"Ready the defenses and prepare for battle!" The Constable cried out from the outer wall of Fort Luna. As the words reached the ears of the of the fort's inhabitants they scrambled to action. It wasn't long before the archers were in position at the top of the wall with several knights sprinkled in amongst them.
Velvet, one of the archers, gulped as she looked over the wall and saw the approaching sea of red soldiers. She readied her bow, but her hands shook with fear. This didn't last long as an armoured hand rested on her shoulder with the owner, Dame Blake, telling her, "Don't worry this castle hasn't fallen for generations. It will not fall today." That was enough to calm Velvet down as she waited for the command to fire.
While the Constable waited for the enemy's army to get in range an unnerving silence fell upon the castle. "Archers' ready your bows!" He announced breaking this silence as the front most troops just started to get within range. He waited a couple of beats before finally calling out the word they had been waiting for, "Fire!"
Suddenly the sound of a hundred arrows whistling in the wind filled the air. The volley soared over four hundred feet taking out a many of the enemy's soldiers. They were able to fire several more volleys before the attacking army gave their response. They didn't fire arrows though, instead they one upped Lord Luna's forces and fired off their trebuchets, hurling large boulders at the castle wall.
Velvet had nocked another arrow getting ready to fire again, but before she could the wall exploded as a large boulder crashed into it. She was just far enough that she didn't receive anything more than a couple bruises from flying rocks, but she was close enough that it knocked her over. Some of her allies weren't as lucky, many of them were either knocked off the wall causing them to fall to their deaths or were crushed by the boulder directly.
Blake yanked Velvet to her feet, "Get up! We still have a castle to defend!"
Velvet couldn't hear her though, she was stuck staring at what was left of the archers beside her.
"Velvet! Snap out of it!" Blake told her, "I know they were friends but if you don't ready your bow we'll lose even more!" But it wasn't enough for Velvet to ready her bow again.
The opposing army was quickly closing the gap, soon they'd be close enough to start climbing the wall. Whatever soldiers that weren't posted up on the castle walls were positioned just inside the gate armed and ready to slice, stab, or skewer anyone that managed to get through the gates.
"Velvet!" She tried again this time finally getting Velvet's attention. Velvet shook her head and drew her bow once again.
She quickly fired several arrows taking down a couple soldiers before she heard the sound of a ladder smacking against the castle wall. The enemy's soldiers didn't waste any time in climbing the ladders. Blake swung her longsword slicing right through one of the soldiers shield and implanting it into the side of their chest. She firmly planted her foot on the centre of their chest and kicked them off the wall quickly freeing her blade. While this happened another soldier was about to take advantage of the opening Blake had just created, but before the blade met her side and arrow met his skull. She spun around and ran across the wall trying to get to the ladder before more soldiers could climb it. As a soldier reached the top of the ladder she swiftly kicked him back using his weight to make the ladder crash towards the ground.
More soldiers came down the wall towards Blake but, the width of the wall restricted them to come at her at most two at a time. This made them easy to deal with, Blake taking one and Velvet shooting the other. Despite this, with each set of soldiers Blake was slowly pushed back. Eventually they got close enough that even Velvet had to back up in order to shoot them. She had forgotten about the part of the wall that had been destroyed by the trebuchet, and because of that she took one step too far and started to fall.
Despite being in the middle of battle Blake spun around and leaped forward to grab Velvet's hand before she could fully fall. If it wasn't for the fact that Velvet couldn't afford chainmail she definitely would've been too heavy to have been caught, for once she was fortunate to be poor. While Blake slowly pulled Velvet up the soldiers surrounded her, but after seeing what she had done to their fellow soldiers they didn't get too close.
At this point the castle was mostly overrun by enemy soldiers, the battle had clearly been won, but out of chivalry the commander of the opposing force stepped into the castle. "Hold your blades!" they commanded, "Lord Luna! Come down here and your forces may be spared!"
The enemy soldiers stood still, but their weapons were still drawn and they were ready to continue where they left off if Lord Luna didn't make an appearance.
Lord Luna stepped out from the castle wielding a large longsword, "Men lay down your weapons!" He commanded hoping to spare some lives.
"Lord Luna, draw your blade, I challenge you to a duel. If I win you surrender your fort, but most of your men will be spared."
"Baroness why should I believe your word?"
"Whether you do or not is up to you, but if you don't your men will pay." She replied.
Lord Luna drew his longsword, "Fine I accept your challenge."
In response Baroness Cinder drew a similar blade, "Those will be your last words."
As her blade was drawn Luna slashed forward hoping to take her off guard, but Cinder wasn't stupid. She parried his blade and slammed the hilt of her sword into the front of his helmet causing Luna to stumble back. Luna put his blade up in defense preparing for a follow up from Cinder, but it never came. As soon as he had his footing again he lunged forward and brought out a flurry of strikes. The problem was Luna was outclassed by her and it was clearly shown when she blocked each strike with ease. Once he grew tired Cinder stabbed forward piercing Luna's chest plate and burying her blade deep within his chest.
"Your will was as weak as your armour." She told him as she pulled the sword from his chest like pulling a wooden sign from the ground.
"Men, round up his soldiers."
While everyone was watching the fight Blake was able to pull Velvet back up, and knowing how the battle was going she cut off a piece of the cloth on her chainmail that contained her crest. She gave the piece to Velvet whispering, "Keep a hold of this and make sure they see it."
Cinder's soldiers grabbed a hold of the two of them and brought them down next to the gate where the rest of Luna's forces waited unarmed and on their knees. Velvet and Blake were pushed down onto their knees and Cinder looked over all of the soldiers before her.
"You idiots killed most of their knights!" She exclaimed noticing that there was only a single knight left.
Her second in command, Sir Mercury, stepped forward, "Sorry ma'am but if we didn't we would've lost a lot more soldiers. They were fairly well trained."
"Fine, you better hope that this one will fetch a good ransom." Cinder told him as she walked up to Dame Blake.
"Wait, this one has a crest!" One of the soldiers stated noticing the piece of cloth Velvet held.
Cinder walked up to her and ripped it from Velvet's hands. She looked it over and recognized it, "Hm, this one could fetch a fairly good ransom, but why was she holding it instead of wearing it?" She wondered aloud.
Her second in command kicked Velvet in the side, "Explain."
"Your soldiers sliced up my armour and I wasn't going to let it touch the ground." Velvet told them.
"Likely story… Take these two and Dame Coco, Dame Weiss, kill the rest." She ordered. They both stepped forward and took care of the rest of the soldiers, they were careful to kill them as quickly as they could hoping to at least spare them some pain.
Cinder led her army out of the castle taking Dame Blake and Velvet with them. The two of them walked hanging their heads in shame of the defeat while the soldiers jeered and them.