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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Shio
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We divided the wall into six sections.
It didn’t have any special meaning; it was just that each of us six brothers took charge of one section. The area I was responsible for was the second section from the left, which had been recently repaired. In other words, it was the most vulnerable spot.
“Don’t release the bowstring before the order! You must not release the bowstring before the order!”
“When enemy arrows fly, lower your heads! When enemy ladders reach, raise your heads!”
Both siege warfare and field battles had their pros and cons.
To skip everything else and focus on the cons of a siege, the biggest problem was that people who shouldn’t be soldiers were mobilized for battle. For example, the boy in front of me whose legs were trembling so much it seemed he might wet himself at any moment, or the old man whose arms holding the weapon looked like they might disobey his mind’s commands at any moment due to age.
‘Should we have gone out to the field?’
At times like these, doubts about myself arose. Even though it was clearly the right decision to defend against an enemy twice our size.
‘No, this is right. If we stop Aella’s attack here, the earls of Northumbria will have to think differently. Crisis is opportunity.’
After all, wasn’t war an extension of politics? I had no intention of losing to Aella, and after this battle, his downfall would begin. So this was a necessary fight, sacrifice, and death.
“What’s your name, brave Angle warrior?”
“Min… Min Earl! I’m Stān (Stone)!”
I wasn’t sure why he had been included in the hasty conscription before the siege. The boy, wearing a chainmail that hung down to his knees because there wasn’t fitting armor, answered bravely, mustering all the courage he had.
“Stān? That’s a fitting name. A name befitting a solid warrior like you. Have courage, young warrior. The enemy will never cross this wall.”
“Thank you! Min Earl!”
As those innocent eyes looked up at me with a grateful light, a wave of intense self-loathing washed over me.
‘What am I saying to this kid right now?’
An emotion even more terrible than when I first took a human life.
But don’t worry, wasn’t I blessed with those precious traits and abilities? My mind wouldn’t crumble from just this.
I could just comfort myself by thinking it couldn’t be helped, that it was natural in this era, and brush it off.
Surely that would be the case. But this time, I simply couldn’t turn a blind eye. I didn’t want to.
Towards the young warrior whose moist eyes were brimming with foolish bravery, I spoke softly:
“Alright, brave Stān! I have an important task for you, would you like to hear it?”
“Yes, yes!”
“If you go down to the base of the wall, there will be people guarding the arrows and stones. I’d like you to go there and lend a hand in preventing enemy infiltration, can you do that?”
Of course, there was no possibility of enemy infiltration. Hadn’t we already meticulously inspected every crack in the wall? Unless there was some underground tunnel I didn’t know about. But that seemed unlikely.
“Yes! I understand! My Earl!”
The naive young warrior eagerly accepted my special mission and hurried down the wall with a determined expression.
As I watched him go, with a heart that felt no lighter, I slowly turned my gaze to the enemy lines that were beginning to stir. Suddenly, the cawing of a raven came from somewhere.
To me, that sound seemed to be mocking me.
[Caw— Caw—]
‘Mock all you want, Odin. But this is what I must do.’
I reminded myself not to be hasty and to change things one by one. First, let’s resolve the battle before us.
I repeated this to myself, pushing the dark emotions into a corner of my mind.
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[Buuuung- Buuuung-]
The long, wailing sound of horn trumpets echoed.
Shortly after Aella and Osberht had returned to their camp, the Northumbrian forces began their full-scale attack.
‘You’ve prepared well, Aella.’
Just like when I faced Edmund of East Anglia with Ivarr and Sigurd, the small siege engines we used could be quickly made on-site if materials were available.
However, in most cases, as Aella was showing now, siege engines were usually prepared in advance and brought along.
Judging by their rapid march, they probably assembled these nearby and brought them. Ladders enough to fill the walls, battering rams with animal hides as roofs.
However, there were no catapults visible. Those were rather difficult to operate, and monstrous ones capable of actually breaking walls didn’t exist in this era, so Aella in his urgency probably didn’t even consider them.
