Volume 4 Chapter 515: Marching into the Fortress City
In less than a quarter of an hour, Belegar not only successfully climbed to the top of Sentinel Peak, but also hung up the battle flag belonging to the Angrand clan.
After occupying the village hall of Sentinel Peak, Belegar was still a little bit unbelievable. The whole process was too smooth.
The dwarves almost trotted all the way up the mountain. Only after reaching the top did they knock to death a few greenskin and troll heroes who had strong vitality or were hiding well.
But despite this, he did not take it lightly. After occupying Sentinel Peak, he immediately ordered several engineering masters to start building fortifications.
The dwarf's master engineer has very low combat power and his regular weapons are a short-handled musket and a one-handed battle axe.
But as long as there are sufficient building materials, they can quickly repair and build some basic buildings, such as arrow towers, etc., without building blueprints.
It just so happened that the goblins left a lot of materials on Sentinel Peak. They were originally used to deal with the dwarves, but now they will become helpers for the dwarves and will become good things to reap the lives of the goblins in the future.
Many dwarf heroes also took out other materials they had prepared in advance and began to assemble various crossbows, catapults, and even simple mortars, etc., in order to further improve the defense facilities of Sentinel Peak.
They didn't like the war machines that the goblins had previously deployed, and now that they were all destroyed, they decided to build a new defense line on the open space.
Levi asked the Supervisor and Xiaotian, along with the celestial creatures with a more sensitive sense of smell such as the Ratmaster, as well as the Shadow Elementals, to start searching the secret places on Sentinel Peak to see if there were any goblins or greenskins hiding in the dark to ensure that nothing went wrong.
Fortunately, there were no mineral deposits on Sentinel Peak originally, and the dwarves did not dig any pits or underground passages here. They simply used this place as an outpost.
Therefore, even if there are some holes on Sentinel Peak now, they must have been dug by the goblins later. They are basically very shallow, and the entire search operation will not be particularly difficult.
After arranging these things, Belegar immediately took the initiative to find Levi and Kalida: "We must continue to march, but we need to leave some troops here to garrison."
Li Wei understood the meaning of the song: "I will let Xiaotian take his direct troops, as well as the bear people and tiger people, and stay together."
He now understood more and more clearly what the key point of this battle was.
That is, as we continue to advance, our own troops will continue to be dispersed.
But whether it is ratmen, goblins or greenskins, they are all known for their numbers.
Perhaps it won't be long before they will repeat what happened to Belegar before: being besieged by an enemy force dozens of times larger than their own.
Fortunately, he was not a warrior like Belegar, who could only swing a hammer to kill the enemy.
As a celestial mystic, the power he can exert in a large-scale battlefield will far exceed that of his opponents, not to mention the presence of equally powerful mages such as Michaela around him.
Kalida also agreed: "I still have about 6,000 elite soldiers. Is it enough to leave 2,000 behind?"
Belegar nodded vigorously. "I will leave some heroes behind, as well as several of my chosen heroes. Together, we will have more than three thousand troops. With the addition of arrow towers and catapults, we will be able to resist ten times more enemies."
"But in this case, our main force will only have 6,000 to 7,000 people..."
"That's a lot already. We will definitely be able to successfully capture the fortress city this time!"
As he spoke, Belegar's face was full of confidence and expectation.
In fact, during his past process of retaking Bafeng Mountain, there were more than one occasions when he was unable to defeat the opponent.
However, if there are too many casualties during the attack, even if a mountain is successfully occupied at the beginning, there will not be enough troops to garrison it and the mountain will be repelled later.
They can defeat the enemy but cannot defend it. In this way, all the previous costs have been wasted. After all, dwarves cannot compete with ratmen or goblins in numbers.
But this time it’s different. Not only are they numerous enough, they are also elite enough. They will definitely be able to defend wherever they occupy!
Since Belegar said so, Levi certainly wouldn't contradict him. He just reminded the other party.
Unfortunately, Belegar's good mood did not last long. A dwarf ancestor spirit that Levi did not recognize immediately reminded Belegar again:
"The number of bodies doesn't seem right. Even if some of them were directly destroyed by magic, it still doesn't seem right."
