Chapter 54: Striking Underworld Forces

Relying on the safe path information sent by the scout squad, the main force of 3,000 Gnoll troops began to act. They broke into pieces, with 100-man teams as units, like countless gray streams, along the hidden routes marked by scouts and covered with moss, silently sweeping over the rugged caves.

Of course, the operation was not smooth sailing. A battalion almost alerted two Hobgoblin sentries on the other side of the river when crossing an underground dark river. It was all because the captain made a decisive decision to order everyone to lurk in the ice-cold water for half an hour until the sentries changed shifts.

Another team encountered the unique rock-shell scorpion group in the Underworld. After a short and silent fight, they solved the scorpion group, but also left behind several wounded who were poisoned, and could only place them in a hidden place, waiting for rescue after the operation.

Finally, within the scheduled time, 3,000 Gnolls appeared like ghosts at the predetermined attack positions around the Hobgoblin war fortress. They lurked in the shadows of rocks, in abandoned mines, and under dry riverbeds.

A silent, deadly noose had been firmly placed on the neck of Black Claw Pass. And the Hobgoblins were still unaware of this. The Black Dragon Grand Duke's Rapid Response Force proved their value and terror with a textbook-like infiltration behind enemy lines.

When the last messenger reported that the 20th Battalion was in position with a specific night owl cry, the entire Underworld seemed to fall into the dead silence before the storm. Gnoll Commander Iron-Claw Black-Eye stood at the command position, the faint light of the Underworld river reflecting the hideous scar on his face. He took a deep breath and issued a squeaking sound of a bat, which was the signal for attack.

The special call of the bat reached every battalion commander low and clearly, and was translated into the internal code of the Rapid Response Division. "Listen to my order! Feint attack team, strong attack on the front gate, create chaos, attract firepower!"

"Main attack team, climb Shadow Attack Cliff, break through and seize the city wall, open the city gate!"

"Infiltration team, sneak in from the Filthy Path, create explosions, burn granaries and beast pens!"

"All army, attack!"

There was no high-spirited speech, only the clearest and coldest instructions. The order was like a stone thrown into still water, instantly stirring up ripples of destruction.

At the moment the order was issued, the front gate direction suddenly erupted with sky-shaking war drums and the violent roars of Gnolls. Hundreds of Gnoll soldiers appeared from behind the giant rocks where they were hiding. They did not charge densely, but used shields to protect their vital parts in loose formation, pouring arrows and javelins toward the city gate.

"Enemy attack! Front gate! Everyone on the city wall!" The Hobgoblin's shrill alarm resounded through the fortress.

Just as planned, the front gate became the focus of the defenders. The defenders on the city wall were completely attracted. The sound of ballistae strings, the throwing sound of catapults, and the roars of officers mixed together. Rolling logs and stones fell like raindrops, and arrows densely covered the area in front of the feint attack team.

The soldiers of the feint attack team used the terrain to dodge flexibly, interpreting a realistic attack with their lives. Every step of retreat was stained with the blood of comrades, but they successfully nailed the vast majority of the fortress's attention firmly to the front gate.

Just as the killing sound was sky-shaking at the front gate, the real killing intent began to surge under Shadow Attack Cliff on the southeast side. The main attack team, which had been lurking here, began to climb silently like wall-clinging ghosts. They used hooked ropes and sharp claw sets to move rapidly on the rough rock wall. The noisy footsteps of Hobgoblin soldiers running to support from the city wall above perfectly covered the subtle sounds of their climbing.

When the first Gnoll soldier poked his head out, the only two Hobgoblin sentries on the city wall were stretching their necks to look at the excitement at the front gate. Cold blades wiped across their throats from behind, and they couldn't even issue a warning.

More and more Gnoll elites turned onto the city wall like a gray tide. They did not stop at all, splitting into two paths: one team rushed toward the backs of the defenders who were fully responding to the front gate feint like tigers descending the mountain; the other team went straight to the city gate tower! Their goal was to clear the gate guards, lower the drawbridge, and open that heavy city gate!

Almost at the same time as the main attack team boarded the city wall, the infiltration team also successfully sneaked into the interior of the fortress through the rusted drainage channel fence. The stench and stagnant water in the channel were their best cover. They were like ink dots dripping into clear water, spreading rapidly inside the fortress. Two people in a group, according to the guidance of the reconnaissance map, pounced on the predetermined targets.

Huge explosions sounded in the direction of the granary, and the sky-high fire instantly ignited, smoke rolling. The cage doors for war wolves were pried open, and the startled war wolves rushed out crazily, biting regardless of friend or foe, further aggravating the internal chaos.

At the same time, in the direction of the command post, the Hobgoblin chieftain's furious roar and the sound of weapons clashing came. The elites of the infiltration group had already engaged with his guard!

Accompanied by the heavy rotation of the winch and the clanking of iron chains, that huge iron-clad city gate of Black Rock Pass was slowly lowered from the inside! The moment the drawbridge hit the opposite bank, it issued a declaration of victory. The moment the city gate opened, the Gnoll main force, which had been waiting on the periphery and personally led by Iron-Claw, issued a roar like a mountain tsunami.

An hour later, the shouting gradually subsided, and the entire battle was coming to an end. All that remained was to clear the remaining enemies. Iron-Claw finally had the heart to "appreciate" this Hobgoblin war fortress. This Gnoll commander seemed very satisfied with his masterpiece.

He sniffed hard. The thick, sweet smell of blood in the air was the main tone, almost suppressing the sulfur smell inherent in the Underworld. Interwoven with it was the faint fishy smell of corpses beginning to rot, the burnt smell of wood still smoldering, and the pungent smell of herbal solution used by Gnoll soldiers for disinfection and covering up odors.

