It pushed itself through the veil with a grinding cacophony of a town crushed underh its weight. A behemoth of steel that could easily tower even over a crawler, it carried itself on the great caterpilr tracks, so huge and vast that its immense bulk could not physically fit through the gate of the Wall. Silvery patches occasionally marked its hull, but its new owners had ador with preetals, jewels, and gold so that it would shine like a multicolored diamond in the sun. Fgs fluttered proudly in the wind, and cathedrals of onry were activated, almost zily taking aim at the fortress. Laser ons, missile unchers, artillery, psma casters—this beast had all the murder tools ceivable.

  But that wasn’t what filled Craven’s heart with dread. A main on stretched out in front of it, an enormous spire of metal, ready to deliver its devastating payload wherever its masters wished. And from this on, bodies hung from the s that ed around the barrel. The distance was too great, but Craven now khe fate of the missing scouts.

  He wasn’t going to let his charges fall into such hands.

  “Scum,” Peggy hissed. A spherical force field fshed ience around the war mae, blog ining artillery fire ing from the Wall.

  “For little price, do you surrender your lives, Recimers,” stated the syic voice. The calm words were screamed out by the speehang dynamics, but this time the fortress’s system did not repeat them.

  Streaks speared the clouds, parting them just long enough for Craven to see an army following in the war mae’s wake, ging to its shelter like Ione rvae to their mother’s carapace. Artillery shells and energy arcs fired from the army’s mobile ons nded directly on the bunkers. The reinforced roof endured—owid then colpsed in on itself, and fire pyres billowed skyward, f a series of torches to wele the invaders.

  “Those guys…” Jay choked on his words, ing his arms around the trembling Halina and anirl.

  “Don’t worry,” Craven hurried to calm the child. His voiever rose, and the ambassador thahis unique quirk of his biology for an opportunity to be a pilr for the children. “No one died. A series of tunnels ected the buo the bastions, and our forces retreated successfully.” He nodded on a dispy that a soldier was showing Lugal-marada. On it, hundreds of dots scurried, colpsing the passageways behind.

  “But why did Marada order muys to cover the soldiers outside, then?” T asked, biting his fio stop shaking.

  “Their job was to keep baddies away from the bunkers,” Peggy expined, patting the boy encingly. “Also, it is Lugal-marada, kiddo. Simply Marada means a male gender, while Lugal is a name, unless I am mistaken.”

  “ you not educate us in the middle of a war?” T’s teeth drummed.

  “Why miss an opportunity?”

  “Well, maybe because people are about to die!” Jay snapped.

  “Eh, happens all the time. You’ll get used to it,” Peggy assured him.

  “Hopefully not!” Craven interjected. “Children, don’t listen to the holy sister. Wars are getting rarer and rarer…”

  “And for proof, look at the horizon,” Peggy added.

  Of their group, Peggy alone was unafraid. Her eyes beamed with excitement, trag everything; one hand was already wielding her elegant armor-pierg rifle, encircled by prayer beads; and she pulled a helmet over her head, helping passing soldiers to secure regur helmets and put body armor on the kids. An Orais led them into the dubious cover of a reinforced crete roof hanging above them, and another soldier tried to call for a lift, cursing under his breath about the virus that was crippling the bastion.

  The holy sister didn’t reprimand the ambassador for addressing the Recimers as their own. Craven assumed that some cordiality was in order. Whoever was ing, he’d rather see the children stiore reasonable characters, even if he wished they’d see the light and agree to immigrate to the Land of the Oath. Raids and teo-horrors of the past were ent there.

  “Such precision,” Peggy noted. “Nearly every shell is nding straight into cusack’s eye.”

  “I bet your monthly sary that it isn’t simply skill,” cracked Sagit. “They khe coordinates.”

  Craven opened his mouth and closed it, as the implication sank in. Traitors are the same everywhere, huh? Explosions spread across the wall’s shield, brightly illuminating faces. The force shield wasn’t bulging, and more and more impacts fought in vain to overe it. Something had to give, and the explosions bounced back, spshing the ground in front of them. The ground was torn apart, creepers and vines caught fire, and a hellish sea came to life on the pins. Minefields—disrupted by the shockwaves, overheated by napalm, or touched by molten stoonated prematurely, spewing burnih into the air.

