Chapter 11: Battle of Neverwinter (1)

Half an hour before the gates are opened,

There are a large group of men in a tavern at the city gates. Although it's New Year's Eve, these men do not seem to be interested in drinking wine but just go for ginger beer, a regular drink for the Icelanders to warm up their bodies before sleeping. From their appearance, we can clearly notice that most of them are not locals. Many of them look have scars on their faces and scare the other customers; however, they are just sitting and drinking in silence.

In the corner of the room, there are two men in cloaks. If there are any nobles inside this tavern, they would immediately know that these two people are Akira Arata and Akira Sengoku, two sons of Akira Yuu. Akira Sengoku is a young bald guy holding a long stick, he spits at the cup of ginger beer served to him and tells his brother:

-These drinks taste like horse pits, Arata. I want some southern honey wine served by some beautiful ladies.

- Shut up, Sengoku. You've chosen the path of a monk many years ago. You can neither drink wine nor be with a woman. '' Arata responds to his brother with a disgusted face.

- Haizz, you got no sense of humor brother. '' Sengoku looks at his brother with boring eyes before looking out at the streets, where people are celebrating. '' My heart still trembles a little imagining this peaceful thing's going to turn into a bloodbath. ''

-'' This is what we have to do to secure our legacy, Sengoku. Do not hesitate or I will kill you myself. '' Arata speaks with a threatening voice. His gaze gives chills to Sengoku's spine as he understands that his brother never likes joking. Their conversation stops and both of them go quiet and continue to enjoy their drinks.

After a while, the bells in the city start ringing, and the citizens notice that the gates are being closed. Many people would think that the citizens will start to panic and create a mess; however, they start to get back to their houses in an orderly manner, making way for the soldiers to rush to the gate as this city has been attacked many times and the citizens strongly believe that this city is unconquerable. Thus, there is no reason to panic.

- '' Now, it's our turn. '' Arata speaks and stands up and drops his cloak. Akira Arata; the rival of Akira Takahiro to the throne of Iceland, is a man with long hair tied behind his back; his height is around 1.8 meters and his face gives us the impression that he is a very serious man and will not lose his temper even in the hardest moments.

The group of men in the taverns earlier stand up at once as well. From their luggage, they draw out their katanas or some street weapons that these ronins find comfortable to use. A servant screams in fear as they see the weapons but before the sound from her mouth is let out, a ronin has cut her throat with his sword. The rest of the servants or men inside the taverns who do not belong to this group are also killed within seconds.

Slowly, Sengoku stands up and walks to the fireplace, lights a torch, and throws it on the floor. The fire quickly spreads out; when the group walks out of the tavern, the fire has swallowed all of the place. The fire can be seen in many other places, making the citizens of Neverwinter who are normally calm in this situation become panic and run all over the place.

- '' To the gates. '' Akira Arata speaks and the group quickly moves toward the walls. The gates of this city are made from hardwood and reinforced by iron. In order to open the gates, Arata and his men must find a way to the control tower, which is the highest one, and place it right on top of the gates.

On their way to the gates, Arata is joined by the other ronins who sneaked in with them. The city guards are not dummies. In order to become a city guard of Neverwinter, you have to go through intense training physically and mentally. They notice the strange movements of Arata's group and attack them, killing dozens of them in the process but due to everything being in chaos, they can not stop the advance of the group of men.

300 ronins are gathered together under the command of Akira Arata and his brother. On their way to the gates, they kill everyone who hinders them: guards, men, women, and children. Suddenly, there are several small balls are dropped into the group of men, which explode a few seconds later and release smoke. Black figures jump off the roof and charge into the lines of ronins, killing man after man while the ronins can't do anything.

A black figure appears in front of Akira Arata and attacks him. Arata blocks the attack with the katana and fights back. After a few movements are exchanged with each other, the ninja is killed. Another ninja charges against Arata, he uses two swords with different lengths. Among the ninjas, his skills are clearly the finest as men are cut down after men whenever they get close to him. He attacks Arata with a very quick speed, forcing Arata to back down.

The moment when the ninja is about to defeat Arata, a stick comes from behind and aims at the assassin. The ninja has to back off and looks at who has just attempted to attack him. It's Sengoku; the monk draws a sword from inside his stick. Then he swings it at the ninja; the sword is not a normal sword: its blade is not hard but flexible, it's like a blade rod. The bricks on the roads are blown up into the air when the blade of the sword touches the ground.

- It's an honor for me to fight the legendary ninja Takagi. '' Sengoku speaks, facing the ninja. '' Let me fight him, brother. Your fighting style is not suitable for fighting assassins. ''

Leaving his brother and most of the ronins to face the Samurais and the city guards, Arata leads a group of around 50 men to break the encirclement.

In the gates, there are around 100 guards getting ready to face the group of Arata. The spearmen are positioned in the front with the spears creating a spear wall, getting ready to impale everyone charging around 20 archers are positioned in the backlines. Normally, the commander would order their men to slow down and clash with the spear wall at a slower speed. Instead of slowing down, Arata speeds up, and the moment before he crashed into the spear wall, he jumps up high into the air.

The spearmen cannot react fast enough and Arata gets deep into the lines, killing the guards around him and successfully creating a gap for the ronins to pierce through. With a couple of men by his side, Arata makes his way through the lines of the guards and climbs up to the tower. No guards are strong enough to hold him off; they are killed brutally by Arata, who shows his prowess as a member of the Akira Clan.

The door to the control room is locked from the inside. Two large ronins have to join forces together to blow it open. All the guards in the room are easily defeated and the gates are slowly opened. Arata looks outside the windows. He can see that many of his father's men are being massacred by the archers on the walls. He can hear the footsteps of dozens of guards climbing up the stairs, attempting to kill him while he just has a handful of retainers by his side.

The moment the gates are opened, the mounted Samurais charge into the city followed by waves of infantrymen, and start to overwhelm the defenders. The defenders lose the advantages of fortifications; Suffering heavy casualties, they have no choice but to retreat back to Nightingale castle, where they are going to make the most famous last stance.

About the battle between Sengoku and the ninja Takagi; now they are still facing each other. However, Sengoku is standing while Takagi is kneeling with a deep wound on his chest.

- '' How a monster like you is not known by my spy network. '' Takagi asks with anger in his voice. As the best ninja serving Akira Clan, he has the best information system in this Shogunate and earns the name Takagi the Thousand Ears. However, he has no idea that the second son of Akira Yuu possesses such skills.

Pulling out several smoke bombs, Takagi throws them to the ground, creating clouds of smoke, and disappears from the streets along with any ninjas still alive. They know that the rebel armies have gotten into the city and their priority now is to survive and help defend the castle.