167. Before the Snowflake Arrives.
167. Before the Snowflake Arrives.
"Conqueror of Huntathun? You've got quite the nerve."
You bastard, war is not a game!
Suppressing the urge to scold, Rurik tried to maintain his dignity in front of Miroslaw.
'Conqueror of Huntathun' my ass. There probably wasn't a Jarl or Konungr in the Northern Sea who didn't know the inside story.
"Ahem! Brother, no, Konungr Rurik. Although at Huntathun I made a reasonable agreement with my dear friend Jarl Leofric, from Huntathun to Lincoln and even the Kingdom of the Gorge! I have considerable experience in sieges!"
Under the narrowed gazes of Rurik and Miroslaw, he shrank a little, but Oleg, revived by his indomitable spirit, laid out his reasoning.
Summarizing his passionate speech, full of flying spittle: he was, anyway, a specialist in siege warfare under Hrólfr, and that the title 'Conqueror of Huntathun' was a legitimate title acknowledged by Hrólfr.
Rurik and Miroslaw, unwilling to waste time arguing over this, asked this Huntathun negotiator, or rather actor, if he had a plan to knock down the palisade before them, and Oleg answered confidently.
"Hmph! A shoddy wooden fort like that, without a proper moat and with few defenders, will likely surrender of its own accord if we press them a few times!"
Rurik wasn't exactly pleased with the sight of Oleg lifting his chin and flaring his nostrils, but he wasn't wrong.
"Furthermore, the Suomi and Sámi warriors fought far better than expected. In other words, if we attack the east now, they might crumble in an instant."
If Hrólfr were here, he probably would have conquered that fort right now.
Swallowing the rest of his words, Oleg, contrary to his confident posture, coolly assessed the situation and made a judgment.
In fact, the Sámi and Suomi had already set the stage; all that remained was to deliver the final stroke.
"Very well, Jarl Oleg. Then let us not hesitate and begin. Much Suomi blood has been spilled."
Miroslaw's voice was thick with fatigue as he rubbed his eyes with a tired expression, and his gaze stared off into the distance as if retracing the siege of the past few days.
"Even now, the head of Chieftain Peura still hangs on the western wall. Takkala is a cruel one. Cruel but clever. He cannot be left alive. If possible, I would like to kill all the Karelian warriors defending that fort."
Miroslaw trailed off, then shook his head, shaking off his brooding.
"Isn't that for those who bled the most to decide? So, how do you intend to attack that fort? As you saw, though it's a palisade, it is high and, with earth piled up, sturdier than it looks."
At Miroslaw's grave and somber demeanor, Rurik and Oleg hardened their expressions in turn. Rurik winked at Oleg, and Oleg, with even greater seriousness, revealed his thoughts to Miroslaw.
"Hrólfr said that when you have the advantage in strength, the best approach is ultimately a straightforward assault. We strike them from west and east at once. The mire is too thick for wheels, so we forgo the battering ram and set up multiple ladders to widen the fighting front. There is a great difference between defending one side and defending two sides at once. Jarl Miroslaw. That Takkala fellow, whatever his name, will surely die."
In Oleg's expression and momentum as he affirmed this, there was no trace of the bluffing from a moment ago.
"The enemy must be exhausted, so it would be best to prepare the attack immediately. Jarl Miroslaw, please tell the Suomi and Sámi chieftains to conserve their strength tonight. Eat your fill, and let us attack at sunrise tomorrow. I will blow the horn loudly twice."
At Rurik's words, completing Oleg's plan, Miroslaw nodded.
"Let us do so."
Miroslaw, who had been standing a step behind in a watching posture, had grown emotionally closer to the Sámi and Suomi warriors and chieftains through this battle.
To this cold merchant's eyes, the land of the frozen lake and its people no longer looked like mere silver coins, but began to appear as something far more valuable.
*****
"Attack!"
"Run! Run!"
"For Peura!"
Beside the dried-up head of Peura, which had been hanging on a pole for days now.
Takkala watched the charging enemies with sunken eyes.