  And into this madness, the enemy advanced. Warriors power armor marched, protected by mobile force shield stations. The first mae carved a wide gap through the mountain range, and the troops surged around the a beast. Tall and somewhat chubby, the invaders bore little resembn their equipment. Pin steel-cd soldiers with mounted ons on their shoulders rode gigantic beasts alongside warriors outfitted in pieces of various exosuits, crudely stitched together and incrusted with gold. Ahead of them bravely rode riders on hoverbikes, ign tongues of fmes lig their feet and steeds, and their ughter reached the defenders, apanied by the hail of energy projectiles hissing against the shield.

  “Has the scout team departed?” Lugal-marada inquired, fag the fire of tless ons, hands csped behind his back. The ambassador couldn’t decide whether the man was brave or foolish for exposing himself like that.

  “ive! ETD thirty seds!” reported a soldier.

  “Simpletons,” said the lieutenant. The flesh on his shoulders bulged, his fingers swollen. “Ohe situation is resolved, issue them ten shes for tardiness.”

  “You seem to be eagerly optimistic about the situation.” Craven swallowed nervously.

  “Have faith, ambassador!” Peggy cheered him on. “Our cause is just, and God is with us! A righteous fire burns in our hearts and strengthens our arms! Let the madmen e; we’ll strike them down, one by one! If we fall, it’ll be for a noble cause, and our aors will rejoi heaven!”

  “Personally, I prefer to keep them at bay and blow them to bits,” Lugal-marada replied calmly, raising his hand as if timing something, while keeping his eyes on the map dispy. “Main ons, maintain pressure on the primary target. Its geor ’t sustain the energy drain of moving, supplying its shield, firing auxiliary ons, and using the main on, so they are sacrifig one fun in favor of the rest.”

  “How do you know it?” blurted out Craven.

  “Elementary, Ambassador. It hasn’t fired yet, and judging by the caliber, the ensuing explosion would have vaporized their own troops. Barbarians they may be, but why send important equipment to a senseless end? No, their leader rightly uood that our own shield could gobble up a shot or two of their ammunition, thus alerting us in advance, and so he tried a different approach,” Lugal-Marada expined without haste. “As for your question, the moment the ander learns of our difficulties, it will be over for these fools.”

  But Ravager is not in Houstad. Craven was about to say and bit his tongue. No doubt Lugal-marada knew. His words were meant to inspire and reassure his troops after an ued interference had disrupted their unications.

  “Rabble, emboldened by idiocy, dares to intrude on our nd,” Lugal-marada tinued, his loud voice heard over the vast length of the wall, despite the bombardment. “What do we say to them?”

  “Go to hell!” roared soldiers. The bined shout of mutants, Orais, and Normies briefly silehe riders’ jeering.

  “Repel them.” Lugal-marada’s hand dropped.

  Small-caliber artillery, snipers, and mortars answered the and, unleashing a hail of destru on the approag hordes. Grenade explosio hoverbikes flying; snipers fihe wounded; shell after shell was lobbed into the individual isnds of safety represented by the mobile shield geors. No ripples appeared on their surfaces, but several spheres curved outward and soon burst, exposing those io the steel raining down upon them. Still, the Gilded Horde advaheir rger vehicles closing in, protected by the projected field. For every soldier killed, ten more took their pce. Enemies didn’t throw their lives away needlessly; the wounded were helped into cover, and their tanks and artillery returned fire, pierg the Recimers’ shield in several pces.

  Force shields, to Craven’s limited knowledge, worked on a dispersal basis. A hit would e in, and the brunt of the impact would be smoothly smeared over the surface, like walnut cream on a slice of bread. In the case of a siack, the automatic systems running the plex calcutions for the shield reinforced the damaged area, easily stopping even a potentially peing blow, while rapid fire from multiple sources limited such luxury. By p a ke-sized amount of energy aal capable of leveling a settlement in seds upon the defenders, the Gilded Horde had achieved the desired effect of overloading the defenses, and bodies were thrown up, losing limbs, bleeding, and dying as they were struck by shells and energy projectiles.

  Halina screamed, and one of the teachers apanying the group pressed the girl’s face to his chest as Craven stepped forward, frowning in annoyance as a shard of rock cut his cheek to the teeth. He waved away a field medic as his natural regeion began w, quickly dragging damaged meat together.

  “What about elevators?” Lugal-marada demanded.

