"Kebi, they're attacking the walls. This isn't over yet. Don't let your guard down," Dick reminded him gravely.
Odinburg no longer had any catapults to inflict heavy casualties on these soldiers.
It seemed the two sides would still have to fight hand to hand in the end.
The clamor of footsteps below drew steadily closer, accompanied by the impassioned chants of the Jatu soldiers.
"Kasa Jatu!"
Though Dick did not know what "Kasa" meant, he guessed it meant something like "charge" in the Jatu language.
The arrows fired from the walls did wound the Jatu soldiers carrying ladders, but others always filled their places in time and continued approaching the walls.
Kebi asked gravely, "Captain Fisher, is the golden juice ready?"
"It's been ready for ages, Young Master Kebi."
"Call me commander."
"Yes, commander."
"Have the soldiers bring up the golden juice now.
"Space it out properly, and don't waste the stones up above the corner tower's catapult, either. Bring them all down and get them ready. We're going to fight for our lives."
"Yes, sir!"
Fisher then relayed the orders.
A moment later, Dick's keen witcher sense of smell picked up an unbearable odor.
He hurriedly covered his nose and frowned, looking toward the soldiers passing him.
One soldier was struggling to carry a large wooden bucket. Dick took just one look at its contents before turning away again.
Seeing this, Kebi teased him, "Witcher, I know your sense of smell is sharp. Sometimes that's not such a good thing, is it?"
Dick nodded with a wry smile. The golden juice was actually boiling sewage.
This sewage was ideal for defending walls. It could both scald the enemy and infect them; one could say it had a physical repelling effect.
Fisher spoke again beside them. "Commander, take shelter in the corner tower. Leave what comes next to me, Dick, and these soldiers."
The knight-in-training refused outright. "As commander, how could I be afraid?
"If I hide in there, what will the other soldiers think of me?"
With that, he drew the longsword at his waist.
Dick likewise drew the steel sword from his back. He, too, would have to give it his all.
Creak!
Several impacts rang out against the battlements. At a nearby gap in the parapet, two long steel spikes had embedded themselves deep into the wall-the metal hooks at the front of a siege ladder.
Once these steel hooks had sunk into the wall, the weight of the soldiers on the siege ladder and the ladder's angle made it very difficult to push off by hand.
The battle for Odinburg had officially begun.
Kebi and Dick defended the wall east of the gate, while Fisher led men to defend the wall west of it. Each side had roughly sixty soldiers.
There were two siege ladders on Kebi's side, their hooks catching right on the gaps in the parapet.
As the Jatu soldiers under Bloodlust climbed swiftly up the siege ladders, the soldiers on the battlements began their counterattack before the enemy could reach the top.
At one gap, a soldier held a stone in both hands and hurled it down hard, knocking three or four Jatu off the siege ladder and onto the ground.
The siege ladder was indeed well made, however. The stone merely rolled diagonally down its surface without breaking it.
The defenders beside the other siege ladder followed suit, and in the blink of an eye, seven or eight Jatu soldiers had fallen.
But the Jatu soldiers under Bloodlust moved nimbly. Some even got straight back up after being knocked down by the huge stones, ignoring their injuries and climbing the siege ladders again.
Outside the walls, Jatu archers were also making feint attacks from behind their arrow shields.
The soldiers above could only expose themselves over the walls to return fire during the intervals when the archers were drawing their bows.
Seeing a Jatu soldier about to reach the wall, Kebi shouted, "Use the golden juice! Use all of it!"
The panicked defenders hurried to obey. By now, they could no longer even notice the golden juice's pungent smell. With a splash, amid rising steam and a foul stench, the first Jatu soldier about to mount the wall clutched his face in agony, toppled backward, and fell to the ground below.
Dick clearly saw the golden juice instantly scald the man's face until his skin split and flesh peeled away.
The man plainly would not survive, not only because of his burns, but also because golden juice was filthy. With the poor standard of medicine in this era, it was difficult to save someone once infection set in.
Fortunately, the soldier never got up again and was spared the suffering that would have followed.
Seeing this, the defenders realized how powerful the golden juice was, and their spirits rose.
Before the next Jatu soldier could mount the wall, they quickly poured down another bucket of steaming golden juice.
Then came the next bucket...
Before long, all the golden juice was gone.
Dick sighed inwardly. The soldiers had splashed it all away out of nervousness.
Using it at intervals would not only have been more effective, but would also have intimidated the enemy, making them reluctant to climb the walls.
But he would not say any of that now. It would hurt the soldiers' morale.
Meanwhile, Kebi kept his longsword in hand, wanting to step forward and fight at a gap in the battlements.
"Kebi, you're the commander. You can't risk going forward. Leave this to me. Three or four soldiers guarding each gap will be enough to block the Jatu soldiers' route of attack."
"Just stay behind us and command."
"Then I'll leave it to you, Dick." Kebi thought that made sense and looked at Dick solemnly.
Before long, all the golden juice and stones on the walls had been used up.
By then, more than ten of the attacking Jatu soldiers had also been killed.
With the defenders out of their effective defensive weapons, one Jatu soldier weathered another volley of arrows and nimbly climbed onto the battlements during the interval as they drew their bows.
He raised his spear, delight all over his face.
It seemed this soldier had secured the honor of being first over the wall.
But in the next instant, the Jatu soldier clutched his throat and fell backward off the wall in disbelief.
Dick fired another crossbow bolt.
His second bolt, however, struck the helmet of the second soldier to climb onto the wall. It rang out with a clink, doing no damage and merely making the man falter.
But Dick would not let even the slightest opportunity slip by. He immediately stepped forward and thrust with the sword in his right hand, piercing the soldier's chest in an instant.
Keeping a firm grip on the hilt, he kicked the soldier in the chest. The man followed the first soldier's fate and fell from the battlements.
Dick had only just felt a moment's relief when he saw that four Jatu soldiers had climbed onto the wall at the second gap, a dozen or so meters away. Several defenders lay on the ground beside them.
Seeing the danger, Dick hurriedly called to the defenders around him, "Hold this position, understand?"
"Understood, Master Witcher."
The soldiers around him, having witnessed Dick's deft fighting, felt their morale soar, and their nerves gradually steadied.
Dick swiftly ran toward the other gap. The four Jatu soldiers were also running toward him.
They wanted to come over here and kill the nearby defenders to help their comrades scale the wall.