sbdcsierra Chapter 51 [A Concerto of Ice and Fire]
Chapter 51 [A Concerto of Ice and Fire]
Bree and the other four dwarf warriors followed behind Lynch, not daring to breathe.
"Keep quiet and stay close to me," Lynch's reminder echoed in the narrow passage.
His intense concentration caused beads of sweat to form on his forehead.
Maintaining this continuous deconstruction of matter is a huge drain on him.
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Qi stopped.
The axe blade lightly touched the sloping rock face in front of him.
I closed my eyes, and another image appeared in my mind.
The dynamic map obtained through the leaf messenger overlapped and calibrated with his current analysis of the surrounding rock structure in his consciousness.
"Coordinates...confirmed."
"We've arrived."
He swung his battle axe one last time.
The soil layer in front peels away and dissolves upwards.
Light shone in from the exit.
Lynch emerged from the tunnel first, followed closely by Brie and the others.
They emerged from the shadow of a pile of rocks and found themselves in a huge basin.
This is the rear camp of the Black Tide Legion.
However, looking around, there were countless totem poles made of bones and twisted flesh, their purpose unknown, stuck in the ground.
There was a faint black mist in the air.
Countless captured orcs from other tribes were imprisoned like livestock in an open field, their eyes numb and desperate.
In the very center of the basin stands a chilling presence.
A giant totem pole, it seems to be alive.
It is made up of the bones of countless mutated creatures twisted, stacked and stitched together with still-pulsating flesh and blood.
Inside the totem, there was a constant heartbeat-like behavior. With each dull throb, black mist flowed along the totem's surface, spreading in all directions and connecting with every Black Tide warrior on the distant front lines.
This is the power center of the entire Black Tide Legion, also referred to in that letter as...
—The existence of the mother nest totem.
Below the totem, seven plague messengers dressed in black robes stand guard.
They sat in a circle, chanting incantations, and wisps of black mist rose from their bodies and were absorbed by the totem.
"Finally found you." Lin Qi said, confirming something.
"What do we do, craftsman?" Bri gripped the shield tightly, his palms sweating.
The scene before him was beyond the comprehension of Bri, a dwarf who had lived in the outpost for years.
"Their attention is all on the front lines; we only have one chance," Lynch said, making a simple tactical deployment.
"Bri, you five, form the tightest defensive formation; no matter what happens, you only have one mission—"
"Focus on me, move forward, and create an opportunity for me to get close to that big guy."
"Yes!" Five dwarves formed a miniature shield wall, protecting Lynch in the center.
"Remember, once you succeed, retreat immediately through the tunnel I've dug. Don't linger in the fight."
Lynch gave one last instruction.
"Let's go!" The dwarf's small shield wall began to move.
The heavy footsteps on the ground quickly alerted the seven plague messengers.
"Intruder!"
The seven plague messengers stood up at the same time. Under their hoods were withered, emaciated faces distorted by the overuse of the Black Tide's power.
Seven thick streams of plague-infused black mist spewed out, converging into a small storm that swept towards Lynch's team.
"Raise your shield! Activate the runes!" Brie roared.
Five static rune shields lit up simultaneously.
However, the concentration and purity of the black fog here are far beyond what can be compared to the front lines of the battlefield.
"Sizzle—"
The runes' light flickered and dimmed under the erosion of the black mist.
"The runes... can't hold on any longer!" a dwarf warrior cried out in terror.
The stasis rune shattered after holding on for a few seconds.
The black mist found a gap and seeped in.
The dwarf warrior screamed as his arm, shrouded in black mist, turned black and necrotic.
"Hold on! Move closer to me!" Under immense pressure, Brie moved his shield forward, trying to close the gap.
Lynch did not sit idly by and wait for his doom.
He slipped through the gaps in the shield wall and bravely faced the plague storm.
"Deconstruct!" The battle axe swung out, this time targeting the invisible mist.
Where the axe blade passed, a clear fault and void appeared in the black fog of plague.
This attack greatly relieved the pressure on the shield wall.
But this also completely exposed his location.
"Kill him! That orc!"
"He's the core player!"
The two plague messengers abandoned their ranged attacks, their withered bodies transforming into two afterimages as they attacked Lynch from both sides.
Their fingernails turned black and sharp, even making a whistling sound as they cut through the air.
"Clang! Clang!" Lin Qi swung his battle axe to block the two men's attacks.
Meanwhile, on the main battlefield, the dwarves' defenses are already in grave danger.
Thorin stood up again, his right arm armor completely shattered, leaving him only able to hold the axe with his left hand.
The breachers were an endless stream of monsters, crashing into the shield wall again and again.
The breach was torn open, only to be filled again by more soldiers with their own flesh and blood.
Everyone knew that defeat was only a matter of time.
