A battle for the ages

## Part 1

Erûs Abišĭras stood in front the gathered šabah of the Republic with a pile of maps and graphs describing the disarray the form

er Kingdom of Enkidu was now in and would spend several hours trying to persuade them to sign off on an invasion of the disunited cities. He would tell them of how even their Rashur had fled the city and that the local army was in complete tatters and wouldn’t pose a real threat to the army he had spent years building, when asked how he planned the subdue the nearly half a million people of the city he replied saying that he believed many would welcome them as liberators and bringers of peace. By the end of the day he was given a free pass to do as he saw fit when it came to his invasion of the east, going so far as to say if he believed Kisuran was weak enough he could conquer the city for himself.

Within a year of the collapse of Enkidu the armies of the Republic marched east, sweeping through the small kingdoms and city states that had risen from the ashes with little to no resistance. Few would welcome the coming of republic rule but could do nothing against the seemingly endless hordes . They would reach the mighty walls of the Enkidu and demand that the gates be opened, and instead of being met as liberators they had boiling tar thrown down on them and told to “fuck off you cunts we have our own war here”.

“So it’s a siege then” Erûs said to himself after the messenger reported what had happened. He had little knowledge of this style of warfare, with many cities being able to be brute forced into surrender and the few who survived falling to food shortages and being starved withing a few days. Enkidu would provide none of these weaknesses, with large grain supplies and internal farms and wells as well as having the strongest walls in the entire Erigiresh. He would look around for some books brought back by the expedition to the far north, a few describing the ways the Juhvinese would capture castles by using a series of different strategies.

The siege would start off with days of fire from the bombards, with the projectiles just shattering off the walls at first. Slowly, however, some damage would start to be made after 2 weeks with cracks beginning to form that would start to spread giving hope to the attacking forces. Miners where also hired to dig under the walls and detonate explosives, but not having really understood the way to go about this strategy Erûs had the men dig too deep and the first series of attacks would cause little damage. The next set however would, with a large section of the wall buckling under its own weight and multiple large parts of the fortification fall to the ground. The wall would be patched up over night with wood and scavenged stonework from houses near the wall.

This would be the state of the city for months, with bombard fire being heard for miles around and the sounds of internal strife inside the city starting to die down as they united in the defence of their city. A contingent of the remaining army had taken up a position of stopping the Urudiki forces completing a full encirclement and blocking off the city from the weapons being sent in by Kisuran, originally to make sure Enkidu didn’t unite again but now to defend the city. The battle hadn’t gone amiss by Kisuran though, with the army beginning to stir. Many saw this as a crossroads for the future with the Republic seemingly on the precipice of being able to unite and dig into the northern parts of the Erigiresh, potentially locking Kisuran from advancing north.

## Part 2

A small boy stood atop the walls of Enkidu, taking a break from his constant relay of messages to catch his breath. Almost all the men who lived near the walls had taken up jobs defending or repairing them, with the women working farms and blacksmiths in the eternal struggle to make more and more arrowheads. From his perch the boy could see for miles down the river, looking at the ever increasing supply barges from Urudik and the large amount of people on the other side of the river in Kisuran spectating the battle, probably unable to sleep due to the amount of noise. Just as the child turned away to get his next message he saw a man on a white horse clad in dazzlingly bright armour. This held his gaze for long enough to then see his banner bearers and then more and more men who shone in the sun. The songs they where singing couldn’t be heard at first but as they came closer it became hard to miss, with even the Urudiki forces turned their backs and see what weas going on.

Erûs stood over a map in his tent, briefing his miners on where to dig next as he begun to heard the chants of “Lakhsargĭ al Enkiduab, ûlingaz Urudik”, “Freedom for Enkidu, Death of Urudik”.

“Another city song ay?” The General said

“I don’t think the city men march like that” his aid said, looking outside the tent too see where the sound of footsteps was coming from, scaling a watchtower, followed by Erûs. From here they would look out and see an army setting up camp not even a mile from the city, with the banners of House Ilu and Enkidu flying together. Clearly an attempt to show the cities resident they where the true savours of the city.

Nanuk would walk though his camp with his eldest son, Ikhem, who had taken very will to administration and was running through the men in his unit to make sure all where accounted for.

“You think you’ll really win? I hear the Urudikis have an army for 50,000 on its way here as we speak” The price asked his father

“I think the Urdikis are making up lies so that they can scare us into leaving”

“And if they do have an army of that size? Its not impossible, I read the Meshkar could raise armies of millions to crush their enemies. That’s why Ilkhur had to send Ishĭ Ĭnû-ur to destroy them.”

“The Republic is weak and so are their people, if they had an army for 50,000 we would crush it the same we you would snuff out a candle. The men they have here are their finest, we break them their mockery of a nation with soon follow.”

