Chapter 120: The Northern Crack

Chapter 120: The Northern Crack

The defensive line still existed on every military map of Caldris, though the symbols no longer represents the reality of the situation.

Months of combat had stripped away most of the outer defenses, reduced professional regiments to veteran cores surrounded by conscripts, and forced commanders to rebuild shattered positions with earth, timber, carts, and whatever stone could be dragged into place.

The northern, central, and southern sectors continued blocking the roads into the kingdom, yet the structure holding them together had become increasingly fragile.

Rakhar Veyr had no intention of allowing that weakness to heal. Siege engines continued striking damaged positions, engineers crept forward beneath mantlets, and infantry units moved according to schedules that kept pressure on Caldris even while exhausted formations were withdrawn.

The humans could still answer every major threat, though reinforcement times had lengthened and commanders increasingly had to decide which positions were worth spending soldiers to save.

A trench lost during the first month would once have triggered an immediate counterattack.

Now some outer eefenses were simply abandoned after repeated attacks left them too costly to defend.

Several central positions had already been emptied so their remaining troops could strengthen the deeper defenses, while southern commanders surrendered damaged earthworks that no longer are no longer useful or costly to defend.

Those decisions preserved soldiers, though they also removed the layers that had once protected the main defensive belt.

The north deteriorated fastest because its network of hills, roads, and fortified slopes depended heavily on coordination between neighboring positions.

Veteran officers had understood those connections instinctively. They knew when to abandon one slope, which road remained protected during a withdrawal, and how long another fort could survive before requiring reinforcements.

Many of those officers were dead now, leaving conscript-heavy formations to follow written plans without possessing the experience that had made those plans effective.

Skargrim commanders had been testing the northern network for weeks. A short assault against one hill revealed the route used by its reserves, while a night raid elsewhere showed how long reinforcements required to arrive. Repeated crossbow attacks against a road junction exposed which nearby fort supplied soldiers whenever the position came under pressure.

Once those reports reached Rakhar, he authorized the northern command to increase its pressure while keeping the central and southern sectors fully engaged. Caldris would not be allowed to rescue the north by reinforcements from another part of the line.

The next phase focused on three connected northern positions. A fortified hill overlooked one of the principal roads behind the defensive belt, several miles away a road fort controlled movement between camps, and another defensive post farther north protected a wooded approach that could threaten both if lost.

Skargrim siege crews concentrated on the hill first. Catapults battered its upper palisades while ballistas struck firing platforms and towers, and engineers moved closer every night to widen paths through the obstacles covering the slope.

Caldris defenders responded with crossbow fire and repeated repairs, yet each bombardment removed another portion of the defenses that had taken months to construct.

The first serious attempt to capture the hill stalled before the summit. Narrow approaches forced Skargrim infantry into concentrated fire, and the attackers withdrew after failing to break through the lower defenses.

Their departure gave the defenders little relief because engineers returned after dark and fresh formations replaced the battered infantry before dawn.

The road fort came under attack the following morning. Viridian troops struck its eastern approaches with enough force to convince the northern command that the fort itself might be in danger, prompting Caldris to redirect part of its remaining reserve toward the position.

Skargrim infantry returned to the hill while those soldiers were still moving.

This assault reached the lower earthworks. Goblins forced their way through gaps cleared by engineers and fought along the slope for most of the day, leaving the defenders to hold the summit with companies that had already spent several nights under bombardment.

Caldris retained the hill after committing another unit from the rear, yet many of the experienced soldiers who had known the position since the beginning of the campaign disappeared from the ranks during the fighting.

Their places were filled that evening by recruits who received hurried instructions from exhausted sergeants while siege stones continued landing nearby.

Before sunrise, the Skargrim climbed again.

The attack reached the upper defenses by midday. One damaged section collapsed under sustained pressure, allowing goblin infantry to establish a foothold near the road linking the summit to Caldris territory farther west.

The hill commander requested reinforcements, only to learn that none could be spared immediately. The nearest reserve remained occupied around the road fort, where Viridian formations had renewed their assault, while another force had already been sent toward the central line after several breaches forced royal troops into action there.

The defenders were left with the soldiers already on the hill.

They fought through the afternoon, surrendering damaged positions as Skargrim troops pushed steadily upward. The withdrawal remained organized at first, with experienced companies covering conscripts moving toward the western slope, though the usable ground around the summit narrowed with every hour.

By evening, goblin formations reached the top from two directions. The surviving Caldris soldiers withdrew west before darkness could trap them, expecting the army to recover the hill once additional troops arrived.

No large reserve remained nearby to make that possible.

Skargrim engineers immediately turned the captured defenses toward the west. Broken palisades were repositioned, crossbowmen occupied the summit, and troops cleared the eastern approach so additional soldiers could move onto the hill before Caldris organized a response.

The northern command of Caldris forrces assembled a counterattack from whatever formations could still be released. Remnants of professional companies formed its core, though most of the infantry came from conscripts who had already spent weeks moving between threatened sections of the line.

They began climbing before dawn and initially recovered part of the lower slope. Caldris crossbowmen advanced behind the infantry while officers attempted to maintain a broad formation rather than allow the narrow terrain to compress the soldiers into a single mass.

