A few minutes later, when they saw more than two hundred fat men several meters tall walking towards the dwarf fortress in the distance, Donna and Elegy realized that they were some ogres.
Elegy looked at Maltis, who was sitting on horseback, with some surprise: "How did you find them?"
They clearly came back together, so how come she discovered these ogres after just a few minutes of not seeing each other?
Martis didn't say much, but just pointed to the sky, where several carrion vultures were circling.
After seeing this scene, Levi couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. These things were commonly used by scouts under Khalida's subordinates, so how come Maltis also had them?
He remembered that ordinary Death Knights could only summon ghouls at most. Those with some spare money might choose to buy a few gargoyles, but he seemed to have never heard of anyone who could control carrion vultures.
He could only sigh inwardly once again that Maltis was indeed not an ordinary Death Knight.
Well, after finishing the battle with the nearby greenskins, our strength will be almost enough to deal with the ghost dragon - Black.
I just don't know how much the separated part of consciousness can remember about Maltis.
After nodding to her, Levi cast the Mutated Dragon Wing Technique on himself and flew towards the leading ogre.
Ogres have always judged strength by size and appearance. The bigger and more ferocious an object is, the stronger it appears to them. This may help in the subsequent negotiations.
As the distance between them continued to shorten, he soon found a guy who was obviously much stronger than the ordinary ogre in terms of height and waist circumference.
The other person was big and strong, just like a small giant. With every movement he made, his flesh all over his body trembled.
To humans, this may not be beautiful, but in the eyes of the ogre, he will undoubtedly be very majestic, especially now that he is riding on the giant woolly rhinoceros, he looks even more amazing.
However, when he noticed the other person's gaze, Levi felt that he had done something superfluous, because that guy was actually drooling at his wings...
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Levi waved his hand to cancel the magic, indicating that it was fake. Then he took out the giant meat from the space ring with his backhand.
After getting the reminder from the Venomous Scorpion Warrior, he, Elegy, Donna and others have been deliberately collecting through various channels in the past few days, and now they have accumulated quite a lot.
Then he saw the big guy in the lead, his eyes widened instantly, and his saliva flowed down like a waterfall, soaking his chest in the blink of an eye.
Levi couldn't help but smile with satisfaction. The information provided by the Scorpion General was indeed reliable.
He didn't waste any words, picked up the smallest piece and threw it over: "Come on, everyone, check the goods first, and then decide whether you are willing to accept my employment?"
Without caring whether it was poisonous or not, the ogre swallowed it in a few bites. Then he smacked his lips, as if trying to savor the food.
But he soon discovered that this little bit of meat not only failed to satisfy his craving, but made him even hungrier.
"Skinny, bring all the meat here. That ogre warlord, Braut Big Mouth, and those foodies under my command will help you fight!"
Although the other party's tone was not very friendly, Levi did not care. "Thingan" was a very typical ogre word. It did not contain any derogatory meaning. It was simply used to refer to other races besides ogres.
After all, whether it's the greenskins or the dwarves, they are all skinny compared to them.
He just waved behind him, and Elegy, who had already made preparations in advance, immediately asked some Silver Light Guards to bring out a large amount of meat.
Of course, the giant meat is specially prepared for the leader Braut, and the rest are just some ordinary meat.
But despite this, the ogres were very satisfied. They didn't care about anything else and started making fire, boiling water, and setting up pots in the open space outside the fortress, preparing to cook. The whole process was done in one go.
Among the things that ogres are best at and like most, eating ranks first, while other things like robbing or fighting are second.
Levi also used the dragon's breath spell to light a fire for the ogres, which was a slight display of his strength.
This trick was very useful. In addition, meat was constantly delivered to the side. Braut, who was grateful for the food he had eaten, soon stopped using the word "skinny" to describe him. He began to ask his name, which was a very good start.
While the ogres were busy, Levi used giant meat as bait and successfully signed a very favorable employment contract with Braut at a low price.
