Half an hour later, atop the Parnatau Gap's mountains…

The wind howls violently, flapping the green cloaks of the masked men huddled around a fire surrounded by a chest-high barrier of piled up rocks. Kneeling, watching the well-lit fortress below, the owl-masked man spots a white light illuminating the small tents surrounding it. Moments later, another light appears elsewhere in the besieging camp. Almost like a real owl, he turns his metal face to the bear warming himself by the fire.

「Captain, signal torches.」

The owl calls out. The cloaked men stand up and rush up to see.

「At the camp, huh?…」

The large bear-masked man remarks with a troubled tone. The goat behind him approaches with a leisurely, unrushed step.

「…What do you figure, sergeant? That's pretty close to our own men. Not a whole lot of room for mistakes.」

He adds, turning his bear mask to the goat as he watches another white light appear in the darkness.

「I say we hit them. I think the other team knows we can see the fortress.」

The goat replies, briefly glancing down at the bear, who's hunched over by the owl. The owl passes him his spyglass.

「Hit our men?」

The bear-masked captain asks with a manufactured outrage in his voice, as he turns his head over his shoulder towards him.

「…Is this the right time for jokes, captain? They most likely know the risks, and they're taking responsibility for it. They're trusting us to pull it off.」

The goat lets out a sigh, and replies, staring at the fortress. Small, ant-sized shapes patrol the torch-lit battlements. After a brief look down, the bear returns the spyglass.

「Captain, I have a suggestion…」

The owl chimes in, looking up at the two.

「Go ahead, sergeant…」

The bear nods, and watches another white light appear below.

「…What if we loaded smaller stones of equivalent weight? It's unlikely they'd break through the fortress, and they'd pose more risk to everyone exposed.」

The owl-masked man suggests as he collapses his spyglass, and rests his elbow in his knee beneath his cloak. The goat and the bear look at each other.

「The smaller stones would lose their speed faster…」

The goat-masked man remarks as he looks down at the dark, gravel-covered ground.

「What if we just wound the ropes a turn or two more to compensate? They'd scatter all over, too. Good for a target like that.」

The bear asks quietly, making it clear he wants to exclude the rest out of the conversation.

「…That could work. If they don't snap.」

The goat nods his horned head. The bear nods back and turns to the owl.

「Alright! Load the onager, use stones no bigger than a fist!…」

The bear masked man stands up straight, and throws his hand out towards the scaled-down onager. Its frame is minimalistic, using as little wood as possible, and most of the materials to weigh it down in the form of boulders upon its triangle-shaped base have been assembled on the mountain.

「…Owl, keep spotting.」

He declares as the rest of the team rushes away to load and prepare the catapult, rotating it towards the camp by lifting its rear by a fulcrum. He walks to join them, and uses a metal bar to wind rope around a smoothed out log in the rear of the onager, with the help of the goat doing the same. The rope coils around the log, tensing up and pulling the spoon-shaped arm down to the back of the catapult.

Clank-clank-clank… Clank-clank-clank…

Metal ratchets lock the log in place, preventing it from releasing the arm prematurely. With each turn, the action becomes more and more labor-intensive.

「Hnnnghhhhh!…」

Clank… Clank…

The goat strains as the ratchets audibly slow down. He uses his entire body weight to pull down on the metal bar, wrestling it down.

「Come oonnn!… Put your back into it!…」

Clank! Clank! Clank!…

The ratcheting speeds up slightly as the bear-masked man does the same, winding the rope further. It lets out a loud noise of strained friction, and the two pull the bars out of the log's holes.

「…Haaah… Someone's keeping track of the turns?」

The bear asks, panting heavily.

「I am, captain.」

The goat-masked man replies, nodding his horns.

「Good. The rest of you, load it up. One of you take over for Goat for the next shot.」

Clunk!

The bear nods back, swipes his finger over the team waiting by the catapult, then points at it. He then turns around and joins the owl's side while the catapult's arm is being loaded.

「…Loaded, captain!」

A voice exclaims from the onager.

