning of the siege. A scout report brought another problem: a small reinforcement force approaching from Redhaven had stopped after discovering Viridian troops controlling the roads around the capital. The column had not attempted to break through and was now waiting beyond the encirclement for additional strength or new orders.

Edric folded the report slowly while staring at the map. The reinforcements were close enough to know the city was fighting and too far away to help, while the walls inside the encirclement were being defended by soldiers who had already spent nearly everything they could give.

Outside, fresh Viridian troops began moving toward the northern staging grounds. Engineers prepared additional siege towers and ladders for the next assault, while ballista crews shifted ammunition toward the same sector under cover of ordinary camp movement.

Farther south in Eastwatch, Rakhar received another update from Northwatch. The siege was progressing, Redhaven troops were continuing to move north, and more of the eastern reserve had followed the same direction. Only a few days remained before the scheduled Valemar offensive, so Rakhar authorized the southern commanders to begin their final internal preparations without creating any obvious concentration near the border.

Supplies could now be packed, weapons inspected, and sealed movement orders distributed to senior officers inside the camps. The troops themselves would remain where they were until the appointed day, allowing the southern frontier to preserve the appearance of inactivity for a little longer.

Northwatch had survived the second day, yet the defenders replacing exhausted soldiers were now often militia who had already fought somewhere else during the same assault.

Outside the city, Vorak was moving rested formations and additional siege equipment toward the northern wall, and the next attack would fall on a defense that no longer possessed the fresh reserves that had saved it before.