  “Still offline, sir!” reported an Orais, dragging a wailing, legless soldier away. A lucky shell that passed through the returning shield was about to hit them when a forked lightning bolt shot out of Sagit’s neck, exploding the projectile in the air.

  “Stairwells, thehe children out of here…”

  “Sir!” Sagit alerted, pointing to the horizon.

  Dark shapes flew above the slow behemoth, and as they left the clouds, the light reflected from their diamond coating. Airships, so many that Craven fot the pain in his cheek or his fear. Their noses resembled arrowheads, small force shields bubbled around them, and each bore the same heraldry: hungry teeth closing in on a world. The Recmation Army and the Oathtakers had small and pact air forces, used primarily for the rapid delivery of supplies or men. Several of their air units had impressive firepower, but these were rare. Only Iterna had a fully operational fleet of bombers, interceptors, and transports.

  Until today. The air hunters rapidly closed in on the shield; bck fumes steamed from their engines. Ohere, they slowed down to bypass the shield unopposed while the defenders fired at them. But it wasn’t enough; most of their ons were aimed at ground targets, and the ships’ shields held long enough for them to enter and unleash hell with their own gunfire. Owo—went down and spiraled into the battlements, crashing and bursting into fmes. Figures broke from the wreckage, stumbling under fire aurning it. The rest hovered in the air, the partments in their ters opening.

  Unleashing breachers.

  “Let’s make some widows!” An armored woman ughed as she spun in her jump and fired her SMG blindly. She nded amidst the soldiers, holding a two-handed bck bde as if it were a feather, and it blurred in her hand, shearing through necks and torsos.

  “Widowmaker! Widowmaker!” More soldiers jumped off the woman’s ship, cheering in on. They nded heavily, their legs trampling craters in the ground, and the group formed ranks, bringing fire to the defenders.

  Chaos erupted at the top of the wall. The Gilded Horde didn’t send just ordinary Blessed or troops. These were the cream of the crop, or so Craven thought, as soldiers forcibly carried him and the children toward an open door.

  He saulsating mass of toxic sludge slump from the open door of a ship and vaguely take human form on the ground. With a slurping sound, the newer’s body swallowed bullets, disiing them and grenades in seds and spewing appehat closed in on the soldiers, burning them on tad dragging the screaming victims to be devoured. Beasts of bone and chitin shattered bones with their blows; water-wielders drowheir oppos; flying harpy Blessed screamed so loudly that armor and bodies inside cracked.

  The Provincial Army responded in kind. Orais wrestled in the melee with the Horde’s Blessed, crumpling their helmets; soldiers formed new lines of fire, supp their rades; Exotics stepped in. A man transformed into a pilr of light, shedding his clothes. Those of the hordemen touched by his light screamed in desperation, as yer after yer their armor disappeared and soon their flesh followed.

  An Orais gathered himself into a ball and rolled, air gathering around him. A bubble of air soon burst, pierg the enemies like daggers as the soldier ughed bombastically, even as a-meter tall bone monster closed its hands against the brave man. Suddenly, the hands exploded and a line of air touched the bone-covered Blessed’s neck, cutting short his scream as it severed his head. The Orais’ mockery was short-lived. Widowmaker closed in on the man, thrusting the edge of her bde through the air shield and plunging it into the Orais’ heart, pierg his armor.

  “Get lost from my Wall,” Lugal-marada said iween giving the ands to the troops.

  His right arm grew, gaining a dark blue color; each finger parted from its siblings as the arm uself into five separate tentacles. The lieutenant swung, brushing aside a h aircraft as if it were little more than an annoying mosquito. Lugal-marada grew; his breastpte popped ao pieces; legs and arms turned into knots of sppiacles; his head merged with his torso to form a tall n of flesh. Wide, wet orbs of his eyes opened, and blue rays left them, overheatial and burning four hordemen to the bone.

  A burst of automated fire from a ship above forced Peggy to shove Craven ahead and jump back, saving herself. She spun and fired at an approag hordeman and broke his leg by nding two shots into the joint of his knee when another one crashed into her from above.

  “Зогсоох, боолууд!” Craven turned in time to receive a heavy sm in his face with the butt of a mae gun from an approag hordeman.

