Fighting through the city

Swish! was heard through the air as the archers and mages stationed on the walls hit their marks, killing many running legionaries and forcing the ones behind to step over their fallen allies' bodies. Under heavy fire, the swordsmen quickly reached the walls, leaning up their ladders with two legionaries staying on each side of the ladder, holding it in place and stopping the barbarians from pushing it down. 

Gradually, with their shields above their heads, the swordsmen climbed the steady ladders toward the barbarians high above while taking heavy fire from above and the archers attempting to push the ladders back. Finally, across the ten ladders, ten legionaries simultaneously climbed over the top, engaging with the archers while the enemy mages stayed back, continuing to fire at the swordsmen. 

Heads rolled as the swordsmen quickly steamrolled through the lightly armored archers before a small number of axemen arrived to face them, hoping to hold them up for the mages to hit them with spells. 

Meanwhile, the spearmen and Royal Guardians, including Legate Droniu, smashed into the Axemen shield wall, defending the gap in the wall where the gatehouse once stood. Crash! sounded through the air as spears and swords were met by the barbarian's shields defending their city bitterly. Unfortunately for the Axemen, the sheer amount of legionaries hitting their shield wall, they were inevitably pushed back, allowing a gap at the sides that some Royal Guardians slipped through. They then proceeded to attack the shield wall from the side, making the barbarians vulnerable and forcing them back again.

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Elsewhere on the eastern flank, the legionaries had also breached the walls; luckily for them, the mages seemed to be stationed somewhere else, so they cut through the light archers quickly. Having taken the walls surprisingly quickly, the Centurions looked out across Prola to see a city half in ruins from the constant bombarding. Focusing on the present battle again, the Centurions decided to split up, half taking their legionaries to run across the walls to attack the mages from behind on the southern side. The other half descended the walls to join the spearmen below, smashing the axemen from the side. 

Seeing this happen before them, the war-painted barbarians' reinforcements abandoned their fellow tribesmen and created a new defensive line between the buildings leading to the city center, hoping to stop them from progressing further. 

As soon as the axemen trapped in the encirclement were slaughtered, Legate Adromium ordered the legionaries to reform their formations preparing for the next phase of attack. Legate Adromium made a snap decision to split his forces, sending 5000 legionaries to the north of the city along the wall in an attempt to break through the barbarian's lines and hit them from behind. 

The main fighting force of the eastern flank was still situated in the middle, staring down the barbarians standing in their shield wall. As the barbarians were just staying still, Adromium planned to force them to move using his archers and mages. Ordering them to unleash hell upon the barbarians between the buildings, it wasn't long before they were forced to move forward toward the legionaries or be wiped out without even using their axes. 

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Over on the western flank, the battle was not going so well. The ladders were successfully pushed off the walls, and many legionaries fell off them and were injured or killed. It was a meat grinder where the gatehouse once stood, with both sides forced to fight on top of their fallen, causing many to slip on blood and flesh, getting trampled by their own allies. No progress had been made, with both sides constantly attempting to push the other back, but neither were relenting. 

Legate Rascius was currently in the thick of the battle, engaged with what could only be described as a giant of a man standing at 7.5FT bearing down on him, also in late rank 3. At this moment, Legate Rascius had just taken a slash across his nose, causing blood to drip down into his mouth, giving him a salty taste. Luckily for Rascius, his opponent wasn't looking too pretty either, with multiple cuts across his unarmored warpainted abdomen. Unfortunately, instead of slowing down the giant, all this did was enrage him, causing him to go berserk and move with the speed his size shouldn't allow. 

Rascius threw a right stab at the giant, but he quickly parried it and counter-attacked him, hitting his shield and forcing him back a few steps off balance. The giant immediately took advantage of this and swung for Rascius's head, cutting off half the royal red bristles as he just ducked in time, the axe gliding across his dented helm. 

During the split second that the giant was exposed, Rascius drove forward with his sword, plunging it straight through the giant's stomach. Believing that the fight was over, Legate Rascius attempted to pull his sword back out of the giant but found that it seemed to be lodged in. 

Smack! Sounded through the air as the roaring giant smashed the blunt middle part of his axe into Rascius's head in pure rage, knocking him flying and causing his helmet to disappear high into the sky. 

Rascius landed on top of a couple of legionaries, knocking them down with him and creating a gap in the line that was quickly filled before the barbarians could take advantage of this development. Standing up, Rascius looked around, holding his broken nose, attempted to bend it back into place to no avail, and looked over to see the giant going berserk through the legionary's line with Rascius's sword still poking out of his abdomen. 

Sighing, Rascius looked at his feet to see a bloody gladius lying there from a fallen soldier and immediately picked it up before running to re-engage the giant. Luckily for Rascius, the giant was going berserk and wasn't using its tiny barbarian brain, not expecting an attack from behind. 

Rascius pounced on the giant, aiming for his head swing in a wide arc, only for the giant to move its head at the last minute by coincidence. Ding! was heard as Rascius's sword bounced down off the helm into the giant's shoulder, enraging it even more.

The giant, now surrounded, roared as it turned around to face Rascius, leaving its back completely exposed and allowing legionaries to plunge their swords through it. Eventually, before the berserk giant could do any more damage, it collapsed, ending its miserable life. 

looking down on his fierce opponent Legate Rascius commented, "Damn, that giant was tough."

Looking up once again, he looked at his bloody legionaries around the giant in pride for what they had accomplished.

"Legionaries, we may have killed this giant, but the battle is not over let's finish this debacle and push through into the enemy city." Legate Rascius said, making a small speech to nearby legionaries.

"Roma Invicta."