Snippet #1711447

Gunshots and yelps of surprise soon overtook the Fort as Marius continued to fend off his attacker with his blade. The fight having gone on for nearly a minute with no opponent gaining headway. Upon the nearby battlements, he could hear the soft clatter of two ladders hitting the wall. He needed to work quickly, fortunately an opportunity to end the sword-fighting spectacle presented itself soon enough. The Prilacian agent made a lung at Marius' chest, the Field Marshal narrowly side-stepping it. Marius grabbed the man's arm by the elbow, pulling him forward and plunging his blade through the man. The sword exited out of the man's back, having pierced him directly through the stomach. The man gave a startled grunt, dropping his blade and relaxing, not yet dead but soon to be. Marius yanked his sword from the Prilacian, grabbing and keeping the man up-right by the neck. A Prilacian infantryman poked his head over the battlements, unable to process what he was seeing before Marius did something that those who know him should have expected.

Yelling, followed immediately by attempted killing.

"Get out of my fort!"

Marius shoved the bewildered and mortally wounded Prilacian assassin over the battlements, into the equally bewildered Prilacian foot soldier precariously balanced upon a ladder. The fact that the Prilacian foot soldier still had his hands on one of the rungs of the ladder ultimately spelled disaster for their endeavor to mount the walls of Fort Ironworth. The ladder tipped and fell backwards, sending the assassin and the soldiers on the ladder plummeting back to the earth. Marius highly doubted any of them would die from the fall, not counting the assassin he had run through, though broken limbs were more than likely. There was still the matter of the second ladder, nearby. Another Prilacian soldier beginning to clamber over the walls.

Marius would have preferred to have a free hand when using his pistol, but he really hadn't the time to locate his sheathe and properly put away his sword. Marius yanked the small, breech-loading pistol from his holster and took aim at the Prilacian. The bullet tore through the air, finding its mark in the left of the Prilacian's skull. The would-be invader jerked with the motion, before falling backwards and knocking a host of his comrades down with him. At this point, Marius opted to just discard his blade momentarily to reload and knock out the other ladder so his troops could secure the wall.

He flicked the gun, opening up the mechanism and yanking a cartridge out of the small pocket within his holster. He crammed the bullet in, flicking the gun shut once more as he approached the ladder's position. He hadn't allowed them much time to clamber up the ladder, though one was now starting up again. Leaning over the battlements, Marius fired off another shot. This one smacking the ladder-mounting Prilacian in the shoulder and sending him reeling away. Marius had to withdraw and duck behind the battlements shortly after, unless he saw it fancy to stay in the path of the return-fire a few Prilacians had offered him.

No sooner did Marius finally meet a host of friendly faces. Kaelathian soldiers stormed down the section of the walls Marius had been in, which were not currently occupied with invading Prilacians thanks to the efforts of their Field Marshal. They fired their weapons down at the Prilacians who had failed to capture and hold the walls, keeping them at bay well enough. One of the lieutenants ducked down next to Marius, both taking cover from the Prilacian's consistent return-fire.

"This section of the Fort's wall is secure. Send more troops down that way," Marius ordered, gesturing in the direction he had come from, "And keep the rest of those God-fearing lunatics off the walls.."
"Aye, Field Marshal."

With the disciplined soldiers of Kaelath, ever more strengthened in their resolve by the presence of Marius, finally storming down the walls and out of the courtyard to meet their foes, there might be hope of keeping the walls of Fort Ironworth secure yet. These were not the same sleepy-headed watchmen and crew the Prilacians had dispatched on their entrance, these were the core fighting force of the infamous Kaelathian Military. Slamming another cartridge into his pistol and grabbing his sword from among scrambling feet, Marius joined his subordinates in their race to keep the walls of Fort Ironworth secure.