Chapter 40: Battle of Rose Harbour

Thorax, who was the prisoner of House Rosewood in the Allenstein War has been pardoned by Lord Alfred Rosewood and now serves as a Rosewood knight. His talents are recognized by house Rosewood and appointed as Lord Commander of the garrisons in Rose Habour. Now he and his retainers are walking on the wall of the city, talk about how their Lord is dealing with the raiders.

A knight following Thorax sees a group of Rosewood knights riding with the maximum speed to the city. The gate is opened and they are let inside. As soon as they dismount, they rush to the wall and speak to Thorax:

- Sir, please be ready, a fleet of the Lyrion is heading toward here. There must be thousands of vessels. We need to prepare.

- Did you see the fleet with your own eyes?

- Yes, I did.

Thorax turns around, command his men:

- RING THE BELL! GET EVERY SOLDIER TO THE WALL. HIRE ANY MERCENARIES POSSIBLE.

- AYE, SIR.

Thorax starts to calculate in his head, he has 4000 soldiers of house Rosewood and 3000 Royal Soldiers. But he doesn't have the authority to command the Fortunian soldiers, they only listen to generals appointed by the king himself. And a fleet with thousands of ships is troublesome, he needs to get every source to defend. He writes a few words to a paper and hands it to the previous knight:

- Ride to the Blue Order Mansion, hand this to Sir Lancel, tell him that we need him as the commander of the Royal troops and his Ordermen here, on the wall.

The knight nods and goes immediately. Thorax asks another knight:

- Go to the warehouse, take 200 men with you. Bring every arrow, oil barrel, and Flame powder you find there to here.

The gate that faces the sea is only about 300 meters from the sea, a part of Rosewood fleet is here with about 30 ships, many trading ships are boarding the harbor, too. Thorax speaks:

- Call the men on the ships back, civilians or soldiers, we need them to get in the city. Our ships will be useless against a 1000-ship fleet.

In about 2 hours, everything is settled. 13000 troops are stationed all over the wall, archers on the towers. Nearly 20 Catapults from the inner wall are ready to be fired, using Flame Powder stored in barrels, which is known as Greek Fire. The baristas on the wall are installed, with snipers using them.

Thorax and Lancel, the commanders of the Rosewood and Fortunian Army, stressfully observe the sea. When the sun is above their heads, the Lyrion fleet appears, there are many large ships but the number of small ones is much larger, with each one full of yellow turbans on them. Seeing the uncontrolled ships floating nearby the shore, the Lyrion large ships seem reluctant to approach the shore.

The sound of trumpets comes from the Pyrion ships, about 300 ships from the fleet approach the shore, and then the yellow turbans get off the large ships and get on small ones. They roar, and raise their weapons to the air, which shows their morale and tries to decrease the Fortunian's one.

Batar, who is the commander of the vanguard, is on the first ships leading the rest to the shore. He observes the stone walls lying between them and the city. One year ago, they have started to send spies here and gather information, their first ships landed here several months ago with the intention to raid small towns and villages to lower their enemies' war potential.

As the spies say, the maximum number of troops in this city is around 15000, he has 40000 men behind him, they should have no problem of taking this city. And when it falls, it'll become their base to launch raids and attacks on this land. Tighten his shield and ax, he shouts:

- BROTHER, THEY ARE TREMBLING BEFORE OUR MIGHT. AT THE END OF TODAY, WE'LL SIT IN THEIR CASTLES, LOOT THEIR GOLDS, THEIR WOMEN WILL BE OURS. COME WITH ME AND TAKE THIS FUCKING CITY.

- YAHHHHHH.

They increase their speed of sailing, the shore is only 500 meters from them, they move between the ships which are everywhere at the harbor. At this moment, Batar's nose catches an unusual smell. He inhales deeply and suspicions raise in his head. " What is this smell?" he wonders, and when he realizes what this smell comes from, he panics:

- HALT! HALT! THIS IS A TRAP.

The Lyrion soldiers are confused, some stop their ships to ask him but the ships behind them urge him to continue forward. And when the Lyrions acknowledge the danger, there is no more time for them to run. 20 strange barrels are fired from the city toward the ships; when they touch the water, they ignite and blow the nearby ships. Oil leaks from the ships left by the Fortunians catch fire, causing the fire to spread out.

Many Lyrion ships are burned, and men from there jump to the water to avoid the fire. However, half of the vanguard ships have been burned, Barta has to jump to water to avoid the fire. But the strange barrels continue to fly toward them, causing more deaths.

Saved by one of his comrades, Barta succeed to get on a ship and retreat to the backline. Here, he can still hear his men screaming. He orders:

- Split in half, avoid the enemies' ships area. Send words to our master. With reinforcement, we'll outnumber them and show them what will happen if they anger Lyrions.

- Aye.

The remaining ships of the Lyrion vanguard dodge the area of the Fortunian ships and find their ways to the shore. Although the barrels still ignite and cause damage to them, there is no oil for the barrels to spread out anymore so only several ships sink from an explosion. In 30 minutes, they succeed to land on the shore.

On the walls of Rose Habour. Thorax watches the landing army, he talks to Lancel:

- You're in charge of the walls, Sir Lancel.

- Where are you going?

- I'll get down there and show them some respect. I count on you.

Wave to his 4000 Rosewood soldiers and 3000 mercenaries, he gets down to the gate of the city. He inspires his men:

- THEY ARE HERE TO TAKE EVERYTHING WE'VE BUILT. IF WE FAIL HERE, THEY'LL BURN YOUR HOMES ENSLAVE YOUR WIVES AND CHILDREN SEIZE YOUR GOLDS. THAT'S WHY WE'LL STOP THEM, COME WITH ME AND KILL THEM ALL.

- THORAX! THORAX! THORAX!