The Kuroshio Current's reinforcements continued to surge in, preparing to completely submerge this crumbling dam.
"The mountains are above..." Thorin gasped for breath, looking at the boundless black waves before him, the last glimmer of light in his eyes about to be extinguished.
Just then, lush green vines, shimmering with the light of life, burst forth from the scorched earth.
They erected thick, resilient walls of vines, several meters thick, in front of the Kuroshio reinforcements.
The charging Black Tide warriors crashed into the wall, became entangled in vines, and were unable to move.
Immediately afterwards, extreme cold descended from the sky.
Countless frosts fell from the sky.
It crashes down on the most crowded areas of the legion, or on their path of imminent charge, freezing the ground and creating obstacles.
Above the sky, Lila maintained her last bit of magic power, looking utterly exhausted.
"Lila, you have disobeyed the Speaker's orders!" Valen said beside her, his voice filled with shock and confusion.
"If the defenses of order collapse, our Arcane Council will become the next target of the Black Tide."
Lila gasped for breath; she clearly understood the simple truth that once the dwarves were gone, no one would protect the world.
"I didn't intervene in the war; I just... bought some time."
This level of obstruction cannot last long.
But if it can buy even a few minutes of time for those dwarves fighting bloody battles, for that orc who broke into enemy territory alone, that will be enough.
This was a huge gamble she took in her quest for victory.
"You're crazy. How come I never noticed how crazy you were before?" Valen looked at her, but in the end, he didn't stop her.
Because he also saw that with the appearance of vines and frost barriers, the unstoppable black tide became slowed and chaotic.
……
In front of the mother nest totem.
The sudden turn of events left all the plague messengers stunned.
The torrent of power that should have been flowing continuously from the rear of the legion was forcibly cut off by some external force.
"What happened?"
"Were we attacked from the rear?"
It was that moment of hesitation.
"Bri! Now!" Lynch roared.
The mysterious battle axe shone brightly, forcefully shaking off the two plague messengers who were entangled with him.
Brie and the rest of his companions began their charge.
"For the Heart of Rock!!"
"For the sake of the mountains!!"
The five tattered round shields merged into one and crashed into the remaining plague messengers, using their own bodies to clear the final path for Lynch's charge.
The plague messengers were utterly routed.
Lin Qi rushed toward the pulsating mother nest totem.
The closer he got to the totem, the stronger the repulsive force emanating from it, hindering his progress.
With each step Lynch took, the kinetic energy left a crater in the ground, and his body gradually couldn't take it anymore, beginning to emit groans of pain as if it were about to fall apart.
But he didn't stop.
He raised the mysterious battle axe in his hand.
This time, what appeared on the axe was no longer a simple silver-purple glow.
A layer of fine, golden patterns, evolved from dwarven static runes and symbolizing "solidity" and "order," covered the axe.
He had already incorporated the techniques of Frostfire Forging into every use of the battle axe.
This divine weapon, originating from the previous era, is now imbued with the mark of this new era, belonging to the dwarven civilization.
At this moment, Lynch could also be called Gel, his understanding of the Black Tide had reached its peak, and his corresponding handling methods had been sublimated to the extreme.
This new understanding led to the creation of a new rune, which he named.
— "Rune Wedge".
He hurled this wedge, into which he had poured everything, at that enormous, beating heart.
That heart, along with the entire nest totem composed of countless corpses and flesh, began to crumble inch by inch from the point of impact, like a sand sculpture being weathered.
The power network that held the Black Tide Legion together was completely severed the moment this wedge was driven in.
On the main battlefield.
A city breaker was raising his bone hammer, ready to smash it down on Thorin.
The black tide power within its body dissipated like the receding tide, its massive body shrank, its thick bone armor fell off, and it reverted to the appearance of an ordinary orc, its eyes filled with weakness and confusion.
Tens of thousands of Black Tide warriors were collectively plunged into this sudden state of weakness.
The violent, bloodthirsty aura that had been emanating from them vanished.
The burning black flames went out.
They transformed from an invincible killing machine back into a group of poorly equipped and physically weak orcs.
Thorin stared at the unbelievable scene before him, completely bewildered.
But decades of fighting instinct told him that the opportunity had arrived.
"Dwarf!" With his last ounce of strength, he raised his battle axe.
"Counterattack!"
"kill--!"
The surviving Iron Guards recovered from their initial shock.
They charged over the tattered shield wall and launched a final, desperate charge against the weakened and confused enemy.
The battle turned into a massacre.
When the last orc fell.
The surviving dwarves stood amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, leaning on their weapons.
They won.
A tragic victory.
Thorin looked around and saw that of the original five hundred elite expeditionary soldiers, less than a hundred were still standing.
He raised his head and looked towards the end of the ravaged battlefield, towards the direction of the meteorite crater.
What exactly happened?