The Northumbrian forces that brought these soldiers’ toys were quite spirited, but our preparations were no less impressive.
Even if the enemy numbers exceeded 20,000, the number that could be deployed on this battlefield at once was limited. And we had prepared some fun toys for them as well.
“Sons of Northumbria! Attack! Attack-! Attack-!”
“We’ll bring down those walls today! Everyone charge!”
“In the name of God-!”
“Long live Aella!”
“Long live Osberht!”
The sight of thousands of humans charging at once with thunderous footsteps was terrifying.
The Angles who charged forward, each invoking the name of their god, their hometown, or the names of Aella and Osberht.
But soon, the ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed, and wooden stakes that jutted out pierced through the weak human flesh.
[Thud! Thud! Thud! Crack!]
“Argh-!”
“Traps-! There are traps!”
“Now! Shoot!”
It must have been a dilemma. To reach the walls quickly, they had to move forward, but to do so, they now had to trample over their fallen comrades trapped in the pits.
The traps set at precisely calculated distances provided our archers with easy targets, and soon, following Bjorn’s order, numerous arrows flew, piercing their targets or finding victims who had collapsed nearby.
[Whizz-! Whizz! Whizz! Thud-! Thud!]
“Ugh!”
“Argh-!”
“Shields! Raise the shields!”
“Ignore the wounded! We must cross this quickly!”
I wished we could have decided the battle with this one move.
But the warriors of Northumbria were different from East Anglia. Even as their vanguard sank into the suddenly collapsing ground and became fodder for arrows, the Angles behind them calmly brought out their shields and responded.
Arrows continued to fly relentlessly, but gradually the Angles endured the rain of arrows, and finally, having overcome the obstacles, they tightly grouped together and slowly approached the base of the wall.
“Archers! Aim for the top of the wall! Don’t let the enemy aim their bows comfortably!”
“What’s the rear guard doing! Tell them to bring the ladders and battering rams immediately! If not, I’ll go there myself and cut all their throats!”
Yes, once engaged in battle, questions about why this war started and why we must fight were luxuries we couldn’t afford.
I wasn’t sure who the Angle commander at the base of the wall was, but he clearly knew this fact very well. With cool-headed command, he had overcome our traps and soon established a solid shield wall at the base of the wall.
However, regardless of how capable the enemy commander might have been, the basic principle of siege warfare was that the defenders had the advantage. Now, replacing Bjorn’s voice that had been lost in the chaos of battle, my voice reached those standing with me.
“Stones-! Throw stones down! Archers! Don’t be afraid, keep shooting! The enemy arrows can’t penetrate the wall!”
[Whizz! Thud!]
“Argh!”
No sooner had I said that enemy arrows couldn’t penetrate the wall than an arrow flying at an odd angle lodged itself in the shoulder of an archer from Eoforwic who had been diligently firing arrows beside me.
I gently caught his body that collapsed sideways from the pain and propped him against the wall. t
Immediately after, I picked up the fallen bow and arrows and returned fire in the direction the arrow had come from.
[Twang! Whizz-!]
“Argh!”
The arrow that had left my hand, whizzing through the air, immediately lodged itself in the eye of an enemy archer, but beside him, easily a hundred more archers continued to release their bowstrings.
[Whizz-! Whizz! Thud- Thud-!]
Fortunately, despite the incoming arrows, our losses weren’t too great.
It was a very natural principle guaranteed by gravity that shooting downwards from a high position was more advantageous. Moreover, we had the walls built by the Romans on our side. Just perfect for blocking arrows.
“Jarl Helgi! Ladders are coming up!”
“Understood! Everyone prepare! Steel your hearts!”
Many of the Aros warriors deployed with me, as well as those hastily conscripted from Eoforwic, were facing their first real battle. Even I, as the commander, had never defended in a siege before.
So it was natural to be afraid. Isn’t everything unfamiliar inherently frightening?
“They’re coming up! Prepare-! Get ready!”
“Archers, don’t stop! Keep shooting! We have plenty of arrows and stones! Release your bowstrings until your hands blister!”
