“While bards and other storytellers often sang songs that drew a good picture of knights and chivalry, such images were more often than not, fabrications. Knight orders were mostly organizations observed in human kingdoms, and more often than not, the so called knights were little better than a marauding pack of bandits.

The only difference was that these bandits were comprised of rich folks, often descendants of nobles and the likes, as in most cases a knight was expected to provide their own steed, weapons, and armor, and that they were sanctioned by the local lords. Needless to say, most peasants were less than thrilled by the idea of a band of knights passing through their village or section of town.” - An excerpt from “The Bold Lies of Chivalry and Knighthoods” by Andulia Uthgwes, Historian and Assistant Professor at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, circa 508 FP.

“Bet ya fifty silver the bounty’s cooped up in there,” said Ylisera as the elven woman sauntered alongside Reinhardt and Elfriede. They were just before the tightly shut main door to the inner citadel, which several of the more burly mercenaries were assaulting with axes and hammers.

“No bet,” replied Elfriede with a shake of her head as she stayed close to the door and used her magical senses to keep watch of the other side, thus ensuring they wouldn’t have run into an ambush on the way in. “There’s a stairwell right behind this wall. Some of the knights were running down and now waited for us behind this door, but others ran up. Ten to one says the fucks who ran up is right by our sacks of coins.”

Mischka or one of hers would have been perfect for the breaking down the door, honestly, but they were all occupied - as was Grünhildr and her team - with holding the flanks and rear, thus giving a chance for Reinhardt and his group to assault the citadel unhindered.

Almost as if summoned, Reinhardt saw Grünhildr headed his way from afar, and also noticed how the press against his mercenaries had lessened, as the resistance from the defenders dropped all of a sudden. He gave a few questioning gestures while Grünhildr was on her way, as he saw Mischka rearrange her team to take up the guard duty.

They were all too large to properly fit into the citadel anyway.

“Our dwarven buddies opened the eastern gates, boss,” replied Grünhildr when she got close enough that her voice was audible without needing to shout. “They straight up brought their chariots and rhinos right into the fort. It’s a bloody fucking slaughterhouse out there.”

“Damn,” Reinhardt almost winced as he imagined the carnage. The fort was rather packed with the twenty thousand soldiers and militia in it, and it was further packed when the dwarves fought their way in. Allowing the dwarven chariots and heavy cavalry into such a target-rich environment was just a recipe for complete slaughter. “Good for us, though. We got a door for you to handle, Grün.”

“Gimme a moment,” replied the burly, scarred woman as she walked past Reinhardt and towards the thick, damaged wooden gates. The group assaulting the gate opened the way for her, all too familiar with what Grünhildr could do, and the woman went to work right away.

The axes in her hands had their blades sheathed with a layer of jet-black void, and she struck, once, twice, four times, each strike accurately aimed at the hinges of the gates. Regardless of whether it was the wood, metal, or stone, all of them parted like paper before her void-clad axes, and she stepped back to give room for the others to get to work.

Four of the Lances’ smaller shieldbearers took up position before the gates, and as one charged, their shields held with both arms and poised in front of them. They struck the gates together with a loud bang and the gates held for a brief moment, before it started to tilt backwards, no longer secured by its hinges, until it finally slammed down in a cloud of dust.

The Free Lances charged in without preamble, as they used the dust cloud as cover to strike at the knights waiting behind the gates. A few of the knights had even failed to react on time when the gate fell on them, and could only grunt in pain as the Lances literally walked over them on their way in.

Elfriede was the first one in, as she had no need for sight, which allowed her to feel her way through the dust cloud with ease, and started her grisly work as she struck a couple knights close enough to be enveloped by the dust cloud themselves.

By the time the dust settled enough for them to see through it, the Knights noticed that four of them lay dead beneath the blind woman’s feet, while the rest of the mercenaries streamed in from beside her, in numbers too great for them to even have a chance of stopping.

Ironically, where the militia of the Holy Kingdom fought without a care for their lives, fanatical zealots one and all, deep in their beliefs, and the soldiers were often the same, it was the knights that broke before the face of adversity, as some of them even threw down their weapon in fright.

Elfriede had explained the odd juxtaposition to Reinhardt before. Those who made it to a knightly position in the holy kingdom were usually either very talented youths scouted from the populace, or the descendants of rich people. Either way, unlike the peasants who knew no better life and had drank deep into their beliefs, the knights were people who had much to lose should they die, and thus, far more prone to cowardice, unless they were also a fanatical believer.

Which was ironically also relatively rare amongst the well-to-do.

Some of the knights yelled at others who laid down their arms, only to be silenced by the merciless mercenaries. Reinhardt ordered that those few who surrendered were to be stripped of their weapons and armor, and secured until the battle was finished and they had time to discuss how to handle them.

As for himself, he went upstairs along with Elfriede and Grünhildr and around fifty others. They speculated that the Count would likely have kept his most trusted and most skilled knights by his side, and they were headed up to claim the bounty on his head.