143 Purpose (1/2)

Up close, Qarasi Castle looked far more impressive than it had from within the central army's camp. Like the winding curves of a snake, the smooth, gray walls towered above Yucao, into the sky. His stomach contracted, and he felt reminded of a giant, gray leviathan, laid around the castle to obstruct their path. However, even in the face of mythical beasts Yucao had no fear. For he was one of the great climbers of House Pluritac, and his mission was to scale Qarasi Castle. All his life he had been trained for this very purpose, so what was there to be afraid of? Even more, he could count on the support from his many brothers.

With a look around, Yucao saw many warriors march on the castle, climbers like himself. Compared to the stocky builds of the core troops, the climbers were fast and nimble, with powerful arms. Their unique training and cultivation made it easy for them to close in on enemy structures, and allowed them to scale any sort of wall with ease. Like shock-troops in an open field, the climbers were trained to overwhelm the defenses of defensive structures. Even more so, their greatest strength lay in the capture of understaffed castles, like the one before them.

After he saw his spirited allies look up towards the crest of the gray walls, their goal, he looked down onto his own equipment, a frown on his face. Rather than his usual rope and claw, he had been left with nothing but a torch and a clay jug of oil. According to their commander, the new walls of Qarasi were made of paper, so his role this time was to burn them and produce chaos on the walls. However, there was no glory in burning down men of Medala. His glory was his cry of triumph once he had conquered the enemy's walls, or their gates. When he had proven that there was no obstacle too high for his bravery was when he had fulfilled his purpose and brought glory upon his family..

Instead, other men would have this honor. According to the plans of the generals, the four hundred climbers before him and would take fire for him and the others stuck with torches. They would keep the enemy busy until he could reach the walls and burn them to the ground. However, Yucao was sure that his own services would not be required. Rather, they might just get in the way. With the construction of these additional walls, their enemies had created countless spots for their claws to attack, countless spots to climb. How could a small garrison like the one inside Qarasi ever hold them back if they spread themselves so thin?

If they began to burn the walls when their own men were already on top, it would only cause casualties among their own men, his own fellow climbers. While Yucao envied his fellows for their chance at glory, he wasn't petty enough to kill them over it.

Even more, he was unwilling to attack the castle in the first place. After all, he had been trained to spread the glory of House Pluritac. How could he be happy about an attack on Pluritac land? Even though King Pachacutec was his nominal ruler, he wasn't comfortable with an attack on the eldest son of the emperor.

Thus, as they received their orders to charge the castle and fulfill their purpose, he held back, and fell behind his company. It wasn't hard, since the chaos of war had gripped the Narrows already. Once he had fallen behind his company, he found enough space to observe the horrible massacre that was about to unfold.

At first, the climbers decided to attack the base of the star-shaped walls, close to the castle proper. If they could climb these spots, they would soon reach the center of the castle, and they would also leave walls behind themselves for their allies to attack. However, as soon as they stepped between the gray star walls of Qarasi, all hell broke loose. Bangs from above announced the arrival of gunfire, and soon the first of House Pluritac's famous climbers lost his life. As if stung by an invisible monster, his body twitched into a stiff posture. He stumbled a few more steps, before he fell to the ground, a bloody hole in the back of his head. Soon screams of agony filled the air as the warriors of Pluritac fell to the ground. Even then, for everyone they lost another two would take their place, like an endless flood.

This much resistance they had expected. Their lord had already seen these weapons called matchlocks in action during the succession war, and would have been prepared for their impact on the battle. Unperturbed, the climbers rushed ahead, as archers did the same. In fact, the archers were similar in build to Yucao's compatriots, and they often trained together. Though of course they were far less mobile, as they would often hide behind infantry to do their damage.

Soon the sacrifices of the climbers had allowed them to rush into the empty space between the two walls. Bows tensed, they began to pepper both sides with arrows, to force the enemy troops into cover and reduce the impact of the matchlocks.

However, the foreign warriors atop the walls still wouldn't let up. Even though he was no scout, Yucao's eyes were still better than most and he could see the problem right away: All throughout the archer's barrage, the enemy muskets could stay behind cover to reload. They would only surface for the actual shot and could then hide once more. Unlike a bow, the new guns were perfect for sieges. The enemy wouldn't have to remain standing throughout the entire reloading process. Thus, even though the archers were better trained and fired much faster than their enemies atop the walls, they failed to suppress the fire of the defenders.

While the musket men had been busy with the archers, the climbers had made their way all the way across the battlefield, and onto the foot of the castle walls. Soon they threw their claws, but a surprising amount failed to connect with the top. Many wouldn't hook onto anything up above, and fall back down without purpose. Something must have been odd about the walls to reduce the effectiveness of the hooks. As battle progressed, the screams from among the ranks of Yucao's allies increased even further. Although he couldn't see the foot of the wall well through the chaos of battle, this made no sense. How could the climbers still get attacked? Weren't the gun weapons near useless when the enemy was right below? Wouldn't the ball ammunition slip from the barrel? That was one reason all traditional Medalan walls were built at a slant: It made fire much more comfortable for the defenders, be it stone, arrow or gun.

However, the enemy seemed to have no trouble with their straight walls. Despite their bravery, the climbers had little success. Halfway up the walls, several men forced their way up towards their claws, but y wouldn't find purpose. Once more Yucao saw a climber fall off his perch. Not even his rope up above had been cut. Instead, the man just screamed and fell from a deadly height, as if struck by invisible lightning. This was no attack, no glorious storm for the warriors of Pluritac. It was a slaughter.

At last Yucao's feet sped up again. All this time he had kept back, to not get in the way of his own allies. However, now he decided to rush forward. Even if the fires were a double-edges sword, at least they would bind many of the attackers who would be busy with attempts to stem the flames, while the smoke would reduce visibility for the enemy gunmen.