Regardless of their rank, everyone crouched behind the wall, peering at the ladders that were beginning to appear one by one at the top of the wall.
Some with anxious looks, others with determined expressions… all carrying an undeniable fear.
And my job was to instill courage in them.
‘Be brave, Helgi. You are a leader. You are Helgi Ragnarsson.’
“Hel- a-!”
Even in the chaos of the battlefield, my extremely keen senses alerted me to the presence of an enemy climbing the ladder.
Perhaps he was the bravest, this one who had climbed the ladder first. But bravery doesn’t always yield the best results.
[Whoosh- Thud!]
“Guh!”
Unfortunately, the unnamed brave warrior of Northumbria had his shield shattered by the large battle axe I had swung down hard from above, and he fell back down.
“Argh-!”
“Ugh!”
[Thud! Thud!]
The warrior, who had fallen taking an unlucky Angle below with him, hit the ground with a dull thud and showed no further movement.
“Uh…”
And suddenly, the third warrior on the ladder, whose turn had unexpectedly come, froze under my fierce gaze, unable to move.
‘Then let me help you.’
[Thud.]
“Huh-!”
The ladder, made by Aella and the Northumbrians who knew Eoforwic’s walls well, was just the right height and made of quite thick wood, making it sturdy. But that meant nothing to me.
As I grabbed the solid wood with both hands and started pushing hard, the ladder with several people clinging to it, unbelievably, began to slowly give way.
[Creeeeak-]
“Uh- Uhhh-!?”
‘You’re going to get hurt quite badly.’
As the third Angle, who had climbed the highest, lost his language abilities in a situation his mind couldn’t comprehend, the ladder finally tilted past 90 degrees and slowly began to fall away from the wall.
[Whizz-!]
‘Where do you think…!’
Whether it was a skilled archer among them or just luck, an arrow flew towards my exposed upper body as I was pushing the ladder, but my hand was faster.
[Catch!]
‘Not a chance.’
I tossed the arrow that had been obediently caught in my hand back down the wall, and soon confirmed that the slowly falling ladder had gained speed and crashed down among the tightly grouped Angles.
[Creak- Crack!]
The sound of wood splintering, followed by the impact of warriors jumping from the ladder falling onto their comrades’ shield wall.
Then came another volley of arrows from our archers and more screams… and the enemy’s shouts urging the confused warriors to quickly head for other ladders.
“Uwaaah-! Valhalla-!”
“Helgi! Helgi of Aros!”
“Follow the Jarl! Raise your heads, you pigs! Face the enemy!”
“Follow the Earl! Kill all the followers of the false Konungr!”
A single hole was enough to break a dam blocking a river. Especially if the water behind the dam was a very, very strong current.
Like a wildfire that had suddenly ignited, my actions became an inspiration to the warriors with me, instantly raising the morale of our forces.
Soon, fierce battles broke out all along the wall between those trying to climb up the ladders and those trying to stop them.
Not caring how sharp the blade in the opponent’s hand was, trusting only in their armor and mass, Angles threw themselves forward, while Norsemen thrust spears down the wall, sometimes leaning too far and falling when hit by a stray arrow.
Shield clashed against shield, spear against spear, sword against axe, with shouts invoking their gods and the screams of the dying and soon-to-be dead filling the entire space.
“Die, Norseman!”
“Die, Angle!”
I wondered if our ancestors had fought like this in the distant past when the Danes and Sviar, Angles and Saxons were neighbors facing each other.
[Whoosh-! Crack!]
As I struck down hard on the head of an enemy who had climbed up another ladder, I shouted with all the blood rushing through my body:
“Warriors of Aros! Sons of Eoforwic! We do not retreat a single step! Kill them all!”
“Yaaah-!”
“Kill them all!”
“Odin-!”
“Lord!”
I sent another ladder crashing down and immediately moved to the next one.
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Helgi! Helgi! Helgi!
I absolutely adore the fights in this novel.
Well, same drill as usual, if you find any errors ping Oihs in the Arcane Translations Discord!
Hell yeah
Aw yeah!!!