The Knight of Chivalry

Chapter 20

Before they got to the main gates they went back to their hideout and they got kited out in their armour and Simon got his own weapons again and strapped up his fingers and then put the gauntlets on. Once they were ready to go, they left the hideout and headed to the main gates along the streets of the castle, they passed through the normal citizens and a few guards on patrol. It took a few minutes for them to reach the gates and once they got there, they saw that there was a big group of guards who were defending the gates.

            “Looks like we have a few guards to deal with” the captain said.

            “Better get started then” the bear replied and he drew out his bastard sword and screamed a war cry and charged at the guards and took off a head of one of them. The other men in the captain’s charge unsheathed their weapons and charged after him into the group of guards. Simon did the same as the rest of them and used his sword and shield to cut through the guards very easily, using his shield to block their attacks and then using the sword the kill them. Next to him, the silent knight cut through the guards with his own sword, he was swinging his sword a lot faster than Simon and was going through the guards swiftly. Simon was incredibly impressed by the knight’s moves as he managed to block all the guards’ attacks, even those coming from behind him as he became surrounded by the guards. They fought against the guards for many minutes, taking a few knocks here and there but the guards were no match for them and soon enough they lay dead or injured. The captain spilt up the men, some stayed outside to defend the gates from retaliation from the guards as the captain saw a few run off when they had attacks, the others went into the fate towers to take them and then to be able to open the gate. Simon went into the left hand tower with the silent knight, longshot, one of the engineers and a few of the captains men. There were a couple of guards in the lower room and they tried to fight them in the enclosed space but they didn’t put up much of a fight and then Simon was scaling the stairs to the next room. Each room had a couple of guards in them, some of them tried to fight them and were slain, and others surrendered to them and were put in chains. They soon reached the top of the tower and then went out across the gate and took care of the guards there and saw the men who went up the right hand tower coming across it from the other side.

So this was how the gate came into the captains possession, he set a few men on top of it and in the towers to stop the men on the walls from retaking it and set the engineers the task of getting it open, he also got signal fires to the top of the towers to show the army outside that they had successfully taken the gates and that they can approach the castle now. But the captain was smart enough to know that it took time for an army to get ready and siege the place and that he needed to keep the gate open for them so he made sure his men were ready to defend it both in the towers and those gathered at the bottom. They had the gate for about half an hour when the first attack came from the castle, it was a group of soldiers led by a captain on a horse. Longshot counted the soldiers quickly and said to Simon that they number around a hundred.

“This will not be fun” Simon said.

“That it will not, better run down to the captain and tell him this” longshot said. Simon nodded and went to the bottom of the tower and went up to the captain and told him what longshot had seen. The captain nodded and told the men to get ready for the fight. The soldiers came in view a few minutes later and they looked very prepared for them.

“Surrender now and we shall let you live” the captain of the soldiers said.

“We offer you the same deal to you” the captain replied. The soldiers laughed at this and the captain nodded and his men loosened arrows into the soldiers and this put an end to their laughter. The captain shouted charge and his soldiers obliged and the fighting began. Simon went up against plenty of the soldiers in the next few minutes and took a few hard knocks but he still fought on a killed a number of them. He fought alongside the silent knight again and once again the knight proved to be a most able fighter who killed several of the soldiers using his sword and shield. The fight with the soldiers was a long and hard one with a few on the captain’s men falling under the soldiers blades but the soldiers suffered a lot more casualties and in the end their captain ordered them to retreat. The captain’s men cheered when they left and shouted insults at them but didn’t give chase. The captain gave orders to deal with their dead and push them to one side and use the soldiers as a wall for any more attacks.

“That was a tough battle but you fought well” Simon said and the silent knight nodded at this and then pointed at Simon’s hands.

“Their holding up, it’ll take a lot more than a few broken fingers to stop me” Simon replies and the knight nodded again and then point to the gate.

“Aye I’m worried that we won’t hold it too but I think we have a few more fights in us and hopefully by that time the rest of the army will be upon us” Simon said. The knight slapped his own chest, Simon nodded at this and then they went back up the tower and saw longshot was lazing atop the gatehouse.

“Alright boys, looks like you had a tough time down there” he said.

“That we did but we managed with only a few deaths, you look nice and comfy up here” Simon replied.

“That I am, got the best seat in the house” Longshot said.

“How’s our army fairing then?” Simon asked.

“It’s getting there, I reckon the vanguard should be with us in the next half hour, the rest maybe in an hour or two, the siege weapons take some time to move” Longshot said.

“Then we won’t be alone in this fight, that’s good” Simon replied, longshot nodded and they sat in silence for a few minutes. Before the vanguard came another group of soldiers came from the castle to try and retake the gate but once again they were defeated by the captain and his men as the fought ferociously to defend it and threw back the soldiers after ten minutes or so off combat. They suffered another two deaths in that fight and a couple more wounds but the soldiers were no match for them and the arrow cover they had from a few archers, so the soldiers were a lot worse off. Once the vanguard came they were properly numbered to hold the gate from any attack that came at them. Soon enough the main army came up and went into the city and took the walls, the castle released this and so surrendered after a few fights which they mostly lost and so the casualties weren’t as high as it would have been in a full siege for ever side. Simon went back to the lord and told him off all that had happened in the city and the lord was very impressed by the feats and had a doctor come over to overlook Simon’s injuries and then he set Simon to work again.