Arcane Journey

Chapter 105 The Battle of the Deep King Fortress

The Deep King's Fortress is a huge building with a dark and foreboding appearance. It is built between two huge pillars soaring to the top of the cave, and clouds of dense smoke are coiled in the sky.

Huge basalt braziers are filled with lava, which then pours down the palace walls, glowing a hellish red.

There are battlements on the thick stone walls, and steel turrets are installed on them.

The heavily armed gray dwarf prince Eddie led his confidants, twenty elite Cavalry cavalry and thirty Saron spearmen, were heading towards the Deep King Fortress.

Looking forward to the fortress with a thick outline gradually emerging, Erdie took a deep breath, suppressed the tension in his heart, and subconsciously glanced at the troops following behind him.

Most of the Caravo riders who rode giant tarantulas were from the domesticated Sinton clan, the family of his late mother and his staunchest supporters.

The giant tarantulas native to the Underdark were bred and trained by the tamers of Clan Sinton.

Male riding tarantulas, the size of ponies, are used as pack animals, while larger female tarantulas are trained as mounts.

Although these tarantulas can't weave webs, their feet can secrete a sticky substance, so they can move freely on walls and ceilings, which is good for catching prey.

Saronian spearmen come from the Sarosgar clan who are good at forging armor.

Because Brian, an outsider from the surface, helped him persuade the 'dragon blacksmith' Argotus and made a big promise, all the warriors of this family defected.

After all, apart from the real ruler of King Shendi, most of the decisions made in Odus King City are the results of joint discussions by the "Landlord Council".

This advisory body represents the interests of the various clans loyal to the Deep King, and the landowners use this council to resolve differences and discuss future plans.

Each clan held a portion of the city of Aldus and controlled a specific craft or service industry in the city's economy.

If he wanted to overthrow the rule of the King of the Deep, he had to win over some leaders of the 'Landlord Council' and gain their support.

As for the conditions for wooing, it is nothing more than wealth, territory and rights.

At this moment, except for the [-] Saron spearmen under the orders of the Flame Watcher, all the remaining warriors of the Sarosgar clan will all participate in his war to overthrow the rule of the King of the Deep.

On the surface, the gray dwarf prince Eddie seems to have only fifty men, and he is about to break into the deep king's fortress.

In fact, his entire army was on standby.

As long as he takes control of the fortress, the troops in the rear will swarm up and occupy the entire fortress until he controls his father, the deep king who has been completely corrupted by demons.

Erdie put away his thoughts and led his men along the road. As the grid of stone floor tiles became more and more conspicuous, a comfortable and regular road finally appeared on the road not far away.

The light ahead allowed him to make out the blue-and-white light sources placed in regular patterns, not the phosphorescent mushrooms growing along the side of the road.

The light is real street lighting, and its light comes from two huge stone doors with intricate carvings installed at the end of the tunnel.

In addition to lighting, these magical blue and white light sources also have the function of breaking invisibility.

Because of this, it was impossible for him to seize control of the fortress by means of a surprise attack.

Erdie looked solemnly at the King of the Deep Fortress in sight. On the surface, the walls of the entire fortress were empty and quiet.

In fact, this is just an illusion.

Because all the guards are stationed invisibly everywhere, he only needs to observe carefully, and he can hear the sound of the guards walking back and forth in heavy armor.

He is also very clear that the fortress is guarded by the most powerful force 'Stone Guard' in the city of Aldus.

This army of 500 gray dwarf veterans was directly under the King of the Deep, serving as his father's bodyguards, elite troops, and secret scouts.

According to the information he gathered, 500 invisible stone guards guard the fortress and the deep king.

Among them, 200 patrols lined up in front of the palace in the fortress, ready to take down the trespassing enemy, and the other 250 guards were stationed separately in the turrets and battlements.

The remaining 50 people were organized into the personal guards of King Shendi.

Therefore, with his Caravo cavalry and Saron spearmen alone, it is impossible to take down this group of gray dwarf veterans who have participated in many battles with the drow elves in the Underdark.

The most important thing is that the arrogance of these veterans and the madness spread by the demon lords have corrupted their souls, and they have secretly thrown themselves into the bottomless abyss.

"Stop here!"

A brusque voice came from the battlements, ordering in emotionless dwarven: "Give me your name and purpose of your visit!"

The voice just fell.

Eddie sensed at least a hundred loaded crossbows aimed at them.

At the same time, with a metallic sound, twenty heavily armored dwarf warriors who had already used the invisibility technique to hide in the dark appeared behind them out of thin air, erected solid metal shields, and raised their long swords to confront them .

