Chapter 77: Unyielding
The broken eastern gate stood open beneath the gatehouse, but Grand Marshal Rakhar Veyr did not immediately order another rush through it.
From the Viridian lines, the shattered doors looked like victory. Splintered timbers lay beneath the archway, twisted iron braces hung from damaged hinges, and smoke still drifted from the battered ram that had finally broken the entrance apart.
Thousands of goblin soldiers had cheered when the doors collapsed because, from a distance, the road into Eastwatch seemed open at last.
Rakhar saw something different. Beyond the ruined gate waited packed wagons, heavy beams, barrels, stones, and ranks of human shields. Spears protruded through deliberately prepared gaps while crossbowmen watched from protected positions higher inside the gatehouse. The doors were gone, but the humans had turned the passage behind them into another fortification.
The first assault company formed anyway. Rakhar had no intention of abandoning the breach without testing it properly, and the waiting soldiers were eager to prove that the shattered entrance could be forced. Shield-bearers assembled in the front ranks while spearmen and axe-bearing infantry formed behind them.
Goblin crossbowmen took positions farther back, ready to fire through the opening whenever human defenders exposed themselves. The first ranks moved beneath the gatehouse slowly rather than charging, stepping over broken pieces of the destroyed doors and keeping their shields tight enough that the formation nearly became a moving wall of wood and metal.
The Caldris defenders waited until the goblins were well inside the passage before striking. Spears shot through the gaps in the barricade, their longer reach allowing the humans to attack before most Viridian soldiers could answer.
A goblin shield-bearer blocked one thrust only for another spear to strike his thigh beneath the shield. Crossbow bolts came down from elevated positions at the same time, forcing the front ranks to defend both ahead and above. The entrance narrowed around them, compressing the formation until the goblins farther behind could barely see the enemy, much less reach them.
The first ranks tried to push forward anyway. Shields crashed against timber and overturned wagons while spearmen stabbed through narrow openings. Axe-bearing soldiers squeezed between their comrades and began hacking at whatever section of the barricade they could reach.
For a few moments, the sheer pressure of bodies drove the nearest Caldris defenders several steps backward. Viridian soldiers outside saw the formation disappear deeper beneath the gatehouse and began shouting in encouragement, but the advantage did not last.
A human horn sounded from behind the barricade. The Caldris infantry suddenly surged through two narrow openings in a coordinated counterattack. Their shields hit the compressed goblin formation with enormous force. In the open field, Viridian numbers could have surrounded them. Inside the gatehouse, there was no space to move around anything.
The goblins behind the front line merely became more bodies preventing those ahead from giving ground. Human spearmen stabbed over shoulders while shield-bearers pushed with their full weight, and the Viridian advance began folding backward.
The assault commander ordered an organized withdrawal before the passage became completely blocked. Goblins near the front disengaged in groups while those behind opened what little space they could.
Caldris soldiers followed only far enough to ensure the retreat continued, then immediately returned behind the barricade rather than exposing themselves beyond the gate. By the time the surviving Viridian troops emerged into daylight again, dozens of wounded were being dragged with them and several dead remained beneath the gatehouse where nobody could safely retrieve them.
Varek watched the survivors reform and glanced toward Rakhar. "Poor execution?"
"Possibly," Rakhar said. "So we test it again."
The second assault was organized differently. The shield line entered more slowly and kept greater spacing between ranks. Crossbowmen were ordered to fire first, concentrating on the elevated Caldris positions while the axe crews focused on only one portion of the barricade rather than spreading themselves across its entire width.
The goblins advanced farther this time. Several wooden supports were damaged, and one wagon shifted enough that a narrow opening briefly appeared beside it.
The Caldris defenders adjusted just as quickly. Crossbowmen began firing from alternating positions so that Viridian ranged troops could not easily suppress them. Spearmen withdrew from damaged gaps and reappeared through others.
Whenever goblin axes broke part of the barricade, human soldiers behind it filled the opening with shields. The Viridian formation reached several yards deeper than the first assault, but the farther it moved, the more dangerous the elevated fire became.
A bolt struck a goblin officer through the shoulder and spun him around. Another passed over a shield and hit the soldier behind him in the face. The front ranks tried to keep pushing, but they were now packed between the barricade ahead and their own soldiers behind.
Caldris had deliberately created the position so that numbers became a disadvantage. Every extra goblin sent into the passage created another body that could not maneuver.
The humans waited until the formation was fully compressed before counterattacking again.
Professional infantry emerged behind overlapping shields and struck the Viridian front from two points at once. The goblins fought harder than during the first assault and held their ground longer. Axes hooked around human shields, short swords stabbed upward beneath armor, and several Caldris soldiers fell in the narrow corridor.
Yet the humans did not need to defeat the entire company. They only needed to keep pushing the front ranks until the goblins behind them became an obstacle.
The Viridian commander understood before the formation completely lost cohesion. He ordered another withdrawal, and the second assault came back through the broken gate in better order than the first but with no more lasting success.
The humans once again stopped at the entrance and retreated behind their prepared position. The gateway remained open, but nothing beyond it belonged to Viridian.
