FATE: Target of Grand Master

Oliver and Damian were both taken aback.

They were surprised not only by how quickly the reinforcements arrived, but also by how exaggerated the scale of the operation was.

Xia Yan arrived at the base with four incredibly powerful Servants: Morgan, Tiamat, Ibuki, and Musashi, who had blocked Kurogane's attack with her sword.

"Oliver, it seems we've bitten off more than we can chew this time."

Damian immediately realized something was wrong and wanted to discuss what to do with Oliver, who was standing next to him, but found that no one was responding to him.

Turning my head, I saw that Oliver had already taken out the teleportation ball and activated it without hesitation.

"Oliver! You..."

Damian wanted to scold the other party for being disloyal, but then he realized that he should run away immediately as well.

However, in that moment of hesitation, Damian found that his hand holding the teleportation orb was completely out of his control.

He looked up in alarm and saw Xia Yan take the teleportation orb from his hand, then said, "That guy escaped pretty quickly. We'll have to settle the score for injuring my follower with you first."

The next thirty seconds were the most devastating thirty seconds for Damian since the start of the Master Trial, because the three Servants he had painstakingly contracted were quickly killed without even a chance to retaliate under the attack of Xia Yan's Servants.

For Damian, the disappearance of these three Servants was practically tantamount to announcing the end of his Master Trial.

He desperately wanted to kneel down and weep, but he could do nothing but shed tears because Morgan had stripped him of control over his body from the neck down.

"Are you Xia Yan?"

Damian finally remembered the name that had once been called "cheater" in the world channel. Looking at the opponent's excessively flashy lineup, Damian was convinced that Xia Yan was a complete cheater.

The string of victories eventually made him complacent.

The Holy Grail Front is indeed a treasure trove overlooked by many Masters, but while you may think you are having a pleasant hunt, aren't you also the prey in the eyes of others?

Damian was filled with regret. He regretted listening to Oliver and using the advantage of having two Servants to suppress others. If he had given up the stronghold with Servants for defense, he wouldn't have been wiped out today.

However, there is no going back in life.

Damian had no choice but to accept his fate of being killed by his opponent and eliminated from the Master Trial.

"You know who I am, yet you still dare to attack my stronghold. You're quite brave."

"No. I only just found out who you are. I didn't mean to..."

Seeing that Xia Yan was still willing to talk, Damian felt a renewed hope for survival.

"What's your name?" Xia Yan asked.

Damian.

"Fine. Damian, do you want to live?"

Xia Yan saw through Damian's thoughts and asked him directly the question that concerned him most.

"Yes! Of course I want to."

Damian's candid answer piqued Xia Yan's interest in continuing the conversation.

"Come, let's first examine the rights and wrongs of today's events. You initiated the attack, while I was on the defensive. You attempted a six-on-two attack, killing two of my Servants, and I retaliated by killing three of your Servants in self-defense. The whole affair was instigated by you; I did nothing wrong, right?"

"Yes, you're right. We started this trouble; we were blind to its true nature."

Damian had no interest in discussing right and wrong with Xia Yan at this moment. Whatever Xia Yan said was right. Even if Xia Yan pointed at a deer and said it was a horse, Damian would nod in agreement.

"Fine, then, since it's all your fault, why should I let you go?"

Xia Yan's words stunned Damian.

Yes, why should they let me go?

Damian knew that his next words would determine his fate.

Think quickly!

Anything is fine!

Quickly come up with something that will interest Xia Yan!

"I've been expanding the territory of the Holy Grail War and have figured out some patterns."

Tell me about it.

Xia Yan was quite satisfied with Damian's reaction.

However, whether or not he can be released depends on whether the information he provides is valuable enough.

"The safe houses of each of our Masters can be connected to each other through the Grail Warfront."

Xia Yan had already guessed this when he said "the strongholds are not permanently occupied" at the start of the Holy Grail War, and after seeing Damian and another Master just now, this guess was basically confirmed.

"and then?"

Xia Yan's tone was very calm, which made Damian realize that his message had not moved the other party.

"However...when attacking a tile occupied by another player, you can only attack their stronghold tiles, not their regular tiles. But once you attack an opponent's stronghold tile, the regular tiles between your nearest stronghold and the captured tile will automatically become your territory."

Xia Yan was indeed unaware of this, since he had never taken the initiative to attack the territory of any other Master.

"Is there anything else?"

Xia Yan remained silent, feeling that Damian could still extract information from him.

"And another thing! If you can move to the first square outside another Master's safe house, a defensive outpost square will be automatically generated. If you deploy Servants there to defend..."

"So, we can trap them inside the safe house?"

"Yes."

"But shouldn't the enemy be able to launch an attack with all their Servants?"

"Yes. But in the Holy Grail War, the defenders actually have one more advantage than the attackers: they can move quickly between bases. As long as the Servants can relay the news of the attack back to the safe house, the speed of support from the safe house will be very fast."

Xia Yan raised an eyebrow and said, "Then you still dare to attack me?"

"Because we discovered that there was no Caster among the defending Servants. If we don't use magic to communicate, we can only rely on Servants to quickly move back to the safe house to relay messages. As long as we can trap the defending Servants, we can take over the base before they notice."

Xia Yan thought about it and realized that this made sense.

The Holy Grail Wars feel like a manifestation of the Lords' War. To gain an advantage, you must expand your territory. However, expanding your territory also means you need to defend more strongholds. Scattered defenses make you vulnerable to being defeated one by one, while concentrating your defenses in one place is essentially equivalent to abandoning other strongholds. To secure enough territory, you need enough Servants to support you.

Wait a minute, if one can use the Holy Grail Front to reach other Masters' safe houses, and now that the magical restrictions on safe houses are starting to decrease, does that mean that besides trials, Masters can also use the Holy Grail Front to raid other Masters' safe houses?

Once the idea popped into his head, Xia Yan couldn't ignore it at all.

Therefore, in order to avoid the possibility of having his base attacked, he must carefully deploy defensive forces on the Holy Grail front.

Seeing that Xia Yan was deep in thought and hadn't spoken for a long time, Damian felt much more at ease. This meant that Xia Yan was thinking, and the premise of his thinking was that he had obtained new information from him, and that he had provided valuable information.

However, before Damian could feel at ease for long, Xia Yan spoke again.

It's still those three words.

"Is there anything else?"