A mage can rely on spells to fly in the sky for a short time, but that would consume a lot of mana. Antonidas watched helplessly as the mysterious mage drifted further and further away, but they were powerless to pursue. Finally, he had no choice but to wave his hand and stop everyone.
"Forget it, we don't need to chase anymore." The old mage's voice was a little tired. "This place has long been beyond the range of the confinement magic circle we set up in Alterac. Send a message to Vargus to cancel it."
Karthus was somewhat unwilling to give up. He could still continue to chase, but his condition was very poor. The decisive battle with Kel'Thuzad had consumed too much of his strength, and his body had also suffered a great degree of trauma. Even if he could catch up with that powerful mage, he would face the awkward result of not being able to defeat him.
"So, what do we do now?" he asked.
"Go and support Aiden and the others." Antonidas pointed in a direction. "I have a premonition that we will meet that mysterious mage again."
"Hopefully." Karthus shrugged.
On the other side, three dreadlords gathered together.
Mal'Ganis said, "Great commander, we lost Detheroc."
Varimathras said, "Those angels are a bit annoying. What should we do now?"
The dreadlord leader, Tichondrius, said, "The power of angels is too restraining for us. Detheroc's soul has suffered a great trauma and almost died. It seems that Mal'Ganis, your escape from Stratholme last time was the right thing to do. Our Nathrezim race has not experienced death due to war for many, many years. I didn't expect that in just two short months, we have lost two powerful Nathrezim in a row, Balnazzar and Detheroc."
Mal'Ganis said, "Yes, the swords in the hands of angels and their energy can both harm our souls. This is a problem."
"That's right."
"Then, should we go and support that orc death knight?" Varimathras asked.
"No!" Tichondrius shook his head and resolutely denied the suggestion. "That elven mage still has some strength, and Anub'arak is also quite clever. As long as they join forces, they can escape safely. We don't need to help them. You must know that we are servants of Lord Kil'jaeden, and these Scourge are only our servants. We don't need to harm ourselves for the sake of servants, especially since we almost lost Detheroc for blocking the enemy for this group of servants!"
"The great commander is wise!" Mal'Ganis and Varimathras deeply agreed. Driven by their selfish nature, the dreadlords immediately reached a consensus on the matter of retreat.
"Poor Detheroc, I wonder how many years it will take to recover his strength?" Tichondrius said with sympathy, but his tone was more like gloating.
"Is two thousand years enough?"
"I think it will take at least four thousand years."
Broxigar and Anub'arak did not know that the dreadlords had happily decided to abandon coming to support them. They had now built up an undead army of about eight hundred, of which, apart from the hundred or so human undead who were relatively weak, the rest were crypt fiends and orc undead who were naturally good at fighting.
Broxigar asked, "What do we do next?"
"Wait for reinforcements."
"Besides that?"
"Don't get killed."
Broxigar heard the cry of an eagle. He didn't need to look up to know that the falcon was circling above them.
With the guidance of Demacia's falcon, Valor, Kayle and Vayne caught up at their fastest speed. They closely followed the undead army, waiting for their reinforcements to arrive.
When Ophiel was flying with Aiden, Aiden asked, "Ophiel , what is the origin of the sword Kayle gave me?"
Ophiel replied, "It's called 'Silver Judgment', and it was forged together with Kayle's sword of conviction."
"Then, was its previous owner Morgana?" Aiden guessed. He knew the name Silver Judgment. In League of Legends, Kayle had a skin with that name. Now that he thought about it, that sword was indeed the same as the one in his hand. In fact, the Kayle in that skin was just wearing a silver and blue coating on her armor, plus the color of the gems on the sword had changed.
"...Yes."
"It really is. Why would Kayle keep Morgana's sword in her collection?"
Ophiel shook her head vigorously and begged, "Summoner, you should ask Kayle about this yourself. I dare not privately discuss the things that Kayle doesn't want people to mention the most."
Aiden joked, "Although Kayle doesn't seem to like communicating with people, she's not a bad person, is she? Why are you so afraid of her?"
"She is our queen!" Ophiel's voice was both proud and awed. "We're getting close, Commander!"
Aiden could also sense the location of Kayle and Vayne at this time. He looked ahead. Under the sinister night, it seemed like countless terrors were hidden. It seemed that a great battle was coming.
"How long have you been chasing?" Aiden asked.
"More than ten minutes."
Vayne said, "Their numbers have increased."