Watching the tents lit by a bright white light below, the bear-masked man raises his hand. His green cloak flutters in the bitterly cold wind…

…

Around the same time, in the besiegers' camp around the fortress…

A small group of armored soldiers are standing near a torch, watching its white flame dance on its flaming rag with fascinated eyes.

「I've never seen anything like this.」

One of the soldiers remarks with furrowed brows.

「Me neither.」 「Yeah, same.」

A few of them nod their helmed heads as they investigate the unusual, pale flame.

「…Do you guys think it might be magic?」

Another soldier asks, looking at the rest.

「Why would it be? It's a torch.」

Yet another man shrugs his armored shoulders while they continue watching the flame. Some move their hands closer to verify if it's warm.

「I mean… Yeah, but it's white. When I was younger I saw a mage with a magic light, it was white, too… Well, mostly bluish…」

He replies, shrugging his shoulders too. Some rub their chins, and some hum, grimacing pensively.

「…Hey guys! Come have a look, there's-! Oh shit, you have one too?」

A pair of soldiers arrives from elsewhere in the camp. They appear somewhat surprised by the white torch as they walk up.

「Have what?」

「A white torch. There's one right by my tent, but the rest are normal and orange.」

「There's more? What's up with that? Why are some white?」

The soldiers already standing in the torchlight begin discussing the mysterious white torches with the visiting ones.

「Dunno, but it's weird. There weren't any by my tent when I pitched it… I don't really mind, the place was dark as fuck.」

The new soldier shrugs his shoulders, and watches the white flame with his armored fists on his hips.

「…Maybe it's some sort of a marker? You know, to help with organization in the dark?」

Someone suggests, glancing briefly at everyone else gathered.

「Yeah, maybe… Anyone see any officers since those guys from deeper in retreated?-」

Fffwapfwapfwapfwapclank!…

And odd sound seems to come from directly above them, then a much louder, deeper one comes from elsewhere in the camp.

「What the fuck!?」 「What the fuck was that!?」 「What was that sound!?」

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Armor plates clatter noisily as the whole group jumps up in panic. They clutch onto their weapons, and their lackadaisical mood evaporates in an instant. Their heads begin to swivel.

「…Aaaaaagghhhhh!…」

「…Hey! Hey, someone help!」

A scream of pain and another voice come from the direction of the previous noise. The soldiers around the white torch look at each other with wide-eyed gazes.

「…Let's go.」

Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack!…

One of them says with a tight-lipped grimace, and they run towards the screams with loud, stomping footsteps.

They arrive at a wide street of a sort between the tents, an area intentionally, or less intentionally so left tent-free. There are two soldiers on the ground. One's body is twisted into an unnatural position off to the side, and right by him is another, screaming and writhing in pain while clutching onto his leg. Another soldier is tightly clutching onto his other leg. He turns terrified face to the group.

「What the fuck happened!?」

One of them asks as their eyes struggle in the dark.

「I don't fucking know! I was talking with these two, then suddenly something fucking loud hit them! I heard it right behind me! It killed him before I even had a chance to turn around!…」

The soldier shouts over the one screaming next to him, clutching tight onto his leg. With his head, he points out the soldier collapsed at a tent's edge.

One of the soldiers from the group walks up and takes a closer look. The dead soldier's face is covered in blood, his chest armor is completely caved in, and his torso is badly mangled.

「…His legs are fucked up! Don't just stand there, give me a hand! He's going to bleed out at this rate!」 「…Hnnggghh!… Hhhhhhgghaagh!…」

The panicked soldier turns his eyes back to the group, and nods his head down to the screaming man on the ground.

The group swarms him and the man, and they look at his injuries. The wounded man's legs are barely attached, broken away, bleeding profusely despite the pressure from the both of them.

「Hey! Get his belt! Tie his legs off!… Get the dead guy's belt too, he won't need it anymore!」

One of the group's soldiers takes charge, and starts pointing his armored finger left and right as he hands out instructions to the group. They fiddle with the dead man's belt and slip it off, while he does the same with the wounded man, after much struggle.

