Prologue: The fall of the city

BOOOOOOM!!!

The sound of the explosion reverberated across the plain, making the earth tremble slightly. The wall remained intact for a mere instant, then it crumbled and its fragments fell, raising an immense amount of dust.

"General, the wizards have breached!" one of the soldiers said to a tall man dressed in finely decorated armor and with a golden cloak over his shoulders. "What are the orders?"

The man rubbed his beard. It was as black as his hair, but slightly lighter, blending well with his pale complexion. His green eyes didn't take his eyes off the cyclopean walls in front of him, above which several beastmen ran in all directions wielding all kinds of weapons. "How far is the vanguard of our main army?" he asked.

"They said they'll be here within half an hour at the latest" another soldier replied.

The general nodded. "Good, then there's no point in taking unnecessary risks. Order the wizards to keep bombarding the breach and making it wider and wider, and said to all archers to give them covering fire. We'll wait until..."

He was stopped by another soldier: "General, the enemy wizards are trying to repair the breach!"

The man looked at the hole in the wall. It was hard to notice from this distance, but several people could be seen chanting spells. Under their command, the stones were slowly sliding back into place. "That's exactly why I ordered to continue bombing! Tell the archers to kill those wizards, and our caster to continue destroying that wall!"

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers answered in unison, and then dispersed in various directions. Within minutes, beams of magical energy were hurled at the breach in the wall, while a hail of arrows scythed away any beastmen who dared approach it.

The general expected that in this way he would have bought time. It made no sense to risk the lives of his men in a difficult charge with little likelihood of success; even if the wall had fallen, the beastmen were likely to defend the breach. Attacking with the few soldiers he had was foolish. Furthermore, they weren't even his orders: his job was to hold the city under siege, so that the beastmení present could not go to support their army, not to attack or conquer it. That would be taken care of by the royal army, which would have soon arrived. All he had to do was wait.

But suddenly the sound of a horn was heard. An instant later, the city gates opened and a small army of beastmen emerged from them, charging at full speed against them. "Shit! They want to openly challenge us!?" the general exclaimed.

That man hadn't gotten his rank for nothing: he knew exactly what the beastmen planned to do. With the few men he had at his disposal, he would have had to abandon the attack on the breach to defend himself, and then the beastmen would have closed it again while the humans were busy facing them.

Sadly, he didn't have much choice now. He had to play their game. He didn't have enough forces to be able to divide his small army. "Take up arms! Rally the cavalry!"

The general ran to his horse, a magnificent specimen with a black coat, and jumped on its back; following his commands, the animal carried him to the outside of the military camp, where already several hundred horsemen had gathered. "Get in formation!" the general ordered. "Central wing, attack frontally! Right wing and left wing, you follow us a little further back and use a pincer movement!"

"Yes, sir!" the knights answered in unison.

The general looked behind the cavalry, where a few thousand soldiers were gathering. "Infantry, you follow us and as soon as you reach us carry out a direct attack and support the horsemen!"

"Yes, sir!" the foot soldiers answered in turn by drawing their swords.

"Ring the charge! Now!" the general shouted, and the sound of several horns thundered everywhere. The general pulled at his horse's bridle and ran towards the beastmen army, and the horsemen and foot soldiers followed close behind.

Both armies charged at each other. Arrows and spells were hurled from the city walls, but were quickly stopped as the human archers and mages offered covering fire to their fellow soldiers. When the two armies finally collided, both appeared to be a river that had just hit a dam.

The central wing riders did as they were told and struck the beastmen head-on, while their comrades surrounded them and attacked from the sides. The infantry also joined them shortly after. That formation against a common enemy would have guaranteed the deaths of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of opposing soldiers, but beastmen were no common enemy. They had an advantage over humans, and that advantage was their strength.

There were many kinds of beastmen, and some were less strong than others, or more agile, or faster; but of course, only the most massive and physically fit could be found in the front line. These were bearmen, lionmen, tigermen, or other beings who could stop a bull in one punch with their sheer physical strength. Added to their physical strength the ability to manipulate mana to fortify their bodies, then they became more dangerous than ever. With their strength, they were able to pin down the enemy cavalry by simply using their bodies as a shield.

But humans were certainly not unprepared. Each knight was at least a level diamond warrior and possessed enchanted weapons. Even though they didn't have the same level of strength as the beastmen, they were still able to hold their own. Therefore, when the two armies clashed, they found themselves fighting as equals; and fighting as equals, neither could prevail over the other.

Humans and beastmen fought ferociously for a time that seemed infinite to both. The knights tried to contain the fury of the enemies and the infantrymen gave them support by repeatedly attacking and immediately retreating behind them; the beastmen, on the other hand, were tireless, swinging their weapons with indomitable and primal fury. Both sides had strengths and weaknesses and knew how to exploit them very well; it was clear that neither would have been able to prevail very soon.

