575.Chapter 573 572 You become the friend of a Dwarf, and you will
Chapter 573 572.You Become a Friend of a Dwarf, You Will Be a Friend of All Dwarves -Additional [1430]
(For brother “Huo Zheng is fine” [14/20])
The distance from the Shadow Valley to the Black Flame Pass is actually not far, the straight line distance is only thirty kilometers, but this road is very winding.
Inheriting the complex and changeable terrain near the barren mountain, this road needs to pass through two cliffs and climb up the circling mountain road with a drop of at least one hundred and thirty meters before it can really enter the dark mountain range area.
This kind of terrain was obviously not naturally occurring, according to Kudel, this place had been bombarded by the King of Biting Bones with hundreds of meteorites more than a hundred years ago before this kind of strange terrain appeared, and the local spiritual energy was notoriously unstable.
In particular, the tidal surge of psychic energy from the Dark Mountains that accompanied the Black Plague made casting large-scale psychic energy spells in this region a challenging task.
The fact that it had been like this for many years was a good indication that this area was “unorthodox”!
Murphy guessed that this might have something to do with the destruction of the Eden Region in the Golden Era, but he couldn’t come up with any more evidence.
However, the imagined situation of the Blood League vampires lying in the defense line in broad daylight did not appear, when the carriage was five kilometers near the Black Flame Mountain Pass, the Blood League Knights’ squire knights appeared.
These guys were not vampires.
Although in the continent’s common parlance, these ordinary people who served the Blood League Knights were similar to “blood servants”, Murphy knew that no one in the Blood League Knights would use this term to describe these escorts.
According to some information disclosed by Paranor before, the Blood Alliance Clan under the leadership of Lord Paying does not actively recruit servants, these mortal military organizations that depend on the existence of the Blood Alliance Knights are all “inquisitive”.
In particular, some of the elite squires have ancestors that can be traced back to the outbreak of the First Black Plague.
When Lord Paying saved their ancestors, those who lost everything in the war and swore vengeance against the Black Plague followed the Knights of the Blood League to the Dark Mountains, and the three Black Plagues since then have allowed this group to expand in numbers.
In particular, the fourth Black Plague was the most horrific, with the King of the Bone Biters carting off half of the continent, and the brutal war shaped many of the “Avengers”.
This made the number of Knights of the Blood League’s retinue reach a new high, and it is said that it still maintains the scale of nearly 50,000 people in more than three dozen warbands.
The selection of new recruits for the Knights of the Blood League would also be the first to select the elites from these squires, but since they were not bloodservants in the conventional sense, these brave men naturally did not have the twisted belief that becoming a vampire was the honor of their lives.
Many of them do not actively pursue immortality, but rather see themselves as warriors of the vampire army.
They followed Lord Paying to fight the jackals in the Dark Mountain Range, fighting bravely and crazily, causing the jackals to fear these guys a bit, and they called this group of vampires fighting with the vampire army “Paying’s Dogs”.
But, as the saying goes, being insulted by one’s enemies is the best form of praise.
From this point of view, the Knights of the Blood League’s retinue was indeed not simple.
In fact, many people on the continent would praise these mortals as “warriors”, believing that these warriors who dared to fight all year round in the Dark Mountains were a symbol of honor for all the continent’s races.
Of course, with the super charisma of Lord Paying, there must be more than just humans in his retinue, for example, this group of knights who came to escort the “honored guests” to the defense line included several dwarves riding black goats and an elven archer with a scar on his face.
They wore uniform chainmail, over which was the robe of the Knights of the Blood League, the emblem of the Blood Spear, symbolizing Lord Payn and his Holy Lance of Eternal Silence.
There were also those who wore battle flags.
The battle flag was worn out yet not because it wasn’t properly maintained, in fact, Murphy could tell at a glance that the tattered battle flag was full of signs of battle.
It was an inheritance of faith, representing that the Sovereignty Army in front of them embraced from the bottom of their hearts the idea and the glory of war that they possessed.
There weren’t many people in front of them, but the combination of the stern aura on the twenty knights brought Maxim, who was drowsy from the sunlight, to his senses.
This blood general seemed to see a model for the future of his army!
This was the prima donna stance he wished to see in the People’s Army of Cadman, silent, tough and deadly.
“Lord Heather is already waiting for your guests at the defense line, Governor Murphy and General Maxim please come with us, the position was fought with a small group of incoming jackals yesterday, it is quite messy there, I hope your guests don’t mind.”
