Chapter 2: The Siege of Rabona
Excerpt from "A History of Toulouse"
The city-state of Rabona was founded in 631 b.l.e, or 631 years before the liberation era. The city grew slowly at first until a priest claimed that the twin sisters Teresa and Claire had ascended to heaven as angels from the city's center. Pilgrims flocked in, and the Rabona Orthodox Church was founded afterwards in 605 b.l.e. From this point on Rabona was a theocratic state, its laws shaped by the church, its military under the church's direct control, and all taxes being collected by the church.
Politically Rabona remained much the same until...
"Valencia," Renée said to the claymore next to her, "can I borrow that hand telescope of yours for a moment?"
"Oh, well sure," Valencia agreed.
Valencia handed over the small bronze hand telescope with care to her.
They were on the edge of the forest just northeast of Rabona looking down on a sizable part of the encircling enemy encampment. A small "sea" of white tents, complete with laundry lines and campfires, was a mere half mile away. They were concealed by the forest edge, which hid them in the shade from daylight. Valencia was her subordinate, a fact about which it was still taking Renée some getting used to.
Valencia was one of the five "scouts" Miria had assigned to her to gather information on the enemy siege around Rabona. Renée had gone on ahead of the main body of claymores since they left Pieta with the five scouts, Valencia, the veteran scout Josephine, Cantarella, Richetta, and Alexandra. They had moved quickly, running or jogging towards Rabona at good speed for twenty hours a day. It had taken only three days to catch their first glimpse of the city's walls from a ford in the slow-moving Toulouse River north of the city.
Rabona, as Father Belluco's note had said, was under siege on all sides. The city had gotten some respite due to its well-placed location, as it was protected on its western, southwestern and northwestern sides by the wide Toulouse River. On the city's other sides, its four-story city walls were met by flat, previously cultivated plains. Three large stone bridges led to immense gatehouses on the city's western side, where its walls bordered the Toulouse River. There were two other immense gatehouses, one on the city's eastern side, and an identical one on its southern side.
Given the immensity of the city's size, Renée and her scouts thought the five thousand men besieging it seemed a cruel joke until Valencia's hand telescope showed the city's defenses to be badly undermanned.
Renée took another glance at the city's walls in the hand telescope and found them mostly bare except for sentries every several hundred feet watching the enemy camp.
"This is just ridiculous," Renée commented.
"What is?"
Renée turned to Valencia with a graven face, "If I remembered reading the old Organization maps right, the city is 4 miles, north-south, and 3 miles, east-west, and roughly rectangular. From what I'm seeing it looks like they've got about 1000 men to defend fourteen miles of walls. Bishop Vincent may be a nice guy, but he's paying for being so cheap. If they'd put Miria in charge, this never would have happened."
"I think you're overestimating our captain, but I agree she would never be this incompetent," Valencia replied.
"Oh come on Valencia-"
Valencia turned to consider Renée , Valencia's massive hair bun on top of her head scarcely moving, "Captain Miria isn't some magic person who can solve everything Lieutenant."
Renée felt like she'd been both slapped and somehow given a life lesson.
"Well, no, she's not magic, but she is very competent," Renée reasoned.
"Well, at least we know we'll win if we can get inside the walls," Valencia sighed.
"Are you a Miria skeptic or a Miria believer?"
Thin, short Valencia flashed Renée a smile, "Hey, I want to believe we'll win, don't you? Besides, once we win, I'm on the prowl for a hubby. I hear this place is loaded with guys better than half the trash back in Pieta."
Renée offered her shorter comrade a quizzical expression, "Hubby?"
"Husband," Valencia smiled. "I always wanted a man of my own. Don't get me wrong, Alexandra is a nice roommate, but she's a complete slob. If I have a husband, instead of coming back to a pigsty, I'll be greeted by him, dinner on the table, and the house clean."
"Actually Valencia," Renée cautioned, "I'm pretty sure marriage is the other way around."
"Really? I always got a different impression from when I was a tavern prostitute," Valencia said, shamelessly, and oblivious of Renée 's incredible discomfort with the subject.
"Basically they all wanted me to strap on tight leather and a little armor, have a whip in my hand, tell them they'd been "very naughty boys" and that I was there to administer their punishment. Of course it was a little weird that some of them liked me whipping them a lot, but I guess guys tend to like girls who dominate them in the house and bedroom," Valencia reasoned.
Renée knew what a lost cause it would be to convince Valencia that social norms were the exact opposite, given Valencia's prior work in fulfilling bizarre male fantasies. Renée decided to change the subject back the far less stressful matter at hand.
"They're doing some interesting formation maneuvers down there," Renée noted, looking through the telescope at a mixed formation bordered by pikemen and fortified in the center by archers.
Valencia's mind however seemed utterly fixated on a different matter, "Say Renée , what kind of husband would you want?"
"Wha?"
Valencia's long face smiled, "How about Galk? I'd bet he's got a huge penis! Can you imagine what it'd be like riding him? Of course, I wouldn't know, but you'd be interested in a hot guy like him, right? Alright fine, so maybe you don't want Galk. Just try to think about when you last slept with a guy. What was the one thing about him you found most enjoyable?"
Even if it were possible to be any more embarrassed, it probably wouldn't have dissuaded the shameless Valencia, Renée thought. She bit her lip and tried to focus back on doing a final bit of scouting before the long trek back to Miria's camp.
Valencia foiled this however by walking in front of the hand telescope.
"So? Are you into rich guys, military guys, or the craftsmen sort?"
"Valencia," Renée warned, to little effect.
"Or perhaps," Valencia said, smirking, "you've got no libido and have never slept with a man?"
"Shit," Renée murmured, ignoring Valencia to observe the drills the mixed pikemen-archer square was doing, "it looks like they are prepared for us."
"Oh, well, that," Valencia sighed as they watched the pikemen form a protective wall of pikes while the archers shot overhead into the sky, "I saw that this morning."
"Then why didn't you report it to me?"
"I forgot," Valencia admitted.
"Well don't," Renée lectured, waving a hand, "our lives are counting on knowing our enemy, not whether or not I'm a virgin."
"Ah so you are, aren't you?"
As Renée took off running towards camp, she was never quite as glad of her speed as then, since even slim Valencia couldn't hope to keep pace with her on the way back.
"It's just like the priest said Captain Miria," Renée noted, looking over at Miria earnestly. "There are five thousand enemy troops besieging the city of Rabona and another five thousand troops are holding positions further to the west. They wouldn't be able to get to Rabona in in less than two days. But that means if we don't lift the siege shortly after arriving, it's going to be a lot harder to hold on. This king has the bulk of his forces surrounding Rabona on its east and southern walls. Roughly seventy percent of those forces are pure infantry, but the other thirty percent are more troublesome."
