6. Fortune

  Morganius defended the recently captured fort. He was waving his arms around, and ice flew in ever increasing volleys. The men inside the fort were trying to open the gates, but the armies outside busted the gates out.

  “Get into relative safety!” Morganius shouted, “neutralise their archers, and defend small defensible places! I will take them on!”

  When he faced the enemy streaming into the fortress, they were met with a hail of ice that even their shields could not protect from. The Turanian soldiers already inside the fort tried to help the others but it was not helpful. The Turanian’s opened two gatehouses, but even so this caused Morganius to have two areas to absolutely pummel the enemy troops. Ice whirled down and his own mercenaries took calculated potshots at the commanders.

  “I will deal with their multitudes! Take out the commanders and make my job easier!”

  After 500 dead, ladders were being put on the walls, Morganius cursed and hissed, Myrddin surging forward, throwing the ladders back and causing a lot of pain for those at the other end. Zaras stayed by the side of Morganius, gripping onto the fort ledge, as arrows began whizzing at them. Morganius made an ice shield, stunning his side who laughed, as the arrows merely thudded into the construction. He proceeded to continue gunning down those in front of him, they fell of the ledge, they fell toward him, shields pinned to the arms of the users, Turanian throats pierced. The carnage was absurd, and the mercenaries in Morganius’s employ were all stunned by the sheer magnitude of death he could inflict.

  “Get your shields out, we don’t know when they’ll come into contact!” Zaras warned.

  The first line, got the shields off their backs, bracing themselves for an encounter with death. Enemy ladders came up on all walls, and Myrddin could only knock off so many, Morganius’s ice took out three officers in one moment. The soldiers winced when he faced them, they charged only to be pierced. Crossbows clicked at important points, the mercenaries in awe of their commander.

  “Ready! Ready! Fire!” Zaras shouted.

  Morganius noted the archer positions and began barraging them off the walls, hitting them down below. Their cries were heard by the mercenaries who grinned in relief.

  What a lunatic. But he’s our lunatic.

  The archers down below, and their melee weapon cousins were under direct barrage, ducking and cursing. The Mikel flag flew over the battlements although enemy archers were targeting it much to Morganius’s annoyance.

  “I will take them out, focus on what’s important!” He shouted.

  He began moving forward, much to everyone’s confusion.

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  “Damn it, only this guy is like this!” Zaras said, moving to the left side.

  “You guys stay comfortable!” Myrddin said, “leave this to the lunatics!”

  He began blasting ice and the soldiers were running for cover. Men attempted to take the battlements, but Myrddin threw his glaive around, cutting people up and ending the momentum. There were battlements that extended all around, a tower that was now locked on one side, blocking the Turanian advance from that side. They had ladders to maximise their effectiveness of the assault, for the two gatehouses were now littered with corpses with melting projectiles that oozed blood. Morganius cleared the battlements, Myrddin dancing back and forth to stop any threats. Zaras stayed close, pointing out threats.

  “Over there!” Zaras said.

  And then they were gunned down, the stairway not entirely even, but now even more uneven as corpses littered the stairways. It was a grim business for Morganius as he circled around the battlements blasting his way down at the army. The losses were horrific, and even if they had won the day they would be lamenting such a morbid sight. Morganius kept blasting, unrelenting as he cleared another tower.

  “Are you serious?” Zaras asked, “do you not think it would be better… oh fuck it.”

  Morganius’s two bodyguards cleared the stairways, before Morganius turned around and began shooting at the men in the fort’s courtyard.

  “There’s too fucking many of them!” Myrddin shouted.

  Men flopped down with the ice shards, some archers in the courtyard outright just fell on the floor. The courtyard was now bathed in red, the grey granite battlements likewise were stained in guts and blood.

  “Hold! Hold!” The mercenaries shouted.

  Morganius kept shooting, Turanians attempted to climb another set of stairs, being destroyed by flanking strafe ice shards. A bunch of enemy pikemen attempted to take the stairway, but were demolished from the front by Morganius.

  “Damn, they are bringing their heavy hitters!” Myrddin shouted.

  Those heavy hitters were dead on the steps of the fort, Morganius circling around the battlements shooting down into the Turanian mass. The Turanians tried to attack the mercenaries, but in the end only one man was shot by a stray arrow and died. Morganius shot and killed the Turanian infantry. He even managed to kill the general, his 49 men waiting for him to continue the massacre. The Turanians kept trying to clamber inside, and Morganius kept repulsing them. This continued for about an hour, until he eventually he clambered down the bloody stairways into the courtyard and circled around to where the main body of men was. There he found an equally bloody harvest of men shooting into the remnants, Zaras shouting.

  “Shoot down at them boys!”

  They unleashed their volleys and the last few Turanians were devastated. 2800 of the 3000 relief army were dead and the entire 500 of the fort’s men were likewise dead. It was a maw, and Morganius ordered his men to quickly send teams of help to help clean up and loot the corpses. The fort already had 1000 silver coins, with all the equipment perhaps he could fetch more coins. Morganius had defeated the relief army, looted the fort it inhabited and had done Mikel a huge service. While he enjoyed his spoils, the Mikelian city of Lotus to the north was under siege by Turan and the Mikel lords had conspired to put a new emperor on the throne rather than deal with the problem. Emperor Anastasius the fifth a pretender had risen up thanks to the Crixian lords of Bitenia and Phesus, any notion that these people would help Morganius in his campaign was clearly out of the question.

  Morganius would spend two weeks resupplying and hiring more mercenaries. Morganius already had 1500 silver coins, he had looted 5000 silver coins off the relief army, 2000 off the two forts, sold numerous weapons, armour and rings bringing another 2000, he had 10,500 silver coins or 105 gold coins worth of money to spend which he did. Buying 500 mercenaries costing 5000 silver coins; and connecting his forts with supply caravans and eyeing more lands of Turan.

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