When Alex brought his commanders to the gate, he found the situation even worse than he had imagined.
A huge hole had already been blasted through the gate, and the arrow towers and artillery towers above it had lost their tops. The archers and ballistae inside were gone as well.
Alex could only stand on the wall to one side and look out.
The moon was full tonight, its light clear and bright, giving him a reasonably good view.
But as far as he could see, there was nothing on the distant lakeshore or in the wooded hills beyond.
When Alex turned his gaze closer, he saw no sign of the enemy beneath the damaged gate either.
The stone bridge leading to the gate was also deserted, with only scattered chunks of blasted stone lying across it.
What was the enemy doing?
What had caused all this destruction?
Alex soon had his answer.
He saw a sudden flash of red light in the distance.
It was the glow of a mass of fire.
A fireball appeared in midair, then rapidly grew larger and brighter.
By its light, Alex could just make out a man in mage robes behind the fireball.
There seemed to be other people standing beside the man, but he could not see them clearly.
When the fireball grew to roughly one or two meters across, Alex saw it stop churning in place.
The man vanished from his view in an instant, because the fireball was already hurtling toward the wall.
It flew so fast that it seemed stretched into an oval, then slammed straight into the already precarious section of wall beside the gate.
A tremendous blast erupted along the wall, followed by a blaze of fire. Some unlucky soldiers caught fire as well, rolling and struggling