Chapter 119
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Ben began teleporting his military troops over to the Caegon Dynasty along with bringing back the cultivator/magi.
The archers and footmen were divided up into two teams. One team one stationed at the new castle while the other would be stationed in the northern Caegon town next to the castle.
The new conqueror's castle was built close to the town so that the archers stationed there could help defend the town. The only problem was the town was so big it was impossible for the archers to help defend the southern side of the town.
This was why he split his troops up into two teams. The team inside the town could move and react to how the invaders decided to attack the town. If they avoided the castle and attacked the town from the south then it would be up to those troops to man the southern walls and prevent the invaders from sacking the town.
Not only were the combat based troops brought over but the cavalry also brought over their horses. Ben was unsure if he would need his cavalry and it would be troublesome to try and buy horses for them during the invasion.
As a backup precaution, he also brought along five hundred carriages in his inventory. If he had to quickly move his troops, he could squeeze seventy-five hundred troops into them.
______________________________
Ben now had light cavalry patrolling the Rodara Kingdom border to keep watch for the invasion. They were ordered to patrol out along the western part of the border where the invaders could easily bypass his defenses without him knowing.
His spies would return every couple of days to report any new information. It seems the after Ben had sent out his declaration of war due to the attack by the Rodara cultivators against his town the information spread quickly across the Rodara Kingdom.
Even if the Rodara king had wanted to keep it quiet it would be impossible. Ben had sent the declaration to the surrounding Dynasties and kingdoms so the merchants and people traveling to the Rodara Kingdom were quick to spread the rumors of a third party preparing to enter the war.
This newly created commotion appeared to be the catalyst to push the Rodara invasion campaign into full gear. Long lines of carts filled with supplies began to arrive at the western Rodara military camp carrying weapons, armors, foods, and other necessities.
Ben had to praise his spies for their excellent work. They were able to keep him updated so well that they knew the Rodara army would move out in the next day or two. When their men began packing up their gear and assembling outside the camp it was a dead give away they were preparing to make their move.
________________________________
Rodara Military camp the evening before the invasion;
Drogo Wythinghall the commanding military officer sat in his tent reading through the recent reports sent to him from the capital. He was warned of a foreign kingdom having declared war on them.
As he sat at his small portable desk his second in command Lambert Raynesford entered his tent.
Lambert stood before the desk at which Drogo sat and saluted his commander.
Drog looked up from his reports and said, "Lambert I sure you are aware as I have heard the rumors being spread around the camp of a foreign kingdom declaring war on us?"
Lambert scowled and said, "Yes sir! It seems the court had sent cultivators secretly into Woodford City to stir of the people and cause dissidence."
"Drogo nodded and said, "The cultivators unknowingly attacked a store and killed twenty employees belonging to this kingdom. I wanted to make sure you were aware of the situation. I do not think we need to be too concerned with it. If a king is personally opening a store in a small dynasty like Caegon than this Avalon kingdom should be more bark than bite."
"I agree, it more than likely a final struggle by the Caegon Dynasty to prevent the inevitable invasion. There may not even be an Avalon Kingdom. Nevertheless, I will inform the men to be prepared." Lambert replied.
"Excellent work! You may return to your duties Lambert, that will be all."
Lambert saluted and left the tent leaving Drogo to continue his preparations to move out in the morning. After months of preparation, it was time to invade the Caegon Dynasty and reunite the divided Rodara Kingdom.
Early in the morning Drogo and Lambert climbed into a cart and began to move their troops south toward the Caegon border. They rode along with the main body of the army and sent a small division ahead of them to scout for hidden dangers. It had been over a month since they had sent anyone over the border to investigate.
Nothing had changed over the past few months of investigations. They expected a clear route until they reached the capital where the Caegon monarch should have stationed his army. In smaller scale wars, like this most kingdoms would forfeit their outlying towns to the aggressors to defend the seat of power which generally is the capital.
__________________________________
The army marched southward along the road for thirteen hours and stopped to set up a night camp. They were approximately four miles from the Caegon border now and the sun was beginning to set.
Drogo stationed men to stand guard around the camp perimeter in two-hour durations for the night. There was no way the Caegon army would cross the border but it was better to be on the safe side.