"We should cut in front of them," Aiden looked at the undead army traveling in the dark night and analyzed, "They can't retreat, they can only move forward. So, we'll go ahead and give them some psychological pressure. The defenders of Andorhal are coming. The more anxious these undead are to chase us, the sooner they will fall into the interception. And if they don't chase us, the knights behind will catch up, and what awaits them will be a dumpling!"
"That makes sense." Vayne nodded.
"But—" Kayle cast a questioning look, "What is a 'dumpling'?"
Aiden was petrified.
"They've cut in front of us." Broxigar frowned. "While we have a numerical advantage, kill these annoying birdmen!"
Anub'arak didn't care and continued to crawl, "Don't be impulsive, Broxigar. Unless they voluntarily fight us, we can't deal with enemies with aerial advantages."
Broxigar said unwillingly, "Then are we just going to watch them?"
"Don't worry, our reinforcements should be here soon."
But before the reinforcements arrived, the enemy arrived first. A group of human soldiers held torches and lit up a relatively dangerous hillside. The location was on the only way forward for them.
Aiden naturally saw the arrival of the reinforcements earlier than the undead.
Quinn and another general rode side by side.
"It really is you, General!" When the general saw Aiden and the angels beside him, he immediately rode up and saluted, "General, I am Duminlen, the garrison officer of Andorhal!"
Aiden nodded and said, "Hello! General Duminlen, how many people did you bring?"
Duminlen said, "Because we had to march quickly, I only brought cavalry, a total of one thousand two hundred people!"
"You should be familiar with the terrain around here, right? Let's find an easily defended and difficult to attack place to snipe the undead troops on the spot. Once the pursuers behind catch up, they won't be able to escape!"
"No problem!"
General Duminlen obeyed the order and left.
Strictly speaking, cavalry is a type of offensive unit. If they were to fight a positional battle, the soldiers would have to leave their horses and act as infantry. But in this kind of night, human vision is greatly affected, and the cavalry simply cannot charge into battle. The undead, on the other hand, can see at night and can exert stronger combat power at night than during the day.
The place where the fortifications were built was on a shallow slope one kilometer away. The mountain peaks on both sides were difficult to climb. If the undead wanted to pass through here, they would need to break through the hillside between the two mountain peaks. General Duminlen believed that the undead attacking uphill would inevitably pay a greater price to pass.
When Aiden came to the defense works, he unexpectedly saw a team of dwarves. And the weapons in the hands of these dwarves made him very happy—this was a dwarven mortar squad!
Aiden was overjoyed and went forward to find the captain of the mortar squad: "Are you dwarves from Ironforge?"
"That's right, you are the legendary Valoran Lord Aiden, Aiden, who has angels working for him, right? Hello, my name is Dagol, the captain of the Andorhal mortar squad!" The dwarf Dagol replied enthusiastically.
"It seems that how effective our ambush will be depends entirely on you. Dagol, is your ammunition sufficient?"
Dagol, who was valued by this great lord, was very happy. He patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, my great lord. We brought a hundred shells, enough for these filthy undead to drink a pot!"
These dwarves brought eight mortars, which meant that each gun had more than a dozen shells, indeed a very sufficient amount.
Aiden felt that how long this position could be held mostly depended on the performance of the dwarves. Then ensuring the safety of the mortar squad became the top priority.
He saw that the dwarves were setting up the artillery position a little behind the front line in a relatively open area, and felt that this was not appropriate—the Scourge had crypt fiends, and that Anub'arak could even launch a ground attack. This kind of arrangement was good for dealing with ordinary enemies, but not safe enough for dealing with the Scourge with crypt fiends.
Aiden looked around and saw the two mountain peaks next to this hillside, and immediately had an idea: "Move your artillery position to the mountain peaks, and I'll have the angels help you!"
When Broxigar led the troops to this hillside, the humans on the hillside had already begun to defend. They had piled up some stones in front of them, which could be used as rolling stones. The soldiers in the front row raised their shields and spears, obviously not so easy to break through.
Broxigar looked at Anub'arak: "If you have any ideas, say them quickly, otherwise I'll just lead them to charge!" Although his knee joints were still affecting his movement, Broxigar didn't want to sit still and wait for death. Even if he was going to die, he would die in the process of charging.
"Let these servants charge up first to test it out. We must preserve our strength and not make unnecessary sacrifices."
Broxigar couldn't help but roar at the crypt lord, and said angrily, "Then what about the pursuers behind!"
"Don't worry, my friend. We will escape. Even if you don't believe me, you must believe in our master, the great Lich King!"