"It bears saying that generally, mages sought out more lucrative careers than joining the military. Those that do apply and join the military on their own tend to be patriots, or those from military families. Most others favor seeking more lucrative employment in stations where they do not need to risk their necks." - Talbot Hoffenmeier, Herzog von Neuberg, circa FP 95.

That night, when the commanders of the units gathered for another meeting, Reinhardt couldn't help but to reminisce on the rather mundane nature of the day's struggles. Other than the three mages who showed up on the enemy side, none of the enemies made overt use of magic in an attempt to breach their defenses.

Probably because they ran low on mages in the first place.

Due to its citizen's zealotry, more mages joined the Holy Kingdom's military compared to its neighbors. This powerful mage corps was one reason the neighboring kingdom had been reluctant to deal with the annoyance of their continued existence.

Said mage corps was annihilated during the failed attack on the unliving settlement to the north-west half a year prior, so to say that the Holy Kingdom were running out on combat mages, would not be a wrong idea.

On the other hand, the expeditionary forces had brought their own mage corps, the Graf's own prized Stone Shapers. They were not combat mages however, but builders and engineers.

The Stone Shapers were the ones responsible for constructing the makeshift barrier on the east gate, as well as the rapid creation of the underground warrens. They had also blunted the few attempts the enemy made to enter the fort through underground tunnels.

As it was, the Shapers were kept busy expanding the underground warrens, to serve as a final bastion should the fort fall to the enemy's assault. A few of them were detached that evening to rebuild the makeshift barricade that replaced the eastern gate, but that was about it.

Since neither side had a combat archmage, nor a combat mage corps, the battle remained relatively mundane, reliant more on strength and morale. The zealots had plenty of the latter, to be fair, given their hard-set beliefs.

On the other hand, the cornered soldiers and mercenaries had nowhere to run either, which forced them to do or die. Individually, most of the soldiers and mercenaries would be able to handle two or more of the zealots on their own, but in such a mass…

"We've lost close to three hundred of our own today," stated Graf Angus Harscape without preamble to the gathered commanders. "And nearly twice that number are injured. How much losses did we inflict on them in exchange?"

"Hard to say fer sure since they keep taking their dead away with 'em," said the young female dwarf who commanded the 6th Regulars. Her accent slipped through her usually formal speech, indicating her fatigue. "Three thousand at least? Four? Maybe half that dead? Can't really say either way about those that fell off the walls. Bloody fall's prolly too short to kill 'em off."

"At least two hundred dead on the east gate, around as many badly injured," reported Reinhardt. "We also took casualties, though, and I worry that they got more people to spare than we do, by far."

"And what about from your side, miss Adenauer?" asked the Graf as he looked at Salicia, who had accompanied Reinhardt to the meeting since she had the best view of the battle from her perch up high.

"They're still holding back," stated the one-eyed woman with grim certainty. "Their priests stayed far in the back, rather than exhorting the crowd near the front like we had seen during the ambushes. I believe you mentioned that also happened in the previous attack on the fort?"

"That is indeed the case, miss," said a middle-aged dwarf, commander of the 9th regulars. The units designated as the 9th and 10th regulars were the Graf's own personal soldiers from his fief. "They were right by the front, and each time we take one out, the rest around them just went bonkers on us."

"The fire and lightning mage from earlier today are dead, but I couldn't get the earth one. He noticed the shot and blocked the arrow before he went running," reported Salicia from her seat, sounding clearly unsatisfied. "We'll have to expect another breach by the east gate as long as the fucker lives."

"Not just there," said Barnaby as he interjected. "The other gates are showing signs of damage as well. Can't be sure how much longer they'll hold."

"That might be it," Reinhardt said in realization. "They might just be biding their time until the gates are all down, before they go all out on us. They have the numbers to spare after all."

"A plausible scenario," said the commander from the 1st regulars. "If they were to get inside the fort - and an all-out attack from the walls and all four gates does give them the best chance for that - we'd be screwed."

"Let us all hope it does not come to that," said the Graf with a heavy voice. "Just in case, however, have your dependents and the wounded start to move to the expanded warrens from tomorrow onwards. We will make our last stand there should the fort fail us."

A chorus of "Yes, Sir!" and "Understood." answered the venerable dwarf's words.

******************************

The two days of hard-fought battle that followed were mostly a repeat of the previous day they had. The zealot militia pushed, but not with everything they had yet. To be fair, even if they did, they lacked the room to fully utilize their full weight of numbers.

The zealots dwindled to maybe twelve thousand, fifteen thousand in their worst estimates, while the defenders inside paid the price in blood, and there were around three thousand of them active and fighting. A good thousand of those were the injured who chose to return to the line of duty despite their injuries.

Barnaby reported on the night of the seventh day of the siege that the gates were on their last legs, and that he doubted they would last another day. Most of the non-combatant dependents and badly wounded had been evacuated to the now far more expansive warrens by then.

Around two hundred more of the followers and dependents chose to stand and fight with the rest, including Reinhardt's adopted father, which helped bolster their numbers somewhat.

Even so, as the fort's three remaining gates creaked and fell the next day shortly after noon, that was when all hell broke loose.