Chapter 176: The War for Survival, The City Built on Oak Trees
Just when the grassland was in chaos.

A weak and chaotic group of ratmen marched desolately towards the depths of the grassland.

A simple flag.

A group of confused slave rats.

A would-be Skaven warlord in tattered armor.

That's all there is to this team.

The number of slave rats in the flag bearer was much greater than when he had just set out from Prairie City. In order to survive, he plundered several slave rat transport teams and slave-catching teams he encountered on the prairie.

They killed the leaders and captains of these teams, and took the slave rats who were kneeling on the ground begging for mercy with them, forming a chaotic team and breaking into the depths of the grassland.

Come seek an opportunity.

In the information provided by the big shot in the temple, three areas were marked out.

Obviously, that big shot might not be sure whether there were gathering places of other intelligent races on this empty grassland.

Or maybe the big shot knew, but Qi was not qualified to know more detailed information.

After all, Qi has no capital for trial and error.

The strength in his hands was not enough to support him to travel back and forth across the vast grassland.

There was no need to hesitate. With a deep breath, he chose the one in the middle of the three areas as his target this time.

At this point, we can only pray to the great God.

In fact, the flag did the same.

In that crude city where everything was hastily built, people knelt devoutly before a temple which already had a simple prototype.

Without entering the temple and without offering generous sacrifices, he is not qualified to kneel before the altar of the gods.

He could only kowtow from a distance. In this case, it made no difference to him whether he kowtowed inside or outside the temple.

"Great God!
Please take care of me!

Great God!
I hope I’ll have good luck this time!”

This is the prayer that Qi made to the great god outside the temple.

The number of troops in hand reached 40,000.

This is one of the few good news.

As for the consequences of looting slave-hunting teams and slave rat transport teams, they were not considered.

The flag was made very cleanly, but it didn’t matter if it was not clean, because he was already heading deep into the grassland.

If he could come back this time, the possible investigations and costs would not be a big problem for him.

If you can't come back, then come find him on the grassland.

………….

In the rolling hills.

The war of the Western Expeditionary Force once again fell into a stalemate.

The war came to a halt.

Even though the ratmen warriors are still pressing forward, even though the ratmen are still pressing forward in an endless stream.

But the war inevitably came to a standstill.

Because of a tree, a towering giant tree.

Almost all the land in the rolling hills was to be taken by the Western Expeditionary Force. The half-elves were defeated, the forests were burned, the ancient trees were cut down, and the ratmen swarmed in like locusts and almost destroyed everything attached to this area.

All that was left was desolation and charring.

If all goes well, the Western Expeditionary Force should be the first group of ratmen to end the war.

Until the ratmen reached the capital of the half-elves, they were blocked by a huge towering oak tree.

It was really just a tree, a magical giant tree large enough for the half-elves to build a city on.

For the first time, the fire that was always effective against lush forests lost its effect.

The flames did limited damage to the massive oak tree.

The rough old bark on the surface of the huge oak tree cannot be ignited at all, at least not with ordinary flames, and its hardness is also terrifyingly strong.

Even if an ordinary ratman warrior tried his best, he could only leave a white dot on this huge tree.

Even the stone bullets thrown by the huge catapult caused little damage to the huge oak tree.

This oak tree is really huge.

Among the Western Expeditionary Force, the only thing that could cause damage to this giant tree was the horrible pollution brought by those swollen ratmen.

But there is still the same problem: this oak tree is too big.

The pollution caused by a single swollen ratman is like a drop of ink in a large lake.

This little bit of pollution cannot overwhelm the huge tree in front of us.

But this problem is also easy to solve for the Western Expeditionary Force.

It should have been a very easy problem to solve.

After all, it is enough to just keep adding to the load on the swollen ratmen.

Behind the Western Expeditionary Force are those senior ratmen priests.

There is no doubt about the wealth of these senior rat priests.

The cultivation of swollen ratmen only requires blood mushrooms.

