Adventurous Breakthrough

In the Shantytown Area of the Iron Islands, the two-story stone house that had once served as their temporary refuge was no longer a safe harbor. Instead, it had become a lone island gradually being swallowed by the flames of death.

Webber lurked silently behind a broken shutter on the second floor, staring hard through the crack at the situation on the street below.

Outside the window, the scene had already become a living hell.

The streets and alleys that had once been tangled and filled with desperate struggle now seemed unusually "empty," but that emptiness carried a deathly stillness that made the heart seize.

Only squads of fully armed Sauron soldiers, their faces marked with the fatigue and excitement left after slaughter, were sprinting toward the harbor along several main roads like streams flowing into a river.

Their objective was clear: crush the last resistance at the harbor and complete the occupation of the Iron Islands. Now and then, scattered screams and the clash of weapons came from afar—that was the Sauron mop-up teams executing the survivors hiding in the ruins.

Webber's heart sank to rock bottom. The Sauron main force was heading straight for the harbor, which meant Baron Werner and Knight Klein's final defense line was under tremendous pressure. Its fall might come at any moment.

And the more imminent threat was fire! With no resisters left to fight it, the great blaze in the Shantytown Area was spreading wildly with the help of the sea wind!

Crimson tongues of flame greedily licked at everything that could burn. Thick smoke billowed up, and even from some distance away, they could feel the scorching waves of heat.

The fire line was advancing toward the area where they were hiding at a speed visible to the naked eye! Before