Volume One: The Forest Knight Chapter 37: The Battle to Reclaim Maple Leaf Manor (Part Three)

“Sir Pippin makes a very good point, and I agree wholeheartedly,” the Viscount Merry chimed in, following the consensus of the group. “Those damned hunters—once this battle is over and we return, I’ll have them all arrested. Their leader must be hanged from the city walls, and the rest sent as slaves to the mines in the Snowlands!”

“Yes! Yes! Yes! They cannot be forgiven!”

“They should all be hanged from the city walls.”

“They’re the ones to blame for this disaster...”

The knights and officers, hearing the lord attribute today’s battlefield failures entirely to the hunters responsible for reconnaissance, immediately became animated. Berrion observed all this, smiling inwardly. These men were all talk and no substance—none of them possessed real talent, nor would they allow any to show it. They shunned hard work but scrabbled for every scrap of merit.

After further discussion, they reached a unanimous decision: Berrion and a certain knight would remain to garrison the camp the next day, responsible for its defense and the cooks, while the rest, under Sir Pippin’s command, would mass their forces for a frontal assault on the gates of Maple Leaf Manor, hoping to capture it by day’s end.

But this plan was met with opposition from the city militia. Their representative was a seasoned mercenary with years of combat behind him, the very man who had organized the city militia, mostly composed of younger sons and neighbors. The losses among the city militia today had been devastating, and the pain was evident in the middle-aged leader’s eyes. He resolutely refused to participate in the coming assault, offering only to help guard the camp.

The Viscount Merry knew he couldn’t force men who had lost half their number to keep fighting, so he agreed to let them remain behind and oversee the supplies. As for Berrion and his Nolanburg soldiers, they were reassigned—but not to the main assault. Instead, Berrion was to serve as the Viscount’s escort, with the viscount deploying his twenty heavily armored footmen as the main attack force, hoping to avoid a repeat of today’s dispiriting defeat.

Berrion accepted the arrangement without complaint. After all, he wouldn’t have to endure the brunt of the attack but could still earn his share of glory. Nevertheless, he remained pessimistic about the next day’s battle. The enemy was strong and cunning in defense, while their own forces were weak, undisciplined, and had suffered heavy losses. Morale was low, and the outcome was uncertain.

After the war council, Berrion returned to his camp and summoned Iomir and the leaders of each squad to brief them. Tomorrow they would enter the field. Though they were officially assigned to guard duty, he warned them not to rule out the possibility of combat. Everyone was to be fully armored, bows strung, swords unsheathed, and ready at a moment’s notice—no slacking would be tolerated.

The siege began after breakfast. Sir Pippin abandoned the idea of ramming the gate. Instead, he sent county soldiers forward with large shields to seek out and fill in all the traps before the manor gates. Then, several teams piled up firewood before the gates and set it alight with fire arrows. The hastily gathered wood, without the benefit of oil or accelerant, burned slowly and was soon doused by the pirates. Even so, the heavy smoke from the damp wood drifted up, stinging the eyes of the defenders and rendering many of them unable to draw their bows.

At that moment, Sir Pippin gave the order to attack. Eight knights led their conscripted peasants, while three squires accompanied the county soldiers, carrying scaling ladders toward the walls. This time, the assault went much more smoothly. The pirates, distracted by the choking smoke, failed to react in time, and the men of Brick were soon on the ramparts, engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat.

The pirates were deadly archers and ferocious in close quarters. Many of the peasants and county soldiers who made it onto the wall were cut down within moments, their lives lost and their ladders toppled. Yet in some places, the assault succeeded. A squire led five of the viscount’s armored footmen onto the wall; well-equipped and experienced, they quickly slew three pirates blocking their way. More county soldiers followed, soon outnumbering the defenders and gaining the upper hand. The viscount and Sir Pippin, delighted, quickly sent more heavy infantry to reinforce the breach and expand their gains.

Sir Pippin, with the remaining ten heavy infantry, hurried to support another knight whose attack was progressing well, hoping to strike a decisive blow from both sides against these filthy Trobba curs.

Once Sir Pippin moved to reinforce the others, only Viscount Merry, Berrion, and thirty Nolanburg soldiers remained before the manor gates. The viscount, flush with pride at the successful assault, cast a smug glance at Berrion, his expression saying, “See? I can win without you. When it comes time for rewards, don’t expect any favors. That’ll teach you to disobey your superiors! You’ll pay for it in the future!”

Just then, with a creak, the gates of Maple Leaf Manor swung open and thirty pirates, wild and fierce, charged out. The Trobba pirates had launched a counterattack—an astonishing turn!

Splitting into three groups, two flanked left and right to strike at the Brick soldiers climbing the ladders, while the third, just ten men, made straight for Berrion’s group. It was clear they aimed to capture the viscount himself, following the adage: “To catch the bandits, seize their chief.”

