Dragonborn were warlike people. Fair matches like these were the best stages to demonstrate their valor and might.
As such, the dragonborn captain did not stop them from doing so. They joined the spectating warriors and started cheering for their companions and jeering at the opponents.
The atmosphere of the camp turned lively and fun, yet there was also a certain peace to the scene that most outsiders wouldn't comprehend!
"Those overactive little brats." Deputy Commander Eden laughed when he turned back and saw this scene unfold. He was standing on a slope within the camp and looking into the distance.
Even though he was scolding the soldiers, there was a trace of indulgence in his tone.
Commander Will also turned to look at the camp, but he frowned and shook his head before looking into the distance once again. If this had been in the past, he would probably have laughed off the situation much like Eden. He might even have roared and charged into the camp to throw a couple of those rascals to the ground.
However, an indescribable feeling of uneasiness lingered in his heart right now. He couldn't free himself from that feeling no matter what he did.
"What are you still worried about?" Eden caringly asked when he saw his old friend frown so hard, "The requisitioning party, or the Twin Peaks party?"
Eden never even mentioned the Dragon Cultists.
Those lowly trolls had relied on their humble, fancy words and useless praise to win the favor of Lady Philippa. Dragonborn looked down upon such behavior and, by association, scorned these Dragon Cultists.
Two hundred Dragon Cultists sounded like a reasonably large army. However, Eden was confident he could slaughter the enemy in half an hour if he had a squad of dragonborn warriors with him.
It was this vast disparity in combat prowess that caused the dragonborn to look down upon the Dragon Cultists, who only knew how to grovel and pray. The dragonborn would even be glad to hear of the Dragon Cultists sustaining massive losses against some powerful magical creature.
Commander Will didn't answer his old friend's question. His gaze was still roaming across the distant fog.
"How long has it been since the requisitioning party left?" Will narrowed his eyes and asked sombrely, "If we were to go by my calculations, they should already have returned seven minutes ago!"
Eden was a veteran of war and quickly realized the abnormality upon being reminded by Will.
"The murloc camp they were heading to is no more than two and a half kilometer away from us. Unless they ran into some real trouble, they should already have returned. Should I bring someone to go check?"
"No need to go! They might never come back," The fires of anger burst forth in Commander Will's four amber eyes, "I have been feeling uneasy ever since we entered the Swamp of Sorrows. Now, it seems, we have underestimated the enemy this time! We have stepped into their trap without even noticing. The enemy never intended to hold the line at Stonetalon Mountains. Instead, they've come all the way here to intercept us."
Deputy Commander Eden shivered at those words. A trace of anger appeared in his eyes when he once again looked at the fog around them.
Fear was the one word that had never appeared in the dictionaries of dragonborn warriors.
They would only feel hate and anger for those despicable fellows that hid in the shadows. They would never fear them!
"I will go and gather up the group and have them be on alert!" Deputy Commander Eden quickly came to a decision.
Eden beat his chest and saluted Will before crushing a black scorpion by his foot and sprinting down the slope with two of his subordinates.
Will continued to look at the surroundings of the camp, utterly ignorant of the sliver of gray smoke that rose from the remains of the black scorpion that Eden had stomped into the ground. The gray smoke silently merged into the damp mist around them.
In truth, the entire camp was enveloped by this strange gray smoke. The only reason no one had realized this was due to the presence of the mist around them.
While Will was silently guessing at the intentions of their hidden enemy, a modified magic-energy flying ship slowly cruised above the skies of the camp. It started to circle there.
If this had been the goblin flying ships of the past, its old and clumsy steam engine would have been roaring loud enough for everyone within four kilometers to hear it clearly. Moreover, there were also the clanging and creaking sounds of mechanical components and turning gears. That loud noise would have made any form of subterfuge impossible. The dragonborn would have discovered the ship before it appeared unless they had all turned deaf.
The sound released by the flying ship was minimal now that the energy source had been swapped out for magic energy. The chances of them being discovered by the dragonborn were even lower with the cover of the fog.
Several goblin technicians in leather clothes and advanced goggles with green lenses were crouching at the edge of the flying ship. They were using the enhanced vision of the goggles to observe the dragonborn camp beneath them silently.
One of the advanced goblin engineers was softly commanding a construction machine to carefully place a three-meter-long, cigar-shaped bomb into the drop hatch.
Once they had prepared everything, the advanced engineer pressed the communication device in his headset and softly made his report, "Hummingbird One calling Eagle Nest. Hummingbird One calling Eagle Nest. Destroyer is in place. Hummingbird One awaiting orders."
An invisible electric wave rapidly spread out towards the distance and sent the message to the heavily guarded base.
Mary took off her headset and lightly tossed them upon the metal platform. She then casually placed her slender and beautiful legs on the floor. The three blood knights stood in a row behind her while old fox Vanlier mumbled something into her ear with a huge grin on his face.