Renée was standing before her, Nadia, Helen, Nina, and Virginia underneath a large white tent, which Nadia had gotten a day prior from a stealthy raid into a camp of bandits. Miria along with the others were all sitting, their backs against their swords, the swords embedded in the mossy ground.
"What is the point of even having a 'War Council?" Nina sneered. "We're talking about humans here, not mass formations of Yoma."
The impromptu War Council was at night, the campfire outside the tent giving light to their meeting high in the hills above the besieging army. With most of the rest of the warriors either asleep, on perimeter watch, or out scouting, they were able to meet without much outside interference. The lone exception to this was the excitable 16-year-old Natalie, who was peering in from outside.
"What we're talking about, Nina," Renée countered, her voice thick with condescension, "is the problem of countering archers and cavalry.
"So what if they're archers," Nina sneered. "Once we close in on the archers, the fight's over."
Renée rebutted, "The problem with archers in particular besides dodging their shots is dodging the shots you cannot see coming. Even Captain Miria doesn't go running straight into massed volleys of arrows and think she can dodge them all," Renée explained, leaving Nina looking embarrassed.
"But there's thirty-two of us," Helen gently pointed out. "Surely thirty-two warriors can win against a mere five thousand men."
"Look, even if it's only five thousand men, we still can't lift the siege on our own," Nadia noted. "Partly-awakened warriors like us may do great at slaughtering countless numbers of Yoma, but we're not equipped for this sort of fight. The best most of us warriors can do without armor is probably winning 30:1 fights. That means at best we could handle around a thousand altogether."
"Oh please," Nina scoffed. "We could slice any of those bastards in half before they could even hit us. I'd bet we can take them at a 100:1 odds. Hell, if we can kill monsters like awakened beings, why not any human that crosses us? We're practically invulnerable in combat against humans."
"This isn't like one of your hallowed Yoma hunts Nina," the white-haired Virginia countered, sitting directly opposite Nina in the circle of silver-eyed comrades. "We can kill bandits as easily as we did because they move in loose formations and without discipline. Attacking a massed infantry formation head on is something entirely different."
"God I miss the old days. All you had to care about was killing Yoma and awakened beings and surviving through your swords skills," Nina reminisced.
"So you'd prefer dying as someone else's research project," Miria interjected, startling both Virginia and Nina, who evidently had not expected their captain to be vocal.
Nina looked over at her, sobered, "Look Captain Miria, it's not as if I'm not grateful to you saving my life and those of my comrades. It's just that I like things simple..."
"There was nothing simple about what the Organization was actually doing Nina," Virginia reminded Nina. "Besides, after the Organization fell, we did exactly what you wanted. If there are any left, there's probably no more than a dozen on the entire island. There is no going back to massed hunts for Yoma or Awakened Beings, Nina."
Virginia looked to Miria as she finished, expecting her captain to speak, as did the others. Miria sighed, and then rose to her feet.
"We've got a camp a mere three miles north of Rabona's northern walls, and a mile from the northern pickets of King Charles' army. What we need to do is to get into Rabona and reinforce them there, since we haven't a chance of defeating the enemy army on our own in a week," Miria declared loudly, which was in contrast to her internal doubts.
"I still say we hit these bastards besieging Rabona head on. We'll break their lines with all thirty-two of us at once," Nina boldly proposed. "Then we'll run to the gates and they can let us in. They'll never be expecting it."
"If you believe that fairy-tale then you're an idiot," white-haired Virginia snapped back. "The enemy army knows we're coming, and it has hundred of archers just waiting for us to charge. They'll be protected by mass formations of pikemen and heavy infantry. The only way to get to the archers is through a hellish number of arrow volleys and a wall of pikes. Let me ask you Nina, how many arrows through your brains have you survived?"
"I don't see how arrows as projectiles are any different from flying Awakened projectiles," Nina rebutted, albeit shortsightedly.
"So then," Virginia leaned forward, grinning, "What happened on that little northern lands' hunting expedition I heard about?"
After hearing this a number of the other girls began laughing, but they stopped when Nina's temper found a martial outlet. Nina grabbed her sword's handle, with Virginia matching her, but each stopped short of drawing their weapons. It seemed they were stalemated by being surrounded by the other warriors.
"The first one of you to draw their blade I'll knock unconscious for the evening," Miria threatened both Nina and Virginia. "Put your hands off the hilts NOW."
Nina and Virginia hastily dropped their hands and sat back down.
"While I'm Captain any petty fighting will be severely punished, understood ladies?"
"Yes Captain Miria," they both glumly acknowledged.
With their apologies to her done, Miria turned to Renée , "Lieutenant Renée , why don't you give us the layout of city and how best to approach it."
Renée brought forward a small lantern and a small wooden stool, then took out a small, hand-drawn map in the dim light. Virginia took the lantern from Renée and hung it high above, thus affording everyone the chance to see the map clearly. Renée spread the map across the stool, its edges just barely dangling off.
Miria's first glance confirmed what she'd long remembered about Rabona, although the scale was larger; all of the city's walls and interior were measured in miles. Its population was sustained by a large river flowing down from the northern mountains, which the map showed perfectly. The Toulouse River brushed up against the city walls in the north, and then curved to the west and around the city. The river continued its gentle flow along the city's western walls, its course interrupted by several immense stone bridges across its much smaller width there. It continued past Rabona, curving a little to the east along fortified southern edge before moving straight south.
"Captain Miria, our best option is here in the north," Renée pointed with a leather-gloved hand, "There's small side door in the northern walls of Rabona near the Toulouse River. If we can cut through the lines fast enough and make it across the shallow part of the river near there, we can get to the door," Renée explained. "Provided they don't double the number of soldiers near it," Renée added.
Nadia asked, "What if they should have it locked and we can't break it down?"
Miria spoke up over her subordinates, "We could scale the wall with ladders, and chop them down when everyone is atop the walls."
"How are we supposed to make it through an enemy camp towing ladders Captain?" Virginia seemed to be probing her captain's reasoning, and was no longer laying backside against her claymore.
"We'll have to get Miata then," Miria truthfully admitted. "Miata will be more than enough besides me to distract and take down the enemy soldiers in the way."
Nadia scoffed, "No one's seen Miata, Yuma or Clarice after they left for the eastern lands of Burgund two years ago. We need to find them before the enemy becomes aware of their missing pickets we've been killing for information, and it could take weeks to find them."
Virginia asked, "Besides that, who do we have that we can afford to send off looking for them?"
Miria stared at Virginia in answer.
"No way, I couldn't," Virginia protested.
"You won't be going alone. I'll be sending along Tabitha with you, but even if she's equal to Renée as a yoki detector, she'll need your tracking skills to find them."
