Chapter 6 – The Woes of Montalban

No longer able to contain themselves, the Knights Excelsior jumped screaming from their stand and began to hail blows upon the festival goers.  They smashed their hammers on everyone within their reach and pushed against the crowd with their shields. 

Laughter turned into screams of horror and anguish as they hammered upon the spectators all around them.  Those bloodstained from the March of the Blood Reavers earlier on, were now splattered with the gore and brains of the people next to them before they themselves were bludgeoned down, holding their heads and staring in horror at the sight of their own blood. 

The laughter in the crowds faded way as they began to notice that something was seriously wrong.  First, a few seconds of confused silence, while they listened to the shrieks of the dying.  Then the realisation of what was happening.  A single scream pierced the silence and within seconds the whole square began to howl in panic.  “The Stormcasts are attacking us!  They are butchering us!”  they screamed and then the panic started in earnest.  A bloody scene of chaos unfolded as thousands of revellers scattered falling left and right, only to be crushed and trampled to death where they lay.

The Halberdiers guarding the spectator stands could not believe what was happening.  As they witnessed their families, neighbours and friends being attacked, they reacted instinctively.  They began thrusting their halberds towards the Stormcast to try to stop the onslaught and allow people to escape. But then the Knights Excelsior began to direct their attention towards the Halberdiers guard. 

Bert watched incredulously from his float, desperately trying to understand what was happening. “Why didn’t the Stormcasts find what I did funny?”  he thought.  He heard a few Liberators screaming at him “In the name of Sigmar, die! Die you chaos spawn!” as they tried to climb on to the float.  One managed to get over the side of the float and smashed Bert's foot with his hammer.  Bert jerked his foot away in pain.  “Ow! That hurts!” he screamed.  And then Bert got angry.  He grabbed the Liberator by the head, hauled him up and threw him with all his force against the line of Stormcasts surrounding the float.  Bert clambered off the float and kicked the shield of another Liberator as he dismounted, sending the warrior sprawling back against the Lord Veritant standing behind him.

Whilst this was happening, Albertus had jumped off the other stand and raced towards Manstien who was lying in a daze at the bottom of the ladder.  Albertus hauled him up like a rag doll and shouted to a couple of halberdiers who were watching dumbfounded what was going on at the other side of the float.  “You, and you, come here! Take him away, Take him to the town hall!  Put him in his office and lock the door!  Stand guard and let nobody in!”  The guards looked at him in surprise.  Albertus threw Manstien in their hands.  “Do it now!”  The halberdiers caught Manstien and dragged him away to the town hall.

Albertus snatched up a halberd lying on the ground and ran around the float to where the halberdiers were fighting a losing battle against the Stormcasts.  Luckily for the halberdiers there were only thirty of them.  A group of strong men from the March of the Blood Reavers now joined the halberdiers.  They also had family and friends amongst the victims.  Armed with halberd and spiked clubs they tried desperately to contain the Knights Excelsior from pursuing the festival goers. But the Knights were determined to break through their lines so they could cleanse the city of the foul chaos spawn that lived here. 

Albertus shouted “Stop! Stop! Stop this madness.  Parley! Parley!”.   The Lord Veritant saw Albertus and called him out.  “You and your demon rituals, you will pay for your blasphemy with your life!  We will cleanse this chaos infested city and avenge the insults on our Lord Sigmar!”  Bert, suddenly appeared next to Albertus, armed with two large clubs in his hands from the Reavers.  Bellowing out a war cry he threw one club at the Lord Veritant.  The Lord Veritant stepped aside as the club flew past him, missing him by a whisker.

At that moment, a trumpet sounded from above, and a lone Stormcast Prosecutor with a horn descended and landed behind the Stormcast line.  The Lord Veritant shouted orders to form shieldwall as he made his way to the Prosecutor.  The two battle lines parted a few yards away from each other and the halberdiers tried to catch their breath.  The Lord Vertiant could be seen arguing with the Prosecutor, and after a short while, he returned to the battle line.  He shouted some orders which Albertus could not understand, and the Stormcast Liberators suddenly changed formation into column.

Protected on all sides by their shields, they began to fall back towards one end of the city square.  Germanus Graghus turned around and pointed at Albertus: “You are a marked man! And this city will soon feel the wrath of Sigmar!  We will be back to finish this job once and for all!”  Some of the halberdiers started jeering.  Albertus shouted “Stop it! Shut up! Let them go! Let them go!”

And so, the Knights Excelsior departed the city of Montalban, inexplicably and as sudden as they had shown up.  The Stormcast Prosecutor rose up and flew away.  On their march to the city gate, the Knights Excelsior did not meet a single living soul.  The streets were deserted, and the city gate was wide open.  The column of Stormcasts set off through the gate, on the road in a forced march.

As news spread that they were gone, thousands of festival goers came out of hiding and many left the city immediately, back to the villages and small towns where they had come from.  But a lot of them went back to the square trying to find their missing family members amongst the piles of battered corpses all over the place.  When they recognised their loved ones, they broke down in agonised cries and tears as they held the mangled remains of their loved ones.

A solitary figure pulled the float, the Rex Diem, away from the square.  It was Bert.  He dragged his bloodied foot behind him, limping from the hammer blow that had smashed it.  They had hurt him and the people who were kind to him.  They had taken away his right to be king for a day and he could not understand why.  Inside him grew an anger at the sheer injustice of it all.