There are heavy crossbowmen ready to go in front, and gray dwarf heavy warriors waiting to block the retreat behind.

Under such circumstances, Erdie signaled his subordinates not to act rashly, then raised his head to look at the caller on the battlements, and replied calmly with the words he had already thought out:
"I am the head of the Caravo Cavalry Regiment, the sole heir of the Deep King, Erdie. I heard that Argotus, the 'dragon blacksmith', has rebelled and is leading his kobold army to wreak havoc in the city. So, for me For the safety of my father, King Shendi, I specially led my men here to assist you in defending the fort."

The flame guardians and most of the city guards have been attracted by the red dragon's kobold. He must use this once-in-a-lifetime gap to take down the Deep King Fortress as quickly as possible.

"Hey! My little prince, your lying skills are really bad."

The gray dwarf guard on the battlements took off his helmet, saluted Eddie slightly, touched his bald head illuminated by the blue and white light source, curled his lips in disdain, and said:
"Now, the stone guards around you are enough to form an army that the chief mage of the city of Orens would not dare to attack recklessly, not to mention the stupid dragon of Argotus and the group of kobolds he raised. They wouldn't be calling here."

"But." The gray dwarf guard gave Erdie a meaningful look, smiled, and said:

"Your dear father, the King of the Deep Earth has already confessed that if his filial son, Prince Erdi, comes to take refuge, we must let him go, and bring your men in, 'brave' little prince Erdi. .”

Accompanied by a loud bang, the gate of the fortress was slowly pushed open.

Erdie looked up and glanced at the 20 stone guards guarding both sides of the gate corridor.

He secretly exchanged glances with the leader of the Saron spearmen and his cavalry deputy, and walked towards the gate under the vigilance of the 20 stone guards behind him.

Just when they were halfway there, the guard shouting on the battlements, leading two subordinates, rushed over.

I saw his old, rough-skinned and thick-skinned face was full of smiles, and he greeted the gray dwarf prince.

Looking at the guard who came over, Erdie's dark gray eyes flashed a cold light.

He secretly shook the dark red warhammer in his hand, and the moment the guard came to meet him and stretched out his hand, an orange flame suddenly jumped out of the warhammer, and under Eddie's swing, it accurately hit the guard's bald head.

Before the smile on the opponent's face dissipated, he was smashed to pieces by the scorching flame hammer.

"Go!"

The duergar prince raised his hammer surrounded by flames, and the roar echoed in the spacious corridor.

The Caravo cavalry behind him jumped up riding the giant tarantula one after another.

The ferocious tarantulas showed their venom-stained fangs, each of them threw down the stone guards beside them, wrapped them tightly with their sticky long legs, and were killed by the cavalry wielding warhammers or heavy axes.

The Saron spearmen instantly activated the magic of the flaming spears, covering the stone guards on both sides of the corridor in a raging sea of ​​flames.

Just for a moment.

The more than 40 guards in the corridor of the city gate were neatly cleared by the gray dwarf prince's men, taking advantage of the opportunity and numbers.

Erdie swung his warhammer and hit the flesh and bones of the last stone guard. Looking at the scorched marks on the torn apart head burned by the flames attached to the warhammer, he nodded with satisfaction, and then said to the adjutant next to him. commanded:
"Quickly open the city gate and send a general attack signal to the troops outside the city!"

Accompanied by a loud rumbling noise, the door that had just been closed opened again, and a gorgeous flame rose up in the dark sky.

At the same time, the stone guards in the fortress also noticed the battle in the corridor, and the patrolling stone guards immediately organized a force of more than a hundred people and rushed towards the corridor.

"Set up the formation and defend, and you must not let them break through the line of defense!"

Eddie watched the torrent of black armor formed by the gray dwarf veterans sweeping towards the corridor, and he immediately gave instructions to his soldiers.

He had to do this. Once the defense line here was breached, it meant that the subsequent large troops would not be able to rush into the fortress at all.

In this case, it is impossible for them to control the entire fortress before the major clans react.

He led the Caravo cavalry and Saron spearmen, all of whom were carefully selected elites. At least half of the soldiers were around the third level, enough to challenge any gray dwarf veterans in the stone guard.

Therefore, in the case of defending the favorable terrain of the corridor, he has great confidence to resist the charge of the stone guards.

What's more, he still has two trump cards in his hand that are enough to make his father's jaw drop.

Following the order of the gray dwarf prince.

Twenty Kavola cavalry jumped off the tarantula's back one after another, took out the metal shield, and smashed it hard on the ground, forming a steel defense line to block the galloping crossbow arrows.