"Why should I do that?"
"Because I'm ordering you to do it," Miria explained, dominating Virginia through force of persona. "Oh don't give me that look Virginia, you agreed to come on this expedition under my command. You can either desert the expedition-or you can follow my orders, now which is it?"
Virginia subsided, her insubordination gone, and then merely nodded in agreement.
Nina asked, "What about the other approaches to the city?"
Nina pointed to the three western gates, all of which were connected to bridges over the Toulouse River. Nina also pointed to the main southern gate, which was guarded by a massive gatehouse, judging by Renée 's map, as was the eastern wall's only gate.
"We shouldn't try them if we're counting on all of us surviving," Renée answered firmly. "In the east and south there are 2100 infantry soldiers to bog us down, six hundred archers to shoot us once we're bogged down, and another 300 cavalrymen to run us down. We will not be able to get anywhere near Rabona from those directions," Renée explained, pointing to the map.
"What about hitting them from the west and making a run for the bridges," Nadia suggested.
"There are some four hundred cavalrymen stationed west of the river bridges, not to mention 3 companies of pikemen protecting 3 companies of archers," Renée answered.
"Damn," Nadia and Nina cussed together.
"Even in the north," Renée added to further dampen their spirits, "there are five hundred troops who they can easily reinforce. We'd be walking into a turkey-shoot if we don't get over the walls before their archers get us in range."
"Is there any better option to the side door on the northern wall, Lieutenant Renée ?"
Renée shook her head, "I'm sorry Captain Miria, but there's no easy way into the city."
Miria pondered the map as her second-in-command Renée fretted next to her. Miria's eyes abruptly noticed a canal running from the river into the center of Rabona's north, and another emptying out of it in the center of its southern walls.
"This canal," Miria pointed out, "could we possibly build canoes and float into Rabona?"
The plan to float into the city was agreed upon by both the War Council and the remaining warriors to be the best option they had. To avoid being hit by the archers camping in the woods on either bank, Miria had decided to run under the safety of night. She'd immediately sent Nadia and two other warriors north to Pieta to gather the necessary supplies to build the canoes they'd need. Another two days had passed as Renée continued to scout out the enemy's positions. At last Nadia had arrived and tasked those warriors not scouting on hastily chopping down trees.
Miria was observing the work along the forested river bank when Helen came walking over, looking furious. Helen's short face was contorted in a mask of ugly jealousy.
"What the hell is this Miria? You made Renée the senior Lieutenant, and now you put even Nadia above me as the junior Lieutenant?"
Helen was wearing her sword, but hadn't resorted to grabbing it to challenge Miria. This restraint in Helen's temper was surely motivated by the knowledge that she was by far the inferior fighter. Helen challenging her would only have meant a painful and embarrassing defeat.
"Let me explain this to you clearly Helen. Over the past two years since Deneve died, you have done well as a warrior. But your inability to stop philandering, even with the men whom other warriors are seeing, is behavior unworthy of an officer," Miria stated loud enough to be overheard by the two dozen warriors working on the canoes.
Several looked over as they heard Miria's reprimanding of Helen.
"Oh, so my morals don't please you, is that it?"
Helen was yelling, jolting the nearby warriors, all of them turning to see the scene.
"Your morals wouldn't be a problem if they didn't cause conflict with other warriors, but an officer is supposed to command respect. Why would any warrior follow your commands when you've been seducing their boyfriend?"
Helen didn't answer, but merely sulked at these words as Nadia coaxed many of the warriors back to work.
"You are indeed a great fighter Helen, perhaps the second-best I have behind Renée . If you want to become an officer, you'll be given your chance once we get into Rabona," Miria explained, hoping to soothe Helen somewhat. "This is not like the Northern War Helen; I will not be assigning officer positions solely on strength anymore. Nor will I be handing key positions of command to someone who has difficulty following my orders."
"Ah come on sis," Helen gaped, "It was one goddamn time!"
"I also don't like officers who lie," Miria noted, "I know you've disobeyed me on no fewer than a dozen occasions Helen, sometimes to the detriment of your own safety. What kind of captain would I be if I promoted a girl who recklessly ignored orders and put others in danger?"
Helen merely gave her an unhappy look and went off to sulk along the wooded river bank.
"Well that was a tad harsh of you Captain Miria," a voice sighed behind her.
Miria turned around to find Renée , beads of sweat forming on Renée 's forehead, her previously neat rows of braided hair now slightly unkempt. Renée looked as if she'd just run a great distance at high speed, which considering the circumstances, was quite likely.
"Helen needs it Renée ," Miria remarked, watching Helen join her comrades building the canoes, "There are times when older sisters have to give 'tough love' to their errant siblings. Now then, what's your latest scouting report?"
Miria had joined in with Nadia hacking, cutting, sawing, and sanding the canoes into shape. By dusk they had six wooden canoes, each large enough to haul six warriors safely. But the wooden paddles to move and steer them were not yet complete. Miria was sanding down one almost complete paddle upon a makeshift wooden table when Natalie, covered in blood, had rushed into camp with her sword drawn.
"We've got problems Captain Miria," Natalie yelled, the jet-black Cid the cat hanging on for dear life on her back.
Miria dropped the paddle upon the table.
"What is it?"
Natalie dropped to her knees before her, and a quick glance was enough to tell it wasn't Natalie's blood sprayed across her uniform.
"Did I not specifically tell you not to engage the enemy?"
"I'm sorry Captain, but I couldn't help but try scouting around, and I got surprised by two cavalry scouts of theirs," Natalie groveled, prostrating before her.
"This is unacceptable Natalie. I gave you a direct order to stand guard, and you disobeyed!"
Natalie began crying, "But I heard them building something in the woods, and I went to see, and then they surprised me. I managed to kill the one, but the other got away."
"Dammit Natalie, do you see now why I didn't send you out scouting?"
"But I saw what they were building Captain! They had these huge wooden towers on wheels, and they were covering them in wet animal skins," Natalie explained, sobbing.
Nadia and Renée came forward, as the rest of the warriors had stopped working.
"Those have got to be siege towers," Nadia noted. "He'll be attacking Rabona with the whole force within days then."
"Never mind the whole force, I can smell horses already," Renée informed them.
"So he's bringing out the cavalry to deal with us, is he, now that Natalie's given us away?"
They turned to see Nina smiling malevolently.
"We cannot afford to engage in a massed fight with his cavalry. We'll have to get into the city tonight," Miria informed Nina, Nadia, Renée and the other warriors in ear shot.
Renée asked an awkward question, "Captain Miria, I hate to bring this up, but isn't that canal of yours closed off above and below the water by a steel gate?"
"Well, could we cut through it Renée ?"
