Chapter 81: Three-Pronged Assault
The northern gate had ceased to be a breach and become a road into Eastwatch. Viridian soldiers continued marching beneath the captured gatehouse in disciplined columns, their shields scarred from the fighting outside and their boots striking the stone in a steady rhythm that seemed impossible to stop.
Engineers remained around the mechanism chamber to ensure the doors could not be closed again, while crossbowmen occupied the upper levels of the gatehouse and the nearby wall tower. More soldiers still crossed the siege tower farther along the northern battlement, but that route had become secondary.
The open gate could admit companies at a pace the wooden tower could never match, and within a short time the northern district held thousands of goblins waiting for orders.
The northern assault commander watched them assemble from the steps of the captured gatehouse. Keeping all of those soldiers concentrated around the gate would make the position secure, but it would also waste the advantage they had paid so much blood to obtain.
Eastwatch had spent the entire siege trying to contain Viridian outside its walls. Now that one entrance had fallen, the city itself gave the goblins roads leading toward every other defensive sector.
The commander called his senior officers together while more troops formed behind them. "The gate is secure. We do not need every soldiers standing here. We split now before the humans can build another line strong enough to contain us."
He pointed south toward the streets leading deeper into Eastwatch. "The largest group pushes toward the center. You are not chasing to kill civilians and you are not stopping for buildings. Force their army to meet you and keep them occupied."
His hand shifted west. "Second formation moves along the northern streets toward the western defenses. Their soldiers are still facing our siege towers. Hit them from behind and give the troops on the wall room to expand their occupation."
Finally, he turned east. "Third group moves toward the eastern sector. The humans there have spent the entire day fighting our strongest forces. Make them turn around."
The three formations began separating almost immediately.
The central force moved first, thousands of shield-bearing infantry, spearmen, and crossbowmen flowing south through the broadest northern road.
A second column turned west at the nearest major intersection, its officers pushing the soldiers forward before congestion around the gate could slow the movement.
The third turned east, following the inner road beneath Eastwatch’s northern wall before entering streets leading toward the eastern defenses.
Behind all three, new Viridian troops continued arriving through the northern gate, replacing those who departed and ensuring the captured entrance remained heavily defended.
Caldris reacted first against the central force.
Soldiers and militia appeared farther down the main road, dragging wagons and carts into a rough barricade while others overturned market stalls and carried timber from nearby workshops.
Crossbowmen climbed into upper-floor windows. Professional infantry formed behind the growing obstruction with spears angled toward the approaching goblins.
The defenders had not possessed enough time to build the layered defenses that had stopped the attacks through the eastern gate, but they understood what would happen if Viridian were allowed to march toward the heart of Eastwatch without resistance.
The central goblin formation did not stop.
Shield-bearers filled the width of the street while smaller detachments disappeared through roads on either side. Crossbow bolts began striking shields as soon as the formation entered range.
Several goblins fell, but the line closed over the gaps and continued forward. When they reached the barricade, human spears stabbed across the carts and forced the first ranks backward.
Goblin axe troops immediately moved forward behind the shields, attacking wheels and wooden supports while the defenders tried to keep them away.
The fight might have become another costly frontal struggle if the central commander had committed everything there. Instead, he ordered his main formation to maintain pressure while the detachments already moving through side streets continued around the position.
The Caldris soldiers behind the barricade soon heard fighting from an alley to their right, followed by shouting from a parallel road on their left. They had enough troops to hold the main street, but not enough to ignore enemies appearing beside them.
The human commander began pulling soldiers from behind the barricade to protect the flanks.
That was all the central goblins needed.
Their shield line pressed harder. Axe blows split one of the carts. Viridian spearmen thrust through the opening. The Caldris defenders held, but they were now fighting in three directions instead of one, and the central formation had accomplished its real purpose. Men who might have been sent toward the west or east were trapped here, defending a road deeper into the city.
The western formation encountered less resistance during its first advance. Most civilians had already abandoned the streets near the walls, and the Caldris units that remained in the district had been oriented toward the ongoing siege.
Viridian officers kept their soldiers moving, refusing to allow detachments to scatter into side buildings. The sounds of the western battle grew louder with every intersection they crossed.
Catapult impacts could still be heard beyond the walls, while the clash of weapons on the battlements echoed between buildings.
The first Caldris soldiers who saw them were a reserve unit moving toward the western wall.
For several seconds, neither side seemed to understand what the other was doing there. The humans had expected any goblin enemy to be outside the wall or on the siege towers. Instead, a long column of Viridian infantry emerged from a street inside Eastwatch.
The western goblins attacked before the defenders recovered.
Human soldiers formed a hurried shield line, but the Viridian column spread through adjacent streets and struck them from more than one direction. The resistance collapsed quickly, and surviving Caldris troops withdrew toward the western defenses with the warning that an enemy force was coming from behind.
