Raising all of humanity: Starting with a backyard pool world

Chapter 50 [The Hero's Gamble]

Lin Qi clenched the leaf tightly in his palm until it was completely crushed into dust.

I took a step and headed towards the wounded soldiers' camp.

The smell of herbs mingled with the stench of blood as dwarven healers treated the wounded.

Lynch stopped in front of a simple bed.

Bri, the young dwarf he had rescued from the Stonejaw Bugs, was leaning against the wall, laboriously wiping a newly replaced Stasis Rune Shield.

His arm had been slightly injured in the previous battle and was wrapped in thick bandages.

"Craftsman of the Heart of Rock." Brie smiled sincerely when she saw Lynch. "You've come to see me."

He tried to stand up and bow, but Lynch reached out and pressed him down.

"Lie down." Lin Qi pulled over a wooden stool and sat down on the edge of the bed.

The surroundings were noisy, but there was an inexplicable quiet between the two of them.

"Bri," Lynch began, deliberately lowering his voice, "do you trust me?"

Brie paused for a moment, then nodded: "Of course! You saved my life! You are the most remarkable craftsman I have ever met, and the bravest warrior!"

In the eyes of the young dwarf, there was pure worship and trust.

"If," Lynch paused, organizing his thoughts, "if I told you that everything we're doing might be wrong, what would you think?"

Bree's smile froze. He was puzzled. "Wrong? But... Commander Thorin said, and the Master said, that this is the guidance of the Heart of the Mountain, and we are to light the sacred flame..."

"What if this guidance itself is a trap?" Lin Qi lowered his voice even further, so that only the two of them could hear him.

Brie was completely stunned; he couldn't understand it, nor could he accept it.

"I...I don't understand."

Lynch took a deep breath; he knew he couldn't explain too much.

"Bri, a frontal charge won't win us. You see, those monsters only grow stronger by killing us. The dwarves will bleed to their last drop, but the enemy will only multiply."

"We will be exhausted and wiped out."

These words were like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing the fervor in Brie's heart.

He recalled the battle, and the surge of arrogance emanating from the enemy after his comrades fell.

That was a despair that could not be fought with courage and honor.

"Then... what should we do?" Brie asked blankly.

"There is a way," Lynch said, looking him straight in the eye. "A way to solve the problem at its root. But it requires someone to bypass the main battlefield and carry out a near-death raid."

"I need your help."

Brie lowered his head, lost in thought.

In dwarven culture, fleeing from the front lines is considered cowardly.

But the person in front of him was his savior, a universally acknowledged hero.

He recalled the mine disaster, when everyone thought they were doomed, but this orc saved them all in an unbelievable way.

He chooses to believe.

"I'll do it with you." Brie raised his head, his eyes no longer filled with confusion, only determination.

"You gave me this life, and I will follow you no matter what you do."

Lynch felt a sense of relief and patted Bree on the shoulder: "Not just you. I need a few more trustworthy people who will absolutely obey orders, and... I saved their lives too."

He needs this absolute trust, built on the debt of saving his life, that transcends ethnic prejudice and traditional honor.

Brie immediately understood Lynch's meaning.

"I'm going to find them! Ouch... hiss..." He suddenly stood up, the movement aggravating his wound and causing him to wince in pain.

As preparations for the dwarven offensive were in full swing, a secret squad of five young warriors who had received Lynch's favors gathered in a corner of the wounded soldiers' camp.

Two of them were indirectly saved by Lynch during the Stonejaw Bug disaster, while the other three were Iron Guards who survived the Black Tide Champion's attacks in the last battle thanks to Lynch's precise armor penetration.

Bree's message and Lynch's reputation were the strongest guarantee.

They all entrusted their lives to this orc who had created countless miracles.

Just as Lin Qi finished assembling the raiding squad, the earth trembled once again.

"Woo-woo-woo" came the desolate sound of the attack horn.

"Enemy attack! All units to battle positions!" Thorin's battle cry echoed throughout the camp.