Renée shook her head, "Maybe, but it'd take awhile, and the current along that canal is very fast. The canoes would smash themselves into the gate under the walls. We might all end up drowning if the gate isn't raised."
"Then someone should get into the city and raise the gate for us," Nina declared.
"How? They'd have to run through several hundred soldiers, many of them archers, and manage to jump over city walls four stories high," Nadia objected.
Miria held up a hand, grinning as she did so, and they ceased speaking.
"I think I know one girl who might be able to do that," Miria noted.
They all stared at her.
Natalie figured it out first, "Wait, Captain Miria, you can't!"
"I don't think we have any choice in this. The only one of us who has the speed and jumping ability to pull this off for sure is me," Miria stated to universally dismayed looks.
"This is crazy Miria," Renée whispered, crouched next to her behind some riverbank bushes. They were hiding from the patrols of enemy cavalry, many of whom they'd dodged on their way south to just within sight of Rabona's walls. To their right was the large, slow-moving Toulouse River; to their left was a dense forest.
"I didn't ask you to see me off Renée ," Miria jabbed, "You really ought to get back to the others now. In about two minutes I'm going to be running towards the wall and scaring up every archer you could shake your fist at. You don't want to be around when I jump the wall."
Renée flinched at the word 'jump', then handed her a pair of gold-gilded gauntlets, "Nadia wanted to give you those, she says they're lucky gauntlets that'll protect your hands and fate," Renée explained.
Miria took the gauntlets, clipped them on around her wrists, and looked at them. They covered the back of her hand, her wrist, and most of her lower arms.
"Well they're nice, I'll give Nadia that, but I'm not as superstitious as she is. Tell her thanks when you get back to the others. Once I'm over the wall, I'll raise my yoki, and that will be your signal to launch the canoes," Miria explained.
"Right," Renée said, looking at her as if she was about to lose her.
"Would you quit being so fatalist Renée , jumping a four-story fortified wall isn't out of my league," Miria reassured her lieutenant.
"If you say so," Renée responded, sounding unconvinced. "I'll get going."
Renée crept off, and then with a swish of air, she was gone at high speed.
"I wish I was as confident about doing this as I told Renée ," Miria mumbled to herself. "If I make this jump, even Claire would be amazed."
Miria could make out the city walls of Rabona silhouetted against the moon as she crept along the river bank under cover of night. All around her were numerous soldiers, many of whom were on guard duty. The river bank was awkward to run across, with numerous bushes, hidden rocks, and trees obstructing her way. While they hindered her speed, they helped in camouflaging her movements.
She stopped behind a large bush, the river rushing past to her right, and the enemy encampment beginning to her left. Numerous voices filtered over the river as well, and lanterns and campfires visible there confirmed the troop presence Renée had mentioned. Miria glanced over the bush to find an open floodplain full of soldiers, most asleep but others walking about with lanterns on guard duty. The whinnying of horses was also audible.
There was no cover from detection for a good half mile, and so Miria prepared herself for the sprint. The thud of hooves upon dirt to her left surprised her, and abruptly, trotting through the woods galloped a young soldier on horseback armed with a lantern and spear. He saw her, and immediately sounded the alarm.
"They're here! There's a claymore here!"
The soldier immediately galloped towards the safety of his camp. Other soldiers began running out of their tents, and she noticed several archers among them. A small group of 20 infantrymen was forming up nearby, and soon advanced in her direction with pikes and lanterns.
"I guess there's no helping it," Miria muttered.
Miria jumped over the bush and began picking up stride. The infantrymen rushed to engage her, and in doing so allowed her mobility to outdo them. She dodged under one swing of a sword, and then jumped dozens of feet over most of the rest. Before landing, Miria descended foot-first onto the head of a swordsman. She kicked off with ease, knocking him over.
Cries of "shoot her!" rang out from the infantry Miria left behind. Some half dozen archers with war bows began taking aim. She picked up speed and kept low as they drew feathered arrows to their bowstrings. They were having trouble keeping with her pace, and their shots whizzed past, far behind her. But other noises were now audible behind her, and one was the thundering of hooves.
She spared a glance behind to confirm her worst fears: a group of ten horsemen, armed with spears and bows was rushing up behind her. Miria lengthened her stride, picking up speed. The horse archers' bows began to twang, as arrows lodged into the ground left and right of her. The horse archers evidently were in range of her, which pushed her to pick up to her top speed.
A glance back, as the walls of Rabona loomed ever nearer in the moonlight, confirmed the horse archers had fallen behind. Miria gathered her breath as she entered the final few hundred feet of the approach. She made one small jump, followed by a larger leap, and then she pushed off. Miria realized as she soared high into the air that it wasn't going to be high enough to top the wall. Instead, she realized the jump would land her body upon the wall's fortified parapet. Worse, her speed was too great, and the impact would hit her square on the torso.
She hit the wall's parapet with a terrible jolt, her hands managed to gain purchase on the parapet, although her breath had been knocked from her body. The stone was crumbling under her grip in her right hand. Miria was holding onto the side of the wall with only her right hand, and scrambled to gain a grip with her left hand. She swung herself up to grab the wall with her left hand at its top, and found herself nearly hit by an arrow. It clanged uselessly off the wall instead, but made her perhaps too frantic, and she missed grabbing onto the wall.
"Shit."
Miria tried again, and just in time as her right hand's grip finally failed. Once again she was dangling four stories off the ground holding on with one hand, enemy archers closing in.
"Who goes there?"
It was a male voice above her in a distinctive Rabonese accent.
"Over here, I need help," Miria called out.
"Who is that?"
The voice called out, passing her by, evidently not seeing her.
"Captain Miria," she gasped, coughing up blood as she finished. She began hacking, and her grip was lessening despite her best efforts to get her coughing under control.
"A claymore?"
"Help her up immediately!"
A pair of hands grabbed her left hand and pulled her up, gasping and coughing up blood, up over the parapet and onto the wall's top. Miria blinked, and then looked up. Two soldiers in beautiful, full-body plate-mail armor were standing next to her. Their faces were barely visible in the moonlight, although she doubted she could recognize either from her days defending Rabona.
Another soldier's voice called out, "Get Captain Murat here immediately!"
Lantern light rushed over to her as some hushed conversation broke out amongst the soldiers. A soldier with a large mustache helped her to her feet as her fit of coughing blood subsided.
"Are you it?"
The soldier who asked looked rather disappointed in seeing only her.
"Of course not," Miria replied. "I came ahead of the others. We need you to open the gate protecting the opening of the Rabona canal. They're coming within the hour, so we need to hurry."
"Well, you had better see one of the captains about that," the mustached guard answered.
Suddenly there was a flurry of armored footsteps, and a young officer with curly black hair stepped forward with two soldiers behind him with lanterns. "I see god has seen to provide us help from these blasphemers," he commented.