Looking around, most of the barbs and caltrops carefully arranged by Hobgoblins were stained with black blood. Those watchtowers embedded with "Eye of True Sight" crystals were now dim, the tower bodies covered with hacking marks and scorch marks caused by explosions, and the crystals themselves were half-shattered, like dug-out eyeballs.

Outside the front gate was where the battle was most tragic. Hobgoblin corpses were piled up layer upon layer, mixed with the remains of a small number of Gnoll feint attack team members, almost covering the ground. The huge city gate was covered with axe and knife marks and dried blood handprints, recording the tragedy of the previous feint attack and the despair of being broken from the inside at the last moment.

The direction of the granary was still emitting rolling smoke, but the fire had been controlled, leaving only a black skeleton. The beast pen was completely destroyed, and the corpses of several war wolves and Hobgoblin mounts lay in it. Gnoll soldiers were forming "scavenger" squads, silently separating, moving, and piling up the corpses of both sides.

"Blood-Scar, are the casualty statistics out?"

"Report to the commander, they have been counted. 23 dead, 26 lost combat ability, 115 injured. Killed 2,300 Hobgoblins, captured 235.

In addition, captured 1,500 spears, 500 long swords, 300 short knives, 103 short crossbows, 2 tons of food, 5,000 gold coins, and 3 enchanted crystal balls."

"Very good, kill the prisoners, take away all corpses, food, weapons, and property, erase the traces of our coming, I want to let this group of guys who have bad intentions know the power of the Rapid Response Division."

…………

"Father, why did you come personally? Did something happen?"

"That's right, I heard that some Five-Colored Dragons have been restless recently, so I plan to come and see for myself. I've been experimenting for a long time, so I should come out and walk around. How are the results recently?"

"Gnolls have captured five Hobgoblin war fortresses in a row, and the Murloc harassment teams have also captured three Kuo-toa cities. I think it's time to start cleaning up the cities of Drow Elves and Gray Dwarves."

"You did a good job. How are the reactions of all parties in the Underworld?"

"Several Gray Dwarf cities sent people to inquire. I replied that it was because you needed to catch Kuo-toa for experiments. They haven't found any evidence that we killed Hobgoblins yet, they just suspect it was us."

"The performance of the Gnolls makes me very satisfied. This is what the Rapid Response Division should look like. Take me to see the Kuo-toa city. I have always been curious about what the buildings built by this group of lunatics look like."

Sakavi, who had turned into a Dragonman, followed the Murloc commander into this heavily guarded city. Although Sakavi often bullied Kuo-toa and used them for various Necromancy experiments, he really didn't understand their buildings.

Looking from the outside, this city was not built, but more like "grown." It was centered on a huge thermal spring mouth that constantly spewed black hot currents and sulfur smell slowly. The buildings were mainly constructed of huge, twisted coral, giant skeletons of water monsters, and some kind of glowing deep-water lava mineral veins.

These materials were bonded together by a kind of viscous asphalt that seemed to be still wriggling, making the whole city look like a huge, living, diseased organism, not a civil engineering building.

Entering the interior of the city, looking around, the whole city had no straight lines and symmetrical structures. All houses and watchtowers presented irregular spiral, vesicular, or tentacle shapes, swaying slowly with the weak water flow. The streets were natural gullies winding between coral and rocks, not carefully planned paths.

The light source of the city was not torches, but glowing moss attached to the building surface, glowing bacteria imprisoned in transparent jellyfish or crystal mineral veins, and fluorescent hot currents carrying minerals spewed from the thermal spring mouth. The whole city was shrouded in a strange halo intertwined with dark green, miserable blue, and dark red, and the light and shadow twisted and shook in the water flow, like an eternal nightmare.

The broken corpses of Kuo-toa and those tamed, strange-shaped water beasts, the remains of giant mantis shrimp and mutant octopuses, did not fall, but floated in the water, or were stuck between the branches of coral buildings, shaking gently with the water flow, like some kind of terrifying decoration. Many spiral coral towers were violently shattered, revealing the honeycomb-like structure inside, and the broken parts flashed with unstable residual energy.

Fully armed Murloc troops were patrolling the city. They rudely pushed down the strange statues worshipped by Kuo-toa, inlaid with pearls and deep-sea gems, and replaced them with black stone tablets engraved with the Black Dragon emblem. These obsidian obelisks not only symbolized rule, but themselves continued to emit a kind of oppressive Dragon Might field, making the remaining Kuo-toa prisoners feel instinctive fear.

The Thermal Spring Temple was the center of the whole city. It used to be a place where Kuo-toa priests performed bloody sacrifices and communicated with their evil gods. Now, the bones on the altar had been cleaned up, replaced by Murloc warlords counting spoils there, mountains of pearls, magic coral, and rare metal ores mined from the depths of the thermal spring mouth.

"We cannot use the resources here. After cleaning up, destroy it completely! The next stage is mainly aimed at Gray Dwarves. Many Drow Elves work in the Shadow Intelligence Agency, and we cannot completely eradicate them. It is enough for them to agree to transform into dependents."

"But Father, the Drow Elves believe in Lolth, and she will not agree to you moving her believers. Many people in the Shadow Intelligence Agency have secret dealings with them. This is an unstable factor, we should eradicate them directly."

"The problem of faith is left to your Aunt Clausuna to solve. She is the Red-Robed Patriarch of the War God Church. If Lolth has any opinions, go talk to the War God Church."

"This is a good way, but to be honest, Aunt Clausuna actually won the recognition of the War God Church and got a lot of magic books in St. Lucard Cathedral, which made me very surprised."

"I am also very surprised. The teleportation gate she opened is much more stable than mine. If I had known, I would have let her take the priest profession." ===== CHAPTER 55 =====