Gunther woke to the obnoxious sound of trumpets blaring arythmically. Rising from his cot in the barracks alongside the other knights who'd had their sleep interrupted, Gunther opened the barracks door and looked around the fortress in which he was stationed - Oren, an isolated but strategically placed defensive position near the Lithuanian border. It had been under siege for two months, with no reinforcements as of yet. Supplies were still high, so the situation was by no means grim – though time, Gunther knew, can change all things. As he surveyed the fort’s interior, what stood out to the warrior was that today people were running to and fro, obviously in a hurry. A man that Gunther recognized as a watchman, Paul, noticed Gunther, and ran towards him through the crowd.
"Sir!", he yelled, "The Lithuanians are approaching! Make sure that everyone in your barracks -". Paul was interrupted as Gunther grabbed him lightly by the shoulder, and asked, "Do we know how many there are?" This question remained a mystery to everyone - the Lithuanian army had been hiding in the trees outside Oren, concealed from view. There were some guesses that they didn't have the numbers to pose any threat, and that the whole siege was a ruse to keep the defenders of Oren locked up inside the fortress. The commander of the fortress, Knight Komtur Josephus, thought it best to play it safe, and not risk sallying the defenders out.
"Sir, they've not yet fully deployed. As of now, they look to be around three-thousand. But, Josephus needs you at the walls! Go! The pagans are setting up the siege equipment now, and could be on us in an hour!"
Gunther let go of Paul and made back towards the barracks. "Thanks", he yelled to Paul, almost as an afterthought. At least 3,000 Lithuanians incoming in an hour was not good news. The fortress' population was half that, and of those, 800 or so could fight. They would be outnumbered 4:1, or worse. Like Paul said, they would have to hold them at the walls. With any luck, their supplies would last long enough until a reinforcing army arrived. An hour was hardly enough time to prepare for the coming battle, though. It'd take Gunther nearly that long just to get his armor on.
After a quick few pieces of rye bread, Gunther's squire Johann-Christoff helped him don his armor - a thick woolen gambeson, a suit of chain, the plate, and finally, a cloth tunic with the symbol of the Teutonic Order upon it. With just a short while left before the Lithuanians' arrival, Gunther rushed to the wall. Armed with a 3-foot longsword, a kite shield, and a heavy mace on his belt, he was a force to be reckoned with. The stone walls were already been crowded by a mass of archers and crossbowmen, with swordsmen and spearmen just behind to defend against any besiegers that would dare to climb up onto the walls via ladder or tower. Messengers were travelling around, delivering what Gunther knew by common sense - this was a siege, and that their instructions were to hold the walls and prevent an incursion into the fortress itself.
The Lithuanians began their attack later than expected. After 20 or so minutes of the Germans waiting atop the walls, the first few Lithuanian trebuchets were deployed and loaded. Most of the Lithuanian troops seemed to be levied peasants, the majority of them wearing little armor and wielding spears. Those peasants who had armor seemed limited to helmets and the occasional leather. Other elite units were dressed in chainmail, armed with swords or massive two-handed axes. Despite the fact that the approaching army was still out of missile weapon range, most of the conversations atop the wall had begun to die down as the defenders grew anxious. Some small amount of time later, and the Lithuanian army appeared to have deployed fully. Their cavalry had dismounted to fight on foot, and siege towers had been brought to the front of the army, with a few catapults behind. Komtur Josephus came by to give a speech, but the majority of it was inaudible due to the sheer number of defenders atop the wall. So, Gunther cheered along with the others at the end of the speech, uncertain even of what Josephus had said. Komtur Josephus then moved on to the next wall section, presumably to give the same speech all over again.
The first volley of artillery fire landed a hit on the wall just 10 yards from where Gunther was bracing himself. The wall shook beneath him, and he breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't buckle. But the barrage continued, and the fortress wasn't equipped with much artillery with which to give counterfire. A few ballistae fired from the towers, but besides that, the defenders and their weapons were silent.
It felt like hours had passed before the Lithuanians gave up the bombardment and began to move up their siege towers. Crossbowmen fired at exposed troops, the ones in the rear systematically loading the bows and passing them forward to those in front, who were better placed to shoot. Archers doused their arrows in pitch and ignited them, hoping to set the siege towers alight before they reached the walls and deposited their cargo. Lithuanian archers advanced behind the towers, firing their own missiles into the crowds atop the walls in hopes of disrupting the defenders. Gunther raised his shield in a defensive posture. Some of the shieldless defenders tried to move behind those soldiers who did have shields, while others ducked to make themselves less of a target. Small panics erupted on the walls whenever a man got hit by an arrow, but Gunther already knew to expect this. He'd just keep waiting on the walls, holding his shield up to block errant arrows, and then engage the enemy when they arrived. Men would fall to the ranged fire, he knew that. So, he preoccupied himself with imagining the soon-coming melee. The attackers would be surrounded as soon as they got off the tower, and they'd be torn apart. Still, it would take one person getting past the defenders to open the gates, and then the rest of the rest of the Lithuanians would spill into the fortress. Then, the Teutonic garrison would be finished. He just had to hope that the defenders would be able to hold out on the other wall sections, and they'd be okay.
The Teutonic archers were unsuccessful in igniting any siege towers before they reached the walls. Covered in nonflammable wet animal hides, the towers were well protected against the flaming arrows. With one such tower now directly in front of him, Gunther gripped his sword tightly in anticipation. It was time for a fight. The crossbowmen and archers, who weren't well-equipped for melee, moved behind the infantry. The crossbowmen had their bows loaded for deadly close-range shots, and the archers continued firing flaming arrows at the tower. By now, it was stuck full of them, yet still failed to ignite.
The siege tower's ramp fell to let the attackers onto the wall. The crossbowmen behind Gunther immediately discharged their weapons, killing a few Lithuanians, and the archers fired one more volley - some choosing to fire at the tower, and some at the attackers. One man's clothes caught fire, and, with not enough space to roll (not that it would be a good idea to in the wooden tower, anyway), screamed as he tried desperately to brush the fire off. The other attackers surged forward - the burning man, too panicked to keep himself balanced, fell facefirst onto the wall as he was pushed by his allies from behind. A melee broke out on the wall, the attackers trying to gain ground while the defenders attempted to push them back into the siege tower. Gunther himself surged forward, yelling. Pushing two friendly soldiers aside, he spotted a chainmail-clad Lithuanian armed with an imposing two-handed axe, its shaft nearly five feet tall, directly in front of him.
Still yelling, and running at the man, Gunther held his sword in front of him and tried to run the axeman through. The Lithuanian, suddenly turning to face Gunther, managed to knock the blade away with his axe’s handle. As Gunther tried to recover into a fighting stance, the Lithuanian brought his axe down towards Gunther's head. Panicked, Gunther raised his shield.
Gunther let a pained grunt escape him. The force of the massive axe reverberated through his left arm, causing it to shift unnaturally in its socket. Still, with the axe halted, it was now Gunther's chance to attack. Thrusting upwards with his sword desperately, he could only hope it would pierce the Lithuanian's armor before he'd have to suffer another axe blow. With a cry of pain of pain from his foe, Gunther knew that it had. Bracing himself against the now-unmoving body with his shield, Gunther pulled his sword out of his dead foe's chest. Quickly scanning his surroundings for a new target, he instead saw the whole world fade around him.