"Fire! It's burning! Lady Ei, the island is on fire!"
"Lady Ei! The Clerics, they've been incinerated in the blaze!"
"The sub-island is gone! We're cut off, our bridge is ash!"
Ei, who had been focused on the distant carnage of Sumeru, was jolted back by the frantic cries of her soldiers. She spun around. The horizon was no longer a clear blue; it was a wall of flickering orange and choking smoke.
Except for the sparse areas reinforced with stone and dirt, everything combustible, the wool walkways, the wooden supports, was being devoured by flames.
"Dammit!"
Ei's expression hardened. She looked toward Liyue and saw Zhongli. He was as calm as ever, systematically directing his archers to loose volley after volley into the wind.
"They aren't even looking at Sumeru," Ei said, her voice heavy with the realization. "Zhongli has his sights on us."
"Kujou Sara! Organize the fire brigade! I will take thirty men and storm Liyue!"
Ei reached for her blade, but before she could give the order to advance, a dense sheet of arrows descended upon the Inazuman main island, forcing everyone into a defensive shell.
"Lady Ei! We can't move!" Sara shouted, bracing her shield against a rain of shafts. "Xiao's team has taken the Center Island. They have the high ground!"
"If we leave the island, they'll bury us under suppressive fire," Sara continued, her face taut with anxiety. "Liyue has detachments facing Mondstadt and Snezhnaya too. If you lead a push, they'll simply pivot their entire ninety-man force and crush us before we can even reach their shores. They have a massive resource advantage, every single one of their soldiers is wearing at least a partial set of iron plate."
Unlike the other nations, who prioritized fully armoring an elite few, Zhongli had opted for horizontal progression. Every Millelith soldier wore one or two pieces of iron.
He knew the mechanics of this world well. You didn't need a full suit to survive; even a few pieces provided a significant reduction in damage across the entire body. It was a strategy of attrition.
Ei looked at the map in her mind. Inazuma's position was a tactical nightmare. Flanked by Snezhnaya and Mondstadt, with the Center Island looming directly in front of them. It was a kill box. With the Shogun still trapped in the melee on Sumeru, Ei only had sixty-odd defenders left. If Liyue committed, Inazuma would be erased before the Shogun could even start the long journey home.
"Forget the sub-island," Ei commanded after a long silence. "Retrieve the soldiers there and bring them back. We abandon the perimeter. Organize the bucket brigade, but do not use shields to block the fire arrows. Our iron and wood are no longer infinite. Conserve the equipment."
"Liyue might just be posturing," she added, though she didn't sound convinced. "We hold. We defend. We do not move."
In the spectator stands, the audience watched Zhongli's positioning with a mix of awe and dread.
"How sinister," Ryen murmured with a grin. "Zhongli has been fighting for over six thousand years. When it comes to war, everyone else here is a child. You cannot outthink a man who treats a battlefield like a game of Go."
"It looks like he's overextended, leaving only ten men to guard his main island, but it's the opposite," Ryen explained. "Liyue hasn't really fought until now. They've been strip-mining their sub-islands for every scrap of dirt and stone. They've even set up a makeshift villager trading center behind stone walls to farm enchanted books."
"The sub-islands they left behind are riddled with traps. If Mondstadt tries to pull the same 'flank from beneath' move on Liyue, they'll be walking into a meat grinder. Zhongli's strategy is a defensive masterpiece."
Ryen pointed to the tactical overlay. "Look at the layout. Sumeru is gone. Liyue is on the left, Mondstadt is on the right, Snezhnaya is opposite. And Inazuma? Inazuma is the meat in the sandwich."
"With thirty men on each front, Snezhnaya, Mondstadt, and the Center, Zhongli has ninety men who can pivot in a heartbeat. If Inazuma makes a move, the Center Island pins them down, the Liyue main island rains fire, and the sixty men from the other two fronts collapse inward on their flanks. Ei is strong, but Xiao and Cloud Retainer are no slouches; they can hold her while the rest of the army cleans up."
Ayaka's face went pale. "Is there any way out for us?"
"Realistically? No," Makoto sighed. "Unless Liyue decides Snezhnaya is a bigger threat and ignores us. Zhongli knows Inazuma doesn't have the same grasp of Bedwars tactics as the others. He'll likely prune the most dangerous thorns first."
While the other nations fretted, Zhongli remained the eye of the storm.
"Dashi, Chang'an, keep the fire arrows falling on Inazuma," Zhongli ordered softly. "The rest of you, focus your volleys on Snezhnaya. And keep a sharp eye out. Find the Bard."
"He should be beneath the Center Island by now."
Zhongli's intuition was flawless. While the brawl for Sumeru's bed reached its peak, Venti had led ten knights on a silent, block-by-block creep toward the center. They were using the "ghost bridge" method, placing a block, stepping forward, and breaking the one behind them. It was slow and incredibly dangerous; a single arrow would send them into the void. But it was nearly invisible.
On the Center Island, Xiao was overseeing the collection of the high-tier loot. TNT, Ender Pearls, Redstone... even a few heavy mechanical weapons.
Suddenly, Xiao felt a vibration through the soles of his boots. He froze.
"To me! We have intruders beneath us! Target the floor!"
Ten Millelith archers leveled their bows at the dirt. The ground buckled, and a shield burst through the surface. Five knights leaped into the light, bracing themselves for a hopeless fight to buy time.
Xiao's eyes darted around. "Only five? Where is the Bard?"
"Ehe! Looking for me?"
That breezy, mischievous voice rang out from behind the loot crates. Venti had already slipped through the gap, his fingers dancing as he scooped the contents of the final chest into his bag. He didn't even look at what he'd grabbed.
"Thanks for the assist, Xiao! And I have to say, the fishing rod trick? We're definitely stealing that one!"
Venti turned and leaped into the open air toward the Mondstadt island. The five knights surged forward in a suicidal charge, blocking the Millelith's line of sight.
Mid-fall, Venti whipped out a fishing rod. The hook bit into the wooden edge of a distant bridge. With a sharp tug, he yanked himself upward, his momentum carrying him into a high arc.
He was still short of the island, hanging over the abyss. But Jean was already there. She loosed her own rod, the hook snagging Venti's belt. With a powerful heave, she reeled him in, pulling him safely onto the solid ground of the Mondstadt island.
Ryen let out a roar of laughter, slamming his fist on the table. "The double-rod grapple! What a play!"
"I'm calling it now," Ryen shouted into the mic. "The MVP of this tournament isn't a sword or an arrow, it's the humble fishing rod!"