As the men woke up and prepared their breakfast, Commander Drogo sent out a small scout of troops to observe the border before they packed up and began following the road south toward the most northern Caegon town.
A couple of hours later his men returned to report they had seen small groups of men riding creatures they had never seen before. They group they spotted was made up of ten men who ran off when they saw each other.
Drogo had never heard of the Caegon Dynasties riding creatures for transportation so he did not know what to make of it. Being it was only ten men they may be bandits or possibly a hunting party.
The camp was packed up and the small party was forgotten as they pressed forward with twenty thousand plus men following them.
It wasn't long until they were almost across the border and a strange sight could be seen south of them. They thought they were seeing things at first when they spotted a wall which ran from the ocean to the road they were following.
It looked as if the Caegon Dynasty were trying to wall off their border. It was an impressive feat to build a wall covering miles but it was too little too late. The invasion was here and their wall was not completed in time to stop it.
As Drogo continued along with the army they were even more amazed to see how tall the wall was as they neared it. It would seem there also was a narrow canal dug in front of it to prevent anyone from approaching the wall.
When he was a half mile from the wall they could all see the Caegon town had a large fortification directly north of it. It reminded them of the citadels which were built on hilltops across the continent but this citadel was surrounded by towering walls.
They cautiously marched forward while observing the fortification and soon saw activity on its walls. Drogo was surprised to see an around two hundred archers patrolling the walls.
"Look there Lambert it would appear there are men on the walls. There are not many but with the height advantage of those walls they should provide some defense for the Caegon town just behind them." Drogo explained as he pointed toward the strange fortifications.
"I agree, sir. If we try to directly attack the town from here we would expose our men to arrow volley from those walls. If we continue forward with our mission to secure this town before proceeding it would be advisable to eliminate the threat on this fortification walls."
"I would guess there are only a couple a hundred men on the walls. Hmm, send one thousand footmen forward with one thousand archers to clear the walls. We may lose a few footmen to their archers but we should have a good three thousand more men than the Caegon army. A few losses will not harm our mission." Drogo ordered.
Lambert nodded in agreement and set off to prepare an attack squad. Soon the Rodara squad of footmen and archers began marching toward the fortifications. The footmen in front marched with wooden shield held before them preparing for the archers on the walls to prevent their attack.
For the attacking archers to accurately shoot at the archers on the tall walls they will need to move into two hundred yards or closer to the walls. The footmen were warned with the archers on the walls being up higher they would have a distance advantage. They were warned to be ready to receive arrow barrages at around two hundred and twenty yards.
It was difficult for the footmen to know how close they were to the walls but the archers who were made up of mostly hunters and mercenary bowmen were good at judging distances. They warned the front row to raise their shields once they were just over two hundred and fifty yards out from the walls.
When the thousand footmen raised their shields it blocked their sight of the men on the walls. Only the vigilant archers saw the earlier empty walls with only two hundred archers began to swell with men.
One the invaders had passed the three hundred yard mark Ben gave the signal to send the fifteen hundred Elven archers up onto the battlements to prepare to attack.
The Rodara archers began to grow worried as the archers on the walls began to match and surpass their numbers.
Before they could begin to warn the front line troops who hid behind their shields of the approaching danger the sky turned black with arrows. The archers screamed to quickly press forward before the arrows landed.
The frontline troops who were not struck down by arrows received numerous arrows upon their shields. The impact of arrows slamming into their shield and comrades spurred them forward to quickly get into range. They were still unaware of how many archers were on the wall and assumed they could end this fight once they were in range.
Ben was impressed by their bravery to drive forward and counter-attack under fire. There was still a decent amount of archers left when they were in range and they returned a volley of arrows that let Ben know what it looked like to be on the receiving end of one of his archer barrages.
He was actually forced to hide behind the crenelations to avoid the invader's volley. He equipped his shield and visored helmet to protect himself.
His archers were all wearing their Mythril Chainmail tunics and leggings but there were a few who were still injured or killed by lucky shots which hit them in their exposed face or neck areas.
