The barrel flew backwards, green flames burned the fur on the right side of Eski's face, and the white hair turned into a burnt black color.
This unexpected situation made the factory warlock immediately understand that too much dimensional stone powder had been put in.
Fortunately, the barrel is made of enchanted alloy steel, otherwise it would have exploded just now.
The red-hot iron ball hit Nagash with almost no attenuation at the exit speed. Perhaps due to the larger than normal charge, the red-and-yellow iron ball penetrated the armor behind Nagash.
A burst of green-black smoke instantly swept across the battlefield, hiding Nagash's figure.
In the moment before Nagash disappeared, Esky clearly saw that the cannonball hit the position where Nagash's spine and ribs should have been.
The thick smoke penetrated the engineering warlock's dimensional stance like a blade, cutting small wounds on Esky's face that was burned by the dimensional stone flames.
The skin and flesh of the rats around him were also shattered in the wind, forming lumps of disgusting sticky objects.
When the green-black smoke dissipated, only the mutilated corpses of the rats were left around Eski.
Pushing aside the Storm Rat that was blocking his eyes, Ikrit looked at the pile of corpses where the Necromancer disappeared in disbelief.
"Where are the Nagash?!"
The old warlord didn't react for a moment. He was stunned for a few seconds and then said to the engineering warlock whose face was covered with scars.
"Eski! Did you kill him?"
Eski ignored him and muttered something, using Anoquayan and the magical wind in the earth to complete the spell - Blood of the Earth.
Feeling the wound on his face healing, Eski said this.
"No, no, those dead things are fine."
As he said that, the engineering warlock pointed at the skeleton spearmen in the distance who were still fighting with the clan rats. The fact that the skeletons did not fall down showed that Nagash's will was still attached to them.
After a long while, Ikrit pointed to the battle situation in the passage and spoke.
"Did we use too much force? How could Stickman kill Staden if he was seriously injured?"
Following the direction of his finger, the Skeleton Spearman and the Ghoul were surrounded in the narrow passage by the soldiers of the Overflow Clan who came out from behind at an unknown time.
The rats were very motivated to fight. When they surrounded the enemy, they never showed signs of shrinking. They saw that the nearly ten thousand undead brought by Nagash were about to be annihilated.
"I have some doubts that the Stickman Monster can kill just by relying on those skeletons."
Lord Ikrit added.
Carnivorous monsters and skeletons can indeed kill many clan rats and even storm rats, but the Gray Prophet's spells can easily escape him from the encirclement.
"My scouts haven't come here yet. They've already exceeded the time limit. They might have been killed by the skeletons on the way."
Ashriga spoke.
Ikrit understood what he meant. The promise that Staden would be killed by the assassination rats under the defection master was almost invalidated.
The defector continued as if he was comforting him.
"It's too close to Stickman's lair. In order to ensure his own safety, Stickman will definitely surround Staden."
"No, we can't leave the matter in the hands of the stickman. Let's go help Staden."
Ikrit said sternly.
==
Dividing line
==
In area N36, in the cave on the side of the canyon, the mad Nefer could no longer bear the current situation and shouted to the witch spirit sitting on the stone beside him.
"We've been waiting here for two hours."
"Idiot, shut up."
The Witch Spirit kept stroking the blade of the dagger with her fingers, and her patience was reaching its limit, so much so that her weird rat language even adopted a Druzil accent.
Just as Nefer was about to explode, he felt a chill in his ears. One of the Witch Spirit's daggers was nailed to the side of his ear, cutting a gash in his ear that was flapping just a second ago.
Stimulated by the blood, Nefer rushed forward uncontrollably, trying to cut open Hecate's abdominal cavity and take out her heart.
But on the way, he knelt on the ground and couldn't move.
"Idiot, do you think I can't control things like you?"
As he spoke, the wizard picked up a whip made from the tail of a rat man from the ground and whipped it on Nefer's body.
The fresh smell of blood continued to flow out, making the wizard gradually calm down.
She had to keep waiting.
There was another rush of footsteps, another scout.
With the wizard's hearing far exceeding that of other races, this time, the scout's steps were faster than before.
"Is there any movement?"
Before the scout could speak, Hecate asked before him.
The scout opened his mouth, gasping for breath, and remained silent for a long time. Finally, he spoke.
"Yes, the hairless monster is out."
"Stand where you are."
Hecate gave an order to the rat-turned-rats, and her agile figure turned into an afterimage walking through the tunnel. Within a few minutes, she was back at the high observation point.
The elf's vision allowed her to clearly see the human team two kilometers away.
A rough estimate showed that the human team numbered at least a thousand, and the previous scout information from the rat people showed that there were only at most 1,500 human defenders in that fortress.
Although Wu Ling heard what the engineering warlock said, the intelligence of the rats was sometimes quite inaccurate, and there were instances where hundreds of thousands were reported as one thousand.
But in the current situation, we can only bet that the rats' reconnaissance is reliable enough.
A strange color appeared in the human team in the distance. Hecate looked carefully and saw that there were more than two hundred skeletons.
"Sure enough, there are still skeletons."
Hecate whispered.
In the limited information the Engineer Warlock provided her, it was mentioned that Nagash could communicate through every skeleton he controlled, just like the elven mages used the stars and the wilderness to communicate.
These communications that do not require messengers are obviously much more efficient.
When she heard this information, she guessed that there must be Nagash's dead in this fortress.
After getting the result he wanted, Hecate followed the original path and turned into an imperceptible shadow.
This method of movement, even for an extraordinary person like Kane's Bride, means a huge consumption of physical strength.
But now, there is not enough time.
The walking speed of humans and undead is much faster than normal marching, which means that it won't be long before they enter the ambush site.
A gust of wind blew by, and the sorcerer spirit, covered in sweat and breathing unevenly, sat on the originally empty stone.
In the ambush passage, the mad rats were at war with each other, but the Witch Spirit had not yet smelled the fresh smell of blood.
"Good you idiots haven't started fighting each other yet."
Hecate gave a cruel smile.
"The fresh blood source is about to arrive. Toxide, take your men from the underground to the three passages on the opposite side."
"When their innermost parts are exposed to us, we will drink their blood."
The wizard's smile caused the rats to start laughing. It was a maniacal laughter that ordinary Skaven would never have.
Hecate's gaze shifted to the stone above her head. She seemed to be able to see a god with bloody hands staring at her above it.
“It is good to be stained with blood by someone else’s hands, but it is even better to be stained with blood by your own hands.”
The witch spirit spoke calmly in Druzil language.
It was a prayer to Bloodhand Kane, just like the curse in the hearts of the rats was a prayer to the Horned Rat.
Hecate is using the simple conditions here to present a clumsy drama to the gods.
Many savage beasts will question, what is the difference between the Druzi's belief in Kane and Chaos' belief in Khorne?
From various perspectives of motivation and even results, there is no difference between them. At most, they are different in degree.
But as every follower of Kane knows, Kane's killings always have a ritual beauty, while Khorne's killings are just a mad dog gnawing on all things.