Rakhar watched the second group emerge and said nothing for several moments. The problem was becoming too obvious to ignore.
Eastwatch did not have enough soldiers to match the goblins outside. It resorts in making the passage at the entrance of the city as a chokepoint to grind down the goblin armies.
Thousands of Viridian troops could wait behind the breach, but only dozens could actually fight at one time.
Some of the younger commanders did not accept that conclusion so readily. One officer approached Rakhar and argued that the defenders were already taking casualties and another strong assault might exhaust them.
The gate had been broken, and abandoning the attempt after coming this far would be difficult to explain to the soldiers. Rakhar listened without interruption before replying that morale will not improve by feeding goblins into a passage designed to kill them.
Still, he allowed one final attempt.
The third assault would use some of the expedition’s more experienced infantry. Viridian ballistas fired first, targeting windows, platforms, and visible crossbow positions around the gatehouse.
Heavy bolts tore through wooden screens and forced several Caldris marksmen away from their firing points. Goblin crossbowmen added their own volleys while the assault company entered beneath the broken arch in a tighter but more deliberate formation.
This time the front ranks made real progress. Shield-bearers reached the barricade and held their positions while axe troops destroyed one weakened section. A wagon wheel split apart, and several supporting timbers fell enough to create room for more soldiers to fight side by side.
The goblins pushed through the opening and drove the nearest Caldris infantry several yards backward. Viridian cheers erupted outside when the formation disappeared farther into the gatehouse than either previous assault.
For a brief period, even Varek thought the defense might finally break.
Then deeper inside Eastwatch, another human horn answered.
Fresh professional soldiers advanced from behind the defenders already fighting. The exhausted Caldris front ranks withdrew in order and were replaced almost immediately by men who had not yet fought. New shields filled the gaps.
Fresh spears extended over them. Crossbowmen returned to elevated positions as soon as the Viridian ballista fire shifted elsewhere.
The third assault hit a new wall of resistance.
The goblins tried to continue forward, but bodies were already accumulating in the passage. Fallen soldiers narrowed the route further. Wounded men attempting to move backward collided with reinforcements trying to advance. The humans drove into the confusion before Viridian officers could reorganize it.
Their shield wall pushed steadily toward the gate while spears stabbed through every opening.
The assault commander tried to hold for another minute, then realized that persistence had become waste.
"Back in order!" he shouted. "Do not run! Shields facing them!"
The Viridian troops withdrew through the broken gate for the third time.
The Caldris defenders stopped exactly where they had before. They did not pursue outside. They merely reformed beneath the gatehouse, raised their shields, and waited.
The sight infuriated the goblins gathered beyond the entrance. The gate was physically gone. They could see the road into Eastwatch. They could see human soldiers standing only a short distance beyond the broken doors. Yet three separate assaults had failed to convert that opening into usable ground. Some Viridian soldiers began striking weapons against their shields and shouting for another attack.
Rakhar raised his hand.
The nearby horns sounded the halt.
No fourth assault formed.
One commander turned toward him in surprise. "Grand Marshal, their front line must be exhausted."
"So is ours, we can’t keep on doing the same thing over and over again."
"We have more soldiers."
"And we are putting them through a hole where being more numerous does not matter."
The commander hesitated. "Another wave could break them."
"Or another six. Or ten." Rakhar looked toward the gatehouse. "How many companies should we spend proving that the humans chose this ground well?"
The officer had no answer.
Above them, the battle on the wall continued. Both Viridian footholds still survived around their siege towers, but the central Caldris wall tower remained in human hands. The goblins had not connected their positions, and the defenders still controlled most of the eastern battlement. The shattered gate below had not produced a breakthrough either.
Rakhar studied the entire eastern defense instead of focusing on the entrance alone.
He looked at the two siege towers pressed against the wall. He followed the line of battlements toward the fortified tower separating the footholds. His gaze moved toward the catapults and ballistas, then across the formations waiting farther back. Finally, he returned to the open gate where Caldris shields had reappeared behind the bodies left by three failed assaults.
Varek noticed the change in his expression. "You are thinking of something?"
Rakhar did not answer immediately.
Several breaths passed before he called three senior officers closer. He spoke quietly. The first officer’s expression changed almost at once. The second looked toward Eastwatch and then back toward Rakhar.
"You are certain?" he asked.
Rakhar nodded. "Do it exactly as ordered."
The officers saluted and departed in different directions. Messengers followed soon afterward, carrying instructions toward formations that had not participated in the failed gate assaults.
Varek watched them leave. "The troops at the gate?"
"Hold position. No more attacks until I say otherwise."
"And the humans?"
Rakhar looked toward the defenders reorganizing beneath the shattered entrance. From inside Eastwatch, they would see the pause as proof that the breach had held. They would believe Viridian had finally discovered the limits of forcing men into the passage.
Rakhar’s expression remained calm.
"We have spent enough soldiers fighting in that bloody chokepoint."
Across the Viridian lines, new orders began moving quietly from unit to unit while the shattered eastern gate remained open and untouched. The Caldris defenders behind it continued preparing for another assault that did not come, unaware that Rakhar had already chosen a different move and that the next phase of the battle would begin somewhere they were not yet watching.
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