The leader of this escort knights is a human female knight, looking at the height and size should be a Nord, she wears a battle helmet can’t see her face, but from the spiked great war hammer behind her back you can tell that this is a real warrior.
She was very polite and spoke to Murphy in the carriage with a gentle yet non-resistant tone.
Obviously, she did not really think that the vampire governor from Transylvania was a so-called “honored guest”, and she probably thought that Murphy’s arrival would only interfere with the operation of the defense line.
But Murphy was not angry.
On the contrary, he mobilized his Desire Energy to listen to the thoughts of the soldiers around him with great interest.
Well, it seems that they think they can hold the Black Flame Pass without assistance, and a few of them are praising this Governor’s handsomeness and good looks, so knowledgeable.
But I can’t stand it when you guys call me a sissy.
If it weren’t for the fact that I do have business today, high and low would have to be here to teach you all the finer points of swordplay.
With such thoughts, Murphy’s carriage was escorted as it flew close to the Black Flame Mountain Pass.
As a natural passage from the ring-shaped Dark Mountain Range to the outside world, this mountain pass is not really a flat avenue that exists between two mountains, in fact, the length of this mountain pass reaches seventeen kilometers in front and back, it is relying on a relatively flat terrain that exists between the two sides of the towering barren mountains.
As early as the first black plague expulsion war, civilization camp realized the strategic value of this mountain pass, so they built castles and fortresses here, from a high point of view this place looks like a long and narrow “town” is not a single line of defense, but the destruction of the four black plagues made this mountain pass covered with ancient ruins.
The castle built after the first black plague has long been destroyed, only the ruins of the base remain, now the Blood League Knights quarters, hundreds of years of war attacks and repetitive construction has made the terrain here more complex.
As the carriage reached a rising depression, Murphy got out and used his telescope to scrutinize the entire defense line below.
He had to recognize the strategic value of the Black Flame Pass, a layman with no knowledge of war could see that the terrain was treacherous, and hundreds of years of construction had turned this place into a real “hedgehog”.
There were no less than a hundred spherical bunkers built on the ground alone, the sentry towers built on the mountain and the section of the city wall formed a deadly crossfire platform, and those small fortresses that were constantly being molded directly changed the original terrain of the Black Flame Mountain Pass.
It looked very disorganized, but it was actually interlaced in a measured manner.
It was almost like a “abstract artwork” made by a heavy tower defense player who had spent a night showing off ten bottles of expired wine.
But one thing is for sure.
If the 3,000 men under Murphy’s command came to attack this mountain pass, they were afraid that they wouldn’t even be able to break through the second line of defense before they all died from the deadly firepower.
“How many people are in this line of defense?”
Murphy put away his binoculars and asked the commander of the retinue beside him with a gesture of awe.
The latter replied curtly:
“13,000 men from the nine main battle regiments of the Blood League Sovereign Army, and 20,000 new recruits, the Second Lord Regiment of the Blood League Knights are stationed here at their full strength, 140 Silver Bloods, 2,530 Black Iron Squires, and one Gold Commander, Lord Heather.
There is also an artillery regiment of brass dwarves and a ranger unit of forest elves.
The Black Flame Pass is no different from the Brass Fortress in terms of strategic location, it is only because of the terrain here that even the Brass Dwarves are unable to mold the city on a large scale that it is unable to form a scale such as that of the Brass Fortress.”
Saying this, this Nord female warrior with a battle helmet glanced at Murphy, she seemed to want to say something but eventually held back.
This bit of emotion flew by Murphy and he said:
“You are an excellent soldier, guarding here all year round to protect the peace of the continent, heroes like you don’t need to be formal in front of me, Your Excellency, just say what you want to say.”
“Alright then.”
In the quiet effect of the energy of desire, this female warrior with the rank of captain finally said what was really in her heart, she said:
“I’ve heard that you’ve established a defense line in the Valley of the Shadow? With all due respect, there is no need for that!
Just let your soldiers come directly to the Black Flame Mountain Pass, we still have positions here that can be left for them, if the Black Flame Mountain Pass is lost, it’s impossible for you to block the Jackals in the Valley of Shadows, instead of spreading out your troops it’s better to merge them into a single force.”
“Hmm, very good suggestion.”
Murphy nodded, but then he shook his head and said:
“Your suggestion is based on the fact that the Black Flame Pass can block and delay the enemy’s main force, but if the Black Flame Pass is destroyed in this battle . What I mean is that I don’t think the scale of the Black Plague this time will be smaller than last time, you should know that last time, the King of Biting Bones only took fifteen days to destroy this place.