The dwarven warriors charged up the arrow towers and shield walls, ready for battle.

Lynch and his five-man team also donned their gear and blended into the crowd.

As they stood on the lookout point of the shield wall and looked into the distance, a black wave surged from the horizon.

The massive army of ten thousand men blotted out the sky, and wherever the black tide passed, the sky seemed to darken.

At the very front of the legion were dozens of enormous monsters, each over four meters tall, covered in heavy bone armor.

[The City Breaker]

With each step they took, the earth let out a heavy lament.

"Fire!" Commander Thorin gave the order.

Thousands of tempered crossbow bolts, fueled by the dwarves' fury, rained down on the enemy ranks.

However, the dense rain of arrows landing on the bone armor of the [Citybreakers] only caused a series of insignificant sparks to fly, and could not even slow down their charge.

An even stranger scene unfolded behind the legion.

Hundreds of "Plague Messengers" dressed in black robes opened their mouths.

Large clumps of thick, black mist spewed from their mouths, coalescing into a dark cloud that enveloped the battlefield and slowly drifted toward the dwarves' position.

"Activate the Stasis Rune!" Master Brok shouted anxiously from behind.

Above the shield wall, all the stasis runes lit up simultaneously, forming a barrier.

Black mist drifted over.

This time, the dwarves' rune technology failed.

The black mist ignored the runes' barrier and seeped into the dwarves' defenses.

In the area shrouded in black mist, the dwarf warriors felt a chill run through them, and their strength was draining away.

The carefully laid shock traps, under the erosion of the black mist, had their internal runic structures destroyed, and they all went silent and lost their function.

"roar--"

The [Citybreaker] Legion finally crashed into that wall of steel shields.

"Boom!"

Several dwarven Iron Guards were sent flying by the force, shields and all.

The intact shield wall had been torn open.

Lynch knew he was running out of time.

The dwarves' front line of defense was only a matter of time before it collapsed in the face of these two new units specifically designed to counter their tactics.

"Now!" Lynch roared. He led Brie and four other soldiers, taking advantage of the chaos when everyone's attention was drawn to the frontal battlefield, to retreat and break away from the defensive line.

All the dwarves were fighting tooth and nail to plug that breach, and no one noticed a corner that was drifting away from the battlefield.

Lin Qi led his team at a brisk pace and arrived at a secluded depression near the mountain behind the camp, which they had chosen beforehand.

"Craftsman of the Heart of Rock, what are we to do?" a young dwarf asked, panting heavily.

Lin Qi simply raised the mysterious battle axe in his hand high.

He poured all his mental energy into the axe blade.

But this time, his target was this thick, silent land.

"Deconstruction".

The tip of the axe blade struck the hard rocky ground.

In the area touched by the axe blade, the rocks and soil lost the rules that shaped them.

They break down from the solid state into the most primitive particles.

A smooth, downward slope appeared before everyone.

Lynch wielded his battle axe and dug a temporary passage inside the mountain, just wide enough for one person to pass by while bending over.

With each swing, a large amount of rock is wiped away and dissipates into the air.

"This...this is..."

Brie and the other four dwarves stared in disbelief at the miraculous scene unfolding before them.

They finally understood where Lynch's confidence came from.

This axe, this orc, possessed a power capable of changing the world.

"No time to explain, hurry up and follow!" Lin Qi was the first to enter the dark passage.

On the surface, the battle for the dwarven front is becoming increasingly fierce.

Thorin fought valiantly, but half of his personal guards had already fallen.

He roared and chopped down a Black Tide warrior who rushed forward with his battle axe, but was then struck by a swing from a [Citybreaker].

Struggling to get up, all that was in front of me was darkness.

And beneath his feet, deep within that cold earth.

Lin Qi was leading his suicide squad through endless darkness, following the guidance of the secret language of the forest.

Charge toward the heart of the Black Tide Legion, toward that last, only hope, and charge forward with a do-or-die spirit.