The darkness before dawn had yet to lift. The basin lay like a vast, closed bowl, quietly waiting for its prey to fall inside.
Five thousand fully armed heavy knights charged down the slope amid Kalien's furious roars.
They were an unstoppable torrent of force, their raised lances and longswords forming a forest of steel that swept forward.
Kalien rode at the very front, his cloak billowing behind him.
He could feel his blood roaring in his ears, his chest filled with an almost suffocating exhilaration.
Crystalrock City lay ahead. Once they broke through, the Federation's heart would stop beating that very morning.
"Faster!" His command was swallowed by the battle cries.
"For the Empire!"
Five thousand knights roared in unison, their voices echoing through the basin as though they would tear the night sky apart.
Yet when the troops reached the basin's lowest point, none of what they had expected appeared.
No rain of arrows, no explosions, no magical radiance, no ambushers leaping from the shadows. Not even wind.
The world seemed to have been muted. Only the warhorses' labored breathing remained, painfully jarring in the empty basin.
At that instant, Kalien sensed something was wrong. He raised his hand, about to order the troops to regroup.
Suddenly, the sensation beneath the horses' hooves changed. The rocky ground had been hard and cold, transmitting every vibration clearly.
Within a few short breaths, it turned soft and viscous, radiating an unnatural, scorching heat.
His warhorse suddenly neighed, a sound of instinctive terror.
The first rank of knights began slowing, followed by the second.
The horses' breathing grew rapid and erratic. Some began circling in place; others even tried to retreat, only to be forced forward by the torrent of riders behind them.
"What's happening?! Is it a trap?!" A knight's