[Units Deployed: 1 Panzergrenadier Ptoon; 1 Panzer ptoon]
[Command Mode Active: Frontline Assault]
[Remaining Points: 1321]
[Designation: Confirmed]
The smoke had begun to clear over the pza.
Burnt corpses and shattered stones littered the ground. Shell casings, blood, and the lingering stench of Netherstone taint clung to the air like a curse. The front of the keep still stood—scarred, scorched, but unbroken. The ancient wards etched into its walls pulsed faintly, the st remnants of their defensive magic still holding.
But outside… the tide had turned.
Heavy boots stomped over the shattered cobbles as Reinhard advanced toward the keep. Mars was close beside him, silent and alert. His soldiers fanned out behind him—disciplined, professional, efficient. Not a single word spoken. They didn’t need orders to move. They were trained for this.
The Tigers and Panzer IVs formed a steel perimeter behind him, their engines idling in low growls like hungry beasts awaiting the next hunt. In the distance, the boom-thump of the Hummels still echoed as they rained fire across the eastern districts of Stonewatch.
Margrave Halderan stood at the keep’s gate, his armor dented, one arm streaked with blood not his own. His sword hung loose in one hand. His eyes widened as he took in the scene—the line of foreign tanks, the fully armed infantry in perfect formation, and Reinhard walking at their head like a god of vengeance made flesh.
Erich stepped beside the Margrave, panting, eyes glowing faintly with the remnants of divine magic. “That… that’s not normal,” he muttered, staring at the ptoon of steel-cd ghosts that walked with purpose. “That’s not any summoning I’ve ever seen.”
Halderan didn’t reply. He couldn’t.
The soldiers that marched weren’t spectral, nor mindless constructs. They were alive. Alert. Flesh and blood, but impossibly foreign. Their eyes held weight. Memory. And yet… absolute loyalty.
Reinhard stopped before them.
His rifle hung by his side. His face was pale beneath the grime and soot. The fire in his eyes still burned, but there was something else now—calcution. A storm that had found its center.
Halderan approached first. “Reinhard… what have you done?”
“I’ve ensured we live through the night,” Reinhard answered, voice low. “That’s all that matters.”
Erich tilted his head. “They’re not constructs. They’re real.”
“They were soldiers,” Reinhard said. “From another war. Another world.”
Halderan’s brow furrowed. “And they follow you?”
“They do.” A pause. “And they won’t stop until this city is free.”
Before either man could press further, a low rumble echoed through the pza. A convoy rolled in—supply trucks, their canvas tops fpping in the breeze, guided by more of Reinhard’s summoned forces. Medics leapt down from the rear, some of them already setting up triage around wounded defenders.
A tall officer approached, saluting. “Logistics en route, Commander. Ammunition restocked. Supply routes secure from Sector One.”
Reinhard gave a nod, accepting the report without ceremony. His HUD flickered to life before his eyes.
[Logistics Status: Functional | Supply Trucks En Route] [Deployment Zone Secured: 1 / ???] [Soul Anchor Detected: Cathedral District Ruins] [Estimated Hostile Presence: Moderate | Unverified Entities Present] [Avaible Soul Points: 2312]
He stared at the st line for a moment. Then looked up.The city still burned in the distance—its silhouette now broken by smoke, flickering with the glow of spreading fires. The Cathedral District was one of the st remaining bastions of civilian shelter, and its fall would mean the end of Stonewatch’s spirit.
“Securing the Breach,” Reinhard said, his voice like iron drawn across stone. “That’s where we go next.”
Halderan stepped forward, bloodied and grim. “With what men?” he asked, bitter exhaustion in his tone. “We’re spent.”
Reinhard didn’t answer with words. Instead, his HUD flickered once more. He raised his hand—no flourish, no incantation. Just will.
[Deploy: Panzergrenadier Ptoons ×3] [Deploy: Armored Panzer Ptoons ×2] [Soul Cost Incurred: 567 SP] [Remaining Points: 1745 SP]
The square shuddered with a resonant thrum as steel-warped shadows split reality apart. Three full ptoons of Panzergrenadiers emerged in precision lines, their boots smming down as one. Behind them came the rumble of engines: four Tiger IIs, four Panzer IVs, four Hummels, and four Fkpanzers—an armored hammer summoned into the ashes of a dying city.
Halderan took a step back, awe mixing with disbelief. Erich muttered a wordless prayer under his breath.
Reinhard looked between them, expression unreadable.
“I strike with what I have,” he said. “And now… I have more than enough.”
Mars let out a low growl, ears perked toward the southern edge of the pza. More movement—perhaps reinforcements, or enemies regrouping.
Reinhard didn’t flinch.
He turned to face his men—his legion—gaze fixed and burning with vengeance. He raised one hand.
A single command, sharp and clear.
