Chapter 134 Chapter 131 The Doomsday Bell
The solid and tall city walls crumbled amid the ringing of the bell. Fragments of stone fell from the wall, landing in the fiery red lava moat below, while the dwarves on top screamed, buried under the debris and dust.
Only one wall had collapsed, not all the outer walls. This was due to the ancient dwarven city of Dualong, which contained magic capable of resisting the bell’s toll.
But it was enough to excite the ratman army that had long attempted to breach the city.
The ratmen, as if on drugs, excitedly brandished their weapons and yelled.
Among the ratman army, on top of the doomsday bell, thirteen glowing green runes were inscribed, and it swayed, emitting chimes.
Chuanlu stood atop the bell, one hand gripping the bell’s apex, his body swaying with the bell. His eyes were red, like a madman, as he shouted:
“The might of the Great Horned Rat, yes, yes!
“Charge! Go, go, go!”
As he swayed with the doomsday bell, he waved his dimensional stone staff, “Dualong City is ours!”
His orders were relayed down the ranks.
A ratman siege unit that had been prepared promptly set off. Under the whip’s crack, the slave rats pushed carts laden with stones toward the gap left by the collapsed wall, the rubble and dwarves having filled most of the lava moat.
From the walls of Dualong City, crossbow bolts rained down, arrows falling like rain. Groups of slave rats fell, and the clan rats with large shields tossed the bodies of the fallen into the carts, pushing them to the front of the lava moat to dump the debris and ratman corpses into the lava moat.
This immediately blocked the lava moat, creating a pathway.
Puffs of pink gas exploded among the ratman forces, and the ratmen, with bloodshot eyes, surged toward the gap in the city wall.
At this moment, the doomsday bell gradually came to a stop, and Chuanlu jumped down, shouting at the people below:
“Ritual! Ritual! More rituals! The doomsday bell needs more power! Smash the walls of Dualong City one by one!”
The dimensional sorcerers below immediately nodded, “Yes! Yes! Great Mr. Chuanlu.”
The red-armored ratman warlord rode his giant rat and asked loudly:
“I heard that you trapped those surface dwellers in Dualong City?”
Chuanlu was furious. Last night, he had given the infiltrating ratman assassins the order to blow up the entrance. It had only been two hours since it succeeded, how did the red-armored ratman warlord know?
Traitor! It must be a traitor.
Chuanlu felt that his power was not as secure as he had imagined.
He said, “Yes, yes, there are the squad that emerged from under your watch! You let them go.”
The red-armored ratman warlord grinned, revealing his yellowed teeth, “Your rats are useless! Useless!”
“You have failed in your duties!” Chuanlu said. “The Thirteen Council should sentence you to death! Death!”
The red-armored ratman warlord recoiled, turning to his head on his back, muttering, “What should I say to this lunatic?”
“You are the lunatic,” Chuanlu shouted, “Look at you talking to an imaginary person.”
Ignoring Chuanlu, the red-armored ratman warlord spoke, “Then let my army take the lead since you blame me for the mistake.”
“No! No way!” Chuanlu shouted. “There are my great enemies inside! Great enemies! I must kill her. She’s cunning, very cunning, has targeted me several times regarding the Great Horned Rat.”
“But if you blow up the cave, how can we march?”
“Blast through whatever you can,” Chuanlu pointed to the army behind him, “You guard the back of the army!”
“There are no enemies behind us.”
“There is, there must be,” Chuanlu said. “That succubus favored by the lord of deception must be lurking in the shadows, ambushing a troop! Or…
Chuanlu’s eyes turned: “Now you can also order the troops to attack.” Dozens of fire dragons shot out from the distant gap in the city walls, halting the tide of rats.
His meaning was simple; either they divide the spoils or become cannon fodder.
The red-armored ratman warlord, furious, drew his sword to cut Chuanlu down, and Chuanlu bared his teeth at him. The red-armored ratman warlord angrily sheathed his sword and said:
“You must have made a deal with the Four Dark Gods; I can smell the stench on you.”
Chuanlu laughed, “Unfounded accusations are nonsense; go guard the rear, red beetle!”
The red-armored ratman warlord was extremely unwilling, but he had to guard the rear of the ratman army. However, out of selfishness, he did not send elite troops to secure the path leading to the surface, instead dispatching some third or fourth-line troops to guard it.
The main force aimed to stay closer to Dualong City so that when it fell, they could rush in and grab something good.
Inside Dualong City.
The Savior Squad hurriedly set off to block the gap in the wall, with George carrying the banner of the Sanctuary, planting it at the gap. Together with Jenna’s battlefield spells, they effectively slowed down the tide of rats.
Groups of dwarves quickly filled in.
Dozens of dwarven soldiers in thermal rune armor, part of the Iron Fist Warriors, wielded flamethrowers, unleashing fire dragons toward the wave of rats and George standing amidst them.
Jima flew in the air, the flames below illuminating her belly, neck, and face. Seeing the fire dragons, she pushed back the tide of rats. The dwarves pushed carts laden with building materials over to fill the gap and construct fortifications.
