[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oq7VJBTvA0][b]Château de D'Aubigne Outer Courtyards - Noble's Quarter[/b][/url][/center]

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[b]‘’Surrounded-‘’[/b]
 
Thanks to the situation he was in, Korkud was practically running on the spare air in his lungs now, too concentrated -or overwhelmed- to breathe – occasionally, he’d give out a monotone cough, and refill his lungs as his mouth retracted to clench his teeth once more. His mind was completely aware of his odd manner of breathing, but was too busy with formulating ways of escape to actually lend hand to fix it. Breathing fine wasn’t going to do anything against an army that had the entire place surrounded. Korkud had been in worse situations, and thus he was not hopeless – but that didn’t mean that he was confident, given he hadn’t left those situations without harm. Getting blinded was definitely not something he wanted to experience again. 
 
First things first, he thought – they had to clear the foes inside the Château and then make sure none would be able to enter. Then they would have to deal with artillery trying to bring the structure down on them, but that wasn’t as immediate a danger as the armored men inside. The officer was working on something, and he knew that the Nezamis were formidable and efficient in their methods. But nonetheless, time was running out. Time was running out, and when it finally did, all his life’s work would be in vain. All the suffering, the deaths… He wasn’t going to die knowing that. His responsibility was far too important to let go of him in death.
 
The officer reappeared moments later with a bottle of wine, with a wad of cloth stuffed into it. Korkud half nodded to show his appreciation for the man’s makeshift explosive – there was no time to thank him. They were surrounded on all sides. Korkud’s eyes were all over the architecture. He wanted to buy time, to stop any more enemies from coming in. ‘’Need to tear down that gate,’’ he muttered. And at that moment, Korkud was enlightened with the lighting of a candle. Their salvation was, literally, in his hands. If he could blow up the powder charges, the hand mortar would be able to cave down the entrance.
 
Korkud abruptly held the hand mortar upside down, almost bashing the Nezami Officer in the face during the process, and unstrapped the bandolier wrapped around its stock. ‘’Load this,’’ he muttered as he handed over the hand mortar to the Nezami Officer alongside one powder charge. Perhaps thanks to his nobleman origins, or perhaps thanks to the high standards he had built up over the years, Korkud was expecting his demands to be fulfilled without any delay – thankfully, the Nezami Officer was trained not to disappoint, and reflexively grabbed and began loading the mortar as he watched Korkud spin the bandolier as if it were a rock sling and release it after a second, hitting an ornamental pillar holding a marble piece of architecture over the gate. ‘’Fire!’’ Korkud roared as the Officer tried to rotate the mortar back in position. A second later, he had managed to finish ramming the ball down the barrel, and shot the grenade at the bandolier of powder and explosive balls that lay next to the marble pillar. The shot was accurate, and landed itself right in the middle of the bandolier, and after a moment of delay, the fuse ran out and gave way to an ear-deafening explosion as both the charge and the bandolier ignited violently.
                                    
Smoke and debris peppered the entrance through an exceedingly deafening bang and in a flash, the once finely ornamented opening leading into the ancient Château D'Aubigne collapsed into a rubbled heap. The Nezam officer offered a brief bow of thanks towards the finely robed aristocrat and wasted little time in bellowing, strict deliberate orders over the din of battle. All along the newly assembled line, the few ball carrying Nezams lit their munitions balls, including the officer himself and following a tense pause, hurled their charges into their destinations. This followed swiftly by loud bangs that erupted into almost synchronous detonations and completely caught the compact Azad shock troopers off guard.

A moment afterwards, fate granted the Azads little time to react as the remaining detachment leveled their muskets volleyed into the Azads with deadly precision. Confused, startled, and ultimately caught reeling, the Azad shield wall began to buckle as Sarifen retainers and Azads alike turned to react. Disciplined and hard-bitten, the Nezam detachment shouted in unison as it was given the order to level their bayonets and charge. Bellowing, the Nezam officer ducked as wounded, firearm carrying Nezamnis offered sporadic musket over his head and into the reeling Azads. A second later, the man quickly wasted no time as he unveiled another pistol and fired into a hapless Sarifen retainer's back before charging alongside his men...