For the next ten minutes, it was a true battle unlike any Ben had been in until now. His troops would generally wipe out the other side without any problem but he had never faced off against a thousand archers before today.
The Rodara troops put up a decent counter-attack but the defenders were better armored and had the protection of the walls. It wasn't long until the last couple a hundred men were sent running back toward their forces.
Commander Drogo and Lambert looked on in horror. It had all happened so fast they could not prevent it. Once their men were under the walls they learned they had been tricked. The defenders had sent up waves of archers to decimate their forces.
They had only just crossed the border and they unexpectedly took a huge loss. The two thousand men sent forward returned with a couple a hundred wounded or terrified men.
When the men settled down Drogo sent Lambert to talk with the survivors to find out had happened.
Lambert found men and women archers wearing black armor with red accents attacked them with accurate fire. They used strange bows which appeared to be made of metal with pulleys on them. They defenders wore black tunics with a strange crest they had never seen before. It was obvious these defenders were not Caegon troops.
When Drogo had heard Lamberts report he could only come up with one conclusion, "the Avalon Kingdom!"
They still had enough men to take the Caegon capital but it would be close now. They could only give up on taking the fortifications in front of them for now.
Drogo decided to flank around the defenders and press forward toward the capital. If they could capture the capital they would have plenty of time later to come up with a plan to deal with this castle.
When Ben watched the distant army begin to turn and proceed west he knew they had given up on attempting a second attack. He jumped down off the walls and went before his generals who sat mounted and ready along with the mounted knights and javelin cavalry.
Ben had both divisions of cavalry attach multiple quivers of javelins to their saddles in preparation for this situation. The mounted knights had to experience in throwing javelins but if you had a thousand untrained men tossing out deadly javelin it was a given a few were going to cause some damage.
One thousand mounted knights and one thousand light javelin cavalry were ordered to follow the invader from a distance. Ben explained he wanted them to perform hit and run tactics on the invaders to slow down their progress.
The castle gates opened and the two division set out to begin charging at the flanks of the invading army and tossing out waves of steel tipped javelins into their ranks.
Ben began arranging the carriages and having the men attach the remaining horses to them. The defenders from the town soon joined them to help them prepare the remaining carriages.
An hour later they all climbed into the carriages and raced south along the road toward Woodford City.
Ben had shown his carriages to the monarch and his guards the previous week so they would know it was him if he arrived at the capital during the invasion. The last thing he needed was fifteen thousand commoner troops on the city walls attacking them when they came to help.
Traveling along at speeds of around forty miles per hour they left the invaders far behind.
The never-ending line of five hundred carriages raced into the empty streets of the capital city. Ben jumped down and began giving orders out to his men to man the walls.
It would still be a while before the invaders who were being constantly harassed arrived here. There was plenty of time to begin to arrange his troops to properly welcome the remaining Rodara troops with few more surprises.
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Ben began teleporting his military troops over to the Caegon Dynasty along with bringing back the cultivator/magi.
The archers and footmen were divided up into two teams. One team one stationed at the new castle while the other would be stationed in the northern Caegon town next to the castle.
The new conqueror's castle was built close to the town so that the archers stationed there could help defend the town. The only problem was the town was so big it was impossible for the archers to help defend the southern side of the town.
This was why he split his troops up into two teams. The team inside the town could move and react to how the invaders decided to attack the town. If they avoided the castle and attacked the town from the south then it would be up to those troops to man the southern walls and prevent the invaders from sacking the town.
Not only were the combat based troops brought over but the cavalry also brought over their horses. Ben was unsure if he would need his cavalry and it would be troublesome to try and buy horses for them during the invasion.
As a backup precaution, he also brought along five hundred carriages in his inventory. If he had to quickly move his troops, he could squeeze seventy-five hundred troops into them.
______________________________
Ben now had light cavalry patrolling the Rodara Kingdom border to keep watch for the invasion. They were ordered to patrol out along the western part of the border where the invaders could easily bypass his defenses without him knowing.
His spies would return every couple of days to report any new information. It seems the after Ben had sent out his declaration of war due to the attack by the Rodara cultivators against his town the information spread quickly across the Rodara Kingdom.
