At seven in the evening, the sky was still shrouded in darkness.
The garrison stationed at the border fortress soon noticed countless flickering lights appearing along the horizon.
Within moments, waves of roars and chaotic shouting filled the night sky. Cavalry carrying torches poured out from every road like flowing rivers.
Hundreds, then thousands.
Vast numbers of riders raced across the open ground before the fortress gates. They pointed at the defenders on the walls, hurling insults and taunts. Some soldiers on the battlements tried to shoot arrows at them, but all they could see were rapidly retreating silhouettes disappearing into the distance.
Then came endless formations of infantry.
If the cavalry had been rivers, the force that followed was a raging sea.
Tens of thousands of soldiers advanced in formation, their torches merging into a vast ocean of light that looked like stars hanging upside down across the darkened earth.