He would pay them a large amount of meat and some gold coins as compensation, and provide them with a certain amount of food every day.
Braut needs to fight for Levi with his brothers until Levi allows him to leave, or the casualty rate of his troops exceeds 90%.
But the ogres probably don't care. They come all the way to a foreign country to help humans, dwarves, elves and other races fight, essentially just for food. As long as there is food, nothing else matters.
They were negotiating the employment contract here, while the ogres on the other side were preparing to cook. During the whole process, some ogres kept taking the opportunity to steal food.
And every time, Braut was able to grab the opponent with great accuracy. Then, without saying a word, he would even temporarily give up the negotiation with Levi, grab a big wooden stick at his waist, rush up and hit the opponent's head, making a series of dull "bang bang" sounds.
The dwarves who rushed over after hearing the news were all stunned by this scene.
They are not sure about the specific combat effectiveness of these ogres at the moment, but their ability to withstand attacks is definitely very good, otherwise they would have been beaten to death by their boss long ago.
But ogres are not smart to begin with. If they get hit on the head like this every day, they must be getting close to becoming fools, right?
However, Levi knew that the other party was still restrained, because Braut claimed to be a typical ogre tyrant, and his current level was 12/7.
According to Levi's understanding, the opponent should be a violent warrior with high attack and defense, but his attack speed is relatively slow. If he really uses all his strength, his brothers may not be able to withstand it.
In addition to nearly two hundred level 3-4 ogre bull warriors, Braut's men also include more than thirty level 5 lead spitters and eight crushers riding giant rhinos.
Although their number is not large, once these level 6 soldiers weighing tens of thousands of pounds launch a charge, the walls of ordinary villages and towns will probably be knocked down by one wave.
Levi was very satisfied with this. His troops had been improving in other aspects, but they were relatively weak in two aspects: one was war equipment, and the other was shock cavalry.
Now, thanks to the generosity of the dwarves and the addition of Braut, both of these aspects have been made up.
At the same time, these two aspects are also where the high elves are relatively weak.
Their only siege weapon is the Eagle Claw Crossbow, and their top-level ground cavalry is the Dragon Prince Cavalry, but if they confront the Crusher head-on, they will only be seeking death.
Of course, in addition to the excellent resistant infantry, many powerful archers led by Avalon, and a large number of mages and priests, the High Elves' most powerful force is actually the air force.
The number of dragons may not be particularly large, but the Ice Phoenix, Fire Phoenix, Arcane Phoenix, and a large number of Griffin Knights and Heavenly Lion Knights are all quite powerful.
Not to mention the larger number of Skyslashers and Giant Eagles, as well as the most powerful 6th-order flying cavalry in the main world - the Tal Gaiwo Griffin Knight.
The ground cavalry of the High Elves can only be said to be usable, but not particularly strong. The real cavalry powerhouse is Lilith's Kingdom of Batol, which was founded on knights.
Moreover, the armor worn by the Dragon Prince's cavalry was forged in volcanoes and has strong fire resistance. What they are really good at is fighting against demons and other enemies with fire attacks.
However, the ogres also have some obvious weaknesses. They don't have any air force at all, and the only long-range soldiers seem to be Lead Sprayers. But it is a pipe dream to use these things to deal with the air force. This can be said to be a gain a loss.
While arranging food for the ogres to have a big meal, Levi was also trying to get information from them.
The other party had been wandering deep in the badlands, so he should have a better understanding of the current dynamics of the greenskins, right?
As expected, Braut did not disappoint him: "The green-skinned bald guys have all gathered together, and they often move together in the thousands. Those trolls, giants and other idiots have also followed the army. I can't find a suitable opportunity to attack."
Levi almost couldn't hold it in. The greenskins are indeed all bald, but aren't you ogres bald?
And saying giants are stupid is like saying you ogres are so smart.
