Magnifico

Kylian on the run.

“Oh goodness. You are safe, welcome back” Prime minister Forlan said as he welcomes the King. He continued “How was it? Was it successful? Hope they listened to you?” Prime minister questioned as he furiously wanted to know what happened there.

“No. No. No. It didn’t work out. Everyone listen up,” Kylian says loudly. He continued “The enemies are not relenting and I think they will unleash mayhem on us judging from the weapons I saw in their possession. We all need to brace up and muster around in the correct military positions if we are going to hold them up.” Kylian said. The commanders were also advised to lead their troops and tell them what to do and choose the right tactics that would be suitable for the heavy weapons the enemies came with.

“ Alright, listen up. When the enemy advances closer and starts shooting, then we need to use the tortoise formation to withstand their arrows and other fireworks. We need to defend the fort with all our lives so, you will have to listen attentively for instructions and do exactly as you are told.” A commander said.

The tortoise formation is a tactic mostly used by some kingdom in the north, east and west territories and particularly by the army of Azmak. In this formation, the military’s large shields allowed them to present a 360-degree wall to enemy attacks.

The first flank of the formation would kneel behind their interlocked shields over five foot in height. The second flank would hold their shields above the head of the first flank to protect them from incoming arrows or fireballs. In case the military that adopts this tactic wants to get all-round protection, then men at the rare could lock their shields together too to form a complete ‘tortoise' back.

Looking closely at the city walls, Magnifico and his men were already advancing closer, around five thousand foots closer to the walls. Prime minister Forlan thought that the military was too small to be scared of. He wondered why the enemy would come to their fort with ten thousand soldiers when they have four, five, eight, or more than that military power. He assumed it would be a walkover for them and wondered why the king was so worried about such a weak troop right in front of them and he decided to laugh it off, “what a joke,” he thought.

King Kylian didn’t think the same, he knows that what lies ahead of them was a big danger and a massive threat that could obliterate their kingdom and may cause it to cease to exist. He has been hearing rumours about Magnifico and he has always prayed he never encounters him or his wrath but this time around, he’s about to experience it himself.

Magnifico’s men approached the walls' of Azmak and they carried a long ladder with them. About fifty ladders were carried simultaneously by the soldiers and they inclined them in a position that allowed the walls of Azmak to support the ladders thereby balancing the ladder and preventing it from falling back or falling off. They started climbing the ladder to penetrate the walls of Azmak so they could start their fight from the inside without putting much energy into breaking the gate of Azmak or pulling down their walls. They thought that penetrating their walls directly above the fence would be much quicker so that by the time they break inside walls, they will open up the gate for the rest of their men to come in effortlessly.

“Wait, on my command,” an Azmak commanding officer said as he directs the soldiers on top of the city walls to wait for his command. With them, are pots of hot oils kept hidden on top of the city walls. These pots of oil were kept in each place the ladder was placed. The commander was waiting for the Alaphas' soldiers to start climbing the ladder so he could start pouring them those hot waters to damage their eyes and skins.

“Archers... Attack” the commanding officer shouted again from the wall. Archers brought out their weapons and started shooting down intruders trying to climb the city wall. These tactics were paying off but as they were trying to put much effort into shooting down Alaphas' soldiers trying to penetrate their walls, the more ladders the Alaphas soldiers were aligning against the wall.

“Use the oils!!!” the commander shouted again and quickly, they poured the oil on each wooden ladder and lit the fire on them. Most soldiers on the ladders started falling off and some also suffered fractures skulls because of the distance from which they have fallen. Kylian was watching from a distance as the attacks and counter-attacks we’re happening while prime minister, Forlan, giggled as he saw that their men were winning the war at the moment.

“My king, it seems like we are punishing them already, haha!!” the Prime Minister said as he laughs while staying close to King Kylian. King Kylian couldn’t respond because he wasn’t sure if it was too early to judge what was happening.

“Drive the ballista forward,” a military commanding officer on Magnifico's side shouted in a high pitched voice as he gives orders. The four men operating the ballista drove it forward to the front line of the troops and Magnifico was sitting inside his wagon watching.

A ballista is a machine that was driven on a wagon with four wheels. It has a double swinging arm that throws circular stones soaked with oils and the stones are lit with fire, these stones weigh more than 50 kilos each and could create a big chunk out of the walls of the opponent when it is fired and can also knock down fortification towers.

“Shoot,” an Alaphas commander shouted. The stones were fired from the ballista simultaneously to the main entrance, they were also shooting at the walls, by this time the archers, soldiers at the wall were killed and the gates’ was continuously bombarded by Alaphas soldiers. The tortoise formation was only working out for soldiers inside the wall and not the soldiers on top of it. Therefore it means that soldiers on top of the wall were dying twice as fast as soldiers inside it because they were more susceptible to the hit coming from the Alaphas soldiers.

At this time, prime Minister Forlan's smile started diminishing and he started to witness as their men were continually eliminated by the mighty firepower the Alaphas soldiers had come with. King Kylian wasn’t surprised for one bit because he expected worse than that but was only hoping they don’t break the city wall or the main entrance because this will expose them to a more direct hit with the firepower coming from the Alaphan side.