We’ll have to form a second line of defense in the Valley of the Shadow, ma’am, and that’s just in case the worst comes to the worst.
Once things go to the worst, the Valley of the Shadow can at least provide you with a place of refuge from the tragedy that occurred in the Fourth Black Plague.
The ten thousand or so people who guarded this place a hundred and ten years ago died in battle overnight, including many famous figures on the continent, and I greatly admire their courage, but if they had prepared earlier, they might have been able to retain more viable forces.”
“The defense of the Black Flame Pass during the Fourth Black Plague was like a child’s toy compared to now!”
The female warrior with the helmet retorted disdainfully: “Venerable Lord Paying has been trying to find ways to fortify the system here since the end of the last Black Calamity, we’ve quintupled the number of fortresses in the past hundred years, dug out hiding caves and storage chambers underneath the ground, and enough food to feed tens of thousands of people for several months is already in place.
The brass dwarves and halflings have transported enough munitions here to blow up an entire mountain.
I don’t mean to despise your military prowess, Governor Murphy, but we can hold this place until we die of old age!”
“Of course, of course, you have the capital.”
Murphy shrugged as he said:
“I’m not a professional soldier or commander, and I have no intention of arguing with you in your area of expertise Ms. Heather, I’ve just never heard of you having this hobby? Did you disguise yourself like this and come here specifically to test the gold content of me as the Governor of Transylvania?”
“Huh?”
The Nordic female warrior with the battle helmet was still trying to play dumb.
But at Murphy’s sultry gaze, she let out a disdainful snort, and one of the rune stones on her wrist flashed in a flash of light, allowing her true appearance to come through.
Just as short and half-human as Marshal Loren.
But Lady Heather, Second Lord of the Knights of the Blood League, was much more handsomely dressed than Loren’s small-minded dwarf.
A suit of brass dwarven fine plate armor covered her body, angular armor shaped into goat’s head decorations on her shoulders, and the tightly fitted way she wore it made Lord Heather look like a short man shaped in steel.
She carries a dwarven-style full-coverage battle helmet as the legends say, revealing only a V-shaped observation hole at her eyes, and the helmet is topped with two carefully shaped bull horns for an intimidating look.
Lord Heather is a shield warrior.
Her weapons were two shields, which sounded strange, but the round shield that was carried behind her back was a horrible structure with open edges, and with the deadly flying shield techniques of the shield warriors, this thing could rebound fast among the enemies to create horrible kills, not to mention that the powerful shield warriors were practically impervious to water when in defense mode.
Exaggerated rumors say that a gold-ranked shield warrior like Ms. Heather is guaranteed to tire out her opponents in a battle of the same rank.
To be honest, if it wasn’t for the fact that Lord Heather’s plate armor was covered with the battle robes of the Knights of the Blood League, Murphy would have just assumed that this guy was a pure Dwarf instead of a Dwarf Vampire.
Well, the words dwarf and vampire felt very awkward just putting them together, and the descendant of Mother Earth Goddess wouldn’t allow herself to be molded into such a depraved posture after death.
As a result the number of Dwarf Vampires was the smallest of all, according to Tris there could be no more than two hundred Dwarf Vampires on the entire continent, and Lord Heather was undoubtedly the most recognizable one of this unique group.
The story about her is a secret.
Even within the Knights of the Blood League, few knew why Lord Heather would have accepted the first espousal of the Venerable Lord Paying to become a vampire.
It was forbidden to her.
At this moment, after Lord Heather took off her disguise, she crossed her arms in a very irritated stance and tilted her head to look at Murphy, who was very tall and still wore a damn smile.
She said:
“I’ve confirmed that, just as Little Loren’s letter said, you’re a complete military idiot! You are completely incapable of comprehending how strong the defenses of the Black Flame Pass are, but I won’t correct you.
Murphy, Venerable Lord Paying thinks highly of you, so if you really want to waste your time shaping your defenses in Spectral Shadow Valley be my guest, but I have a request!
After I issue the order, your soldiers are to come to the defense line for support!
You’ve already stepped onto the battlefield, so you should smell the gunpowder.”
“Of course, this will be discussed between you and my General Maxim, I will not interfere.”
Murphy, in order to take care of the strange pride of the dwarves, crouched down to the level of Lord Heather as he watched in satisfaction.