The viscount, keen to lead from the front, had stationed himself about four hundred paces from the manor gates to observe the battle. He had sent his knights and retainers to patrol the perimeter to prevent any pirates from escaping over the walls, leaving himself with only Berrion’s men as his guard.

When he saw the pirates charging out, intent on seizing him, the viscount immediately tried to turn his horse and flee to the camp. But Berrion knew that if the commander fled, morale would collapse and the army would rout—many might die for the cowardice of their leader.

With this in mind, Berrion seized the viscount’s reins and roared in fury, “My lord, will you abandon your men? If you run now, the knights and soldiers assaulting the walls will break at once! Stand firm, my lord. We Nolanburg soldiers will deal with these pirates!”

Berrion’s shout snapped the viscount out of his panic. He realized there was nowhere to run, and that with Berrion’s skill and his soldiers’ prowess, ten pirates could be managed. Somewhat abashed, Viscount Merry forced a smile. “Sir Berrion, I shall remain here. Take your men and kill those pirates!” Berrion nodded, assigning two Nolanburg militiamen to guard the viscount and prevent him from fleeing, and led the rest forward, forming up to intercept the attackers.

With the pirates less than three hundred paces away, Berrion ordered his men into battle formation: eight spearmen with shields forming the front rank, spears braced forward; behind them, four halberdiers and four javelin-armed swordsmen; at the rear, four crossbowmen and eight Nolanburg longbowmen.

The crossbowmen and archers fired first. At over two hundred paces, only one volley of bolts could be loosed, but the archers managed three. Of twenty-eight arrows, three pirates fell dead, and the others, though shielded, took wounds.

When the pirates closed to fifty paces, the swordsmen hurled two volleys of javelins—eight in all—killing two more. Now only five Trobba pirates remained. Undaunted by their losses, they pressed on, convinced by long experience that Brick warriors were poor in melee and that a fierce close assault would break their lines.

This time, they had miscalculated. As the pirates closed, the eight spearmen suddenly stepped back, then lunged forward, thrusting their spears. Two pirates, unable to dodge, were skewered and fell, the rest driven back several paces.

It wasn’t over yet. The spearmen charged, and the fallen pirates were beheaded by the swordsmen. The remaining three fought fiercely, warding off the spears with shield and axe, though wounded in thigh and waist. But before they could recover, the four halberdiers struck.

The pirates had never seen such strange weapons before and were caught off guard. The spears kept them occupied, and the halberds found their mark. One pirate had half his head sheared off by a powerful blow; another was nearly cleaved in two from the shoulder. The last took a halberd to the helmet, crushing skull and bone until blood and brain spilled to the ground—a ghastly sight that even battle-hardened veterans could scarcely endure, let alone the green Nolanburg recruits, many of whom vomited on the spot.

Berrion gave them no time to recover. With a furious roar, he ordered, “Shut your damn mouths! Iomir, take squads one and two with four militiamen to the left—I’ll take the rest right. We’ll cut off those two groups of pirates. We have no time—move!”

Without further concern for his men’s nerves, Berrion and Iomir hurried to strike as many enemy as possible, knowing speed was essential.

Meanwhile, the other two groups of Trobba pirates had already engaged the Brick soldiers scaling the walls. The western assault force, caught completely off guard, saw two ladders toppled before the men atop could descend. As the pirates moved to push over the last two, Berrion’s men attacked from behind. The startled assault troops, realizing the need to eliminate this threat, rallied. Nearly a hundred soldiers surrounded the ten pirates and swiftly cut them down. Yet the momentum on the wall was lost: a knight was dead, the attackers retreated, and their advantage was squandered.

On the east, where Iomir led support, things were even worse. Their assault had stalled even before the pirates’ sudden strike. Sir Pippin, with five heavy footmen and twenty light infantry, tried to intercept the pirates, but before they could engage, a pirate’s javelin struck Sir Pippin down. Thinking their commander dead, the light footmen—mainly peasants and county troops—threw down their weapons and fled, shamed beyond words. The five heavy footmen, though shaken, refused to abandon Sir Pippin and fought on.

In personal combat, these heavy footmen matched the pirates, but they were outnumbered two to one, and the pirates fought as a team. Within moments, only three wounded footmen remained. As they despaired of survival, a new force emerged through the thinning smoke—soldiers clad in surcoats embroidered with eagles, mail and iron kettle helmets, spears, and strange bladed weapons, with bowmen behind.

Iomir’s men struck the pirates from the flank. The pirates, who had held the advantage, were caught off guard. These Brick soldiers were unlike any they had faced—brave, disciplined, and coordinated, with spear and missile working in concert. The pirates had to fend off spears, javelins, and arrows, all while strange bladed weapons swung at them. One careless pirate was hooked by a Nolanburg halberd; before he could break free, a swordsman cut him down.