The crater where the outer wall had once stood still smoked when the engineers began their work.
It was silent at first…only the groans of the wounded and the dull grind of shovels scraping stone. No birds sang. No orcs shouted. The massive blast that collapsed the wall had momentarily stilled the war. Even the orcs seemed stunned.
But the Threians did not rest.
Captain Braedon oversaw the first rebuilding orders. He walked the edge of the crater with ash in his hair and dried blood on his cheek. Around him, teams of engineers hauled stones, chopped wood, and layered barricades with the remnants of burnt towers and shattered wagons.
Lieutenant Faris barked directions between coughs, his lungs scorched from the blast. "We need a trench barrier here! Get those posts upright…use the dead for reinforcement if you have to!"
No one blinked at that command.
There were enough bodies to line every wall twice over.
****