It is said that the smartest ogre in the world is the legendary hero - the Golden Tooth Tyrant - Greysu, but the outside world's evaluation of him is that he is almost comparable to humans...
This evaluation is not really a good one. Humans have never been known for their intelligence. Not to mention the distant past, they cannot even be compared with the elves.
The reason why humans can have their current status in the main world is mainly because they do not have any obvious shortcomings.
Not as strong as greenskins, not as intelligent as elves, not as skilled as dwarves, and not as fertile as goblins or ratmen.
But on the other hand, their intelligence is much higher than that of the greenskins, their reproduction rate is much faster than that of the elves and dwarves, and their average combat power is even better than that of the goblins.
In addition, they are diligent and studious. When facing a truly powerful enemy, they are often willing to risk their reputation. In order to survive, they can temporarily put aside past hatred and join forces with former enemies. They also especially like to form groups, etc.
The most important thing is that their lifespan is neither short nor long. They often spend decades to cultivate a certain level of piety and contribute a lot of faith to God. Even if they are not killed by the enemy, they will die of old age and then turn into souls and become the guards of the gods in the kingdom of God.
This is very comfortable for the human gods, so they are much stronger than gods of other races in terms of overall strength and growth rate.
The greenskins have less than 10 gods in total, and the dwarves have about 10 as well, but humans have three-digit gods, and the powerful powers alone are more than the total number of dwarven gods.
If they had not been divided into many different camps for various reasons, but had united together, no other race would have a say in this world.
The reason why the elven gods are so powerful is because of the accumulation of countless years in the past, but those who are knowledgeable, such as Lilith and the God of Storms - Matheran, have all gone to the human side and started to use pseudonyms.
While thinking about it, Levi collected more information from Braut.
After a few days, the greenskins gradually changed their battle strategies.
After they capture a place, they often do not destroy it, but occupy it on the spot, and even give priority to strengthening the defense facilities, obviously intending to completely turn it into the territory of the greenskins.
Although most of the places abandoned by the dwarves in the outskirts are small villages, the environment is still much better than the original badlands of the greenskins.
After the initial chaos, those small groups of greenskins wandering in the wild basically banded together. Almost any low-level village would have several thousand garrisons, and there would be even more in towns.
At the same time, there are wolf cavalry on the ground and harpies and rocs in the sky as scouts. Once there is an enemy, reinforcements will arrive soon.
The reason why Braut knew this so well was because he loved to eat giant meat, so he once tried to sneak attack a few lone giants.
Then he was besieged by an overwhelming number of greenskins, otherwise the number of his original troops would have been several times more than it is now.
In most ogre armies, there are some cowards who are very similar to goblins. They serve as cannon fodder and as backup food.
But after the battle, although Braut's main force escaped, all the Kobulas were killed, so they were really starving now.
After hearing this, Levi couldn't help but frown.
The greenskins are accustomed to looting and destruction after victory, and they originally made a living by hunting in the badlands.
At the same time, they don't pay much attention to patrols or scouts. They prefer to rush in in a swarm and get the job done.
But now they have changed their past practices and are acting in an orderly manner. Apart from the instructions of the green-skinned god of war, Inav, does this mean that they are actually trying as a whole to change from a chaotic and disorderly state to a neutral or orderly camp?
What do they want to do next? Build a country?
In this case, the threat from the greenskins may be even greater than originally estimated...
Then Levi inquired about the intelligence of the rat people. Although the rat people’s current main attack direction is many human forces, it is not absolute.
Nar, Lisadilan and others in the Underdark sent a report saying that there had been a small-scale invasion of ratmen there recently.
Given a choice, ratmen rarely march on the ground. They prefer to march through the Underdark, or simply through the many tunnels and sewers they have dug themselves. This inevitably leads to friction with the many forces in the Underdark.
However, although the rats shouted loud slogans, they were not arrogant enough to declare war on the whole world, so they did not provoke too many forces, and most of them were just small-scale tests.