Under the command of the cavalry, this group of female tarantulas, which are equal in size to human heavy horses, climbed methodically to the ceiling of the corridor, lurking in the darkness like predators, waiting for the arrival of their prey.

The Saron spearmen all put away their flaming spears, took out the heavy crossbows that had already been filled with bursting bolts, and under the cover of the cavalry shield wall, poured out the crossbows wrapped in bursting flames.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

In the first round of confrontation of exploding crossbow arrows, there were continuous explosion sounds around the gray dwarf warriors on both sides.

The entire dark fortress reflected the scene of hell with red lights.

Amidst the painful screams, gray dwarf warriors continued to die from the exploding crossbow bolts.

Fortunately for the gray dwarf prince, the charging stone guards obviously didn't expect this unexpected situation at all, so they prepared very few explosive bolts.

Under the second round of attacks, the firepower of the hundreds of stone guards was completely suppressed. They could only rely on their heavy armor and flesh and blood to launch a fierce attack on this line of defense.

However, the moment they rushed to the defense line, the female tarantulas that had been waiting for a long time showed their fangs and jumped down from the ceiling to harvest their lives.

In just a moment, this corridor, which is not too narrow for the gray dwarves, turned into a meat grinder made of blood and flames.

Only their respective races know the most fatal weakness of their own race. This is a conclusion drawn by the gray dwarf prince Eddie when he was adventuring in the surface world.

That's exactly what happened.

The city of Ordus, where the gray dwarves live, is also known as the "City of Blades". The "dragon blacksmith" Argotus provides flames for the furnaces of the entire city, and countless gray dwarf blacksmiths follow the rhythm of the city day and night. Work ceaselessly, producing some of the finest weapons and armor in the entire Underdark.

To deal with the heavily armed stone guards, even bows and arrows with armor-piercing properties are not as effective as expected.

The best way to do this is with Explosive Bolts and Saronite Lancer's Flamethrower.

Therefore, in order to deal with the stone guards, he brought out almost all the explosive bolts produced by the Sarosgar clan.

After Erdie blocked the fifth round of the stone guard's charge.

His number of men has been reduced by one-third, but there are more and more stone guards, and there are even a few psionic priests and warlocks.

An ominous premonition filled his heart.

Just when the gray dwarf prince was very anxious, he suddenly turned his head, and suddenly saw the frightening figures of the group of female tarantulas outside the city.

There was no doubt that his reinforcements had arrived.

There is a fierce confrontation in the corridor, and the stone guards on the city wall are not idle.

The moment they spotted the swarm of tarantulas, they immediately and mercilessly drove the rows of steel turrets placed on the battlements.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Accompanied by a loud bang.

Rows of steel barrels shot out dazzling flames in the dark environment.

Lead bullets shot out quickly, crossing the arc of thick smoke, and the moment they fell into the Caravo Cavalry Regiment, they exploded into brilliant flames.

Looking at the crumbling defense line and the hard-charging reinforcements under artillery fire, the bloody gray dwarf prince felt faintly anxious when he saw that his other two support troops had not shown up for a long time.

Because if it continues like this, failure is only a matter of time for him.

However, he believes that this will never happen.

He let out a roar, and with the hot flame wrapped in the warhammer in his hand, he accurately hit the duerwark warlock who was standing in the last row of the stone guards and was chanting magic.

Under the control of Eddie's mind, the Flaming Hammer returned to his hand again.

With the death of the oppressive gray dwarf warlock, his remaining more than 20 subordinates finally withstood a new round of charges.

At this moment, he suddenly felt the whole corridor trembling faintly.

Erdie looked surprised at first, and then realized that this was a sign of the arrival of his own reinforcements.

He quickly eliminated the enemies in front of him, ran to the leader of the Saronian spearmen, and confessed to the heir of the Sarosgar clan: "The stone giants of the Smoke Crystal Cave have been teleported to the city wall, and the large army will be handed over to you." Come command."

After speaking, Erdie immediately activated a teleportation ring on his finger, and under the shroud of light from the magic circle, he disappeared in place and appeared on the city wall.

After adapting to the short-term discomfort brought by the teleportation, he saw more than 50 burly and majestic stone giants, each holding a five-meter-long wooden-handled mace or mace, as if driving away the Roth beast, and Nearly 200 stone guards on the city wall fought with many ordinary city guards.

With the appearance of this group of stone giants over 4 meters tall, the guards on the battlements panicked for a short time, so that they had no time to take care of the reinforcements rushing to the city, causing many Kavola cavalry and Saron spearmen to appear in the fortress Inside.

The gray dwarf prince Eddie knew that the balance of victory was slowly tilting in his direction.

