Hyola knew that the other two watchtowers had a crossbow-woman on each of them, but by a stroke of bad luck, both of their good archers - Yufim and Nurobo - had been on duty during the day, which meant none of them would be available immediately.

She peered over the parapets, and saw a small group of bandits rushing towards the walls. Hmm... Forget about the archers. She was good enough to kill these bastards herself with the crossbow by her side!

As she brought up the crossbow to target the leading one, she counted the bandits as her mind worked in overdrive. Huh... That was just half a dozen bandits in total. Wasn't Torhan's group supposed to be much bigger than this? More importantly, was that bastard Nokozal with them? She hoped he was, since he wouldn't be leaving alive again. She would make sure of it.

Wait, what if these low numbers were because they were attacking the village from the other sides as well? How had they even reached Tiranat that fast! They weren't supposed to be here for at least another week!

Putting those questions for later, she found her target in a tall man who was leading the bandit group, and gently squeezed the trigger, letting the crossbow bolt fly at speeds unimaginable for humans to dodge. Within a moment, she pumped her fist in victory as the bolt found its target in the bandit's chest and the man stumbled backward with a cry of pain before falling down. Yay for her! Just like another day at the shooting range for target practice!

She quickly picked up the goat's foot lever to start loading the crossbow once again, while keeping an eye on the bandits, who had surrounded the dead man in surprise before they started looking all around them warily. They must certainly have seen that there was a watchtower inside the walls, but it seemed like they hadn't yet realised that the bolt had come from up here. Good for her. Knowing that the surprise wouldn't last long, she finished loading her crossbow quickly and putting a broadhead bolt in its groove this time, she brought another man in the crossbow sights.

By now, some of them were looking directly towards the top of the watchtower, probably having guessed how their partner had died, but they were still bunched together. Perfect! Without wasting a moment, she quickly shot the bolt which easily hit another bandit, going by a sudden shriek of pain coming from the group.

Awesome! Hyola two, bandits zero! She glanced at the wonderful object in her hands and grinned in triumph. She loved her crossbow!

As the man stumbled backwards with the force of the broadhead bolt, there was some muffled shouting from the other bandits, before they immediately ran some distance away from the dead man. Soon, one of them pointed directly at the watchtower while yelling something, while another of them seemed to be gesturing at the forests for some reason.

She ducked below the parapets as she began loading the crossbow again, feeling glad that these bandits hadn't brought an archer with them here. However, in the very same moment when she was thinking about it, an arrow struck the outer parapet of the watchtower with a loud thwack. Shit! There was an archer out there!

She quickly scurried to the far side of the platform, her heart beating faster than ever. If the arrow had hit her, she would have already died! Taking a moment to slow down her breathing, she glanced around her for the offending arrow. While it wasn't bright enough to be completely sure, she still didn't see any arrowhead poking inside the parapets at a quick glance.

She grinned. Way to go, Taniok! It seemed that the old carpenter had made the double-walled parapets thick enough that they couldn't be breached by an arrow! Perfect!

She quickly finished loading her crossbow again, but this time she knew that the archer would be waiting for her. So, she also waited for an opportunity, while hearing the sounds of bandits rushing towards the gates, before they started ramming the gates with their shoulders. Hah! Those idiots. Those gates were sturdy enough that even charging warhorses wouldn't be able to break them!

Taking another deep breath to calm down her racing heart, she slowly crawled to the far edge of the platform again. Keeping her head below the platform, she gently raised the loaded crossbow in a single arm, and pointed it towards the general direction of the bandits at the gate, going only by her gut feelings. She knew it was very unlikely that she would hit any of them this time, but she didn't want to risk her head being split open by an arrow, and maybe she would get lucky. She looked at the quiver of bolts kept in the corner. It wasn't like she had to worry about running out of bolts any time soon.

She squeezed the trigger and immediately felt the force of the bolt flying away, but with no shouts of pain coming, it seemed only struck the ground this time. However, the bolt must have passed close enough to the bandits, since the ramming of the gates seemed to have stopped abruptly. That meant she was successful in what she wanted - which was to delay them and keep them worrying about a bolt killing them from above.

As she began to load her crossbow once again, she heard some raised voices coming from the north and gave a deep exhale in relief. Reinforcements had arrived.

******

~ Tesyb ~

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~ A few moments ago ~

Just a short while ago, Tesyb had been sitting relaxed near the gates of the manor while talking with a couple of guards there. His watch shift had already ended a few hours ago, and truthfully he should have been asleep at this time, but as much as he had tried, sleep still wasn't coming. Not with so many guards present in the manor - which had the floor of the servants hall feeling way too overcrowded these days - not to mention they had been ordered to sleep in their leather armors over their usual tunics with their swords and shields kept by their sides.

Most of the other guards had also been just sitting with their backs to the walls and talking with others instead of sleeping. Only a few lucky ones, who had reached the servants' hall early in the evening and claimed a full straw mattress to their names, were the only ones to have enough space to be able to sleep in this atmosphere.