"Captain Miria," he bowed low, holding his plumed helm in one hand, "it is such an honor to finally meet the leader of Rabona's saviors personally. We had not had much hope of Father Belluco managing to track you and your companions down. Speaking of which, where are the others?"
"Renée ," Natalie bugged her, "can we go yet?"
"No, now get out of the canoe," Renée told Natalie, who had prematurely boarded her boat.
Natalie got out looking filled with nervous energy, much like the twenty seven other silver-eyed warriors besides them who were pacing around, nerves on end.
"I can sense her right around the edge of the city, so she's alive, and probably inside since she's still alive," Renée said optimistically.
They were encamped along a rocky beach, with the six canoes lined up, ready to go, their crude paddles stuffed within them. Helen was sitting on the last of the canoes, her five subordinates watching the distant silhouette of Rabona. It was visible just barely above the river's horizon, which was luminous in the moon's light.
"Where are Tabitha, Virginia, Yuma, Miata and Clarice?"
Renée turned to find Natalie looking glum.
"I don't know, but we have to leave without them Natalie. Rabona needs our help, and..."
The ground began rumbling with the crash of hooves and within the forest Renée could make out the vaguest of movements. Within seconds two dozen horsemen charged into the clearing, all of them halting upon seeing the twenty-nine silver-eyed warriors in opposition.
"About damn time," Nina enthusiastically laughed. "I was getting tired of waiting."
Several more horsemen began wandering into the clearing, but their numbers were scarcely equal to the warriors opposing them. One cavalryman, armored with a breastplate, mail shirt, an open-faced helmet, and great sword came forward, particularly daring.
"If you surrender now, I will endeavor to ask my father to spare your lives," the man said with incredible machismo.
"You've got some nerve threatening us," Nina sneered. "Asking silver-eyed warriors to surrender when you humans have us equaled in numbers takes some gall, boy."
He abruptly rushed back to his horse and the men backed off a little ways. But at that precise moment Renée felt a surge of yoki energy far to the south: Miria's.
"That's the signal, now let's go!"
Nina reluctantly turned her back to the horsemen and walked to her canoe, her sword still drawn. Most of the girls rushed to the canoes, edging them into the river as the captains held their swords drawn, retreating slowly.
"Don't let them escape," the horsemen's commander shouted, and as one they rushed forward. But it was too late, and the captains had all jumped into their canoes. The horses stopped in the shallows, one even managing to fire off an errant arrow, which flew far past all of them. They passed out of sight quickly, while horns erupted in alarm along the riverfront.
They had little warning of what happened next, as five shadows made a jump in front of them straight into the middle of the river. They hit the river with tremendous splashes, no doubt adding to the enemy's alarm, Renée thought. The five people were swimming towards them, against the current. Natalie, the furthest forward, drew her sword.
"Wait Natalie, its Tabitha and the others," Renée yelled, having recognized Tabitha's yoki.
A girl with long blond hair, struggling mightily to keep afloat under the weight of her sword, swam near. Renée reached out a hand and grabbed the girl with one arm. Natalie put away her sword and grabbed on as well. With a lurch they pulled the warrior aboard the canoe, where she coughed a little water out of her mouth.
The warrior had a strand of her long bangs crossing between her eyes, the rest of her blond hair falling straight down in a wet mess past her shoulders. Her eyes were colored the silver of a hybrid soldier, and her face, although not unattractive, was not distractingly beautiful. Recognition came after a moment, despite the low light.
"Yuma, you crazy bastard, what in the world were you thinking?"
Yuma cracked a smile, "I was just trying to keep up with Miata actually. If you ever catch me running through a dark forest ever again, be sure to smack me Renée ."
"I'm just glad you're here Yuma," Renée sighed in relief.
Renée hugged Yuma a little before turning to see four other figures in the water pulled out. A warrior on Helen's boat grabbed Tabitha, Nadia grabbed Virginia, Nina's boat picked up what looked like a tall version of Miata, and Clarice was picked up by Alexandra's boat behind her. They scarcely had time to celebrate their reunion when Rabona's skyline began lighting up with fireballs. They were flying into the walls of the city and even over.
"That was damn convenient of you to get here now," Renée told Yuma.
"Yeah, about that Renée ," Yuma said sheepishly, "Miata dragged us west from Burgund. She's in that stage of life you know," Yuma implied.
"What stage?"
"Puberty," Yuma whispered, looking over at where Clarice's canoe was. "Miata's discovered boys, so Clarice and I have been trying to keep her from acting on her crushes. She wants to 'bear hug' 'em, but a bear hug from Miata would probably kill a man. We came west after convincing her that there'd be lots of cute boys in Rabona if she promised to quit trying to bear hug them all," Yuma mentioned. "We were trying to figure out where Miria was so that she could help us manage her."
Clarice's voice shouted over, "Yuma, what are you talking about?"
"This might not be the best time to talk about that," Renée told Yuma, who merely smiled.
Up ahead two fireballs lifted into the air east of the city, their fiery paths taking them up over the thick city walls and into the urban area beyond.
"Damn," Renée muttered to Yuma, "They're trying to take the city before we even get there."
In another minute of travel they found the shores on either side were cleared of all but tree stumps. Several archers on either river bank spotted them immediately, quickly taking aim.
"Faster girls," Renée commanded.
They paddled quickly, and a few muffled screams broke out as arrows found their mark in Nina's boat. But a single volley was all the archers on either side were able to mount. The city came into view in a dramatic way: on all other sides but the one they approached enormous fireballs were coursing through the air from large siege machines. Parts of the outer city were already going up in flame, and further back to the east were the vague silhouettes of the siege towers Natalie had seen.
The current began picking up, and Renée angled the canoe as best she could upon seeing the canal's entrance. It was arched, with a large metal gate lifting up to offer safe passage to the city. The gate lifted out of the way barely in time, as she had to duck underneath as it continued rising. The others managed to follow Renée quite well, except for Nina's canoe, which barely managed to make it into the canal at first. The canal's current finally turned the canoe around and propelled Nina's crew into the dark tunnel beyond.
They emerged to see a long canal dividing a city neatly in half. Awkwardly though there was no immediate place to pull in, as even though the tunnel was gone, the canal's brick walls were too tall to jump. Finally the wall ended, and Renée found herself in a shallow harbor stretching out left and right. It had a low pier of stones to either side, and they pulled in alongside the right pier and jumped off.
They ran up the twin staircases to the city proper. All of them stopped upon seeing Miria standing before them, sword on her back, and torch raised above her head with one arm. Standing to Miria's left and right were four men, three of them taller, a pair on each side.
