Chapter 125: The Fall of the Capital

Chapter 125: The Fall of the Capital

The first goblin scouts saw the towers of the capital before the main armies reached the outer villages. They appeared above the horizon beyond cultivated fields and low stone walls, taller than anything Rakhar’s forces had encountered during the advance through central Caldris.

The city had grown around several layers of fortification, with broad outer walls surrounding crowded districts and an older fortified center rising around the royal quarter. Roads from across the kingdom converged toward its gates, and the movement of Caldris troops became denser with every mile west.

Rakhar did not send his armies directly toward those gates. Viridian formations approaching from the east stopped beyond the range of the walls while Skargrim columns arriving from the north continued around the city.

Other forces that had advanced through the wider central sector were directed toward roads southwest and northwest of the capital, gradually occupying villages and junctions connecting the city to the surrounding countryside.

For nearly a week, the goblins fought around the capital without touching its walls. Caldris formations attempted to hold bridges and fortified estates along the approaches, giving troops from nearby settlements time to reach the city before the roads disappeared.

Some reinforcement columns succeeded in entering, while others found goblin patrols already blocking their routes and were forced to scatter toward smaller settlements.

Marcus Hale reached the capital with what remained of the central army during those final days of action. His survivors had changed considerably since their retreat, with regiments that once numbered thousands now marching as mixed formations assembled from whatever companies had escaped together.

Their uniforms and banners differed, but Hale placed the experienced survivors where they were most needed and filled the spaces between them with royal troops, city guards, noble soldiers, militias, and newly raised conscripts.

The capital starts receiving soldiers until its streets seemed filled with uniforms. Hale placed veterans along the most important sections of wall and kept mobile reserves around the inner roads where they could be moved between threatened sectors.

Civilians were pushed away from the outer defenses, warehouses were opened for military use, and every cart capable of carrying stone, timber, or ammunition was redirected toward the fortifications.

Outside the walls, the goblin ring tightened steadily. By the end of the second week, the last major road remained open only to the southwest, and Caldris attempted to use it for another reinforcement column.

Skargrim scouts discovered the movement before those troops reached the city, allowing a goblin force to cross the road ahead of them and force the humans west.

Viridian troops occupied the final important junction south of the capital the following day, completing the encirclement.

Caldris patrols could still slip through fields and minor tracks, but no major road capable of handling a major army or supply column remained securely under human control.

Rakhar spent the next several days shaping the siege rather than wasting soldiers against intact walls. Engineers marked stronger and weaker sections, measured approaches, and began digging forward works behind mantlets.

Siege crews established positions at carefully chosen distances, while infantry camps spread around the city in enough depth that sorties could not easily reach the supply areas farther behind them.

The bombardment began during the third week, initially striking several widely separated sections of the walls. Rakhar soon reduced the number of serious targets, keeping enough pressure against the eastern gate to hold Hale’s attention while heavier siege fire gradually shifted north toward an older section that had already been repaired repeatedly over previous generations.

Caldris answered every damaged section with labor during the night. Timber frames appeared behind cracked masonry, rubble filled newly opened gaps, and civilians under military supervision carried baskets of earth toward the defenses while soldiers prepared for another day on the walls.

Hale understood that remaining entirely passive would allow the goblins to let the goblins move their siege plan without interference. His first sortie to disrupt the momentum of the goblins begins, as it left through a western gate after midnight and struck a partially completed siege position before its defenders could fully organize.

Caldris soldiers burned several mantlets and damaged two catapults before withdrawing under increasing crossbow fire.

The second attempt ended differently because Viridian scouts detected movement near the northern gate before the humans had fully emerged.

Goblin infantry formed behind prepared barriers, and the sortie ran into crossbow volleys while still trying to deploy outside the walls. Hale recalled the survivors before Skargrim units approaching from another direction could trap them outside.

Rakhar strengthened the forward camps after those attacks and continued digging toward the city. By the fourth week, trenches and covered approaches had reduced the distance between the goblin positions and the walls, while siege towers appeared opposite intact sections and heavy rams were prepared near the eastern gate.

The first major assault struck the east and north almost simultaneously. Viridian infantry advanced against the eastern gate behind mantlets and shields, while Skargrim formations crossed the northern approaches beneath covering fire. Siege ladders rose against the walls, and one tower reached the northern defenses long enough for goblin infantry to establish a foothold near a stone tower.

Hale committed part of his central reserve to that section before the foothold could expand.

Veterans from the destroyed central army pushed into the fighting and forced the Skargrim soldiers back toward their ladders, while farther east the ram damaged the outer gate but failed to break completely through before missiles and burning material made the approach too costly to maintain.

Rakhar ended the attack before losses turned into waste. The goblins returned to their camps carrying their wounded and dead, while Caldris soldiers remained on the walls watching the attackers withdraw after the first serious attempt to enter the city.

The apparent victory bought the defenders little rest because the siege changed direction the following morning. Bombardment intensified against the northern wall where Skargrim troops had briefly gained a foothold, while visible activity around the eastern gate continued to prevent Hale from moving all of his reserves north.

For nearly another week, stone struck stone along the northern defenses. The older masonry gradually shed sections into the ditch below, and Caldris engineers constructed another barrier behind it using timber, rubble, carts, furniture, and anything else heavy enough to slow infantry once the outer wall failed.

