Chapter 435 - 342: You Are Courting Death
Chapter 435: Chapter 342: You Are Courting Death
The entire City of Ten Thousand Races was strewn with collapsed walls and rubble. To rely on this debris for cover while fighting the Holy Order Army would be tantamount to offering one’s neck to the enemy’s blade.
Fortunately, there were also plenty of structures here that Shire was more familiar with—tunnels.
The city district was riddled with tunnels of all sizes. Some were inhabited by the Feathered Serpent Kingdom’s goblins, but many more were abandoned. The High Priest had told Shire that when the goblins living in a tunnel were defeated, the tunnel would be abandoned. This was mainly because a goblin leader like Dongtou, in a bid to establish their prestige, would force their subordinates to dig new tunnels. That was why the City of Ten Thousand Races was riddled with them.
Now, Shire decided to make use of these tunnels. Since they weren’t previously connected, he ordered his subordinates to use Worker Ants to dig through and link them, forming a vast underground network.
Shire himself couldn’t estimate how large this network was. He could only order his men to set up traps and escape routes within the tunnels according to a certain pattern.
The tunnels weren’t very high, making them easy for goblins to pass through. Moreover, they were only sporadically lit by a few Blue Fluorescent Mushrooms. The goblins’ night vision could adapt to such dim light, but for the Paladins of the Holy Order Army, it was torment.
They could only hunch over and enter in single file, all while struggling to make out the gloomy environment inside. If they hit a dead end, they had no choice but to turn around and retreat.
No one would pay attention to what was underfoot: the white Stone Rings concealed beneath a layer of loose dirt. Goblins on the other side of the earthen wall could easily pinpoint the Paladins’ locations through small wooden tubes inserted into the wall, allowing them to immediately activate the controllers at hand.
The other side of the Rune Language: Door was at the bottom of Darren Lake. The Paladins would suddenly find themselves at the bottom of the lake with no time to cast Magic on themselves. Moreover, they weren’t adept at Water Molding Magic. Their Heavy Armor became a fatal burden; after flailing about for a dozen or so seconds, they would lose consciousness and sink to the lakebed.
At that point, with the help of the Naga Race, these guys would be bound and quickly transported to a structure on the lakebed. Inside that structure, a massive Frogman air bubble had already been set up, ensuring the Paladins would only be rendered unconscious, not killed.
Shire’s condition for requesting the Naga Race’s help was the Paladins’ Armor and weapons. The bodies of the Naga Race were humanoid from the waist up, but below the waist they had long, eel-like tails. The Paladins’ Chest Armor and weapons weren’t too difficult for the Naga Race to use. Furthermore, Shire promised to have the Magic Artisan, Marshall, add anti-rust Runes to the equipment, making it even more suitable for the Naga.
And so, the Paladins gradually fell into Shire’s trap.
At first, they maintained their battle formation and explored the city methodically. But after several goblin ambushes, the Paladins began to grow impatient and paranoid.
It was no wonder they changed; anyone would be furious after being toyed with like this. They’d walk a few meters, and an explosion would go off at the front of their column. A few steps more, and someone would fall into a pitfall. They’d barely manage to kill the Slime in the pit and pull their comrade out before another explosion would hit them from behind, from gods knew where. The ones carrying out these ambushes were just a bunch of shabbily-dressed goblins. After a few rounds of this, all the Paladins were fuming.
Shire had spent a long time devising this combat method. If the Paladins were allowed to form up, few armies could face them head-on. Not to mention, these lumps of iron were all clad in fine Dwarven Steel Armor and had cast all sorts of defensive Magic on themselves. Even if the Feathered Serpent God himself took the field, victory likely couldn’t be guaranteed.
The plan now was to separate the Paladins, make them impatient and paranoid, and fuel their anger until they lost their composure. Then, on that foundation, he would use Rune Language to capture them.
Shire had his own reasons for capturing the Paladins instead of just killing them. He believed that keeping them alive for now might prove useful later. After all, while the dead had their uses, they were not as valuable as the living.
"Brother, those humans are starting to run all over the city in a panic!" Pazani said, lying beside Shire, his fish-like tail wagging in excitement. "How on earth did you come up with a method like this? The city’s tunnels are like a giant maze. After I cast my Water Magic at the beginning, I almost couldn’t find my way out myself!"
From the start, the Naga Prince had hidden behind a rock and activated Rune Language: Frosty Winter. Although its effect was limited, it did a good job of slowing the enemy’s advance. After casting the Magic, he immediately ducked into a nearby tunnel and quickly retreated from the area through its winding passages.
"I can’t claim to have invented this. You could call it the legacy of our ancestors," Shire said with a calm smile. "When our ancestors fought off invaders, they used the unique features of their environment to create a fighting style all our own. You could call it an innovative Combat Technique, but it’s also the culmination of generations of wisdom."
Listening to Shire, Pazani was about to joke, ’You mean the goblin ancestors?’ but seeing the serious look in Shire’s eyes, he suddenly felt he shouldn’t and obediently kept his mouth shut.