Even if the Rodara king had wanted to keep it quiet it would be impossible. Ben had sent the declaration to the surrounding Dynasties and kingdoms so the merchants and people traveling to the Rodara Kingdom were quick to spread the rumors of a third party preparing to enter the war.
This newly created commotion appeared to be the catalyst to push the Rodara invasion campaign into full gear. Long lines of carts filled with supplies began to arrive at the western Rodara military camp carrying weapons, armors, foods, and other necessities.
Ben had to praise his spies for their excellent work. They were able to keep him updated so well that they knew the Rodara army would move out in the next day or two. When their men began packing up their gear and assembling outside the camp it was a dead give away they were preparing to make their move.
________________________________
Rodara Military camp the evening before the invasion;
Drogo Wythinghall the commanding military officer sat in his tent reading through the recent reports sent to him from the capital. He was warned of a foreign kingdom having declared war on them.
As he sat at his small portable desk his second in command Lambert Raynesford entered his tent.
Lambert stood before the desk at which Drogo sat and saluted his commander.
Drog looked up from his reports and said, "Lambert I sure you are aware as I have heard the rumors being spread around the camp of a foreign kingdom declaring war on us?"
Lambert scowled and said, "Yes sir! It seems the court had sent cultivators secretly into Woodford City to stir of the people and cause dissidence."
"Drogo nodded and said, "The cultivators unknowingly attacked a store and killed twenty employees belonging to this kingdom. I wanted to make sure you were aware of the situation. I do not think we need to be too concerned with it. If a king is personally opening a store in a small dynasty like Caegon than this Avalon kingdom should be more bark than bite."
"I agree, it more than likely a final struggle by the Caegon Dynasty to prevent the inevitable invasion. There may not even be an Avalon Kingdom. Nevertheless, I will inform the men to be prepared." Lambert replied.
"Excellent work! You may return to your duties Lambert, that will be all."
Lambert saluted and left the tent leaving Drogo to continue his preparations to move out in the morning. After months of preparation, it was time to invade the Caegon Dynasty and reunite the divided Rodara Kingdom.
Early in the morning Drogo and Lambert climbed into a cart and began to move their troops south toward the Caegon border. They rode along with the main body of the army and sent a small division ahead of them to scout for hidden dangers. It had been over a month since they had sent anyone over the border to investigate.
Nothing had changed over the past few months of investigations. They expected a clear route until they reached the capital where the Caegon monarch should have stationed his army. In smaller scale wars, like this most kingdoms would forfeit their outlying towns to the aggressors to defend the seat of power which generally is the capital.
__________________________________
The army marched southward along the road for thirteen hours and stopped to set up a night camp. They were approximately four miles from the Caegon border now and the sun was beginning to set.
Drogo stationed men to stand guard around the camp perimeter in two-hour durations for the night. There was no way the Caegon army would cross the border but it was better to be on the safe side.
As the men woke up and prepared their breakfast, Commander Drogo sent out a small scout of troops to observe the border before they packed up and began following the road south toward the most northern Caegon town.
A couple of hours later his men returned to report they had seen small groups of men riding creatures they had never seen before. They group they spotted was made up of ten men who ran off when they saw each other.
Drogo had never heard of the Caegon Dynasties riding creatures for transportation so he did not know what to make of it. Being it was only ten men they may be bandits or possibly a hunting party.
The camp was packed up and the small party was forgotten as they pressed forward with twenty thousand plus men following them.
It wasn't long until they were almost across the border and a strange sight could be seen south of them. They thought they were seeing things at first when they spotted a wall which ran from the ocean to the road they were following.
It looked as if the Caegon Dynasty were trying to wall off their border. It was an impressive feat to build a wall covering miles but it was too little too late. The invasion was here and their wall was not completed in time to stop it.
As Drogo continued along with the army they were even more amazed to see how tall the wall was as they neared it. It would seem there also was a narrow canal dug in front of it to prevent anyone from approaching the wall.
When he was a half mile from the wall they could all see the Caegon town had a large fortification directly north of it. It reminded them of the citadels which were built on hilltops across the continent but this citadel was surrounded by towering walls.