On the contrary, because of this harassment, the relationship between Nar and the shield dwarves, moon singers, etc. has become closer.
In contrast, the situation on the ground is not good. Even the colony where Imrick himself is in charge has been affected to a certain extent recently.
Black Castle and Ashridge Town had magical protection and large armies stationed there, so there were basically no problems. However, several of the small villages outside of them had already been destroyed.
Michaela wrote to say that Imrick was furious about this and decided to issue a long-term bounty on the ratmen.
However, he did not have the energy to send regular troops to do this for the time being, because the dark elves across the sea had formed an alliance with the Shahuamin, the pirates of the Sea Queen, etc., and officially declared war on him yesterday.
When it comes to ratmen, Braut is even more furious: "Those little furry creatures are not only unpalatable, but they are also sick and poisonous. Many of my men got diarrhea after eating them."
"I tried it again on the road today. They are indeed sour, smelly and poisonous. If I hadn't caught some greenskins who escaped from Iron Peak Fort before, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to get here."
Li Wei's mind suddenly moved: "The defeated troops of Tiefengbao? Do they have any flags?"
Most of the greenskins marched north and west, and occasionally some went to Eight Peaks Mountain to fight in groups, but among the greenskins who marched eastward and besieged Iron Peak Fort, it seemed that the only famous warlord was Evil Gall!
As for those ratmen, if nothing unexpected happens, it should be the plague on them. Given the ogres' physical constitution, they will not suffer too much damage, but it is inevitable that they will feel uncomfortable for a while.
Braut tapped his bald head and said, "Yes, their flag looks like a green masked face on top and a pair of red fangs below."
Levi was immediately overjoyed. This was indeed the symbol of the evil Red Tooth tribe!
Originally, because the greenskins were extremely powerful, no useful intelligence had been transmitted from them recently. Evil-Dare still had a group of elite air force and war pig cavalry under his command, and the scouts he sent out were basically killed by the other side.
Out of caution, Levi did not let Luna take the female hunters with him. On the plains, the charging speed and power of the War Pig Cavalry were not comparable to those of the female hunters' little leopards.
He has been busy these days, so he originally planned to discuss with Kalida today whether he could send troops to investigate.
As long as Evil-Dare is killed and his army is defeated, the threat to the west of Lahmia will almost disappear, and Khalida can send out her fleet with peace of mind to fight the Dark Elves and Sahuagin together with herself.
I didn't expect to get this information unexpectedly from Braut's mouth. This is really luck, it can't be stopped.
Let the ogre eat for the time being, and Levi immediately found Khalida and the owner of this place - Kazrik.
When the two heard it, of course they all agreed.
Khalida is now on the same side as Levi, and their interests are the same, so it is natural for them to make this choice.
If she hadn't really needed to leave some of her troops here, she would have wanted to take the entire army to Tiefeng Fort.
Now she decided to take away all the cavalry, chariots and grave knights, a total of 3,000. There was no use for them to stay here anyway, and it was enough to leave the daily reconnaissance tasks of the fortress to the dwarf gods' chosen heroes.
Next came two thousand guards of the gods and three thousand guards of the ancient tombs, with a total force of eight thousand, and went to Tiefeng Fort with Levi.
As for the remaining troops, they all stayed here, commanded by several generals and priests, to assist the dwarves in defense.
She had even planned it out. No matter who stayed or left with Levi, they were actually just consumables.
All these losses would be worth it if the Dreads could be defeated, the friendship of the Dwarves won, and the West made safe.
Kazrik is the son of the Dragon Slayer, and Ironforge is his hometown. If his troops were not so few, he would have rushed to the rescue in person long ago.
Although he couldn't go there in person now, when Levi made this decision, he immediately decided to send a team of Iron Dragon artillerymen to assist.
They will be very effective against greenskins who generally have little armor and little magic resistance.
And his meaning was very clear. If Levi could go to rescue Tiefeng Fort, these troops would be completely handed over to him.
