After Shen Yue left, Liam returned to the forging room and picked up the elf who was waiting for him there and also the fox who was still sleeping peacefully.
Looking at her yawning and rolling around lazily, he also felt a yawn coming on, but he was too excited to sleep right now. Even though he was dead tired, there was something he was very much looking forward to and that was this beast siege event.
Logically he should have rested at least a little before a big event like this but Liam didn't bother with it as he was not planning on doing anything during this beast siege. He was just going to lay back, enjoy the show and slowly relax.
With a mysterious grin, he hopped onto the fox along with the elf and then left the guild residence.
There was now only half an hour left before the siege officially began and everyone was moving to their final positions. Liam also did the same and moved to the position that he wanted.
Meanwhile… inside the three main cities of the Gresh Kingdom…
All the guilds were scrambling to catch the best location within the cities. There were also a lot of royal guards patrolling the area.
And from the looks of it, the area distribution was first come first serve. When scuffles broke out about which group occupied which zone for the beast siege, the guards always gave the green signal to the one that arrived first.
This caused a huge commotion as something like this was crucial information that the system conveniently withheld. Otherwise, everyone could have planned better. But there was no point in crying over spilled milk and all the guilds tried to do the best they could at the moment.
The best zones of the city were near the main front entrance and the exit of the city where the towering wall broke into gates that were more vulnerable.
Moreover, all parts of the boundaries were extremely valuable as one could simply stand on the wall and blast some of the incoming beasts. Especially for long-range players, this was easy pickings and a very coveted spot.
So all the guilds rushed over to occupy these areas first. In most of the Kingdoms around the Xion realm, this same scene could be seen repeatedly happening everywhere. All the top guilds aimed for the border zones.
Some guilds, on the other hand, decided to take the shortcut and positioned more players in the inner zones of the city.
They speculated that the beast horde was going to be huge and monstrous this time and that just the players on the walls and the borders wouldn't be able to handle them. So instead of targeting the mad rush, they targeted the spillover which should logically be easier to handle.
However, these were only second-rate guild strategies. The true first-rate guilds were not afraid of the volume of the beast horde. They majestically stood front and center welcoming the chaos with open hands. They had the resources and manpower to back up this confidence.
Once again this made clear the difference between the various guilds. With various guild tabards flashing brightly in the broad daylight, one could see who was truly powerful and who was being cautious, though only time would tell whose approach was the better approach.
However, despite all of this, a single guild alone somehow managed to stand out once again, shocking everyone for the nth time. Crimson Abyss's strategy surprisingly did not match any other guild's strategy.
While all the other guilds were busy fighting for the best spots in the main cities of their respective kingdom, Crimson Abyss guild members were nowhere to be seen.
There were a group of players near the royal kingdom but other than that, there were only a few players here and there, stationed on the outer walls of the main cities. The main chunk of their player base was clearly awol.
Normally, if any other guild did the same then everyone would call them idiots and move on but now the guilds and the players knew better than to underestimate the current top S-Rank guild. They could tell that Crimson Abyss was up to something in secret.
And very soon the reason behind this was revealed.
A few players who coincidentally were rushing back to the main cities saw Crimson Abyss players littering around in the nearby villages and small towns.
The guild actually ignored the three big cities of the Gresh Kingdom, the trade city, the royal city, and the divine city, and focussed on small settlements instead. What could be the reason behind such a decision? Were there going to be more beasts in these small settlements?
Everyone tried to come up with various answers and analyses to this question but no matter how they tried to explain this, they could only come up with half-baked responses.
There could potentially be more beasts in these small settlements but why kill twice the number of beasts with increased risk just to earn the same reward?
It really didn't make sense that a top guild was doing this instead of occupying the juicy positions inside the main cities. The kills inside the city had more points and this was a fact. So what was going on? However, it was too late to play this guessing game.
Unfortunately, Crimson Abyss only revealed this strategy at the last minute. So most guilds could only ignore what they were doing and continue with their own strategy as they did not have any time left. The countdown to the event had officially begun!
Some guilds still tried to copy Crimson Abyss and stationed some of their groups in smaller villages and towns, thinking that they could also somehow come out on top even if they blindly followed the same strategy.
And with these last-minute changes, loud horns started resounding in all parts of the various kingdoms and the beast siege was finally here!
***
Bonus chapter~~
Please thank Dusk_Cypher for sponsoring this bonus chapter!