Another ancestor hero added: "The number of magic units is also obviously less. At least we didn't find that smelly fish chewer."
Belejia couldn't help but frown when he heard this, and he had some bad premonitions in his heart.
The ancestral spirits have extremely strong resistance to conventional physical attacks. In addition, their physical strength is almost unlimited, and they have a lot of equipment and rune power on their bodies, which further enhances their strength.
Therefore, in ordinary battles, each of them could easily kill hundreds or thousands of goblins and greenskins without suffering any harm themselves.
But this does not mean that they really have no nemesis. Otherwise, even if there was a shortage of troops, Belegar would have used them to open up the situation long ago.
The weakness of the ancestral spirits is that they have relatively low resistance to magic. Even with targeted protection, they can still be seriously injured when facing some mid- to high-level spells.
Unfortunately, most life potions and healing spells are ineffective against them, and the situation will become very embarrassing.
In the beginning, they did gain the upper hand in the battle against the goblins, but the commander of the goblins was the legendary goblin from the Evil Moon Clan, Skarsnik, who was known for his cunning. He soon discovered this weakness of the ancestral spirits.
Therefore, in many subsequent battles, it will give priority to dispatching a large number of goblin shamans, greenskin wizards, troll witches, etc. to launch targeted attacks on the ancestral spirits.
Especially with the launch of this super WAAAGH of the Greenskins, the clergy of the church under the command of the Greenskin gods also joined in one after another, which made the opponent's magic forces become more abundant.
Originally, there were a large number of magic troops stationed at Sentinel Peak, led by a level 17 troll witch specializing in darkness and soul - Fish Chewer. The damage it caused to the ancestral spirits was particularly great.
In the past, Belegar had tried to kill the opponent more than once, but the trolls had a strong survivability, and the opponent was a high-level magic unit and was smarter than ordinary people, so they had never succeeded.
Now they have not found any trace of each other. The best case scenario is that the other party has been killed and the body has been destroyed by magic, making it completely dead.
But if not, what conspiracy were the Evil Moon Goblins preparing by transferring some of the magic troops in advance?
Belegar felt a little headache. Although the two sides were hostile to each other, he had to admit that Skarsnik was indeed terribly cunning and his conspiracy must be no small matter.
But he quickly regained his spirits. No matter what conspiracy the other party had, the fact was that Sentinel Peak had been captured by them.
If the other party comes back, be prepared to pay several times or even dozens of times the price!
After briefly instructing the remaining troops on some details and spending a few minutes dividing the troops, without much rest, Belegar took the lead and headed straight for the fortress city.
This time, in order to pursue speed, he not only consumed a large number of special props, but also asked Levi to lead the team to help cast auxiliary magic, etc.
After all, the movement speed of ordinary dwarves is still very slow, and they don’t have suitable mounts. There is still a big gap between their movement speed and Levi’s troops. In order not to fall behind, they naturally need assistance from other aspects.
As they continued to advance, the frequency and number of reports Levi received from Luna increased rapidly, and she began to encounter various goblins, green-skinned scouts and patrols very frequently.
The several powerful moves that Levi and his men had used on Sentinel Peak had had amazing effects, and they directly captured Sentinel Peak.
But at the same time, those magics were also very conspicuous under the night sky, and I'm afraid that half of the enemy troops in the Eight Peaks Mountain had noticed them.
However, these scouts were nothing in front of Luna. Even before Belegar and the others saw them with their own eyes, those guys had already turned into corpses.
But as they continued to move forward, Luna's reports changed.
Not only are the strength and numbers of the greenskin reconnaissance teams steadily increasing, but a large number of Squigs, giant spiders and other war beasts are beginning to appear, and the frequency of the appearance of ratmen is also rapidly increasing.
Compared to the greenskins who rush towards them as soon as they meet, the ratmen are not only more cunning, but also much faster and more agile.
And there seems to be the appearance of a God-chosen hero, which undoubtedly brings more pressure to Luna.
So Levi sent the guards, Mortiti, and even Cindy and the celestial creatures to help.
Anyway, there is no need to hide anything at this point. As long as the enemy is not a fool, they will know that Belegar has obtained the help of a powerful wizard and is launching a surprise attack on the fortress city.
