Chapter 104 Chapter One Hundred and Two Difficult Journey (Part 2)
With the help of Jima, the rumors grew rapidly.
What began as a group of strong dwarves attacking transformed into a fully composed army of dwarves and Kislivians, launching surprise attacks on the outpost, armed with spells and elite troops. They surrounded the outpost in layers, making it impenetrable.
Faced with such formidable military power, the ratmen at the outpost fought bravely and finally managed to break through, with some escaping back.
“Bang!”
A fluffy claw slammed down on the operations table, causing it to shake.
“Lies! Lies!” the white-furred ratman shouted. “What do I know about ratmen? It must be those cowardly rats who fled, exaggerating their tales to appear less cowardly!”
Sitting across from him was the red-armored ratman warlord, the leader of the elite troops outside. The green light in the operational room cast down on him, failing to illuminate his face and making him appear fearsome.
He asked:
“Is it a group of people or an army?”
The white-furred ratman said, “We are waiting for the messenger. But it surely is a group, not worth mentioning. Our garrison can hold them off, right, right.”
The red-armored ratman warlord, well aware of the other’s little schemes, thought to himself that if his elite army remained here for another day, they would increase the supply costs for the enemy and make it harder for him to siphon off resources.
Leaning back in his chair, the red-armored ratman warlord said, “Let the army rest here today.”
“No! No! The dwarves are coming; we must break through. Go quickly to assist and claim the credit! The great Chuanluo will reward you.”
The red-armored ratman warlord said, “I am also trying to prevent the logistics base from falling.”
“Impossible! Impossible!”
The red-armored ratman warlord slammed his weapon onto the table and shouted, “I want what I want, not what you want, understand?”
The white-furred ratman looked around and saw that the other ratmen remained silent, so he lowered his head and said, “Alright, alright.”
“Wait for the messenger,” the red-armored ratman warlord said, “and see how it goes.”
“Messenger here!”
A panting, sweat dripping from the tip of his nose, ratman messenger rushed in and said:
“Not good! The routing soldiers say, the routing soldiers say, a great sun has burned everyone. An army suddenly attacked and killed all the commanders.”
“Did anyone say who brought the sun?”
“Long ears!” the messenger said. “Some routing soldiers claim there are long ears lurking among the rocks, shooting sharp arrows.”
The ratmen brainstormed and started inferring:
“If it’s true, it should be the style of the long ears; their army likes to hide in the dark, right, right, shooting arrows quietly.”
“Impossible; the dwarves and the long ears have a deep-seated feud.”
“That’s something from ancient times.”
A terrifying conclusion flashed through everyone’s minds: if the high elves and dwarves set aside their grudges to cooperate…
The white-furred ratman couldn’t sit still and said, “You will die if you misreport military morale!”
The messenger shrank his head and said, “That’s what the routing soldiers said.”
The white-furred ratman thought of something, his eyes lighting up, and said, “The long ears are too far away from here; it’s impossible.”
Before he finished speaking, another messenger rushed in and said, “The routing soldiers, the routing soldiers also say that the sky is raining blood! Anyone who gets hit is drained of blood; they must be those vampire idiots.”
Now, the operational room was in more chaos.
“Impossible! Impossible!”
“The dwarves have allied with the long ears, what else is impossible?”
The ratmen couldn’t fathom what they had done to provoke so many forces to come together.
“False, false,” the white-furred ratman said. “Nonsense, there’s no logic at all, none!”
The red-armored ratman warlord, who was clearing his thoughts, said:
“I understand now, it must be this way. The dwarves called for help, bringing in human allies, and the humans called in long ear allies. According to the latest intelligence, the strongest mage among the long ears is traveling the world to find ways to resist the demon army.”
The white-furred ratman’s expression changed, “Him?”
“He can teleport anywhere in the world; destroying an outpost is as easy as chopping off your head.”
In the end, through the ratmen’s chatter, they eliminated the exaggerated parts of the rumors and reached a more realistic conclusion.
Kislivians were coming to assist and would fight alongside the dwarves, and there was likely a powerful high elf mage among them, possibly the brother of the Aosu’an Guardian, the strongest mage in the current era.
Of course, this was the publicly known conclusion.
The red-armored ratman warlord felt this was impossible; there should only be an ordinary coalition, accompanied by a mage. It couldn’t possibly be a team of strong attackers; otherwise, more ratmen should have escaped.
The white-furred ratman lowered his head and said, “Alright, we’ll stay here, guard, guard, and wait for them to come.”
The red-armored ratman, feeling arrogant, snorted and said, “No need; I’ll lead the army to intercept them. Fighting here might ignite the warehouse.”
The white-furred ratman was delighted, saying, “Good, good, brave lord, we will provide you with logistics, right, logistical support.”
“Next question,” the red-armored ratman said, “From which direction did the routing soldiers come?”
“From the left, the left cave entrance,” the white-furred ratman said. “Just right, there’s a suitable place for an ambush.”
“I will set out with my army now; you must provide me with slaves! To be cannon fodder!”
“Alright, alright!”
With a mutual agreement, this elite force, having stayed at the logistics base for less than an hour, set off again in great numbers towards the left cave entrance.