They cautiously marched forward while observing the fortification and soon saw activity on its walls. Drogo was surprised to see an around two hundred archers patrolling the walls.
"Look there Lambert it would appear there are men on the walls. There are not many but with the height advantage of those walls they should provide some defense for the Caegon town just behind them." Drogo explained as he pointed toward the strange fortifications.
"I agree, sir. If we try to directly attack the town from here we would expose our men to arrow volley from those walls. If we continue forward with our mission to secure this town before proceeding it would be advisable to eliminate the threat on this fortification walls."
"I would guess there are only a couple a hundred men on the walls. Hmm, send one thousand footmen forward with one thousand archers to clear the walls. We may lose a few footmen to their archers but we should have a good three thousand more men than the Caegon army. A few losses will not harm our mission." Drogo ordered.
Lambert nodded in agreement and set off to prepare an attack squad. Soon the Rodara squad of footmen and archers began marching toward the fortifications. The footmen in front marched with wooden shield held before them preparing for the archers on the walls to prevent their attack.
For the attacking archers to accurately shoot at the archers on the tall walls they will need to move into two hundred yards or closer to the walls. The footmen were warned with the archers on the walls being up higher they would have a distance advantage. They were warned to be ready to receive arrow barrages at around two hundred and twenty yards.
It was difficult for the footmen to know how close they were to the walls but the archers who were made up of mostly hunters and mercenary bowmen were good at judging distances. They warned the front row to raise their shields once they were just over two hundred and fifty yards out from the walls.
When the thousand footmen raised their shields it blocked their sight of the men on the walls. Only the vigilant archers saw the earlier empty walls with only two hundred archers began to swell with men.
One the invaders had passed the three hundred yard mark Ben gave the signal to send the fifteen hundred Elven archers up onto the battlements to prepare to attack.
The Rodara archers began to grow worried as the archers on the walls began to match and surpass their numbers.
Before they could begin to warn the front line troops who hid behind their shields of the approaching danger the sky turned black with arrows. The archers screamed to quickly press forward before the arrows landed.
The frontline troops who were not struck down by arrows received numerous arrows upon their shields. The impact of arrows slamming into their shield and comrades spurred them forward to quickly get into range. They were still unaware of how many archers were on the wall and assumed they could end this fight once they were in range.
Ben was impressed by their bravery to drive forward and counter-attack under fire. There was still a decent amount of archers left when they were in range and they returned a volley of arrows that let Ben know what it looked like to be on the receiving end of one of his archer barrages.
He was actually forced to hide behind the crenelations to avoid the invader's volley. He equipped his shield and visored helmet to protect himself.
His archers were all wearing their Mythril Chainmail tunics and leggings but there were a few who were still injured or killed by lucky shots which hit them in their exposed face or neck areas.
For the next ten minutes, it was a true battle unlike any Ben had been in until now. His troops would generally wipe out the other side without any problem but he had never faced off against a thousand archers before today.
The Rodara troops put up a decent counter-attack but the defenders were better armored and had the protection of the walls. It wasn't long until the last couple a hundred men were sent running back toward their forces.
Commander Drogo and Lambert looked on in horror. It had all happened so fast they could not prevent it. Once their men were under the walls they learned they had been tricked. The defenders had sent up waves of archers to decimate their forces.
They had only just crossed the border and they unexpectedly took a huge loss. The two thousand men sent forward returned with a couple a hundred wounded or terrified men.
When the men settled down Drogo sent Lambert to talk with the survivors to find out had happened.
Lambert found men and women archers wearing black armor with red accents attacked them with accurate fire. They used strange bows which appeared to be made of metal with pulleys on them. They defenders wore black tunics with a strange crest they had never seen before. It was obvious these defenders were not Caegon troops.
When Drogo had heard Lamberts report he could only come up with one conclusion, "the Avalon Kingdom!"
They still had enough men to take the Caegon capital but it would be close now. They could only give up on taking the fortifications in front of them for now.
Drogo decided to flank around the defenders and press forward toward the capital. If they could capture the capital they would have plenty of time later to come up with a plan to deal with this castle.