That warning reached the western wall too late to solve anything. Caldris defenders were already under pressure from Viridian soldiers crossing the siege towers. Every soldier sent inward to stop the northern reinforcements weakened the battlements. Every soldier left on the battlements allowed the new goblin force to advance through the streets behind them.
The western commander ordered part of his reserve to turn toward the city.
Viridian troops on the wall saw the movement.
Their officers immediately increased pressure.
Goblin shield-bearers surged farther from the siege tower bridge while crossbowmen moved onto the newly gained section. A position the humans had successfully contained for hours began widening as defenders were called away.
The northern reinforcements had not yet captured the western sector, but their arrival had changed the balance instantly. Caldris could no longer fight the western battle while facing only one direction.
The eastern formation encountered heavier resistance. The closer they moved toward Rakhar’s original battlefield, the more Caldris soldiers appeared in the streets.
The eastern side remained Eastwatch’s most heavily defended sector, filled with reserves, wounded men, supply carriers, and formations that had spent the day preventing the goblins from turning their two battlement footholds and shattered outer gate into a breakthrough.
Reports of the northern disaster had already reached them.
A Caldris officer formed several companies across a broad street leading toward the gatehouse and shouted for barricades to be constructed. He could hear fighting from the eastern wall behind him. Now he was being asked to defend against goblins coming from inside Eastwatch as well.
The first Viridian ranks appeared at the far end of the street.
The officer stared at them for only a moment before realizing what the northern gate’s fall meant.
"Hold this road! Do not let them reach the gate defenses!"
The humans formed quickly. They had more professional soldiers here than the northern defenders had possessed, and their first line stopped the goblin advance hard. Spears struck over shields. Crossbowmen fired from behind. Viridian soldiers fell in the street, and the formation slowed.
The eastern goblin commander did not need an immediate breakthrough. He only needed the defenders to remain facing him.
More Viridian troops filled the streets behind his front line. Smaller formations moved toward parallel approaches. The humans began sending soldiers to block those routes as well, and each new defensive position drew men away from the eastern wall and shattered gate.
Outside the city, Grand Marshal Rakhar Veyr noticed the change before a messenger explained it. Through his viewing tube, he watched Caldris soldiers abandon parts of the battlement and descend into Eastwatch. Other groups moved away from the gatehouse. The eastern line that had resisted him all day was becoming visibly thinner.
Varek stood beside him and followed the movement. "They are pulling men inward."
Rakhar kept watching. "Then it seems like they could no longer contain the north."
A runner arrived moments later, breathless from the relay between commands. "Northern gate secured. The force inside has divided. One column is moving toward the center. One has reached the western sector. The third is attacking toward us from inside."
Rakhar lowered the viewing tube. The news confirmed hi speculatios.
"First foothold advances. Second foothold advances. Gate troops prepare, but they do not enter until ordered."
Varek glanced toward the shattered eastern entrance. "You are waiting to attack again?"
"We need to be patient soon the enemy could not hold the east."
Viridian pressure on the eastern battlement increased. The two footholds that Caldris had struggled to contain began moving again.
Human officers shouted for reserves, only to discover that some of those reserves were already fighting goblins in the streets behind them. The fortified wall tower remained in Caldris hands, and the inner barricade beyond the shattered gate still stood, but both positions were being weakened by a threat that had not existed an hour earlier.
Farther west, the same problem intensified. Northern Viridian troops struck reserve positions from inside the city while the siege-tower forces pushed from the battlements.
Human defenders abandoned one section of wall and fell back toward a stronger tower, surrendering ground they had previously refused to give up.
At the same time, the central goblin formation broke through the first major barricade.
The humans withdrew rather than allow the side columns to close behind them, and Viridian troops advanced another stretch toward Eastwatch’s center. They had not reached the heart of the city, but they were forcing Caldris to commit more defenders with every street they threatened.
By then the northern commander was receiving reports from all three directions. The central force was moving south. The western column had joined the existing battle and was pulling defenders away from the wall. The eastern force had made contact with the troops protecting Rakhar’s original front.
None of the three groups had achieved a decisive victory yet, but they did not need to. Each front is severely stretching the lines of defense.
The commander turned back toward the captured northern gate. Fresh Viridian companies were still entering beneath the goblin banners above the gatehouse, flowing into Eastwatch faster than the city could reposition its exhausted defenders.
Only a short time earlier, the northern breakthrough had been a single captured tower and one open gate. Now three separate streams of Viridian soldiers were spreading through the fortress from that opening, one driving toward the center while the others moved west and east to strike defenses already engaged from outside.
Eastwatch had spent the siege trying to keep Viridian beyond its walls, but the opening of the northern gate had made the walls themselves increasingly irrelevant. The battle was no longer being fought around the fortress. Viridian was beginning to tear it apart from within.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter