When the deadline expired, Marquis Holt stood at the highest point of the stone fort. The entire defensive line at the bridgehead lay before him. It had held back more enemies than he could count.
The warriors of the Eternal Night Wall were brave, but he did not believe the soldiers from the inland regions were any weaker. After all, every warrior on the Eternal Night Wall had come from there.
And Marquis Holt had spent a long time preparing these defenses.
His plan was to have the archers and crossbowmen wear down the Tear Knight infantry, then commit his family knights once the enemy crowded into the narrow bridgehead. If they repelled the first assault, Shien would have to consider his losses.
But the first things to arrive were not infantry at all.
"What are those?!"
The Tear Knight formation parted, and several hulking machines of pitch-black steel rolled slowly forward.
Rumble, rumble—
Black tracks crushed the road beneath them as the heavy steel vehicles advanced along the main road leading to the bridge.
Holt could not even understand how they moved on their own. Then they stopped beyond crossbow range, one after another, and the gun barrels on their fronts and sides turned toward the bridgehead.
"What are those?" he asked again.
The family officers beside him had no answer. They had never seen anything like them either.
Marquis Holt had heard about the many things the Tear Knights had developed over the past few years, but the words "battle constructs" on paper were nothing like the steel vehicles before him.
The Tear Knights gave them no more time to wonder. An officer serving as an observer raised a flag.
"Fire!"
Boom! Boom! Boom! Several deafening blasts rang out.
The Wallwalkers fired together. Their first volley struck the