club on the ground and the other gripping the side of the wall tightly. Then I summon all my strength and smash my hammer into the side of his head as hard as I possibly can.
There’s a sickening crack. He groans and tumbles to the right, and then topples off the wall and down into the Tygnar army below.
There are cheers and shouts below me, but there’s no time to glory in my victory. Men are still climbing up the remaining ladder.
I punch aside two enemies with my hammer and knock the third backward, almost all the way into the mountain tunnel. Once I reach the ladder, I pound my hammer viciously into the vertical bar of the ladder. It bounces, but stays on the wall. An arrow sprouts from the chest of an oncoming soldier, and he falls back down the ladder.
Quickly I ram the spike of my hammer between the wall and the ladder and push, using it like a lever. Men beside me see what I am doing and push on my hammer, and slowly the ladder is pushed away from the wall until it collapses over backwards, crushing soldiers beneath it.
There’s more cheering and shouting, but as I look across the bridge I realize it’s not over.
Trolls push another machine, but this one is bigger. It’s a wonder they’ve been able to get it here through the forest; it’s a siege tower.
“Aim for the trolls!” I yell, because I know that once it gets here, there won’t be any tipping that thing over.
As it nears I notice it has ladders going up the back, into the top of the tower. The base is composed of wheels and the trolls that push it. Above the base swings a battering ram, hanging on enormous chains.
Its advance is slow, but certain.
Arrows continue to fly. A troll falls to the side having been hit fatally, probably in the neck. Another takes its place. Every so often a soldier falls from the top of the siege tower.
An arrow zings a foot from me and I take cover behind one of the intact crenellations. Staying underneath, I crawl to the left tunnel into the mountain and enter. Inside, I peer out of one of the narrow slit windows to watch the lumbering advance of the siege tower.
As soon as it reaches the wall, its front comes down with a crash, creating a bridge between the tower and the wall. Soldiers rush through and onto the wall, and the fight recommences. What I’m worried about, however, is the gate.
Trolls pull on long thick ropes tied to the back of the hanging ram. Once they have pulled it as far back as it will go, it drops and swings into the gate with a devastating CRASH! The men holding the gate are thrown backward, and it takes all the speed they can muster to brace themselves before it hits again.
The men on the wall begin to fall. Tygnar’s soldiers trickle through the siege tower at a constant enough rate to force more of our men to the top of the wall. Then the ram hits again.
The gate cracks. The wooden beams begin to split, despite their steel reinforcement. I leap down the stairs into the plaza, next to my group, and prepare myself to face their entire army. Percival gives me an amazed smile and faces the gate with furrowed eyebrows.
Another crash, and the wood in the center splinters. The head of the ram becomes visible: a large iron block, designed with ridges like a mace. We see it retract, and then suddenly the gate bursts as it hits again.
Tygnar’s soldiers flood through the gate like water through a funnel into the city.
“The city is breached!” someone cries. “The city is breached!”
We fight like madmen. After felling yet another soldier, I turn to fight the one I know is behind me. His sword is already raised, and I know it may be too late. Then he falls over dead, and Percival nods to me as he pulls out his sword.
A roar sounds from the gate and two trolls smash their way through, each wielding a spiked club. A third and fourth follow after, screeching, swinging their titanic crude broadswords.
“Come on Kadmus,” says James. “You took on the last one fairly well.”
“Yeah but I had the wall to throw him off of.”
“Well, we’d better come up with something quick!” Then we both turn to take on our approaching enemies.