To say that the fort was attacked by total surprise was a bit of an understatement; the eastern wall had several archery towers build alongside it, and the guards garrisoned there didn’t fail to ring the alarm bells as soon as first Garlizards appeared within sight.

Captain Teng quickly assembled all available soldiers, whose total count was a little over 100, and also called for Heiyiwei reinforcements; the two dozen black-clad guards were reluctant to join a battle, but considering the gravity of the situation, heeded the call nonetheless.

The spear and halberd wielding infantry formed several lines beneath the gates in the worst-case scenario; and the bow and crossbow-wielding soldiers quickly manned the wooden walls, showering any invaders that came in range in a storm of bolts and arrows.

Meanwhile, the forward yaren force dismounted and used rock ledges as cover; their lizards, quickly shot down, served as convenient meatbags to hide behind; and soon enough these skirmishers returned fire at the outpost.

Curiously enough, their explosive arrows weren’t aiming at the walls, but overarching above, targeted the inner encampment, setting tents on fire and causing panic among civilian refugees stationed inside.

‘Was this just a terrorist attack, meant to cause losses and then retreat? Should we open the gates and march out?’

Such thoughts were racing through Captain Teng’s head, who, although past his prime by the virtue of age and physical fitness(of which he had very little), didn’t lose enough of his gray cells yet to not be able to make comprehensible decisions. Yet, something, perhaps a gut instinct of sorts, or some kind of 6th sense, advised him to wait behind the wall for whatever was going to happen next.

And soon enough, it happened. A small-framed yaren, riding a particularly large and fast Garlizard, charged straight at the eastern gates with reckless abandon. The warrior was more heavily armored than his comrades, and the few arrows that hit him merely bounced off his steel breastplate and helmet. His lizard, too, had his vital parts protected by metal plates, and perhaps most curiously, there were two canisters tied up to its sides.

As soon he reached the gate, he dismounted. His lizard, whose eyes were customarily hidden beneath blindfolds, charged head-on into the wooden gate and crashed against it with a loud bang.

However, despite its large size and weight, the momentum of this creature’s charge simply wasn’t enough; it failed to as much as dent its target. The archers stationed on the wall breathed a sigh of relief….but not a moment after that, the lizard was showered in flaming arrows fired by his own forces, and burst out in an unnaturally large explosion of flame and heat.

Since the gates and the walls were mostly made out of wood, they quickly caught fire, as well.

Of course, middle kingdom construction engineering was nothing to make light of; even such small outposts were equipped with fire fighting measures. Above the gate, and on the inner side of the walls, there were always barrels filled with water, just in case of such emergency;

Moreover, since the refugee crisis begun, Captain Teng had enough foresight to station similar barrels of water also through the encampment, fearing not only a fire attack from the outside but also accidental fire started by one of the civilians, which, considering the high density of manpower stacked inside, would have disastrous effects if not contained quickly.

………

Unfortunately, all the precautions the humans made were in naught; for the black oil could not be easily extinguished by mere water; it was a superior flammable substance, that the forces of the middle kingdom had no experience or knowledge of.

And soon enough, the humans abandoned the walls, which continued burning fiercely for a dozen minutes or so, until collapsing under their own weight with a deafening bang. Everything done until now- setting the camp on fire, and sending skirmishers to occupy the archers stationed on the wall- was meant to distract the human attention from the most important thing, the explosive Garlizard and the heroic man who volunteered to ride it on this suicidal mission; Rongfeng promised himself that if that individual was still alive, he’d give him a promotion.

As soon as the walls collapsed, the main mounted force, until now staying hidden beyond the sight and range of human watchtowers, charged in; through the flames, through the smoke, and straight at the wall of spears and halberds awaiting them.

Normally, this would be a suicide regardless if they were riding horses or reptiles; however, the mounted units had another surprise for the humans, a wonder weapon that was supposed to turn the tide of this battle and nature of war forever.

The bamboo lances wielded by the riders were named ‘fire lances’ not without a good reason; their spearheads had tubes filled with black powder fastened to them. Inside these tubes, the outer end was filled with tiny, sharpened pellets, which were supposed to be fired forwards alongside a hefty amount of heat and flame upon ignition.

