When the elven battalion reached the Central Square, the crowd was outnumbering them a hundred to one. Many had makeshift signs and placards calling for the Regent to resign; others had bullhorns and led the people in loud chants.

“What is a Regent good for? Absolutely nothing!” they chanted for a minute, changing then to “Liberty, Equality, The Regent is a Nullity!”

Above, Ulfsen’s dirigible observed the events from a safe distance. When the Citadel's central tower's big clock showed the convened hour, Lau took his pocket-watch sized communicator and ushered an order.

“Roybert, it’s time to dance.”

“We’re ready!”

From the western part of the Main Square, a score of knights on foot walked to the crowd.

“Cease and desist, bow to the Regent!” he shouted.

They had stuck to the plan, to create a diversion, but the crowd was an unexpected addition. In three seconds, cubic rocks extracted with crowbars from the pavement started to fly toward them.

“Aouch!” exclaimed Roybert when one hit his helmet. “Common, fellows, let’s pretend to run.”

As planned, they o run to the fortress, only now they were not so much acting because the rocks were raining closer and closer. Some people were following them. He hit the small gate included in the big ones with his iron glove.

“Open, Open! We’re in danger!”

A face appeared through a visor, an old Allamain.

“Oh, my, such valiance! Common, chickens, come inside.”

The man allowed them in, closed the small door behind, and asked:

“What’s with all that circus?”

“Sorry, no time for a chat now. Sweet dreams!” replied Roybert, hitting him in the head with his heavy glove.

They tied his hands behind the back, carried him in the adjacent booth, and started to turn the wheels of the main gate's mechanisms. They were almost done when the knight heard screams from his communicator.

“What?” he asked.

“CLOSE IT BACK! CLOSE IT BACK!” shouted Lau.

A noise like a sea storm made Roybert take a look at the square. The crowd was rushing toward the gates. It was much too late to close anything.

“DUCK!” shouted Roybert, precipitating behind the right half of the enormous gate. His companions followed the example with the utmost celerity and barely made it. Like a wave pushing through a break in a pier, the people entered the alley going to the main fortifications.

“Lau, I need orders!” he shouted as soon as the crowd started to rarefy.

“Come here!” ordered Lau. “This is bad. Ulfsen reports that archers are taking positions on the outer walls. We cannot occupy those anymore.”

The knights elbowed their way out through the last Ohstians who were entering and ran back to his friend."

“They’re with us!” shouted Lau in a confiscated bullhorn. “Let them pass!”

Around half of the manifestation was still in place because some people are just not made for assaulting a castle but chanting funny slogans. Fortunately, that kind of person doesn’t usually argue with knights in armor either, so they safely reached the elven battalion.

“They’re suicidal, or what?” shouted Roybert in anger. “They’ll be mowed down!”

“Ulfsen, send the dirigibles, offer air support to those poor bastards!” asked Lau because he knew Roybert was right. Although twenty-five thousand people is a large number, when cramped in between fortification and shot at with barbed arrows, the most courageous crowd loses its courage.

“The Others are sending the Allamains again the crowd!” said Ulfsen through the communicator.

In a narrow perimeter, two or three greatsword wielders can do ravage an unorganized mob. The Ohstian were cut down, getting only one or two Allamains with them for every fifty people they lost. Soon, the front rows of the people were trying desperately to retreat, pushing on those who were still advancing, chaos was total, and they would have all died there if not for the dwarven blimps. They opened fire with their steam machine guns. Although the fortifications offered cover to the defenders, the effect of their passes over the wall were deadly enough to make the archers, and the allamain run back for cover.

Leaving hundreds of them dead or wounded behind, the City people began to retreat, only now they were not that furious crowd anymore, but a deeply hurt one.

“There are two sorcerers in robes who raised force walls over their troops,” announced a dirigible. “Our fire is blocked.”

“They start moving toward you,” announced another. “I think they’ll do a sortie.”

“Dirigibles, turn back!” yelled Lau. “Reserves, come to me!”

While the dirigibles obeyed, he received no answer to his second call.

“Roybert, who’s in charge of your knights? Who has the second communicator?”

“That elf, Rheldoriel.”

“Rheldoriel, wake up!” shouted Lau. “Get those knights here, asap!”

The voice of the elf sounded panicked.

“Sorry, Lau, it took me time to found the talk button. There are no more knights here; they all went back to the Upper City. I ordered them to stay, but they didn’t obey!”

“They are not traitors. Some menace from the upper city must’ve appeared!” said Roybert. “Maybe the nobles here are preparing to attack us from behind? Should I go back and check?”

“No, for goodness sake, you have the best troops we have!”

Taking the bullhorn, Lau shouted toward the retreating crowd and the one still around.

“Leave! GO HOME! We cannot fight with you around! GO!”

Seeing how much hurt was done to them in so little time, the crowd began to disperse, carrying the wounded to hospitals, or just running in disarray.

In haste, Lau began to make to prepare for the impending assault. Staying in the open, five hundred against two thousand was out of the question, so he constructed barricades on the only three boulevards leaving the Main Square to the North. Carriages, cubic stones, lampposts, furniture from the houses nearby, which he evacuated, posting archers at the windows and on the roofs, all were used. In ten minutes, they had three squares of pikes and shields guarding each barricade.

“Here they come!” announced Ulfsen, as the first mercenaries were appearing from behind the gates.