Persuading Them to Surrender

He saw more Broomflower soldiers and slaves, under the officers' command, nervously constructing artillery positions. One terrifyingly heavy cannon after another was pushed to the front line, their dark muzzles all pointed at this low, flimsy stretch of Rammed Earth Wall in Tyrol!

"Afternoon... They're planning to attack this afternoon..." Bragi's heart sank. The enemy wasn't even willing to wait one night—they intended to crush them in a single overwhelming assault. "They really aren't giving us any chance to catch our breath..."

He knew the defensive strength of Tyrol City's walls all too well. How could these hastily built earth walls, less than half a year old, withstand the fierce bombardment of what were clearly heavy siege cannons?

They probably wouldn't even survive three volleys before collapsing and leaving a massive breach. By then, the Broomflower soldiers flooding in would be like a breached dam, instantly drowning this little fortress.

"Hakon... So you died in battle too..." Bragi lowered his telescope and tiredly rubbed his bloodshot eyes. A bleak sorrow welled up in his heart, like that of a rabbit mourning the death of a fox.

Hakon, that proud Skarn eagle, had actually fallen here as well. If even he had died in battle, what meaning was there in Bragi stubbornly holding this doomed place alone?

A viciousness mixed with despair, resentment, and reckless defiance suddenly rose from the depths of Bragi's heart, swiftly overwhelming his earlier anger and helplessness.

"If Hakon died on the battlefield and was wrapped in his horsehide... Then how could I, Bragi, cling to life and fear death, only to die like a coward beneath these collapsing walls—or worse... be captured and butchered like those soldiers?"

No! Never!

A Sauron warrior could die in battle, but he could never die in humiliation!

His gaze sharpened