Gray Prophet Drazhos stared intently at the massive war machine charging toward him. The leader of the Chaos Dwarves initially thought that the Empire had somehow brought their ships onto land or that Nuln had deployed steam tanks. However, he quickly realized that the war machine approaching them was a new invention, distinct from the steam tanks—it was something entirely different!
Even the Infernal Guards paled in comparison to these massive contraptions, which looked somewhat like naval warships but were mounted on a series of enormous wheels, with what seemed to be large steam engines inside powering them. Black smoke billowed from the rear of the ships, and on their decks, the notorious Manann's Blade Mercenary Company wielded scimitars and tridents. Each mercenary was armed with a long-barreled musket, and they stood densely packed on the deck under the command of their leader, Blackbeard Teach, eager for battle. There were about eight hundred of them, making the deck both crowded and filled with an intense battle spirit.
Even Drazhos, the Chaos Dwarf, had heard of Blackbeard Teach's infamy. It was said that he was a pirate, a mercenary, a smuggler, and a thief who should have been hanged long ago. He had spent decades assembling a pirate crew of vicious marauders and veteran sailors, ravaging the Old World until they were eventually subdued by the Duke of Marienburg, Van der Guber-Schultz. After accepting amnesty, Blackbeard Teach and his crew were converted into a mercenary force under Marienburg's command, renaming themselves the Manann's Blade Mercenary Company, and their pirate ships were repurposed as privateers.
No one knew what Blackbeard Teach had discussed with Schultz, but the notorious mercenary captain seemed to adhere to a certain code of honor and contract. Due to the naturally delicate relationship between Marienburg and the Empire, the Manann's Blade Mercenary Company rarely accepted employment from the Empire, which made them unpopular among the Empire's nobility.
However, to protect their assets, ensure the successful testing of their landships, and secure a substantial commission from the Nuln City Council, the Marienburg Council decided to agree to Lady Emanoli's request to deploy four landships into battle!
The moment Manann's Blade Mercenaries entered the battlefield, they proved their worth. These fierce mercenaries, made up of former pirates and veteran sailors, had fought in nearly every western sea. They had battled High Elves, Dark Elves, Vampire Pirates, and even Tomb Kings fleets. Facing the oncoming Chaos Dwarves, Blackbeard Teach and his men remained unfazed. Each mercenary aimed their long-barreled muskets, rhythmically picking off Chaos Dwarf warriors with deadly precision.
Things took a turn for the worse when Drazhos noticed that the armored plates on the front of the landships were opening, revealing cannons slowly being pushed into position.
"Prepare to defend!" The Gray Prophet's heart sank. If he had been considering whether to forcefully attack the Imperial lines earlier, now he had to think about how to preserve his army.
Just as Drazhos ordered the remaining six functioning daemon steam trains to form a semicircle to counter the landships, the sound of hoofbeats from the earth made him look up in surprise.
"Chaos Dwarves! Damn you!!!" The charge was led by Blackheart Repp and his Free Cavalry Regiment. The mercenary baron radiated a murderous intent, as he led around a thousand cavalrymen to attack the Chaos Dwarf formation from the flank.
This was indeed a rare opportunity. The Chaos Dwarves' front line had suffered heavy losses in the earlier assault, losing over a thousand vanguard troops. Sensing the opportunity, Blackheart Repp immediately seized it, leading the Free Cavalry Regiment in a flank attack on the Chaos Dwarf formation. As the Chaos Dwarves were still in disarray and shock, Blackheart Repp drew his black two-handed sword from his back, shouting, "This time, there's no support—this is a full-on attack! Brothers, hit them hard!"
"Woooh!" The Free Cavalrymen raised their firearms, firing from horseback. The dense barrage of bullets tore through the Chaos Dwarf ranks at close range, catching them off guard and inflicting heavy casualties. Hundreds of Chaos Dwarves fell.
