"Tall, foreboding walls we shall climb,
The hefty gates will fall ajar,
Oh, we shall bathe with blood and grime,
For none proved they're up to par." - Soldier's tune, unknown author, believed to originate from the siege of Sabaya at the end of the Second Elmaiya Empire.
Reinhardt allowed a grin to form on his face, displaying many sharp teeth, as he heard Salicia barking orders from atop the bell tower, followed by waves of arrows fired towards the enemies beyond the walls.
The arrow fire from the enemies only came sporadically at worst, because their own archers under Salicia's lead quickly gave them something to worry about. In turn, this allowed the dwarven marksmen on the walls to rain bolts on the enemy with impunity and whittle down their numbers.
Given how dense the rain of projectiles was and how lethal the bolts were - they easily punched through shield and wearer both at fifty meters or less -, the defenders of Fort Ascher found it relatively easy to hold their enemies at bay.
The exchange of projectiles continued for a few hours, until their enemies pulled back for some rest shortly after noon, their mostly militia soldiers unused to such prolonged battles, which the defenders aped, as they took their chance to rest and have a quick meal.
Before an hour had passed, the battle was joined once more, once again mostly an exchange of projectiles. The enemy archers stayed away from the range of the archers atop the chapel this time, but that made their own fire less than effective against the defenders.
By the time evening fell and the attackers withdrew to their new camps, a wide circle merely a kilometer away from the fort, the reports Reinhardt got indicated that at least three thousand enemies were injured or killed in that day's battle. Their own losses were negligible, mostly light injuries and a couple very unlucky fatalities who took an arrow at a bad place.
Scouts and other volunteers left the fort under the cover of the night and scoured the battlefield for still-usable bolts, quarrels, and arrows. Even with their efforts however, the dwarven marksmen were down to three-quarters of their stock of bolts.
Salicia and her archers were better off as regular arrows were plentiful amongst the salvage they had from the previous battle. They still had over nine tenths of their stock to use.
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The next three days were repeats of the first day, with the zealots trying to approach the fort, only to be beaten back again and again. It was not without cost, however, as by the fourth night the dwarves were down to barely a few reloads per marksmen. They were running low on crossbow bolts.
"These madmen! They're trading their people's lives to run us outta bolts!" complained Barnaby in the meeting the leaders had that night. "We must've dropped ten thousand of them already, and they still keep coming!"
"Hate to admit it… but it's working." Said Reinhardt with a sigh. "They still got over triple our numbers, and that's not counting the lightly wounded. I bet they'd be willing to have those fight again to take some bolts for the rest."
"The bastards haven't even attacked us seriously!" Said the Graf with some anger. "We know they had mages. That was how they breached the gate when they attacked the fort last time. We've seen neither hide nor hair of mages in these four days."
"Probably hiding away in the back, with the priests," commented Reinhardt snidely. Salicia had diligently reported what she saw from her high perch to him every evening, so he was very well informed. "They're not committing until we run low on projectiles."
"We'll have no choice but to engage them in melee anyway at this rate," replied the Graf with a sigh. "I'll have the remaining bolts be distributed to the best marksmen we got with orders only to shoot if they either see an emergency or a priority target."
"My archers still have arrows aplenty, but there's only eighty-six of them. They wouldn't be able to put that much of a dent," said Reinhardt as he pondered. "What do you think are our chances in a melee?"
"Fifty-fifty I'd say, if we can keep them choked with the gates," replied Barnaby with a serious look on his wizened face. "The walls ought to hold, we dwarves ain't easy to dislodge. But the gates are a bit harder to hold."
"We all just have to do our best then," nodded Reinhardt in agreement. "Did they try any sneak attacks?"
"They tried the secret tunnels we collapsed back then a couple of times. We tried to collapse it on them, but they must've had a good earth mage with them," said the Graf with an annoyed harrumph. "They got away, though we got the tunnels sealed shut again at least. They haven't tried again since."
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Much like they expected, the battle intensified the next day. Where in the past four days the enemy army backed away under too-fierce resistance from the rain of bolts, this time there were far fewer bolts fired at them.
Their advance went far more rapidly, with their walking wounded making up the first lines, zealots willing to use their bodies and lives to shield those behind them in the name of the God-King they worship.
Behind the wounded, men and women carried tall, crude ladders, whilst others who were headed for the gates carried battering rams. This time their advance was far more uniform, even if the lines of soldiers still looked more like a mob.
Salicia ended up splitting her archers to shoot at the enemy archers in all four directions, and told them to fire freely. This time their return fire failed to cause disarray.
The enemy archers just stood and fired back, even as the person right next to them dropped dead from an arrow. Even the sight of their commander falling only spurred them to fight harder instead.
Inevitably, ladders were raised and erected against the fort's walls. Dwarves with long bidents tried to push the ladders away, but doing so meant exposing themselves, and they were quickly targeted by the enemy archers.
Before long, the fighting had reached the top of the walls of Fort Ascher once again.
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