  The blow immediately broke Craven’s nose ahe ambassador rolling through the fortress door, nearly smming Jay against a wall. Craven stood up on wobbly legs, unaced to the violence, and had no idea what to do. An eye poke? As if! His oppo’s oriental eyes stared at him through the visor. Peggy was busy killing a hordeman who tried to pin her against a wall with his sword and hadn’t yet entered inside, while the soldier esc the teachers and children was baded away.

  At least they are taking prisoners. Craven raised his hands to the barrel of the gun leveled at his face. He’ll find a way to get the children to safety. Whoever these freaks were, even they couldn’t be crazy enough to challewo Great Nations at once. He’d lie about the children being part of the Oathtakers and…

  Light appeared at the hordeman's back, and in the split sed, he flew up and nded heavily against a wall. His helmet cracked like an eggshell, and rivulets of blood spshed against the faces of the terrified children. A hissing thunderbolt hung in the air above the dead body, and a very human leg, which had kicked the eo death, protruded from it. Sagit regained her human form, standing fully naked, and waved to the appeared Peggy. Electric currents coursed beh the sergeant’s milky-white skin, serving as her veins. She had no eyeballs, aricity danced in the empty sockets.

  “Get everyone down,” Sagit ordered. “Ground level, thehe civilians into any vehicle and off to Houstad,” she told the bleeding soldier.

  “I stay and fight,” Peggy offered.

  “Sow death to save the kids, holy sister,” Sagit said. “If that God of yours is truly benevolent, it’s what he would’ve wanted.”

  “Thank you!” Craven said.

  Sagit said nothing and fell onto her back, shifting smoothly into her energy form. She darted outside, burrowing a hole through the chest of an unsuspeg hordeman and eg two other enemies with electricity. Their bodies thrashed as the thunder rocked them, and the ambassador heard the crack of their limbs even through all the chaos.

  It was thehe outside darkened. Craven thought it was ining artillery, but instead a dark cloud of smoke, lined with red fshes, desded upon Sagit, quickly pressing into a multi-armed human form. Crimson arms ing fire seized the living lightning, pinning Sagit to the stone floor. She expanded her form, and her demonic oppo responded in kind, sprouting more limbs to hold her steady. The hordeman’s head jerked as a blow struck his grinning, smoking skull. A humanoid arm of fme arched from his back, rapidly growing cws.

  The two fought oing the reinforced stohe Exotic Blessed, who had bee a pilr of light, tried to help, but the flesh motes that had been thrown off his oppo suddenly ged dire. They flew back to the naked man with aviaures, rest his body, and he shrieked and ughed cruelly.

  “Perish heretic!” the hordeman said, and the pilr of light dimmed, nearly colpsed on itself.

  Craven didn’t linger any more. He helped the bleeding soldier to his feet and grabbed Halina’s hand, leading the girl as he hurried after their guide. T and Jay helped the teachers to move the rest of the children, and their group desded a flight of stairs.

  The Wall was shaking; its gray walls no longer inspired safety and fidence. Dust swirled in the air, and soldiers ran past them to reinforce their rades above. Sirens bred incessantly as operators calmly reyed information about falleions and coordinated retreats. At one point, the group lost its footing as a cataclysmic tremor swept over the fortification.

  “Wh-what was that?” whispered the pale-faced T.

  They found the answer below. Part of aire level was missing, exposing everyoo the sight of the raging battle approag the bastion. The Horde was still advang, the shield reformed, and Craven had no idea what or who could have created this perfect line of destru that wiped out everything for at least a hundred meters horizontally. He had a more important problem to solve, as the stairs now had a gaping hole in them.

  Craven and the soldier jumped across the ruins and faced the teachers, who unceremoniously began tossing kids to them. The ambassador had his share of fears in life. That time when he had btantly lied to his mother about attending a uy for two whole years. The terror he experienced during an ambush on his office by oppos of reunification. But never had his arms been so close to defying his biology as they were now. He feared not for himself but for the death of his charges.

  In the ruins behind him, the battle raged. Sg the walls, several hordemen appeared in the opening. The Recimers gunned most of them, but one invader shot two soldiers before an Orais rammed a bayohrough a cra his chest pte. Craven didn’t bother to turn any longer. He had a more important task, and when the scared children were safe, the group resumed their retreat.

  “It irks me to run, abandoning allies,” Peggy admitted quietly, firing twice to drop a hordeman trying to break a soldier’s neck.