The Gray Prophet was greatly troubled by this turn of events. He immediately ordered the Chaos Dwarves' elite Infernal Guards to advance.
The Infernal Guards, clad in heavy armor and utterly ruthless, were the core of the Chaos Dwarf army. They moved in unison, raising their fire glaives against Blackheart Repp and his Free Cavalry Regiment.
"Boom! Boom boom!"
The Chaos Dwarves' counterattack came much faster than expected. Their devastating firepower instantly obliterated many of the Free Cavalrymen and their horses, leaving more than two hundred cavalrymen dead. The remaining soldiers halted their advance. Blackheart Repp quickly ordered the surviving cavalry to regroup and raised his black two-handed sword, shouting, "Advance, brothers! Even if only one of us is left, we must keep attacking! Charge, ahhhh! For Charlemagne, for the savior Ludwig, for the Empire!!!"
"For the Empire!" Inspired by Blackheart Repp's words, the Free Cavalrymen found their morale bolstered. Unable to reload their firearms, the cavalry switched to close combat and launched a charge at the Chaos Dwarf formation.
"Fools!" The Gray Prophet sneered as he watched the humans foolishly charge at the Chaos Dwarf shield wall. The impenetrable formation of Chaos Dwarves was not something this ragtag group could break through. If the thousand cavalrymen had all been Imperial Knights, they might have stood a chance, but aside from a few conscripted knights, most of the Free Cavalrymen were made up of pistol cavalry, vanguard knights, and various mercenary horsemen. What could they accomplish?
"I, Littbird, will die, but I will die charging!" As Blackheart Repp led the cavalry close to the Chaos Dwarf's fortified shield wall, the mercenary baron suddenly shouted, "Brothers, follow me!"
With that, the Free Cavalry suddenly veered off course and charged straight toward the daemon steam trains and the rear logistics convoy of the Chaos Dwarves. The human cavalrymen screamed and whooped as they pulled out grenades, explosives, incendiary devices, and even grenade launchers!
Drazhos: "???"
"Brothers, throw!!" Blackheart Repp expertly commanded the cavalry. He was the first to light his grenade and hurl it at the daemon steam trains.
Grenades, explosives, and other devices were thrown in quick succession onto the bases and bodies of the daemon steam trains and the supply convoy filled with weapons and ammunition. Then the cavalry swiftly retreated from the battlefield!
"The mission given to us by Duke Ryan is complete! Retreat, brothers!" Blackheart Repp laughed heartily as he decapitated an unsuspecting Chaos Dwarf daemon smith with a single strike. "Chaos dwarves! Your grandpa Littbird is done playing with you!"
With that, the remaining less than five hundred Free Cavalrymen withdrew to the distance. Moments later, three daemon steam trains and more than half of the supply convoy's equipment were blown sky-high in a massive explosion.
"Nooo!!!" The Gray Prophet's heart ached as he watched the flames shoot into the sky. It was so painful that he could barely breathe, but there was no time to dwell on it. The landships controlled by the Manann's Blade Mercenary Company were advancing!
"Fire!" Blackbeard Teach stood at the prow of the ship, raising his scimitar high. Taking advantage of the Chaos Dwarves' internal chaos and inability to reload their weapons, he immediately ordered the landships to open fire. The cannons on the bow had already noticed the Chaos Dwarves' remaining supply convoy, and four landships fired simultaneously. The cannons on the deck unleashed round after round of volleys, with one cannonball hitting a pile of Chaos Dwarf mortar ammunition dead on, triggering a secondary explosion that turned the entire area into a scene of carnage. Chaos Dwarf artillerymen's bodies lay scattered, and the remaining few precious mortars were reduced to scrap metal.
