Siege

Before long, the two sides faced each other from a distance, one inside the checkpoint and the other outside.

The defenders led by Wood lined up along the wall, crouching behind its edge with only their heads showing. The wall stretched over a hundred meters, and a few dozen people simply couldn't cover all of it. From afar, they looked few and far between—and on closer inspection, not everyone was on the wall.

On the other side, the attackers hid behind the Command Post a hundred meters away, seemingly trying to evade the defenders' scrutiny. Only Percy went to the front, peering at the defenders' movements through a pair of binoculars.

When Percy returned to his teammates, he could only shake his head helplessly. "There's not much useful information. We have no idea what they've set up on or behind the wall."

"Should we use Flying Broomsticks to scout from the air?" Harry asked tentatively, tightening his grip on the Flying Broomstick in his hands.

"Not a good idea..." Percy shook his head. "Have you forgotten the anti-air weapons they used? They have an Air Force of their own, too. If we take off rashly, we'll just become targets."

"Then let's try a frontal assault first," Neville suggested. "But we need to watch out for mines in front of the wall, as well as those Lava Shells. If they launch those from behind the wall, they'll be hard to defend against."

"Right." Percy nodded. "So for the first wave, we should stick to a low-cost approach as much as possible. Here's the plan..."

Percy gathered everyone around and issued his orders. "For the first wave, the ground troops will split into three groups and attack the wall and gate at the same time. The Air Force will patrol overhead and