  “Adhere to the tents of your order, holy sister,” Craven advised her. “Yours is the sacred task of proteg the helpless. Our allies are far from such.”

  “True that.” The soldier wiped the blood from his bruised face. A single sp had left a gash in his , but the man walked lightly. “Don’t worry, Dynast’s willing, we’ll beat them back.”

  “The Dynast is not a god, young man,” Peggy corrected him.

  “Might as well be, sidering who serves him.” The soldier shrugged and punched in a code, opening the door into the hangar.

  They rushed into the orderly chaos of the retreating army. To Craven’s surprise, the lieutenant had ordered the super-heavy tanks to charge the enemy while the medium and light armored vehicles were to retreat from the battlefield. Trucks filled with soldiers, meics, and doctors roared to take up defensive positions in the smaller settlements. Scouts had already left, hurrying to deliver news so the citizens could escape.

  They walked to the ruck, where troops and meics were waiting for them, when aremor shook the fortress. Cracks appeared in the ceiling, sh down debris and c the hangar in a dusty mist.

  “No! Watch out!” Halina screamed and pushed anirl. It saved the kid’s life, but the sizeable k of rock that fell from above hit Halina’s shoulder, breaking it and nding on the fallen girl’s legs. The wounded child shrieked in pain, the tips of her white, gleaming boore through her skin. “I am so sorry!” Halina gasped, fetting about her own pain. “I didn’t mean to… I never wanted…”

  “It’s okay, kiddo!” their guide said, taking the girl with the broken legs into his arms as Peggy threw the stone aside. “She’ll live…”

  “I will be the one deg that.”

  A hand broke through the dust, grabbed Halina’s throat, and lifted the choking girl up. Craveated, unsure where the bastard had e from, and Peggy refrained from firing, worried about hitting the child. The newer had crept up on them silently, defying the imagination. Thick armor incrusted with jade ptes stained by red covered the man from o toes. He was bareheaded, his ears resembling those of a dog, his ened by an arauma, and his rge eyes sunk deep into his skull. Hideous robes of fyed skin cascaded from the man’s shoulders, and Craven nearly vomited when he saw a stretched child’s fa the leather. Cuts aions covered the bald head, but the intruder paid no attention to the bleeding, examining the girl in his hand.

  Two soldiers, an Orais and a Normie, charged to fnk him, and the three-meter-tall man moved with incredible agility. The butcher’s cleaver in his hand blurred, chopping off the Orais’ head, and the return blow skewered the Normie. The dust cleared, and the ambassador saw a rge hole in the wall, with more hordemen p in.

  “Broken scapu, broken…” Halina screamed as a rge fiouched her swollen shoulder. “… corre, cracked cvicle, several sshes, young, healthy…” the broken nose sniffed. “Unripe. Forty м?нг? as it is. Six hundred м?нг? upon being healed.”

  “Let… let me go, please.” Tears appeared in Halina’s eyes. “Dad… help me!”

  “Flesh does not speak. Cry, moan, scream in respoo animalististincts, but do not dare to speak. I do not wish to mar your skin with a whip and diminish your value.” The grip tightened, sileng the girl. “Docility or skin.”

  “You…” Craven stepped in front of the angry Peggy. Now was not the time for shooting. That bastard could easily snap the girl’s neck. “You spoke of м?нг?. Am I corre my assumption that this is your currency?”

  The pale eyes wao him, and the fat lips pursed. “Absolutely,” said the big hordeman. He spoke in a muone during the appraisal, pletely ign the soldiers in the hangar.

  “Let me purchase our lives,” Craven offered. “Name your price.”

  “Outnders are allowed at aus, but the flesh is mistaken.” The ambassador ched his fists nervously, hearing gunshots and the g of metal in the hangar. “Whatever you have on yourself is already ours. But perhaps your khaganate is willing to buy you out?”

  “Not just me.” Craven eagerly tched on to this proposition. He work with it. “Show mercy to everyone here; treat them kindly, and they’ll be bought out. At your prioble sir.” He put his palms together and bowed in submission, praying to God to spare the children’s lives.