"Warriors," Miria addressed them, "we don't have the time for anything complex. These men here are the captains of the Rabona Holy Guards. You are to follow their orders unless I am on hand, understood?"
"Yes Captain Miria," they said loudly, voicing their collective agreement.
Renée looked at the men, much of their features only modestly revealed in the torchlight. She could hear the cries of women and sounds of battle to either side even as she did so. Miria pointed to the tallest man to her immediate left. He was armored head to foot in full plate mail, while upon his head was a helmet curved down from the top, a plume of white feathers mounted on top. The helmet had its visor raised, so that Renée could make out the man's face. It featured two long sideburns, although a scar on one side marred his proud appearance and attractive face.
"This is the Captain of the Guard, Francois Galacon," Miria introduced him. He bowed briefly as she did so, and then Renée recognized him.
"Galk?"
"This is no time for fraternizing Renée ," Miria snapped.
"Sorry," Renée mumbled.
"To Captain Galacon's right is Captain van Willems," a name at which Helen gasped at.
"To my immediate left is Captain Malaga."
There was something maddeningly familiar about Malaga's height being the same as Miria's, but Renée couldn't quite place it. The other man to Captain Malaga's right was just over Miria's height, and held his helmet off to reveal an attractive mop of messy black hair.
"To Captain Malaga's right is Captain Murat," Miria instructed them as several girls began murmuring approvingly.
"Alexandra, Valencia, you will take the warriors in your canoes and follow Captain of the Guard Galacon to the eastern walls," Miria commanded. Two girls equal in height to Miria stepped forward, one distinguished by twin shoulder length pigtails, and the other was the hair bun-loving Valencia. Galk motioned them to follow them.
"Come on ladies, follow me!"
A dozen warriors ran after him, including pony-tailed Alexandra, red-haired Clarice, and large hair-bun wearing Valencia. They rounded a corner around some houses and vanished out of sight.
A girl roughly Tabitha's height, only wet and with long straight hair stepped forward.
"I want to go with my mother too," Miata complained.
"Miata," Captain Miria snapped, "Clarice can handle herself just fine against human opposition, so there's no need for you to protect her. Nina, you and the rest of your canoe, including Miata, will go with Captain Murat to the western walls."
Murat turned and they all followed, although Miata seemed to do so reluctantly.
"Helen and Nadia, you will take your groups and follow Captain Malaga to the southern walls."
Helen gave Miria a furtive glance as she followed behind curly-haired Nadia and out of sight.
"Renée , your group, including Yuma, will follow me with Captain Willems to the northeastern walls," Miria instructed.
Captain van Willems immediately set off at a good pace, racing past a shop to their right and then up a staircase and into the city's wall. They passed by a good dozen soldiers once they reached the third floor, which was lined with archer windows. Arrows and countless hand weapons were stacked all over as Miria and the much taller van Willems led the way.
After a good half minute of running, they reached another staircase and climbed up to find an awe-inspiring scene. They had hauled themselves up to the fourth and final floor of the massively thick walls just as a fireball sailed over them, illuminating nearly a quarter of Rabona. Renée ducked by instinct and turned to see it smash into a blacksmith, setting it ablaze after smashing its roof open.
"Shit," Renée cursed. She looked out onto the fields beyond the walls to find it awash in dark shapes moving under the light of torches. After a quick glance, she spotted what had shot the fireball.
"There, I see the onager," Renée pointed.
Miria and all the others looked where Renée was pointing. They looked several hundred feet away to see a large siege weapon mounted on four wheels. It had a single launching arm on its back, and this was tied to its central horizontal support post with a rope.
"Captain, they're in archer range," Miria noted. "Summon the archers!"
A line of more than forty archers in full plate armor ran up, and under Captain van Willems' command, unleashed a massed volley. There were a number of screams from the men manning the onager, but its launching arm was being lowered into position again despite this.
Renée looked at the onager, and then at the archers. Abruptly she noticed the torches a pair of Rabonese spear-men was carrying nearby. "Wait, I've got it! You need to attach as many of the torch swabs to the arrows as you can, put them on fire, and hit the onager with those."
"Yes," Captain Willems agreed, "Sergeant!"
A spearman came running down the wall, torch in hand. He saluted crisply.
"Sir?"
"Spread word to the other captains to get as many torch swabs as possible and use them to burn the enemy siege engines!"
The next few minutes were spent checking along the northeastern and eastern walls for enemy attacks, but finding none they turned to helping arm the archers properly. But by the time the flammable swabs arrived, they found a different situation.
The archers shrugged at Miria, "We're sorry Captain Miria, but they moved their onagers back just out of range."
"Just out of range? I'll see about that," Miria rebutted. "Give me your bow," she instructed the nearest archer.
He reluctantly did so, and Miria lifted the light weapon, attached a sticky flammable swab to an arrow, and turned to Renée . Renée was standing alongside Yuma, who just outranked Renée in height, as well as four younger warriors.
"Warriors, grab a bow and together we'll attempt a massed volley against that onager!"
The girls, having had no immediate fighting to do, eagerly accepted. The archers relieved of firing lit their arrows' flammable swabs, and at once they took aim and fired. Some of the girls had clearly never fired a bow before, and their flaming arrows fell far short. But roughly half of their arrows hit the target, setting it alight.
"That's more like it," a soldier yelled.
"Now quickly, we've got to hit the other ones!"
Within a short few minutes all the onagers in sight were aflame, and suddenly the battle changed. Advancing towards the wall were numerous infantrymen with ladders, but the archers on the wall were far too few to do anything more than slow their advance. Many soldiers fell, but they were soon replaced by others.
Miria rushed to a sparsely guarded section of the wall with Renée just as some eight different ladders landed upon the wall's parapet. Renée kicked one ladder off, the men upon it falling to their deaths. Five men leapt off ladders at once before Miria though. One soldier barred their way to her, but the nearest assailant simply swung down with his large battleaxe. Miria parried his blow and countered with her massive sword.
The soldier crumpled as its flat side smashed his helmet. Another enemy soldier leapt forward to attack Miria, but she was faster and slashed him across the chest. He immediately went down, and then she noticed Renée simultaneously decapitating two men to her right. Miria rushed forward to the four soldiers in front of her and jumped above them.
Miria flipped backwards in the air, and as she did so slashed downwards. The sword slashed through the helmets of two men, and they dropped dead, oozing blood from their split heads. Miria landed on her feet and swung backwards, slashing the other two soldiers nearly in half with a single slash at the waist.
The battle turned fast and furious, and Miria was surprised to feel a knife plunge into her belly. She found the battleaxe-wielding soldier from before still alive and grinning, but it wasn't for long. Miria decapitated him with a single downward slice and removed the knife, clenching her hand around the wound as she forcibly healed it with yoki.
