Siege

Boom, boom, boom...

The impassioned war drums echoed from behind the Empire's army. At that moment, more than three hundred thousand Imperial troops were advancing toward Kurotsuchi Fortress.

Facing the towering black walls, the Imperial soldiers showed no fear. They maintained orderly formations and advanced at a steady pace.

At the very front of the Imperial army was a large line of heavy shield-bearers. They held their shields diagonally overhead. There would be no enemies in front of them—the lethal attacks would certainly come from the fortress dozens of meters above.

The troops behind the heavy shield-bearers were rather special. They wore light armor and carried no weapons. Each had a bamboo basket strapped to his back, filled with irregularly shaped stones of various sizes. Those stones were the key to this battle.

Formations like this stretched across the entire front of the Imperial army: a row of heavy shield-bearers, followed by transport soldiers carrying stones, followed by another row of heavy shield-bearers, repeating in that order.

As the Imperial army advanced, the tribal soldiers on Kurotsuchi Fortress's walls tensed their bodies.

A series of enormous siege crossbows were positioned along the fortress walls. They resembled batteries and were forged entirely from metal. Loading them required a hand crank, which looked somewhat like the starter lever of an old hand-operated tractor, only greatly enlarged.

Click, click, click...

The sounds of the siege crossbows being cocked merged into one. These enormous crossbows could not be cocked in advance. If they were not fired within a minute after being cocked, the tremendous tension on the bowstrings would deform them. That showed just how terrifying their power was.

Dwarves bustled about on the walls. Three dwarves worked beside each crossbow: one handled firing, one handled loading, and one turned the crank to cock