"Oh no! They're going to get wiped out," Leonel exclaimed. "That Hell Tower is too overpowered. It's continuously firing a beam of lava that melts their HP. What's with that defense? They should take that out first. And what's with all the explosives on the ground?"

"It's not bad. They managed to cause destruction worth two thousand points from their battle with Fate Alliance Guild," Ren said.

"Hey, look, Isolde is still alive! Oh no, she's in the range of those two Hell Towers!"

"But she's also in the range of their HQ. I think she's attempting a suicide attack."

"Suicide?" Leonel choked. "Is there no other position where she can be safe?"

"No. The enemy strategically placed their two Hell Towers near their HQ. Among the defenses, Hell Towers are considered the best because they ditch out the most damage and have high HP. Isolde can either take one tower out while sacrificing her HP or . . . she could try destroying the TH directly before the two towers melt her HP like chocolate."

"Egh . . . I don't like the sound of that. Doesn't she have an item to save her?"

"There's a restriction on items allowed per battle, and I think they already used most of it all."

"A lifesaving item would be good."

"I think she has one," said Ren at the same time Isolde pulled out something from her inventory. She gulped the violet colored potion without wasting a second.

Ren laughed. "It's so like her."

"What? What did she drink?"

"A Rage Potion. It would temporarily increase your damage to fifty percent for three seconds."

Like Ren said, Isolde's whole body glowed in violet color. Her overall size seemed to also increase, and her damage doubled.

"Come on. Come on." Leonel held his breath as Isolde raced with the two Hell Towers' damage.

Could she destroy the TH first before she died?

Unfortunately, before Isolde could succeed, the two towers melted her HP first, leaving only a hundred HP to the TH.

"Damn! So close! How much HP does that TH have?" Leonel growled in frustration. "Isolde was so close!"

Ren released a wry sigh. "It has the most HP out of all of the structures in there, so around a hundred thousand hit points. Those Hell Towers are single targets, so their damage multiplies per second. If only they were set to multiple targets, then Isolde might have won in the end. Good try, though."

"T-that high? At this rate, will anyone be able to destroy it with all those defensive artillery protecting it?"

Ren shrugged. "With the right strategy, of course, they could."

All in all, Guns and Knives managed to take around two thousand seven hundred points out of the perfect score of five thousand points before they were completely wiped out. There were still some defenses left in Fate Alliance, and their TH was still standing with the two Inferno Towers. There were also players left defending their guild.

Meanwhile, only ten minutes were left, but Fate Alliance was still trying to make a hole in the wall of Guns and Knives. Without a Siege Machine to assist them, it was near impossible to break it within a few minutes.

Not to mention that their players were continuously being bombarded with cannons, mortars, rapid-bows, Missile Artilleries, and all the other defenses that had them within range.

By the time they finally bore a hole in the wall, only half of their original players were left. The defenses in Guns and Knives' base were all MAX level until the next TH upgrade, and there were also players left to defend it. Fate Alliance wreaking havoc with only a few players they had left wouldn't earn them many points.

In the end, Fate Alliance only managed to earn five hundred points in their battle against Guns and Knives.

Leonel sighed in relief as he slumped into his seat. "I thought they were going to lose when they got wiped out. Right. It's the points that matters. Hahahaha."

"The moment they lost their machine at the start of the fight, they already lost. They needed that machine to wreck the walls, and the longer the Siege Machine remained alive, the more points you could get," explained Ren.

"It really boils down to that, huh?"

"It should actually be part of the strategy how to preserve those machines longer and how to react within seconds to counter the other side's move."

"Good thing we didn't join. I don't want to go through that hell."

Ren didn't listen to Leonel and proceeded to observe the other battles. Golden Phoenix barely won against Ferocious Ravens with only a hundred points gap. White Unicorns won against Sleeping Dragon with more than five hundred points and Black Lion . . .

Ren frowned, seeing that Black Lion shot to the top for being the only guild to destroy an enemy's TH in the first round.

Ren didn't know whether it was because of Great Dynasty's guild layout and if some of their defenses weren't MAX, or if it was because of something related to the rumors.

Black Lion had apparently changed their leader, and this leader's identity was kept a secret.

In this first round, no one was worried about Black Lion's lead, thinking that they could still catch up as long as they could destroy a TH in the second round.

The next rounds started with a bang as Guns and Knives destroyed two THs in quick succession.

Black Lion followed suit and destroyed three THs.

Golden Phoenix and Ferocious Ravens both lost their TH but managed to destroy another one.

Ren was surprised to see Fate Alliance manage to destroy two THs after their enormous loss in the first round.

In the final showdown, it came down to Black Lion against Guns and Knives. The former number one against the current one.

Ren noticed something strange. Black Lion always destroyed a TH, and its lead from the others was enormous.

"T-they're going to win, right?" Leonel stuttered.

Black Lion was leading with more than five hundred points over Guns and Knives. The only reason why Guns and Knives had been able to narrow that gap was because of Isolde's damage.

Ren didn't reply. Even he wasn't sure because there was something about Black Lion that changed. It was either their leader or strategist in the war.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)