stjorthotic Chapter 67 The First Battle of Blade Winter
Chapter 67 The First Battle of Blade Winter
Chapter 67 The First Battle of Blade Winter (Part 1) (Combined)
The heavy battering ram slammed into the alloy gate on the outer layer of the mobile city.
A deafening roar shook the entire ice field, and snow cascaded down from the pine trees.
Haji the Winter of Blades sat atop the back of the mammoth behemoth, looking down at the silent steel giant before him.
The cold wind whipped his long, gray hair, and his cloudy yet sharp eyes were filled with undisguised contempt.
Is this what allowed the baron to survive the snow season?
A rusty, abandoned piece of old-world scrap metal, seemingly on the verge of falling apart at any moment.
"Lord Winter Lord overestimates this rat," Haji scoffed, tapping lightly on the hilt of his greatsword on his knee. "To think I'd bring three entire legions to crush an ant."
Behind him, a massive, dark army of monsters surged like a black tide, emitting bloodthirsty growls in the wind and snow.
The siege engine retreated again, the winch tightened, and the massive ram was poised to strike.
"Smash it open for me!"
Haji suddenly waved his hand, his voice booming like thunder, "Before this moment of suspense ends today, I want to see Lorraine's head on my table!"
boom-!
This time, the already rotten outer gate could not withstand the violent bombardment and collapsed with a tooth-grinding metallic twisting sound.
Smoke and dust rose everywhere.
There was no rain of arrows as expected, nor any magical radiance.
Inside the open door was a deathly darkness, with only a few faulty emergency lights crackling overhead, their flickering light illuminating the deep passageway filled with pipes and steel supports.
This silence, ironically, made the monster soldiers in the front row hesitate.
Haji squinted, his gaze piercing through the smoke and dust.
According to the information provided by the Winter Lord, the core territory of Lorraine is hidden in the heart of this mobile city.
To get in, you have to go through this complex industrial area.
"A bunch of useless trash, what are you afraid of!"
Haji's gaze swept to his side.
There stood six third-tier demon commanders, each with a unique appearance, and each exuding a chilling aura.
There were ice knights covered in heavy ice armor, silver-winged snow demons with wings on their backs and sinister eyes, and ogre overseers wielding giant hammers—
These were his elite troops; any one of them could easily wipe out a human town.
"There are definitely traps in the mobile city. The Lord has already told me the location of this human ant; it is deep within the first level of this city."
Haji smiled cruelly, "But this kid's luck has run out. Of the six of you, whoever can lead the team through this trap area and find a way to this human ant camp will be rewarded with materials to advance to the peak of the third tier after the city falls."
"
The rewards are tempting, especially for these monsters who have taken the law of the jungle to its extreme; power is a symbol of status.
"Sir, there's no need to trouble you all with such a trivial matter."
The heavily armored Ice Knight took the first step forward, a deep voice emanating from beneath his visor, "A mere trap on the first level of the Tower of Babel? My ice armor can't even be penetrated by siege crossbows. I can carve a path through it even with my face!"
"Fool, by the time you crawl over like a tortoise, it'll be too late."
Eager to redeem himself, the silver-winged snow demon Karl let out a shriek, spread his wings, and moved like lightning. "Speed is king! As long as I'm fast enough, the traps can't catch me!"
"Roar!" The ogre overlord roared, brandishing his giant hammer, "Anyone who dares to steal my credit will have their head smashed!"
The six commanders exchanged glances, their greed instantly overriding their caution.
In their eyes, Lorraine was nothing more than a second-tier lord who relied on luck. Even if he hid behind the traps of the Tower of Babel, what could he do?
They have plenty of ways to deal with traps, and these traps can't even break through their defenses!
The desire to claim credit instantly ignited the atmosphere.
"Rush!"
Someone shouted, and six figures rushed into the dark steel jungle almost simultaneously.
The elite guards behind them roared and followed, afraid that if they were a step behind, they wouldn't even get a sip of the soup.
Haji watched this scene and grinned with satisfaction.
now it's right.
Fear? That's an emotion only the weak have.
In his army, there was only desire and killing.
However, when this group of confident predators actually stepped into the area and tried to approach Lorraine's camp, they discovered that it was not a hunting ground at all.
