The stubborn King Llane refused to pay, leaving Jindi no choice but to leave the hall in disappointment.
Doing business with these diehards was far too difficult!
All they would do was watch their knights charge in and fight the orcs to the death.
Wouldn't it be better to carpet-bomb them first, then charge?
The gnome mage, who would never understand chivalry, hurried out of the heavily guarded palace, mounted his Mechanical Hawkstrider, and headed for the harbor district.
Stormwind City's harbor was integrated into the city itself.
People had originally built the city here because of its ideal harbor terrain, with mountains on three sides and the sea on the fourth.
Whether enemies attacked by land or sea, a city like this would never be easy to take.
Of course, a city being impossible to capture had nothing to do with whether its residents fled.
The wealthy were trying every possible way to escape Stormwind City.
Those without money also crowded around the harbor, looking for a way out.
The harbor district was packed with refugees and nothing else.
No one wanted to stay in a city that could come under attack at any moment.
King Llane could not understand why these people were finding every possible way to flee when the kingdom had not truly been defeated yet.
He had never stopped to consider whether his side had won even a single victory in the past three years.
Inconclusive wars of attrition and encounters that ended in defeat every time had worn away the people's enthusiasm.
Under those circumstances, why wouldn't they run?
Stormwind City might have been incredibly sturdy and almost impossible to breach.
But as long as there was even the slightest possibility, it was no longer safe.
A wise person did not stand beneath a crumbling wall. They had to leave while they still could.
By the time everyone wanted to leave, there might no longer be a chance.
People with a sense of danger could always spot threats early and steer clear of dangerous places.
Watching these clever people, Jindi could not help marveling at how differently smart people behaved.
If King Llane had been half as smart as they were, he might already have defeated the orcs.
Most of the ships docked at the harbor had ordinary wooden hulls.
A few, however, were clad in iron armor and fitted with enormous smokestacks.
These were steam-powered ironclads.
They were an interim product manufactured by the Dawnedge Armory.
These powered vessels were much faster than sailing ships and far more maneuverable.
The cannons aboard them were land-based models installed as a temporary measure.
Still, there would certainly be no problem using them in naval combat!
Not long after Jindi returned to his ship in a gloomy mood, shocking news arrived.
The Stormwind Brotherhood of the Horse fighting on the front lines had been routed!
With such a disaster unfolding, the number of residents hoping to escape by ship shot up.
The troops fighting at the front also lost all will to fight and began withdrawing into the city to rest and regroup.
Even the knights have been routed. Surely it's reasonable for us to retreat into the city and hold our ground?
The troops pouring chaotically into the city gave the orcs the perfect opportunity to attack.
Seizing his chance, Orgrim captured the gate amid the confusion, cracking open Fortress City's tortoise shell.
The frenzied, bloodthirsty Fel Orcs and ogres began displaying their brutality and savagery within the city.
Open battlefields belonged to the knights, but urban warfare belonged to them!
Great axes and hammers demolished the city's buildings at will.
Seemingly sturdy doors were often smashed apart in just one or two blows.
Want to fight them in the streets?
They would show you what it meant to sweep away everything in their path!
Without powerful covering fire, stopping their atrocities would likely be difficult.
Jindi watched the tragedy unfolding around the gate through the Mage's Eye.
Seeing those wicked atrocities was like seeing the most evil trolls in the world.
Trolls must die, and so must orcs!
After adjusting the warship's firing trajectories, he ordered a round of saturation bombardment.
The shock wave from the cannons' simultaneous discharge shoved the ship sideways more than ten meters.
The refugees on shore trembled in fright at the deafening cannon fire.
They did not understand why these ironclad warships had suddenly fired into the sky.
Then they realized that the shells fired by the warships could travel several kilometers, reaching all the way to the city gate.
The faint howls coming from the gate abruptly fell silent.
The refugees had no idea what had happened, but Jindi saw it clearly through the Mage's Eye.
A salvo from more than a dozen heavy artillery pieces blasted the largest and most aggressive orc force into scattered scraps.
Blood-red liquid could faintly be seen seeping into the deep craters in the ground.
Losing hundreds of brave, battle-hardened warriors in an instant pained even Orgrim, despite the large army at his disposal.
It would have been easier to stomach losing that many troops in a brutal battle that inflicted casualties on both sides.
Having them wiped out in a single bombardment was simply unacceptable!
Orgrim hurriedly adjusted his attacking forces' tactics.
"Spread out and attack! Find cover!"
Once the attackers stopped clustering together, the momentum of their assault weakened considerably, but they still held the overall advantage.
The human defenders had regained their footing, yet they still struggled to hold them back.
Orcs and ogres alike were powerful combatants capable of taking on several opponents at once.
When their enormous weapons came crashing down, even elite heavy infantry trembled all over beneath the impact.
For ordinary human soldiers, facing them was practically walking to their deaths.
But it was precisely their formidable performance that made Jindi happy to kill them even if each shell took down only one.
The Draenei whom the orcs had exterminated in their own world had also possessed highly advanced engineering technology.
As a result, the orcs had a wide range of tactics for dealing with firearms.
How to evade shelling, how to dodge machine-gun fire-they had standardized tactical maneuvers for all of it.
But wasn't firing an entire shell just to take down a single target going too far?
It was practically using a cannon to kill a mosquito!
Jindi, however, did not consider it a waste.
No matter how expensive a large-caliber shell was, it would never cost more than an orc was worth.
Besides, someone would definitely foot the bill.
Settling his mercenary fees with Stormwind City based on his kill count made this a decidedly profitable deal!
The gunners faithfully followed the fine practice of killing one enemy with every shell.
An orc warrior advancing fearfully through the city's ruins kept praying that the enemy would not choose him.
Yet the very next moment, a towering column of smoke and flame erupted without warning from his position.
When the smoke cleared, a crater several meters across had appeared there.
As for the orc who had been there earlier, he had presumably ridden an earthen airplane to the heavens and become spectacular cannon fodder!
Pulverized first, then incinerated at high temperatures-a completely painless, one-stop service!
Faced with such an extravagant method of attack, even a professional commander like Orgrim had to concede defeat.
If he kept trading blows with the enemy like this, who knew how many troops he would lose?
As the only commander among the orcs who had not drunk demon blood and still had a reasonably sound mind, he had a responsibility.
He had to devise a more sensible plan for taking the city.
If excessive casualties during the siege caused the army to mutiny, that would be a serious problem!
Although Orgrim was comfortably stronger than these fellows, he did not want them challenging him every day.
As the horn sounded the retreat, the attacking troops quickly withdrew through the city gate.
On their way out, however, they burned down the gate to make their next assault easier.