The Sámi barbarians, committed in earnest from the second day, with their sturdy armor and despite being mere reindeer herders, attacked in something resembling formation and pulled all sorts of strange tricks, but in the end, in a fight with a solid wall, the defenders had an advantage hundreds, thousands of times over.
It was good that they had smoothly held off the Sámi and Suomi as Takkala had expected, but the advance of the Rus approaching from the east was far swifter and larger than he had thought.
[Pung! Pung! Shwiik- Shwiik-]
It was a familiar sight atop the wall by now, but the Karelian warriors defending the west wall were extremely few in number.
[Buuuuu- Buuuuung-]
Because thanks to the source of that hateful sound, the Karelian forces had been divided.
The Rus' march, begun with the blast of horns, sounded different from the attacks of the Suomi and Sámi warriors from the very first note.
[Dudududu-]
The sight of so many humans, more than he'd ever seen, approaching all at once.
Truly, the sound of their footsteps made mountains tremble and the heavens quake, and even the brave Karelian warriors' bodies shivered finely.
But having already mounted the heads of countless Suomi and Sámi, even one of the Suomi chieftains, on poles, the option of not fighting had vanished.
Takkala, having hurried over, felt momentarily dizzy at the sight of the enemy numbers blackening the area beyond the east wall, but he desperately rallied his fighting spirit.
"Do not waver! Ukko is watching! Show them the majesty of the thunder god!"
At Takkala's voice, the warriors clutching their weapons shot arrows fiercely, but the Rus' advance was unlike the disorderly charge of the Suomi and Sámi on the other side.
[Swaaek! Swaaek!]
"Shields!"
"Shields up!"
[Hududuk! Hududuk!]
"Advance again!"
"Advance!"
The first rank of the approaching enemy stopped at a suitable spot, and beyond them, the second rank advanced again. And further beyond, the third rank, which had been waiting, advanced again.
A fort without a moat.
The arrow attacks, the lifeline of the Karelian warriors and slowly running out, dwindled even further as their forces were divided, and could pose no significant threat to the large shields of the heavy infantry.
At the end of the advance, which fell into place step by step like climbing stairs, three dreadful ladders were approaching.
'Ah... Ukko. Kuu.'
[Swaaek! Swaaek! Pabak! Pabak!]
"Urk!"
"Aack!"
Instead, the Karelian warriors on the wall shrank back under the arrows shot by their archers, and the ladders approached as if there were no resistance, and when they rose above the wall.
Takkala had a premonition of his own end.
[Kiiiik! Swaaek! Swaaek! Pabak!]
"We must knock down their ladders! Axes! Axes—! Gack!"
"Shoot arrows too! Keep them from climbing the ladders!"
In warfare between tribes, there were lines that should not be crossed. The Karelian warriors had long since crossed that line, plundering Bekalathi and dragging its people off as slaves to their stronghold by Lake Ladoga.
They could all guess that they would not meet a pleasant end.
So they fought all the more desperately.
But steel is, by nature, an opponent that does not parley.
Despite the fervent wishes of the Karelian warriors, the Rus warriors who set foot on the sturdy ladders without hesitation climbed the palisade unhindered, and soon accepted the Karelians' fervent welcome in silence.
"Stab! Stab them!"
"Die! Die!"
"Ukko!"
[Puk! Puk! Tang! Tatang! Swaaek! Swaaek! Pabak!]
"Aaaack!"
"Gack!"
Arrows flew up and down once more, and Rus warriors, instead of large shields, lifted portable round shields above their heads to block spears, or fell after being stabbed.
But their expressions were different from the fury of the Sámi and Suomi. Under the piercing blue gaze staring up at them like a wolf eyeing prey, the Karelian warriors frantically thrust their spears, but the Rus' attack, striking three points simultaneously, was systematic.
"Clear away all the spear-wielding bastards on the wall!"
[Pung! Pyupyung! Swaaek! Swaaek! Pabak! Puk!]
From right below the wall, and from the rear.
