Before dawn, Windbreak Castle was shrouded in an eerie silence. The eastern sky was just beginning to lighten, and the guards on the walls leaned against the crenellations, their eyelids heavy as lead.
Yulga leaned against the arrow sack, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the gradually clearing wilderness outside the city.
His rough fingers unconsciously traced the fresh bullet marks on the stone bricks—grooves left by a solid shot that had grazed the surface the previous night. Brok slumped at his feet, while the young orc warrior yawned, clutching his battle axe.
The clanging of metal echoed from beneath the city walls. Several laborers were pulling waterwheels, distributing black bread and pale beer to the garrison. When Yurga took the wooden cup, he noticed his hands trembling slightly—a lingering effect of the entire night's tension. The beer had long since lost its foam and tasted bitter, like rust.
In the morning mist, the inner city bell tower struck five times, but the sound was unusually muffled, as if it came from a distant underwater place.
Yulga saw the Bradley knights patrolling the city defenses. The captain who had reprimanded him the night before now had dark circles under his eyes, and his shiny breastplate was covered in black marks.
Brock suddenly touched his arm guard and offered him half a hardened piece of bread. When Yurga took it, he noticed that the young warrior's fingernails were still embedded with scabs left from carrying the wounded the previous night. They chewed in silence, neither of them mentioning the gold coins scattered outside the city.
The eastern sky gradually brightened, but everyone knew that this brief tranquility was merely a respite before the storm.
The Crystal Legion was tasked with retaking Storm's End.
The rising sun stained the city walls blood-red, and the crisp sound of metal clashing echoed from the Austrian army's positions. The Crystal Radiance Legion's gunners were making final adjustments to their short, stubby mortars—these siege weapons, specially made by the Arda Armory, had exaggeratedly flared muzzles and their heavy cast-iron barrels were painted a deep blue; they were now pointed at the city walls at a forty-five-degree angle.
"Ready—Fire!"
As the command flag was waved, the mortar roared with a deep rumble, and the explosive shells traced high arcs, falling almost vertically towards the city wall after reaching their apex.
Yulga witnessed a cannonball strike the crenellation thirty paces away. The delayed fuse caused it to explode with a bang after rolling into the ranks of the defenders. Pre-formed fragments flew in a fan shape, and three archers were thrown off the wall like rag dolls.
"Shield wagons, advance!" A clear command rang out from the Austrian lines. Dozens of iron-clad wooden wagons slowly advanced under artillery cover, each followed by a squad of soldiers carrying sacks. The rain of arrows fired by the defenders clanged against the sloping steel plates, having less effect than a sudden downpour.
Yulga saw on a high platform not far away that the human defenders were frantically turning the winch of the ballista, trying to stop the shield carts outside the city from getting closer. But before they could fire, three mortar shells came flying through the air, one of which hit the heavy weapon. The wooden base shattered into pieces in the explosion, and the flying fragments even rolled down to Yulga's feet.
"The third trench is filled!" Cheers erupted from the soldiers ahead. Yuriko Rodney impatiently slapped his sword. The prince wore magnificent armor with an exaggerated griffin emblem carved on his breastplate.
"Harrison! Send my men!" he shouted at the commander of the Crystal Legion, his fingers constantly opening and closing the mechanisms of his visor. "My knights can take that section of the wall in one charge!"
Harrison Abbott lowered his binoculars, the lenses still reflecting the chaotic figures of the defenders on the city walls. He glanced at the mortar array being reloaded, then at the eager noblemen behind Yuriko—their armor gleaming, yet without a single battle scar.
He handed the binoculars to Yuriko, raised his hand to signal a halt to the shelling, and the battlefield suddenly fell into an eerie silence, with only the faint wails from the distant city walls audible.
"Your Highness," he turned to Yuriko, pointing to the bricks at the base of the wall, "do you see those cracks caused by the cannon fire? Just burying some gunpowder barrels underneath could cause the entire section of the wall to collapse."
The engineering captain immediately stepped forward, displaying the steel drilling tools in his hand, "You're right, we don't need to use knights' lives to pay for it."
Yuriko drew his sword half an inch from its sheath with a clang, the gilded hilt gleaming in the sunlight: "You are depriving knights of the opportunity to prove their courage!" The noble lads behind him immediately erupted in discontent, some even deliberately tapping their shields with their swords.
Harrison took a deep breath. He couldn't refuse the prince's request, so he conceded, "How about this: after the city walls are breached, Your Highness will lead the charge into the city first."
These words instantly calmed the commotion, like honey.
"That's more like it!" Yurico excitedly closed his visor, his voice booming inside his metal helmet. He turned to the knights and shouted, "Did you all hear that? The first charge is ours!"
The engineers set off with the shield carts, which were made of iron and fitted with pulleys at the bottom, allowing them to move across the filled trenches as if on flat ground.
As engineers who played an important role in the assault, they had been trained in trenching and advancing, but the defending troops in front of them only had cold weapons. The only commendable heavy crossbows and catapults were also mostly destroyed, so they only needed to use shield carts for cover.
The defenders fired arrows in vain from the city wall, the arrowheads sparking as they struck the sloping steel plates. He watched helplessly as the engineers swarmed like ants at the base of the wall, the sound of drilling even penetrating the bricks.
"Prepare for the explosion!" The sappers, having finished planting the explosives, returned to their positions, and the sapper captain waved a red flag and called out a warning.
Harrison pressed down on Yuriko's eager shoulder: "Your Highness, please be patient. Wait for the dust to settle after the explosion before attacking." He could feel the armor under his palm trembling slightly—whether from fighting spirit or fear, he didn't know.
With a deafening roar, the entire section of the city wall collapsed like melted candy.
As soon as the smoke cleared, Yurico eagerly raised his sword: "For the glory of Aldo!"
Behind him, thousands of knights roared with fervor and rushed toward the new opening, while Harrison signaled to the new army soldiers to follow and provide cover.
The roar of the collapsing city wall still reverberated in the air. Yulga staggered up from the rubble, his ears filled with a sharp ringing.
He stared blankly at the huge gap in the distance—the once impregnable and towering city wall was now broken and fragmented, as if it had been bitten by some giant beast.
Brok knelt not far away, the young orc warrior's hands gripping the ground tightly, his fingers filled with pebbles and dust. His lips trembled incessantly, but no sound came out. The shaman Goruk's bone staff was broken in two, and his eyes, which always gleamed with cunning, were now filled with empty fear.