This is the gateway to hell.
The first to suffer was the ogre overseer who was at the forefront.
This guy, relying on his thick skin and tough flesh, directly chose the widest road in the middle.
He strode forward, each step making a loud thud on the floor, his eyes filled with longing for human flesh and the Lord's bounty.
"Click."
A crisp click of a mechanism sounded beneath his feet.
The ogre warlord grinned maliciously, showing no interest in dodging.
Ordinary arrows couldn't even pierce his skin.
But he didn't receive the arrow.
A rusty steam pipe overhead suddenly burst.
"Zzz—!!!"
High-pressure steam, reaching thousands of degrees Celsius, erupted like a white scythe of death, instantly and precisely covering the ogre overlord's entire body.
"Ahhhhh!"
A piercing scream instantly shattered the silence of the passage.
The cannibal's prized, tough skin was instantly scalded and peeled off, revealing bright red muscle.
Even so, given the cannibal's resilient vitality, it only needs a few more minutes of rest to recover quickly.
But that's not all.
Just as he was painfully clutching his face and banging his head against something, his foot slipped—a layer of thick, smelly black grease had seeped out from the ground.
The massive body lost its balance and crashed heavily to the side.
There, a giant industrial crusher that had been idle for hundreds of years suddenly lit up a red light.
Buzz!
The sound of the gears turning was deep and terrifying.
Before the ogre overseer could even scream, half of his body slid into the feed inlet of the crusher.
Accompanied by a chilling sound of bones cracking, plumes of blood mist gushed out from the discharge port, staining the surrounding walls red.
Once it's pulverized like this, even an ogre couldn't possibly survive.
The demon leader behind them suddenly stopped in his tracks, his face turning deathly pale.
"What the hell is this?!"
No one answered.
In the darkness, it seemed as if an unseen hand was plucking the strings of a harp called "misfortune".
"Don't take the main road! Spread out! Use the maintenance access roads on either side!"
Karl, the Silverwing Snow Demon, screamed and gave the order, taking the lead in rushing into the air, trying to use his flight advantage to avoid the ground traps.
The remaining commanders also realized what was happening and dispersed, each choosing their own path.
The Frozen Knight's face twitched slightly as he looked at the ogre's miserable state, but he remained absolutely confident in his defense.
"Steam can't damage my ice armor!"
He roared, unleashing his magical power. His already thick ice armor doubled in thickness, making him like a moving ice fortress. He gritted his teeth and charged into a narrow corridor.
The corridor was lined with countless spray nozzles on both sides.
shhhhhh!
Countless tiny steel needles shot out like a torrential rain.
Ding ding ding!
The steel needle struck the ice armor, sending up a spray of ice shards, but it couldn't penetrate it at all.
"Hahahaha! I knew it! A mere trick!" The Ice Knight laughed wildly, quickening his pace. "Human Baron, your death is near!"
He strode forward, about to rush out of the corridor.
Suddenly, without warning, a section of the floor beneath his feet collapsed.
This was nothing to him; he could easily cross it by simply adjusting his center of gravity.
But just as he lifted his leg, an inconspicuous screw snapped into the joint of his knee.
That was the only, almost imperceptible gap in his full suit of armor.
Normally, this screw would only make him feel a little uncomfortable.
But at this moment, during high-speed movement, the screw jammed the joint's rotation.
His movements froze for a moment.
In that instant, a deadly threat descended.
Suddenly, the ventilation opening at the top of the corridor opened, and a bucket of green liquid with a pungent, acidic smell was poured over them.
That was a highly concentrated acid extracted by Olivia, mixed with the juice of some corrosive plant.
Sizzle sizzle—
The seemingly indestructible ice armor melted away as quickly as a hot knife through butter in the face of strong acid, followed by the metal armor inside.
"No--!"
The Frozen Knight tried to retreat in terror, but he forgot that the floor behind him was also movable.
He took a step back and landed right on a pressure-sensitive panel.
boom!
The two walls suddenly slammed shut, with two rows of sharp hydraulic spikes interlocking.
puff!
The heavy armor was pierced instantly, and the Ice Knight's extraordinary sense of danger had no time to take effect.
The Frozen Knight was like a flattened tin can, blood gushing out from the gaps in his armor, and he fell silent instantly.