But the makeshift fortifications were still not as high as the ruins of the city wall, looking at the nearly hundred-meter gap in the wall.
Jima shook her head, saying, “It’s like using a band-aid to stop a decapitation.”
After saying this, she landed next to George, where the ground was littered with smoking rat corpses, burned black and charred. Jima stepped onto a charred corpse, making a cracking sound, and couldn’t help but think of the crispy pig she had eaten, feeling a bit nauseous.
George turned his head, his pristine armor now marked with dried bloodstains. The flames that could turn corpses to char didn’t pose a great threat to him.
He raised his visor and asked, “How did it go?”
“That’s right, the ratmen have the doomsday bell, as for the effects…”
Jima glanced at the surrounding ruins of the city walls, the once towering walls that could withstand the doomsday army now reduced to piles of rubble: “You see it too.”
“We must destroy the doomsday bell.”
“And then die here? Hand over the crown fragments?”
“If Dualong City falls, we won’t fare any better,” George pointed downward, “Look at the dwarves, they are fighting for their homeland. If we can hold Dualong City, the dwarves will definitely send troops to assist us.”
Jima looked down; the exhausted dwarves were scrambling to transport sandbags and stones from the carts, building fortifications. Occasionally, stones fell from above, as the ratmen bombarded this place with catapults.
“It reminds me of flooding,” Jima said. “The ants crawl out of their nests, carrying sticks and gravel, trying hard to build small levees; when the flood rushes in, no one remembers there was a levee there.”
“We can’t give up hope just because we’re weak.”
Jima looked at George’s face and said:
“George, the team is not just your decision. Jenna and Frostleaf are willing to die with you in this grave. Whatever you say goes, and that frustrates me.”
George felt that Jima was somewhat unfamiliar, but he continued to listen to her.
“At this point, don’t pursue justice anymore,” Jima said. “We must take the opportunity to hack out a bloody path to retreat to the surface.”
George took a deep breath: “Perhaps we can form a strike team to join the dwarves in destroying that big bell. You can choose when to act.”
“I refuse,” Jima coldly said. “I’ve never seen anyone lead a small, short-legged army to attack the enemy’s weak points. Not to mention, the doomsday bell is heavily guarded.
“My plan is simple: I incite the ratmen’s greed. When Dualong City’s walls are breached, the ratmen will rush to loot, and at that point, chaos will be the best opportunity for us to break through.
“This way, perhaps everyone can survive; of course, if we move faster, it would be better. We still need to snatch the crown fragments.”
George asked, “You want to accelerate the fall of Dualong City?”
Very keen, noticing my intention of wanting the dwarves to die sooner.
“Since the sun will eventually set,” Jima retorted, “why not let the sun set faster?”
A rain of stones fell upon the two, thrown by the ratman slave catapults. The two stood still, the stones bypassing Jima and falling on George, light and fragile as raindrops, producing only a tinkling sound.
The two silently exchanged glances in the “rain.”
George’s blue eyes looked at Jima with some disappointment.
He was re-evaluating me; perhaps I should be more tactful, not casually tearing off my disguise and revealing my true self… but I was beginning to tire of this game of pretense.
Jima felt she was playing with fire, but she didn’t want to step away from it.
George said, “I’m very disappointed.”
“Yes, you shouldn’t have hastily proposed to me back then, and then insisted afterward, George.”
“That’s off-topic.”
“Then I’ll take a step back,” Jima said. “Although you won’t participate in the plan ‘Let the sun set faster’. Just knowing about it but not stopping it crosses your bottom line. Then I won’t harm those poor dwarves.
“It’s your turn, George. What do you plan to step back from?”
George was somewhat irritated; Jima’s tone was so calm, even able to speak of assisting the ratmen in slaughtering dwarves so casually, treating it like a bargaining chip. He wanted to punch Jima in the head, hoping to knock the evil thought out of her mind.
George bit his tongue and said:
“Attack the doomsday bell and try to break out of the siege. I’ll tell the clan leaders that when the city falls, we will escape. But you must follow orders throughout this, no playing tricks.”
“Okay.”
At that moment, a lead stone struck George on the head, bouncing off, and exploded on him. George roared in anger, bent down to kick aside a corpse, and directly lifted a fragment of stone larger than a grindstone from the ruins, shouldered it, and hurled it towards the distant slave rats.
The stone flew a distance of nearly a hundred meters, crushing one slave rat.
George turned and stormed away, Jima watching his retreating figure, the distance between them growing larger.
Maybe I should flatter him for the future promotion ceremony.
Jima shook her head, muttering to herself, “Forget it, it’s uncertain whether we can actually snatch it.”
If the relationship breaks down, that might be good too.
That day.
The Savior Squad unleashed their full firepower, and with the dwarven assault team attacking the doomsday bell, was defeated and retreated to Dualong City.
The ratmen continued their assault, with no one resting.
That night, the doomsday bell rang for the second time, and another ancient wall collapsed, along with the temporary fortifications that the dwarves had built in their effort to block the gap.
