I Became the First Prince

There Was No Brother With Only Brothers (2)

The Orcs were trying to gain the walls through every means at their disposal. Maximilian had already been near one of the beasts as he looked into its sickly yellow eyes and saw its scaly, green hide.

I only had eyes for the state of our defense of the walls.

“Fire! Keep on firing!” Vincent commanded his Rangers. All along the walls, soldiers were severing the ropes of siege hooks and deflecting thrown axes. “Don’t allow a single one to gain the walls!” Bellowed a knight, who was covered in chunks of Orcish flesh and blood.

Maximilian retched as the stench of burning oil, sweat, and the monster’s viscera assaulted his senses. He was nauseous, and the strange scents had jumbled his thought processes. I quickly grabbed him by the shoulder and wrenched him to the side as a whistling, wayward ax struck the spot where he had been standing just a second ago.

“Don’t stand in the open, brother! You’ll be killed within seconds!” I calmly said to him, clucking my tongue. His confusion subsided upon hearing a voice so at odds with the chaos around him. He struggled to take in a breath, clearly shocked at how fast life passed into death against such beasts. “You stand out, brother, they target your frilly clothes.”

He studied the Rangers upon the walls, everyone wearing fur over their leather armor. His armor and its golden luster shone in the midst of such tawny garbs. “Thank you…” he managed to sputter.

“If you die, the fervor of the Orcs rise, and as they gain more fervor, their attacks become more persistent,” I instructed him. I could see he thought I was concerned about his safety, but that was not my intention. No, the truth of the matter was that he was in our way. He dropped his head in shame as he realized this, but only for a moment, for soon, he raised his head and tightened his grip upon his sword. Gone was his shock and surprise at the ferocity of the Orcs. All he cared about now was how to kill them more effectively.

“Sir Ehrim!”

“Yes, Your Majesty?” The knight said as he came to the Second Prince’s side, already having guessed at his intention as he motioned for soldiers and knights to ascend to the wall. Before they could even ascend, though, I commanded them to a halt.

“Don’t come up! We’re crowded here already, no use in limiting our sphere of movement!” Maximilian saw the wisdom of my order as he studied our crowded lines. He allowed only the Wire Knights to ascend the stairs, then, and they dispersed themselves among the infantry and the Rangers.

“Long time no see, Your Majesty! The day is good!” One of the Wire Knights cheerfully called to me as he ran to his appointed spot.

More of them greeted me in this cheeky manner as they deployed.

“It’s been a long time!” A burly man shouted at Maximilian after he had split the skull of a charging Orc.

“Sir Dunham?” exclaimed the Second Prince.

“That’s me, Max! You’re looking spiffy as ever, I see,” Dunham said with a laugh as he cut into the rope of a siege hook. An Orc still clung to the iron hook itself. In one motion, the man severed its fingers, with the beast plunging to the ground while shouting in a terrifying manner.

Maximilian continued to study the deployment of the Wire Knights along the battlefield. Their participation in the battle had strengthened the lines, and the prospects of mounting an effective defense had improved at once. The insane Rangers themselves held the walls by blade and bow, slashing at Orcs who came too near and then switching to their ranged weapons once they got the chance.

“Ready… Fire!” Came Vincent’s command once more as the rangers fired into the mass of Orcs in unison. Many Orcs were felled by this hail of bolt and arrow, yet more stormed at the wall as their comrades were mowed down. I could not even make an accurate guess as to what their numbers were.

“There are about a thousand Orcs,” Ehrim stated as if having read my thoughts. He himself had a thousand men under his command. How many Orcs would storm our walls in the battles to come?

Maximilian had gotten used to the clamor of the battle by now. He deflected a thrown javelin with his sword, saving a Ranger’s life, then cut into the rope of a siege hook. Whenever an Orc’s head appeared over the walls, Maximilian kicked the thing until it fell back. He kept himself busy in this fashion for a while until a strange feeling washed over him.

As he looked around, he noticed that not a single Winter Knight remained upon the walls. “The knights have gathered in front of the gate!” Ehrim informed him, and the Second Prince saw that it was so. Even while the Orcs still came wave after wave against the ramparts, the knights had grabbed their swords and spears.

In front of them stood Adrian, the First Prince. Maximilian had been surprised when his brother had stopped hacking at Orcs and departed the walls, yet now he understood Adrian’s intentions better. He wished to open the gates and launch a counter-attack on the foe.

Maximilian had known that his brother and the men of Winter Castle were all a bit crazy, yet the nature of their madness was truly greater than he had at first surmised. The Orcs were massing along the walls in ever greater numbers. Then… the sound of pulleys and the grinding of heavy iron resonated amongst the venue. Upon seeing this, the Orcs, who were clamoring at the walls, changed their tact and headed for the newly opened gates, roaring their battle lust like never before. A quiet yet persistent sound became audible over the howling of the beasts:

“Silent are the snowy mountain peaks and the blood-drenched walls.”

This was a martial chant that the Rangers had sung when they had led Maximilian and his troops to the fortress. Now, however, the words were calmly spoken and not sung in a discordant pitch. The Second Prince had not expected this.

“Only our horns of war are heard, for a new day dawns into which we advance.”

