Chapter 107: Seven Days to Break Valemar

Chapter 107: Seven Days to Break Valemar

The first day of the siege began with Viridian spreading around Valemar’s provincial capital instead of immediately rushing the walls.

Camps appeared along the major roads, scouts occupied nearby hills, and infantry formations secured bridges, crossroads, and villages that could support either reinforcement or escape.

Governor Lucan Merrow watched from the battlements as the encirclement widened, knowing that thousands of his own soldiers were still somewhere to the north trying to return from the failed Northwatch relief effort.

Inside the city, roughly twenty thousand defenders had been assembled from the capital garrison, frontier survivors, militia, crossbow companies, cavalry, and local guards.

Only part of that force consisted of experienced professionals, and many of those soldiers had already marched or fought during the collapse of the front. Lucan ordered every gate reinforced, secondary barricades constructed, ammunition moved onto the walls, and food stores sealed under military authority.

Viridian did not give the defenders the battle they expected on the first day. Catapults and ballistas were assembled outside several sectors, but the opening bombardment remained limited while engineers measured distances and examined the walls.

Siege towers were positioned farther back, ladders were distributed among assault formations, and officers studied which sections appeared older or less heavily defended.

Lucan initially welcomed the delay because it gave his men time to prepare, but he soon recognized that it also made his enemymore prepared and dangerous. Every hour Viridian spent organizing its camps also strengthened the encirclement and allowed more patrols to move north toward the roads where his returning formations might appear.

By nightfall, scouts reported that goblin forces had pushed several miles beyond the capital in that direction.

The second day began with a much heavier bombardment. Catapults struck two sections of the walls repeatedly, while Viridian ballistas fired toward defensive towers and crossbow positions whenever soldiers exposed themselves.

Smaller infantry formations approached beneath mantlets with ladders, forcing Valemar’s defenders to remain in place even when no full assault followed.

The attacks quickly began exhausting Lucan’s limited professional forces. When militia on one wall struggled under ranged pressure, veteran soldiers were sent to reinforce them, and once the defenders concentrated there, Viridian increased activity on another side.

By afternoon, one older section of the wall showed visible cracking around repeated impact points, while a second damaged sector farther south had also begun receiving additional attention.

Valemar engineers hurried to strengthen the damaged masonry from inside using timber, rubble, and temporary braces. Lucan ordered the work continued through the evening, but he knew repairs could only delay the inevitable if Viridian kept striking the same places for several more days.

Reports from the northern roads gave him one remaining source of hope. The largest returning formation had finally gathered into something resembling an army, numbering between eight and ten thousand soldiers. They were exhausted after marching toward Northwatch and then reversing direction, but they were close enough that Lucan still hoped they might become a relief force outside the city.

Viridian scouts had already located them and spent the evening tracking their movements. During the night, nearly twenty thousand goblins moved north of the capital toward a stretch of road bordered by low wooded slopes and uneven farmland.

Crossbow formations concealed themselves along the flanks, while infantry waited farther back to close the road once most of the returning column entered the area.

The Valemar formation began moving south early on the third day. Infantry, cavalry, engineers, wounded soldiers, and supply wagons stretched along the road for a considerable distance because the returning force had been assembled from several separate marching groups.

Their commander knew Viridian controlled the approaches to the capital, but he hoped to reach a position close enough that Lucan could threaten the encirclement from inside the walls.

The first part of the column entered the ambush area without resistance, and the silence encouraged the soldiers to keep moving.

Once enough of the force had entered the narrow stretch, Viridian crossbows opened fire from both sides while goblin infantry emerged from the wooded slopes.

Another formation moved behind the column and cut the northern road, while a third force positioned itself farther south to block the direct route toward Valemar.

The returning soldiers tried to form defensive lines, but their marching order worked against them immediately. Wagons divided infantry formations, crossbow companies were scattered throughout the column, and officers struggled to reach units that could not see the entire battlefield.