「As tight as you can, or he's as good as dead!」

The leading soldier exclaims. They wrap the belts around the man's thighs, and in an effort to get the belt tighter, one of them stands up, presses his foot down on his mangled leg, then pulls the leather strap away with all his might. The man's screams intensify as he tries to shove his sabaton away, but the bleeding slows.

「Now if we get a fire-」

Ffffffwwm… THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDCLANK!

The noise from before returns, this time louder, and centered directly on the group. One of the soldiers is swept away into a tent by a massive force with the deafening sound of crumpling metal, leaving his helmet spinning in the air, before it drops down on the ground near where he stood.

「What the fuck was that!?」 「Shit!… Shit!…」 「I don't want to die yet!」

The survivors scream in panic, haphazardly looking around for the elusive threat.

「What the fuck is going on!?」

The leading soldier shouts, and looks down at the man who was rending the casualty aid.

He's slumped over the still screaming man, and apparently missing his head.

「…What the fuck?」

He utters out, taking a step back. He notices some of the tents collapsed, but without an obvious cause, other than it being related to the strange noise.

「Everyone wake up! We're under attack! We're under attack! Wake up!」

He shouts everywhere possible. Slowly, groggy soldiers peek their heads out of their tents' flaps.

「Wake the fuck up, idiots! We're under attack by something! Open your fucking eyes! Get up!」

The group's leader continues shouting. His intensity seems to wake some of the soldiers up. They scramble to get their armor on and weapons in hand.

Then, he notices a peculiar pattern. The trail of damage follows a single direction, as indicated by the dead, wounded, and the destroyed tents. He follows it with his gaze.

With a cautious step and wary eyes, he approaches one of the collapsed tents to investigate. He reaches for its cloth, and pulls it away, taking a peek at what it's wrapped around.

「…A rock?」

Confused, he utters out with furrowed brows. He follows the trail back with his eyes, and looks up at the dark silhouette of the mountain towering over them.

Fffwwmm… THWUMPTWUMPTWUMP… Clank!…

For just an instant, a mere fraction of a second, he notices a torch illuminate something in the air. The next moment, the mystery object loudly sails just over his head, causing him to duck.

「…Oh fuck!…」

Someone shouts in panic from behind him. His eyes widen.

「Enemy attack! Enemy attack!… They have a trebuchet, a catapult, or something up on the mountain! We're being pelted by rocks!」

The leader runs back to the terrorized group hugging the cold, snow-covered ground, shouting and pointing his armored finger at the mountain.

「What!? How would they get a catapult up there!? That's impossible! There's no way up there from their side!」

One of them shouts back, quickly glancing up at the mountain's ridge.

「Maybe they found a path, I don't fucking know! All I know is that they're going to fucking slaughter us here!」

The group's leader shakes his head, shrugging his armored shoulders. The group slowly picks itself up off the ground while the injured man continues screaming.

「Even if they did, do they not care if they hit their own men!? We're right by their fortress!」

Another one points at the well-lit Redwing Kingdom fortress. Their garrison seems to be watching the panic unfolding in the camp with great interest.

「I don't fucking know! Do you want to stay here and find out!?」

Clank!

The leader grabs the man by the shoulder, shaking him as he shouts in his face.

Fffwapfwapfwapfwap!…

「There it is again! We have to get the fuck out of here! Fetch the torches, get lights, and let's get the fuck out of here! Don't dawdle or you're fucking dead!」

They listen to the sound of the stones descending somewhere else in the camp. The leader briefly glances at the sky, then shouts instructions at the men again.

They then begin scrambling towards the tents, but stop after a few steps.

「…What about him?」

One of them asks, pointing at the screaming man partially covered by a corpse. The leader grimaces, thinking for a few seconds.

「…Leave him, he's unlucky! He won't make it anyway!」

He replies with a dismissive wave of his hand and a shake of his helmet, then runs off towards his tent.

