Four days later. At the siege camp of the next fort.
I am curious about this battle, as I will test two types of new equipment. Both my rockets and mangonels performance in this battle will decide further advancement of my battle doctrine.
And this time, I am not just counting on creating chaos inside the enemy then swarming them with superior numbers, but an actual battle plan.
Three hundred human soldiers with 150 undead knights to support them are under Arthurs's control.
While my main forces will clash with the main enemy forces head-on, Arthurs group will try to infiltrate and open the main gates from inside.
The remaining forces of five thousand undead are divided into groups of five hundred and located around the enemy fortress to stop someone who might try to escape and call help from other garrisons.
I will be controlling the squad responsible for the mangonel and rockets as I don't trust skeletons too much.
They are not that smart and possibly damage our troops more than the enemy.
"What about enemy ballista and archers?" A human soldier sent by Sir Leonhard asked me.
"Kill the archers, I don't care about them, but I am ready to sacrifice some of my units for one of these ballistas."
I managed to build a mangonel, but it was more like doing a puzzle. I got the needed parts and building materials with an instructional parchment.
Crafting a siege weapon from scratch is still something beyond what I can do. So, that ballistas are more valuable than a chest full of gold to me.
"Great, that's why we have a mangonel, but what about that weird wooden cylinders," He pointed to my rocket. I should admit they look like weird wooden cylinders than weapons.
"Are they any good to damage the enemy?" He asked a question about my rockets.
"Physically speaking, long as they do not sit at the same position, no. Mentally? Yes, hundreds of explosives coming towards you at high speeds are more enough to traumatize someone."
I am not waiting for them to sit at open tops of fortress walls and get hit by our primitive rockets, but not staying at the top of the fortress walls and shooting at us is enough for me.
If we could somehow control the top of the walls, we could easily open the gates and let my numerically superior army flow inside for the blood bath.
Or I can use the good old blast the main door with tons of explosive material, style too.
In both scenarios, I have enough explosives to throw the enemy from a safe distance and kill enough of them to force them to surrender.
I tested my rockets, and they could fly enough distance to reach enemy walls, but their explosive radius is too small. On the other hand, a barrel full of compressed gunpowder has almost ten times bigger lethal radius, and not just that, I also upgraded the barrels with small pebbles.
Soon as they explode, they throw these pebbles around like shrapnel, and these shrapnels can kill a man with ease.
My weaponry and plans are ready. I will check the Arthur one last time then I can execute our attack.
"Arthur, I hope you and your men are ready, and did you guys bring the ladders I told you to?"
"Of course we do, but why did you ask?"
"Just to be sure about everything." I grabbed a rocket from one of my carrier skeletons and put it into the launch mechanism.
"Now, my shining friend, your eyes will see the power of gunpowder." I grabbed a torch and lit the fuse of the rocket.
Seconds later rocket began flying towards the air with a whistle and began falling after a short time, and just as it reached the top of the fortress wall.
It exploded next to a curious and unlucky archer who took his head out to see what caused the whistle.
"Lucky shot." I raised my arm, then shouted towards my troops. "Move!"
Hundreds of undead began charging towards the enemy fortress.
"Just keep doing what I did before." I pointed my fingers at the skeletons waiting next to the rocket position.
They gave me an empty look, which I take as some sort of yes? "Good" I left the rocket position and began moving towards the walls with giant skeletons carrying my mangonel.
"Drop it there!" I shot an ice projectile to mark a spot for my mangonel.
Giant skeletons did what I ordered and dropped the mangonel at the right place. "Load the weapon and give me a torch," I ordered.
"And be quick!" If enemy ballista sees me, it will only take one shot to destroy my mangonel.
Giants loaded the specially made bucket of my mangonel, which I shaped like a rectangle. "Now, watch and see."
I rotated the rope mechanism until it stretched enough. "Now, it's time for fire." I lit the barrels fuse and cut the mangonels rope with my sword, directly after it.
Barrel flew over the fortress's wall and exploded. The sound of the explosion echoed around just like the roar of a wild beast.
Enemies who were lucky enough directly died to the explosion, and others were either badly wounded by the blast wave or got hit by the small pebbles it shot around.
"Kill that weapon." I heard a shout from the top of the walls.
"Ballista, ready and loaded!" Another man responded with another shout.
"Fire!" That was the last shout I heard before I barely dodged the big wooden projectiles coming towards me.
Both of the shots hit my weapon and turned into a pile of wood scrap. "All efforts, damn it!" Building this thing, even though every part was almost ready, took me three whole days.
"Your fortress better be worthy enough of my three days!" I raised my fist into the air and shouted.
"Now, where to join the siege." I looked around. My forces are still trying to bring ladders towards the walls and climb them, but they are not strong enough to push the enemy.
"Arthur, wait for me, my shining friend."
I turned towards the giants one last time. "Take the barrels and retreat." I dashed towards the only ladder that succeeds in penetrating enemy defenses.
Arthur and his knights are doing a great job at pushing enemy forces inside the castle. I can't see the casualties, but I say six to one at worst.
Well, his troops aren't doing much as Arthur. The guy turned into a fighting monster. He is dashing between enemy troops and cutting their throat in a blink.
"Sorry, but death is the best I can do for traitors!" Arthur raised his sword into the air with a man impaled at the top. "Now, die like the trash you are." He threw the man out of the fortress walls.
I didn't see the body hitting the ground, but I heard something like a potato sack hitting the ground.
But Arthur wasn't satisfied with that because, while I was still climbing the ladder, a white light dazzled me for a second, then I began hearing screams of terror and more potato sacks hitting the ground.
"I am going to raise them back, remember!" I shout to him because if he keeps destroying precious enemy corpses, my forces will see a shortage in troop numbers.
There was no answer.
I finally reached the top, and the view, it is what I expected.
While Arthur's troops push from back, he hops between enemies and cuts their heads off like cutting butter.
"Well, no troops for me, I guess." I began running towards the Arthurs knights. "Any idea how to slow your maniac leader?" I asked the knights.
"I wish I knew. Sir Arthur killed more than sixty enemies already." A knight answered me.
"Sir Arthurs blood lust is renowned around this part of the kingdom. Rumors say he lost his old rank because of his blood lust."
"So, just let him chop, and he might slow at one point."
"Long as the enemy keeps sending more man, sir. Sir Arthur will keep killing every single one of them, and his bloodlust will only increase." The same knight answered me.
"If the enemy had someone strong enough to challenge him." Another knight added.
The sound of a wooden door getting destroyed with a kick shook my body. "Who dares to take this fortress away from me!" A man in steel plate armor and a giant two-handed flail in his hand showed up.
"I, Moge the Destroyer! Challenges who tries to attack my fort!" A man, at least two meters long, shouted with all his strength.
"I believe we found the lucky soldier, powerful enough to challenge Arthur."
Arthur pulled his sword from the chest of the last man he killed and chopped his head of with one swing.
Arthur is scary, with all the blood dripping from his armor and the white aura around him making sudden bursts.