Fresh Skargrim troops arrived through the eastern road before the humans reached the summit. Crossbow fire swept the exposed portions of the slope, and goblin infantry descended from the captured defenses to meet the attackers before they could reorganize.

The leading Caldris companies began withdrawing after hours of fighting. Recruits farther down the hill saw men moving toward them and assumed the entire assault had failed, creating confusion that officers struggled to contain while Skargrim missiles continued falling around them.

By midday, the counterattack had lost enough cohesion that its commanders ordered a withdrawal before the army became trapped on the slope. Caldris returned to its starting positions without recovering the hill, confirming that an important piece of the defensive network had been permanently lost.

Rakhar ordered the northern command to exploit the opening without waiting for another major assault cycle.

Skargrim scouts moved onto the heights and gained clear views of roads that had previously been hidden by terrain. Wagon traffic, messenger routes, and troop transfers became easier to follow, allowing the goblins to identify which neighboring positions depended on the roads exposed beneath the captured hill.

The nearby road fort became increasingly difficult to supply. Scouts watched its approaches while crossbowmen threatened movement along sections visible from the higher ground, and a reinforcement column sent after dark was discovered before it could reach the garrison.

Viridian troops renewed their pressure the following morning. The eastern approach drew most of the fort’s defenders while Skargrim units began appearing through ground that the captured hill had previously protected.

The fort commander recognized the threat before his rear road was completely cut. Rather than remain until encirclement became unavoidable, he evacuated the garrison with whatever weapons and supplies could be moved and withdrew west before nightfall.

Losing the hill had now forced Caldris to surrender another position without requiring the goblins to destroy it directly.

Nearby commanders examined their own defenses and found the same danger spreading. Fortifications that had once belonged to a continuous network now stood ahead of neighboring positions, leaving their sides and rear increasingly exposed.

The northern command ordered a controlled withdrawal toward another alignment farther west. Forward companies were supposed to retreat first while neighboring troops covered their movement, allowing the army to regroup around positions still being constructed behind the original line.

Months of attrition made the maneuver difficult to coordinate. Some conscript-heavy companies withdrew early after rumors spread that nearby forts had already been surrounded, while other formations remained in place because messengers could not reach them through roads crowded with wounded soldiers, wagons, retreating infantry, and units still attempting to move forward.

Skargrim formations entered the abandoned spaces before Caldris established another stable front. Engineers cleared barriers from captured roads, crossbowmen occupied high ground, and infantry advanced beyond fortifications that had stopped them for months.

The northern battle ceased resembling the siege-like fighting that had dominated the previous months. Human formations were now moving between scattered positions while goblin armies pressed into the gaps opening between them.

The northern commander committed nearly every reserve still available to prevent the retreat from becoming a rout. Professional remnants occupied the most important road junctions, while thousands of conscripts dug shallow trenches and raised incomplete barriers across farmland and village approaches.

Those defenses lacked the depth of the original belt. Engineers worked beside infantry while Skargrim scouts appeared on distant hills, giving the soldiers little confidence that construction would be finished before another attack arrived.

Rakhar ensured that it was not.

Viridian formations moved north to support the Skargrim advance, while the central and southern armies maintained enough pressure to keep Caldris reserves tied to their own sectors. The first northern attacks reached the unfinished defenses while some palisades were still being assembled.

Caldris stopped the initial penetration, though the effort weakened several formations already exhausted from the withdrawal. Another assault developed against a neighboring position before those units could fully reorganize, forcing troops to move sideways through trenches that had not yet been completed.

The decisive break came after bombardment shattered part of one improvised barrier. Skargrim infantry reached the opening quickly, and a conscript-heavy regiment attempted to hold the damaged section long enough for reserves to arrive.

Part of the formation began withdrawing after goblins entered the trench. The movement exposed the soldiers beside them, and officers trying to close the opening discovered Skargrim troops already spreading behind the position.

Additional Caldris units pulled back to avoid being surrounded. Their withdrawals opened further gaps, allowing fresh goblin formations to move through ground that had been protected only hours earlier.

Within the same afternoon, several connected positions began retreating west.

Roads behind the northern defenses filled with wounded soldiers, wagons, infantry, abandoned equipment, and officers attempting to establish another line deeper inside the kingdom.

Skargrim troops followed through the broken positions while engineers cleared captured routes for the larger formations approaching from behind.

By evening, goblin banners stood beyond fortifications Caldris had defended since Rakhar’s offensive began. Reports reaching the Grand Marshal confirmed that enough roads had been secured for major armies to pass completely through the former northern belt.

The center and south continued holding their principal defenses, keeping the entire eastern front from collapsing at once.

The northern sector had reached a different state, with surviving forts isolated, abandoned, or threatened from directions they had never been designed to defend.

Caldris still possessed armies north of the breach and could attempt to establish another defensive front farther west.

The original northern section of the eastern line, however, had ceased functioning as a connected barrier, and goblin columns were already moving through the opening created by its collapse.

After months of attrition, conscription, and continuous pressure, the first major crack in Caldris’s eastern defenses had become a permanent breach, giving Rakhar the road into the kingdom that his armies had spent months trying to open.