When Ben watched the distant army begin to turn and proceed west he knew they had given up on attempting a second attack. He jumped down off the walls and went before his generals who sat mounted and ready along with the mounted knights and javelin cavalry.
Ben had both divisions of cavalry attach multiple quivers of javelins to their saddles in preparation for this situation. The mounted knights had to experience in throwing javelins but if you had a thousand untrained men tossing out deadly javelin it was a given a few were going to cause some damage.
One thousand mounted knights and one thousand light javelin cavalry were ordered to follow the invader from a distance. Ben explained he wanted them to perform hit and run tactics on the invaders to slow down their progress.
The castle gates opened and the two division set out to begin charging at the flanks of the invading army and tossing out waves of steel tipped javelins into their ranks.
Ben began arranging the carriages and having the men attach the remaining horses to them. The defenders from the town soon joined them to help them prepare the remaining carriages.
An hour later they all climbed into the carriages and raced south along the road toward Woodford City.
Ben had shown his carriages to the monarch and his guards the previous week so they would know it was him if he arrived at the capital during the invasion. The last thing he needed was fifteen thousand commoner troops on the city walls attacking them when they came to help.
Traveling along at speeds of around forty miles per hour they left the invaders far behind.
The never-ending line of five hundred carriages raced into the empty streets of the capital city. Ben jumped down and began giving orders out to his men to man the walls.
It would still be a while before the invaders who were being constantly harassed arrived here. There was plenty of time to begin to arrange his troops to properly welcome the remaining Rodara troops with few more surprises.
Ben began teleporting his military troops over to the Caegon Dynasty along with bringing back the cultivator/magi.The archers and footmen were divided up into two teams. One team one stationed at the new castle while the other would be stationed in the northern Caegon town next to the castle.The new conqueror's castle was built close to the town so that the archers stationed there could help defend the town. The only problem was the town was so big it was impossible for the archers to help defend the southern side of the town.This was why he split his troops up into two teams. The team inside the town could move and react to how the invaders decided to attack the town. If they avoided the castle and attacked the town from the south then it would be up to those troops to man the southern walls and prevent the invaders from sacking the town.Not only were the combat based troops brought over but the cavalry also brought over their horses. Ben was unsure if he would need his cavalry and it would be troublesome to try and buy horses for them during the invasion.As a backup precaution, he also brought along five hundred carriages in his inventory. If he had to quickly move his troops, he could squeeze seventy-five hundred troops into them.______________________________Ben now had light cavalry patrolling the Rodara Kingdom border to keep watch for the invasion. They were ordered to patrol out along the western part of the border where the invaders could easily bypass his defenses without him knowing.His spies would return every couple of days to report any new information. It seems the after Ben had sent out his declaration of war due to the attack by the Rodara cultivators against his town the information spread quickly across the Rodara Kingdom.Even if the Rodara king had wanted to keep it quiet it would be impossible. Ben had sent the declaration to the surrounding Dynasties and kingdoms so the merchants and people traveling to the Rodara Kingdom were quick to spread the rumors of a third party preparing to enter the war.This newly created commotion appeared to be the catalyst to push the Rodara invasion campaign into full gear. Long lines of carts filled with supplies began to arrive at the western Rodara military camp carrying weapons, armors, foods, and other necessities.Ben had to praise his spies for their excellent work. They were able to keep him updated so well that they knew the Rodara army would move out in the next day or two. When their men began packing up their gear and assembling outside the camp it was a dead give away they were preparing to make their move.________________________________Rodara Military camp the evening before the invasion;Drogo Wythinghall the commanding military officer sat in his tent reading through the recent reports sent to him from the capital. He was warned of a foreign kingdom having declared war on them.As he sat at his small portable desk his second in command Lambert Raynesford entered his tent.Lambert stood before the desk at which Drogo sat and saluted his commander.Drog looked up from his reports and said, "Lambert I sure you are aware as I have heard the rumors being spread around the camp of a foreign kingdom declaring war on us?"Lambert scowled and said, "Yes sir! It seems the court had sent cultivators secretly into Woodford City to stir of the people and cause dissidence.""Drogo nodded and said, "The cultivators unknowingly attacked a store