author'S THOUGHT: I am currently busy with an event, so I cannot create a long chapter.
The sun had not even touched the mountaintops when the Roman war trumpets sounded. Not a single blast, but four, one from each side of the siege camp, a proclamation of death that echoed through the silent valley. On the walls of Delminium, the exhausted guards looked down in horror. Below them, four gigantic wooden monsters—the siege towers—began to move forward from the darkness, pushed by hundreds of soldiers hidden within their bellies.
Ulixes stood inside the main tower, feeling the vibration of the wooden floor beneath his feet. The air inside was stuffy, filled with the smell of sweat from the fifty best Spartan soldiers who were crowded around him, their shields raised, their gladii unsheathed. He peeked through a narrow gap. He could see stones and flaming arrows beginning to rain down from the top of the walls, hitting the tower's wet, leather-reinforced roof with a dull thud.
"Hold!" a Centurion yelled.
Beside him, Flamma gripped the hilt of his sword, his face as hard as stone. "They are desperate," he growled.
"Desperation is a fuel that burns quickly," Ulixes retorted, his eyes never leaving the stone wall that was getting closer.
It was then that he heard a different sound. The deep, synchronized TWANG of a string from behind. Twenty Roman ballistae fired at once. A shower of projectiles—large stones and pots of fire—slammed into the top of the Delminium walls. Screams were heard as the Delmatae archers were crushed or burned alive. The volley provided the cover they needed.
CRASH!
Their tower hit the wall with a jarring force. A moment later, the landing bridge was lowered with a deafening creak, hitting the top of the wall and creating an entry point ten men wide.
Ulixes did not wait. He was the first to charge out.
He exploded onto the wall like a god of vengeance. Two Delmatae warriors charged him. He did not parry. He slammed his shield into the first, breaking the man's ribs and tossing him from the top of the wall. He spun, his gladius slicing the neck of the second in one fluid motion. Blood sprayed onto his armor.
"FOR ROME!" he roared, his voice thundering over the din of battle.
Behind him, the Spartan soldiers flooded the wall, forming an impenetrable shield wall and beginning to push forward brutally, clearing the Delmatae fighters from their positions. The battle to take Delminium had begun.
The battle on the wall was a narrow hell. On one side was a fatal drop, on the other was a sea of angry enemies. Ulixes moved through it like a steel vortex. His [Template of Achilles] sang in his blood, sharpening every sense, turning chaos into a series of predictable movements.
He saw a large Delmatae chieftain, with a double-headed axe, manage to break the line near one of the stairs. He charged towards him, ignoring other threats. He dodged the first axe swing, slid under the second, and stabbed his sword into the man's thigh, bringing him to his knees. He didn't have time to ensure his death; he kicked the body off the wall and moved to the next target.
Below, in the fortress courtyard, a different battle was raging. Two other Roman cohorts had successfully breached the weakened main gate and were now fighting to the death in the city's narrow streets.
Ulixes looked down. He saw Verzo, the main chieftain, surrounded by his most loyal personal guards, trying to organize a final defense in front of the main hall.
"Flamma!" Ulixes yelled. "Take the wall! I'll cut off the snake's head!"
Without waiting for an answer, Ulixes jumped. Straight onto the roof of a building below. He landed lightly, rolling to absorb the impact, then jumped again to the ground, landing right behind Verzo's line of guards.
They turned, their eyes wide with shock.
Ulixes gave them no time to react. He was a storm. He kicked a guard's shield, breaking his stance. He stabbed another in the neck. He slammed his sword's pommel into the face of a third. In seconds, the guards lay dead or dying.
Now, only he and Verzo remained.
The old chieftain looked at him, not with fear, but with pure hatred. He raised his large, heavy sword. "You may have taken my walls, Roman," he snarled. "But you will never take my soul!"
He attacked.
Verzo fought with the strength of a wounded old bear. Every swing was heavy and full of lethal intent. But he was slow. Too slow. Ulixes danced around him, his sword making only occasional contact, leaving small cuts on Verzo's arms and legs. He wasn't just fighting him. He was toying with him. He was humiliating him.
"This is for the two hundred soldiers at Castellum Lucis," Ulixes said, his sword slashing Verzo's cheek.
"This is for every merchant you robbed." His sword plunged into Verzo's shoulder.
Verzo roared in frustration and attacked blindly. Ulixes easily avoided the attack, stepping to the side, and sweeping his leg behind Verzo's. The old chieftain fell hard to his knees. His sword flew from his grasp.
Ulixes stood over him, the cold tip of his sword resting on Verzo's neck.
"You're right," Ulixes said. "I won't take your soul."
He plunged his sword.
As Verzo's head rolled onto the courtyard stones, a massive roar of victory erupted from all corners of the city. The final resistance had been broken. Delminium had fallen.
Ulixes stood in the middle of a sea of corpses, looking at the fortress that was now his.