One by one, with troubled faces, the soldiers reluctantly leave the injured man be as he continues screaming in pain…

…

Around the same time, up on the mountain's ridge.

「…Good hit! Adjust one turn less!」

The owl exclaims as he watches the panicked torches run to and fro without any coherence or sense through his spyglass.

「You heard him! Load 'er up!」

The bear shouts, panting heavily while leaning onto the metal bar.

「…Captain, they're retreating!」

The owl suddenly calls out while the onager is being loaded.

「All of them!?」

The captain asks. Kneeling, the owl-masked man continues watching the camp below.

「…Seems like it to me! They're all pouring towards the Gap!」

He replies after a brief pause, and turns his metal mask towards the rest of the exhausted team.

He looks down again, and notices a torch being waved elsewhere in the dark. The owl raises his spyglass.

「I see Sergeant Bull waving a torch, captain! I think they want us to stop!」

The owl-masked man says, and the bear approaches.

「Hold!」

He orders the team with his palm raised, and takes the spyglass from the owl. He looks down at the lone man with a torch, some ways from the camp.

「…Yeah, that's them alright.」

The bear nods, and returns the spyglass. At the same time, a light begins to blink in the darkness nearby the bull-masked man below.

「Signal, captain…」

The owl says, and watches the light flicker in silence.

「…Looks like that was it. The siege is broken, they're starting the next phase.」

He adds, and looks up at the captain.

「Good. Return affirmative…」

The bear nods, then turns for the campfire.

Clap-clap-clap!

「…Alright, break time! We're back to freezing our asses off!」

The large, bear-masked claps his raised hands, and sits down inside the stone barrier. The rest of the team quickly joins him…

…

Half an hour later, nearby the Redwing Kingdom's fortress…

Vrrroooooommm…

Straf rides slowly towards the fortress with a large attachment of soldiers following. The defenders swarm the battlements, manning defensive positions.

「…Not one step closer! Who are you!?」

A faint voice shouts from the distant battlements, barely audible over the engine. Straf rolls to a stop.

「I could ask you the same thing!」

Straf shouts back with his mouth aslant as his bored eyes scan over the frightened faces peering over the walls.

「You think you're funny!?-」

「Yeah!」

The voice asks, and before the man can continue his sentence, Straf shouts back with a smug smirk on his face.

「…Either tell me whom do you serve, or I'll give the archers my permission! You're well within our range!」

The man replies. The soldiers behind Straf gain nervous grimaces, and begin to skitter behind their shields without having to exchange words. Straf looks over his shoulder.

「Mostly myself, but also the fans!… Are you blind!? Do you not see-!? Tsk…」

「No, I don't see shit, so you better tell me!」

He clicks his tongue, and the man on the battlements takes it as Straf's full statement.

「…Where's the idiot with the torch!? What did I say!?… Stay near the banner!」

Straf shouts at the column of soldiers in the back, and the light in the rear begins to make its way forward.

「Sorry!… Sorry, sir! I'm new!…」

A young soldier runs up with the torch, and shines its light at a banner held in the hands of the man standing next to him. It prominently bears a red dragon spreading its wings.

「Good job, new guy…」

Straf scoffs, shaking his head as he returns his gaze to the fortress.

「…Does that answer your question, asshole!? You know how it works! I showed you mine, so show me yours!」

He asks, and spreads his arms in the car. Scowling, Stripe leans out of the way of the accidental backhand.

After a moment, loud cheers sound out from within the fortress. Another moment later, the gates swing open, and three men run out.

With two of them holding torches at the sides of the third, he energetically waves a flag of Redwing Kingdom bearing a red dragon high above their heads.

「…Hail Queen Cycelia, the rightful heir to the throne!…」 「…Hail Queen Cycelia, the rightful heir to the throne!…」 「…Hail Queen Cycelia, the rightful heir to the throne!…」

Vrrrroooooooommm…

The soldiers on the battlements raise their weapons, shouting cheers as Straf continues on his way towards the now open fortress…