Chapter 97: Sewer Cleaning Battle

The wide main sewer of Agrik, which should have been flowing with the city's waste water, was now filled with a heavy, swampy scent with sulfur and rot.

The originally hard stone bricks on the walls were now covered with a layer of slimy, pulsating biological fungal mat, as if the entire sewer had become the abdominal cavity of some huge living creature.

Ye Kemu, this Gnoll warband leader known for his cunning and cruelty, twitched his nose and issued instructions in a low voice: "In groups of three, advance back-to-back. Watch out for the ceiling and the sewage; they are everywhere."

The battle was quietly breaking out in some narrow tributaries. The turbid sewage exploded violently, and several twisted Swamp Lurkers, which looked like a mixture of lizards and octopuses, with sticky tentacles and sharp claws, pounced on the Gnoll squad at the very front. Their goal was to drag the prey and drown them in the sewage.

"Steady!" The squad leader's roar echoed in the confined space. The Gnoll warriors reacted extremely quickly; the warriors in the rear immediately threw fishing nets and grappling hooks, precisely entangling the pouncing demons and restricting their movement.

The warriors in the front row brandished special long spears with barbs, fiercely stabbing into the bound demons, pinning them to the walls or dragging them ashore. Large swaths of dark purple demon blood instantly appeared in the sewage.

In another place, just when the team's attention was attracted by the front, several ghost-like Shadow-Scale Demons slid down quietly from the shadows of the pipes above. They had almost no physical form, could blend into the shadows, and their claws specialized in attacking throats and eyes.

However, the squadron leader had been prepared. "Torches!" he ordered sternly.

The Gnolls who had been prepared immediately inserted torches soaked in alchemical grease into the brackets on the walls, and the dazzling strong light instantly dispelled the dense darkness.

The Shadow-Scale Demons emitted painful shrieks in the strong light, their figures becoming clear and twisted. The Gnoll crossbowmen who had been waiting for a long time pulled the triggers, and the poison-dipped anti-magic crossbow bolts were like a storm, shooting these fragile assassins into sieves.

As they advanced, the team arrived at a huge confluence pool. This place had been transformed into a demon incubation nest.

In the center of the pool, a huge incubation mother body composed of flesh and sludge was pulsating, constantly producing new small Dretches and swamp worms. Around the pool walls, they were covered with Carapace Demons guarding it; their shells were as hard as iron and could withstand the hacking of ordinary weapons.

"Assault team, move up! Burn that tumor!" Ye Kemu roared.

Gnolls holding giant shields moved up, bearing the impact of the Carapace Demons and the acid spat by the incubation mother body. The warriors in the rear threw the alchemical incendiary bottles they had prepared toward the incubation mother body with all their might.

"Boom! Boom!"

The sticky flames instantly enveloped the huge mass of flesh, emitting sizzling sounds and a foul stench. The incubation mother body twitched violently, emitting a deafening wail. Losing the source, the surrounding small demons became increasingly frantic, but they were also separated and blocked by the burning flames.

Seemingly angered by Ye Kemu's behavior, an exceptionally huge Abyssal Giant-Mouth Demon, like a combination of a giant crocodile and a worm, stood up from the sewage and pounced toward Ye Kemu.

A cold light flashed in Ye Kemu's eyes; he ducked to avoid the sweeping claws, and the iconic giant sword embedded with armor-piercing runes in his hand drew a cold light.

"Puff!"

The giant sword precisely hacked into the relatively soft neck of the Giant-Mouth Demon, almost severing half of its neck. Foul blood sprayed like a waterfall, the giant beast collapsed heavily, splashing a large area of sewage.

The battle gradually subsided after a few hours. Ye Kemu stood by the confluence pool full of demon remains and burn marks, shaking off the foul blood on his body. The sewer temporarily returned to silence, but the scent of the Abyss still permeated the air.

"Retreat! Retreat immediately!" He raised his hand violently, his roar like a thunderclap. The instinct tempered by years of bloody battles in the Abyss was frantically warning him; the concentration of sulfur in the air was abnormal, and the ground was transmitting ominous tremors. His intuition indicated that fatal danger was approaching!

He ordered the troops to "flee" along the preset, intricate routes, deliberately leaving obvious traces, even abandoning some damaged equipment and the corpses of a few Gnoll warriors, completely igniting the demons' rage and contempt.

The main force of demons in pursuit, composed primarily of agile Swamp Lurkers and violent Carapace Fiends, was blinded by rage, single-mindedly intent on tearing apart these gnolls who dared to provoke them and were now fleeing in such a "disheveled" state.

They roared through one intersection after another, not realizing at all that they were being led to a main drainage pipe that had been carefully selected. This passage was extremely wide, and at the end was a huge, ancient water treatment pool that had temporarily stopped operating; this was the slaughterhouse Ye Kemu had chosen.

When the demon vanguard chasing them poured into this relatively closed pool all at once, they realized that the Gnolls who were "fleeing" in front had suddenly disappeared.

"Close the door!" Ye Kemu's cold voice came from the maintenance platform in the darkness above.

In an instant, at the entrance of the pipe where the demons came from, several heavy steel gates engraved with rough but practical runes fell with a bang, completely sealing off the retreat! At the same time, from countless drainage outlets high around the pool walls, Gnoll crossbowmen who had been ready for a long time revealed their figures.

Dense crossbow bolts poured down like a storm, focusing on those Carapace Demons with hard armor. Many arrowheads were tied with small alchemical explosives, which caused small-scale explosions upon hitting the target or the ground, further creating chaos and shrapnel damage.