It's nothing more than pressing some blood mushrooms on top, and then pressing some more blood mushrooms on top.

But recently there was a little accident.

Those senior ratmen priests had some minor problems of their own.

A huge chaos and fight broke out among these senior ratmen priests, which also involved the Western expeditionary force that besieged the half-elf capital.

The fruits of victory are already in sight, and all we need to do is invest a few more blood mushrooms.

But there was no further news. The two senior rat priests stationed in the Western Expeditionary Force left the Western Expeditionary Force in a hurry and headed towards the Wasteland City, the center of the fight.

The logistics did not completely collapse, at least the cave mushrooms were still being thrown over continuously.

But there is nothing more.

These senior rat priests no longer cared about the war in this hilly area, as the most important coal mine had already entered the mining stage.

As for the grand ceremony after victory in a war, yes, it is certainly very important, and there is no ratman priest who would not want to show up in a grand ceremony after a victory.

There are just too many senior priests who are looking at this. In a grand priest ceremony, it is impossible for all the senior priests to stand in a row and kneel on the altar to accept the gaze of the gods together.

Perhaps it is best that only one rat man bears this honor.

This is also the reason why Sheng Qi was attacked without hesitation even though he was obviously cooperating and was not dangerous.

As the leader of the Western Expeditionary Force, Sheng Qi was the most qualified to enjoy this victory. But now he couldn't care less.

If the senior rat priests united together, they might be able to fight against the white rats, but it was obvious that they were not united, and the white rats' judgment on this group of guys had always been so accurate.

As long as he gives some sweet benefits casually, the loose alliance will fall apart, and there will be a few more guys shaking their heads and tails in front of him.

The alliance has been torn apart and it is now time to take sides, to stand beside the rat lords and show loyalty to the white rats who have not been involved in the affairs of the kingdom for a long time.

It is better to stand on the side of those ratmen councillors who have supported the alliance and are unwilling to give in and are still struggling.

But no matter what choice you make.

In the fight between the two sides, some guys will inevitably be abandoned and become victims.

Obviously, no one wants to be the victim.

It can be predicted that for a long time, most of the senior ratmen priests will not be able to spare any time.

This caused some obvious troubles.

On the chaotic battlefield, Sheng Qi was overwhelmed by the magical light whizzing through the sky and could not raise his head. Without the senior priest as their leader, the magical power of the ratmen was greatly reduced, and they could no longer compete with those half-elf elders.

Another round of brilliant magical light whizzed by.

It smashed down on the ratmen who were clinging to the huge oak tree trunk like ants, and large numbers of ratmen warriors fell like raindrops with screams.

Sheng Qi also shouted angrily and waved the flag in his hand.

"Let it go! Let it go!"

Behind him, there were a large number of huge catapults displayed. After inviting the big-mouthed Big Claw Priest to join the army, these horrible and crude war machines finally became more reliable.

Although the randomness like the Grim Reaper's roll of the dice still exists, the probability of taking the operator away with each launch has finally been changed to about one in ten launches taking the operator into space.

The big-mouthed Big Claw Priest himself didn't even dare to board the war machines he designed.

Amid the shouts, the piercing sound waves that cut through the sky, and the desperate wails, one swollen ratman after another exploded on the trunk of the huge oak tree.

A little bit of blood-colored spots were left on the crown of the huge oak tree, but the area they occupied was ultimately too small.

The war had to go on, even though those senior rat priests were finding it increasingly difficult to help on this battlefield, so the formal priests were not taken away.

In the ringing of the bell.

The siege was extremely difficult, and the ratmen were now fighting with the half-elf warriors for every wrinkle of bark at the base of the tree trunk.

This massive oak tree is simply too big.

Even the wrinkles on the trunk are wide enough to serve as a platform for the army to rest.

A large number of ratmen warriors were driven by the ratmen priests onto the huge tree trunks, climbed up, and engaged in a fierce fight with the half-elf warriors in the narrow environment.

