The light of spring fell upon the frontier fortress that was about to be engulfed by war.

Leonhardt Strauch and his soldiers concentrated on carrying out various tasks as they tried to fill the moat.

“Fire!”

At the Dalish youngster, Cammen’s behest, the archery battalion consisted of 500 archers from Redcliffe and Dalish let loose their bows, and countless arrows shot over the walls of fortress, giving rise to many screams.

The battalion knew that a powerful counterattack would come right after, so…

Leonhardt Strauch shouted,

“Retreat!”

Without even checking how much damage they’ve dealt, they ran back to an area near the forest. As soon as they did, an arrow as big as one’s arm landed in the place they were standing at before.

“Dangerous, are the humans raising a giant?” Cammen spat.

Cammen had a platoon meant for sieging the frontier fortress, but the powerful attacks of the enemy kept them from putting their plans into action.

This was the dalish’ first time sieging an enemy city. No matter how hard they racked their heads to find a way to siege the fortress while limiting casualties, they couldn’t think of anything.

Even Cammen himself who believed that the archers of Dalish wouldn’t lose out to the human archers cowered before their giant arrows.

As a result, they have been fighting the humans like the waves of the sea, coming and going.

While they fought, the shield infantry battalion led by Gertrude Albright would take their shields and run for the moats, and they would try to fill them up.

"Support the retreating orcs! Proud dalish, don’t let these shield battalion prove themselves braver than us!” an old dalish said.

It was rare for him to say so much, but he needed to encourage his soldiers.

As soon as he gave that command, the dalish hiding in between the trees, crawled out and shot their bows at the humans.

Meanwhile, the deputy of the archery division, Gheyna who was Cammen's crush stood at the frontline to manage the horde that was made up of half their tribe.

“Fire!” Gheyna, the scarlet dalish maiden yelled.

The arrows flew above the walls once more.

“Over there! Run!” Leonhardt Strauch followed up.

The archers ran the opposite direction that the shield battalion did.

As they dodged the incoming arrows, Gheyna gave another order.

“Bows at the ready!” she said.

When everyone had nocked their arrows, Leonhardt Strauch immediately gave his next order.

“Stop! Shoot!” he said.

After those two simple orders, Leonhardt Strauch and his soldiers ran back to the forest.

When they got back to the forest, ,Elora, the beast master of the dalish called out to him.

“The termites have a problem,” Elora said.

Apparently, the termites under her command tried to dig a hole to fill the moat, but they ended up hitting a barrier that kept them from moving any further.

“Are those people that meticulous?” Leonhardt Strauch asked.

“I don’t know. They felt like something made by a god.” Elora said.

“Hmm…” Leonhardt Strauch became thoughtful.

Did the defenders accidentally build their fortress on top of something hard? Or their technology was state-of-the-art?

Leonhardt Strauch wasn’t sure, but if the killer ants can’t get through, then that’s that.

“Got it. You can stop your termites, Lady Elora.” Leonhardt Strauch calmly said.

For the meantime, he commanded the attackers to rest, then he went to meet Gertrude.

“We’ve thrown the logs just like you told me too, but we just can’t seem to fill those things,” Gertrude, the muscular young lady said.

“Did you suffer any casualties?” He asked.

“We have about 3 wounded,” she answered in a matter of fact tone.

“That’s good then,” he said.

“Those giant arrows are a problem,” Gertrude lamented.

“Indeed, and here I thought we’d win for sure in a contest of archery,” Gheyna interjected.

Seeing Gheyna crying sour grapes, Gertrude couldn’t help but raise her brows in her anxiety.

“There’s water underground, but we can’t quite figure out how to get it to flow into the moat,” Leonhardt Strauch deducted.

It wasn’t easy for the termites,that normally lived in the soil, to go underground.

There was no way for them to reach that water source either.

As Gheyna sighed and Elora quietly listened, the latter came up with an idea.

“Then how about this?” Elora, the beast master voiced up.

After Leonhardt Strauch listened to Elora's proposition, he decided to stop the attacks during the day.

***

On the side of the defenders, who were under attack, Kant and his men defended the fortress as they thought of a way to send messangers to the south.

“How are the ballistae doing?” Kant asked.

“There are currently no problems, sir!” The young soldier replied.

Commanders like Kant always had to act dignified lest they wished to make their soldiers anxious.

As someone who had studied military in the capital, Kant did his best to stifle his own worries and act like a dignified commander.

“Keep up the good work. Those invaders won’t cower just from something like this,” Kant said.

“Understood!” The young soldier happily replied, and Kant nodded.

Kant’s attention was focused on the distant west. They have been successfully defending against the invaders' attacks thanks to the defensive weapons of the fortress, and the moats – despite having been slightly filled – were still alright, but it was curious whether they would be able to say the same in the hour of the night.

The darkness could  belong to the invaders.

Of course, Kant had come up with a countermeasure himself.

Having been designed to defend for perpetuity, the frontier fortress came outfitted with bountiful fields.

The emergency reserves should hold even half a year later.

The knights, the soldiers, the farmers and tenant farmers all currently had high morale.

But even then…

Kant gripped the hilt of his sword tight.

Did I overlook something? Is everything really alright? He anxiously pondered.

Kant could not rid himself of his worries, so despite it being his free time, he could not help but inspect the defensive weapons, the farms, and various other places.

“Nothing seems amiss,” He said to himself.

But although Kant had checked for himself that nothing was amiss, when he went to the streets, his anxiety still weighed heavily on his shoulders.

***

Viscount Lazar sent a reinforcement request to the neighbouring barons but the surviving messenger returned with the news that those territories had been annexed.

He sent messengers to Margrave Mantillon de Haine in Haine castle but the response was yet to arrive. Most probably, the messengers on horses were overtaken and killed by the enemies, he presumed.

All he knew was that he couldn’t expect reinforcements from the south.

“Regardless, even without them, we will still have 500 men and these sturdy walls."

He had lost about 100 soldiers, killed by the enemies' skillful archers.

"Damn. Where do such skillful archers come from?" He cursed.