At this moment, a dark blue teleportation circle flashed again not far from him.

The moment the light dissipated, he was pleasantly surprised to see the figures of the two outsiders from the surface and the 'dragon blacksmith' Argotus finally appeared.

He killed the stone guard blocking the way with a hammer, and quickly went up to him.

- "Fireball!"

Looking at the melee on the city wall, Brian pointed his staff, and a fireball the size of an ogre's head fell into a group of reinforcements coming up the stairs, and there was an explosion of mixed screams.

Hesaiah also drew out his rune sword, and stood by his side, blocking all incoming enemies.

"Where is that old bastard of the Deep King?!"

The bloated red dragon Argotus flapped his wings, climbed onto a steel turret, stretched his neck and let out a roar, activating his Dragon Might domain.

In an instant, with Argotus at the center, all the stone giants and duergars within 50 meters of their bodies felt heavy breathing and rapid heartbeats, as if they were surprised. An inexplicable sense of powerlessness and collapse.

This is a powerful ability from the real dragon family: Longwei!
Any pure-blooded dragon species, except for the newly born baby dragons, they all have their own Dragon Might Domain.

Once activated, any creature approaching them must make a will saving judgment forcibly, otherwise they will be shrouded in fear and horror, and lose their combat power instantly.

Almost at the moment Artus roared, Brian was also affected, and a row of data emerged:
"Affected by the effect of Longwei!"

"Trigger mandatory will saving throw!"

"Will save judgment passed!"

"You have successfully exempted Longwei's trembling effect!"

"You have successfully exempted from Longwei's frightening effect!"

"You have successfully exempted Longwei's panic effect!"

…………

Even if Brian succeeded in the save with his strong will, he still felt a sense of powerlessness as if he had a bad cold.

Fortunately, his Concentration skill level is relatively high, otherwise, it is very likely that his spell release will fail.

He immediately released the spell he had just prepared, and then looked in the direction of the red dragon.

Brian saw the bloated dragon spread its wings, leaped, and flew into the air. The moment the huge and bloated dragon body suddenly lost its balance, it wobbled crookedly, like a plane crashed, and fell headlong. Go down and smash the two gray dwarf stone guards to death on the spot.

"Bryan, I can't fly anymore, what should I do?!" Argotus, who got up from the ground, rubbed his head, looked at Brian for help, and shouted.

Looking at the sad face of the red dragon, Brian couldn't bear to look directly at it.

It was hard to imagine that he could actually see an expression that was about to cry from the face of a red dragon.

As an adult dragon, under normal circumstances, the creature level of the red dragon is around level 20-24, and its physique is also super large.

According to his visual inspection, the body length of Argotus is 30 meters, and the tail length is 25 meters.

Almost already belonged to the group of adult red dragons, the existence of the ceiling.

Who would have thought that this fat house red dragon could not even control its flight.

It can be seen from this how comfortable his life is.

However, it is also understandable if you think about it carefully.

Because the cave of Argotus is not as vast as imagined, and it is still a city of gray dwarves living in the dark region mainly with tunnels.

If he doesn't want to bump his head often, he can only crawl out of the cave every day to light the fire of the furnace.

Moreover, under the deliberate captivity of the gray dwarves, he almost didn't have to do anything. It's normal for him to be unable to adapt to his flying ability when he suddenly came to such a vast place.

"Climb to the turret, and spray dragon breath or fireballs on these gray dwarves." Brian shrugged helplessly, saying that he had no choice but to give him the most correct way at the moment.

Originally, he planned to ride the red dragon to slaughter the King of the Deep.

Seeing this situation now, he directly denied this unreliable idea.

He saw Argotus spread his wings and kick his two chubby thighs vigorously, just like a monkey climbing a tree, his two front paws hugged the turret, and he climbed to the top of the tower in a strange posture.

I saw flames leaping out of his lava-colored pupils, and thick smoke overflowing from his nostrils. As he took a deep breath, a fiery dragon's breath gushed out, igniting a sea of ​​flames among a large group of gray dwarves.

In the blink of an eye, at least more than 50 duergar warriors and stone guards died in the sea of ​​flames.

Seeing this terrifying power, Brian showed a surprised expression.

Apparently, he never expected that the dragon's breath from this guy would be so powerful.

This mouthful of old phlegm, I am afraid that even the red dragon in his prime would be ashamed to see it.

It can be seen from this that Argotus's nearly a hundred years of regular work and ignition are not completely useless, at least he has developed a strong lung capacity.

　Thanks to the boss: Shui Shi and Ling for the reward, thank you for your support! ! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)