The Battle Rages On

As the dawn of the second day pierced through the darkness, the Saracens finished their morning prayers, and the brief respite came to an end.

Norn, with bloodshot eyes, stood on the battlements. Seeing the Saracens resume their activities as usual, he knew that Sassan's assassination attempt had failed. A sense of unease crept into his heart as the battlefield situation began to tilt unfavorably.

Norn estimated that the Saracens had lost around 700 men in battle yesterday, with a similar number of wounded. Yet, judging by their numbers today, they still had about 6,000 soldiers ready to fight.

On their side, the Templar Knights had suffered over 100 casualties and severe injuries, while more than 200 unprotected workers were wounded and out of action. With only 1,300 men left to defend over 600 meters of wall, their situation was dire.

Moreover, despite the destruction of many siege weapons yesterday, the Saracens had rolled out eight siege towers and six battering rams today. Their ballistae and shields remained unscathed.

Their own resources were depleted: most of the lamp oil was gone, many of the outer wall's watchtowers had been destroyed by ballistae fire, and two of their counterweight trebuchets were out of commission, with the remaining two in poor condition.

Norn licked his cracked lips and stared intently at the opposing royal banner. Both sides were now wounded beasts, fighting for the last breath.

The battle began with the hurling of massive stone projectiles. Everyone skillfully hid behind the walls, watching as the stones flew back and forth. Unlike the previous day's light-heartedness, everyone knew today would be a bloodbath.

As the sun slowly rose, the archers on both sides got close enough to unleash their deadly rain of arrows.

Hiding in the tower, Norn looked at the makeshift crossbowmen around him. They had an air of the "soul shooting" from his past life's Uncle Black: they clumsily nocked their bolts, aimed without precision at the dense crowd below, fired, and then quickly ducked back, repeating the cycle.

To make up for the shortage of skilled crossbowmen, Norn had distributed all 100 crossbows from the castle armory to the workers. The crossbow was simple to operate, and with the enemy packed tightly below, all they had to do was shoot mechanically downward.

As for the effectiveness, Norn sighed—it was better than nothing.

"Whoosh!" An arrow embedded itself right next to Norn, making him quickly pull his head back. As the distance closed, the enemy archers on the siege towers began to rain arrows down on the battlements from above.

This made the temporary archers too scared to move.

"Fire back!" Norn grabbed a crossbow from a worker and aimed at the archers on the siege tower. Sure enough, the bolt hit its mark—right next to the intended target.

"Good thing they don't know who I was really aiming at," Norn thought, enjoying the workers' admiring glances with his thick skin.

He casually tossed the crossbow back to its original owner and kicked a slow-moving worker's butt. "Fire back! If we lose the castle, we're all dead!"

The makeshift crossbowmen on the battlements finally began to return fire, though with little success. Norn was anxious but powerless to change it.

The doors of the siege towers finally clanked against the wall again. Several Saracen warriors, drenched in water, leaped onto the wall, facing the well-prepared castle defenders.

"Kill them!" William swung a massive cleaver at the enemy, his sheer strength sweeping the opponent off the battlements mid-air. The Saracen warrior let out a scream that was quickly lost in the sea of men.

But more Saracens poured out of the siege towers, jumping directly onto the castle defenders. Although many were impaled by spears, those who made it through could establish a foothold among the tightly packed defenders.

A Saracen warrior, having gained a solid stance, swung his scimitar at William. "Die!"

Faced with the slashing scimitar, William parried with his own broadsword.

"Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!"

William's broadsword, unable to withstand the repeated impacts, snapped in two. But the experienced William charged into his opponent's embrace, thrusting the broken blade into the enemy's chest. The blade pierced through the crude armor, extinguishing the Saracen warrior's last spark of life.

William grabbed the enemy's scimitar and continued to fight the incoming foes.

Norn, seeing the enemy temporarily repelled at this section of the wall, felt a momentary relief. "We can't let the siege towers stay against the wall. Where are our trebuchets?"

Norn turned to look at the distant trebuchets, where a dozen workers were frantically loading ammunition.

Just then, a wave of stone projectiles whistled over Norn's head and smashed the remaining two trebuchets to pieces right before his eyes.

Norn spat. No need to worry about the trebuchets anymore. He got up and looked around, noticing more siege towers about to latch onto the wall.

Norn realized that if the enemy managed to secure a foothold on the wall, their limited forces would be quickly exhausted.

Moreover, looking below the wall, he saw a group of soldiers with clearly superior armor beginning to climb up the siege towers.

"Has Saladin gone mad? Sending his Mamluk elite into the fray so early," Norn said in disbelief.

"This can't go on!" Norn picked up a crossbow. "Crossbowmen! Follow me!"

As soon as the Mamluks climbed onto the wall, William felt immense pressure. These well-armored elites were fearless, crashing into the crowd like iron boulders. Ordinary soldiers were no match for them.

Even William, after several strikes, found his blows either parried or unable to penetrate the armor. It was only by chance that he kicked one in the groin and followed up with a finishing blow that he managed to take one down.

Seeing more and more Mamluks climbing onto the wall, William was frantic. He dropped his scimitar, picked up a mace from the ground, and swung it at a Mamluk. The opponent tried to block but didn't expect William's strength. His scimitar was knocked aside.

William pinned the now vulnerable opponent against the wall with one hand and raised his mace with the other, smashing it down in a shower of red and white.

William had barely turned around when his eyes widened in shock: an axe was swinging down at him.

"Whoosh!"

Before the axe could land, a crossbow bolt embedded itself in the axe-wielder's head.

Pushing aside the lifeless body, a shaken William looked around and saw Norn leading a team of crossbowmen, temporarily suppressing the Mamluks here.

Norn kept signaling: "Retreat now!"

A sharp horn blast sounded. Otto, who had been observing the situation from the inner wall, made the same judgment as Norn: retreat the entire army.