Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Although it was a frontal assault, a frontal assault did not mean recklessly charging head-on.

Before attacking the bastion, Winters arranged for soldiers to return to the watch post beside the bastion, lighting torches to signal for reinforcement from the bastion.

Those remaining were ambushed between the bastion and the watch post, ready to ambush the defending troops coming out of the bastion at the right moment to seize the gate.

On this continent, no one understood siege tactics better than officers who graduated from the Senas Army Officers Academy, for it was in siege after siege during the sovereign wars that the elite forces of the Empire were decimated by the Senas allied forces.

Thus, siege warfare was the most important subject at the military academy. With the assistance of fortress works, even the most cowardly and weak civilians could replace three elite enemies.

For this reason, in Winters' view, attacking the enemy within a fortified bastion was the worst of the worst strategies, and even if a frontal assault was sometimes inevitable, it was best to lure the enemy out of the bastion and fight on open ground.

The sentries on the bastion saw the waving torches of the coastal watch post but had not yet noticed that the chains had been cut.

After several shouts went unanswered by the coastal watch post, the commander of the bastion decided to send a few men to see what was happening.

After a bout of commotion, the bastion's gates swung open, and five soldiers walked out with their torches.

As they were still about a dozen meters from the coast, the Herders hidden in the grassy mud by the path pounced on them, while Winters, who was closer to the bastion, led the Venetian soldiers towards the bastion's gates.

The five Tanilian soldiers were suddenly ambushed and overrun before they even had a chance to flee.

The bastion commander saw from atop the wall that the soldiers he had sent out had been killed by men crawling out of the bushes and an indeterminate number of other men were rushing towards the bastion.

He immediately realized what was happening and urgently ordered the soldiers downstairs to close the gate.

This makeshift bastion had no moats, and when the Venetians reached the gate, the gap between the two doors was less than a finger's breadth wide. A Venetian soldier, quick of hand and eye, thrust his spear through the gap in the doors.

The hardwood spear shaft groaned under the pressure of the doors, but it did not break. At this point, a few other Venetian soldiers with spears inserted their weapons through the gap as well, effectively jamming the doors shut.

The bastion's doors opened outward while the bastion's doors opened inward. The Tanilians inside pushed outwards with all their might, while the Venetians outside pushed back just as desperately.

A few long knives stabbed through the gap at those outside. The Venetian soldier closest to the gap was struck by four blades in the arm, ribs, and thigh, screaming as he staggered back two steps and collapsed to the ground.

The Tanilians inside continued to thrust outwards. One knife was extended too far, and the hand holding it was also exposed. A Venetian soldier armed with a hatchet, who was responsible for breaching the gate, viciously chopped down, severing the knife-wielding hand at the wrist.

Both sides switched to longer weapons, jabbing each other through the gap less than a finger's width wide, and commenced a clumsy, comical, yet incredibly bloody and brutal fight.

As soon as the Tanilian commander within the bastion saw someone attempting to take the gate, he immediately ordered the alarm bell to be rung.

The alarm bell rang desperately, and three pyres were lit atop the bastion - the agreed-upon signal for reinforcements.

Hearing the alarm bell, Winters realized there wasn't much time left; the enemy from Red Sulfur Harbor would soon be aiding their allies. Frantically and furiously, he shouted, "Where's the gunpowder? Where are the men with the gunpowder?"

"It's coming, sir, it's coming," gasped the soldier tasked with carrying the gunpowder, who had fallen behind during the initial rush.

The Herders who had dealt with the enemy also arrived at the gates of the bastion and, seeing the standoff, several brave Herders began climbing the earthen walls with short knives in their mouths.

The defending troops inside the bastion had also regained their composure after the surprise attack and began using long-range weapons to kill the Venetians outside the wall.

The Venetians, armed with matchlock guns and bows and arrows, began to retaliate, while the Herders broke off long spears seized from the blockhouse to use as javelins, hurling them at the enemy above.

However, the attack was woefully ineffective from below, while the Tanilians on the wall held the high ground advantage. With the distance too close, the fall of every bullet or twang of bowstrings meant someone outside the wall would plummet. Melon-sized rocks thrown from the wall landed on the heads of Venetians, who couldn't dodge in time, smashing their skulls into their chests.

Grabbing a pot filled with gunpowder, Winters plopped it by the door and stuck a fuse into it, yelling, "Fall back."

He then used a fire-starting technique to ignite the fuse. Find more chapters on empire

The gunpowder had been found in the blockhouse, but there were no sealed containers, only gunpowder; so, they had to make do with iron pots and kettles.

Seeing the fuse lit, everyone hastily scattered. A dull thud was heard when the fuse burned out by the door, completely lacking the effect of an explosion. On closer inspection, not just the door but even the iron pot remained undamaged.

Although Winters had used a narrow-mouthed pot and had attempted to seal it with a makeshift wooden plug as best as possible, it was still not airtight. The method of igniting the fuse and the successive burning meant the gas from the burning gunpowder on the surface blew the powder underneath away, making a whole pot of gunpowder fizz like a firework, less powerful than even a blast from a gunpowder flask.

Enraged, Winters abandoned the idea of blasting the gate and instead switched to a gunpowder sack tied with iron nails.

The gunpowder sack, also part of the equipment of the blockhouse gunners, was not made from cow horns but sewn from leather to increase its lethal potential. Winters wrapped several coils of iron nails around the outside of the gunpowder sack.