Black Tide, Isolated City

"The Big Bird Squad and Silvermoon Squad got the remaining two crystal cores. They lost some brothers, and they're now heading this way through the tunnels we marked. Brother Bang, Master Qin, we need to take people out to meet them.

"Otherwise, with the fortress surrounded on all sides, their people will never make it in!"

Under the cover of night, Teacher Li, who was temporarily in charge of communications at Fort Courage, hurried over and relayed the latest news to the two commanders. They were currently stationed on the outer watchtower with many other players.

In response to Teacher Li's suggestion, neither Brother Bang nor Old Qin said a word. The situation needed little explanation.

Everyone inside Fort Courage knew how bad things were.

From the watchtower, they could see that the small plateau was surrounded on all sides by armies of Rending Claw gnolls and their kobold servants. This wasn't some hastily improvised siege, either. In many places, the kobolds had dug trenches. They were crooked and uneven, but clearly imitated the trenches of the Transians.

This was a clear sign that the gnolls intended to lay siege and keep attacking for a long time.

The gnolls clearly knew that Fort Courage's defenses had become extremely difficult to breach now that construction was complete. With their advantage, they had chosen the safer approach.

With the Blackflame Pass effectively breached, this isolated outpost far from the battlefield couldn't receive supplies or reinforcements. The gnolls didn't even need to attack repeatedly. They could simply surround the fort and wear down its stubborn defenders.

This wasn't a strategic stronghold.

But as long as the blood banner still flew above the heart of Fort Courage, neither the gnolls nor the vampires, nor even the faithful of the great churches, could bring themselves