Meanwhile, the cavalry of the Manann's Blade Mercenary Company also joined the battle alongside the landships. Armed with firearms and dressed in ivory-white uniforms with black armor, they fired in unison, targeting the Chaos Dwarf artillerymen and the goblin slaves under their command. Their relentless assault left the Chaos Dwarves' few remaining artillerymen completely paralyzed. Those who tried to retaliate were either crushed under the wheels of the landships or pushed aside by the landships' reinforced rams.
At this moment, even the Chaos Dwarves, known for their high morale and resilience, began to feel fear.
Damn it! At this rate, we'll lose! The Gray Prophet Drazhos immediately realized that the tide of battle was turning against them. He couldn't care less about anything else and mounted his blazing golden bull, taking to the sky. The Gray Prophet began to chant an incantation softly. As a legendary Chaos Dwarf sorcerer at the peak of his power, he was about to show the humans the wrath of Hashut, the Father of Darkness!
Two minutes later, the incantation was complete. The Gray Prophet raised his staff, and at the same time, the blazing golden bull beneath him gathered all its strength and spewed forth black flames.
"Great Spell, Hashut's Judgment!"
From the ground, black pillars of flame shot up
more than ten meters high and five to six meters in diameter, engulfing an entire landship in fire. The mercenaries aboard screamed in agony, struggling in the flames until the entire landship was reduced to ashes. Drazhos laughed heartily at the sight, but the sudden searing pain in his body quickly silenced him—that was the backlash of Chaos magic. Dwarves were a race inherently resistant to the Winds of Magic, and the result of a Chaos Dwarf forcibly using Chaos magic was that with each use, a part of their body would turn into actual stone.
The destruction of one landship did not cause the remaining landships to retreat. The mercenaries of Manann's Blade were a bloodthirsty lot, and seeing their comrades fall only made the survivors more frenzied. They pushed the landships to full speed, leaving a trail of blood and carnage in their wake.
"Where's the reinforcements? Where's the Kurgan reinforcements? We need reinforcements!" The Gray Prophet cursed loudly.
At that moment, a rapid sound of hoofbeats approached from the distance. The increasingly dense sound of hooves made Drazhos nervous, but when he saw who it was, he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. It was the Do'egan Cavalry under the command of the Betrayer Sai, numbering several hundred.
Just as he was about to order these cavalrymen to attack the flanks of the landships, he realized that they had no intention of joining the battle. Instead, they whooped and hollered as they fled, quickly disappearing from the battlefield.
"Damn it, how typical!" The Gray Prophet cursed again, his face turning pale with anger. "A bunch of cowards! I should never have trusted that fool Sai!"
By this time, the landships were engaging the Chaos Dwarf army head-on. The Manann's Blade Mercenaries fought bravely against the Iron Oath Guards and Infernal Guards of the Chaos Dwarves. The mercenaries suffered heavy losses, but they bought more time for the landships. The long-barreled musketeers and cannons on the landships continued to fire, drowning the Chaos Dwarves in a barrage of gunfire and cannonades.
The Infernal Guards had boasted that their heavy armor, forged in the fires of hell, could withstand any cannon or musket fire. But at such close range, they were torn to shreds by the artillery and long-barreled muskets. The two sides fought fiercely amid explosions and slaughter. The Chaos Dwarves were incredibly strong in single combat, but the Manann's Blade Mercenaries, supported by the landships, held their ground. The battle was evenly matched, with both Blackbeard Teach and the Gray Prophet urging their troops on.
Still reeling from the magical backlash, Drazhos was temporarily unable to cast spells. He had no choice but to make a decision—to unleash his ultimate weapon: "Order the release of the Flame Destroyer!"
On a wrecked daemon steam train, a giant iron coffin was opened.
Chaos Dwarf smiths had long sought to create a fusion of metal and spirit, and through their dark forging arts and relentless efforts, they had created this half-flesh, half-fire metal monster.
Their most successful creation was known as the Flame Destroyer.
