𝕰𝖑𝖊𝖓𝖆

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Battle Of Hornburg

<><><><><><><><><><>

Uruk-Hai corpses hit the ground as arrows planted themselves in the weak spots of their armour, their necks, beneath their arms, and their exposed faces.

"Did they hit anything?" Gimli shouted over the storm and the battle cries.

"Fire!" a soldier's voice sounded, and was met with a series of arrows fired from Rohan bowmen.

These arrows had less success in reaching their targets, much less fatally wounding them, but some arrows met their mark with deadly, most likely purely lucky, precision.

More cries and commands came from behind the walls of Helm's Deep, and still more arrows sailed overhead, downing countless enemies, but still not enough to thin them out significantly. And certainly not enough to waver the Uruk-Hai's determination to spill the blood of Rohan's people. They persisted in charging forwards blindly, trampling the corpses of their fallen comrades in an unrelenting attempt to reach the walls.

Beside Gimli, Legolas continued to loose arrows with deadly speed and precision, downing an Uruk-Hai with each arrow he released. But even if every arrow we possessed in Helm's Deep met its mark with fatal accuracy, we would not have enough arrows for each Uruk-Hai at our gates. Soon, we would have to fight.

"Send them to me, come on!" Gimli roared, still jumping up and down to see over the wall.

Ailen was completely rigid beside me, clutching his sword with trembling hands as he scanned the enemy, whose spears were narrowed at us.

"Hey," I placed a hand on his shoulder, "Remember what I taught you."

He nodded stiffly, switching his footing around and grasping his sword as I'd shown him mere hours ago. I clapped him on the shoulder, turning back to find the Uruk-Hai at the base of the walls.

Arrows continued to shower down heavier than the rain, as ladders were pulled forwards through the army of Uruk-Hai. Some of them, I noticed with a jolt, had begun to draw and load crossbows.

Ailen jumped when one flew right past his ear, planting itself with a sickening thunk in the skull of a Lorien archer beside us. More arrows flew from both sides, and our army began to experience its first casualties, trained fighters and ordinary citizens alike spilling over the walls and falling to the ground after taking fatal arrow shots.

"Pendraid!" Aragorn shouted over the rain at the sight of the ladders.

"Good!" Gimli said gruffly, still unable to see what was going on beyond the wall.

Uruk-Hai soldiers sat perched upon the top of the ladders, as they were raised up by others on the ground. The Uruk-Hai atop the ladders jumped to the walls the moment they were level with them, as their counterparts on the ground began to climb.

"Swords!" Aragorn alerted the swordsmen, "Swords!"

The chink of swords being drawn by the archers and any others that had not already done so sounded all along the walls, as Uruk-Hai began to pour up the ladders and into the fortress.

Gimli, ecstatic at the chance to at last fight, swung his axe into the gut of a charging Uruk-Hai, who'd been on the brink of stabbing Ailen with his own blade.

"Th-Thank you, Master Dwarf,"

"Think nothing of it, laddie," Gimli shouted as he barrelled down the walkway into a series of Uruk-Hai who'd just cleared the wall.

I swung my blade at another oncoming Uruk-Hai, who was just swinging himself over the wall. My long sword embedded itself in its neck, sending him toppling down the ladder and knocking off other Uruk-Hai in the midst of climbing up. Legolas was still at my side, slashing at Uruk-Hai as they came over the wall. Ailen seemed terrified, his eyes flitting in every direction at the enemies that surrounded him. From the corner of my eye, I watched as he used one of my blocking positions, before slashing at the neck of an Uruk-Hai, downing him.