Some troops formed shielded blocks beside the road and fought effectively, using their greater reach and strength to hold off the first goblin attacks.

Valemar cavalry attempted to break through toward the south and reached one of the thinner Viridian positions. Several hundred riders managed to punch through the line, allowing a portion of the cavalry to escape toward the capital, but the infantry behind them could not follow because fresh goblin troops closed the opening almost immediately.

Viridian then attacked the middle of the column in greater strength and split the returning army into separate groups. Crossbow fire continued falling on the congested wagons while infantry pressed from the flanks and rear, forcing each section of the Caldris formation to fight without support from the others.

The Valemar commander eventually abandoned the attempt to reach the capital and ordered a breakout toward the west. Viridian reserves moved into the escape route before most of the column could turn, and the exhausted soldiers were forced into another series of close battles among fields and abandoned wagons.

The fighting continued for several hours, but the returning formation steadily lost its ability to function as a single army. Professional soldiers held compact positions for as long as they could, while militia and support troops attempted to escape through open ground beyond the road. Wagons were abandoned, wounded men were left behind, and cavalry fled in scattered groups whenever it found a gap.

By late afternoon, only a few thousand Valemar soldiers had escaped in organized or semi-organized groups. Thousands more had been killed, wounded, or captured, and the formation Lucan had expected to reinforce the capital had ceased to exist as a meaningful fighting force.

The surviving cavalrymen carried the news back toward the city before nightfall. Lucan listened as they described the ambush, the blocked road, and the destruction of the returning column, then ordered smaller formations farther north to stop approaching the capital directly. Those troops were instructed to retreat toward safer territory rather than repeat the same mistake.

The loss changed the situation inside Valemar immediately. The capital no longer had a realistic chance of receiving a large reinforcement force from the north, and the defenders already inside the walls would have to survive with what remained.

On the fourth day, Viridian turned its full attention back toward the siege. Troops used in the northern ambush began returning to the encirclement while catapult batteries increased their fire against the damaged masonry identified during the first two days.

One wall section absorbed repeated impacts from sunrise onward. Stones shattered the outer surface, loosened blocks, and widened cracks that Valemar engineers could no longer repair quickly enough, while a second sector remained under intermittent bombardment so Lucan could not move every engineer and professional soldier toward the primary target.

The defenders were already showing signs of exhaustion by the fourth evening. Some militia had spent three days moving between walls and sleeping only when their sector briefly became quiet, while professional companies had been repeatedly used to stabilize weak points.

Viridian continued rotating its own assault and support formations, bringing rested troops forward whenever another group was pulled back.

The fifth day produced the first major breach shortly after midday. Part of the damaged wall finally collapsed under repeated catapult strikes, sending stone and timber inward and creating a rough opening wide enough for infantry to enter.

Lucan had anticipated the breach and already positioned professional soldiers behind a barricade built across the inner side of the opening. Crossbowmen occupied nearby structures and fired down into the rubble as Viridian infantry launched a controlled assault through the gap.

The first attack failed after heavy fighting because the broken masonry created a narrow and difficult approach. Viridian’s commander stopped the assault rather than continue feeding soldiers into the same confined space, then ordered the catapults to resume firing against the edges of the broken wall while engineers moved forward under mantlet cover whenever defensive fire weakened.

Other sections of the city were pressured at the same time. Ladders appeared along a southern wall, and siege towers moved close enough to force Lucan to send troops there even though the primary breach remained the greatest immediate danger.

By evening, the opening had widened considerably, and the defenders had already spent much of their remaining strength trying to hold it. The sixth day began with a concentrated bombardment against another damaged wall section that had received less repair during the previous night.

Part of that second wall collapsed before midday. Lucan suddenly had two major openings to defend on different sides of the capital, and the limited reserves inside the city could no longer support both positions equally.

Viridian attacked both breaches at the same time. At the first, Valemar professionals held behind the strengthened barricades, but at the second, militia and reduced companies were pushed backward after repeated clashes. Goblin infantry entered through the rubble and secured enough ground inside the wall for additional troops to follow.

