Jade slammed his shoulder against the heavy wooden door, helping two other militia members force it shut as raiders pushed from the other side
"Bar it!" Aldric shouted, already dragging a beam across
They got the bar in place just as something heavy crashed against the door from the other side, the wood shuddered but held
For the moment.
"That won't last long," Yuzon said, breathing hard and leaning against the wall
They'd fallen back to the keep's inner chambers, a series of interconnected rooms that formed the last defensible position, maybe twenty militia members and eight soldiers had made it this far
Everyone else was dead or captured.
The chambers were stone-walled storage rooms originally meant for valuables and grain, narrow doorways and thick walls made them easier to defend than the main hall
But they were also a trap if the raiders decided to just wait them out.
Jade looked around at the survivors, most were wounded to some degree, blood-soaked bandages and makeshift wraps, faces pale from blood loss and exhaustion
Three days.
They'd been trapped in this castle for three days and it felt like three years.
The first day was the initial assault and retreat to the keep, the second day was holding the main hall against wave after wave of attacks, and now on the third day they'd been pushed back to these final chambers
Water was gone, had run out yesterday afternoon, food had disappeared the day before that, everyone was running on fumes and desperation and the knowledge that surrender meant death
Mataranas sat against the wall cradling his broken shield arm, his face gray with pain and dehydration, the skin around his lips cracked and bleeding
Numerius was checking his club for the hundredth time, the wood cracked in multiple places from three days of constant fighting, held together mostly by hope and stubbornness
Yuzon had found another bow somewhere during yesterday's retreat, probably taken from a dead archer, along with a half-empty quiver that he'd been rationing carefully
"What about Nathaniel?" Mataranas asked suddenly, his voice cutting through the exhausted silence
Jade's stomach dropped, he looked around the room but already knew the answer
"He was with Torvald when we got separated this morning," Jade said, trying to keep his voice steady despite the exhaustion
"So he could still be alive," Numerius said but he didn't sound convinced
"Or he could be dead in the main hall with everyone else," Yuzon said quietly, a realist even when nobody wanted to hear it
"Don't say that," Jade snapped
"I'm just-"
"I know what you're doing, don't"
They fell into tense silence, the sound of raiders moving through the keep filtering through the walls, shouting and laughing, the crash of furniture being overturned as they ransacked what was left
Captain Aldric was at the far end of the chamber talking with his remaining soldiers in low voices, planning something though Jade couldn't imagine what plans were left at this point
After a moment Aldric raised his voice so everyone could hear.
"Listen up," his voice was hoarse from three days of shouting orders, "the runner I sent was supposed to reach the main fortress yesterday night, if they responded immediately, reinforcements should arrive today or tomorrow"
Murmurs rippled through the survivors, some hopeful, most just too exhausted to care anymore.
"We have no food, no water, and the raiders control everything outside these rooms," Aldric continued, his voice hard but honest, "our options are surrender, which means death for the men and worse for anyone they decide to keep alive, or we hold until reinforcements arrive"
"How?" someone asked, their voice cracked from thirst, "they'll just starve us out, we're already dying"
"Maybe," Aldric said, "but I'm betting they're impatient, this guys are not the main sturgian force, this are raiders… all they want is loot and glory, not a prolonged siege of a few rooms, they'll try to break through sooner rather than later"
"And when they do?"
"We make them pay for every inch," Aldric's jaw was set, "this is a chokepoint, they can only come at us through these narrow doorways, we stack bodies high enough and they'll think twice about continuing"
It was a brutal strategy but Jade couldn't argue with the logic anymore, nothing about the last three days had been anything but brutal
The narrow doorways would negate the raiders' numbers advantage, turn the fight into a grinding meat grinder where training and desperation mattered more than sheer force
"Positions," Aldric ordered, "shields and spears at the main doorway, archers behind to shoot over them, everyone else ready to rotate in when the front line tires"
The survivors moved into position with the mechanical exhaustion of men who'd done this too many times, Jade ended up in the second row again with his spear, the shaft felt heavier than it should in his dehydrated hands
Mataranas couldn't hold a shield with his broken arm so he was relegated to the back with a sword, his face twisted with frustration at being unable to help properly
Numerius was in reserve with the other two-handed fighters, swaying slightly on his feet from exhaustion
Yuzon took position with the three remaining archers, his face gaunt and eyes sunken from dehydration
The main doorway was maybe six feet wide, just enough for two men with shields to stand side by side
Two militia members took the front position, both older fighters with some experience, their faces grim ww
Jade could see through the gap between them into the corridor beyond, bodies littered the floor from their fighting retreat this morning, blood pooling on the stones and flies already gathering despite the cold
For several minutes nothing happened except the distant sound of raiders ransacking what was left of the keep.
Then the drumming started again.