After turning and tossing for nearly an hour, he had decided to take a walk to clear his mind. He had reached the manor gates where he was talking with the gate guards, when he heard the sound of a horn blowing from the southeast. His heart thudding heavily in his chest, he immediately ran towards the servants hall, and shouted loudly to wake everyone up. However, he didn't have to repeat his warning since half of them were already awake and tying their scabbards to their waists, while the rest of them only blinked their eyes for a few moments before they realised what was happening and began doing the same.

Once it looked like everyone was awake, he sent a servant to the manor house to wake up their superiors there. Hudan should be sleeping there at this time after checking each guard post one after the other from morning to night, while who knew where the ex-mercenary Feroy was. That man was like a ghost, and seemed to be awake at all hours and appeared whenever or wherever there was trouble brewing. Kerel was also away on duty somewhere tonight, so Tesyb knew that he had to take the lead here for now.

It was the middle of night, so deciding that there was no point in waiting to bring horses from the stables, he quickly gathered nearly half a dozen men behind him who were ready to go, and started running towards the southeast, since that's where the horn had sounded from. When the other guards claimed that they also wanted to come, he told them to wait for orders from their superiors, in case they needed to be sent to another side of the village.

Reaching the manor gates, he passed the alert guards and turning left, they kept running until they reached the southeastern gates of the village wall. The two guards already on duty here seemed to be getting more and more worried at every new thump sounding from the gates while holding their naked swords in that direction, their shields held protectively in front of them. Hearing their footsteps, the gate guards turned around and their faces broke out in relief, but Tesyb didn't want to wait too long.

"What's the condition here?" he shouted.

Before the gate guards could open their mouths, he saw Hyola leaning over from the parapet on the watchtower. Right... He had forgotten about the crossbow-women on duty up there. Hah! The bandits must have gotten a nasty surprise already!

Hyola pointed towards the gate, leaning over the inner parapet. "Six swordsmen attacked. Already killed two. Four ramming the gates now. At least one archer out there."

Tesyb nodded. "Stay away from the outer side, but support us if you can." Not waiting for a reply, he looked around himself and gave a savage grin. There were eight of them, and just four bandits outside the gate. It was going to be fun!

"We have a two-to-one advantage now!" He yelled with a grin, with the other guards giving similar grins in return. "Come on! Let's put these bastards in the ground for daring to attack us!"

"For Lord Kivamus!" The guards roared back, before two of them jogged to the gates to remove the thick wooden beam barring the gates, while the six of them stood ready just inside, taking a reverse wedge formation on his command. Hudan had been teaching them some interesting formations in the last few days, and this was one of them which he found suited this condition best.

The moment the wooden beam had been lifted from its hook, there was another loud thump on the gate from the outside. But this time, the gates easily moved inwards instead of staying in their place, which caused the bandits to stumble inside from surprise.

Not wasting a moment, Tesyb jabbed his sword into the chest of the leading bandit, while the other guards slashed the others from the sides. The two guards who had opened the gates moved behind the bandits with their swords and shields, removing any path for the attackers to run away.

The leading bandit wasn't a very big guy, but he was quick, and rolled to the side barely avoiding his sword. However, with their advantage in numbers, it meant there were two guards to attack every bandit. Immediately, another guard thrust his sword downwards towards the bandit, who was too late in realising that he was being double teamed. He barely had any time to move from the surprise attack, but somehow he still managed to avoid the sword from thrusting into his chest, while getting a nasty gash in his arm in return. Quickly jumping to his feet, the bandit was trying to look at both of his opponents at the same time, with Tesyb and the other guard standing on opposite sides of the bandit.

With the ringing sound of metal striking metal and the loud thwacks of swords hitting wooden shields in the background, Tesyb waited for another opportunity, and found it before too long. As the bandit turned his head around to look at the other guard in the light of a brazier burning nearby, there was a loud cry of pain from somewhere nearby, which distracted the bandit, who turned his head to look towards the new sound.

Tesyb didn't waste a moment and quickly slashed his sword with all his power, the blade hitting the bandit's side and making a spurt of blood flow outwards from the new wound on the side of the man's stomach. The bandit screamed in pain, one of his hands going down to clutch his stomach, but it seemed like it wasn't a fatal wound just yet. The man glared at Tesyb and yelled loudly with rage, before he angrily jabbed his sword towards him.

Tesyb jumped back to avoid it while putting his shield in front of him just in case, but grinned as he saw the other guard looking ready for an opportunity just like this. The guard immediately rammed his sword into the chest of the bandit from behind, the point of his blade exiting out on the other side.

The bandit howled in pain and thrashed around, with his sword swinging wildly in front of him, but it took only a few moments before he lost all his strength and slumped to the ground, his body slipping away from the sword of the other guard.