"Behind you," Renée shouted, running towards her. Renée brought her blade up just as Miria turned around to find a swordsman slashing downwards. Renée 's sword not only stopped the blow, but also knocked the sword into the air. The finishing part of Renée 's upward sweep sliced through the man's mail shirt at the neck, and he went down spurting blood.
"Thanks Renée ," Miria gasped, breathless.
The siege towers were rolling forward now, but their progress was halted prematurely by the confused retreat of the first assault wave of infantry. But as the towers rolled into the range of the archers, they refused to burn even after multiple volleys of flaming arrows.
"Shit," a sergeant cursed. "Those damn things are impervious to everything we can fling at them."
"Nina, what do you recommend?" Captain Murat asked her, looking in dismay at the approach of three siege rams towards Rabona's massive western gatehouse.
They were coming over the stone bridges towards the main western gate, and there were no reserves to stop an attack if the gate was breached. The siege rams were large, each as long, tall and wide as a small house, propelled within them by dozens of armored men. Nina could vaguely make out two other bridges to either side, each partly destroyed, rendering them useless in aiding an assault.
"They're made of wood aren't they, just fling torches down at them," Nina suggested to the powerfully built, fully-armored Murat, his plate armor glimmering in the torchlight.
Several of his men were with him, while the lone warrior accompanying Nina was the ungainly teen phenomenon, Miata, whose growth spurt was not yet accompanied by womanly features.
"We're out of those," Murat sighed, "and I need a few torches for my men to see by. I only have a hundred and fifty men to hold the western gatehouse. The only good news for our side is that this is the only place they can attack on the western side of the city. Where did the other warriors go?"
"My other warriors went south to help Nadia reinforce the southern walls, so you'll need to pull all your men back to the gatehouse. We'll pour boiling oil on the bastards' siege rams," Nina declared to much discomfort amongst Murat's men.
"I'm sorry, but that's out of the question," Captain Murat said, shaking his head. "The church's teachings outlaw the use of such weapons, for they are an abomination against god," Murat sighed.
"To hell with the church's teachings! Do you want the people of Rabona to die because of church teachings?"
Murat was quiet but firm, "I'm sorry Nina, but we are men of god, and we must obey god's representatives in this world."
"Well that's just great," Nina sneered, watching the first siege ram come up to the immense gate directly beneath them, "are we just going to sit here and wait for them to smash through?"
"I'll do everything I can," Murat insisted, "archers, open fire on the siege rams!"
It was a completely wasted effort, as the siege rams were covered in animal hides arranged over a thick, wooden, triangular-shaped structure. The archers had to focus on the trailing two siege rams, as these siege rams were somewhat open to the front and rear. A massed pair of volleys picked off several enemy soldiers in the less-protected trailing siege rams.
They were not missed long, as the siege rams quickly crossed the bridge, and then lined up to either side of the first siege ram. Nina could feel small vibrations through the stone of the immense gatehouse as the rams' heads were drawn back and successively smashed into the massive iron western gate. She grabbed a bow and began firing, but it was useless, and after nearly an hour of resistance, the first gate failed.
"Quickly, come down to the gatehouse interior," Murat called to her and Miata. They rushed down a narrow winding staircase after him, descending an aggravatingly long time, which made her realize just how high the gatehouse's 8-story towers really were. Murat exited the staircase, and Nina followed to find a bizarre scene.
Along the wall of the room were a number of narrow holes in the walls, through which she could see below to the stone floor of the gatehouse four stories below. Archers began rushing in as Murat led them up a small vertical staircase to another level. This level had a floor directly above the interior of the gatehouse, a number of strategic holes in the floor allowing her to see everything below.
They were evidently used for defense, as dozens of archers were gathered in the dimly lit room, a quartet of flaming torches mounted on four walls. The gatehouse's interior below them was bounded on one side by the ruined first gate and on the other side by its now-vital and untouched inner gate. King Charles' soldiers were still pushing aside the ruined remains of the bent first gate, which delayed the coming of the third ram.
"To hell with this," Nina said, seeing the first siege ram come within her throwing range. She rushed over to the nearest torch, tore it and the metal fastening it to the wall off, rushed back as Murat yelled something in the loud din, and then threw it down. It hit the siege ram square on, and for a moment she was optimistic as its flames licked against the roof of the siege engine. But as the seconds went by the siege ram kept moving, and then she noticed.
Murat came up next to her, "Tis a shame," he said, exasperated, "I'd have thrown every torch I had at them if they were flammable."
"They won't burn," Miata said, startling Nina. "The rams are covered in wet animal skins; I can smell them," Miata confided.
"So much for that then," Murat shouted over the din of angry soldiers cursing as they hurled stones and shot arrows upon the siege rams. A few arrows found their marks, but already Nina could see it would not be enough to stop the rams breaching the second gate.
An armored infantryman rushed into the room, breathless, "Captain Murat," he saluted, breathless, "I regret to report this, but the enemy's moving up all his infantry and archers."
"Shit," Murat cursed. He looked at them thoughtfully for a moment.
"What?"
Nina disliked the weird, thoughtful look he was giving Miata and herself.
"Can you jump down from this distance?" Murat asked with hopeful eyes.
"Well, not really, not onto stone, no," Nina admitted.
Miata frowned as the first siege ram began hammering the inner gate.
Nina spoke up, "Give us a little rope and we can jump right on top of the siege rams. You want us to destroy them I take it?"
"Yes," Murat acknowledged, then turned to a nearby soldier, "Sergeant, get these warriors as long a line of rope as you can, and get back here immediately."
The sergeant rushed out, and within a minute returned with four comrades carrying round bundles of rope. Nina tested it, and it was strong enough to hold her weight. The soldiers tied down the ropes under some heavy stones, and then a pair held the ropes just to be sure. Nina gripped the rope, and then leaned back at the floor's opening. The soldiers held the rope taut as Miata and Nina leaned out over two separate holes.
Nina nodded at Miata, "Let's go!"
They dropped down, scurrying down the rope to just short of the floor, and then jumped off.
Murat leaned over the opening above her, "Miata, Nina," he shouted, "Captain of the Guard Galacon says to destroy all the rams and opposition!"
"Ok," Miata shouted back as she brought her blade out.
Nina unsheathed her own immense claymore from her back scabbard, then ducked under a sword-cut from behind. Out of pure reflex she slashed backwards, felling a man with horrific consequences: his body was cut in two at the mid-chest. His remains dropped to the floor as a small horde of his comrades rushed into the gatehouse interior through the broken outer gate. The two siege rams were behind Nina, hammering away at the inner gate, and undoubtedly the men from the stranded third ram knew what she and Miata intended.
