1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 246: Paladin of Lion Heart

"If you are going through hell, keep going."

-        Winston Churchill

Julian got hoaxed, that bloody mechanism to open the gate to the outside is not located in this bloody tower, this tower is instead used for the sole purpose of over looking the entire port of Constantine together with a region of Thessaloniki, and the lower portion of this tower is used by the defenders to store ammunition and weapons, there is not even a single metal gear or piston can be found in every corner of the fortress meaning that their initial objective is completely wrong, and surely the Ottomans will not give them the time to regroup and go for the next target. 

With the increase of numbers of Ottomans surrounding them, the small group of infiltrators under Julian had to get moving fast fending off the encirclement before it is too late, running here and there moving while fighting to prevent getting in to another encirclement. However, things are definitely not looking good for these brave souls, as although the amount of stress laid on the citizens sieging outside, but the remaining Ottoman defenders on the walls are still able to at least slow down the siegers' progress and which means that at least for the next short period of time they will have to save themselves. 

But what makes things worse forever comes next. 

In the middle of the chaotic battle field, Julian attracted the attention of an Ottoman eagle sniper on the tower with him going around yelling orders encouraging his men being the most obvious enemy target in the fields. The arrow of the sniper found its way right through the crowds on to the fore head of Julian missing his eye by an inch. 

Although the impact of the arrow is absorbed by the leather helmet hidden under the silk out layour, but the iron arow head is reflected by the metallic edge of the helmet making it go slightly downwards and slicing right through Julian's face tearing a cut on top of his nose, with scarlet red blood immediately started oozing out from the scar. 

Although this shot is not critical towards Julian, but because of the increasing number of Ottoman foe presence in the region around him, combined with the fact that he is always leading his team struggling a way out as the spear head, he has totally no time and extra hand to clean up the wound on his face which caused the black blood luminated by the moon and the surrounding torches to constantly oozing out from the injury painting the silken cloth on his head red. After roughly ten minutes of vigorous fighting, the flowing blood and his perspirations have covered his entire face blocking his eyes, making him almost feel like he has lost his sight in this darkness of night. Combined with the excessive loss of blood he felt a series of fatigue and dizziness making him unable to stand properly rooted on the ground and fight like how he always used to do. 

Julian fell back behind his pals, taking advantage of the cover he swiftly wiped his face and eyes with his equally as dirty leather gauntlet finally regaining a portion of his sight. Julian narrowed his eyes and observed the surrounding, and he saw another group of roughly forty Ottomans beginning to try to surround them from the back forming another encirclement here. 

"Halfdan! Baron! Brothers!" Julian shouted out to his men narrowing his eyes, slashing his already full of dents cutlass out across the throat of a hard witted Ottoman soldier who tried to sneak upon him taking advantage of his blindness. "Gather around! Come to me!" 

Halfdan and the rest of the fifteen still surviving men are equally as exhausted suffering from various injuries, but after hearing Julian's words in the nosy field they still tried their past enclosing their formation back to Julian's body side. 

"Julian! Captain! I am here!" Halfdan tried his best to approach Julian waving his axe chasing several Ottomans away. 

Among the darkness and torch lights, Julian's eyes are again covered with sweat and blood making him unable to see clearly again. He wiped his eyes with the blood tainted silken cloth this time and looked at the direction of the shout squinting his eyes finding there where about of Halfdan, then he grabbed Halfdan by his shoulders and continued shouting. 

"I shall stay here and cover your back! Now go! Halfdan! Go while you still can! Run out of this damned fortress, go find the fleet, go find this man called Abdullah, and tell him what has happened here! You are the only child of your family; I cannot leave you to die here like your brother!" 

"What are your talking about?" Halfdan retorted blocking an incoming spear with the handle of his battle axe. "We sons of Scandinavia values our fame in battle and we have the value of never letting down our comrades in battle, are you trying to disgrace me captain?!" 

"Aye! Captain!" Cried another man covering the flank of Julian. "You have never let me down, saving my life in the fires off the coast of Anatolia, how can I be so ungracious and leaving you over here? If God says that we are all going to die here today, I shall willingly accept it!" 

Julian made an ear blasting chain of guffaw and chortle towards the stars and moon in the dark night, and sighed remarking. "How sad it is that we don't have other our other brothers standing among us here facing these rats, if not I bet that they shall gladly join us in the last moment of fun!" 

The whole lot of people laughed and howled under the moon surrounded by enemies and blood, for seeing their final destiny as the inevitable death they now have no more fear remaining in their heart. When these professional rogue warriors that came from the seas knows no fear of death in their heart, they become like a bunch of berserkers that forms a formidable force engaging in ruthless fights in the middle of the Ottomans tearing down one after another Ottoman foe before them. It has been thirty minutes in to battle and the only thirty of them initially have killed near a hundred foes with only around fifteen dead, forming a kill to death ratio of roughly four to one. 

Five more minutes in to combat, just as the surviving ten plus of them are all mentally prepared that they shall eventually die in this place, a sudden chain of shells can be heard pounding on to the walls of the fortress causing a mini earthquake like shock down to the ground, with rubbles and rocks falling down from the tower smashing on to the heads of the Ottoman defenders causing a range of chaos and shock among them making them disperse away from Julian and his team, just moments before they run out of their final bit of energy. 

Hearing this chain of explosions Julian closed his eyes and broke in to laughter facing the sky. "Antonius! Admiral! I knew you would never disappoint me! Lads it seems like we will not die here today!"

At the same time, thunderous roars and battle cries can be heard from outside the fortress making the Ottomans even more confused and frightened thinking that the fortress has been breached, the horns of battle started humming vibrating the air in the city, and together with the rising sun of dusk the sea side gate of the fortress finally came crashing down from the inside by the impact of the shelling. 

Under the still dim morning sun light, Julian finally laid down his blade collapsing on to the ground. He lifted up his head panting heavily and observed the world with his full of blood clot pair of eyes. All he could see is blood, corpses, fire, lots of fire spreading around with the help of the southern wind. And behind the fire emerged hundreds of familiar faces in the Varangians and marines rushing in to the fortress expelling any Ottomans they found, a force that seemingly cannot be reckoned with by the foes. 

Just as he sat down there watching this scene regaining his energy, another group of knights came squeezing in to the fortress shouting along the way. "Where is Julian? Where is Julian?" 

Knowing that his admiral has arrived Julian stood back up with the support of his cutlass forgetting about his soar muscles and pain of injuries and replied back in the direction of the question. "Julian of Athyras is here!" 

Hearing the reply Antonius and his men quietened down and rode forth scrutinising the figure before him. Under the sun light of dusk, Julian's entire body is covered with blood of both his and the enemy's, unable to open his eyes fully, with hands and feet still trembling vigorously as if he is falling down at any moment. Feeling awed and admired Antonius pointed towards this man of blood with his blade. 

"Look at this man, lads, I hereby declare this man called Julian as the paladin of lion heart, the bravest in my fleet. Since you people have came here, you can choose to not know who the emperor of the Greeks is, but you cannot be ignorant towards who Julian of Athyras is. Send the orders! All commanders of the fleet must come here to look at this man first, then they are allowed to go back to their posts!" 

Hearing this Julian broke in to a chain of wild laughter once more throwing all the pains and exhaustions away.