He said:
“Since Marshal Loren has written to you, you should know why I am here, about the burning gold purchase in Transylvania.”
“The first shipment of burning gold powder from House Hoffman is on its way.”
Lord Heather, true to the straightforward style of the dwarves, spread his hands and said:
“In another week it will reach your Scarlet Fortress, time is short so my nephew who is the current head of House Hoffman has rented a halfling airship to complete the transportation, we can give you that stockpile of burning gold at the lowest price possible, this is for the fact that you and your Trix helped the Frost Dwarves retrieve what was left of their supreme lord.
We Dwarves have always kept our grudges separate, and you have done something awesome, so you are now a friend of our Dwarves.
But friends are friends, and business must be kept separate.
You will pay for the rental of the airship.
Well, my nephew rented it for about three months. Maybe you’ll need it in the war, too.
Halfling airships are pretty good, but it’s a shame there are so few of them, otherwise the defense of the Black Flame Pass would be more solid.”
“Well, I must express my gratitude for your generosity from the bottom of my heart, my dear Lord Heather.”
Murphy’s admiration this time did not carry any exaggeration.
Although Lord Heather in front of her was speaking unkindly, the assistance she gave to Transylvania made the Dwarves as a race pull full circle in Murphy’s mind.
“Compared to you, Marshal Loren is really a third-rate Dwarf, he has completely failed to inherit the bravado that a Dwarf should have, but it’s not his fault, after all, he only has half Dwarf blood.”
Murphy said:
“If there is a chance in the future, you must travel to Scarlet Castle as a guest, and I will feast you with the highest level of VIP etiquette. Oh yes, Mark, bring out the gift we brought to Lord Heather.”
He called out, and Maxim immediately took down a case of wine from the carriage and placed it beside Lord Heather.
Murphy said triumphantly:
“This is a specialty of Transylvania, which we call ‘Flying’ wine, and His Excellency, the Silver Dwarf’s great smith, Eirich, drank it and said it was good! It’s clearly a drink to your taste, it’s that damned short man Loren who doesn’t know what he’s talking about”
“Wait..! What did you just say?”
Lord Heather, who had just picked up a bottle of wine, was still very happy, thinking that Murphy was quite a good boy, but in the end, the “Dwarf Dignity Radar”, which was turned on 24 hours a day, quickly caught a word that was damned enough to trigger the anger of all the Dwarves.
Murphy’s face full of smiles in this moment freeze down.
Seeing that Heather had already pulled out the round shield behind her back, the vampire governor coughed, not caring that it was now daytime, and with a whoosh, opened his wings and scampered into the sky.
He shouted from afar:
“That . I suddenly remembered that I have to make a trip to Hungry Mountain, and that’s a personal matter, so I’ll leave you to it, Mark! You stay here and have a good discussion with Lord Heather about military matters, and be sure to be humble enough to learn a couple tricks from the Lord.”
“Snap.”
High in the air Murphy swung up his thermite sword to deflect the shield that Lord Heather below had slammed with fury, and the counterattack of the Blood League Clan’s Sword of Sanction sent the round shield bouncing back to the ground in the same path it had come from, to be caught in Heather’s hands.
Following the impact, Murphy had scampered into the clouds and disappeared.
On the ground, Lord Heather roared in anger at the Dwarf’s “home language”, vowing to tear Murphy’s mouth open, apparently because the damn term “short man” was too insulting for a Dwarf.
Maxim’s body was numb by the side.
Murphy could run, but he couldn’t.
He came with a military mission, looking at the angry eyes under Lord Heather’s helmet, Maxim could only dryly laugh twice.
It was good that Heather was a vampire in the end, and the blood of the sinful descendants diluted her dwarf’s irascible personality, allowing her to calm down after binge drinking a few bottles of wine.
The rumors were true, this lord wouldn’t even take off her battle helmet even when she was drinking.
“Ch, actually being able to block my flying shield containing a rageful strike, it seems that this Murphy Lord of yours has some skill.”
A few minutes later, Lord Heather sat on the wine crate and glanced at Maxim, who had been punched but was still able to stand with clenched teeth, and she said in a low voice:
“No wonder His Holiness thinks so highly of him, tsk, at this age, with this kind of strength, the future is boundless. You you guy are not bad either, when are you going to open the Silver Trial? Your berserk fighting style is very similar to dwarves, so do you need me to give you some advice?
For the sake of these wines.”
(End of chapter)