In the early morning, the morning sun is rising.

Led by Captain Clifford, the troops marched toward the Blackstone Mountains to the south.

"The Twilight Wasteland is located on the eastern side of Karama Mountain, and further south, through the quicksand road across the Blackstone Mountains, you will enter the territory of the human kingdom of Saud." At the end was a thousand-strong team, with Barr in front, flanked by Centurion Cliff and Asaph, Pippen, and others.

"Hmm." Barr nodded.

"This is the most important trade route between the Empire and the Kingdom of Saud."

"If you don't go here, if you want to go to Saud, you can only detour from the Dolan Kingdom, which is more than ten times farther." Cliff continued, "Our destination, Stone Gate Fortress, is at the entrance to the Twilight Wasteland. ”

"No wonder the Empire took this operation so seriously." Baal also understood, "If the strange hordes are allowed to gather in the twilight wasteland, the caravans of the two countries will not be able to pass, and once the trade is stagnant, the other parties will also be affected, and the impact will be great. ”

"Your Excellency is right."

Cliff continued, "There are 100,000 troops stationed in the Fortress of the Empire's Frontier, and this time we will have twelve brigades from the Seventeenth Corps, plus six brigades from the Guards Corps, with a total number of more than 250,000 people, and it will not be a problem to defeat the monsters gathered in the Twilight Wasteland. ”

"Well, that's true." Barr agreed.

Although there are more than 10 million monsters gathered in the Twilight Wasteland, there are probably less than a million advanced monsters among them.

The Seventeenth Corps and the Guards Regiment both belong to the elite corps of the Empire, not only are the soldiers extremely high-level, but they also carry a large number of war weapons, which are not comparable to those scattered monsters.

"Look." Asaph on the side pointed ahead, there were two huge peaks towering into the sky, and in the middle of the two peaks, a huge gray-white city wall could be vaguely seen, and the city wall was distributed from east to west, up to a hundred meters. The gate directly in front of it was now tightly closed, and a large group of orc soldiers could be seen patrolling above the city walls.

"My lord, that's Stone Gate Fortress." Cliff said.

......

Shimen Fortress, the third largest fortress city on the imperial border, is also one of the important trade hubs in the south.

The streets of the city are full of pedestrians, and it is still a bustling scene.

Although the Twilight Plains has been overrun by a large number of rampaging monsters in recent days, and the passage to the Saudi Kingdom has been cut off, the city does not seem to be affected too much, and it is even more lively than usual due to the large number of caravans stationed here.

"Don't be too anxious, according to the inside information I got from my friends, the empire has mobilized a heavy army to go here, and the monsters of the twilight wasteland will soon be wiped out." Inside the north gate, a human youth in a silk robe and a brown turban spoke loudly.

There were a lot of people dressed as merchants gathered next to it, both humans and orcs.

"The Blue Moon Festival is coming soon, and all I purchased this time are some holiday supplies, if I can't rush back before the beginning of the month, I'm afraid I'll lose all my family money this time." A middle-aged human said with a sad face.

Every year on the first day of January, it is the Blue Moon Festival in the world of Rand.

It is the most important holiday in the world of Rand, and according to legend, January 1 is the day of the birth of the world and the beginning of a new year. The Blue Moon Festival lasts for seven days, during which various celebrations are held.

One of the most important is the Blue Moon Festival on the last day.

On this day, people collect five special items: laurel flowers, blue sandalwood, purple river fruits, red sea pearls, and cloud and rain stones, and hold a grand festival. It is said that those who collect these five items will receive the gifts of the world after the sacrifice, and will not only have good luck in the following year, but also receive gifts from the world of Rand.

However, these special items will only appear two months before the start of the Blue Moon Festival, and will disappear immediately after the festival. Moreover, these five items will randomly appear in five different regions on the mainland, so before the festival, many merchants will rush to other countries to buy these items, and then sell them at a high price during the Blue Moon Festival.

This year.

The cloud rain stone appeared on the Mangya Mountain in the northernmost part of the Eastern Continent.

Mangya Mountain is located in the territory of the Orc Empire, so this year, many merchants from various countries came to the Orc Empire to purchase Cloud Rain Stone.

"I'm just like you." The human youth next to him also smiled bitterly, "I hope that this time the orc army can exterminate the monsters of the Twilight Wasteland as soon as possible, otherwise we will have to bypass from the Dolan Kingdom." ”

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, I heard that there is a riot in the monsters in the entire Blackstone Mountain Range now, even if the monsters in the Twilight Wasteland are cleared, there may be high-level monsters on the quicksand road to the south." The fox merchant beside the young man had a worried face.

"That's right, it's too dangerous to cross the Blackstone Mountains right now."

"Hey..."

Everyone was worried.

Click, click, click.

Dozens of lion soldiers rushed from both sides, and one of the lion soldiers in silver armor shouted: "Everyone leave the city gate immediately, and those who disobey the order will die!" ”

"It's the people who are guarding the troops, let's go." The crowd immediately turned and left.

