"This is impossible..." a human defender muttered, his spear clattering to the ground.
He repeated the phrase mechanically, as if doing so could make the collapsed wall stand back up, and a few archers curled up beneath surviving battlements, trembling like startled quails.
"Hold the breach!" a Bradley Family knight shouted hoarsely, though even his own voice betrayed despair.
A few hastily rallied defenders had just run to the breach when they were riddled by muskets that suddenly appeared amidst the smoke and dust, and the muffled thud of lead bullets tearing through flesh became the final straw that broke the defenders' will.
The defenders dropped their weapons and stripped off their armor, surging toward the inner city like living corpses; all battle intent had already vanished from their eyes, leaving only the most primitive survival instinct.
A flash of dazzling metallic reflection suddenly cut through the smoke-choked breach in the wall.
Hiding behind the ruins, Yulgar narrowed his gunpowder-stung eyes, seeing the first figure charge through-it was an armored knight, the gleaming breastplate engraved with intricate family heraldry, and the knee and arm guards decorated with ornate gilt patterns.
Yet what drew the eye most was the short-barreled musket gleaming coldly in his hand.
"For the King!" the knight shouted the ancient slogan while pulling the trigger in the most modern fashion.
With a deafening bang, a Wind's Breath Keep defender not far ahead of him dropped on the spot, a bowl-sized bloody hole blasted through his chest.
More knights swarmed in from the breach, forming a grotesque picture: the plumed helmets on their heads came from their grandfathers' treasured collections, and ancestral ceremonial swords hung at their waists, yet every single one of them held a uniformly issued musket, and one young knight had even engraved the family