It was already about an hour later, and the scorching sun on the surface was scorching the surface that had rained a few days ago and was still somewhat moist, causing the air to change from hot to humid.
Beneath the air, which is distorted almost all the time, human corpses that have been stripped clean and exposed to the hot sun are being coated with a thick layer of salt by the clan rats.
These are the human troops guarding the surface, and the ratmen who killed them are recycling them, just like recycling their own compatriots.
Before they died, they probably never thought that their blue-gold armor, which was enviable in the city-state, was piled up by dirty rats, like a pile of junk that no one wanted.
Right next to these weapons piles, countless small holes dug by clan rats with claws capable of carving through rocks are scattered all over the "fields" cultivated by the rats in this stronghold.
This is a small part of the logistics channel for the Skaven army to dispatch. The larger part is the one that was originally sealed and is now not fully mastered by the apprentices of engineering warlocks. Those who can change matter
A large channel opened by the nature of metal magic.
Around these passages, close to the forest, a low irregular earth wall has been excavated, enclosing approximately four square kilometers of land outside the forest.
Nearly 30,000 Skaven are working hard beside these walls, just to add a little more height and thickness to the "city wall".
Their commander, sitting on a sedan carried by a dozen clean slave rats, was watching this scene worriedly.
Eski, who originally planned to dispatch 40,000 troops, found that the troops he could mobilize were actually only more than 20,000 ordinary clans and more than 3,000 elite Mede clans. More clan rats were sacrificed by them. Although these Cain believers have been explicitly prohibited from making sacrifices several times, this behavior is always difficult to eradicate.
Eski understood that everything was caused by his unwillingness to execute the leaders of believers like the Witch King.
Despite this, he still couldn't bear to part with it. He had already tested the combat effectiveness of the core leaders of the believers, and they were at the level of more than fifty lords.
If he kills these rats, can his army still be called an army? It is better to call it cannon fodder.
Based on this calculation, the trade of more than 10,000 clan rats in exchange for fifty lords is still worthwhile.
Just as Eski was comforting himself in this way, an apprentice wearing heavy armor and a helmet covering his entire face approached him and whispered.
"Teacher, most of the apprentices have exhausted their strength. Do you want to use dimension stones?"
This was the apprentice who evacuated with the workers when Nagash invaded, Aikins. Due to his relative familiarity with the production chain, Eski had just returned and he had become half a confidant.
After finishing speaking, Aikins pointed to the distance, where dozens of Skaven, wearing heavy armor like him, were casting spells beside the repaired "city wall".
What lights up intermittently between their metal staffs is the magical wind called Chamon.
This magical wind that can explore the properties of matter and change the properties of matter is essentially the embodiment of logic, learning, and quantification in the field of magic.
These apprentices are constantly trying the technique that Eski just handed over to them by oral instructions not long ago - permanent transformation, which is used to transform the soil into the strongest stone they know.
Eski knows that this is not easy to do.
Not long ago, when these students were learning the art of temporary transformation, they kept making mistakes when turning copper into silver.
They definitely can't do it well in the application of permanent transformation, a much more advanced metal wind.
But almost all of his apprentices arrived on the ground wearing heavy plate armor, and only the human prince, who may have been forgotten, was imprisoned in a separate room of the council.
In this way, he can only force these students to explore their potential in actual combat.
Thinking of this, Esky held down the Hell Blade under his buttocks to slightly relieve the pain. Then he waved his paws and refused the apprentice's request to use the dimension stone, saying.
"No, let them continue to try to condense the wind of magic to cast spells. There are still many Chamon in the deep underground who are attracted by gravity. We only help them complete a ritual magic to gather the wind of magic."
After saying that, Eski picked up the rat-skin paper and drew a number of ghost-like symbols, constructing a complete array diagram.
"Let's do it. This should be able to collect the magical wind on a large scale. Fortunately, the chaos corrosion in the north has not been eradicated yet, so the magical wind should be able to fill it up."
After saying that, Eski lay down on the open-air sedan with no seats and closed his eyes to meditate.
Suddenly, his eyes were obscured by a yellow light. He opened his eyes suddenly. The yellow metal wind violently moved in front of his eyes and poured into a section of the city wall. If he looked carefully, he saw that it was surrounding the staff of one of his apprentices.
Went.
How is this possible?!
Eski clearly knows that his release now does not have the momentum.
As the yellow light filled in the barely compacted earth, the original earth wall turned into large sections of large stones with only small gaps.
