0258 - Boy, That Escalated Quickly.

Then, with a screeching groan of metal, it buckled.

Not just buckled. It exploded inwards.

Hinges ripped from their moorings with shrieks of tearing metal. Bolts thicker than a man's arm snapped. The entire gate, a colossal slab of iron and reinforced wood, was blasted off its frame, sent flying into the courtyard beyond like it did not weigh tons.

It flew and crashed down with another earth-shattering boom, raising a cloud of dust and debris as it hid everything from bystanders.

"INVASION!" a guard on the wall cried out, slamming his fist into the war gong.

DOOOONG! DOOOONG! DOOOONG!

ROAAAAARRR!

The crowd outside answered with a roar of their own, desperate, wild, unified.

Two factions formed in a heartbeat.

On one side, the guards scrambled to form a line, weapons raised, shouting orders in panic. On the other, the desperate masses who had been waiting for days, weeks, months, now saw an open gate.