Unsatisfied with the answer but unwilling to pursue it anymore the young prince carried on noting down names of the men under his watch. Dreka men stood pre-loading their weapons, with their pikemen nearby sharpening their weapons, the nearly 9 foot long weapon had proven itself adept at keeping cavalry at bay whilst the gunpower weapons would be able to destroy anything in their way. They joked and laughed like any other day but all knew there was a good chance they would be one of the potentially thousands that would die in the following days. Beer and ample food had been shipped across the river to keep them all distracted. Many troops under the command of the Republic where much the same, having mostly moved to set up camp across the field from the Kingdoms forces, setting up arrow towers and placing sharpened wooden stakes into the ground and clearing the way for swordmen, mounted forces and Katemrasmedĭs to get across the field to the (they assumed) poorly armed and armoured Kisuranis.

## Part 3

The 2 armies of thousands stood across the open field from each other, ready and prepared for battle. It would stay like this staring contest until the Republics made the first move, with a charge of swordsmen. A battle cry rang out as it started and hundreds of men where now running towards a wall of pikes, when they got there many where skewered like animals on a spit with only a handful getting close enough to do any damage but then being cut up with swords and axes. However it as quickly followed up by a wall of mounted men covered in armour from head to toe, rushing to a point ¾ of the way down the Kisurani formations, where they blasted through the wall of pikes with few losses before Dreka fire would begin.

Prince Ikhem was with his men, giving orders and sending information to his father about their situation. Having just witnessed the brutal sight of men being run through and still dragging themselves forwards to try and fight he was slightly dazed. He soon cut out of it when the sounds of galloping could be heard only a few feet away, as he looked up he was met with a sight of pancaking men trying to drag these men off their steeds.

“HOLD RANK” the Prince would yell as his drew a sword to defend himself

Dreka men would soon begin firing their weapons into the mounted troops, ripping holes right through them and sending their innards over the field. The attacking forced cared little as they simply continued to slice and spear any man in their sight, with one eventually finding the Ikhem and thrusting his spear at him.

The Prince was able to duck out of the way and, using his sword, cut the weapon clean in half before then slicing at the animals legs, who then threw of its ridder as it writhed in pain. The man in armour was now on the floor, but was quickly starting to get up. To try and finish what he had started Ikhem ran towards the Urudiki with his sword in hand but by the time he got there the man was on his feet and had an axe in hand. The axe made fast and rapid cuts in the air that even the best swordsmen would struggle to get past, Ikhem would be forced back, trying to block any attacks that god too close for comfort, to little success and his sword was cut from his hand, along with his hand. A following strike would find its way into his shoulder. The boy tried to scream but all that came up with thick blood as he fell to the floor, choking to death before a final strike would find itself in his ribs. The republic soldier would be shot through the back not long after as the attack was forced back.

Having seen the carnage caused by this attack Nanuk would call for a similar attack towards the Urudikis, with light horsemen racing across the field as a larger force of horses left to attack the armies right flank. The archers would distract the enemy as spear wielding men tore into the undefended sides of the army. They wouldn’t be recalled until the end of the battle but seeing he was very close to loosing being forced to withdraw Erus would order a final charge of men to try and crush those “Uppity slave boys” once and for all. Many would make it a fair bit across the field before a mass order was given for the Dreka to open fire, when they did it was as though 10 thousand cannons had all of a sudden opened up, spitting fire out over 2 foot along with an iron ball. This would tear huge holes in the attacking formation, with the many conscripts and farm hands who supplements the main forced of trained men turning back towards where they can from, meeting still advancing troop who thought they where men from Kisuran and would begin to slaughter them. A second volley of fire would rectify this confusion as it became clear the Kisurani hadn’t moved, and those who hadn’t chosen to stop advancing soon began to.

Seeing the massive route of the Republics army Nanuk would order the remaining cavalry he had to chase them down and slaughter them. Just before he could give this order a messenger from Anerĭ Kalif, one of the southern most cities in Kisuran.

“My lord” the man said, bowing, “I have grave news from the south”

“It its another damned plague” the Malik replied

“I wish it was so, but its much worse than that. The Varshans, they march north over the border. When I left they had taken Ašyarûdkalif and where moving towards Anerĭ.”

“Those sons of whores” Nanuk would should, hitting his table with both hands so hard it would split down the middle. He would stay conflicted between taking the city he was so damn close to or marching south and potentially loosing all the gains he had made over the last years. Eventually he’d order his men to pack up and march south, leaving those in Enkidu feeling betrayed and those in Urudik revived. The Malik didn’t yet know of the fait of his son, who’s body lay where it had fell as the dead where counted.