Chapter 22: Turning Point
Triestan laid there still passed out, but a thought came to him as he lay there on the ground broken, "I've failed again… I've failed again… I've fai- GOD DAMN IT! I will not fail again! Never again!" With that thought he woke up and slowly stood up to see his entire army dead and a lot of Russian corpses, but not all of them.
Triestan started to hobble back to his camp in the middle of no where, miles from the nearest town. He started to make his back to the camp only to find it destroyed. "No… No… No!" Triestan was absolutely apald, "Damn it Damn it Damn it!" He turned and started to head towards the nearest town walking as fast as he could without hurting himself.
Triestan Then Felt a punch to the gut from no where, no one else was there. He falls to the ground, some one was attacking his core provinces. He no longer had the strength to run or even get up the pain was to much. He started to crawl, still determined to get to the town, "You will not stop me."
Triestan managed to ignore the pain for long enough to get up and get to a road where some one stumbled by him and rushed to him as he fell to the ground. "Wander you should get to a town, don't you know this is a warzone. Judging from your condition, you probably do." Triestan didn't laugh he just kept trying to move. The man put him on his horse, "Don't worry we'll get to the nearest town so you can get medical attention. " Triestan put his hand on his shoulder, "Take me to Constantinople." The man eyed him oddly, "That's days away! You would probably die from your wounds on the trip!" Triestan looked right into the mans eyes, "I will never die." The man then understood and road as fast as he could towards Constantinople.
(The Russian march to Thrace)
The Russian military is currently in Bulgaria. Ivan was in top shape ridding and capture towns along the way towards Constantinople. "The Byzantines are sad people, they think they will never lose a war here in there homes, yet here they are being slaughtered by the hundred, Da." Ivan smiled as they took another town with ease. That's when they saw it the impentarble fortress of Constantinople. The city was huge practically taking up the whole peninsula it was on. The city was surrouned by huge walls of stone with a layer of Iron reinforcing the front of them, With towers holding the semi-auto artillery of the Byzantines, and Greek fire towers at a lesser hight. There were three walls with moats in between the walls, the walls themselves getting slightly lower to allow for a constant fire from all three walls. The walls manned to completion with musket men and archers along with inside a whole army waiting for any one who would get through the walls, and in the middle of the city, was at least a whole 10,000 men guarding the palace.
Ivan smiled, "This is the untakeable city, Da. It looks large and tough, but its just like the rest of those cities, pathetic." Ivan's army moved towards Constantinople.
The huge Russian army stood outside the impenetrable city of Constantinople, just as their ancestors in the past had tried to take it, now they shall. The Byzantines on the walls looked down at the imposing invaders with rifles aimed at them waiting for them to get into range. The commander of the walls sent a message to the towers to start firing upon the Russians.
The towers received the message and from them came a hellfire barrage down on the Russian army leaving huge holes in their army. The Russians started firing their artillery at the walls only to have little effect and just denting the iron walling on the outside of the wall. The semi-auto artillery on top of the towers raining down its pay load taking down hundreds of Russians at a time, but they didn't faulter not one bit.
After a few minuets of firing on the walls they finally broke through the first layer of iron and stone, the Russians charging into the gap so they could take the first wall and get some what of a level ground to fight the others on.
When they got close fire rained from the towers and walls burning thousands of men as they entered the gap, but men just kept flooding through not carring if their friends had just died. Ivan managed to walkthrough without getting burned to a crisp. He walked up the stairs to the wall and when got up there the Byzantines were already aiming at the to enterances.
Ivan was the first to come out one of the enterances, and received a shot to where his heart would be, but he kept moving towards them unfased by the bullet wound. His troops following behind their country as he walked towards the Byzantine soliders.
The first troop Ivan met he lifted and threw off the side of the wall and pulled his sword out and began the dirty work of cleaning the wall. Unfortunately it was a duck shoot for the other wall picking of many of his troops as they were trying to clear the wall.
It didn't help either that the towers were still spewing fire down on the Russian hordes. The Russians were starting to waver a bit considering they had two more of these to go through before they even met the towns garrison.
Triestan's wounds and pain hadn't stop he could feel his heart being assaulted by the Russians, "Damn it can this horse go faster!" The Riders just looked at him, "Unless you want to try and kill it, this is as fast as I can go!" Triestan yelled, "Im taking over!" he pushed the man behind him as he took the rains of the horse and made the horse go as fast as he could. They would be their within a few more hours.
The Russians and Ivan were making slow progress they had moved into the towers to avoid being shot, but they couldn't use the towers equipment, because before the opperaters died they busted it beyond repair. The minuet one of their men would poke their head out they would be shot, the Russians would have to wait for reinforcements to take the second wall.