The border guard force is responsible for maintaining the security of the border, and the responsibility is also very great, and the power is also amazing, not to mention them merchants, even if the imperial nobles do not obey the order, these soldiers have the right to kill directly.

"Open the gates." The silver-armored lion man connected.

Rumble.

The huge gates slowly opened.

Outside the city gate was a long procession, and it was clear from the banners that they were soldiers of the Minotaur Legion.

At the front of the line stood three figures.

"Hahaha, Clifford, it's you old fellow." An old lionman in silver-gray armor and carrying a red bow strode out from behind the soldiers.

"Monroe, long time no see." Clifford also walked briskly into the city, Danielle and Alston following him left and right.

"General Monroe." Danielle and Auston said that the old lion man in front of him was the commander of the Third Corps of the Border Guard Force and the supreme commander of the Stone Gate Fortress.

"Captain Daniel, Captain Auston." Monroe nodded, "This is not the place to talk, let's go inside and talk." ”

A few people turned to leave.

Minotaur soldiers from outside the city also entered the city one after another.

......

Afternoon.

Barr walked down the street with Pippen and Asaph.

After entering the city, they temporarily settled in the barracks of the Stone Gate Fortress, and the team that Barr was in was the closest to the Stone Gate Fortress, so they were the first to arrive here, and the other troops were still on their way.

Now there is no combat mission, so Barr just stops by to go shopping.

Built between two peaks, the megalithic fortress is larger than Lionheart's Castle, and in addition to the 100,000 resident soldiers, more than 400,000 civilians live here, most of them family members of the soldiers stationed there. Many of the Imperial merchants also set up shop here, after all, it is a must to pass through on the way to the Saudi Kingdom, and the city is bustling and lively.

The streets are full of people coming and going.

From time to time, some merchants of both clans with escorts passed by, and now there were more than ten million monsters gathered in the twilight wasteland, and no caravan would be stupid enough to go out of the city to die.

"I heard that the soldiers of the Minotaur Legion came in the morning, and this is the elite army of the Empire."

"That's right, it looks like the Empire is really going to do it."

"That's good news..."

Pedestrians on the street talked.

Suddenly.

Airplanes~

A large pale blue shield appeared above the fortress, followed by several muffled thunderous thuds.

"Energy Barrier."

"Well, it's out there—" Barr looked up to the southwest. There was a black dot floating in the sky, but with his astonishing eyesight, he could see that the black dot was actually a huge strange bird. The strange bird has a wingspan of 100 meters, has two heads, and is covered with black feathers, looking like an enlarged version of a vulture.

At this time, the strange bird was constantly attacking the energy barrier below.

"Look over there, that annoying strange bird is here again." A tiger man on the side of the road spoke.

Listening to the meaning of this person's words, this should not be the first time this has happened.

"We're not in danger." A few wild boar people next to him worried.

"With General Monroe here, plus those Minotaur soldiers who just arrived, there's nothing to worry about, and besides, the Shimen Fortress can be broken by a mere strange bird." The tiger people are full of confidence.

"Boss-level monster, two-headed wraith bird."

Baal finally remembered that the two-headed Wraith Bird was one of the few boss-level flying monsters that could use both fire magic and rare spirit magic, and was quite powerful.

"Quack~Quack~"

The two-headed Wraith Bird let out a hoarse chirp, and from time to time a huge fireball spit out from the left skull, and the fireball exploded on the surface of the energy barrier, making a loud boom, and the right skull's eyes narrowed slightly, looking like it was in a fake sleep.

"No, this two-headed wraith bird doesn't look like it's eroded by black energy."

"But it shouldn't be, since it hasn't been eroded, how can it have the courage to attack the Empire's heavily defended Shimen Fortress." Barr stared into the eyes of the strange bird in the sky. According to what he had seen recently, the eyes of the monster eroded by the black energy would turn pitch black, and the two-headed wraith bird in the sky had clear eyes and showed no signs of erosion.

A loud noise came again from the west.

Barr turned his head to look. A large cyan snake with wings on its back hundreds of meters long floated in the air, hazy water vapor surrounded it, and the huge body of the green snake appeared and disappeared from time to time, "Cloud snake, another leader-level monster." ”

At this time.

Shout!

A blue arrow tens of meters long flew out from the southeast side, shooting towards the two-headed wraith bird in the air like lightning, and the energy barrier in the air rippled layer by layer, and the arrow passed through it.

Boom, the arrow hit the two-headed Wraith Bird directly in the abdomen.

"Gah!"

The two-headed Grey Bird screamed and quickly turned around and fled south, a large amount of black-green blood falling like rain, staining a long green trail on the energy barrier.

Woooo

Immediately after the cold light flashed, a huge transparent sword qi was sent out again, flying towards the cloud snake in the air, followed by a fiery red sword shadow and a water-blue streamer.

"Roar~" A thunderous roar came, and a huge blue ice shield instantly condensed and formed under the cloud snake, the white mist rolled, and the huge cloud snake hid to the side. Boom, the sword qi collided on the ice shield and both exploded and dispersed, and the sword shadow and streamer behind it grazed the body of the cloud snake.

Call~

The cloud snake turned around and flew quickly into the distance.