Second Grade Dragonborn Zacha was sitting in the corner of the camp, using a cloth to carefully wipe the electric spear that had accompanied him for all these years.
Deserra, Dana, Endor, and Charon had all returned from their missions. Almost every one of them carried wounds on their bodies, except for Endor. In particular, Medusa Dana's injuries were the most severe.
However, with the treatment of plenty of healing potions and life potions, Dana's wound healed at a rate visible to the naked eye. She only needed another fifteen minutes of rest to regain her essential combat ability.
Only Bug Adept Billis, who had gone out to kill the Dragon Cultists had yet to return. News from the battlefield was that Billis' bug army, paired with the magical machines, had managed to obtain the advantage in that battle. However, there were some tough nuts among the Cultists that could use potent fire powers as well. It caused the losses of the magical machines to be relatively higher than expected.
It seemed Billis would not be able to make it back in time for the main offensive against the dragonborn camp!
Another fifteen minutes later, Dana pulled her head from within a massive barrel of herbs without a scratch on her body. Mary put down her legs and stood up confidently to shout, "Prepare to attack!" She then led the way and strode out of the tent.
This single order seemed to have put a high-speed motor upon the entire camp. The whole establishment started to move about at an extremely high pace.
One hundred and sixty-three magical machines split up into different squads based on their models. They sorted into neat formations and marched into the mist with heavy and rumbling footsteps.
The adept squad that Mary led hid within the magical machines and silently proceeded toward the battlefield.
Mary continued to give orders as they moved. The eyes and spies they had set up around the dragonborn camp ahead of time started to close in as well. They were like a tight fishing net being cast over the dragonborn.
The large-scale movement of the magical machine army couldn't avoid the senses of the dragonborn, even with the fog as cover.
The dragonborn camp was filled with th
e shoutings and clamoring of the dragonborn captain. The squads of dragonborn had been summoned and were being assigned to different areas based on their habits in battle.
The so-called dragonborn camp had actually been stolen from the native kobolds.
There were no durable walls or fortresses around the camp that they could fortify themselves in. However, three sides of the camp were blocked off by massive pools of mud and water. There was only a single ten-meter-wide dirt road that led straight into the camp.
Thus, the dragonborn adapted their strategy to the geography and laid most of their troops upon the road that led to the camp, forming several defensive lines along it.
The dragonborn army had always been known for their ferocity and violence in combat; they had rarely ever been on the defense. However, the enemies had appeared far too abruptly this time. They also seemed to be out for blood. That left Commander Will with no choice but to alter their original plan and to decide on their next course of action after figuring out the strength of the enemy.
However, Commander Will's little scheme was well within Mary's plans.
Mary might not be all that good at scheming, but toying with a dragonborn commander was still a breeze with the aid of Old Fox Vanlier.
The organized formation of magical machines parted the fog and pressed toward the dragonborn camp with rumbling steps under the hostile gaze of two hundred dragonborn. The intimidating aura of bloodthirst and killing intent unnerved even the veteran dragonborn.
Both sides slowly closed in on each other.
A massive fight would break out at any time!
Chapter Notes:
| Patreon | Discord | Previous Posts | Vote | Leave a Review (NovelUpdates) |
Chapter 588 Battle Upon the Mud Road
The large-scale use of magical machines was a big problem that plagued the higher-ups of the Crimson Clan.
If they created all the magical machines with top-class alloy purified and extracted in advanced alchemical labs, then the cost of production of each magical machine would be higher than the magical statues and constructs of the World of Adepts.
Thus, to limit the production costs, most of the magical machines were made of an ordinary alloy that had undergone a simple smelting process. Only their energy core, energy circulation systems, and magic-energy weapon parts were made with the newest magical alloys.
A new magical machine factory had been in the works within Gazlowe's massive metal body to alleviate this problem, even as the low-grade magical machine assembly lines were still producing magical machines. This new factory would no longer produce assembly line, low-grade magical machines. Instead, it would combine the various new technologies, new materials, and new ideas to create elite magical machine warriors.
The metal golems that Greem was researching was no more than a part of this Project Magical Machine Warrior!
A total of one hundred and sixty-three magical machines had been assigned to Mary for the battle this time. Of these magical machines, one hundred and sixty were ordinary machines, while three of them were special models– the Elementary Magical Machine Warrior.
These three Elementary Magical Machine Warriors were prototypes that had just walked out of the goblin laboratories. They had been sent here after production to test their limits in actual combat. This data would be used to evaluate their practicality and the feasibility of the project's concept.
One could also hear from the few mad goblin engineers that these three Elementary Magical Machine Warriors each had their own badass nicknames, apart from their individual model names. They were, respectively, Goblin Tinker, Goblin Shredder, and Goblin Bomberman.
Mary couldn't help but be exasperated when she heard these names for the first time. There were truly no sane goblins among these scientists that spent their days shut in their laboratories and factories. Expecting these mad scientists to come up with anything resembling an elegant name was no more than a daydream.