It resembled a massive mechanical bull, its body encased in a steel shell. The beast stood seven or eight meters tall, with molten runes glowing and flowing across its metallic surface, its body enveloped in searing flames. When it opened its mouth, streams of molten lava poured out. One of its arms was a sharp spike, while the other was a massive, spinning saw blade, its gears glowing with intense heat, a terrifying sight to behold.
"Today will be the end for Nuln and these landships!"
As this monstrosity entered the battlefield, even the mercenaries of Manann's Blade screamed in terror. They finally tried to flee with their landships, but the landships were in poor condition. After the fierce battle, the three remaining landships were slowing down, with many parts on fire. They had taken too much damage and were now barely holding together, their massive steam boilers leaking or making ominous noises.
The Flame Destroyer, enduring the landships' bombardment, closed in on the nearest one. With a single strike, it pierced a massive hole in the hull, spewing lava and fire from its mouth, melting the desperate mercenaries on board into a pool of molten slag. Its other arm's saw blade smashed into the ship's midsection, sending wood splinters flying. Finally, with a screeching noise, the saw blade sliced the entire landship in two.
Blackbeard Teach watched this scene in horror and immediately ordered his men, "Release the rams!"
"Release the rams!" the mercenaries shouted back. The heavy rams were detached from the landship, and Blackbeard Teach's ship, still relatively intact, became more agile by shedding the extra weight. He quickly ordered, "Turn and target the steam boiler of that landship!"
The muskets and cannons fired in unison, and a cannonball hit the steam boiler of the already dismembered landship, triggering a massive explosion that sent pieces of the ship flying across the battlefield like a whirlwind.
The explosion seemed to jolt the entire Imperial left flank into awareness. At this point, two of the four landships deployed by the Empire were completely destroyed, one was heavily damaged, and the last one was lightly damaged. Both the defenders and the Manann's Blade Mercenary Company had suffered heavy casualties, with more than half of their forces lost. The exhausted Imperial left flank was essentially combat ineffective.
But the Chaos Dwarves had suffered even greater losses. Of the original eight thousand Chaos Dwarves that Drazhos had led into battle, fewer than six hundred remained! Almost all of their war machines had been destroyed, and their trump card, the Flame Destroyer, was also gone!
It was only then that Drazhos realized Sai's prophecy might not have been a joke after all. His expression changed several times before he finally made a decision.
The Gray Prophet's furious roar echoed across the sky.
"Damn it! It's all for nothing! We've been sold out!"
He then gave the order to retreat. The Chaos Dwarves hastily repaired the only two remaining functional daemon steam trains and withdrew immediately, while the severely weakened Imperial forces were in no condition to pursue them.
…[I am the dividing line of defeat]…
The massive explosions from the Chaos Dwarf lines caught the attention of Tamukhan, who was overseeing the battle. The Unbeliever Sai and the Do'egan tribe had already failed, and he was anxious to know how things were going on the Gray Prophet's side.
However, the thick smoke obscured his view. The screams from the frontline soon forced the Nurgle Champion to focus his attention back on the Imperial center.
There, the leader of the Rot Knights, Nurgle's Champion Khazek the Corruptor, was gasping in pain. Both his arms had been severed, and a sword, shining with the cold light of the Lady of the Lake and burning with flames, had pierced his body.
"For the Lady!" Callard coldly withdrew the sacred sword Durandal from Khazek's chest, then swiftly decapitated the Nurgle Champion, prompting a thunderous cheer from the Imperial center.
Tamukhan instinctively wanted to ask if anyone under his command would offer this Grail Knight's head to Father Nurgle, but when he turned around, he realized he had very few men left—most of the tribal warriors were engaged in fierce combat with the Imperial center, leaving only a handful of Plague Ogres, Chaos Giants, a few hundred elite guards, and some Nurgle demons by his side.
The Toad Dragon Bubbros let out a deafening roar and began to advance.
Nurgle's chosen champion, Tamukhan, personally led the remaining forces into battle!
The time for decisive victory had arrived!
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