Meanwhile, various bizarre deaths were also taking place in the other passages.
Some monsters tried to jump over the obstacle, but ended up getting tangled in mid-air by a broken cable that seemed to come from nowhere, and were instantly roasted into charcoal by the high voltage.
Some monsters carefully avoided all the triggers, only to have their brains splattered when a piece of ceiling fell from above.
This is not a fight at all.
This was a massacre filled with malice and mockery.
Each trap seemed to be meticulously calculated, precisely placed at the awkward point where their old strength had been exhausted and their new strength had not yet been generated;
Every accident was full of coincidences, as if even fate was against them.
Ten minutes later.
The edge of the plaza in the inner layer of the moving city.
Several disheveled figures stumbled out.
Karl, the Silverwing Snow Demon, had long lost his previous arrogance.
His body was charred black by a flamethrower, and the wound from his severed arm, twisted off by Winter's Blade, smelled of roasted meat.
Behind him were only two equally wretched third-tier commanders: a lizardman with a missing arm and a shadow assassin with a blind eye.
As for the elite personal guards they brought?
It's all gone.
They didn't even bring out a corpse.
"Cough cough—Damn it—Damn human little lord, how could he be so insidious!"
Carl coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his eyes filled with terror and relief at surviving. "These traps all looked like they could be easily avoided and withstood."
"But why—" Karl suddenly paused, then managed to compose himself, "Why—why are we so unlucky?! Why do unexpected things always happen, leading us into traps?"
"We—we go back?" The lizardman leader clutched his severed arm, his voice trembling. "There's no way we can fight this."
"Go back?" Karl whirled around, a ruthless glint in his single eye. "Go back and tell Lord Haji that three of our six commanders died without even seeing Lorraine. Are all our soldiers wiped out?"
The lizardman shuddered.
I recall Haji's serrated greatsword, which he used to execute deserters. In every war, whenever there was a deserter, Haji would mercilessly behead them with that sword.
Escape is no longer an option.
"Then—what should we do?"
"Look ahead." Karl pointed ahead with a trembling finger.
Everyone looked up.
In the center of the square, a simple campsite stood out prominently.
A few seemingly small defensive towers stood forlornly behind the city wall, their surfaces glowing with a faint red light.
That was the magical fluctuation unique to a second-tier defensive tower.
Only second order.
"I had previously scouted out this young baron's territory."
Karl took a deep breath, the fear in his eyes gradually replaced by a crazy gambler's mentality. "This human baron only has a few second-tier witch towers."
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"Even those second-tier city walls were hastily put together and have no anti-fly capability whatsoever."
"Although I don't know why these city walls have changed, they are clearly different from any of the Tier 3 city walls I remember."
"The patterns flowing on it don't look like those of a third-tier city wall."
The Shadow Assassin carefully observed the situation with his remaining eye, his voice hoarse, "If it's just a second-tier witch's tower, we can easily fly over the city wall and rush in. And once we get through, we can fight it in close combat. That fragile lord is no match for us."
"Once the lord is killed, all the Witch Towers will be paralyzed. Without the Witch Towers' protection, the three of us at Tier 3 will slaughter everyone in this camp."
"easy!"
"That's right!" Karl gritted his teeth. "Those traps are definitely his last resort! He's bluffing! If we retreat now, we're doomed. But if we charge in and kill Lorraine, that would be a monumental achievement!"
The three people's eyes met in mid-air.
That was madness born of desperation, a final struggle against the instinct for survival.
Rather than going back to face Haji's wrath, it's better to take a gamble.
Lorraine has run out of ideas.
They are betting that their strength as third-tier experts is enough to crush several second-tier defensive towers.
"To survive—" Karl spat out the words through gritted teeth, conjuring a longsword of frost in his hand.
Let's fight these bastards!
"kill!"
Three figures, filled with determination and despair, launched a final assault on the camp they perceived as having weak defenses.
And high up where they cannot see.
In the shadow of the watchtower, Lorraine put down his monocular telescope, a cold smile playing on his lips.
He turned his head and looked at Anna, who was already in battle mode, his tone calm.
"All the guests have arrived."
"Anna, use the camp relocation order to release those twelve Tier 3 Witch Towers!"