Alien world

Chapter 1863, Section 496: The Alien Legion - The Punishment Legion
While the Winter Legion maintained order and harvested humanity in the territories of its trading partners, an ambush was underway further east and north.

It wasn't the alien army that ambushed the ratmen, but rather the ratmen that ambushed the alien army.

The strange combination of orcs and goblins in the alien army stirred the ratmen's ingrained instincts—back in the south, they had fought countless battles against green-skinned creatures and fart sprites, inheriting a special method for dealing with green-skinned orcs:

Green-skinned orcs have almost the same senses as blind people; as long as you don't move, half of them won't be able to spot you. If your skin color is the same as the surroundings, then congratulations, even if they step on your face, they'll only think they've accidentally stepped on a fart.

Although orcs have different skin color than green people and wear heavy armor forged in Free City, brown rats are not intelligent enough to distinguish between the two.

The result was that when the orcs walked 100 meters away, they didn't move. When the orcs walked 10 meters away, they didn't move. When the orcs were about to step on their toes, they suddenly got up and charged headfirst into the orcs's descending battle axe.

It was as precise as a stage play rehearsal.

After being begged by Annan for an hour and three minutes before reluctantly becoming the deputy legion commander, the elven instructor, Fendora Silverdew, experimented a few times and discovered the trick: other races would lead the charge, and the ratmen would swarm in. But as soon as they saw the orc and goblin combination, they would burrow into a hole to hide, and jump out when the ratmen got close, and were dealt with without any surprises.

That night, the alien army joined forces with the Punishing Legion. Fendora Silverdew asked Black Widow, "We've been ambushed by the Skaven eighteen times along the way. Humans, do you have any leads?"

Black Widow didn't know the answer either, but fortunately, everyone in the Retribution Legion was talented, and they quickly revealed the answer: "Skaven trigger their instinct to fight Greenskins when they see Orcs."

The truth was revealed by a guy named Rowena, who took a stroll around the foreign aid legion and then returned to his squad with a look of utter disbelief.

"This world has gone mad..."

"What?" His companion looked over, puzzled.

"Guess what I just saw? Elves were standing with dark elves! Damn it...aren't they sworn enemies?!"

……

Elves and dark elves are indeed sworn enemies, and even the term "sworn enemy" is insufficient to describe them; words like "blood feud," "hatred," and "mortal enemy" must be added.

Annan must have had some extraordinary ability to bring them together to act—but it wasn't as difficult as outsiders imagined.

Needless to say, the Dark Elves, with Mora regarding Anan as her holy son, coupled with Anan's relationship with the Spider Queen and the establishment of the Spider Queen's Church, meant they were practically inseparable, if not completely at odds.

The only difficulty lies with the elves, but these forest and mountain elves were already somewhat compliant with Annan, and Annan further persuaded them, "Dark elves are still elves. With the forces of chaos at hand, do you elves still want to continue fighting amongst yourselves?"

Forced together by Annan's group's conclusions, but acting together didn't mean the two groups had erased the hatred of the past millennia. They were determined to overpower each other; the elven instructors even abandoned their fastidiousness and personally cut off their rat ears. The dark elves were no less determined, diving into the rat swarm like berserkers.

But it's a good thing for Liberty City.

Knowing the reason for the rat pack's behavior pattern, things became much easier: have the orcs remove their heavy, sluggish armor, stand in front to fish, and have the others follow behind.

They gradually figured it out. They could tell that the rats the orcs had ambushed were slave rats, and the ones charging at them were slave rats under command.

Taking advantage of the unexpected surprise, the two legions quickly cleared away the scattered rats that had run over their trading partners and moved towards the Ranger Legion to the east.

As a mage-dominated extraordinary legion, the Retribution Legion possesses a burst damage output far exceeding any other legion in a short period, yet they are relegated to sweeping the perimeter. Within the ranks, a mage grumbles under his breath, "The good things always go to the Hellfire; when will it be our turn to go to the front lines?"

Since setting out, he'd only thrown one arcane missile, and that was after he and the surrounding mages were vying to use it—a volley of hundreds of arcane missiles that decimated a pitiful few dozen ratmen. After joining up with the alien army, he hadn't had a chance to fight at all; he felt like his magical vortex was going to rot.

His companion remained calm: "The Winter Legion isn't weak either, but they were still relegated to maintaining order in the rear."

"How can that be the same? The Winter Legion has only been established for a short time, while we followed His Majesty Annan from the Kingdom of Dimon to the Free City." The mage asserted his seniority.

"According to you, Hellfire must have been around even longer, following Lord Annam since the Star Moon Bay era."

"No, which side are you standing on?"

"I'm not standing anywhere, I'm just telling you not to rush. There are so many ratmen, aren't they enough for you to have?"

The impatient mage grew even more anxious: "What if the Empire directly eliminates High Priest McKenne, and the war ends before it even begins? Will we have to go back to catching rats all over the plains like we are now?"

"Let me correct you," his companion said, pointing to the mountains ahead. "It's not all plains."

Before entering the outer reaches of the Gray Mountain Range, the two legions finally encountered a group of rats that deserved some serious attention.

Even goblins, when gathered in large groups, are not to be underestimated. A swarm of tens of thousands of rats could drive many minor lords to despair and await death. However, the Punishing Legion has a large number of mages, and the alien legions include orcs and tauren—races almost born for war.

Heavy-armored orcs and minotaurs formed a solid defensive line, while mages and archers unleashed attacks on the ratmen.

At first, things were chaotic—or rather, due to poor coordination, arcane missiles interrupted arrows, and magical muskets interrupted arcane missiles. However, their unified thinking caused all the attacks to land in one spot, and hundreds of ratmen were enveloped by hundreds of spells, muskets, and arrows, even turning up the ground, but just a few meters away, even the weeds remained unharmed.

The political commissars of the two legions stepped forward to direct the coordinated attack. With orcs and tauren blocking their way, they gradually became familiar with the new fighting style. In the end, with one man spraining his ankle, they annihilated the entire horde of rats.

Generally speaking, it's difficult to wipe out a swarm of rats, because some ratmen will always escape when things get tough. However, if you let the orcs go out for a stroll, the ratmen will instinctively lie down and be caught by the elven squad that catches up.

The goblins ran out to harvest the rat ears, and the caravan continued on its way.

……

The forest at the foot of the mountain was quiet, without the sounds of birds or animals, but at the same time, there were sounds of dead branches and shrubs being trampled and broken.

The dappled gray rustled through the shadows of the trees, drawing ever closer to this tranquil woodland.

200 meters...100 meters...50 meters...30 meters...

Their forms were revealed: this elite squad of rats, clad in filthy armor ripped from the bodies of fallen soldiers, their claws gripping iron swords, moved through the forest.

(End of this chapter)