Shao and his allies continued their conquest, gaining ground and allies as they went. But their next target, the city-state of Alveria, would prove to be their toughest challenge yet. Alveria was a wealthy and powerful city-state, known for its formidable defenses and its skilled army.
As Shao and his allies approached the walls of Alveria, they were met with a hail of arrows and rocks. The defenders of Alveria were well-prepared for this siege, and they had plenty of supplies and weapons to last them for months.
Shao knew that a direct assault would be suicide, so he called a council of war with his advisors. After much discussion, they came up with a plan to starve the city out. They would surround the city with their own forces and cut off all supply lines to the city, hoping to force the defenders to surrender.
For weeks, the siege continued, with the defenders of Alveria refusing to surrender. But as the weeks turned into months, the people of Alveria began to suffer. Food and water supplies ran low, and disease began to spread through the city.
Finally, after four long months, the people of Alveria could take it no longer. They opened the gates of the city and surrendered to Shao and his allies.
Shao, true to his word, spared the lives of the people of Alveria, and even offered them the chance to join his cause. Many of them accepted, seeing in Shao a leader who was both powerful and just.
With the fall of Alveria, Shao and his allies were one step closer to their ultimate goal: the conquest of the entire continent of Iria. But they knew that their journey would only become harder from here on out, and that they would face even tougher challenges and enemies in the battles to come.