Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 207 Black Crystal Fierce Axe
Above the Frost Fortress stood the Flood Swordsmen. Rhodes stood on the city wall, watching the approaching Isildur troops, and forced himself to remain calm: "Liven Farrell is nothing special. He's just creating a diversion. He doesn't dare to attack the city at all. I'll just stay here and see how long they can hold out."

Rhodes then led his personal guards to patrol the various guard posts, boosting the morale of the troops, which could be considered as doing something.

When only Rhodes and Marquis Carson remained, he finally lost his temper and burst into a tirade: "Those nobles in the North, they disobey orders and, seeing that the crisis at Frosthold is still unresolved, they are actually afraid to advance. They are truly foolish."

And then there's the Viscount of Thorns and the Tribunal, who are right on the edge of the plains, just watching from afar, offering no real help whatsoever. I'm going to sue them in Parliament.

"When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact; don't they understand this principle?"

Rhodes stood with his hands behind his back, spinning around in place. He was clearly still a little nervous, but more angry about his ally's decision not to support him.

Marquis Carson remained silent, only able to feign ignorance.

The Northern nobles did send reinforcements, but they were all scattered and suffered heavy losses by Leven's troops. And with Frosthold watching the enemy attack without offering any real resistance, who would come to their aid?
As for Su Mu and the trial and sacrifice, what are they accusing people of?
They could have simply held the fortress, unless a major counter-offensive was planned, coordinated with a powerful allied force. But Rhodes dared not make such a decision. Why would they send their troops all the way here? Were they just sending them to their deaths?

Cowardly and reckless, outwardly fierce but inwardly weak.

This is Rhodes's military prowess; if Marquis Carson weren't his father-in-law, he probably would have opposed it long ago.

But even with advice from him and some of the heroes of Winterfell, Rhodes was now getting impatient.

Rhodes was focused solely on defending the fortress, and he now felt that Isildur was exceptionally strong and difficult to defeat. They had a chance to hold the fortress with their own strength, but the Frozen Wall would be a tough opponent in open battle.

This line of thinking is actually correct. The heroes of the North have gradually realized that Leven is coming on strong and is not easy to deal with. Even if they can hold Frosthold, it will be considered a success.

The problem is that the armies of the nobles in the North have been completely depleted, while Isildur continues to send troops in, causing a huge imbalance of power.

Moreover, after so many days, Leven's army had done more than just intimidation; they had used log-dropping carts to virtually destroy all the arrow towers around the fortress. The frost ballistae had to be moved back to the city walls, losing their long-range suppression effect.

If Leven really wants to attack, the Frost Treants can advance to a distance not far from the city walls and launch a surprise attack, no longer being restricted from afar as before.

Without the aid of their other allies, can they really hold Frosthold alone?

Marquis Carson had no idea; he could only pray silently.

Seeing the defeated appearance of the commander of the Floodwave Swordsmen, Rhodes became even more furious and turned to leave.

On the rooftop of a nearby house, Medea and the Nameless One witnessed firsthand the discord between the generals.

At this point, Medea completely lost confidence: "Levin is probably preparing to attack the city. Although I don't know what methods he will use to attack Frost Fortress, the North will be hard to defend."

The nameless one said, "My men have searched the entire Winter City, but they still haven't found any trace of that thing. Could the intelligence be wrong?"

Medea was also puzzled: "It's definitely in the northern region. We originally wanted to support Rhodes to infiltrate this area, but now we've encountered an attack from Isildur, so it's probably difficult to conduct a large-scale search."

Continue sending men to search, cast a wide net in other cities, and check the borderlands, including the demon territory. I have a feeling the underground passages are unusual!

The nameless one nodded and disappeared from the rooftop.

Not long after, urgent horn calls came from outside the city, which seemed to be another bluff by Isildur in his siege.

In recent days, Leven has made countless attempts to probe the city, but has never actually launched a full-scale attack.

But for some reason, Medea felt a sense of foreboding, a feeling that danger was approaching. As a Void Priestess, she was usually very sensitive to danger; she hoped it wouldn't come true. ...

Sumu and Maggie parted ways at the fork in the road. Maggie returned to Longlit Castle to handle government affairs and started a new round of recruitment.

Su Mu then returned to Cangmu City to discuss with Forrest how to deal with the Frost Tree.

After not seeing him for many days, Forrest looked much more weathered, as if the chief treasurer was living a hard life in the wilderness, enduring wind and rain every day.

There was little construction work during this period, so Forrest focused on forest management and accumulated a large amount of log resources for the warehouse.

"The forces of the Emerald Lands marched from the southern valleys, tearing a gap in the defenses of Isildur's hills. The fortress forces not only came with a large army, but also with merchant ships, engaging in some special trade."

I've heard that the Emerald Land is also experiencing a shortage of logs, and is therefore offering high prices to buy them, not only in exchange for resources, but also with treasures, and…”

Forrest pointed to the stone outside the Interior Hall, seemingly referring to something.

When the topic of boundary stones came up, Su Mu's eyes lit up. If you were to ask what Cangmu City lacked most right now,
It wasn't some treasure or military force at all, but rather a boundary stone for the council's ascension. They had enough resources and gold coins; even if they didn't recruit troops for a week, it wouldn't be a big deal for now.

However, if a council can be established, temples can be recruited, and many additional buildings can be constructed, further enhancing Kuraki Castle's strength.

"Talk to them, as long as they don't go too far, we can exchange them for boundary stones. We don't mind giving up some extra resources."

"Okay, I'll try to get as many resources as possible."

It's rare for another country to be willing to exchange such important strategic materials. Even if the logs are special, they can't compare to the boundary stones. Moreover, the resources needed for Kuraki City aren't too many; just enough to build the council building is sufficient. Forrest is confident in this.

Although using the original boundary stones required some effort, it was still much easier than demanding them directly from the kingdom.

"I've figured out some ways to deal with the Frost Tree. This tree is very cold-resistant and can absorb snow crystals, protecting the roads."

However, it has a certain limit to its strength. If it encounters a heavy snowstorm, the trunk's toughness will decrease, and at this time, it can be quickly felled using specially made logging tools.

There's another kind of snow powder that I'm researching. When it's ready, I'll sprinkle it in the forest, and a big fire will set the snow-covered trees ablaze, like oil being poured on a raging fire—unstoppable!

Forrest took out his newly developed logging tools and showed them to Sumu.

[Black Crystal Axe: Increases woodworking efficiency by 20%, increases logging efficiency by 40% in snowy environments, and has remarkable effects on some special tree species.]

Su Mu touched the jet-black axe and felt a surge of heat emanating from its surface, making him feel unaffected by the frost even when standing in the snow.

It likely contains raw stones, sulfur, and crystals. Although the amount of materials used is relatively small, the rare resources are extremely valuable, so the cost of this axe must be quite high.

However, as long as the axe is effective, Leven's Frosttree Path will become a useless decoration. At that time, cutting off the road he laid out will make the front-line troops rootless and much easier to deal with.

"Alright, keep developing it. The upcoming surprise attack on Isildur will depend on you!"

After settling Forrest in, Su Mu headed to the Magic Guild.

With the number of cities increasing, recruiting and transporting soldiers back and forth has become very inconvenient. Now that Dream Domain Studies has reached an advanced level, it is worth trying to comprehend another level 4 earth magic.

(End of this chapter)