Strange energy started to permeate the winter air after these words had been spoken. It felt like every soul could hear the words of the song so very clearly. The ranger’s rapid breathing misted the air, and their eyes shone with bright anticipation.

“Silent are the snowy mountain peaks and the blood-drenched walls!

Only our horns of war are heard, for a new day dawns into which we advance!”

This now came from the knights, who roared the song where the Rangers had almost whispered it. It was then that Maximilian felt the power of mana flow through the air as knights activated their rings.

“Your Majesty! Protect yourself magically!” Ehrim warned the Second Prince. Maximilian raised his own mana, as well as all the Wire Knights, who still fought upon the walls. A strange energy slammed into them, and if they had not activated their rings, they would have perished.

What the hell was that? Maximilian knew Orcs had shamans and practiced strange witcheries, yet he had never expected such a force. Potentialities flashed through his head.

The Rangers now took up the song in full, their voices ringing across the walls in a wild modulation. At that moment, the knights below roared.

“Charge! Charge! Charge!”

Maximilian watched as Adrian lead the charge, a blue flame burning brightly on the tip of his sword. This was the first time the Second Prince had ever seen such a display of blazing swordsmanship. A golden flash spread through the knights as they summoned auras into their swords.

The knights met with the Orcs, and such was the force of the mana-fueled charge that the beasts were thrust screaming into the air. The Knights of Winter dug into that gap, storming into the Orcish lines in a well-executed wedge formation. At the head of this wedge, the blue flame burned brightly as the limbs of Orcs were amputated left and right. Those Orcs who fell were soon trampled underfoot by the charging knights.

The Orcs gave voice to their anger and fear while the knights roared their hatred for the vile beasts.

Maximilian could only gawk blankly at the scene below him, especially as he saw the boy who was his brother chop and hack like a madman through Orc after Orc.

“Oh, my God…” Was all that the Second Prince could say.

He now knew that the nobles in the royal capital had deprecated the might of the Balahards and the martial prowess of Adrian out of petty spite. These nobles were foppish, brutish incompetents who wouldn’t be able to catch a single goblin in a barrel.

Maximilian got goosebumps at this realization and the sight before him. The Winter Knight’s decimation of wave upon wave of that dark green ocean impressed him, as well as seeing the true nature of his brother.

Orcs were starting to flee in all directions as the knights pressed them. The Wire Knights themselves stared at the scene with jaws slack in surprise. The Orcs along the walls heard the hue and cry of their comrades and also started to flee. The Rangers, still giving voice to the song, opened fire into the backs of these fleeing beasts. Heavily Armed infantry, about a hundred of them, now poured out of the gates and joined the knights in their relentless slaughter.

“Orders, Your Majesty?” Ehrim Kiringer asked as he approached his prince. Maximilian gritted his teeth, knowing he had to put up a brave face. He relaxed his facial musculature into an impassive mask.

“We’re going,” he said with a trembling voice, his blood starting to boil. “The men are done for, Your Majesty,” Ehrim replied in all seriousness. Maximilian studied the forces upon the walls and saw that the knight did not speak falsely. The Wire Knights were panting heavily after their defense, and the Second Prince wondered how such a brief battle could’ve left them so worn-out and exhausted.

What difference was there between the Wire Knights and the Winter Knights? The knights of Winter Castle had fought throughout the battle and still fought on, while the Wire Knights had come in as the reserve and now stood panting upon the battlements like hounds spent on the hunt. The Second Prince could not find rhyme nor reason in this observation of his. He chewed his lip as he returned his attention to the battle outside the walls.

The knights and heavy infantry were by now openly hunting the Orcs who had scattered in their flight. In no time at all, the battle had come to an end.

“Victory is ours!” Declared Adrian for all to hear as he raised a bloody banner high into the sky. His gaze settled on his brother, and Adrian laughed. Maximilian could not laugh or cry; all he could do was blankly stare at his older brother as he stood tall among piles and piles of dead Orcs.

There were some, however, who evinced greater surprise than the Second Prince.

“What in all the hells just happened?” This came from one of the senior mercenaries of the Silver Fox Corps, for they had all been enchanted by the sight they had seen through the open gates. The battle was done and dusted, and across the field of slaughter, there marched a boy who held the Orc’s banner high, marching toward them like a triumphal general of old. The boy laughed as he approached them, sending out a soldier as a messenger before him.

“His Majesty the First Prince requests your personal presence after the battlefield has been cleared,” the soldier said with a stern face, taking his part-time job as royal herald very seriously. The captain of the Silver Foxes merely nodded, finding no reason to object to the prince’s command.

“Vincent, I won! I counted nineteen,” Adrian said as he reached the eldest son of the Count. “Hah, I’m on twenty-six, so you’re still far away from me,” Vincent stated imperiously. “Yeah, but you cheated with a bow. You know, now that I count again, I actually got twenty-eight.”

“If you count that way, well, then I got thirty-five, so give me that banner.”

The two young boys and their joking quarrel were just as it appeared: Two youths in their prime having some fun. Well, they would look innocent if one disregarded the blood and viscera that was spattered all over their armor.

“This is far different than what I had expected,” the captain of the Silver Foxes muttered.

During all of this, Maximilian continued to study his brother.

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