There was a sound of hurried footsteps in the passage, and a black-robed rat quickly ran back from the front. It was the spy that Eshiliga had sent out before.
"We encountered a large number of skeletons ahead, probably about five thousand in number."
Eshiliga's heart relaxed slightly.
It is much better to encounter an enemy than to be completely blank and bring fear of the unknown.
"The messenger, Boulier's Brigade, will fight head-on, while the rest of the troops will outflank them from other passages."
Ikrit's messengers left quickly, and the rats that were originally marching were slowly diverted through several forked roads in the underground passage ahead.
The roar of the little leader and the sound of the rats' hands, feet, and tails colliding with the ground made the shouting channel even more noisy.
The more than two thousand Skaven who were marching straight forward gathered into a dense phalanx amidst the roar of the strong black rat. They were led by the strong black rat's bodyguards and walked forward slowly, gradually disappearing into the darkness.
Beside Ikrit, his personal guards also gathered in response to this situation.
In the battle with Nagash just now, this force composed entirely of Storm Rats suffered heavy losses. Only 57 of the original 169-man guard were left, and only a thin layer could be formed around the warlord.
Esky looked around the one-eyed engineering warlock and stayed where he was.
There are only a dozen rats who are considered technicians around the engineer Warlock Vitrik, plus about a hundred slave rats who serve as logistical support.
Since all the troops of Iklit were dispatched just now, the flamethrower does not even have the most basic security. The only thing that can be regarded as a defensive force is the two engineering warlocks.
In a dark environment with only faint red and green light, Eshiliga suddenly approached the rock wall and put his ear against it.
After a long while, he returned to Ikrit and his assassins, and waved to send out several spies in black robes.
"The Stickman Monster didn't use digging tactics, but my intuition told me that the Stickman Monster had a conspiracy."
The betrayed master said to Ikrit.
"Thanks to the great horned rat, my intuition about conspiracies has always been very accurate."
After looking at the darkness in front and behind the passage for a long time, the defector spoke again.
"You should have taken the time to integrate the Violski clan into the Overflow clan just now. If your Reikek is damaged too much."
Ikrit glared at him with his scarlet eyes and swung his tail to the rock wall, his scales making a crisp sound when they came into contact with the stone.
Of course he knew what the traitor meant. If they were really surrounded, there were of course many ways to get out, but not the other rats around him.
There is nearly one-third of Rickek's strength here. If they lose, all the political benefits of the underground fortress will be taken away by Werski, a seriously injured person who is still lying down.
A sharp rattle came from the darkness ahead, which was the signal for the Reikek clan to engage the enemy. The air was full of the smell of battle, but soon, fear began to be mixed in it.
Ikrit's nose was sniffing the air, and the concentration of the smell of fear was getting higher and higher. This also showed that there were more and more rats on the front line emitting the smell of fear from their glands.
This was not a good sign—the rats would definitely feel fear in their hearts when facing an enemy twice their size, but Ikrit thought that as a chopping block, they could hold on for at least sixty minutes.
"Wittrick, I need you to support the front line."
The warlord stood under the spout and shouted to the old engineering warlock.
Vitrik made no move, but glanced at the oil, torches, and warpstone powder belonging to the Rikek clan behind him.
"Those need to be saved for later."
Ikrit's voice rose a little higher.
The two sides stared at each other in silence, refusing to give in to each other. At this time, Esky spoke.
"Wittrick Engineer Warlock, how long will the flamethrower have enough fuel to spray?"
The one-eyed engineering warlock pointed to the opening of the slave rat-powered transport vehicle.
"Use all of it and it can last for about ten minutes."
The large dimensional flamethrower has this problem.
They may be able to inflict fatal damage on behemoth units or even elite spellcasters with relative ease, but it would be difficult for any clan to accept the logistics they require.
To consume a large amount of those warpstones, which are far more precious to the Skaven than gold, it would be better for the Skaven to send another 10,000 cannon fodder to die.
"Wittrick, if you ask me, your big toys are too useless. If it were me, I would make them smaller, preferably a size that can be used by slave rats."
"Stupid, young, little bastard, of course your slow brain will not understand its use."
Vitrik opened his mouth, revealing two rows of yellowed and severely worn fangs, and let out a rapid mocking sound.
"It is used to deal with the Burning Thorns."
"He means Nagash?"
Esky showed an even more exaggerated mocking smile than he did, and his white sharp teeth seemed to bite the old engineering warlock's face in the next second.
"The black bone necromancer has been severely injured by me, it should deal with those damn skeletons."
"Don't forget, we are all in the same boat now. Even if you preserve your strength, it is of no value. The Horned Rat will not protect a loser."
