A warm summer breeze drifted across the crowded road. Men and the occasional woman dressed in rough clothes and scraps of armor stood on the passageway sharpening swords and and testing bowstrings. A small hill kept the group out of sight of their target, a stone fortress of moderate size overlooking the wide dirt road.
Nikov stood at the top of said hill, looking first between his troops and them to the garrison that they'd soon be assaulting. He smiled. This was going to be fun.
He'd been waiting for a major assignment ever since becoming Yellow Hawk not to long ago, and here it finally was. Nikov saw this job as a test, whether Seranth really thought of it as one or not, and he intended to pass with flying colors. He'd come up with a tricky plan that he was quite proud of, the first step of which was already in motion.
Almost half of his bandit troops were loading onto trading wagons, creating a rather formidable convoy. It hadn't been easy to build, steal, and even buy this many vehicles, but if the plan worked it would be well worth it. As the last of his soldiers got on the wagons, Nikov himself jumped on the front of the convoy and the whole shebang started rolling off towards the fortress.
As the lead wagon passed by the garrison a small delegation of soldiers rode out of the building. They were customs officials, checking the cargo of the wagons, and there was one for each vehicle. The men all split up to inspect the vehicles they were assigned, and the officer of the squad road to the lead wagon. The man had a bored look on his face, but that changed rather fast when he lifted the flap on the back of the wagon.
Several armed men and a battering ram grinned at him from inside the vehicle, and the driver, who'd gotten out and followed the officer, stuck a knife in the fellow's kidney. The soldier's screaming was muffled by another bandit who smothered his mouth from inside the wagon.
The same event was recurring all down the length of the convoy, but it was only a matter of time before someone on the walls noticed what was going on. So, best to act fast. With that in mind Nikov came barreling out of the front wagon, charging the gate. The men in the back of the vehicle followed with slightly less speed, having to remove the battering ram first.
By the time Nikov reached the wooden gate he heard shouts from the top of the wall. With a wild grin, the bandit leader dug his weapon, the claws of an ice drake mounted on wooden frames on his arms, into the gate. The moisture in the wood froze instantly on contact with the weapon, and the ice spread along the gate at incredible speed. The entire structure was frozen solid in seconds.
The Yellow Hawk stepped aside as the men with the battering ram caught up. They didn't even stop to heave, just throwing their weight and the ram through the frozen door as they ran. They men knew it would work, Nikov had drilled them on this exact exercise with a replica door some days before to prove the validity of the idea.
The entire frozen structure shattered to pieces and the men immediately reversed their holds on the ram and ran back out of the fort. As they made their way down the entranceway to get their weapons from the wagon they passed by a stream of bandits who had been unloading themselves from the wagons while the drama at the gate took place.
Nikov led the group in even as more bandits came flooding over the hill on foot, charging the fort at sprinting pace. Nikov smiled as the first group of soldiers from the ill-prepared garrison charged the group of brigands streaming through the gate. It was time for the fun to start.
