In just three short hours, the initial forty-thousand-strong "First Defense Line" army was now reduced to just over ten thousand.
They were mostly personal guards from various families in the North, tightly bound to the war chariots of the northern nobility, with many of them holding titles of knights.
They knew that surrender would not bring them any benefits; in fact, their fate would be even more tragic, implicating their families as well.
Among them were over three thousand Heavy Armored Cavalry from the Boske Duchy, nearly seven thousand elite Spear and Shield Soldiers, and more than two thousand archers.
However, they suddenly realized that not only had the frontline crumbled, but the Ashen Kingdom's vanguard troops had already broken through the fragile defenses at the pass, infiltrating the duchy's interior from the flanks, appearing like ghosts behind them, completely surrounding the remnant force of ten thousand stubborn soldiers.