"Go back to the underground fortress and you will be killed by Staden. Go back to Skaven Castle and you will be sent out by the Chief Engineer Warlock to make amends."
Eshiliga's red eyes under his hood shone slightly, and while the engineering warlocks were confronting each other, he grabbed Ikrit.
"My people can send that old thing on its way if necessary."
Esiliga became increasingly irritated by the passage of time.
If it was just to prevent the Gray Prophet from returning to the underground fortress, they could simply turn back and block the entrances and exits, but the Gray Prophet would most likely return to the Skaven Demon City.
In the underground world, there are many ways to return to the Demon City.
"No, Esiliga, let them continue to argue. The matter is not that urgent yet."
Ikrit squinted his eyes, looked at the white rat arguing hard with the old engineering warlock, and pressed Eshiliga's paw.
His wet nose twitched slightly, and his pink barbed tongue licked upwards to keep it moist.
The smell in the air began to change towards equilibrium again.
"You stay here and watch while I go to the front line."
At the same time, Ikrit made another gesture, indicating that the Storm Rats of the Guards should also stay where they were.
He himself quickly disappeared in front of the rats.
Looking at the tall black rats left behind, the engineering warlocks stopped abruptly.
Vitrik's one eye stared at Eshiriga who was left behind, and an undetectable voice reached Eski's ears.
"Stupid little brat, how many dimension stones do you still have?"
==
Dividing line
==
Iklit soon came to the source of the smell that only the Skaven could identify.
The team of clan rats and skeletons is moving slowly around the "corpse fortress" piled up with skeleton fragments and rat-man corpses.
Briar, the brigade's lord, stood back, leaning on the slave rats, the unused slaves combing their master's fur with their tongues.
Ikrit smelled blood on his subordinates.
"Injured by the skeleton?"
"It's stained with the blood of some trash."
Brill stood up and whipped the slave rat with his tail, as powerfully as ever.
Only then did Ikrit turn his attention to the battlefield again.
Generally speaking, fighting skeletons in a narrow passage does not require too many casualties. After the first hundred corpses are thrown away, the casualties on both sides will increase more and more slowly.
The reason why the previous battles were difficult was because of Stickman's ability to resurrect corpses at any time.
The number of Skaven combatants will continue to decrease as casualties increase, but the number of skeletons will not decrease much, and in some cases will even increase.
On the current battlefield, there are almost no rats standing up after falling to the ground. Thanks to this, relying on the barrier of corpses, the intensity of the battle between the two sides has become lower and lower.
Ikrit raised his hand to wipe away the smelly grease at the root of his beard, and the smell of blood in the air became clearer.
The scene in front of him was very familiar to him - in the past battles with the dwarfs, the corpses of the rats often piled up in front of the dwarves wrapped in iron sheets, thus blocking the Skaven's attack.
Relying on slave rats, clan rats eat corpses too slowly and are usually of little use to the battle situation.
Summoning a swarm of rats with spells is fast enough, but spellcasters, especially those of the Gray Seer series, are scarce resources wherever they are.
This does not mean that warlords like Ikrit are completely helpless - the oil squeezed out of the corpses of Skaven is a very good fuel - even the iron sheet of the dwarf's thing cannot cope with the high temperature. .
"Go and open a big gap, use the same method as the dwarf thing."
Ikrit ordered, but the black rat did not move immediately.
"The clan rats I led have lost nearly 30%, and we need to go to the breeding pit to select a batch."
"As usual, go to the breeding pit designated by the Brier Brigade."
Brill nodded in agreement, his eyes becoming more and more erratic.
Although the warlord's treatment was reasonable, his heart was still full of curses against the warlord.
Since the ratio of male to female survival is roughly one to one hundred, even those fat, ugly and smelly male female rats have become a scarce resource.
The breeding pits of most clans are directly controlled by warlords or leaders.
The only exceptions are giant clans such as the Gray Prophet Clan, the Model Clan, and the Skryre Clan.
The ability to mate with male female rats is often a reward given by warlords to their subordinates.
Ikrit allowed Brill and his captains to control the mating rights of a breeding pit, which can be considered a favor among any rat clan.
However, it is one thing to allow them to visit the female rats in the breeding pit, but it is another thing to take the young rats away.
All the eunuchs who take care of the young rats in the breeding pits belong to the warlords, so they can only touch the female rats, not the young rats.
This feeling of being manipulated makes Brill extremely irritated. Brill should be the greatest Skaven, but he can't beat Ikrit for the time being.
Filled with rage, the tall black-skinned rats rushed towards the front of the battle line. The oil on their skin wafted with the smell of battle caused by hatred.
