Chapter 220: New Equipment Tests Its Might

After a moment, the Dwarf vanguard and the Dark Elf shield wall collided. Almost in an instant, the enemy's shield wall buckled inward. Dreadspears were simply no match for Ironbreakers, regardless of how much the Chaos Energy flowing through the northern continent had influenced them.

Because of their affinity for the Winds of Magic, Elves were the most affected by the Chaos Gods. It incited the arrogance within the Elven soul, causing the Elves' pride to constantly swell. The Dark Elves further recognized the power of indulgence and attempted to utilize it.

Relying on madness and the pursuit of stimulation, they fought the High Elves to a standstill despite being at a disadvantage in population and resources. But that was on a macro scale between the races; when it came to the immediate battlefield, the Dark Elves still could not compensate for their disadvantages in equipment and physical talent.

The clumsy Abyssal Hydra was driven back from the city walls by Beastmasters. Although the giant beast that lived in the ocean could move on land, it was still subject to some limitations.

The Dwarfs' ranged firepower kept hailing down on the sea monster, but its scaled skin could effectively block damage from ranged weapons; many projectiles did not strike true and simply slid off.

"Where are my rockets?" Sinuoli watched as the Hydra approached his warriors, its constantly writhing tentacles emitting a soul-shattering howl.

He roared, and soon a group of Irondrakes carrying modified weapons arrived at the front of the formation. These brand-new troop types, built by Sinuoli at great expense, were about to participate in their first real combat.

They did not need to aim at all, firing the rockets in their hands directly at the Hydra; twenty missiles trailing exhaust flames headed straight for the giant beast. Although the Dark Elf commander had never seen this latest type of weapon, he keenly realized that this thing had great power.

Barbed whips and beast-goads landed on the Abyssal Hydra, and the monster twisted reluctantly; those items were imbued with unique dark magic that could bring it intense stimulation while only causing a tiny bit of substantive damage.

It dodged a few rockets, but was still struck by the rest. For a time, "Boom!" and "Boom!" sounds were incessant; the single-shot power of this thing might not be as good as a Cannon, but it excelled in quantity, and the specially designed conical warheads were also easier to penetrate the thick skin of giant beasts.

After the smoke cleared, seven or eight bloody holes had been gouged into the Hydra's body, and several tentacles had been severed. Having suffered such great damage in an instant, the beast froze for a moment before breaking free of its restraints and heading toward the sea.

The Dwarf naval ships set sail, pushing their engines to the limit to intercept it, while the Dark Elves stood stunned on the spot. Dozens of Cold One Knights had just circled to the flank and witnessed this scene, but they did not retreat on the spot.

Cold One Knights could be considered the elite of the Dark Elves; they were the most excellent warriors. At the same time, it was not easy to obtain a Cold One mount, so they were all wealthy and ambitious noble scions.

A Cold One was a fierce, cold-blooded carnivore much larger than a horse. They identified enemies by scent; to avoid being attacked by their mounts, Dark Elves had to repeatedly smear the foul-smelling venom secreted by the Cold Ones onto their own bodies so that the beast would accept them.

Smearing the venom brought many side effects, but the benefits were also huge. No matter how well-trained or carefully tended a warhorse was, it was difficult to last a single round against the brutal Cold Ones of Naggaroth.

These knights themselves and their mounts were clad in heavy armor forged by Elven smiths, and they charged toward the Dwarfs holding lances capable of piercing dragon skin. They knew that such high-powered weapons must require a long time to reload, and seizing this opportunity might bring a glimmer of victory.

"Want to charge? No way!" Sinuoli struck his Slow Rune, and the Cold One Knights felt the air around them seem to harden; their charge speed plummeted, and they were intercepted directly by the Dwarf melee troops who had arrived in position.

The power of the rune also limited their ability to drive their mounts to turn or retreat. Sinuoli watched as the speed of those cavalrymen was reduced to not much faster than his own clansmen, and he was very satisfied with the effect of the Slow Rune. Previously, in the heart of the Mountain Kingdom, he hadn't even had the chance to test it.

The Slayers, eager for battle, rushed up, waving their axes to dismember the cold-blooded animals. The Dark Elves' front line also collapsed after struggling barely at all.

The Black Ark Corsairs had nothing to deal with heavy armor; after all, they often fought hand-to-hand with enemies between masts and on narrow decks. These pirates usually used light weapons: scimitars, punch daggers, barbed short swords, and so on. It was very satisfying to hack at unarmored sailors, but against Dwarfs, they could only leave scratches.

Sinuoli saw the Black Ark captain retreating toward the Black Ark, surrounded by a small squad of Dark Elves holding halberds, whose equipment was clearly different. Sinuoli believed those guys were the elite trained by the Witch King Malekith of the Black Guard of Naggarond.

The appearance of this bunch here was clearly not to serve as a personal guard or assault force for the Black Ark captain; they served more as a supervisory role.

Just as Sinuoli wondered why the captain still wanted to run to the ship, a Manticore descending from the sky gave him the answer. The creature the Dark Elves respected most was the Manticore, because they believed it was one of the thousand incarnations of Xueshoukai'en.

This Manticore used a pounce to sweep away the Black Guard around its master, and the Black Ark captain jumped onto its back, preparing to escape from the air.

"Nice idea!" Sinuoli muttered; as expected of a pirate who made a living at sea all year round, he still had judgment regarding the situation. Running to the Black Ark at this time was just putting up a desperate struggle.

Sinuoli weighed his hammer and aimed at the Manticore in mid-air; this monster's wings were leathery, and their main purpose was actually gliding between mountains; it couldn't really fly very high or for very long.

Sinuoli triggered the Power Rune on his glove and his Storm Hammer skill, and the hammer shot out with even greater force. The Black Ark captain was still immersed in the joy of escaping, when suddenly his mount let out a wail, flapped twice, and plummeted straight down.

The Dwarfs swarmed toward the landing spot; the captain had been smashed until only half a breath remained and was easily beheaded. Seeing no hope of escape, those Black Guard shouted and launched a desperate charge at the Dwarfs.

Sinuoli did not want to use his clansmen's lives to test how effective the Dark Elves' enchanted halberds were at armor-piercing; he directly signaled the ranged troops to fire, overwhelming this elite unit that had no shields and no low-level meat shields for cover.