Chapter 28: The Grinding Months
Three months collapsed into a nightmare of blood and stone that ground the Viking force to powder against walls that had stood for centuries and would outlast every warrior trying to breach them.
"This isn't warfare anymore. This is mathematics. Each assault costs us fifty to a hundred men, and we gain nothing but the knowledge that the next assault will cost the same."
Paul moved through the siege camp like a man haunted by futures he couldn't prevent, using every supernatural ability in his arsenal to minimize casualties he couldn't eliminate. Odin's Whisper during each assault to predict defender movements and arrow patterns. Fate Thread Manipulation to shift critical probabilities when warriors he knew were about to die. Success Rate Analysis to find weak points in walls that had none that mattered.
[ODIN'S WHISPER - DAILY USAGE]
[FATE THREAD MANIPULATION - COOLDOWN MANAGEMENT]
[SUCCESS RATE ANALYSIS - CONSTANT QUERIES]
[MP MANAGEMENT: CRITICAL RATIONING REQUIRED]
They breached the walls twice in three months. Both times, Frankish reinforcements threw them back with the methodical efficiency of people who'd learned that Viking courage could be broken through simple attrition. The second breach cost them two hundred warriors for ten minutes of holding ground that couldn't be defended.
Paul's remaining potions disappeared like water in desert sand—his last Major Mana Potion keeping him functional during a particularly brutal assault, his final Major Health Potion saving a warrior whose gut wound would have meant slow death without supernatural intervention.
Lagertha's elite fifty had been reduced to thirty-two fighters who moved with the particular efficiency of people who'd learned to survive when everything around them was dying. They'd become the most dangerous warriors in the Viking force, but even enhanced training couldn't overcome the fundamental mathematics of siege warfare.
"I can see the deaths coming. I can prevent some of them. But not most. Never most."
Bjorn took a spear thrust to the shoulder during the fourth week—Paul had seen it coming, shouted a warning that minimized the damage from potentially fatal to merely painful. The young warrior looked at him afterward with the expression of someone processing the weight of supernatural protection.
"You see all of it, don't you?" Bjorn asked as Paul helped bind his wound with their last clean cloth.
"More than I want to," Paul admitted. "Less than I need to."
[MINOR HEALTH SALVE - LAST ONE USED]
[REMAINING SUPPLIES: ZERO]
[FIGHTING ON EMPTY RESERVES]
Ragnar's mental state deteriorated with each failed assault. Paul watched the legendary Viking king transform into something harder and more desperate—a man whose entire identity depended on achieving the impossible who was slowly learning that some walls couldn't be breached through force of will alone.
"This failure is breaking him. Exactly like it did in the show. His confidence, his certainty about his own destiny—it's all cracking against stones that don't care about legends."
The breakthrough came from Floki's obsession with boat-building experiments that had nothing to do with conventional siege warfare. The mad craftsman discovered that the Seine River flowed under part of Paris's foundation, creating possibilities that defied normal tactical thinking.
"We can get inside," Floki announced with the particular intensity of someone who'd found solution through madness rather than logic. "Under the water, through passages they don't guard because they think they're impossible to use."
Ragnar seized the idea with desperate hunger. Paul's Monthly Vision had shown fragments of this approach—partial success achieved through methods that sounded insane until they worked.
[SUCCESS RATE ANALYSIS: UNDERWATER ASSAULT APPROACH]
[RESULT: 54%]
[FACTORS: SURPRISE (ADVANTAGE), TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY (SEVERE), DEFENDER RESPONSE (RAPID), COORDINATION REQUIREMENTS (COMPLEX)]
Fifty-four percent. Barely better than a coin flip, but the best odds we've had in months.
"This is the path," Paul told Ragnar during their planning session. "But the cost will still be high."
Ragnar's laugh carried no humor—just the bitter acknowledgment of someone who'd learned that all victories came with prices that couldn't be calculated until after they were paid.
"He's going to fake his own death. Get his body carried into Paris for Christian burial, then spring the trap from inside while Lagertha coordinates the external assault."
Paul sent his second cryptic message to Kattegat through a merchant who'd survived the siege by avoiding any activities that involved sharp objects or stone walls.
"The eagle's nest remains vulnerable. Winter comes. Trust the ship-builder's loyalty."
[SUCCESS RATE ANALYSIS: HORIK BETRAYAL PREVENTION]
[RESULT: 94%]
[FACTORS: DOUBLE WARNING SYSTEM (REDUNDANT SAFETY), RAGNAR'S PARANOIA (HEIGHTENED), FLOKI'S LOYALTY (CONFIRMED), DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS (EXTENSIVE)]
Ninety-four percent. Finally, something I can stop worrying about.
With Horik's betrayal covered by redundant warnings, Paul could focus entirely on the Paris endgame that would either vindicate months of suffering or prove that some victories weren't worth their cost.
[SYSTEM WARNING: SEVERE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS DETECTED]
[PERFORMANCE DEGRADATION IMMINENT]
[MANDATORY REST PERIOD RECOMMENDED]
[MENTAL STRAIN: 72% CLARITY REMAINING]
The plan formed with the desperate precision of people who'd run out of alternatives to failure. Ragnar would "die" convincingly enough to gain entry to Paris as a corpse requiring Christian burial. His warriors would hide in the funeral procession, spring the trap from inside, and coordinate with external forces to breach walls that couldn't be taken through conventional assault.
Paul would remain outside—he was too well-known as Ragnar's seer to risk the deception, and his supernatural abilities were more valuable coordinating the external attack than hidden inside a coffin.
"Three months of hell. Two thousand dead. Half our fleet destroyed. And it all comes down to whether Ragnar can convincingly play dead long enough to get inside walls that have broken every other approach we've tried."
That night Paul watched Ragnar "die" in his tent—a performance so convincing that Paul had to resist the urge to check for actual vital signs. The funeral procession formed with somber ceremony that carried just enough genuine grief to sell the deception to guards who'd spent months learning to recognize Viking tricks.
As the procession approached Paris's gates, Paul felt the weight of everything they'd sacrificed condensing into the next few hours. Either this worked and they could finally claim victory that justified the cost, or they'd lose their king along with everything else they'd already paid.
[SYSTEM POINTS EARNED: 400]
[TOTAL SYSTEM POINTS: 1,475]
[NEXT PHASE: FINAL ASSAULT]
[WARNING: MENTAL BREAKDOWN APPROACHING]
"Brilliant or catastrophic. Possibly both. But anything is better than watching more good people die for walls that won't fall to honest courage."
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