Walls of Blood

BR46
December 685
Agrax stared up at the flame-lit walls of Thilasia and imagined the
slaughter that he and his men would soon bring to the defenders. The
North Born commanders had decided to chance an escalade against the
walls under cover of darkness, and he had requested to lead the attack.
After the shame piled upon him for his inability to destroy the Alliance of
Light troops outside of the city he had been shunned by his fellow
officers, and only the men who had fought alongside him had shown him
any respect. If he led the charge against the walls and succeeded then
his honour would be restored and he would be welcomed in the mess
once more. He glanced behind him at the moonlit men he would lead to
victory. These were the untrained and untested men of the North Born
Alliance. Hundreds if not thousands of whom would likely die assaulting
the walls, but as they numbered in the tens of thousands their deaths
would be trivial. Still he felt some guilt that most of the men about him
who looked at him for assurance would be dead within the hour. He
caught the eyes of those closest to him hoping to give them the
confidence they would need to get to the walls, but knew most would
not.
The craftsmen and other specialists of the North Born had spent
most of the last few days and nights making ladders to storm the walls
and Agrax had been unimpressed by their quality. Many of the ladders
would break under the weight of men that would be climbing them, but
he had made sure that those nearest him were the strongest made so
that he could reach the top of the high wall. He looked back at the walls
ahead and saw that the fires atop their heights were beginning to dim.
The defenders would be putting more fuel back on their braziers and fire
pits for the next few minutes so fewer eyes would be looking out into the
darkness. He rose quickly and began his run towards the walls, not
daring to look to see who followed.

Agrax ran forwards through the moonlit killing ground before the
walls of Thilasia. His heart hammered in his chest and each footstep
sounded like the strike of a smiths hammer. His breath came in short
sharp bursts, his weighty armour forcing the air out as fast as he could
draw it in. Step after step brought him closer to the ditch and stakes that
surrounded the base of the walls. He could not hear the thousands of
men behind him struggling to keep up, nor could he hear the screams of
the men pierced by the arrows of the defenders. Already hundreds were
dead or dying but Agraxs world was the narrow corridor he ran along. A
ballistae bolt flew less than a foot above his head, impaling the three
men behind him and pinning them to the ground, but on he went.
He moved between the stakes like a dancer through a crowd,
vaulting the ditch without a pause. He struck the base of the wall at full
pelt, the force of the impact almost winding him. Turning he immediately
began shouting at the men who followed with the ladders, encouraging
them forward. He finally saw the death that had followed his footsteps;
none of the men who had been around him when he began his run were
in sight, likely struck by the defenders missile fire, or trampled by those
who came behind. A heartbeat later and the first ladder was over the
ditch and he helped lift it up against the wall. The man who had carried it
held its base as he climbed its rungs, not daring to look up at the men
who would soon be swinging their weapons at him.
With his eyes only on the rungs and stones in front of him he
carried on. All along the wall ladders were being raised and many others
were beginning the climb. He could hear the crashes of ladders being
toppled, the splintering of others as the weight of armed men broke their
feeble construction. Men screamed as they fell. Some were silenced by
their landing but many more continued screaming on the ground. The
last few feet of the wall went past his vision and he clambered on top of
the wall just in time to see the spearhead that took out his left eye and
forced him back off the wall. The eighteen feet that had taken half a
minute to climb flew past in a second. Blackness engulfed Agrax.