These stones seemed to attract more metal wind due to their own weight, and the magic effect occurred faster and faster, and finally quickly reached more than half of the city wall.
The land beside the city wall, its foundation, the people working beside the city wall, and the rats pounding the earth on the city wall all turned into stone in an instant.
Eski felt a chill in his heart. This single spell claimed the lives of nearly two thousand clan rats.
"Is this permanent transformation?"
He swallowed, wondering about the scope of the spell, and immediately shouted to the slave rat to carry him over. When his magic followed the staff and touched the metal wall, the perfect creation without any signs of fading immediately
Tell Esky the answer.
"Permanent transformation."
But why is it suddenly so large?
"Can you release it again?"
Eski leaned on his seat, endured the pain, and seriously questioned his students.
"No, no, Engineer Warlock, I just recite the spell normally. The Anoquayan you taught me, I don't know how to produce such an effect."
He knelt on the ground in fear.
"I can compensate you for the clan rat's money later."
Esky gasped and shook his head.
These clan rats are worth about six thousand dimensional coins, but after all, they are not cash, and there are female rats, which are renewable resources, so he will not be too heartbroken.
The question is whether the gods are paying attention to the effects of such spells. If so, maybe a moth will come to your door.
Esky's inexplicable worries were soon fulfilled.
After the order was given to strengthen the alert, just two hours later, as expected, the spies released received the news that a human troop was heading in the direction of the beach, but the marching speed was quite slow.
Is it reinforcements?
Eski thought in confusion.
The good news is that there are no airships floating in the human sky, and no hot air balloons are rising. I don’t know if they were damaged in the battle.
Eski rubbed his eyes helplessly. According to common sense, he should not insist on sending troops to fight humans when his injuries have not recovered much.
But what he knew more clearly was that if he didn't send troops to harass humans quickly, or even defeat the human coast guard, and make humans think that the benefits here would be greater than the losses, they might really let these humans establish colonies. For
The development of Side1 is greatly unfavorable.
Of course, the lizardmen are here. Even if they take the beach position, they still need to fight the lizardmen.
But at least Master Ma hasn't come in person yet, so he still has a chance against Slann, who has already fought Nagash for several rounds.
The biggest threat is the Gods Engine.
If that thing is still firing, there will definitely not be much land left for development in his Side 1 stronghold.
You must know the location of that thing in advance, find a way to intercept the ancient triceratops carrying him in advance, and seize it.
Patting his face, Esky managed to cheer up and immediately ordered.
"Now that the city walls are almost repaired, attack immediately and capture the human positions before dark. Toxide! Lead the Mede clan and follow me. Aikins, get the other apprentices over." As the order was issued, approximately 15,000 ratmen, excluding those who served as guards around Esky, and the followers of Kane, immediately dressed up in armor, poured into the sparse forest, and began to march towards the human beings.
Run in the direction.
All clans wore uniform half-plate armor and helmets, making constant clashing sounds.
Although some of the armor was in tatters, as it was scrapped from the battlefield where Nagash's troops fought on the front line, the armor-wearing rate of these conventional troops still reached 100%.
This is why Eski dares to launch a surprise attack. Although Skaven's morale is always in an unstable state between high and collapsed, sophisticated equipment and huge numbers will always make their morale more inclined to the former.<
/p>
Only about fifteen minutes later, the human's low camp made of wood was revealed in front of Eski's eyes.
To any skilled spellcaster, these low wooden defenses are no different from paper. What really made Esky frown was what happened after that.
Aikins immediately approached his teacher and said.
"Great Engineer Warlock, I brought a metamorphic bomb to blow up the bridge piers of that thing!"
Eski coughed twice and stopped him.
"No, destroy the connection between the spiritual vein network and them. These bridges will naturally be destroyed by the erosion of the sea water."
After finishing speaking, he said to the other students who had gathered around him.
"I will teach you another spell that can use the wind of metal to magnify the flaws of any manufactured object. Then you can use the spell I once gave you to explore the unknown to see where the weakness is." p>
"Then, use my spell '...' to turn your bodies into metal wind and kill them!"
After finishing speaking, Eski said to Toxide and the leaders of the clan rats that he was not very familiar with.
"Kill everyone in the camp. You can grab things, but you are not allowed to grab things that exceed your carrying capacity. If you can't take them away, burn them all!"
To Esky's surprise, when the Metal Wind's spell overthrew the human garrison left behind, only a little over 2,000 human troops appeared in front of tens of thousands of Skaven.
The bloodthirsty desire immediately ignited the hearts of all the mice.
