Snorri drove the convoy eastward in the early morning mist. Considering the possible threat of beastmen, he arranged for as many scouts as possible, and also prepared those who were capable of fighting among the clansmen who moved with the convoy to fight. Prepare.
Adult dwarves are basically qualified warriors. With armors and weapons made of pure steel, it is not difficult for them to defeat three or four professional human soldiers. But the problem is that the population of dwarves is too small compared to humans.
No dwarf lord will let his tribesmen who have not received professional combat training step onto the battlefield unless they are forced into a desperate situation. Facing the monsters and monsters in this world, they lack the ability to resist, and the losses will be too great to accept.
Snorri tried to march faster, but found he could not. The old, weak, women and children, coupled with the carriages loaded with goods, made the speed very slow.
At this time, Snorri finally began to regret. He finally understood why the tribesmen were unwilling to move despite the difficult life. In this era when the dark forces are gradually rising, safety in the wilderness is too difficult to guarantee.
In the morning, we encountered sporadic horned beasts and inferior horned beasts. During lunch, the rangers brought back even worse news.
"Master Snorri, we found the harpy!" As they said that, they brought a disgusting corpse in front of Snorri.
It was a winged creature with the upper body of a human woman and the lower body of a raptor. Unlike the lips of women, their lips were crooked and slanted, extending to the sides to reveal fangs stained with blood and saliva.
"Trouble!" Snorri thought to himself. What he hated most was that the enemy had gained air superiority, which meant that every move he made would fall under the control of the enemy in the dark.
"There are humans, horses, and beasts following us from behind!" Bloxon also came from the rear to report. Although the mountain roads dug by our ancestors were quite wide, the convoy of three thousand people still wound for more than a thousand meters.
Centaurs, also known as centaurs, are the body of a horse combined with the upper body of a human. Combining speed and strength with the ability to wield brutal weapons, these four-legged human-animal hybrids are natural mobile troops and scouts.
"We will be in trouble when night falls!" the dwarf leaders reached a consensus. The presence of these guys means that the war beast herd is not small.
"Otherwise, we go back to Karak-Gregor?" Prince Stringer became a little worried.
"That means, go west?" Snorri muttered. The gray mountains run east-west, and going back means going west. In his mind, he recalled the strange old dwarf's previous advice: When someone tells you to go west, You should go east.
"No! We have to move on!" Snorri shook his head and said.
"I said, you don't really believe what the old man said, do you?" Stringer was not so easily convinced.
"No, that settlement is too small to accommodate so many people and cannot rely on defense. This is just one of them!" Snorri knew that he needed to explain something to this young colleague and new relative.
"Another reason is that there is not enough supplies. You think about it, just after winter, the food of the tribesmen there is exhausted, and the supplies of our convoy are replenished along the way. How will we survive if there is a shortage of food then? It will only make you more passive!”
Gustringer nodded and returned to his post. What Snorri said was indeed the truth. After lunch, the convoy continued to set off. This time the beastmen went beyond just reconnaissance, they began to harass Snorri's convoy.
Centaurs carrying throwing axes and horned beasts armed with bows and arrows lurked in and out of sight in the woods on both sides of the mountain road. Although the centaurs are a little clumsy, their four legs come and go like the wind. The rangers can shoot them but have difficulty killing them.
The horned beasts are indeed the weakest in the beastman society, but compared to other compatriots, they are undoubtedly a little more agile and spiritual. Their well-developed hands can even create blasphemous talismans, and can also produce weapons for their clumsy kind.
If the harassment by the long-range troops only made the dwarves a little annoyed, and they shrunk their formation to protect the women and children more closely, at dusk they encountered a decent ambush.
The centaurs and beasts that were originally roaming around the periphery threw away their throwing axes and replaced them with heavy battle axes and halberds that required both hands to wield. They burst out of the woods under the supervision of a screaming shaman who was covered in filth and whose fur was painted with various primitive and terrifying cult charms.
These guys who were born to live in the wilderness can easily hide in the forest. Fortunately, the rangers, as immortal species, have accumulated experience in facing various races, and they discovered the secret gathering of beastmen.
Snorri promptly mobilized some of the Anvil Guards to flank the convoy. They withstood the charge of the beasts, but the artillery could not be used on the mountain road, and it was impossible for these tribesmen to pursue them into the woods. The centaurs and beasts only left a few corpses, which slowed down the progress of the convoy.
Just after repelling the centaur beasts in a fierce battle, another team composed of large horned beasts and ordinary horned beasts, led by a beast king, blocked the front of the team.
The beast king's bushy-bearded head has huge long horns, which are as sharp and strong as swords. His muscular body is covered with scars and rough tattoos. The Phatis Knights' previous nickname of "Beast King with Broken Horns" was derived from them.
Snorri himself was sitting in the center of the army, and Rogoff, who was now the Leviathan Butcher, was leading the way. He had a fight with the beast king, and the two experts in using axes could be considered opponents.
The Beast King is three meters tall. The social structure of the Beastmen is similar to that of other warring races. The one who can fight the most is the boss. However, its height turned into a disadvantage in the battle with the dwarves.
Its battle ax is opened and closed, and every move exudes a ferocious aura, but it cannot be used against a dwarf whose height is just above its knees, not counting the hair and crown. Rogoff turned over and rolled into the circle of its axe, slashing randomly. The bigger the axe, the more enjoyable it was for him to chop with the heavy axe.
The beast king was soon defeated, but it retreated into the woods under the cover of the fierce fighting of its heavily armored bodyguards. These guys are much bigger and stronger than their counterparts, and they are also wearing armor plundered from unknown sources.
In addition to being relatively resistant to beatings, the big horned beasts wielded heavy weapons with armor-breaking capabilities, and many tribesmen were injured under their attacks.
By dusk, the convoy had barely covered half of its original route. When they stopped to rest, the leaders gathered together again.
"We can no longer march on the ridge. The long and narrow team is constantly being harassed, and it is difficult to organize an effective counterattack!" Bahrain summarized everyone's views.
()
.
