Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion
All the Light We Cannot See (previous in carcha)
Chapter 17
Soon the group had arrived at a wooden fortress. The man who seemed to be the leader yelled at the guards on top of the wall. They quickly yelled something back and the gate opened. It was almost the same style as Artois kingdom, Max thought. Markets were crowded with villagers as they went up and down the streets. Max had used all of his objects by now. As they walked deeper into the fortress he looked down at the floor, avoiding any eye contact. A few people along the road yelled something at them and a few laughed at the sight of them.
Suddenly, if Max could ever believe it, a group of triceratops bursted into the gate and a war cry could be heard.
“FOR ARTOIS!”
***
Everything seemed like a slow motion blur, the screamings and panicking of the people was almost enough to affect Max into panicking. He could hear Kostya shouting at him as the other men started escaping. He could see the triceratops demolishing everything in its way. The few unfortunate ones were flinged into the air by their horns or crushed by the dinosaur's mass. Max watched as a torch stand tilted over to the floor. In an instant, the area around it was abrupt with flames.
Max followed the men into a nearby stone statue, they all had huddled behind it. The statue was surprisingly well made, it showed a human pointing toward the gate with a sword in its right hand. It made Max think, How long have these people been living there? And were there more civilizations out there on this island?
He could see Artois’s men successfully advance deeper into the fortress; the fortress' defenders were mostly made up of riflemen or swordsmen. Further into the fortress Max spotted three catapults being readied into firing position. The catapults were stationed on the very top of a wide open castle floor.which had a perfect view of the entire fortress.
A few of the triceratops stumbled to the ground as the fortresses' riflemen luckily shot those. Max figured they were new to shooting guns, a few were shooting their guns backwards and their comrade behind them dropped dead. If Max had a choice he would start aiding Artois’s men, but they had no firearms nor weapons. Luckily, Max spotted a few dead riflemen on the ground still attached to their firearms. He quickly crawled and snatched a few of their rifles before he could be spotted. Max tossed one to Kostya and to some few other men that had asked.
“What’s the plan?” Kostya asked, nervously glancing at the triceratops advancing toward the statue. “If they spot us they’ll shoot us.”
Max hesitated for a second, he could see the catapults still being fixed on their positions, but would soon be ready to fire. “Ask the men without weapons to get one from the dead, take the armed ones and follow me. Ask the others to retreat later when they’re armed.”
Kostya nodded and shouted something to the men as they yelled something back. Max didn’t bother to stay because he was already moving toward the castle.
When he got to the gate it was completely locked. He stood back and shot the middle of the gate. Fortunately, a large click could be heard and the gate swung open. Max can already see a group of men running behind him, a few yards away from the castle gates. He decided to clear out the entrance before they can get here.
Max was surprised when he saw no men on the first floor. He assumed the castle guards thought that they were still protected by the ground troops. Max realized the castle contained only three floors, however the stairs were very long. Max quickly trotted up the stairs and into the third floor, where it was the roof of the castle. He could hear Kostya and the rest of his men going up the stairs, but which floor he didn’t know.
The artillerists were already loading the catapult with large explosives attached to a metal ball. Max now wished he had at least one grenade with him, luckily Kostya arrived.
Max gestured to him to tell the men to aim on one person each. Kostya nodded and did the same thing to the others. Soon they were all aiming at the artillerists. From what Max could see, he guessed there were around twenty to thirty men in total, while they had only six to ten men.
Kostya had whispered to Max they were all waiting for his shot. Max aimed steadily at the left catapult artillerist who was attaching something into the bucket. He pulled the trigger and soon it was a whole massacre. Max started shooting at whatever was moving near the catapults, and soon the entire place was wiped clean. Unfortunately Max didn’t notice two armed men guarding the catapults, and had shot one of their men. Max couldn’t believe his luck today, they had a medic with them.
He had heard the medics and infantry had to go on separate trucks because of some reasons. Max learned that he was shot in the shoulder and the wound wasn’t major.
The troops had started to cheer and many were sighing in relief. Max hurried over to the edge of the third floor. Below, he could see many of the defenders fleeing away from the battle, and Artois’s men were already outside the castle gates by now. However another thought struck him, the fire was already blazing down everything, the only thing left in the fortress was the statue. He realized soon they would be trapped inside the castle, and they had to get out soon.
Max quickly scanned around the castle floor, he could see a river just behind the castle, but he wasn’t sure whether or not it was safe to jump in. Besides, Artois’s men seem to be panicking, unsure on what to do. Everything felt hopeless, he couldn’t just leave them here to burn. Unless…
He quickly ran to the bottom floor, sure enough a huge floor hatch laid outside the castle gate. He predicted it was big enough to fit the triceratops inside. The hatch was only a few yards wide in diameter, and light came from the inside.
To his relief, Kostya and his men had been following him, and understood what Max was doing. Kostya ordered and yelled something at the men, and many of them obeyed. However two stayed behind and yelled something back. Soon they were in a whole heated argument.
Max was horrified after realizing that the fire was only a few feet away from them. By now all of Artois’s men and triceratops were in the hatch and the soviet troops. However Kostya was still arguing with the men.
He quickly pushed them aside and yelled, “Deal with this later! We gotta go.” They froze for a moment before scowling and went inside the hatch. Max rushed into the hatch and closed the lid shut.
Max sighed in relief as he watched the others go deeper into the tunnel. However, a large explosion boomed outside and shook the floor. Later he heard shouting, and he knew what it was. German. The Germans had somehow tracked them down, and he heard rumbling on the top. Max had barricaded the hatch, hoping to give them some time to get away.
Max turned and ran to the others.
-SandmasterXD
Note: so hope you enjoyed and this is in the island abc order. Anyways I know I haven’t said much and overseer will be on a stop for a while until I finish this series. Anyways bye!