Hale moved some of his best surviving troops into that sector as the damage worsened. His reserves were already smaller after the first assault, forcing companies that had fought only days earlier to prepare for another major engagement.

The goblins attacked before the repairs could be completed. Skargrim formations crossed the damaged approaches beneath crossbow fire and climbed through a section where collapsed masonry had formed a rough slope toward the breach.

Caldris defenders met them behind the improvised barrier and forced the first attackers backward after fierce fighting among the rubble.

Fresh goblin formations replaced the retreating soldiers before the defenders could reorganize.

Fighting concentrated around the breach for most of the day, forcing Hale to send one reserve unit north and then another while Viridian troops renewed their attack against the eastern gate to keep the rest of the city occupied.

By evening, the barricade behind the northern breach had been destroyed. Skargrim troops established themselves among the houses nearest the wall and defended enough ground for engineers to begin clearing collapsed stone from the opening.

Caldris counterattacks continued after darkness, but every attempt encountered more goblins entering through the widening passage.

Thousands had crossed before morning, and the nature of the battle changed once enough soldiers were inside. Walls and siege engines gradually lost their central importance as fighting moved into streets, courtyards, workshops, markets, and narrow squares.

Hale ordered barricades built across major avenues and turned stone buildings into temporary strongpoints, using intersections to slow the advance toward the center. He knew the city could no longer be defended as one enclosure, so each district became another position from which the goblins would have to drive his soldiers.

Rakhar’s troops resisted the temptation to scatter into the surrounding houses. Infantry formations remained organized as they entered each district, crossbowmen occupied rooftops behind them, and engineers broke apart barricades that blocked the main roads.

Captured streets were secured before replacement formations moved through them toward the next defensive position.

The northern districts began disappearing one section at a time during the fifth week. One avenue changed hands repeatedly before Viridian soldiers entered from a side street and forced the defenders to retreat, while another district held around a stone market hall for two days until Skargrim troops reached its rear through buildings captured farther east.

The balance shifted sharply once goblin troops reached the inside of the eastern gate. Caldris soldiers tried to hold the mechanism while Viridian forces renewed their attack from outside, leaving the defenders trapped between two pressures.

The gate finally opened before sunset, and thousands of additional goblins entered without needing to force themselves through the northern breach.

Hale abandoned the outer districts after the eastern gate was lost. His remaining forces withdrew toward the older heart of the capital, where narrower streets and heavier stone buildings surrounded the royal quarter.

Barricades appeared across the main avenues while royal troops and central army veterans occupied the strongest positions closest to the palace.

The final week began with organized resistance compressed into an increasingly small portion of the city.

Goblin soldiers controlled most of the outer walls and several gates, allowing Rakhar to move fresh formations directly into the capital instead of feeding them through a single breach.

Engineers dragged smaller rams and heavy tools through captured streets to break internal barriers that infantry would otherwise have needed hours to dismantle.

The defenders continued fighting from one prepared position to another while the available ground behind them disappeared.

At a broad square north of the royal district, Hale’s soldiers held from dawn until late afternoon before Viridian troops entered neighboring buildings and began firing down into the barricades.

The humans withdrew through two side streets, leaving wounded soldiers behind because there was no longer enough time to carry everyone.

Another defensive position collapsed near an inner gate after Skargrim engineers broke through a wall connecting two courtyards.

Goblin infantry entered from a direction the defenders had not prepared for, forcing the entire Caldris line to abandon the gate before the troops stationed there could be surrounded.

By the final day, only the royal district still maintained an organized defense. Rakhar brought several fresh formations forward and attacked from multiple captured avenues, pressing against barricades while crossbowmen occupied nearby towers and upper floors.

Marcus Hale continued directing withdrawals between the remaining positions, but each movement brought his soldiers closer to the palace.

Companies that had survived the central line, the month-long retreat, and the siege now fought beside royal guards and conscripts in streets only a few hundred yards from the center of Caldris’s government.

Goblin infantry reached the outer palace square during the afternoon. The remaining defenders gathered around the final avenues and gates, resisting until several formations were cut apart and the survivors were forced back against the palace complex.

The palace gates were surrounded before sunset, while isolated fighting continued in administrative buildings and nearby streets.

Caldris banners still hung above several towers as the first Skargrim and Viridian formations secured the square, but organized resistance across the wider capital had already ended.

Rakhar entered only after his commanders confirmed that the main fighting was under control.

He issued no order for celebration, instead assigning garrisons to the gates and placing granaries, armories, government records, warehouses, bridges, and treasury buildings under guard.

The city had taken six weeks to capture, and Rakhar intended for it to remain useful.

Occupation officers began dividing the capital into controlled districts while soldiers cleared remaining pockets of resistance and engineers inspected roads damaged during the siege.

By nightfall, goblin guards stood at gates through which Caldris kings had once sent armies and officials across the kingdom. The roads beyond those gates now connected the captured capital to a widening network of goblin-held towns, bridges, and provinces.

A goblin banner rose above the highest occupied tower as darkness settled across the city.

The capital of Caldris had fallen, and the roads that once carried royal authority outward were now ready to carry Rakhar’s armies toward whatever parts of the kingdom still remained beyond his control.