The Liguritudum army continued their march after leaving their guild player force to deal with the guild players that had been ambushing them these past days. They were currently in front of a fort jammed between two tall mountains.
It was the Num Maldur pass. It was a pass similar to the Themisphylae pass in Themisphere. A long mountain line with steep cliffs was seen as far as their eyes could see on both sides of the fort. Those mountains were the Gonrum mountain range. Unless one could fly, there was no going through those mountains except through the fort.
On the left side, opposite the mountain line was a large forest. On the right side, the terrains were mainly rocky plains.
"I've just received a message from Spring Crowns. They have to retreat from the battle against the enemy guild players," Linda reported to Master.
Master frowned after hearing it. "They lost?" He asked.
Linda told Master what Spring Crown told her, regarding the large number of high-level companions the Everlasting Heavenly Legends' members called during the battle.
Master asked if any of their members identified these companions. Linda asked around. Some of their members used Inspect on those enemy companions and still remembered their names. After hearing some of the names, Master knew where those natives came from.
He was reminded again he shouldn't underestimate Jack's persuasion ability. Those Council of Charites' natives should have followed Jack after that incident in their base.
"Never mind them. We will deal with them when it's time," Master said. "Let's move!"
The Liguritudum army turned sideways and moved away from the fort.
*
"They are taking the roundabout way," A player on the wall of Num Maldur Pass said.
"It is as expected," Another player answered. "Although they should be able to take over this fort with their force, they will lose troops in the process. The time they need to take this fort is probably the same if they take the roundabout way, or maybe even more. Hence, taking the roundabout way is the wiser choice."
Thelgrun had entrusted this pass to the number two guild in the country, the Licth Squad. Thelgrun had gathered most of the native army in the capital. He let players defend the pass because they could stay at that pass and then teleported back into the capital when the enemy reached the capital. They didn't have the hassle of considering the traveling time as the native army did.
The number of players currently stationed in this pass was almost 100,000. Nowadays, player forces could go toe-to-toe with a native army. Hence, the players could defend the pass as well as a native army.
These players were led by the Licth Squad, but the bulk of their number came from other Palgrost guilds and independent players. The guilds in this fort were mostly those below the rank ten in Palgrost, as most of the ranked guilds were either with Jeanny's ambushing force or on Boron's side.
The Licth Squad was a guild led by five players who used to be an independent team. They never bothered forming or joining a guild in past games, but they were pretty famous as an independent team. In this game world, however, they learned that they couldn't treat it as regular games where they simply used it for entertainment. This time, the game was real.
Luckily, they coincidentally arrived in this world in the same country. Thus, after finding each other and regrouping, they formed a guild using their previous team's name. Using their experience from previous games, the guild flourished under their hard work. They placed second in the country's guild ranking list and had stayed in that rank for a long time.
The leader of the Licth Squad was someone using the alias of Viking. The other four original members of the team were HeroV, Genesis, Kenny Boy, and Dragonmasta. All five of them were among the players who were watching from the wall of Num Maldur fort.
"You know what I think? Since they take the roundabout way, we should take this chance to hit Khulgrun," Dragonmasta said.
Khulgrun was the city closest to the Num Maldur Pass. It was also one of the settlements the Liguritudum army had taken to establish their supply line.
"Khulgrun won't be undefended," HeroV said. "The enemy sure to have left troops to defend their supply line."
"I have had people scouting the place. The troops guarding the city are not more than one legion," Dragonmasta reasoned. "If we bring all the troops here, we should be able to take down the city even without siege weapons."
"And leave this pass undefended? That is irresponsible! We have been given the duty to protect this place!" HeroV exclaimed. "If the Liguritudum army heard of us attacking Khulgrun, they will return and take this pass."
"I didn't say we move out now. We wait until the Liguritudum army is at least one day away. It is only a five-hour ride from this place to Khulgrun. We should have the time to hit the place, free the city, burn or take all the supplies, and return to this fort before Liguritudum's main army arrives. In this way, we not only cut down their supplies but also made them lose time because they wasted their time coming back here. They would waste even more time if they went back to retake Khulgrun. Imagine the war contribution points we will get from these actions."
"It's too risky," Genesis said.
"With great risk comes great reward," Dragonmasta argued.
"What about the player force led by that human guild? I forgot the leader's name again," Kenny Boy said.
"Her name is Jeanny," Viking said.
"Yes, Jeanny. What about their force? We can ask them to attack Khulgrun."
"And give away the war contribution points? What the hell is wrong with you?" Dragonmasta chided. "It's bad enough that the president gives an outsider the right to command a second player force, now you also want to give the glory to them?"
"The force Jeanny brought with her is less than half ours," Genesis said. "They will not be able to free Khulgrun with only their force."
"That's not the problem. The point is why are we discussing giving our glory to somebody else?" Dragonmasta said. "The force we command should be the one to liberate Khulgrun!"
"I don't like that plan," HeroV said.
"You are always the first one to charge first in a battle. Why chickening out now?" Dragonmasta ridiculed.
"This is different!" HeroV yelled.
"What do you say?" Genesis asked Viking.
Viking was silent as he watched the Liguritudum army that was slowly moving away.
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