"Kill! Kill! Human things! Die! Die!"
Shouting excited and repetitive sentences, the spear clan rats in the front row attacked the humans quite neatly, crushing them like a mountain or a wall.
Although humans' protection was more comprehensive and their spears were longer, the Skaven's reaction speed far exceeded the Nehekhara's imagination.
Relying on three times the reaction speed, even though they were holding spears that were only three meters long, they still avoided almost all the spears that pierced their vital parts.
The clan rats relied on their excellent half-body plate armor to block the stabbing attack, then advanced forward, and before the humans could react, they plunged their spearheads into the human's abdomen or neck.
This kind of thing happened one after another on all battlefields. The soldiers who were armed with round shields and long spears were squeezed out of shape, and soon they could not form a complete line.
The front line.
Under the Skaven attack, the human soldiers fell like weeds being harvested.
Esky compared the fallen ratmen and calculated the total, and the battle loss ratio actually reached more than five to one, with five humans and one ratman.
He couldn't help but take a breath. Apart from its shortcomings, the rat race had every advantage compared to humans. They were fast, not weak in strength, and quick in reaction. If morale didn't collapse, humans really couldn't play.
.
Only the winner will have the chance to express these emotions.
After only ten minutes, most of the Skaven grabbed what they wanted, took out the kindling materials, lit the wood and cloth, and started to set fire.
It didn't take long for the flames to invade the tents and burn all the human belongings.
But at this time, a slow sound of horse hooves attracted the attention of all the Skaven.
Eski turned around and saw a dark-skinned guy riding a white horse in front of him, wearing blue clothes and with a solemn look on his face. It was Alkadiza.
When he saw the tragic scene in the camp and Eski on the sedan, the change in his face was particularly wonderful, from daze to disbelief to eyes wide open. Under the observer, Eski, who had poor eyesight, still saw what he saw.
The whole process.
"You!"
Alkadiza looked at Eski with eyes full of hatred, and raised his whip as if he was about to charge in Eski's direction.
Eski stretched out his pink index finger and shook it in front of Alkadiza, slid it slightly on his sedan chair, opened a loudspeaker circle, and spoke.
"Don't look at me like my dead parents. This is war. Since you set foot on this land, you should have thought that such a day would come."
"As long as you have a good attitude, I have a good attitude. Being a prisoner and getting seriously ill are all very interesting. If you have a bad attitude, I'm afraid that you, the old prince, will be angry to death."
Suddenly, he saw some strange things in the human team, some green things with their heads chopped off and hanging upside down in the car.
"The corpses they are carrying in the team, no matter how I look at them, they are all green?
"How dare you carry the green-skinned body into the camp? You are brave enough."
While Esky was complaining, he looked back. Among the greenskins, there was a well-made coffin, which looked like a dead official.
He raised the staff at hand, and a standard dimensional lightning shot out, trying to lift the coffin board to see who it was.
However, the blue runic barrier instantly unfolded on the path that Eski's dimensional lightning must pass through.
Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar pattern, Esky narrowed his eyes. It was something in the style of a lizard man.
"It's the Skink Sacrifice. Slan is also nearby?"
After muttering to himself for a moment, Eski said to Akins beside him.
"Apprentice, prepare to retreat."
After saying that, Eski slowly spoke to the Skaven in the camp in rat language.
"Immediately form a formation and retreat, retreat to the city wall, and I will break up the rear."
There was a loud sound of horse hooves, and Eski saw that Arkadiza had actually launched an attack with his own bodyguards.
The engineering warlock immediately aroused the thousands of Med clan around him.
"Who is willing to fight."
Toxide and several other Storm Rats whom Eski didn't know immediately knelt down, with Toxide taking the lead.
"I am willing to fight. I will sacrifice the heart of that black leather thing to the great horned supreme in the cauldron of blood."
Using heart blood to sacrifice the horned rat in the cauldron of blood, something that sounded very unconventional, succeeded in amusing Eski. He stretched his thighs and laughed for a long time before he stopped due to the pain in his soul.
At this moment, Skaven, who rushed forward, was already engaged in battle with Alkadiza.
Although there were no war horses, the damage rate of these elite Skavens was not as slow as that of war horses. Coupled with their faster reaction speed, all the lords avoided the impact of the war horses in time and turned over to grab the reins of the war horses. These dexterous mice stepped on the fast-moving stirrups or the rider's feet in the stirrups, turned over and got on the horse. Soon, some less skilled humans had a dagger hung around their necks and fell to the ground.
