"A grand fortress built on an island in the middle of a large, deep lake would normally be a nigh-unassailable position… if all we had in hand were mundane means of warfare, that is.

Mages often made situations that would have been greatly troublesome if not impossible to do with more mundane means far more palatable, though how exactly varies a lot depending on the mages in question." - Mustafa Bey Leung, formerly Marshal of the Army for the Al-Shan Empire, circa 720 FP.

Not three days later, as the Imperial army made their way through the Caldera, they were faced with the sight of the grand fortress of Tian-Mao. A square fortress built on a small island in the very center of the lake that dominated the center of the Caldera.

The structure was very soundly built, its walls as tall as the gates they have passed on their way. Even in a straight fight, its garrison of five thousand would likely be able to handle ten times their numbers of attackers as it was.

That was before they considered that the only way to reach the fort from outside the lake was through a single bridge, which now lay broken as the defenders chose to make their last stand within the fortress.

Which left the Imperial army with two options. One way was for them to build boats and cross the lake that way, a risky move that would have left them exposed to the defenders, but could be done reasonably fast.

The other way was to rebuild the bridge, which would take much longer, and would also leave their workers exposed as they built closer to the fortress. Still, that path would have taken at least a month of work before they got results.

Starvation was not an option. They had heard from the militia they released that the High Magistrate kept the grains they paid as their taxes in the fort, and had preemptively secured that year's taxes before the Imperial Army arrived as well.

That much food would have kept a mere five thousand people fed for years, and their location in the middle of a lake also secured their water supply. Ying Xiao knew that the best result would be to obtain a fast resolution, a showcase of the Empire's might and to make the High Magistrate an example to scare other people with ambitions.

Because of that, Ying Xiao had opted to mount an assault by boat. Fortunately there were plenty of trees in the caldera, good sturdy wood to make the boats with. The army camped by the lakeside as they built boats and rafts over the next two weeks, enough vessels to carry their entire force of ten thousand - eight thousand under Ying Xiao and Rafiqa with another two thousand under Hu-Lao - across the lake.

Even so, the fort itself proved to remain an issue. Its walls were more heavily enchanted than the gates, which forced their space mages to do their work from a closer range, well within the enemy's arrow range.

While they would have men with shields to protect them, such distractions were rather troublesome and might cause the spell to deviate from its desired result. Youssef had even warned Ying Xiao that the portal might be rather inaccurate this time, but she insisted on going anyway.

Their plan remained the simple one they had followed so far. Ying Xiao would be teleported in to open the gates, after which Rafiqa would lead the rest of the troops in. It was a plan that hinged entirely on the young girl's performance, as she would be deep inside enemy territory, with no backup whatsoever.

With her insistence, they went on with the plan anyway. On the morning of the twenty-second day after their arrival on the island, the boats and rafts were put into the water, and the soldiers of the Imperial Army climbed into them. Soldiers with large shields in hand were positioned at the front, while those at the sides took up oars and paddles as they began to row.

The lake was tranquil, as that morning had nary a breeze. The ripples and waves on the lake were just the ones caused by their own passage, as the boats and rafts glided through the water, towards the middle.

Most of the rafts where their soldiers stood halted before they entered arrow range, with only the ten larger boats - each of which looked identical in the hopes of hiding which boat had the mages and Ying Xiao on - proceeded further ahead.

As soon as they entered arrow range, the defenders rained arrows down on them. Men in armor hefted their large shields as they stood at the front of the boats and blocked the shots as best they could, but even then some arrows still struck the layers of heavy cloth erected behind them to keep the fort's defenders from being able to see who was on which boat.

From her boat to Ying Xiao's right, Rafiqa saw how the mages began their rituals. Some of them were clearly nervous to be conducting such a feat while being shot at, even though Ying Xiao stood in their midst and projected confidence to them.

Before long, their rituals finished, and a portal appeared before Ying Xiao, with another appearing above the fort's walls. The girl stepped through the portal without hesitation, and charged out the other side.

That was when things went awry.

Whether it was because the mages were nervous, maybe the fortress's wall enchantments were just more powerful, their portal was not over the wall as it should be, but was a distance away from it.

Rafiqa saw how Ying Xiao fell through the air, and only barely managed to catch the wall's edge with one hand. She watched horrified as some nearby enemy soldiers reacted by stabbing at her with their spears from above.

Yet Ying Xiao seemed to ignore the spears that pierced her hand and body, and with her hand pinned against the wall's edge by a spear, pulled herself up with a mighty heave that sent her diminutive frame sailing up and over the wall's edge and onto the walkway at the top of the wall.

Rafiqa caught a flash of reflected light as Ying Xiao pulled out her weapon, and immediately began to work. Bodies were sent flying, some over the walls where they fell to the island's soil below. Some unfortunate ones landed headfirst and their skulls had burst open like a ripe tomato.

It took Ying Xiao a good while before she finally fought her way from the top of the wall to the fort's interior. Then the dreaded wait followed. Rafiqa hated such waits, where she could do nothing but watch and pray as her friend risked her life to grant them entry to the fort.

Finally, nearly an hour after Ying Xiao left the top of the walls, the gates in the distance started to open, even as some defenders ran outside and tried their damndest to push it closed once more.

Rafiqa sounded the assault, and altogether, the Imperial army's boats and rafts surged forward, as their own archers fired at the enemies trying to close the gates once more.

Ying Xiao had given them this chance, and Rafiqa was not about to waste it.