Chapter 119: Battle (Part II)

Listening to the suggestion of retreat from his subordinates, Skarsnik fell into analysis. Seeing that the strategic goal of capturing Karak-Azgalaz was difficult to achieve,

this intelligent Greenskin Warlord did not want to exhaust his already insufficient forces in a chaotic brawl that lacked objectives and merely pursued the pleasure of violence.

In his view, although his troops still had remaining strength, enough to drown that cunningly hidden Dwarf convoy and the small group of Human troops composed almost entirely of rabble, what was the point of that?

Once having experienced such attrition, his already not particularly sufficient forces would be unable to completely lock down the communication channels between Fearless Fort and the outside world. As long as the Dwarfs in the city could send out a message and pay a sufficient price, the reinforcements of Humans and Dwarfs from the surrounding areas would arrive one after another.

At that time, the square before him would become a true meat grinder, operating continuously until the Greenskins' will to fight was worn away and the army finally collapsed.

For an average Greenskin boss, having a glorious and satisfying Waaagh! before reporting to the feet of Gork and Mork could be considered not having lived in the Mortal World in vain, but Skarsnik was different; he still had unfinished business to complete.

"Let us move out! I know the Old World cannot be contained by a single map; we have plenty of places to Waaagh! in!" Skarsnik shook his cloak and turned to walk down from the rock.

"Pass on the boss's order! We are Waaagh! -ing toward the west!" the Night Goblin leader Mozhetian shouted loudly.

"Idiot! Shut your stinking mouth! What you spray out of your mouth is more disgusting than a Troll's stomach acid!" Skarsnik was angry; he poked the butt of his staff into the tall Night Goblin's backside.

"What is it? My respected boss?" Mozhetian was somewhat confused.

"Why did you say to go west?" Skarsnik asked.

"Boss, didn't you say we were going to pull out? So aren't we slipping away in that direction?" Mozhetian thought he had mistaken the direction, not knowing east from west. He stood on tiptoe to observe the position of the sun and gestured with his hands in front of him, seemingly confirming the orientation.

"Da Orks, that side is the west! There are no Dwarfs with booms over there, no Humans riding horses, and no big-bellied men swinging big clubs!" Mozhetian looked at the quiet and peaceful entrance to the Earth Vein Network on the west side.

The Night Goblin personal guards around Skarsnik nodded one after another. In the eyes of these Greenskins, with enemies on three sides, if they didn't run to the empty west, were they supposed to charge into the Dwarf-fortress to the north?

"You little rascals! You all want to slip to the west?" Skarsnik scanned his subordinates; their affirmative reactions only strengthened his own judgment.

"Then we must not slide to the west even more! The enemy is very, very cunning!" Skarsnik paced on the spot. "Da Orks, the one leading over there is a Dwarf, the kind with a white beard dragging on the ground!"

Skarsnik did not have flying units like Pegasus Knights for aerial reconnaissance; he could only rely on his long-term combat experience and his own imagination to analyze the enemy that had likely not yet appeared.

"He could think of letting his little Dwarfs hide in carriages to lure us, and could think of letting the Human things wave cloth strips around to create a bunch of dusty things to scare us; there is no reason he wouldn't think we would slip to the west!"

Skarsnik displayed his military wisdom. "Da Orks, that white-bearded bastard is leading a bunch of little Dwarfs with shiny choppas in their hands and hard iron shells on their bodies, waiting in the tunnels for us to deliver ourselves to them!"

"Then what should we do, wise boss?" The Night Goblins whispered to each other upon hearing this. It was clear that Skarsnik took pride in seizing opportunities to show off his extraordinary wisdom; for a Goblin not large in stature, wisdom was his greatest reliance.

"We, Da Orks, we must go south!" Skarsnik made a quick decision.

"Why, my boss? I don't want to touch those big-bellied things!" Mozhetian watched from afar the heroic posture of the Ogre Mercenaries slaughtering his own boys; he was intimidated by such pure, bloody violence.

"Listen to me!" Skarsnik raised his voice. He knew that if he wanted his Night Goblin leaders to lead the charge against those Ogre Mercenaries, he needed to give them a reasonable explanation.

"Boys, tell me, your wise boss! What are those we have been hammering in the battlements?" Skarsnik asked.

"Dwarfs!"

"Little Dwarfs!"

The Night Goblins shouted in a jumble.

"Right, Da Orks, just based on those little Dwarfs' habit of loving to record their little books, they will definitely fight us to the death!" Skarsnik knew about the Dwarfs' Book of Grudges; he did not begrudge spending time learning about his opponents.

"But those Humans and big-bellied ones in the south are different! They are either here for some bullshit alliance, or they are simply here to oppose us for shiny, glittering gold!"

Skarsnik pulled a handful of strangely colored mushrooms from his pocket and chewed on them.

"They won't risk their lives for the Dwarfs' business! As long as we give them a hard hit, they will tuck their tails and run away in front of the great Skarsnik!"

The Night Goblins let out strange cries after hearing their boss's analysis. No race wanted to go head-to-head with a Dwarf race that was well-equipped, high in morale, and tenacious; whenever there was a better choice, they were willing to avoid the Dwarf lines.

"Waaagh! We are driving south. The horse-riding Humans followed their boss to the east; there are only a bunch of ugly-looking things left on their turf, and they can't even beat the skinniest boy!"

While Skarsnik was delivering his morale-boosting speech, Snuo, hiding in his place of concealment, was observing the situation on the battlefield without a moment's pause.

Seeing that the teams on the east and south routes had made progress, and that the clansmen rushing out from Karak-Azgalaz had also formed up and were steadily advancing south, Snuo realized that the turning point of the battle was about to arrive.

"Let's go, let's go down and see how well the Shield-bearers and the others have blocked the road!" Snuo instructed the Rangers and the Eternal Hammer Guard around him.

At the same time, Skarsnik's order was passed down. The Night Goblins became excited. As he raised his staff and pointed, countless Night Goblins crawled out from the cool places like burrows and tree holes in the woods.

They brandished weapons that were either fine or dilapidated, and some even rode on frenzied Cave Squigs. Under the organization of several leaders, these fellows surged toward the coalition of Humans and Ogre Mercenaries!

"Not good!" Before Snuo could even walk down the steps, he screamed upon seeing this scene.

By the way, does any book friend know how the combat power ranking is calculated? Why is the number of people on the list different every issue?