On the ground.
Alkadiza and the few soldiers around him did not suffer such a vicious attack, but after seeing the combat power of these lords, he immediately wisely chose to take a detour to the rear.
Seeing that his soldiers could not catch up, Eski shouted to Arkadiza.
"It seems that the God's prophecy for you has expired. I no longer need you and your troops to stay here. Let you continue to hang out with your vampires. I think her last man, Black Arkhan, is
It’s time to wake up.”
Seeing that Alkadiza had no intention of looking back, Esky changed his tone and said.
"Human things! Go back to your own land! Alkadiza, go back to your Khemri. This is my territory and my country."
"But if there is a human thing that is willing to take refuge in me, I can also give him the rights of a citizen and give him a hundred acres of farmland and house in this desolate land."
This time, several cavalrymen finally turned around.
"You despicable rat monster, who would turn to you for that kind of empty promise!"
However, the voices of these cavalrymen could not be heard by Eski. Instead, several Lord-level Skavens who were chasing after them caught up with them, got on their horses and were killed.
On Eski's sedan, only Alkadiza's distant voice came over.
"You despicable ratman who has been despised by the gods, I swear that I will sacrifice your head to my father and uncle!"
Eski immediately became energetic and commanded the slave rats around him. The clan rats plugged their ears and let the amplified magic circle operate at full power.
"So your father is really dead, but what does it have to do with me!? I've been lying in bed for so many days! The death of your uncle and your father has nothing to do with me!?"
"But since you are like this, I can only curse your mother to death. Yes, your father has worked so hard, I guess your mother has died long ago."
After saying that, the engineering warlock felt relieved for a while, gently caressed the slave rat under him, and said.
"Okay, retreat."
The clear orders were accompanied by the slave rats carrying the sedan as they galloped through the forest, and more apprentices followed them panting. Fortunately, the humans and lizardmen did not send out their troops to pursue them, as was the case with the rats.
He successfully withdrew into his newly established fortifications.
After waiting for about an hour, but the other party still had no intention of attacking, Eski sent himself back to the underground parliament hall.
Hecate is here with a group of Skaven scribes to designate the so-called birth control policy that Eski had imagined before, which immediately attracted the engineering warlock to join in.
A consensus was quickly reached. The population problem of the rat people was ultimately due to their excessive fertility, which caused the increase in food production to fail to keep up with the growth rate of the population.
To solve this problem, we need to start from two aspects.
One is to increase food output, such as using the world's nearly infinite energy chaotic energy, but this is very difficult and carries great risks.
Another is birth control.
But for Skaven, there is only one hope of entering the breeding pit. If even this most basic hope is deprived, the slave uprisings that are already frequent in the underground world will probably never be able to root out like branches of chaos.
Except.
Therefore, Eski came up with this alternative mating plan, which at least allows most of the rat people to vent their desires without having to vent their desires.
Replace it with a she-wolf or something similar, because the male-to-female ratio of Skaven is one hundred to one, which is something that some ratmen will do, and the acceptance will be relatively high among the entire Skaven group.
However, we still have to think about what to do with the female rats that were born.
Eski simply suggested.
"After the female rats are born, we take over and raise them uniformly. We are no longer allowed to modify them. Then we let them worship the horned rat or something else, creating a system similar to that of a divine prostitute."
"The prostitute?"
Seeing that Hecate didn't quite understand the term, Eski tapped his paw on the table.
"A system that provides sexual services to all or part of the people in the name of God."
"Some human beings once used this system to provide services to businessmen and beggars, because they thought these two types of people had almost no sex life for their entire lives, which was too pitiful."
"There are also some human gadgets that claim that some females are connected to the gods, and mating with them will receive blessings from the gods."
Hecate spoke in rat language with a strong rat accent and said.
"This last thing is quite similar to ours, but why have I never heard of monkeys doing this kind of system?"
Eski thought for a moment, and indeed, Kane's brides driving iparts were not even as clean as prostitutes. Dang even laughed and replied.
"Those are a group of human things that you have never come into contact with. Don't pay too much attention to them."
"The divine whore system I want to build is also the latter. However, the horned rat descends into the divine whore's body to provide blessings to devout believers. I'm afraid the Gray Prophet will immediately declare it a heresy if I hear this kind of propaganda."
The engineer warlock stretched his body.
"Fortunately, the annual birth rate of female rats is not high."
"As for the problem of blessing, it is easy to solve. If there is no blessing, I can also give him a blessing. The important thing is that they have to believe that maybe they can transform a god."