The explosion happened just after the sun came over the horizon. For a moment, a light brighter than the sun lit everything along the outer wall of the besieged city of Tibli. A section of wall nearly forty feet in length lifted in the air in a furious rush. Men that were stationed on the section were thrown like rag dolls in to the air. Some landed in the city itself. Their bodies crashing into the houses and breaking apart. Others were thrown into the lines of the waiting Wedian soldiers. Soldiers who knew the explosion was a signal to launch their attack.

  The Wedians had been laying siege to the ancient city of Tibli for 7 months. The capitol city of the Tiblian Empire, the Tiblians had at one time ruled the largest empire known. Situated at a strategically important harbor on the Husan Sea, Tibli had acted as the gateway between the northern (            ) kingdoms and the rest of the world. The Tiblian Empire had now been reduced to just the city itself. And the Wedians had plans to finish what they had started.

  Maynaro Lon Carion awoke with a start. He instinctively grabbed his messer sword and ran for the door. His companions, a hulking Kesken named Aud and a mute Deshen called Saleh also both awoke and grabbed their weapons. They had been sleeping in their armor. Having been fighting in the siege since the beginning, they were conditioned to be ready to move at a moments notice. The explosion at the eastern wall was one of the moments.

  Outside the abandoned house they had occupied men, both Tiblian soldiers and the few remaining mercenaries, were running to the eastern wall. Many were in various stages of dress. Maynaro screamed at a passing Tiblian captain, "What the fuck happened?" The captain, fear naked in his eyes, replied "They blew it up! We must have missed a mine!" He then proceeded to run down the street, trying to strap on his breastplate.

 The Wedians had tried full frontal assaults on the outer walls of the city, each time beaten back by the defenders. Massive casualities were suffed by both sides in these attacks. However, the Wedians could afford it. They had marshalled nearly 150,000 soldiers for the siege. Nearly 15,000 of them were the elite Yodatary soldiers. The Yodatary were an elite corp of slave soldiers of the Wedian Empire. The Tiblians, on the other hand, had no such numbers. They had only been able to muster 12,000 soldiers. Three thousand Kesken mercenaries had been hired. The City State of Ryon had also sent 1000 marines to help.