In the continuous brutal war, the half-elves were also forced to change. All the elite warriors who had to go through various trials before they could take up their posts now left the stage.

Those extremely elite mountain warriors and wanderers have all been disbanded and incorporated into ordinary troops.

An act of desperation.

In the brutal wars, death became an eternal theme. The training of these elite warriors could not keep up with the speed of loss.

Even if they are not disbanded and reorganized, they will eventually be eliminated from the stage in the war.

Only the Magic Archer was retained.

Half-elf warriors, reserve troops, and archer squads, these three types of troops officially took the stage.

Half-elf warriors no longer bare their upper bodies to demonstrate their prowess like their mountain warrior predecessors.

A sacred oak spear that is not much inferior to metal weapons, a rough but absolutely reliable oak shield, and a set of rough bark armor.

This is the standard configuration of a half-elf warrior.

It is composed of adult male half-elves, and is now the main war force of the half-elves.

The reserve army, composed of those half-elf youths and very old men who were not yet mature, stepped onto the battlefield in the midst of the all-out war which was losing step by step.

Possesses the same equipment configuration as a half-elf warrior.

Divided into two groups, a reserve force consisting of infants and young people was placed in the canopy of the sacred oak for training, while the reserve force consisting of elderly half-elves went to the battlefield.

In fact, these old half-elves are not easy to deal with. Over the long years, these old half-elves have learned one or two magical tricks and basically possess strong martial arts skills.

Although they cannot fight for long in this cruel battlefield due to their declining physical fitness, they can sometimes cause great trouble to the influx of ratmen warriors.

Finally, there is the shooting team.

The half-elves have abandoned the elite archer model once represented by rogues.

The half-elf rogues of the past were more versatile and powerful than archers.

Scouting, reconnaissance, harassment, and sniping are all tasks that half-elf wanderers are capable of doing very well.

Some versatile and dangerous troops, it's just a pity that these half-elf rogues met their match in the form of a rat-man army.

The rats never cared about the sacrifice of the rat warriors. Even if they tried their best to harass and kill batches of rats in the dark, it was just like that to the rats.

Even these guys have never attracted Sheng Qi's attention.

And their proud ability to hide and camouflage is a joke to the rat people.

When the ratmen warriors all over the mountains followed the waving flag of God and began to destroy and damage every inch of land and every area they passed through.

The only thing they could do to greet these half-elf wanderers was to retreat unwillingly.

A large number of conventional archer troops were formed. Accuracy and distance were no longer the most critical factors. Facing the ratmen who were pouring in like a tide, quickly shooting arrows and suppressing the most ratmen warriors in the shortest time became the first requirement.

It was supposed to be a large-scale phalanx of archers.

However, in that war, the large-scale gathering of archers would be attacked by the ratmen's huge catapults at the first moment.

The priority is even far higher than those half-elf elders who have emerged.

After one or two attacks, the half-elf archer phalanx was broken up into small-scale archer units, which flexibly appeared on the treetops and branches of the sacred oak tree to serve as support forces on the battlefield.

The ratmen forced the half-elves to throw everything into the battlefield, whether it was the most rebellious and undisciplined hermit tribes, or the conservatives who clung to tradition and were unwilling to compromise with the unknown god.

They all gathered on this sacred oak tree in the terrifying rat tide that washed over the land like a flood or a natural disaster.

Become a member of the half-elf kingdom.

After all, the ratfolk don't care what you believe in, what traditions you abide by, or what conflicts you have with other half-elves.

In their view, killing you and then sacrificing you on the altar of God is your rightful belonging and glory.

The sweeping wave of ratmen has almost destroyed everything in this hilly area.

The half-elves united as never before.

To survive, just to survive.

Brutal wars raged on this giant oak tree.

That night, amid cheers and after sacrificing the lives of countless rat warriors, the rats finally captured a wrinkle on the rough tree trunk.

(End of this chapter)