  Let the bastard gloat if he wao. Craven would endure any torture for the sake of his allies. Peggy would uand, he hoped. There was no victory here. But the Oathtakers never abaheir own, or those who helped them. The day will e when this sve trader will wake up to the bck eyes of General Crawler h over him. And when the chelicerae close around his body, he will learn the price paid by those who vioted those uhe Oath’s prote. A month of svery was nothing.

  “How quaint,” the man said in a perfeon. “It is a rare sight to meet a reasonable flesh. You are not lying to me by any ce, graydy?”

  “Perish the thought, kind master,” Craven assured him.

  “Master. Fttery.” The sver smiled. “I’ll perish you and these whelps in the most horrible ossible if you have lied to me, graydy. Until then, you are my bondsmen. Food, water, and medical care will be provided. The price of your freedom is two hundred gold bars. Eleven inches ih. The weight and price of the whelps and your whore will be determier. But the soldiers and your feeble helpers…” He narrowed his eyes. “Their value is not that high to waste water.”

  “Reasonable people surely e to an agreement…”

  “No. Gatherers! Exterminate…”

  “Extermihis, jackass!” T yelled.

  “No!” Cravehe boy appeared over the hordeman’s shoulder.

  He did not know how the fat boy had sneaked up and climbed the monster in silence, but there was a glint of steel in T’s hand. The boy buried it in the sver’s neck, bleeding the man, but not a hint of panic er touched the pale eyes. The man dropped Halina, and Craven caught her. Then his hand moved back, fingers pointing at T’s eyes…

  The boy disappeared with a bang, and this time there was a surprised look on the madman’s face. He was turning as Peggy opened fire on him. A bullet ricocheted off his forehead, and a piece of bloody skin dangled, c one of his eyes as the man raised his hand to shield his face. More bullets rattled his armor, denting it and sending rge pieetal flying.

  “Where is he?!” the giant roared.

  “Suy balls, dumb motherfucker!” T ughed from the truck, sittio the other kids, holding a pristine, knife.

  Craven had no time to solve this riddle. He hurried to the trad handed Halina to the teachers just in time to hear.

  “I see you,” said a voice full of cold fury. The sver stepped forward and nded his cleaver on Peggy. The bde bit deep into her wrist, shattering the armor and nearly taking away the arm. “None escapes Svetaker.” Peggy dropped her maegun, reached her knife, and stabbed Svetaker into the cra his armor before his hand touched her.

  Svetaker broke through her helmet, blinding the holy sister when his fingers ripped open her eyes. He grabbed her by the mouth and eye sockets and pulled, tearing off a rge portion of Peggy’s face. Teeth and bones smashed against the floor, blood dripped from the lump of meat in the cruel hand, and Peggy’s body slumped to the ground.

  The bloodshot eyes focused oruck, and Svetaker’s legs became blurred pistons as he hurried to his prey, r and g and ung his hand in anticipation. Craven had no time to think. The engine was already r, but there was no time. The hordeman would reach them first, and the surrounding soldiers were still fighting for survival.

  So he tackled the man. It was a owerless shove, but it bought the preoments for the truck to leave, and Craven Wickedbreed coughed through the pain as the cleaver nded on him, slig down from his right shoulder to his chest.

  Faith. Faith that his sacrifice would give these children a ce at life. It sustained his sce as the cleaver twisted aroyed his lung.

  “You failed,” Craven said through the bubbling blood, gasping for air. He wished for a more heroic or at least snide remark to irritate the bastard, but nothing came to mind.

  “I saw them.” The hand grasped the skin on the side of the ambassador’s head, peeling it away. “They run to the end of the world if they want. It won’t save them. We are ected. Every night while they sleep, I step closer. Every time they are out of breath, I draw heir skins are mine for disobedieheir carcasses are food for the vultures. No sve or bondsman escapes Svetaker. As for you, flesh. Let’s see how much of your hide you lose before your heart grows still.”

  Screw that. Craven decided and bit into the capsule hidden in his tooth.

  The Trolls were famous for their regeion, and it was both a blessing and a curse. The ability trans or lost limbs was invaluable in most cases, aside from the times when a Troll ended up captured by ibals or sadists. Then a Troll often suffered months of long torture before expiring. Such a fate always frightened Craven, aed for the program desigo prevent it.

  His body could withstand many wounds and poisons and still heal. But a lethal dose of halluogenic poison that affected his brain was fatal, even for him. Ambassador Craven died, blissfully thinking of home.

  And the war still raged on.