After a few hours of stalemate a man on a horse could be seen in the sunset he was wearing the Royal ensignia of Byzantium, and was clade in a coat with armored shoulders and hooded, but with a chainmail mask on, underneath the coat he had on was a full plate chest piece. On his sides were a sword and a pistol. In his eyes were blood and rage one that could only be described as demonic. This was Triestan.
Triestan got off the horse and started to walk to his city to kill Ivan and his army. He walked through the whole in the wall and to the nearest tower. He knew all the structural weakpoints in the place, and was half tempted to bring the whole wall down by setting a few barrels of black powder near them, but instead drew his sword and started to walk up to the top of the wall, killing any Russian that got in his way.
He reached the top of the wall and saw Ivan on the wall. The sky turned black and it started to rain and thunder as the two locked eyes for their final battle. This battle would deside the war and who would win. Triestan put his sword away and continued to stair with a hate unpresiedented at Ivan, the country he raised after Kievan Rus died, the Country he helped form and free, the Country he saw as a younger brother.
They stood their eyes locked for several minuets no one dared break their gaze in fear they would kill them. Triestan then took several steps toward him now on the part of the wall where the whole was under. Ivan mirrored his movement. Ivan was only a few inches taller than Triestan. Triestan through the first punch staggering Ivan backwards making him bleed a little. Ivan walked forward and returned the punch straight to the face sending Triestan down to the ground with a broken nose, but he got up very quickly ignoring the pain. He then threw a punch Ivan in the gut and hit him with an uppercut sending Ivan to the ground, where he tried to put his boot down on Ivan's neck. Ivan however caught his boot and pushed him off both getting up at around the same time.
Triestan pushed his hood off and took his coat off as well as removing his chain mail mask. His brown hair and blue eyes shown as he prepared for another round. This time Ivan made the first move with a right hook followed by a couple of jabs, Triestan returned with an elbow to the head and a kick to the gut followed by a left hook knocking Ivan to the side of the wall.
Ivan got up know bleeding from the mouth do to having one of his teeth knocked out. Ivan then grabbed Triestan and they got into a grapple each now trying to throw the other off the wall. The however both ended up taking each other off the wall still holding each other as they hit the ground. After a few minuets though both got up.
Triestan pulled out his sword and Ivan did as well. Triestan went to slash at Ivan's legs only to get parried by Ivan's own blade then to get punched with his oppents free hand. Triestan wiped his face and went for another slash this time at the mans arm. Ivan quickly blocks, but has to use both hands as Triestan continued to hack at his oppents defense as quickly as he could. Then after a few seconds of this Triestan kicks Ivan in the gut and stabs through Ivan's arm twisting his blade as it was still inside of Ivan. Ivan screamed in pain, but used this preoccupation as a chance to put his blade in Triestan. Triestan then felt something go through his gut, and he looked down to see him bleeding his armor piereced by Ivan's blade. Triestan actually moved closer to Ivan and pulled out his pistol and put it to Ivan's face and said, "Fool you forgot I still have a free arm." Ivan however just smiled as he then kicked Triestan backwards letting go of his sword, knocking Triestan to the ground.
Ivan however felt quite a bit of pain from this because the sword that was in his arm was ripped straight out of his arm. He walked over to Triestan who was still lieing on the ground bleeding, but as soon as he got to close Triestan pulled the blade that was in him out with his free hand, now holding two swords, as he stood up. "Im very hard to kill." Triestan now stand brought both swords down on Ivan's shoulders and pushed Ivan back into a tree sticking the two blades in it. "Now Hold still." Ivan however had a little surprise of his own in his pocket on his coat. A pistol, with a single shot. Triestan pulled his gun out and put it to Ivan's head, "You know I feel that before I put you out for what could be days, even months, I should tell you how kievan Rus died." Ivan was shocked by this, he never really knew his father. "You see a long time ago Kievan Rus tried this very same thing. He wanted to take me down, he had two friends along for the ride two, all three of whom failed to bring me down. Kievan Rus however didn't make it out of this war unscaved, I actually captured him and beheaded him, but it wasn't the fall of his country, no I just weakend it. In fact I was the one who told the Golden horde that he was weak, and the rest is history." Ivan was stunned and infuriated at the same time, his father was killed by this man despite the indirectness it was all the man infront of him's fault. "Now that that's out of the way I think I will end this." A gun fired, but it wasn't Ivan that went unconscious, it was Triestan that fell to the ground bleeding from a bullet wound to the head, with Ivan holding a gun with smoke rising from the barrel. He had won the fight against Triestan, but their was no way he was taking Constantinople.