The Story of Souls: A Sweboz AAR

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter Twenty Five:The Burning City (Part Three)
(From the Greek book:)
The Next Day
It is hard to find room to write with all of these people crammed in here but i finally found the space and time. Maybe ill be able to finish this entry today.
After the destruction of the Flavian Gate, the hordes of risen poured forth. The ruins of the gate QUICKLY became a bloodbath. The troops that had been stationed to guard it had been mostly killed in the explosion. But several reserves from the walls that were no longer needed due to the fact almost all of the risen were assaulting this weak spot had come to take their place. However they could not get into position fast enough and got hit HARD by the risens' first assault. My cousin knew that at this point he was in trouble. So he ordered the outer walls abandoned. As the surviving troops poured out of the other two gates onto the ground, the men at the Flavian gate were slowly being pushed back. Things looked as if they were going to fall apart. However it was then that some of the barbaroi from Germania hurtled into the fight. It was more of those strange sword-priests of theirs. With their bodies and swords aglow, they burned through the ranks of the risen. This bought my cousins forces time to get off of the walls.
However as they began to retreat the thing sent some HUGE risen bodies, maybe 20 or 30 hands ((15-20 feet)) high to attack the gate. However once they had engaged the sword-priests, the things RAPIDLY formed up a battle line behind the huge risen and charged. At a loud barking noise the huge risen collapsed forward, allowing the things to surprise and annihilate the sword-priests.
The regular risen then poured around the things horses and into the poleis.
At this point i began to be unable to see large parts of the battle due to a huge amount of smoke that was pouring from the burning parts of the poleis. From what information i managed to gather from the survivors of the retreat, i REALLY don't think i want to know what it looked like. Almost all of them were insane from the trauma that they experienced. The few that were still coherent could barely remember what happened. I was told stories of women being eaten, families being slaughter, whole cohorts being ambushed, both by pure blooded things and risen, the former something that all of them refused to remember. What i saw was smoke with intermittent flashes of the sword-priests light. What i heard was far more frightening. I heard screams of men, women, and children. I heard more explosions. I heard sounds that sounded as if they were straight from the pits of Hell itself.
The street fighting lasted for the rest of the day, and, due to the fires, deep into the night. In fact when i awoke the next morning i heard the sounds of battle all over the place. However they were MUCH closer to the inner walls than they had been yesterday. The risen were screaming their insane rage at every living thing around them, and killing that much as well.
At about mid-morning the first of the surviving units made it to the Julian Gate. We opened the gates for them. After that a small, but steady stream flowed into those gates. I had to dispatch my personal guards to keep order at the gates, and to watch for risen or things that attacked it while it was vulnerable.
After a while, i saw my cousin fighting a large group of undead. He and some of his men were slowly being pushed back towards the gate. The risen were threatening to overwhelm them. However they had come into range of the balistae of the inner wall, which promptly opened fire upon the ranks of risen. We had also managed to get our hands on a few catapults. Which opened fore as well. The large rocks and balistae bolts hit the risen hard, hard enough to force them back. However some of the pure blooded things saw what was happening and charged my cousin and his men. They went under after the second charge. However the balistae commander ordered his men to open fire upon the things. The withering fire forced them back. My guards managed to get my cousin within the inner walls. However he was bleeding profusely.
About ten minutes later we were forced to close the gates. Out of nearly 10000 men that were stationed upon the outer walls, less than 3000 made it to the inner wall.
However i have to go and pray now, so i must leave off once again.