That same rhythmic beating from three days ago, echoing through the stone corridors like a death march
"Here they come," Aldric said, his voice calm despite everything, like he'd accepted whatever was going to happen, "hold the line, trust your training, don't break"
The drumming got louder, accompanied by war cries and the tramping of boots on stone
Shadows appeared in the corridor, raiders forming up for another assault
Jade's heart was pounding despite his exhaustion, his hands were slick with sweat on his spear shaft even though his mouth felt like sand, he'd lost count of how many men he'd killed over the past three days
The guilt had faded somewhere around the tenth or eleventh, replaced by numb survival instinct and the knowledge that hesitation meant death
But there was no choice, no way out except through
The raiders charged down the corridor.
They hit the doorway like a wave, shields crashing against shields with a sound Jade had heard too many times, the two militia members in front bracing against the impact
"Spears!" Aldric shouted
Jade and the others in the second row thrust their spears over and between the shield wall, the confined space made it nearly impossible to miss even in their exhausted state
His spear caught a raider in the shoulder, the man screamed and fell back, another took his place immediately like they always did
Beside him another spear found a gap in armor, blood spraying across the doorway
The archers were shooting into the mass of raiders trying to push through, Yuzon's arrows punching through light armor at this close range despite his shaking hands
Bodies started piling up in the doorway, making it harder for the raiders to advance, they had to climb over their own dead to reach the shield wall
"Rotate!" one of the front-line fighters called out, his shield arm shaking from the strain
Two reserve fighters stepped forward to take their place, the exhausted defenders falling back to rest against the wall
The fighting continued in brutal waves, raiders pushing forward, defenders holding by inches, bodies accumulating in the narrow corridor until the smell was overwhelming
Jade's UI was going crazy with notifications he couldn't spare attention for, his Polearm skill ticking up with every thrust, his Athletics from somehow still holding position
Experience Gained: +15
Experience Gained: +22
Polearm +1
His arms were burning, his shoulders screaming, his throat so dry he could barely swallow, but he kept thrusting, pulling back, thrusting again
Mechanically, trying not to think about what he was doing or how much longer they could possibly hold.
Yuzon ran out of arrows after the fifth wave and switched to his borrowed sword, moving up to help when gaps appeared in the line
Numerius got called forward twice to help push back raiders who'd gotten too close, his club devastating in the confined space but he was moving slower each time
Mataranas could only watch from the back, his broken arm useless, his face twisted with frustration at being unable to help
The raiders fell back after the seventh assault, leaving a wall of their dead blocking the doorway
"Clear it!" Aldric ordered, his voice barely above a rasp
Several militia members used spears to push bodies out of the way, making room for the next assault, their movements slow and clumsy from exhaustion
But it didn't come.
Minutes passed, then an hour, the raiders had pulled back completely
"What are they doing?" Numerius asked, wiping blood from his face with a shaking hand
"Regrouping probably," Yuzon said, slumping against the wall, "or waiting for us to die of thirst, won't take much longer"
"How long can we hold like this?" Jade asked, his voice coming out as a croak
Aldric overheard and walked over, "as long as we have to, they paid a heavy price for those assaults, lost maybe thirty men for our five, they're reconsidering their strategy"
Jade looked around the chamber, five more dead from this latest round of fighting, their bodies laid against the far wall with whatever dignity they could manage
They'd started with twenty militia and eight soldiers in these chambers after this morning's retreat.
Down to fifteen militia and seven soldiers after less than two hours of brutal fighting.
The math was holding but barely, everyone was wounded, exhausted, dying of thirst, running on nothing but the knowledge that stopping meant death
"Get some rest," Aldric said, though rest seemed like a cruel joke at this point, "if anyone has water left share it, we'll rotate watch in case they try something"
Jade slumped down against the wall beside his friends, every muscle in his body aching, his tongue felt like leather in his mouth, his lips cracked and bleeding
Jade checked his UI through blurred vision, his health was at 38% and still dropping slowly, he had cuts and bruises everywhere, his chest still throbbed from the shield bash three days ago that felt like it had happened in another lifetime
Jade - Level 3 Peasant
Health: 38/110
Polearm: 52
Athletics: 28
Leadership: 35
Experience: 245/300
Almost Level 4, for whatever that was worth when trapped in a stone room waiting to die or be rescued, whichever came first
He closed his UI and let his head fall back against the wall, exhaustion pulling at him despite the danger
Around him other survivors were doing the same, grabbing moments of rest while they could, some had their eyes closed but nobody was actually sleeping
The keep was quiet except for distant sounds of raiders in the courtyard, celebrating their victory probably, getting drunk on looted wine
"You think reinforcements are actually coming?" Numerius asked after a while, his voice barely above a whisper
"Aldric believes it," Jade said
"That's not an answer"
"It's the only answer we've got"
Three days trapped in this castle, three days of constant fighting and retreating, three days of watching people die, of killing people themselves, of slowly succumbing to thirst and exhaustion
One more day was what Aldric promised, reinforcements should arrive today if they were coming at all
If the runner had made it through the raider patrols.
If Lord Eristan cared enough to send help for a minor castle and its militia.
If they could hold out long enough without water.
Too many ifs.
But hope was all they had left, so they clung to it with the same desperate grip they had on their weapons, and waited for whatever that's about to happen.