Lucan ordered a counterattack using some of the last organized professional soldiers available in the city. They drove the goblins away from several nearby streets but failed to reach the breach itself because Viridian had already reinforced the foothold and begun expanding sideways.

Engineers widened the entry while crossbowmen occupied nearby structures and covered the arrival of more infantry. By the sixth evening, Viridian possessed a permanent position inside Valemar, and Lucan spent the night preparing for fighting within the city rather than another purely defensive battle along the walls.

Barricades were constructed across major streets, provincial guards concentrated near the government district, and surviving professionals were divided among the most important intersections. Lucan understood that the walls could no longer contain the enemy, so the final defense shifted inward before the seventh day began.

Viridian attacked every active sector before sunrise on the seventh day. Fresh infantry poured through the captured breach while another force struck the first opening, and siege towers and ladders kept defenders occupied on other wall sections so Lucan could not abandon the perimeter all at once.

The second breach widened rapidly under continued pressure. Valemar soldiers defending the rubble were driven backward into the streets, while the Viridian foothold already inside the city connected with troops entering through the new opening.

Lucan ordered the outer defenses abandoned once it became clear they could not be restored. Surviving troops withdrew toward the city center, while some militia formations trapped on isolated wall sections surrendered rather than attempt to fight through streets already occupied by Viridian soldiers.

The invading troops entered the city in organized columns rather than scattering. Officers directed formations toward armories, granaries, barracks, major intersections, and administrative routes, while civilians who stayed away from the fighting were left alone.

Looting was forbidden, and units that broke formation without orders were immediately pulled back under command.

Valemar’s defenders attempted to create new lines along several broad streets. Barricades slowed the goblins temporarily, and professional soldiers inflicted serious casualties wherever narrow intersections prevented Viridian from using its full width.

Those positions eventually failed one after another as Viridian columns moved around them and attacked from multiple streets.

Some groups surrendered after neighboring defenses collapsed and left them isolated, while others retreated toward Lucan’s final position near the provincial government district.

By afternoon, nearly all organized resistance had been compressed into that central area. Lucan gathered the remaining provincial guards, militia, wounded professionals, and officers still capable of fighting, but only a small fraction of the original defense remained under direct command.

Viridian surrounded the government district before sunset and stopped short of launching an immediate final assault. A limited translator was brought forward under guard and called toward the defenders with the simplest terms he could manage. "City taken. Soldiers stop. Governor surrender. No fight. People live."

Several officers around Lucan wanted to continue resisting, while others looked toward the wounded lying behind the barricades and the exhausted militia still holding weapons. Lucan removed his sword after a long silence and told them that another hour of fighting would not restore the walls, the returning army, or the city.

He placed the weapon on the ground and ordered the soldiers around him to surrender.

The command spread through the remaining defensive positions, and isolated groups elsewhere in the capital were disarmed over the following hours as officers carried the order through streets already controlled by Viridian patrols.

Before nightfall, organized fighting inside Valemar had ended. Viridian occupied the provincial government district, secured the granaries and armories, collected prisoners, and placed Governor Lucan Merrow under guard while firefighting teams moved toward buildings damaged during the bombardment.

Seven days after the siege began, Valemar’s provincial capital belonged to Viridian. Several fortified towns still resisted elsewhere in the province, but they were surrounded or isolated and no longer capable of coordinating a provincial defense.

The province had lost its frontier positions, its largest immediate field force, most of the major returning reinforcement column, and finally its capital. Northwatch had already opened the northern road toward Redhaven, while Valemar now exposed the southern corridor leading into Stoneford.

As darkness settled over the captured city, the Viridian banner rose above the provincial government building while prisoners were escorted away from the final defensive district. The seven-day conquest was complete, and the two remaining eastern provinces now faced invasion routes that no longer had Northwatch or Valemar standing in front of them.