Though the 17th Legion emerged from the mire in a wretched state, their armor caked with mud, its three thousand Black Steel Knights still carried terrifying momentum.
The earth trembled, and the warhorses snorted white mist, as though they meant to tear the Ice Plains up by the roots.
Less than a thousand meters remained between them and Frost Glaive City.
Ackerman grinned viciously, his face contorted in the freezing wind.
Seeing the seemingly flimsy front line of Red Tide Knights ahead, he gave free rein to his arrogance.
These men would soon be crushed to pieces beneath his tide of black steel!
Just before the 17th Legion crashed into them...
The Red Tide Knights suddenly swept aside like a receding tide, their movements almost unnaturally coordinated.
Ackerman's pupils contracted. "Hmph, trying to lure us in? Naive!"
But before he could finish speaking, the mist-shrouded clearing farther ahead suddenly lit up.
As the white mist dispersed, Ackerman finally saw the second wall hidden before the city gates.
It was not a shield formation, but an entire line of Steam War Chariots, each as menacing as a monstrous beast from the abyss.
They stood abreast in a steel barricade, each twice the height of a warhorse. Their bodies were wedge-shaped, their shells studded with rivets like raised scars of cold iron, their front-mounted alloy rams resembling predators' fangs.
Their tracks churned slowly, heavy metal chains biting firmly into the frozen ground. Refined copper steam pipes swelled and shuddered as high-pressure steam from their boilers belched black smoke.
Thud... thud... thud...
The low rumble woven from the rhythm of pistons and the vibrations of power furnaces was so deep it sounded as though giants were hammering beneath the earth.
It was a vibration, a fear that spread outward from the marrow.
The