Nina charged towards the group when a horde of arrows tore into the three dozen men, felling all but a couple terrified survivors nearest her. She cut these down with a swift horizontal slice as she ran between them, their own sword movement not fast enough to touch her. Nina looked back and almost regretted doing so.
Miata was in battle frenzy, her blade spinning, twirling and chopping in a rotating field of death, carnage and debris. Limbs, blood, heads and wood flew in all directions as Miata dropped down into the ram's interior through the immense hole she'd carved through its roof. Nina rushed over to help when the ram simply collapsed in on itself. Miata jumped out in the nick of time as the screams of anguish came from the trapped men in its rubble.
The second ram was getting taken apart in similar fashion when enemy infantry began pouring into the gatehouse interior through the ruined outer gate. Nina turned to face them and give Miata enough time. She jumped over her foolish first attacker, who, armed with a battleaxe, thought he was going to take her singlehanded. Nina merely flipped over him, and as she did so, sliced downwards, cutting the man down in an elegant move.
A glance over her shoulder showed that the second ram was beyond use now, but Miata hadn't stopped. A dozen of the ruined siege ram's men were fleeing to the safety of their own lines; Miata chopped into this line of armored soldiers with energy. She cut down three men in one swing, decapitating them, and then cut down another four with a spinning horizontal twirl of the blade. One man put his hands up in surrender, but Miata ran him through as Nina screamed for her to stop.
"Miata, don't!"
Nina had been watching Miata so long she hadn't kept a close eye on the enemy, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her back. She turned to find an enemy spearman piercing her back with his spear and with one swing disarmed the gaping man, and with the next swing, mercifully decapitated him.
Miata was continuing her rampage, slaughtering a cool dozen enemy soldiers in the interim. However, a massive wave of infantry had just arrived at the outer gate, and it was pouring into the gatehouse interior as the third siege ram was pushed through.
"Miata, stop," Nina shouted.
Miata didn't stop, so she rushed over to Miata, and then barely dodged an enemy arrow. Nina didn't dodge the next shot so well, saving her face from a painful and life-threatening impact by holding her arm out to painfully intercept it. Nina flinched, but then turned to Miata, grabbing her. Miata, luckily for Nina, didn't resist. She hauled Miata back, running together with Miata ahead of the horde of enemy soldiers. They spotted the rope, which was ascending, jumped, and with one arm, Nina grasped the rope. They were pulled up in the nick of time, as the stones holding the rope down let the rope loose a moment after they were back in the safety of the gatehouse.
"That should hold them awhile," Murat said, shaking their hands in congratulations, "it'll take them hours to get through with only one siege ram. We just better hope to god they don't breach the walls somewhere; we haven't the numbers to stop them once they do."
"Duck Helen," Captain Malaga yelled.
Helen did so and barely in time as a pair of arrows flung themselves over her, one grazing her hair. Then a helpful hand from the captain got her up.
"Thanks Cid," Helen smiled.
Cid, wearing full plate armor and an open-faced steel helmet, hardly looked like the man she'd known two years earlier. His face had gained a few lines, and he had a rougher edge to his voice. Helen looked over the wall cautiously to find a terrible scene: nearly a dozen wooden siege towers were being pushed towards the southern wall, while a pair of battering rams was approaching the gatehouse further east.
Hundreds of enemy archers were chancing counter-fire in order to launch suppressing salvos of arrows at the thinly spread defenders. A squad of 10 archers to her immediate left launched off a volley of flaming arrows at the rightmost siege tower. Though the arrows stuck in its side, the flames were quickly extinguished.
"Those towers will be the end of this city. They'll be able to put enough men onto the walls to overwhelm us," Cid yelled at her in the din.
Helen eyed the nearest tower, which was within 200 yards of the tower. Abruptly the archers nearest them had half their members down, arrows being responsible. Helen noticed a squad of enemy archers atop the siege tower, all of them shielded by a small half-wall on the tower's roof.
"Cid, cover me, I'm going to take out the tower," Helen informed him.
"You're what?"
"Just cover me while I wind up," she yelled back at Cid. "I'm going to hit that tower with a drill sword!"
Cid looked in alarm at her, and then held his shield over her as her arm began painfully twisting like a screw. It rotated once, and then again as Helen pushed the bones and flesh to their stretching limits, rotating the right arm another twelve times. Cid's shield buckled as arrows hit it above her.
"Alright, shield down, I've got this thing!"
Cid lowered the shield with unfortunate timing, as an arrow smashed into Helen just below the right collarbone. The impact knocked the breath out of her, but she waved off Cid's attempted help. With a tremendous surge of yoki energy down her right arm, she forced it to extend the 50 yards needed to reach the siege tower. As Helen did so her right arm began its rapid rotation, which began spinning the sword like a drill.
It impacted with a tremendous crash, smashing a hole through the siege tower just below the tower top. Wood, men, and even some limbs went flying through the air as the sword pushed further. Helen swept the spinning sword to the left, where with a great ka-chunk it broke the tower's corner support beam. The tower's top collapsed, spilling men, wood and supplies across the grassy, corpse-filled plains below.
Nadia ran up to her in the aftermath of destroying the tower, some three other warriors in tow.
"Good going Helen," Nadia praised her. "Hold on though, you're going to need that arrow pulled out. Camilla, you snap the arrowhead off that's sticking out Helen's back," Nadia told a pretty silver-eyed witch.
Nadia was holding the arrow by its shaft while Camilla circled around behind. Helen felt a small tug, and then snap and a surge of unbearable pain.
"Ah fuck, shit, shit, shit," Helen yelled out in pain.
"It's out Helen, and lucky for you the arrowhead went through and out of your shoulder. The pain would be much worse had it been embedded," Nadia informed her while helping her to stand.
"Come on Helen, don't just stand there! You've got to take out those siege towers now," Nadia yelled.
"Just give me a fuckin' minute Nadia," Helen barked, "it's still tender".
"We don't have time for it to heal Helen," Nadia shot back.
Helen got up and ran along the towers dodging the occasional onager-tossed fireball, numerous volleys of enemy arrows, and even a ballista bolt. She lined up for an attack, protected by Cid's shield, and got her arm twisted just before the towers reached the wall. She spun and extended her arm, the sword smashing through the four front support beams of two towers. Both immediately collapsed, spilling men and wooden splinters onto the dead-filled grass below.
Helen repeated the feat in the gatehouse on both battering rams, smashing them to smithereens. She continued on down the line, smashing down the remaining ten siege towers assaulting the southern wall. It was with the collapse of the last tower when she felt the onslaught of exhaustion despite her battle adrenaline. It was thus an immense relief when horns sounded, and suddenly the enemy soldiers turned and ran. A cheer rang out amongst Rabona's defenders as the besiegers fled. Instead of cheering she slumped against the parapet of the wall and sighed in relief.