and killed twenty employees belonging to this kingdom. I wanted to make sure you were aware of the situation. I do not think we need to be too concerned with it. If a king is personally opening a store in a small dynasty like Caegon than this Avalon kingdom should be more bark than bite.""I agree, it more than likely a final struggle by the Caegon Dynasty to prevent the inevitable invasion. There may not even be an Avalon Kingdom. Nevertheless, I will inform the men to be prepared." Lambert replied."Excellent work! You may return to your duties Lambert, that will be all."Lambert saluted and left the tent leaving Drogo to continue his preparations to move out in the morning. After months of preparation, it was time to invade the Caegon Dynasty and reunite the divided Rodara Kingdom.Early in the morning Drogo and Lambert climbed into a cart and began to move their troops south toward the Caegon border. They rode along with the main body of the army and sent a small division ahead of them to scout for hidden dangers. It had been over a month since they had sent anyone over the border to investigate.Nothing had changed over the past few months of investigations. They expected a clear route until they reached the capital where the Caegon monarch should have stationed his army. In smaller scale wars, like this most kingdoms would forfeit their outlying towns to the aggressors to defend the seat of power which generally is the capital.__________________________________The army marched southward along the road for thirteen hours and stopped to set up a night camp. They were approximately four miles from the Caegon border now and the sun was beginning to set.Drogo stationed men to stand guard around the camp perimeter in two-hour durations for the night. There was no way the Caegon army would cross the border but it was better to be on the safe side.As the men woke up and prepared their breakfast, Commander Drogo sent out a small scout of troops to observe the border before they packed up and began following the road south toward the most northern Caegon town.A couple of hours later his men returned to report they had seen small groups of men riding creatures they had never seen before. They group they spotted was made up of ten men who ran off when they saw each other.Drogo had never heard of the Caegon Dynasties riding creatures for transportation so he did not know what to make of it. Being it was only ten men they may be bandits or possibly a hunting party.The camp was packed up and the small party was forgotten as they pressed forward with twenty thousand plus men following them.It wasn't long until they were almost across the border and a strange sight could be seen south of them. They thought they were seeing things at first when they spotted a wall which ran from the ocean to the road they were following.It looked as if the Caegon Dynasty were trying to wall off their border. It was an impressive feat to build a wall covering miles but it was too little too late. The invasion was here and their wall was not completed in time to stop it.As Drogo continued along with the army they were even more amazed to see how tall the wall was as they neared it. It would seem there also was a narrow canal dug in front of it to prevent anyone from approaching the wall.When he was a half mile from the wall they could all see the Caegon town had a large fortification directly north of it. It reminded them of the citadels which were built on hilltops across the continent but this citadel was surrounded by towering walls.They cautiously marched forward while observing the fortification and soon saw activity on its walls. Drogo was surprised to see an around two hundred archers patrolling the walls."Look there Lambert it would appear there are men on the walls. There are not many but with the height advantage of those walls they should provide some defense for the Caegon town just behind them." Drogo explained as he pointed toward the strange fortifications."I agree, sir. If we try to directly attack the town from here we would expose our men to arrow volley from those walls. If we continue forward with our mission to secure this town before proceeding it would be advisable to eliminate the threat on this fortification walls.""I would guess there are only a couple a hundred men on the walls. Hmm, send one thousand footmen forward with one thousand archers to clear the walls. We may lose a few footmen to their archers but we should have a good three thousand more men than the Caegon army. A few losses will not harm our mission." Drogo ordered.Lambert nodded in agreement and set off to prepare an attack squad. Soon the Rodara squad of footmen and archers began marching toward the fortifications. The footmen in front marched with wooden shield held before them preparing for the archers on the walls to prevent their attack.For the attacking archers to accurately shoot at the archers on the tall walls they will need to move into two hundred yards or closer to the walls. The footmen were warned with the archers on the walls being up higher they would have a distance advantage. They were warned to be ready to receive arrow barrages at around two hundred and twenty yards.It was difficult for the footmen to know how close they were to the walls but the archers who were made up of mostly hunters and mercenary bowmen were good at judging distances. They warned the front row to raise their