"We can't hold them back any longer."
Filthy Swamp, Wolf Fort—the temporary location of Old Qin's command center.
All the young staff officers had gathered here. Old Qin's two adjutants, Veteran of the Qing Dynasty and Five Pairs of Wheels, also looked solemn. Before them lay a marsh battlefield map shaped from psionic energy. It was a little more detailed than the one used in the Barren Mountain theater, made by goatman sorcerers skilled in psionic shaping.
It marked every tunnel and tactical position throughout the Filthy Swamp in detail. Green dots represented active player squads or Transia NPC tactical teams; red dots showed where the gnolls were active, and blue dots marked the friendly forts in the marsh.
By now, the map was covered in red specks. At a glance, they were so densely packed that they were unnerving.
No explanation was needed to see that the gnolls' advance and breakthrough in the Filthy Swamp had become unstoppable. There were a hundred times as many red dots as green defenders, and they were still moving forward.
"By the worst-case estimate, the Filthy Swamp will be breached within the next day or two."
Five Pairs of Wheels spoke in a low voice.
"We've received bad news from the Avalon Church. As the number of gnolls in the marsh keeps growing, the Hunting Lord's divine domain is spreading through these ley nodes. The growth of the carnivorous plants in the Filthy Swamp has been suppressed, while the wild beasts have become even more ferocious under the influence of the savage will to hunt.
The goatmen's town in the marsh's southeastern reaches has already been attacked several times by marsh creatures.
This means the Nature God's blessing on the marsh is temporarily failing.
The gods' long-distance contest is about to end. It