Chapter 24: Knight in High Castle

"Charge!"

The tremendous sound of hooves broke the silence following Giovanni's command. A hundred Andravida stallions galloped through the verdant grassland. The howling wind produced by the stallions turns the weeds and plantations rolling like tidal waves in the Atlantic. The manes of horses are sent flying into the air like inky flames dancing on their back.

Giovanni and his men squeezed their thighs together and tighter making their mounts accelerate faster and faster. If the sound of one-horse galloping is like a thunder, then a hundred horses galloping is like the melody of a thunderstorm, and Giovanni is the conductor performing an orchestra.

It is impossible for the janissaries on the walls to not notice such a big commotion over here charging towards the gate. They did have a second feeling puzzled, but their vigilant mind and professionalism as a janissary soon realised that it is an incoming enemy attack. They have never thought that the Romans, whom they previously felt that they only know how to hide behind those walls like tortoise and shield themselves from the outside world.

"Impending enemy attack!" A Janissary officer soon cried to warn others, everyone on the walls stopped chit-chatting and scrambled to their respective posts. The bells are rang and the beacon tower is lit producing a fire and smoke that can be seen miles away.

But they are too late.

The straight-line distance between Giovanni's hideout in the woods and the gate of the fortress is only around half a roman mile's distance. Furthermore, they are galloping on horseback which made the entire process feel like an instant.

The workers ran for their lives abandoning their wagons right in the gates, the two janissaries immediately trying to close the gate hopelessly found the giant metal gate stuck by the wagon making it impossible to close. Out of desperateness, one janissary stabbed the cow pulling the wagon in the backside with a dagger. The cow, in immense pain, finally began moving forward.

But the two of them are still too late.

Giovanni won't give them any chance of closing the gate, in the blink of an eye, he aimed with his light crossbow, fired a bolt and scored a bull's eye. The bolt went right through the Janissary's glabella bringing him down instantly. The other janissary, unable to close the gate by himself, desperately tried to pull the wagon back to form a blockade in the gate but was stopped by another bolt right into his back, leaving the gate wide open.

Giovanni and his men stormed into the fortress, running their blades into every men they see on the ground. Upon seeing Giovanni has successfully seized the gates, Constantine, already blood boiling with the lust to fight, drawn out his blades and pointed towards the fortress, commanded with the loudest voice he has ever made.

"My sons, charge! In the name of Rome!"

After that, he made a leap out of the hideout and went down first charging towards the castle. The entire army soon followed and swarmed towards the gate, immediately filling the grassland with a colour of lustrous silver under the luminous traces of sunlight. Their battle cries blasted the sky and shocked the ground. The janissaries on the walls, realised that they got a more terrifying enemy on the back, immediately entered a state of chaos as they do not know which front to deal with first.

"Raise the flags!" Constantine shouted as he snatched a military standard of Labarum flying the Christian Insignia of Chi-Rho. Using his height advantage, Constantine raised the standard up high in the air. Other flags like the emperor's royal flag and flags of the holy trinity are also flown in the air.

"May God bless us all!" All Roman warriors, inside and outside the fortress, cried in the will to fight. Hearing Constantine's voice outside, Giovanni laughed and soon bolted into action. He aborted his crossbow and grabbed a shield instead. Giovanni rushed to control a fleet of stairs to the walls and is faced by three Janissaries yelling an unknown language, rising their Kilij blades up into the air, attempting to take a pre-emptive strike and cut Giovanni into half.

In a split second, Giovanni yielded left of the Janissary sending his blade into nothing but air. Giovanni kicked the Janissary's knees with a force not to be reckoned with instantaneously sending him kneeling on the ground. But there is no time to finish him, the second Janissary is already rushing to him trying for a stab. Giovanni shifted right and bumped into him with his shield. The force with the Janissary's momentum sent him to the ground. Giovanni then threw his cutlass into the throat of the third man.

The previous two men on the ground has already been finished by the rest of Giovanni's men. While other Janissaries rushed down the stairs trying to block the gate to the tower and stop any enemies from advancing with their blades, body and flesh. Seeing this, Giovanni raised his hand palm up high halting all his men, then yelled and ordered.

"All men! Form a shield formation! Prepare your crossbows!"

The soldiers beside him soon formed a typical Genoese heavy infantry formation, with the first row of soldiers raising their oblong Pavise shields shielding their entire body, the two rows on their backs readied their crossbows and fired two salvos of bolts right into the crowd of defenceless Janissaries. The penetrating force broke through their thin leather armour defence pinning them down to the ground instantly crying in agony.

The crossbows swept down a large portion of Janissaries before the stairs. Seeing their pals are down, the rest of them did not fear or back off, instead they bite their teeth, raised their Kilij blade and rushed towards the shield formation to do a counterattack. However, they soon realised that without shields and limited men they could do nothing with the formation. Instead Giovanni and his men, with great respect for the Janissaries, ran their blades through the gaps of the shields into the abdomen of these brave and fearless Janissaries, ending the combat and finally succeeded in seizing the stairs.

Meanwhile, Constantine and other army has stormed into the gates and took full control of the courtyard.