Arrows came flying from every angle to check the wall top, and though some fell near the Rus warriors climbing, they mainly fell on the heads of the Karelians.
Thanks to this, those who had most bravely stepped forward and swung their spears were decorated with arrows in their arms or heads, screamed, and collapsed, and at last the first warrior who had steadily climbed the ladder stepped down onto the palisade.
[Tak! Tak! Tak! Swaaek! Swaaek! Hududuk! Hududuk! Aaack! Teop!]
'Huuu—'
The feel of the solid palisade underfoot, as opposed to the sticky mire and precarious ladder, was unfamiliar.
All that could be seen through the limited view of the face-guard covering up to the nose were enemies glaring at him with twisted expressions.
In his tingling hands, he hurriedly grasped the large two-handed axe strapped to his back, and the Rus warrior let out a great roar and swung the axe down.
"Hrólfr!!!"
[Huung! Puk!]
"Urk!"
The Karelian warrior who raised his spear to block was split in two along with his precious spear shaft.
The Rus warrior took a few of the incoming spears on his body, twisted to dodge a few more, and then again with a warcry brought his great axe down.
"Hrólfr!"
[Puk! Puk! Huung! Kwak!]
"Gack!"
Behind the Rus warrior who again performed the magic trick of turning one man into two, comrades joined one by one, and soon these berserkers, who had no concern for their own lives, solely from above downward.
They unleashed simple, destructive attacks all around.
[Huung! Puk! Huung! Seogeok!]
"Novgorod!"
"Hel!"
"Helgi! Rurik!"
"Aack!"
"Kill them!"
"St-! Gack!"
The first Rus warrior who had bravely swung his axe fell, but the axe of the warrior who rushed in right after avenged his comrade.
Faced with this simple violence, the Karelian warriors kept stepping back, and such scenes were also occurring on the western wall.
"Peura! Peura!"
"Vengeance! Take vengeance!"
"Ukko! Kuu! Carry them beyond the river!"
While the Suomi and Sámi warriors on the west were somehow pushing them back, the east was truly a scene of utter chaos.
After one last look at Peura's head, hung high above the western palisade, Takkala drew his sword.
[Seureung-]
"Warriors of Karelia! Kill them all! Today the gods are with us! Attack! Attack!"
"Yiaaaa!"
"Believers in Ukko! In the name of the thunder god!"
As primal fighting spirit and madness filled the palisade, splitting bodies like firewood and piercing them like prey, a hand-axe flew in from somewhere and grazed Takkala's side.
[Hwirik! Hwirik! Hwirik! Puk!]
Along with the impact sound that erupted from behind him, liquid wet the back of Takkala's neck.
As a chilling sensation made his hair stand on end, he turned his head back to see a warrior who had been with him since his homeland, a hand-axe embedded between his eyebrows, staring at him for a moment before his eyes rolled back and his body toppled backward.
"Guuh..."
[Teolsseok!]
Takkala, having taken in the sight of blood flowing from the warrior's gaping mouth and forehead, gritted his teeth and turned his head back to the front.
There, amidst the Karelian warriors dying miserably, he saw a huge Rus warrior wearing a bright smile as if amused.
"Karelian warrior! If you have any balls, face me directly! I am Oleg, the sword of Hrólfr and Conqueror of Huntathun!"
'Where the hell is Huntathun, anyway! This boar-like bastard dares!'
[Huung! Puk!]
The Rus warrior, with his gaze fixed on him, swung his great axe as if it were nothing, snuffing out a life.
That man must be the enemy leader.
To cut off the serpent's head, Takkala tightened his grip on the sword in his right hand.
'Ukko. Kuu. Look upon me. Watch over us. I will fight and die for you!'
"Aaah—aaaa!"
Crying out loudly to the sky to let it be known that Takkala of Karelia still breathed, Takkala charged forward with all his might.
"Hahaha!"
Toward Takkala, Oleg also burst out laughing and charged.
"Uk—ko!"
"Hel—la!"
Rushing in between the gaps of the axe swung down with full force, Takkala thrust his sword with all his might.