Belegar could naturally see the troop movements of Levi and his men, and he could fully understand what Levi had done.
Because before this, he had tried countless times, but all ended in failure.
The speed of the dwarves has always been their biggest weakness. Every time they advanced, they were constantly delayed by the enemy's reconnaissance troops until the enemy gathered tens of thousands of troops and laid siege to them.
In the end, he could only rely on his own bravery and the help of the heroic spirits of the dwarf ancestors to force his way out and retreat to Bainu Mountain in despair.
But this time it was completely different. The enemy's patrol did not delay us at all. We only had to march all the way, which undoubtedly greatly increased the success rate of capturing the fortress city.
This made Beilejia swear in his heart even more that after he regained the treasure of Bafeng Mountain, he would never let Levi's efforts go to waste!
Gradually, when the sky was getting brighter and the morning glow was rising, the fortress city, which was the target, gradually appeared in everyone's sight.
At the same time, Luna, Cindy and the others encountered the strongest sniper attack in history. Even they were unable to cope with it, so they could only ask Levi for help.
It's not just because the opponent is strong, but also because the opponent is extremely mobile. Even with their speed, it is impossible to successfully intercept them all.
Nearly ten thousand clan rats, slave rats, and thousands of wolf rats are pure cannon fodder. There is nothing much to say.
Thousands of Storm Rats often appear as the vanguard and personal guards of many rat heroes. They are also the top infantry of the ratmen, but they are only level 4 and are also cannon fodder.
But there are more than 500 of them, at least level 5, with the occasional elite and advanced units of Rat Trolls and Cave Giant Rats, which can already pose an extremely strong threat to the huntresses.
Although they have followed Luna for so long, most of the female hunters have already reached level 5.
However, although they are known for their speed and agility, their defense and health are very weak, and they cannot compete head-on with these modified monsters.
In addition, the Skaven also carried two very special war machines, which were nicknamed "hamster wheels" by the chosen heroes.
Although it has not been long since the Skaven stole a large amount of research and development information on war machinery from the city of Nuln in the Sigmar Empire.
However, with countless years of accumulation by the rat people, the cooperation of many chosen heroes, and the joint efforts of the god they believe in - the Great Horned Rat, the rat people have quickly achieved many results.
These two types of war machines look a bit like unicycles at first glance, so they are nicknamed hamster wheels.
Powered by a combination of dimensional stone and magic, they have rotating blades on the front and can spread plague. Their lethality on the battlefield is extremely amazing.
The slightly smaller hamster wheel has a diameter of about one person's height, and there is a ratman as a rider at the back to adjust the direction of travel. Its official name is the Destruction Flayer, and it is a level 5 war machine.
As the name suggests, once the target is hit by it, its skin will be torn apart. At the same time, the blades are often smeared with poison, plague, etc. In short, it is very disgusting.
But because the riders' protection is not strong, they are relatively easy to deal with. Kill them and the Destruction Peeler will become scrap metal.
The larger ones are called Doomwheels, which are more powerful versions of the Doom-Flayers and are as high as Tier 6.
In addition to retaining its original power, it also has an additional driver and shooter, as the Doomwheel is also equipped with two energy guns that fire dimensional stone beams.
Not only are these two types of war machines faster than ordinary heavy cavalry, they also have extremely strong defensive capabilities. In addition, there are quite a large number of them, totaling as many as three or four hundred.
So even though Cindy, Luna and the angels can cause damage more effectively, it is difficult for ordinary female hunters to get rid of them quickly.
When they threw a flying blade at the opponent, it didn't hurt at all. But if they were hit head-on by the opponent, they would be seriously injured.
In addition, the giant rats and wolf rats in the nest behind them were extremely fast, so once the female hunters fell down after being injured, it was almost impossible for them to get up again.
And there are obviously several God-chosen heroes among them, and the leader is a super giant ratman who uses a long-handled battle axe as a weapon.
As a ratman, it not only has an outrageous height of over two meters, but also has amazing combat power. It just killed three antler users in seconds with a single axe. It is obviously not an ordinary soldier.
In order to avoid heavy casualties, Luna could only fight and retreat while urgently asking Levi for help.
Fortunately, although the straight-line speed of the two hamster wheels is fast, they are often not flexible enough when turning, so the female hunters can still deal with them, and the current casualties are not high.
