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Grud swung his spear over the top of the wall, splitting the heads of three men in half, only to be forced to take cover when a hail of arrows concentrated on him. This had been an action Grud repeated over a hundred times by now in an attempt to stem the tide of the horde assaulting the walls and gates.
"CHIEFTEN! ANOTHER RAM IS COMING!" A shout from the gate side of the wall sounded off.
Grud cursed and jumped down from the side of the wall he was on and ran toward the gate. Along the way, he grabbed a hastily put-together cloak made out of multiple layers of furs and leathers, but unlike what people would expect of a cloak, this cloak had deep gashes that cut through multiple layers and so many arrows sticking out of it that it looked like a pincushion.
This cloak was what Grud used while diving into the sea of enemies to take out important targets like the incoming battering ram, and as he waded through the sea of weapons aimed at him, this cloak was the only thing that kept most of the sharp weapons away from the gaps in his armor.
He resorted to this method of added protection after destroying the first battering ram and barely surviving the sea of blades stabbing wherever they had the chance to get in.
Grud threw on the tattered but still serviceable cloak, grabbed a shield, and jumped off the wall, shield first, while letting loose a warcry as arrows and spears pelted his shield on the way down.
When Grud landed, he crushed two men before swinging his shield in a wide arc, sending men flying into others, and following up with a wide swing of his long-bladed spear, cutting swathes of men down.
Now with enough space to gain some momentum, Grud charged forward, shield first toward the battering ram, all while enduring the blows of spears, swords, and clubs aiming to take his life. Or in this case, slow him down.
After plowing men aside for fifty meters or so, Grud finally reached the battering ram being carried by twenty men. He then ran along the right of the battering ram, skewering four men on his spear before he ran out of shaft space and bowled over the rest.
Losing the men on the right who were holding the tree trunk turned battering ram, the men on the left lost their grip, causing the log to fall on the men on the right, knocking them to the ground.
Now that the battering ram was immobile, Grud threw off the men who decided to tackle him, raised his mana-enpowered spear, and brought it down on the battering ram. When the shaft of Grud's spear met the bartering ram, the battering ram shattered into two, sending splinters flying everywhere, stabbing the surrounding men with wooden shards and splinters. And to make sure the remnants of the battering ram could not be used, Grud smashed the battering ram into smaller pieces while fighting off his attackers.
By the time Grud fought his way back and got over the wall to the friendly side, he was covered in blood, but everyone knew that not all of it was his.
As Grud was heaving deep breaths and draining a waterskin, one of his men pointed at him, "Chieften… your side."
Grud followed where he was pointing and saw the broken-off spearhead lodged just under his left rib, just where a gap in his armor was.
While in the midst of battle, Grud was so hopped up on adrenaline that he did not realize someone landed a lucky hit on him, and now that he recognized the wound, his brain started to catch up with the damage done to his body.
With a grunt, Grud called for someone to fetch a medicine man. While waiting for the medicine man to arrive, Grud took out a copper knife and put the blade over a nearby torch.
When the medicine man arrived, Grud told him to prepare for a burn wound. Seeing the broken-off spearhead, the medicine man was confused as to why he should prepare for a burn wound when Grud was obviously stabbed, but that confusion was quickly and viciously cleared when Grud yanked the spearhead out of his side, pressed the wound together with one hand, and brought the side of the scalding hot knife to his wound.
When the hot metal met his wound, Grud let out a beastial roar, scaring his own men and the enemy closest to where he was. After gritting so hard he almost cracked his teeth, Grud finally brought the blade away from his flesh and slumped where he sat as the medicine man rushed over to treat him.
Grud then caught one of the men running by and said, "Tell whoever is in charge that they are on their own for the rest of the day."
***
Outside the walls and the encircling enemies were the Grud's riders. They had started their attacks by performing ride-bys, shooting arrows, and throwing spears until they had nothing to shoot at the Thunder Strider forces.
They then retreated into the woods, giving the Thunder Striders reprieve as they concentrated on rushing the walls of the main body of the alliance forces. But to the Thunder Striders' dismay, Grud's riders came galloping out of the woods no less than fifteen minutes later, but this time, not with bows or spears, but with slings.
As Grud's riders unleashed a barrage of stones that flew into the Thunder Strider forces, there were the occasional sounds of whip-cracks of sonic booms when the slings whipped at sufficiently high speeds. Some of those stones even manage to punch through weaker shields.
In response to the constant harassment from ranged cavalry, rudimentary shield walls began to form wherever Grud's riders appeared. However, this did not stop the riders; whenever one side of the encirclement became too defensive, they would attack another part that was caught off guard. The best part was that there was almost limitless ammunition; stones were everywhere. All they needed to do was ride off into the woods to a nearby stream and collect smooth stones from there.
Again and again, the riders rotated out and pelted the Thunder Strider forces, and sometimes had to retreat when archers came to counter them. Thankfully, most of the enemy archers were concentrated on the walls.
As the cycle of pelting stones continued, some of the younger and hotter-blooded riders became bolder and rode closer to take more effective shots, until one of Grud's sons went in for a spear kill while riding by.
Naturally, despite their elders' reprimands, the younger riders viewed this as an opportunity to one-up each other and began performing ride-bys with melee weapons to secure kills while dodging or parrying spears aimed at them.
As the younger ones got bolder, their elders decided to just support them by aiming their shots ahead of the younger ones to soften the targets up.
This turned out to be a rather effective tactic as the enemy was too busy defending themselves against slingshots to effectively strike at the melee riders. Consequently, this gradually evolved into a coordinated attack, with the older riders calling their shots to inform the melee riders where to attack.
***
Ba'Rak was in an awkward spot. Yes, he was sieging a tribe while actively being flanked, but personally, it did not affect him much. He had enough bodies between him and the riders that were grinding away at his forces.
But what Ba'Rak was concentrating on now was observing the tribe's walls. It had been an hour since he had seen the distinctive dark red armor of Grud jumping from the walls and destroying the battering ram he had sent out, but unlike other times when he saw Grud exit the safety of the walls to attack high-value targets, he had neither seen nor heard any news of Grud being active on the walls.
This gave Ba'Rak a few possibilities of what happened to Grud, and to confirm it, he called for another battering ram to be sent to the alliance gate.
Half an hour later, two rows of men were hefting a freshly felled tree trunk and sending it towards the alliance gate. Naturally, a battering ram marching toward a gate was almost impossible to hide, so it was spotted immediately, causing much commotion on the alliance's wall.
As the battering ram got closer and closer, Ba'Rak smiled as there was no sign of Grud, forcing alliance forces to commit men to come down from the wall to destroy his battering ram.
"Chieftain Grud is injured. Now is the time. Chop down five more trees, I want five more battering rams to that gate! Either they expand another group of men to defend the gate, or the gate falls today!" Ba'Rak shouted as he laughed in victory.