All the ratmen intentionally or unintentionally overlooked one point: what if the enemy doesn’t come from this cave entrance? Those who intentionally ignored it didn’t mind, as there were patrols in every cave, and the advancing army would definitely reveal themselves.
Seeing the ratmen’s elite force disappear into the dim cave entrance, Jima yawned, let out a sigh of relief, and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.
To lead the ratmen to make decisions favorable to herself, Jima not only fabricated exaggerated rumors but also subtly stirred the negative desires of the decision-makers. For example, if it weren’t for the arrogance induced at the back of the red-armored ratman, he might not have made the decision to set out.
Jima said to herself, “I’m really too clever.”
Fortunately, the Savior Squad moved quickly. The speed of the routing ratmen was much slower than that of the Savior Squad; the information reaching the decision-makers of the logistics base took a detour. This gave Jima substantial operational space.
After finally executing the plan to draw the tiger away from the mountain, Jima, who loved taking credit, didn’t rush to go to George to brag.
After all, a battle was underway, and every opportunity needed to be utilized; since she had worked hard to figure out the logistics base and consumed so much magical power, shouldn’t she do something?
Besides, there was no useful intelligence to return. George would certainly make his judgment, and although there were many ratmen, the place was vast; he would choose to “infiltrate.”
Jima found a shadow in the logistics base, sat down, and watched the ratmen army disappear into the dim cave entrance, waiting for the army to move far away before she could take action.
In the vast cave.
The red-armored ratman warlord sat on the back of a giant rat.
His inner arrogance faded quickly, sparking doubt. He tilted his head, asking the heads behind him, “Strange, isn’t it?”
His gaze rested on a dwarf’s head.
In the next moment, he imitated the dwarf’s tone, saying, “Rat cubs! What are you afraid of? Go fight your battle well.”
His gaze shifted to the ratman heads.
“Brother, my good brother, your intuition has always been good. Just listen; don’t heed the words of those rock clots! Be careful! Be careful!”
Finally, his gaze fell on the human heads.
“Stupid rat brains, dull-witted rock brains, all you have to do is contact the routing soldiers and send scouts; what’s so scary?”
The red-armored ratman suddenly had an epiphany, saying, “Thank you all, I understand now, understand. It’s thanks to me taking your heads; otherwise, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
A gust of wind blew by, and the three long-dead heads remained silent; they had never uttered a single word.
The nearby ratmen had already grown accustomed to the red-armored ratman warlord’s bizarre behavior.
“Have they finally gone far?”
Jima opened her eyes, taking in the entire logistics base.
Nearly half of the hamsters’ wheel generator had stopped turning, and the lights above the distant entrance had long gone out.
Jima slowly stood up, stretched her wings, and quietly flew, following the route planned earlier, using her invisibility to successfully infiltrate the ratmen’s most crucial warehouse. Inside, it stored incredibly precious dimensional stones for the ratmen.
So precious that, even knowing the ratmen’s greedy and despicable nature, a few pairs of ratmen were assigned to take turns guarding them.
Thus, it cut off Jima’s heart in helping the ratmen guard the dimensional stones.
Hiding on the warehouse roof, Jima looked through a vent and could just see a corner of the dimensional stones. They were placed in wooden boxes lined with straw, a good thirty meters away from her.
Jima reached into her “space bag” and felt the prepared rat grenades. To prevent the grenades from exploding, Jima had compressed ten similarly powered dimensional bombs based on the engineer dwarves’ advice.
She aimed at the dimensional stones and pulled the trigger with force.
“Bang bang bang!”
Ten green bullets hit the corner of the dimensional stones in succession, immediately igniting green flames.
Jima then revealed herself, quickly stuffing the rat grenades back into the space bag, becoming invisible again, turning, and leaping into the air, flying away without caring whether she succeeded or not.
The whole exposure lasted only about ten seconds.
Down below, the ratmen screamed.
“It’s on fire!”
“Put it out! Put it out!”
As Jima flew farther and farther away, the sounds grew fainter.
She flew out of the logistics base, several hundred meters away, a kilometer away.
Jima finally stopped floating in the air, turned around, and looked back at the logistics base.
It was calm and quiet.
Perhaps the ratmen had a complete firefighting system, or perhaps the dimensional stones were not as flammable or explosive as Jima had imagined. Perhaps she should have stayed longer, made more effort, and created more chaos.
But Jima did not regret her decision. If she had stayed even one more second, it might have resulted in an accident, which would force her to use a high-cost escape skill.
Just as Jima was about to turn back, a mass of green flames erupted, blowing off the top of the iron warehouse, and the shockwave spread outward, lifting some objects. A green mushroom cloud was taking shape. It was at this moment that the booming sound reached Jima’s ears.
She covered her ears and hurriedly flew forward, a gust of hot wind pushing against her back.
Jima’s heart was pounding with joy. The effect far exceeded expectations; the dimensional stones were even more dangerous than she had imagined, and it was totally unexpected that the ratmen would dare to store such perilous things directly in the logistics base.
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PS: In fact, the protagonist’s axe spear weapon is more similar to this image:
