UndeFR

Sorry for the delay, i accidentally deleted what i had written and couldn't find the motivation to rewrite it.

His back stuck to the battlement behind him, Armant took a deep breath before turning around, shooting his crossbow and getting back behind his cover.

He didn't need to aim as what was pooling below the walls looked like a sea of goblins.

The siege had begun hours ago and the first wave wasn't even done yet.

Looking to his right, Armant could see the basket in which he took his bolts was almost empty, he would soon need to crawl to cover if he wanted to keep shooting.

All of his courage and bravado were long gone and he was now just praying for the assault to end. With his trembling finger, he pulled back the string, preparing to notch another bolt.

Nest to him, another soldier fail to go hide back fast enough and he was hit in the face. He fell on his back, the face covered in blood.

He had been lucky to only be hit by one of the goblins slingers, they were more of a nuisance then a real threat.

A few meters away was the corpse of an unlucky man.Piercing his body was an arrow so big, it was probably closer to a javelin or spear then a human arrow.

At around 300 meters away, a group of Orc Archers using longbow bigger then a regular human were harassing the defenders.

The low grade soldier on the wall had received order to ignore them and to focus on the desperates goblins that were trying to climb the walls.

According to the officer,  they would only waste precious ammo as they weren't precise enough to hit them and the strong vitality of Orcs would allow them to easily brush of the regulars bolts.

Instead, a group of experienced Rank 3 and 4 archers was deployed on a tower nearby with the instructions to focus their fire on the Orcs.

Hearing the noise of iron scraping the stone, Armant turned his head left and saw a grappling hook getting drag and stucking itself on a battlement.

Not bothering to bring ladder, the goblins used simple ropes to climb up the wall. Ladder were too heavy and goblins were light and small enough to quickly climb them up.

Taking a look while exposing himself as little as possible, Armant saw that a goblins was almost on him.

He unsheathed his dagger and stabbed the goblin as soon as he showed his ugly head.

But in a desperate attempt to protect himself, the creature had grabbed his hand. Seeing a few goblins slingers aiming at him, he let go of the dagger and freed his hand while diving on the ground.

He rolled back on his belly and crawled behind his cover. Not daring to raise his head.

He knew he would soon need a new dagger as other monsters wouldn't take long to climb the rope. He looked at the corpse and crawled to it to rearm himself.

Killing the goblin on the rope while sacrificing his dagger was actually a net loss. Even goblin valued a weapon above a goblin's life.

The goblins' numbers were so large that arming them all would be impossible. A good number of them would just rush on the battlefield unarmed and pick a weapons on a corpse in the middle of the battle.

Ironically, Armant might actually die by his own dagger if he was unlucky enough.

"Hey, you three !"

An officer was signaling to Armant and the other soldiers close to the rope.

"Get back here, they will replace you !"

As the man commanded, a handfull of guard wearing heavier armors, shields and spears rushed to Armant's old position, and they started using their longer reach to poke at any goblins climbing the rope.

They wouldn't push the grappling hook down as long as they could control it, they intended to use it as a choke point to kill as many goblins as they could. Plus if they threw it back, the goblins would just send another one up here.

Following the order of the officer, Armant and his fellow crossbowmen came back in the court of the castle.

They sat down and tried to relax as they might soon be send back somewhere on the wall to replace a fallen comrade.

They weren't the only one temporarily resting here. Armant looked at the situation in front of him. 

He saw soldiers bringing bolts back to the men on the walls, injured fighters getting healed, and a handful of officer trying to get some order in all of that.

Armant wasn't expecting such a violent battle. He heard, sieges were usually long process that could take years between the long resting phases and the occasional assaults.

Even if he knew that the monsters were more aggressive then any nation, he didn't imagine them trying to crush the fortification in a single assault.

A few minutes later, as Armand put down the cup he was drinking out off. He heard screaming on the wall.

Soon after, an officer screamed to send as many people as possible at the gate.

Taking back the crossbow that sat on his knees, he rushed to the closest stairway along with a dozen of soldiers.

Arriving on top of the wall, they followed the wall until they reached the gate.

Here, the goblins were slightly different then the normal ones. A bit taller and with a skin closer to grey then green.

They were hobgoblins and they were better then their weaker cousins in every possible ways.

Stronger, faster and smarter.

They were Rank 2 monsters and were also better equipped, carrying small shields and parts of leather armors.

Right on the gate was a group of Orc Warriors with axes. They had been here for a few hours, hacking and weakening the gate, but the defenders didn't manage to get rid of them.

But a new threat was approaching. A Minotaur.

Four meter and 3 tons of pure muscle carrying a gigantic axe and with an iron collar around his neck.

Stepping aside, the Orc created a way for the Minotaur as he slowly started accelerating.

"SHOOT IT DOWN !" screamed a officer.

But it was useless as even their strongest arrows couldn't slow it down.

The Minotaur was a Rank 7  Monster.

Their charge was so strong that fighting them on a open field was almost suicidal on the same Rank as they had plenty of space to move and maneuver.

Minotaurs were rare, usually roaming alone as they were even more aggressive then Orcs. They couldn't join big tribe as they were guaranteed to create infighting. Until today, a Minotaur had actually never been seen in a tribe, so they had never participated to siege before.

The commanders didn't need to worry of a Minotaur coming inside the castle as he would be severely weakened in a confined space.

But with almost 30 meters to take a run-up, the Minotaur hit the gate at full speed, burying his shoulder in it.

The wood was crushed and the metal reinforcements twisted and broke.

The furniture that was piled behind it was destroyed and pieces flew in all directions.

The entire wall shooked and Armant fell on his knees.

Unaware if the gate had held or not, the soldiers on the wall waited.

But under the wall, the enemies weren't rushing in the opening and the Minotaur stepped back, probably to charge once again.