Thunder flashed above as the 10,000 knights prepared to march into Firestorm Citadel. The lift that usually took done four knights at a time was destroyed. The citadel was now put into the use it was made for: protection against sieges. An army of 2,000 slag walkers had gathered at the front, and now stood between the knights and gates of the citadel. Leading the Spiral Knights was their famous leader, Rioklu. She had equipped herself with full Snarbolax armor, with her divine avenger and leviathan blade. To her side was the battle strategist, Aquasword. He was the tank, in volcanic plate armor and helm, with his Glacius. Among the ranks, a horn called, loud and clear.
With that, Rioklu pointed her sword forwards, and the knights charged forward, sword bristling. Instant casualties resulted on both sides. Slag walkers burned the knights, but most became frozen, and the whole force was quickly brought down. About 100 knights had died, and unfortunately, they weren't able to be revived. The other knights had to carry on without their comrades. The gate was smashed down, and the knights slowly went in, others quickly took positions with their guns. Just as all the knights had filed into the courtyard, the ground below them erupted. Hundreds upon hundreds of slag walkers rose from the ground. Wolves and Torch Lumbers crowded into the front entrance. It was a crowded battle, both sides mixed in the fray. Rioklu hacked off a slag's head, turned around and blocked a lumber's smash on her owlite shield, and drove her Divine Avenger through the lumber's head. She quickly turned around just in time to see a knight get thrown off the battlements, forty feet below. Then she noticed her fried, Proto-Demo, quickly tossing ice bombs into the crowd. On the roofs of the buildings surrounding the courtyard, the knights had taken snipers and were firing salvos of guns at enemies.
However, they did not go unnoticed as wolves appeared behind them, pushing them off or biting them. It was a full-scale war. Finally, after an intense hour of slashing and killing, the knights pushed the enemy back to a safe distance where 3,000 gunners blasted down those who dared to get in range. As the monsters retreated, 4,000 knights were put into duty to guard the other 5,000 that were building fortifications in the courtyard, setting up blitz needle nests and bomb slinging posts. Rioklu, Aquasword, and Proto-Demo met inside the master's tent to discuss positions and the battle.
"We're holding out very fine, and we've managed to get into the citadel, but we need the fortifications up and ready just in case," Rioklu said.
"What happens if they do attack tonight? We'll be tired, and those monsters are expendable! They could easily spawn them inside our very tent!" Proto-Demo exclaimed.
"We've already laid the area inside the camp with anti-spawn. They won't be able to spawn for 15 days. We have approximately two weeks to destroy this place," Aquasword said.
"Reinforcements are available, but that's only if the situation becomes too dire, and we have no choice, because they are only cadets. In the meantime we have to use the force we have to break in. There are many more stronger monsters inside. Right now, we must rest," Rioklu stated.
The three knights retired for the knight, to resume siege the next day. When Rioklu woke up, she was surprised to find that the monsters had set up defenses of their own, with jelly turrets and gun puppies behind a wall of sand bags. There were about an estimated 50 gun puppies with 20 slimes.
"Fire!" Rioklu yelled. Immediately, the gunners opened fire, but a secret mechanism closed the firing holes, thus protecting the turrets. Rioklu ordered the swordsmen to crawl towards the wall, but then the gunners would take pockets of fire, effectively shooting and hiding as the knights bullets smashed against the wall, doing no damage. Bombs were tossed towards them, but they were mostly Shivermist Busters, and did little damage to the massive wall. A few knights had explosives, but they only moved the sandbags a little. The knights were forced to retreat as they started taking a considerable amount of casualties.
"It is impossible to breach the wall," Rioklu observed as even Aquasword, inching forward with his ironmight shield in front, couldn't take the hail of fire and retreated behind their own wall. It was a standstill, but then a purple figure flew down from a roof, landing on top of the sandbag wall, tossing bombs down as they ran down the length of the wall. Instead of the smaller, lesser explosions, a huge explosion blew sandbags into the air, killing most of the turrets. More explosions decimated the enemy as the unknown savior destroyed the enemy wall. Then it occurred to Rioklu that he had the famous and feared Nitronome, an impressive bomb used by only those worthy enough. The entire army watched in awe as sand bags were thrown everywhere. Finally, the purple figure jumped on top of the roof on the other side of the courtyard, watched his art with delight, and in a flash was gone. The monsters didn't dare to attack that night, and the entire camp was buzzing with the cloaked figure who had saved the day.
*Keep watch for the next part!*