Chapter 106 Chapter 104 The Wolf in Front, the Tiger Behind
The tall and strong rat giant was jumping down from a hole in the wall of the watchtower, carrying his master—the red-armored ratman warlord.
A ratman in black was sprinting towards him, his face covered by black cloth, moving on the rugged rocks as if walking on flat ground.
“Urgent report! Urgent report!”
Along the way, the night-running rats and rat giants quickly cleared the path.
The red-armored ratman warlord paused.
“G…G…Great King!” The ratman in black knelt on one knee, looking up and saying, “All the reconnaissance night-running rats ahead have gone completely missing.”
“Correct, correct! They are cunning, spreading rumors to lead us astray,” the red-armored ratman warlord said excitedly, turning his face to the three heads on his back and adding, “Thank you, thank you for your advice; you are right.”
“Great King?”
“Did you not see your great master expressing gratitude to his wise advisors?” The red-armored warlord whispered, “I know, you foolish rats cannot hear what they say, how pitiful.”
“Great King, what I meant was, what is your next order?”
“No doubt about it, those sneaky things pretending to be mysterious are right ahead; forward! Forward! Apothecary, quickly give the fast ones the medicine; the rat giants and I will press on! As long as we don’t let them cross the dwarven abyss, everything can be negotiated.”
With that, the red-armored ratman warlord commanded, “Let it be known that this rat king orders the fastest of the army to follow me!”
Before long, this ratman warlord left the slow-moving storm rats behind to march at a leisurely pace, leading the fastest troops of the army, all the strong ones, along the road at full speed towards the abyss.
Meanwhile.
The news of the logistics base under attack had already crossed the abyss and reached Chuanlu’s ears. In this world, there are means of communication far beyond mere messengers, and the logistics base is an important node with special methods of information transmission.
Upon receiving the news, Chuanlu immediately rushed everyone out of the room, closing the door behind them. He jumped onto the table, speaking in an excited and hurried tone:
“It’s them, it must be them! Those insidious and treacherous, bloodthirsty and cruel demon women with sharp horns on their heads! She’s got her eye on me! Time and again, she has come to disrupt and shatter the great plans of my magnificent Chuanlu.”
He suddenly shrank back like a mouse seeing a cat, his paws clasped before his chest, trembling whiskers as he said:
“They want to kill me! Just the day before, I was at the logistics base—traitors! Traitors! There must be a traitor!
“Calm down, calm down, I’m safe now, yes, very safe; they couldn’t possibly cross the abyss directly and chop off my head.
“It’s strange if they can’t! That demon woman will use any means!”
After shouting, Chuanlu jumped down from the table, straightened his robe, and picked up his dimensional stone staff, the dimensional stones dangling on it clinking together.
He opened the door, glanced left and right to ensure no one was lying in wait outside to chop off his rat head, then only extended one rat head, shouting at the top of his lungs: “In the name of the Great Horned Rat! Quickly connect with the Abyss Fortress! Hurry! Hurry!”
The ratmen kicked three white-furred ratmen into the “hamster wheel” generator, and then pricked their behinds with a knife tip. The three white-furred ratmen screamed and began to run at full speed; the electricity flowed, and Chuanlu understood the situation at the Abyss Fortress.
Scared, he once again jumped onto the table, shouting, “It’s the giant sword flute player again! They really have come to kill me, breaking my great plans!”
Chuanlu suddenly calmed down, a smile crossing his lips, as he let out a series of bright laughs: “Hahaha, I’ve got an idea; yield to the great wisdom of Chuanlu.”
…
…
The dwarves were still vowing to wash away the shame of their ancestors and regain face in the ears of Yves Frostleaf.
Jima, standing nearby, had already prepared to stop the second “Battle of the Longbeards.”
With Yves Frostleaf’s temperament, she would definitely issue a cold snort from afar, mocking the dwarves, and possibly sneering at the “Twilight Race.”
But after waiting for a while and hearing the dwarves chattering endlessly, Jima found it strange.
Could it be that Yves Frostleaf has changed her disposition? Or has she empathized with the dwarves? However, high elves cannot really be called a “Twilight Race,” can they?
In the distance, a fiery red ball of light rose, followed by an explosion.
“Danger signal!”
George immediately placed the ill-fitting helmet on his head and drew his sword: “Prepare for battle!”
A sense of foreboding rose in Jima’s heart; everyone knows that a rising light ball in the dark underground is very conspicuous. Yves Frostleaf is not foolish; she must have done this due to a serious situation.
The dwarves each picked up their axes, moving noticeably slower; they had been fighting most of the day and were even feeling weary.
Felix lay on the ground like a corpse, and the butcher, Hochrick, kicked him, saying, “Human brat! Get up and fight! Don’t die like a goblin!”
“I’m going to die.” Felix wobbled to his feet, saying, “Just kill me, let someone give me relief.”
Jima had already taken up her “Branch Axe Gun” to scout.
Fortunately, the place where the red light ball rose was a turn away from the Abyss Fortress, so it didn’t alert the ratmen inside the fortress.