“His Majesty, this is a siege”

By this time, King Kylian was on top of his horse watching as things were happening. He said “what were you expecting? of course, it’s a siege. They want to force us out of here but we can’t let that happen. We need to keep here locked from them as long as we can or else, we will suffer heavy casualties more than we have witnessed already,” the King was still trying to finish his statement when he saw a big roughly round stone, weighing about 80 kilos was flying towards his direction, he quickly rode his horse out of the way and it hit the ground exactly the same place king Kylian was. Forlan didn’t make much run because he wasn’t on a horse so, the impact of the stone kind of threw him up and landed him on the ground with his head. He was lucky, there was no fracture, just a small bruise. The king quickly came down from his horse and rushed towards the Prime Minister, “are you okay?” the King asked furiously.

“Haha. I really underestimated these people, of course, I am okay but I am smelling bloodbath here, this night” Forlan said as he laughed bitterly, he was in pain, angry and he started to realize that the Alaphas’ soldiers haven’t come to play and they were no walkover.

“I am sorry for failing to protect my Kingdom, Uz” the King sobbed.

“Oh no. It’s not your fault. There was nothing you could have done, believe me” Forlan said.

The king helped him stood up to his feet and cleaned him up, he brought a piece of white fabric in his uniform and cleaned the blood that stained the Minister’s cloth.

“Archers, fireeee,” an Azmak commander said in a very loud tone. The archers fired at the Alaphan side continuously as they were trying to break down their gate. Arrows were flying like rain and the Alaphas soldiers suffered a little blow but it didn’t deter them from doing what they were doing.

Magnifico was already out from his wagon with his long doubled-edged sword watching and impatiently waiting for the city gate to fall so he could show them what he is really made of.

They have bombarded the gate to the extent that the mighty gate was now very weak. Magnifico commanded the artillerymen to use the mighty log of wood they came with to hit the gate.

“His majesty, you need to shift from here. They are about to break into our walls…” a commander advised King Kylian.

“Yes. I think you need to shift from here, just a little back so you don’t get hit by the arrows or their fireballs,” Forlan advised king Kylian.

“That would be leaving my men to die and I can’t leave them now. I am their King, I can’t run Prime minister Forlan Uz,” says King Kylian. The prime minister knew that whenever the king calls him by his full name and rank; all is not well.

The Alaphas soldiers broke down the gate and it fell to the ground with a loud thud sound that raised specks of dust to the air. The Azmak soldiers were seen in their tortoise formation immediately the gate was broken so the Alaphan soldiers didn’t rush in immediately.

Magnifico ordered the artillerymen to go back to their respective weapons. He ordered the carroballistas to be brought forward in the front line. He ordered the carroballista because the instrument shoots large arrows that could tear down shields and pierce through the enemy’s formation. A carroballista is a piece of military equipment the Alaphas soldiers came with and which they had improved upon after they had ceased prototypes from other cities they had destroyed in the past. The carroballista is made up of two arms like a crossbow and in between these two arms of the crossbow lies an elastic rope that helps propels the arrows into the air to kill or destroy a targeted enemy. The force at which the ballista uses to push arrows away is five times harder than a normal average crossbow a soldier shoots and this is why it tears down most shields and may end up killing or dangerously wounding a soldier that was targeted with this equipment.

When the Alaphas soldiers started shooting these arrows from the ballista, they started destroying the tortoise formation the Azmak soldiers had set up. The Azmak soldiers had no choice but to start fighting with the Alaphas soldiers because all their defensive tactics had failed. Magnifico started enjoying the sight immediately he saw the gate has been destroyed and that the Azmak soldiers were already rushing out to fight with them. He started rushing towards the Azmak soldiers too, flings his sword, and started killing as many men as possible. He kills four men faster than the best commander from Azmak could. He was killing sporadically and was advancing further inside the wall, fear gripped the king while Forlan was totally consumed by it when he caught sight of Magnifico. He wondered what sort of creature he was and he knew came to understand that there was nothing much left to protect except the King.

“His Majesty, you need to leave now. I don’t think we can hold up much longer at this rate. Please leave the fort,” Prime Minister Forlan begged.

“Is this the end?” King Kylian sobbed.

“No. It’s not my King only if you leave the palace now. You need to escape. So far as our King leaves, our kingdom stays alive too. But if you are killed, there aren’t many things left to protect any longer,” Forlan begged. The king had to mount on his horse without hesitation and ran away from Azmak but before he could finally run away, he saw Magnifico approached Prime Minister Forlan.

“Where is your brave king? And where did you keep our prisoner?” Magnifico asked the prime minister when he had approached him.

“We aren’t afraid of you, you animal” Forlan shouted angrily.

“I thought as much,” Magnifico said as he used his sword to cut off the Prime Minister’s head. Kylian stood watching and he became very annoyed, he couldn’t do anything and the best he could do was just to run away. He blamed the fall of Azmak on king Zulu of Quinax and he swore

Magnifico ordered that the city be burnt down and all things that would be of value to them be taken away.