Gnoll warriors pried open several huge valves connected to the city's abandoned grease treatment system. Sticky, highly flammable waste grease poured into the pool like a waterfall, causing a large number of demons to fall into a quagmire of difficulty in movement.

Following closely behind were hundreds of burning fire arrows. They shot into the grease like meteors.

"Boom——!"

The sky-high fire instantly swallowed the entire treatment pool, turning this place into a huge incinerator! The demons emitted shrill wails in the flames, frantically hitting the gates and pool walls, but to no avail.

"Sir, your strategy is as always. But thinking about it makes people feel suffocated! If it weren't for Lord Gisk not being here, how would we have fallen to the edge of power? Now we actually rely on such ambushes and calculations to prove our value, otherwise those high-and-mighty guys would probably not even look at us straight!"

"Shut your stinking mouth! Who told you Lord Gisk is dead? He has a more important mission!" Ye Kemu's eyes were as sharp as knives, "We can complete the mission in a situation of lack of equipment and isolation! Isn't this the most powerful proof of our strength?"

"Lord Gisk is actually..."

"Is this something you should ask about?" Ye Kemu frowned, his tone turning hard, "Remember, your and my mission is to execute. Whatever is arranged above, we do. When you sit in my position, whatever you should know, you won't be missing any of it."

"Warband leader!" A Gnoll scout covered in blood stumbled to Ye Kemu, his wounds still bleeding constantly, "In front... found five more incubation nests! Three of them are rated as Level 3 threats, but the other two... their pulsation frequency and energy radiation have reached the Level 5 danger standard! Must be dealt with immediately!"

"Endless scum, breeding faster than maggots!" Ye Kemu punched the wall, shaking off debris, "Luo Ge! Go invite Lady Tali, let all the Goblins under her who can drill holes assemble immediately! I've had enough, this time I'm going to give them a thorough cleaning!"

…………

At first, it was sporadic pairs of green eyes flickering in the shadows, like flickering ghost fires. Immediately following, countless light and swift footsteps, accompanied by suppressed short whistles transmitted by throat sounds, echoed in the intricate pipe network.

They gathered quickly and silently, as if seeping out from the cracks in the walls and the shadows of the sewage.

These Goblins were completely different from the cannon fodder on the battlefield. They were lean and small, draped in light armor made of hardened leather, covered in camouflage paint to blend perfectly into the environment.

Almost every Goblin carried more than one weapon: poison-dipped blowpipes, satchels full of explosives, short spears with barbs, and the iconic serrated short knives painted matte black.

They had no neat phalanxes, naturally forming squads of a few to a dozen, like well-trained wolf packs.

Some squads occupied high pipes and beams as reconnaissance and sniping points, while others clung to the shadows of the walls, checking the strange trap triggers in their hands. The air was filled with a pungent smell mixed with body odor, sulfur, and alchemical substances.

No clamor, only a suppressed and efficient silence, and those eyes flickering with cunning and cruelty in the dim light. The minions most skilled in fighting in the darkness under Lady Tali, the Grand Manager of the Security Court, were in position.

Behind those Mobile Corps Commander squads gathering silently like shadows, another sound echoed in the sewer: neat and heavy footsteps, and the crisp sound of metal occasionally bumping against stone walls. Immediately following, another completely different Goblin troop arrived.

They were also small, but their bodies appeared more sturdy and thick, clearly having been specially screened. Unlike the light equipment of the guerrillas, this batch of Goblins uniformly wore dark linen uniforms, wearing protective goggles covering most of their faces and huge ear protectors.

What they carried on their shoulders were the fearsome alchemical muskets. The styling of these muskets was rough and practical, the barrel was much thicker than traditional muskets, spliced from brass and dark metal, covered with simple but effective reinforcement hoops and heat sinks.

Key parts of the gun body were etched with shimmering stability runes, and the muzzle was thick enough to insert a coin. On the heavy ammunition belts around their waists were inserted rows of alchemical ammunition of different colors: explosive bullets burning with unstable crimson, frost bullets emitting cold air, and acid-corrosion bullets flowing with dark green slime.

They did not have the loose cunning of the guerrillas, replaced by a mechanical discipline. They deployed in a standard combat formation, the front row kneeling, the rear row standing, their movements neat and uniform, their muzzles slightly forward, forming a deadly firepower net covering the main trunk.

When their commander, a veteran wearing an eye patch and with counting marks carved all over the musket stock, raised his hand, all muzzles completed fine-tuning and aiming in an instant. A low energy hum came faintly, as if a group of restrained elemental beasts longing to vent.

"Why, surprised by the equipment of this group of Goblins?"

A cold female voice suddenly sounded, so close that it seemed to be right behind him. Ye Kemu was so startled that he almost jumped up, a cold sweat instantly soaking his whole body; someone was actually able to invade to such a deadly distance without him noticing at all!

"Lady Tali?" Ye Kemu quickly suppressed his astonishment and saluted solemnly, "I don't know what instructions you have for coming here personally?"

"Everyone says that our Security Court is the least useful in fighting, and now I have no say in the high-level, so I just came to the front line to see. Don't worry, I won't interfere with the command.

I saw the Gnomes' muskets before and thought they were interesting, and wanted to get a few to use, but how could Goblins use such delicate things? No way, had to change them into simple explosive bullets. Today, just try the effect." ===== CHAPTER 98 =====