She peered through the heavy darkness and saw a group of rat giants charging down the distant road, their numbers overwhelming, resembling a pile of yellow beans spilling down a slope.
At that moment, a silver shadow quickly approached—it was Yves Frostleaf. Jima quickly descended and asked what had happened.
“I misled them with the light ball,” Frostleaf said, “I heard a troop.”
“How many?”
Yves Frostleaf said, “Many, many.”
Jima felt an increasing sense of unease in her heart. She blinked and performed a divination to find out how close she was to the red-armored ratman warlord.
The divination results came out.
She swore: “Damn it!”
George looked at her in shock.
Jima said, “I underestimated others; the ones chasing us from behind are precisely the elite ratman troops I fooled away earlier.”
George thought quickly and said, “We must infiltrate the fortress now. Jima, what arrangements do you have? Speak while we move.”
The team set off. The butcher, Hochrick, grumbled as he dragged the hesitant and immobile Felix along.
“It’s impossible to break through the fortress.” Jima said, “Luckily, I’m clever and smart. During our operation, I left a few ratman identities; as long as we disguise ourselves as ratmen now, we’ll be fine.”
Jenna asked uneasily, “Do we need any professional disguises?”
For priests who stand by their principles, stealth is indeed a challenge; otherwise, George’s “stealth” mission would not be filled with blood, sweat, and death.
“We need them.” Jima said, taking out the prepared Mickey Mouse headgear, “Put this on.”
Jenna, with her gloved hands, took the black rat ear headgear, looked at it, and asked, “Does it really work? What’s this round thing?”
“Rat ears.”
“But this doesn’t look like ratman ears.” Jenna replied, putting the rat ear headgear on her head.
Jima felt it suited her oval face quite well and made her appear noticeably cuter.
“Exactly like that.” Jima said while putting on her own rat ear headgear: “You are now the mute servant number one of this ratman officer.”
George took the rat ear headgear from her hand and asked, “Am I number two?”
“Exactly right.”
After all, the clergy cannot lie.
Jima distributed the rat ear headgear; Yves Frostleaf put it on as well, appearing considerably cuter and less intimidating. The seven dwarves, while chattering away, also donned the gear.
They wondered, “Can this really work?”
“Isn’t this treating ratmen like children?”
Jima, having little patience for the dwarves, said, “Stop the chatter, let’s hurry. If the fortress learns any news, it’ll be troublesome.”
After saying that, she falsely claimed, “We are now all ratmen, a unit of……..”
She infused the “power of lies” gained from fooling a large part of the ratman fortress into this statement.
The group wearing ratman headgear felt a rush of disorientation, and the butcher Hochrick shook his head, saying, “Yes, yes, I had a dream, a dream that I became a dwarf.”
“Looks like it works very well.” Jima took out a mirror, showing Yves Frostleaf’s reflection as a white-furred ratman with a tall figure.
“All right, everyone, follow me. We should find another group of ratmen to mix in with on the way to the fortress.”
Jima strode to the front of the team, taking the lead position normally occupied by George.
With her chest out, Jima said to George, “Mute servant number two, stay behind me.”
The ratman George raised a signboard and asked, “If I speak, will it break your lie?”
Jima stepped over a rock and asked, “Why do you think so?”
“In my eyes, everyone is just wearing rat ear headgear.”
“Glad you can see through the falsehood.” Jima said, “As long as we aren’t exposed by others, that’s fine.”
Leading the group of fake ratmen, Jima walked briskly down the main road. The massive fortress was ahead, flames rising from behind, and Jima felt her heart tighten. She said:
“I want to sing a song now to express my emotions.”
George replied, “Go ahead.”
Jima sang for less than a minute when the white rat Yves Frostleaf covered her ears, and Felix almost toppled over; at George’s request, Jima reluctantly closed her mouth, saying, “I was just getting into it, still too nervous, not in good form.”
Along the way, they encountered a supply team of ratmen, successfully mixing in among them. Jima strode proudly, successfully taking the lead and becoming the highest-ranked among the ratmen. She commanded the beasts pulling supplies to advance, and the fortress grew nearer and higher.
Sitting atop the cart, the white rat Yves Frostleaf reported that she could see a rat giant army appearing in the rear, just one to two kilometers away.
Jima breathed a sigh of relief: “Good, we’re almost there; otherwise, I’ll sing a joyful song, celebrating our being one step ahead; I was just nervous and sang the wrong tune.”
Scared, Felix, despite feeling utterly exhausted, sprang up and played the lute, singing a pleasant song in a hoarse voice. The group felt a sense of peace in their hearts, perhaps due to Jima’s “jewel leading the way,” even the discerning Yves Frostleaf closed her eyes to enjoy it.
When the song ended, even the real ratmen applauded.
The Savior Squad felt filled with heroic sentiment, as if the abyss before them was merely a small ditch that they could leap across effortlessly.
With everyone embracing a winning spirit, they moved towards the city gate. Just fifty meters from the gate, the heavy stone door suddenly crashed down with a resounding thud.
A voice came from the city wall: “There is an order from above! Immediately close the city gate! From this moment on, any rat coming back to the city cannot enter!”
