Cool Guy lay in the grass, avidly watching the battlefield several hundred meters away. The sight of the Restoration Army's stone cannons firing and its infantry formations advancing was spectacular. He couldn't get enough of it.
Cool Guy had already spent three days hiding here, watching the show.
On the first day, the Restoration Army hadn't rushed to attack upon arrival. Instead, it had felled trees and set up camp two thousand meters in front of Bolas Fortress, sending scouts out in every direction.
Cool Guy and the hundred or so other players who had come to watch had been prepared. Those who could hide stayed out of sight; those who couldn't fought encounters with the Restoration Army's scouts. If they won, they ran. If they lost, they left their corpses behind.
Naturally, the prepared players had firmly resolved not to bring any valuables this time... meaning firearms, armor, and handsome uniforms.
Every player had put on local hemp clothing, grabbed a sword, a bow, a quiver of iron arrows, and three days' worth of food and water, then headed over.
For this battle, Chris had temporarily given every player ten free revivals, so none of them feared death.
This left the Restoration Army rather puzzled... Why were its scouts suffering such heavy losses? Weren't these country bumpkins recruited by the Minisians a little too vicious?
Thanks to their fixed assumptions, and the fact that they hadn't taken a single prisoner alive, the Restoration Army never realized a third faction was stirring up trouble.
On the second day, the Restoration Army sent out more scouts, doing everything it could to expand the area under its control.
It had no choice. Besides ensuring its own safety, the Restoration Army needed to besiege the fortress. That meant building siege engines, which required