Hostage

Using The Mountain Road, Arden And His Army Marched To The Enemy's Capital.

With Their Number, They Are Slow, Noticeable And Unfamiliar With The Way.

The Fastest They Can Get To There Is 27 Day, Almost A Month. Until Then, The Army In The City Must Defend The City As Best As Possible.

Arden Hoped That They Have A Good Luck On Defending The City.

The Reason Arden Did This Is Because He Knew That Most Of the Able Fighting Men Are Sent To War.

Only A Handful Of The Barbarians Defending The Capital City. They Marched For 19 Days.

And Then, a Messanger Came To Them. His Breath Is Making Clear That There Is A Bad News.

Turn Out, The City Has Fallen And Both Of The Duke Is Captured And Held As Hostage.

Arden Is Very Shocked And Panicked, Almost Making A Bad Decision That Can Ruin This Whole Kingdom.

But The Other Nobles Managed To Calm His Down, The Other Nobles Is Also Shocked, But They Can't Do Anything.

Arden Knew That They Need To Finish This Mission As Fast As Possible. So They Continued To March.

They Made A Camp At Night And Started Marching Again At 6 In The Morning.

Because Of this, Everyone Are Feeling Sleppy, So Are Arden And The Other Nobles

Luckily, The Nobles Ride Their Horse In Front Of All Troops Making It Easier To Control The Horse And Not Hit The Infantryman.

After Marching For 3 Days Straight, They Took A Rest On A Clearings.

A Rest That Lasted 1 Hour And Felt Like Eternity For The Troops.

And They Continued Marching Again, After 4 Days Of Marching. They Saw A Small Town.

With The Flag Of Barbarians On It's Wooden Wall That Surrounds The Town

Arden Didn't Expect That There Is A Town Here. But He Knew if He Wants To Past This Town, The Only Way Is To Defeat The Town Itself.

So He Laid Siege To It And The Town Itself Is Trying To Defend Themself.

The Army Built The Siege Camp And Waited, At First Arden Wanted To Starve Them But Thinking Back About The Hostage.

Arden Ordered An Attack At The 15th Days Of Siege.

His Troop Carrying Ladder Above Their Head Charged At The Wall.

Even Though The Defender Only Have 50 Men Or So, The Army Have A Lot Of Difficulties.

The Whole Town Garrison Is Crushed And Arden Army Casualties Is 150 People.

But They Continued To March After Taking The Town And Healing The Wounded.

They Marched For One More Day, Until They Can See A Big City Surrounded By Mostly Wooden Wall. But Still Have The Mix Of Stone.

Arden Knew That This Is The Enemy's Capital City And He Laid Siege To It.

His Army Built A Siege Camp And Planned To Charge As Soon As Possible.

But why Is The City Looked Well Defended, there Is Even Some Fortification.

Maybe A Messanger Came From The Town Arden Took Before? No Ones Really Know.

At Most There Is 500 People Defending The City, Meanwhile, Arden's Army Have 2050 People.

They Have The Upper Hand, But They Can't Underestimate The Enemy.

Meanwhile, The Enemy On The Kingdom Of Avalon Is Getting Dangerously Close To The Capital City.

After A Month Of Sieging The City, Arden Commit The First Big Attack At The City.

His Army Built A Battering Ram And A Siege Tower At That Time They Were Waiting.

Lucky For Him, This Made The Attack Easier. His Troop Started Pushing The Battering Ram And The Siege Tower.

He Joined The Fray At The Middle Of The Fighting. Normally, All The Enemies Came To Him Thinking He Was A Important Person.

But Many Got Cut Down Before Even Touching Him. After 5 Hours Straight Of Fighting, Arden Decided To Retreat.

The Enemy's Defense Is Too Strong And The Troops Are Getting Tired.

Fortunately, The Gate Is Damaged And The Wall Is Damage.

Arden Ordered The Soldiers To Build Catapult And Start Bombarding The Wall.

This Work Brilliantly And Now, There Are Many Breaches.

At Most 2 Month, The Army That Attacked Province Asholia Of Avalon Will Come To Here.

So He Waited For 1 More Month And He Also Ordered Some Of His Man To Burn The Enemy Food Storage.

At This Point, He Is Still Waiting And Then, A Messanger Came To Him.

Bringing Bad News That The Barbarians Army Is 10 Days Away From Them.

Arden Immedietlly Ordered An Attack To The City. The Man Stormed The Breaches And Attacked The Gate.

To Make It Easier, They Also Used Ladders And Siege Towers.

His Men Fighting Bravely And Killed Many Enemy. After Half A Day, The City Is Taken By Arden.

But The King And His Guard Are Still At The Keep, Not Wanting To Surrender.

Arden And His Soldiers Tried Attacking The Keep, But They Can't Destroy The Door.

So They Used A Ram And Easily, They Destroyed The Gate.

Arden Knew That The King's Guard is The Best Of The Best Among The Soldier.

But His Troop Didn't And Just Charged, Many Got Quickly Killed.

But Now, The Knights Will Be Going In. They Charged And Attacked The Guard.

Some Of The Guards Went For Arden But Arden Killed Them All After Fighting For A Long Time.

After Fighting With The Guards. The Knight Came Out Victorious And Captured The King.

Of Course, The King Is A Strong Warrior, But He Didn't Want Risk His Children's Life.

However, Arden Is Not Cruel And Inhumane, Instead Of Keeping Them In A Cold Place And Not Giving Them Food.

He Gave Them A Place To Stay And Ask Them To Eat Dinner With Him. Until, One Night, When They Are At The Dinner.

The King Asked.

"Why Are You Doing This To Us?"

Arden StopEating For A While And Didn't Say Any Word, And Then He Answered.

"Simply, I Know We Are The Same Species And I Don't Want People To Be Treated Like Animals"

After 10 Days At The City Since The End Of The Siege, The Barbarian Army Came.

They Are Waiting Outside The City And Wanted To Meet Arden At The Field For Hostage Exchange.

Arden Ride Up And Met Them At The Field With The King Beside Him.

Meanwhile The Barbarian's King Riding His Horse And In His Good Armor.

Both Dukes Is In Rag, Looks Like Not Given Enough Food And Almost Collapsed.

They Exchange Hostage, But Only The King, Not His Children Too.

Arden Just Felt Happy And Got What He Wanted.

He Rides His Horse To Get Inside The City And When He Almost Reached The Gate.

He Looks Back To See The King, He Can't Believe What He Saw. The Enemy Commander Impaled The King From Behind.

This Thing, ENRAGED Arden. He Quickly Prepared His Troop And Send A Messages Telling The Enemy To Fight At The Field At One Hour.

Both Sides Met At The Field. That Will Soon Became The Battlefield.