“Advance. Block by block,” he growled. “We take it all back.”
Engines revved. Orders snapped. The Stahl Legion began to move.
The tanks and mechanized infantry surged forward, the pza trembling beneath steel treads and synchronized boots. Orders rippled through vox reys and HUD-linked commands as each squad broke off into formation.
Two of the Panzergruppen broke away, heading south toward the Cathedral District to reinforce the earlier-dispatched units and secure the Soul Anchor zone. A second group peeled eastward to secure the breach in the east, and the third remained in the pza to begin a sustained shelling operation on the Beastman encampments hidden beyond the tree line.
The smoke still hung thick over the eastern wall of Stonewatch, a lingering ghost of the devastation that had torn it open. Charred stone, twisted iron, and broken bodies littered the breach like offerings to some bloodthirsty god. But the enemy was no longer advancing.
They were dying.
Ghorvak’s forces—what remained of them—had tried to retreat.
They had run.
And Reinhard had outmanoeuvred them.
Tiger IIs and Panzer IVs had swept in like closing jaws, their guns barking fury as the enemy fled through narrowing alleys and shattered courtyards. Panzerschrecks roared from the fnks, catching beastmen mid-charge and hurling them back in pieces. Riflemen advanced in coordinated lines, clearing pockets of resistance with ruthless efficiency.
At the center of the carnage, Ghorvak had made his st stand.
Wounded, bloodied, but unbowed, the beastman general had roared a final defiance—charging straight into the path of an anti-tank team. A young grenadier, barely old enough to shave, had leveled his Panzerschreck with trembling hands and fired.
The bst had turned Ghorvak into red mist.
Now, his broken horn y buried in rubble, half-melted, forgotten.
[Confirmed Kill: Enemy Commander – Ghorvak *** +200 Soul Points***] [Morale Shock Detected: Enemy Forces Routing]
Those who survived broke into a full retreat, only to find no escape—Reinhard’s troops had cut the avenues behind them, methodically trapping them like rats in a maze.
None would leave this breach alive.
The breach had become a deathtrap that none of the beastmen managed to escape.
As the dust had settled, and the jaws had closed on the beastmen, it was time to fortify and deal with the remnants in the forests.
Engineers were already at work — summoned logistics units id down sandbags along the inner perimeter, creating makeshift barricades and mortar empcements. MG crews took positions on the walls and created overpping kill zones facing the forest.
A field officer approached, rifle slung across his chest. “Sir, eastern breach is secure. The task force sent to the Cathedral district are preparing to begin tunnel-clearing operations. All Hummel batteries request new bombardment coordinates.”
Reinhard didn’t hesitate. “Greenfall treeline. Reverse creeping barrage. Box them in.”
The officer saluted sharply and moved to rey the order.
Behind them, the Hummels roared—deep, rolling booms that cracked the air. The shells screamed overhead, trailing smoke across the gray sky before smming into the forested horizon. Explosions tore through the treeline in a chain of fire and thunder. Trees disintegrated. Beastmen caught in the bst vanished in sprays of red mist and charred bone.
[Artillery Strike Confirmed – Forest Hostiles: Pinned Down]
The calcuted shelling denied the Tharker forces their eastern escape, forcing them into the kill zone—toward the city’s outer defenses.
It worked.
Like vermin flushed from a burrow, the beastmen broke from the burning treeline—shell shocked, screeching, disoriented, desperate. The Verminthar followed behind them, panic overtaking them and robbing them of any sense.
They ran for the city walls.
And they were met with steel.
A single word crackled through the vox reys. “Fire.”
The MG nests atop the walls opened up in perfect unison. Lines of tracer fire raked the open field. Overpping sectors of fire turned the kill zone into a grinder. Bullets tore through fur, flesh, and bone. Dozens fell with every heartbeat. The forest behind them burned. The walls ahead spat death.
Reinhard stood on the rise of a crumbled watchtower, watching the fire consume the treeline. His eyes, empty of victory, flicked to his HUD as it refreshed.
[Deployment Zone: Breach Point | Stabilization: 84%] [Tunnel Clearance Operations: Commencing] [Cathedral District Status: Secured | Soul Anchor Confirmed]
He turned his gaze toward the city’s heart, where bck smoke still curled into the ash-choked sky. He hadn’t come this far to build a perimeter. Stonewatch would be recimed — one ruin at a time.
“Secure the city, ” he ordered, voice low. “Then sweep every st tunnel.”
He turned his back to the fields beyond the walls, to the corpse-strewn battleground where the remaining Tharkari and Verminthar soldiers had fallen, and marched back toward the battle still unfolding deeper within the city.
Behind him, the soldiers of the Stahl Legion moved like phantoms of war — clearing rubble, checking bodies, resetting their lines with methodical precision.