Still, while the names were crude, they indeed did fit the magical machine warriors.
Mary naturally kept these elite-level machines around her as bodyguards, while she treated the other magical machines as sacrificial pawns.
Several paths led to the dragonborn camp. However, apart from the ten-meter wide mud road, all the other trails were winding little roads with uneven geography filled with mud and water. It was not suitable terrain for the large magical machines to traverse.
Thus, the focus of the conflict would be upon that one exit and entrance of the camp.
Seeing that the enemy was adamant in holding their positions and were unlikely to come out of the camp, the magical machines started to lock down the exit under the orders of the goblin technicians. The army of machines then stood off against the dragonborn across a vast stretch of murky swamp. Twelve magical machines that had been specially selected formed four rows of three and slowly pressed on down the mud road.
They had no choice. The mud road was only ten meters wide, while all the magical machines were large in size. It was possible to fit four magical machines across if they wanted to, but that would make it impossible for them to fight. As such, each row could accommodate three machines, for a total of four rows. This squad of machines marched toward at the enemy.
Upon reaching the middle point of the mud road, the first two rows of Loggers planted the massive metal shields in their hands into the ground. They stopped pushing forward. The two rows of Archers behind them then took up crossfire positions and extended all the long-ranged weapons within their bodies.
What were the opponents trying to do?
The dragonborn warriors standing guard at the end of the mud road looked at each other with their axes still in hand. None of them knew what these lumps of metal were up to. Were they not here to attack them? Why did they stop moving halfway?
The dragonborn were still indecisive about whether to charge forward and route the magical machines or remain in their positions. Meanwhile, the six Archers that had taken up position in the middle of the mud road started to fire.
They were now approximately seventy meters away from the dragonborn warriors at the end of the mud road. It was well within the effective range of the magic energy rifles. The proud and towering dragonborn were instantly beaten into a daze when the first wave of bullets came at them like a storm.
As warriors that had undergone a hundred fights, they had experienced all sorts of physical and magical attacks. However, this was the first time they had ever seen such a dense and concentrated rain of 'thrown' weapon attacks.
It was like a rain of iron and steel!
The pained grunts of the dragonborn mixed with the clattering of colliding metal.
For a moment, the dragonborn squad that guarded the mud roads were running from the rain of bullets. They could hardly stand still in their original positions.
They couldn't do anything about it. Even though the fine scales and metal armors of the dragonborn warriors protected over ninety percent of their bodies, there was still a portion of their bodies that were exposed. For instance: the eyes, the throat, the ears, the armpits, the stomach.
Under ordinary circumstances, the enemies were very unlikely to hit these parts with their attacks, especially if they did a good job of hiding them. That was why the dragonborn hadn't bothered to design special equipment to shield these areas.
At this moment, the six Archers were wildly firing their rifles. The randomly flying bullets could deal plenty of stray damage to the dragonborn. Either their eyes were blinded, or a bullet went into their ear, or their scales were pierced.
The dragonborn had stood too close to each other. It was true that their armor and scales had deflected most of the bullets and didn't cause too much damage to them. However, the bullets would ricochet off their bodies and hit their companions instead. It was easy for the shots to deal damage in such a situation.
Substantial casualties had occurred in the first line of defense of the dragonborn in a matter of momen
ts.
The small metal bullets were less than toothpicks compared to the large bodies of the dragonborn. At the very worst, they were like the bite of a mosquito. However, anyone would fall into a panic if hundreds of mosquitos were swarming them and all they could hear was strange explosions and clinking noises.
The experienced dragonborn warriors quickly covered their faces with their scaled arms and used their massive axes to protect their other weak spots. But how were they supposed to fight now?
The dragonborn captain of the squad reared its limbs and flames spontaneously burned upon the massive axe he held in his hand. The captain let out a stunning warcry and stormed toward the magical machines while waving the flaming axe and stomping with his heavy steps.
The berserk dragonborn captain covered a distance of seventy meters in a matter of six seconds. The flaming axe then solidly cut at the metal shields of the magical machines in the first row.
A loud explosion could be heard as a metal shield split into pieces. The arms of the Logger holding the shield also exploded into shrapnel and countless metal parts.
The Logger stumbled backward from the residual force and crashed upon the metal shields in the second row.
Behind it was an immovable steel wall, while in front of it was the force of a raging dragonborn. The unfortunate Logger was crushed in between and exploded like a watermelon.
As expected of a powerful First Grade elite warrior, the dragonborn captain had instantly exterminated this enhanced Logger magical machine with a single furious blow.
The Logger's metal shell was riddled with cracks and holes. Its body flashed with electric sparks, and nearly half of its body was gone. The machine took two steps sideways before falling right into the swamp.
The successful dragonborn captain felt his will to battle rise to a peak. He once again reared his limbs and tried to knock the remaining metal lumps into the swamp.
Yet, he had never expected his reckless charge to expose himself to the full force of the Archers.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 368