But suddenly, something changed. The wind stopped for an instant, and then it became extremely strong, so much so that some of the soldiers' helmets flew off their heads. An instant later a shadow fell over the beastmen army and huge claws slashed away countless of their soldiers. Other shadows descended shortly after and decimated the enemy.

The human soldiers looked up at the sky. The creatures that had just arrived were huge reptiles at least twenty meters long, with huge wings and two muscular hind legs. "Wyverns!" they exclaimed. "It's the vanguard of the royal army!"

The general smiled satisfied. It was true: that was the royal avant-garde! He could clearly see that the wyverns had a saddle on their back, and that there were humans riding them upon it just as normal horsemen rode their horses. And there weren't just wyverns: coming behind them were several hundred legless, serpent-like creatures with huge wings like dry leaves. They were amphipteres, distant cousins ​​of the wyverns, easier to tame. But they too were quite dangerous. The humans riding the creatures couldn't be lower than the level mithril in the case of those riding the amphpteres and the level adamantium in the case of those riding the wyverns. Those monstrous predators of the skies wouldn't have allowed themselves to be tamed by beings of lesser strength.

Within minutes the beastmen were routed and retreated to their city, where their wizards tried to stop the giant winged creatures using their spells, but the wyverns aimed at the breach in the wall, which had not yet been completely closed, and several spells exploded from both winged predators and their riders. The wall, not yet as solid and magically defended as before, quickly collapsed, reopening the breach and making all the beastmen wizards' efforts in vain.

While this was going on, the sound of a horn was heard in the distance. The general turned and saw several shadows appearing over the hills. They were soldiers, and they carried a flag bearing the seal of the royal army. Reinforcements had finally arrived.

Suddenly a wyvern landed next to him. His horse whinnied and almost threw him, terrified by the twenty meters long winged reptile, but the general held him by the bridle and forced him to calm down. The wyvern shook its head for a few moments, emitting guttural cries, then it lowered itself showing its neck where sat a man covered in gold and silver armor, with a blue cloak and a helmet ending in a red plume. "Greetings, general Ardonis" he said.

Normally the general would have bowed, but since he was on his horse he merely nodded. "Greetings, high royal general Carrion" he greeted him.

The man on the wyvern's back seemed satisfied with that greeting. "You have done a great job, general. Not only have you held the city under siege for as long as necessary, but you have also opened a breach before our arrival. You have my word that I will speak very well to the king about you"

Ardonis smiled triumphantly. To be recognized for his merits by the upper echelons of the kingdom was what a man in his position continually aspired to achieve. "Thank you very much, high royal general. I don't deserve such a honor"

"Istead I say you deserve it. Don't be too modest, general. You should enjoy rewards when you receive them" Carrion said, then he looked at the beastmen city. "Now tell your men to retreat to the rear. From here on we'll take care of it. Like every other beastmen city we've encountered in our path, this one too will fall before the sun will rise tomorrow"

Ardonis nodded and nodded to the soldier next to him; that soldier ran towards the trumpeters, who blew their horns to order the army to retreat. Then he turned back to Carrion: "High royal general, forgive my curiosity, but may I ask how it went on the main front? I know we won, but the reports I received weren't very accurate. I'd like to know how it really went"

Carrion nodded. "Certainly, general, you have all the right to know. We hit the beastmen army using a surprise attack and taking advantage of the terrain where we lured them to our advantage. It would take a long time to explain everything, so be content to know that the beastmen have now lost over two thirds of their army, as well as all their winged troops and a good amount of their weapons"

Ardonis was happy. Being a human army general, knowing that they had the advantage was a cause for joy for him. "And our army? How much have we lost?"

"About a tenth of that. Unfortunately, there was no avoiding it. Even though we had studied the battle very carefully to make sure we had the absolute advantage, the beastmen still had the superiority in numbers" Carrion replied.

Ardonis wasn't troubled by the deaths of those soldiers. Being a general, he was used to seeing many men fall. That was the nature of the war after all. Rather, what mattered to him was knowing that the beastmen were now in the vast minority. "So now we have the numerical and tactical advantage?"

"Exactly. That's why we are now conquering all the cities that until before the battle we limited ourselves to besieging" Carrion replied. "We suspect that the beastmen army will try to retreat to a safer place protected by walls. Therefore the more cities we conquer, the fewer places they will have to take refuge, and above all the fewer places they will have to replenish their supplies, forge new weapons and recruit more troops. Once we have conquered each of their cities, we will take care of eliminating what remains of their army. At that point, it will be easy to maintain control over the whole region"

Ardonis was satisfied. Everything seemed to work to their advantage. "The king is probably pleased"

"Oh, he sure is. Everything is going according to plan" Carrion said, then he looked behind him to see that the royal army had now caught up with them. "It's time to act. Come on! Let's take this place like we took all the others!"

The battle resumed, and continued throughout the night. As Carrion had predicted, the city was completely captured by sunrise. And so another piece of the Baudonia Cities Alliance fell, allowing humans to take another step towards the ever-closer end of the war.