Translator: CinderTL
Windbreath Fortress was shrouded in an eerie silence just before dawn. The eastern sky had barely begun to lighten, and the guards on the ramparts leaned against the battlements, their eyelids heavy as lead.
Yulga leaned against a crenel, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the gradually clarifying wilderness beyond the walls.
His rough fingers unconsciously traced the fresh bullet marks on the stone bricks—the gouge left by a Solid Shot that had grazed the wall the previous night. Brock slumped at his feet, the young Orc warrior yawning incessantly while clutching his battleaxe.
Below the ramparts, the clatter of metal echoed as a few civilians dragged water carts, distributing black bread and weak beer to the guards. When Yulga took his wooden cup, he noticed his hand trembling slightly—a lingering effect of the night's tension. The beer had long lost its foam and tasted bitter, like rusty iron.
Through the morning mist, the inner city clock tower struck five times, but the chimes sounded unusually muffled, as if echoing from the depths of a distant lake.
Yulga spotted the knights of House Bradley inspecting the defenses. The captain who had berated him the previous night now sported two heavy dark circles under his eyes, and his gleaming breastplate was stained with black smudges.
Brock suddenly tapped Yulga's arm armor and offered him half a stale piece of bread. As Yulga took it, he noticed blood crusts still clinging to the young warrior's fingernails from carrying the wounded the night before. They chewed in silence, neither mentioning the gold coins scattered outside the city walls.
The eastern sky gradually brightened, but everyone knew this brief respite was merely the calm before the storm.
The Crystal Glare Legion had been tasked with recapturing Windbreath Fortress.
The rising sun painted the city walls crimson as the sharp clang of metal resounded from the Orcish lines. The legion's artillerymen were making final adjustments to their short, stubby howitzers—siege weapons specially crafted by the Alden Military Factory. These formidable machines featured exaggerated, trumpet-shaped muzzles and thick, dark blue cast-iron bodies, currently aimed at the fortress walls at a forty-five-degree angle.
"Prepare—Fire!"
With a wave of the command flag, the howitzers roared, sending bursting shells arcing high into the sky. After reaching their apex, the shells plunged almost vertically toward the battlements.
Yulga watched as one shell slammed into the crenellations thirty paces away. The delayed-action fuse allowed it to roll into the midst of the defenders before detonating in a deafening explosion. Pre-fragmented shrapnel sprayed out in a fan shape, sending three archers tumbling from the walls like rag dolls.
"Shield Cars advance!" a clear order rang out from the Alden lines. Dozens of iron-clad wooden carts slowly advanced under cannon fire, each followed by a squad of soldiers carrying sandbags. The arrows fired by the defenders clattered harmlessly against the angled steel plates, their impact no more effective than a light rain.
Yulga spotted a high platform nearby where the human defenders were frantically cranking the winches of a ballista, desperately trying to stop the Shield Cars from approaching the city walls. But before they could even fire, three howitzer shells arced through the air. One struck the heavy weapon directly, shattering its wooden base in an explosion. Splintered debris even rolled to Yulga's feet.
"The third trench is filled!" cheers erupted from the soldiers ahead. Yuriko Rodney impatiently tapped his saber. The prince was clad in ornate armor, his breastplate emblazoned with an exaggerated griffin crest.
"Harrison! Send in my men!" he shouted to the Crystal Glare Legion commander, repeatedly opening and closing the visor mechanism on his helmet. "My Knights can take that section of the wall with a single charge!"
Harrison Abbott lowered his telescope, its lenses still reflecting the chaotic figures of the defenders on the city walls. He glanced at the Howitzer battery being reloaded, then at the eager young nobles behind Yuriko—their armor gleaming, yet untouched by battle scars.
He handed the telescope to Yuriko and raised his hand to signal a halt to the bombardment. The battlefield fell into an eerie silence, broken only by faint cries of anguish from the distant walls.
"Your Highness," he said, turning to Yuriko and pointing at the brick and stone base of the wall, "see those cracks the cannons have blasted? Bury a few powder kegs beneath them, and the entire section will collapse."
The Engineer Captain immediately stepped forward, displaying a fine steel drilling tool. "Precisely. No need to sacrifice knights' lives to fill the gaps."
Yuriko's sword clanged half an inch from its scabbard, its gilded hilt gleaming in the sunlight. "Are you trying to deny our knights the chance to prove their valor?" The young nobles behind him erupted in indignant protests, some even deliberately tapping their swords against their shields.
Harrison took a deep breath. He couldn't afford to offend the prince. He conceded, "How about this? After the wall is breached, Your Highness will lead the first wave of the assault."
The words, like honey, instantly quelled the unrest.
"Now that's more like it!" Yuriko exclaimed, slamming his visor shut. His voice buzzed through the metal helmet as he turned to the Knights and shouted, "Did you hear that? The first charge is ours!"
The Combat Engineers followed the Shield Cars. These iron-clad wooden vehicles, equipped with wheels on their undersides, moved across the filled-in trenches as smoothly as if on level ground.
As Combat Engineers tasked with a crucial role in the siege, they had trained in trench warfare. However, the defenders facing them wielded only cold weapons, and the few remaining heavy crossbows and catapults had been largely destroyed. The Shield Cars alone provided sufficient cover.
The defenders on the wall futilely fired arrows. The arrowheads scraped against the sloped steel plates, sending sparks flying. They could only watch helplessly as the Combat Engineers swarmed the base of the wall like ants, the sound of drilling even penetrating the stone bricks.
"Prepare for the explosion!" The Combat Engineers who had finished planting the explosives retreated. The Engineer Captain waved a red flag to signal the alert.
Harrison gripped Yuriko's eager shoulder. "Your Highness, please be patient. We'll attack after the dust settles." He could feel the armor beneath his palm trembling slightly—whether from battle lust or fear, he couldn't tell.
With a deafening roar, the entire section of the wall collapsed like melting sugar cubes.
As the smoke cleared, Yuriko raised his sword without hesitation. "For the glory of Aldor!"
Behind him, a thousand Knights erupted in a frenzied roar, scrambling to charge through the fresh breach. Harrison signaled the new recruits to follow and provide cover.
The thunderous echo of the wall's collapse still vibrated in the air. Yulga staggered to his feet from the rubble, his ears ringing with a sharp tinnitus.
He stared blankly at the massive gap in the distance—the once-impenetrable, towering wall now shattered and fragmented, as if a colossal beast had taken a bite out of it.
Nearby, Brock knelt, the young Orc Warrior digging his fingers into the ground, his knuckles buried in rubble and dust. His lips trembled soundlessly. Shaman Goruk's Bone Staff lay broken in two, and the cunning glint that usually sparkled in his eyes had been replaced by hollow terror.
(End of the Chapter)
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