On the fortress walls, James and the officers under his command watched the Barbarian army forming ranks on the open ground before them.
For the moment, none of them could speak. The sight was simply too horrifying, even though they knew those people were not soldiers, merely ordinary Barbarian herders.
Yet the crowd blanketing that entire vast stretch of open ground still left everyone drenched in cold sweat. There were simply too many of them.
Just then, an officer suggested, "Viscount, should we have Mr. Solington try out our secret weapon first? With so many people out there, a hit is bound to kill or wound a huge swath of them. Surely that would give them quite a fright!"
James was tempted, but after considering it briefly, he shook his head. "Not yet."
The other officers looked at James without saying anything. Since their military commander disagreed, they could only obey. Besides, they did not think there was anything particularly wrong with his judgment.
After all, the enemy was only forming ranks for now. The Barbarian herders looked like a vast sea of people, but their formations were loose. Even if they used the secret weapon to inflict heavy casualties, how many could they actually kill or wound? A thousand at most, perhaps eight hundred.
Such losses would probably have a negligible effect on this Barbarian army. At most, they would dent its morale, nowhere near the crushing rout they hoped to achieve in a single stroke. Better to find a way to use the secret weapon at a more critical moment.
James suddenly said, "I remember we stockpiled quite a few Fire Oil Bombs, didn't we?"
He looked at a short, stout officer beside him. This was Kabor, the commander of the Border Fortress's Catapult detachment.
The Fire Oil