The players had won.
Unlike Diu Ni Leimu, Chris had been keeping an eye on the Mountain Tiger Warband. Knowing Knife-in-the-Butt and the players as he did, he knew perfectly well that they could never sit still.
Have the players quietly hold the pass and block the Snake-Men's retreat?
Oh, that was hardly possible. It was like keeping a school of piranhas that had scented blood outside a glass tank full of fresh meat and expecting them to do nothing but patrol.
Sooner or later, they would smash the glass, and they were bound to tear the meat inside to shreds.
As for how many piranhas would die smashing through the glass?
They did not care.
Diu Ni Leimu was a player, but judging by this, he had spent so long away from the wider player community that he had failed to realize what he had done.
Chris was different. The moment he learned that the Mountain Tiger Warband had been sent to Grayrock Pass, just a step away from the Snake-Men, he knew there would be quite a show that night.
So Chris had been following the Mountain Tiger Warband players' movements through their third-person perspectives.
When Knife-in-the-Butt led his men in a charge toward Naxi Fortress, Chris even felt the satisfaction of having called it exactly right.
Still, Chris was not omniscient. For instance, the smoke rising from fires behind the fortress while the players and Snake-Men fought took him by surprise.
At first, Chris thought the Snake-Men had blundered in the chaos and set their own base on fire.
But as time passed, the flames did not diminish. Instead, they spread rapidly, and when battle cries carried over on the wind, Chris realized something was wrong.
A third-party faction was stabbing the Snake-Men in the backside... well,