To that end, a rather long fuse made out of hemp was attached to the other side, that was ignited before the charge. Through trial and error, yaren engineers calculated the speed of burning and the length of each fuse was custom made in the preceding day specifically for this operation.

It was three minutes. The riders had three minutes, no less, no more since lighting the match. In that time spawn, they had to close the distance between the burning fort and clash with the human spear formation.

If they took too long, the tubes would explode beforehand, depriving them of this vital shock weapon, and the operation would fail; if they charged too quickly, they would have clashed with the humans before the tubes fired, and the front rows of lizard cavalry would have been impaled on the spears, breaking the momentum of the attack and thus resulting in a crushing defeat for the Black Sun Empire.

Countless drills were therefore carried out for weeks preceding this battle, even before the temporary tunnel was properly dug out and reinforced; and now all that training and preparation paid out.

The human polearm wall was obliterated by flame and shrapnel; the wedge of Garlizards cut into the infantry formation like a hot knife into butter. Moreover, having never seen something like that, the morale of the footmen was quickly broken, and they routed.

“Pursue them!” shouted the fat yaren commander “Don’t let a single one of them escape!”

Rongfeng was right next to him, but a different plan was hatching in his mind. Making his voice as sweet as possible he offered the following suggestion to his overconfident superior:

“Your majesty, since the enemy is retreating, perhaps it would be glorious if you led the charge personally?”

……..

Xiang Shali, the leader of the Heiyiwei detachment, was no fool. She knew what her orders were - to supervise Captain Teng and the border outposts. Nowhere in her briefing was it said that she was supposed to participate in any battles.

Thus, as soon as the battle began, she told 18 of her men to reinforce the guard spear line, while she and her bodyguard stealthy made their way to the back of the camp alongside the crowds of civilian refugees.

“Umm…is this really the right thing to do?” Asked the nameless guardsman, glancing behind at the burning eastern walls.

“Idiot! This battle is as good as lost! This outpost doesn’t have…and never had…enough manpower to defend against such an invading force!”

‘But isn’t this exactly what Captain Teng told you earlier today?’ thought the guardsman, perplexed, but held his tongue and followed her without question.

Suddenly, a huge dark tornado exploded in the middle of the encampment. Countless black orbs and bullets flew around, exploding at the impact, and taking a gory harvest of blood, guts, and bones in its wake.

This development startled the young guardsman, who tripped over his own legs and fell to the ground. Since Xiang Shali was right next to him, he instinctively grabbed her sleeve and took her down with her.

Just as he was about to apologize, a dark orb flew right over their heads and exploded several meters further.

“You…saved my life. Even I didn’t see that shot coming” she muttered, astonished. “You’re really not as incapable as you look. No wonder you got recommended for my squad!”

“Ah…yes…that’s right” on the other hand, some things are perhaps best left unspoken.

……….

The wedge of yaren cavalry, so confidently pursuing the retreating humans until now, had the unfortunate experience of running right into the center of that dark tornado. Almost all of them had been annihilated in one swoop, the Garlizards were all too easy targets for dark orbs and bullets shooting from the epicenter of it.

The commander leading the charge was no exception to this unfortunate development; his lizard was decapitated and its torso was now running around like a headless chicken, before eventually running out of muscle memory and falling down on the ground in spasms. His own leg was hit as well and ripped into shreds, but he was still alive, crawling away from this new, terrifying, and unknown enemy.

Fortunately, his most trusted officer, Rongfeng, was approaching from the opposite direction. A wave of relief and warmth was the last and only thing the first to the line of Black Sun Empire’s throne felt….before a well-aimed trust from a fire lance blew his brain to pieces.

Having removed this major obstacle, Rongfeng blew a horn three long times, signaling retreat; this battle was lost, there was an unknown cultivator in the camp, and chances of victory were zero. As he was riding away on his Garlizard, yet another dark explosion shook the encampment, certifying his decision as the correct one in the eyes of every yaren soldier still alive to witness it.