644. No wonder the gods rarely showed themselves-the aftereffects of having a blast were awful. Bonus Chapter 55

(Bonus chapter for "Chen Wenjun 2," 5/5)

By dawn the next day, the fighting at Blackflame Pass had finally come to an end.

The good news was that after Murphy personally joined the fight, leading the Transians in a fierce charge that lifted everyone's spirits and eventually spurred the retainer army into a countercharge, Positions Two and Three had both been retaken.

The bad news was that Position One—the outermost position at Blackflame Pass, and the one most heavily infiltrated through underground tunnels—had fallen completely into the hands of the Splitclaw gnolls.

They had lost at least eight thousand kobolds and a thousand gnolls in the previous night's battle just to hold off the retainers' counterattack. The time bought by those frontline sacrifices had allowed them to surround Position One with a vile ward.

It was a supernatural force cast by their voodoo priests, like an impenetrable fog of war that completely isolated Position One from the positions behind it.

Murphy could have charged inside, but at the last moment, he chose to stop.

For one thing, dawn was approaching, and the conditions were no longer suitable for vampires to fight. For another, he worried that Dusk might be up to something inside the fog. Charging in recklessly could easily mean walking straight into a trap.

Lord Heather was close to losing her mind.

She regarded the loss as a disgrace to Blackflame Pass. Especially after the Transians' victory at Fort Valor, losing Position One felt like a vicious slap across the face of the dwarf lord, who cared deeply about her honor.

She was determined to retake Position One before sunset, and had even decided to lead the charge herself.

Of course, this wasn't simply a matter of dwarf pride. The Black Calamity had only just begun, and Blackflame