shields once they were just over two hundred and fifty yards out from the walls.When the thousand footmen raised their shields it blocked their sight of the men on the walls. Only the vigilant archers saw the earlier empty walls with only two hundred archers began to swell with men.One the invaders had passed the three hundred yard mark Ben gave the signal to send the fifteen hundred Elven archers up onto the battlements to prepare to attack.The Rodara archers began to grow worried as the archers on the walls began to match and surpass their numbers.Before they could begin to warn the front line troops who hid behind their shields of the approaching danger the sky turned black with arrows. The archers screamed to quickly press forward before the arrows landed.The frontline troops who were not struck down by arrows received numerous arrows upon their shields. The impact of arrows slamming into their shield and comrades spurred them forward to quickly get into range. They were still unaware of how many archers were on the wall and assumed they could end this fight once they were in range.Ben was impressed by their bravery to drive forward and counter-attack under fire. There was still a decent amount of archers left when they were in range and they returned a volley of arrows that let Ben know what it looked like to be on the receiving end of one of his archer barrages.He was actually forced to hide behind the crenelations to avoid the invader's volley. He equipped his shield and visored helmet to protect himself.His archers were all wearing their Mythril Chainmail tunics and leggings but there were a few who were still injured or killed by lucky shots which hit them in their exposed face or neck areas.For the next ten minutes, it was a true battle unlike any Ben had been in until now. His troops would generally wipe out the other side without any problem but he had never faced off against a thousand archers before today.The Rodara troops put up a decent counter-attack but the defenders were better armored and had the protection of the walls. It wasn't long until the last couple a hundred men were sent running back toward their forces.Commander Drogo and Lambert looked on in horror. It had all happened so fast they could not prevent it. Once their men were under the walls they learned they had been tricked. The defenders had sent up waves of archers to decimate their forces.They had only just crossed the border and they unexpectedly took a huge loss. The two thousand men sent forward returned with a couple a hundred wounded or terrified men.When the men settled down Drogo sent Lambert to talk with the survivors to find out had happened.Lambert found men and women archers wearing black armor with red accents attacked them with accurate fire. They used strange bows which appeared to be made of metal with pulleys on them. They defenders wore black tunics with a strange crest they had never seen before. It was obvious these defenders were not Caegon troops.When Drogo had heard Lamberts report he could only come up with one conclusion, "the Avalon Kingdom!"They still had enough men to take the Caegon capital but it would be close now. They could only give up on taking the fortifications in front of them for now.Drogo decided to flank around the defenders and press forward toward the capital. If they could capture the capital they would have plenty of time later to come up with a plan to deal with this castle.When Ben watched the distant army begin to turn and proceed west he knew they had given up on attempting a second attack. He jumped down off the walls and went before his generals who sat mounted and ready along with the mounted knights and javelin cavalry.Ben had both divisions of cavalry attach multiple quivers of javelins to their saddles in preparation for this situation. The mounted knights had to experience in throwing javelins but if you had a thousand untrained men tossing out deadly javelin it was a given a few were going to cause some damage.One thousand mounted knights and one thousand light javelin cavalry were ordered to follow the invader from a distance. Ben explained he wanted them to perform hit and run tactics on the invaders to slow down their progress.The castle gates opened and the two division set out to begin charging at the flanks of the invading army and tossing out waves of steel tipped javelins into their ranks.Ben began arranging the carriages and having the men attach the remaining horses to them. The defenders from the town soon joined them to help them prepare the remaining carriages.An hour later they all climbed into the carriages and raced south along the road toward Woodford City.Ben had shown his carriages to the monarch and his guards the previous week so they would know it was him if he arrived at the capital during the invasion. The last thing he needed was fifteen thousand commoner troops on the city walls attacking them when they came to help.Traveling along at speeds of around forty miles per hour they left the invaders far behind.The never-ending line of five hundred carriages raced into the empty streets of the capital city. Ben jumped down and began giving orders out to his men to man the walls.It would still be a while before the invaders who were being constantly harassed arrived here. There was plenty of time to begin to arrange his troops to properly welcome the remaining Rodara troops with few more surprises.