Cindy and many of the celestial beings are powerful enough to use various magics like Holy Glacier and Big Slap to delay the opponent's advance.
However, the celestial creatures, whose speed was relatively slower, suffered heavier losses.
Even tigers and other big cats that are good at catching mice would find it difficult to survive among so many rats.
After listening, Levi naturally knew that the situation was urgent, and he could fully understand why the ratmen chose to launch a sniper attack here.
Because once we start besieging the fortress, these hamster wheels will not be of much use in defending the city.
However, it is much better for the other party to jump out now than to run out from behind after the siege begins.
He immediately synchronized the information to Khalida and Belegar, and prepared to deal with the other party here.
After hearing this, Belegar was immediately filled with anger, and many of the ancestors were also filled with indignation.
"It must be Headhunter Queke's Right Claw, the despicable ratman who stole the dwarves' wealth, Scar Bloodtail!"
Levi raised his eyebrows. He knew that the only reason why the ratmen, who were used to using spears and swords, would willingly switch to battle axes was that its power was far superior to ordinary weapons.
However, even if the headhunter's right claw is not legendary, it is probably almost there. If I kill it, I will be one step closer to upgrading!
Following a series of commands, the dwarves began to move, preparing to form a solid line to resist the attack of the ratmen.
Khalida did the opposite. She ordered the Tomb Generals to lead the Cemetery Knights to launch a counterattack to cover the retreat of Luna and others.
The enemy's war machines are very sturdy, but the mounts of the Cemetery Knights are all constructs carved from rock, and are equally powerful.
Now let’s see who will be the final winner in this battle between steel and rock!
After thinking about it, Levi did not let Donna take action, nor did he send Michaela and other mages to fight.
The hamster wheel is a creation of the Skryre clan, one of the four major clans of ratmen. The cave giant rats and rat trolls are the proud works of the Corruption clan, which is also one of the four major clans.
Now that they all appeared here, it meant that the fifth clan, the Moss clan, represented by the headhunter Quick, had reached some degree of cooperation with these two clans.
Will the Plague Clan, who likes to spread plague, and the Eshin Clan, who produces many assassins, also sell some finished products and mercenaries to the headhunters?
Coupled with the ratmen's dimensional guns and other long-range weapons, they still pose a considerable threat to Michaela and the others.
Just because the other party isn’t using it now doesn’t mean they don’t have it. It’s better not to take the risk.
Soon, with the ground shaking slightly and the ratmen's unique shrill cries, a large number of enemies were already within sight.
At the same time, many Tombstone Generals were ready and launched a charge with the Tombstone Knights.
With countless dull collision sounds, everyone witnessed the result with their own eyes.
In a one-on-one situation, the charging power of the Grave Knight is indeed inferior to that of the large and small hamster wheels, especially since the mummy is too light. Even if he has excellent riding skills, he can easily be knocked off the mount.
But they had the advantage of outnumbering their opponents by several times, so even though the Cemetery Knights lost about two hundred of them in the first wave of collisions, they quickly began to gain the upper hand in subsequent attacks.
However, the defensive power of these hamster wheels is amazing. Even if there are more than a dozen Tomb Generals among the Cemetery Knights, they cannot be eliminated quickly.
And the rat trolls, nest rats and others behind them also rushed over.
There are some knights on the backs of many giant nest rats. According to the ratmen’s custom, those who can ride on such monsters can only be heroes among the ratmen. This has changed the balance of power between the enemy and us.
But Khalida's goal had been achieved. Many cemetery knights almost maintained a straight line and stopped all the enemies.
Cindy seized the opportunity and threw a few sacred glaciers to divide the battlefield a little. Luna then successfully led the female hunters out of the battle and went around to the rear of the dwarf position from both sides.
Mortiti had retreated earlier with her team of watchers.
Without mounts, their speed is even slower than that of the huntress. If they are entangled by the ratmen, they will be dead without a burial place.
Levi began to use various fire spells to provide support with Michaela, Sefa and others. As the saying goes, more hair means less fire resistance, and these squeaking guys certainly don't have a high fire resistance.
