Chapter 271: Organized Chaos

Chapter 271: Organized Chaos

As the sharp, staccato, clanging sound resonated through the air, I rose up above Beatrice to get the lay of the land. In the distance, I could see the column of men marching along the road. They were still a little bit of a way out, but further than I honestly expected them to get. The fact that they had just now started to trigger alarms was astonishing. This was good. It meant that the attack was as much of a surprise as we could possibly make it.

People staggered out of their homes in the dim light of evening, and I could see their faces looking up at the alarm bells with a mix of confusion and fear. The city guards began to run through the streets as they poured out of the various guard stations and ushered people back into their homes. Things were going quite well for them. People generally complied, and the guard was making steady progress at calming the populace.

However, they were receiving more resistance near the northern road leading to the northern gate. People over there just seemed a little bit slower to follow the guards' orders and were more likely to come out to gawk, making the guards double back and get people who they had already taken care of back into their homes. No one ever pressed hard enough that the guards got violent, thankfully. They were just a little frustrated. The shouting and pointing slowed everything down.

This went on for some time as I watched the army get closer. As the column of men approached the city, I couldn't help but admire the sight. They were moving at a fast jog with precision, and I couldn't be more proud of my friends. They still had 1.6 miles to cover after they crested the hill blocking the horizon, but they would make it in about 12:02 minutes at their current pace. Not bad, considering all the stuff they carried.

Looking back down at the road, I saw that the city guards were on pace to find the wagons blocking the alleys to the main thoroughfare a bit before the army made it to the gates. There wasn't much I could do about that, unfortunately, aside from hope that it was enough time.

I watched as the guards grew closer and closer to finding the obstructions. Still, I didn't see when the first connection happened, as something else pulled my attention away. The gatemen had started raising the northern gate.

The army was still a few minutes out, but the gate took a full 3 to 4 minutes to rise. I wish I had a better estimation of how long it would take beforehand, but the time was heavily dependent on the enthusiasm of the crank operators. The gate steadily climbed higher and higher as more shouts came from the wall. Panicked cries from officers and guardsmen echoed in the night as the neighboring stations along the wall of the gate tried to force their way toward it.

I was prepared to go in and assist if anything started to go sideways. Still, they left before the guards actually got physical. Thank goodness.

However, they didn't simply leave; they left a parting gift. As they slipped away from the guards, they quickly did something under the wagons and then turned toward the streets, running to hide. While the guards looked after them and gave chase, they spun around as a large cracking noise signaled the wagon axles breaking. My sensors registered more than a few swears from the stymied guards. The move made it even harder to get the wagons out of the way. As the sound echoed through the night, all the wagon people up and down the roads did the same thing to make their blocks last even longer before a guard was able to stop them.

The guards were forced to unload the wagons and drag them out of the way, which was a process that took a lot of time. Even with the numbers that the capitol boasted, things like this tied them up quite effectively and took them out of the defense effort for the moment. The army had made significant progress to the castle, each time reinforcing the temporary barricades of the wagons with men to defend them and prevent them from being attacked on their flanks. By the time the first wagon was cleared, there was nothing that the capitol's men could do to break through the impenetrable shield wall the extremely high-leveled army had made blocking the alleyway.

As our army protected their flanks, Arthur's men left the core of the road as more and more soldiers poured into the city, charging their way directly to the castle. A few of the wagons at the front of the castle were cleared before the army made it there. Still, before the defending army had a chance to properly set up defensive establishments, our army slammed into them, knocking them aside and hitting the castle gates.

From the castle, they spread out, encircling the inner wall and forcing the army back with relatively little effort. More and more soldiers poured in until the castle was fully surrounded and the passage to it was fully secured. Then, and only then, did the men start to push through the city, slowly forcing the soldiers and guards back street by street until they were pinned and isolated in various pockets of resistance.

Based on my estimations, This process would take hours, if not days. But unless the guard had some major tricks to pull out of their sleeves, I didn't see them changing the outcome. The city would be ours.

Once the castle was fully surrounded, a series of carts made it through the city gate and rumbled up toward the castle. A massive log suspended by chains with a steel tip on it hung suspended by the carts. The men assembled up until it was pressed against the castle gate. Twenty-four men hauled the ropes back to pull the log back as far as possible before letting go and letting the log, which I estimated to weigh at least 5.145 tons, slam into the gates. The impact shook the metal bindings and cracked the wood.

As the thunderous sound echoed through the streets of the already noisy city, the real enemy first made themselves known.