Moreover, there are plenty of ratmen and various rat monsters in the rear. As long as you don't attack the battle area between the two sides, you don't have to worry about missing even with your eyes closed.
The dwarves also launched attacks, especially the ancestral spirits, who rushed forward faster than each other.
The Evil Moon Goblins have many Shamans and Witches, who are their nemesis, but the proportion of magic units among the Skaven is obviously much lower, so they don't have so many concerns.
The ogres, led by Braut, also launched a charge in great strides.
They had never seen or eaten such a big rat in the past, so now was a good opportunity to try something new.
Other dwarf crossbowmen, thunder gunners, and so on, also launched attacks.
Penthesilea , Elegy and the others, however, took their time and did not launch an attack immediately.
Because they all know that although the enemy is coming with great force, this is just an appetizer.
The three parties have been fighting for supremacy in Eight Peaks Mountain for countless years. Belegar and other dwarves are actually the weakest. The other two parties have military forces in the tens of thousands!
But no one knew what Martis was thinking. She chuckled and rode her horse around from the side. No one knew what she wanted to do.
Since Levi was unable to provide her with undead cavalry, she had few available troops at her disposal.
In addition, she is strong enough and smart enough, so Levi gives her the greatest freedom. She can do whatever she wants as long as she ensures her own safety.
Belegar opened his eyes wide, looking carefully for the trace of Scar Bloodtail.
But he gained nothing for a while, as the opponent, whose figure was obviously different from ordinary ratmen, did not appear on the battlefield.
Before he could ask Cindy or Luna, several cannon shots were heard and dozens of thick green, ominous-looking fogs rolled down from the sky.
At the same time, a loud and arrogant laugh came from a small forest southwest of the battlefield:
"Mighty Queke, said he didn't need the axe of a wimpy dwarf, dwarven thing, so, it's now, now it's Scar's, yes, yes!"
Belegar's eyes suddenly turned red with anger, not only because the opponent had used this terrifying plague again, which would likely cause heavy casualties on his side, but also because he recognized the opponent's voice.
So arrogant, so provocative, and repeating it so many times, who else could it be but Scar Bloodtail?
Levi immediately raised his eyebrows. This voice was so mean and full of sarcasm.
Unfortunately, it was too early to be happy, because he had been prepared for this move!
As soon as he raised his hand, a howling gale came, and at the same time, Sefa, Sally and others followed suit. As a result, the opponent's attacks were blown away before they even hit the ground.
Although Wind Creation is only a tier 2 magic, its effect is undoubtedly very practical.
The few that remained were also easily purified by Levi. With the Book of Avoidance of Disaster in hand, he was undoubtedly the biggest nemesis of the plague.
At the same time, Donna, who had been hiding all the time, also tacitly launched a volley of arrows towards the woods where the opponent was hiding. In order to achieve the maximum effect, all the arrows were enchanted this time.
Kyle and Michaela also cast out fire magic spells one after another. This time they didn't have to worry about accidental injuries.
Along with the blazing flames and dense rain of arrows, a series of screams and curses were heard in the forest.
Levi could hear that there was more than one God-chosen hero among them. After all, ordinary natives rarely cursed.
But then there was another explosion, and a large area of thick green fog spread out from the forest, completely swallowing up the sounds.
The Ratmen's Dimensional Stone technology is indeed very powerful in terms of power alone, but it is not absolutely perfect.
First of all, Dimension Stone is hard to find, and there is almost none in the main world.
The reason why the ratmen can now use it on a large scale for various weapons and even transform monsters such as rat trolls is definitely due to cooperation with certain demon lords in the Abyss.
Or perhaps the Horned Rat himself ran over and occupied a certain floor, just as the Spider Queen Lolth, the Serpent God - Melshok, and the Maiden of Doom did.
The second problem is instability. Even if they are left in place without moving, there is a certain chance that they will be damaged. Now that they are faced with an attack of this magnitude, they naturally cannot escape unscathed.
No matter how much poison and plague the rats had prepared, they would now enjoy them themselves.
Belegar, who was originally very angry, was stunned at first, and then he couldn't help but burst into laughter:
"Levi, after seeing this scene, I know that after we recapture Bafeng Mountain, I will definitely drink three more barrels of Bergman beer with you!"