Anyway, there are already dwarf engineers following Levi to fight, so he can command them well and Levi doesn't have to worry too much.
Levi naturally thanked them. Ordinary Iron Dragon Artillerymen were already very rare, and these were veterans who had been through many battles, making them even rarer.
After staying here for a few days, he has roughly figured out that if the Iron Dragon Artillerymen continue to advance, they will be qualified to use a special weapon called the Troll Hammer.
Levi also went to take a look in person, and then he felt that the thing could be understood as a small rocket launcher, or RPG for short, in a sense.
The Empire claims that steel, faith and gunpowder are its three cornerstones, and the same is true for the dwarves.
In fact, because they discovered and used gunpowder earlier, and because of many special circumstances of their own race, they were even more dependent on gunpowder.
The Iron Dragon Hand Cannon is good at dealing with large areas of miscellaneous soldiers. Its advantages and weaknesses are also very obvious. That is, once the enemy's fire resistance is high, they will be directly useless.
The Troll Hammers are different. As the name suggests, they are specially used to deal with trolls, ogres, and larger enemies.
The fire damage in the attack is relatively small, and more depends on the explosive damage of the ammunition.
Their ammunition is cone-shaped, and will use the impact force of the explosives to try to penetrate the enemy's armor, and then explode inside the enemy's body. When encountering an enemy with low defense, one shot will often leave a huge bloody hole.
Unfortunately, like another shortcoming of the Iron Dragon Artillery, the dwarves' technology is not yet perfect, and their maximum range is also short, often less than half of that of ordinary archers.
Although except for butchers and rangers, other dwarf troops are generally equipped with heavy armor, crossbowmen, musketeers, and these two special ranged units are no exception.
But for Levi, unless the opponent is a stupid monster, it will still be very uncomfortable if he encounters an enemy with a large number of archers or magic troops.
This disadvantage is difficult to reverse using conventional strategies or tactics.
The reason why this is the case for Levi is that the dwarves usually do not fight on the plains. More than 90% of their battles are on the defensive.
When they are in various shooting positions, they naturally don't have to worry about this problem...
But no matter what, Levi expressed his gratitude, and then led the ogres who were already well fed and well drunk, and marched towards Iron Peak Fort.
They had barely walked ten miles when they discovered several small groups of fleeing soldiers. They were as embarrassed now as they were when they launched the WAAAGH.
When they saw Levi and Khalida's army of tens of thousands, they all hated themselves for not having two more legs and tried their best to run away.
But in front of Khalida's graveyard knights, they had no way of escaping successfully.
Even though their performance in the previous battles had been far from satisfactory, they were still level 5 soldiers after all, so they had no problem hunting down these low-level greenskins.
Braut also joined them personally with the Crusher, but from Levi's point of view, he seemed to be enjoying the fun.
Because they often just swung their several-meter-long wooden sticks casually , and the green skins were easily hit far away like baseballs, and then rolled on the ground for many circles before they could barely stop.
But at that time, even if they didn't die, they would immediately face the super-giant woolly rhinoceros weighing tens of thousands of pounds, and would be trampled into a ball of blurred meat.
Then Braut would be the first to burst into laughter, and the other ogres would follow suit.
Seeing how heartless they were, Levi was speechless for a moment, and then he felt admiration for them.
Sometimes, ignorance is bliss, at least they won't have so many worries.
But Levi soon noticed that even the most greedy ogres did not try to eat the greenskins.
He couldn't help but feel a little doubtful. Even though the ogres had just had a meal, the characteristics of their race determined that they would never be completely full.
Even though according to insiders, the greenskins' flesh is dry, astringent, hard, and has a fishy smell, the ogres shouldn't care about that, right?
So he simply asked Braut directly.
Who knew that Braut's face was full of disgust: "It turns out that goblin brains are delicious, and Squigs taste like chicken. The green-skinned meat is a little worse, like some moldy dried mushrooms, but it can barely fill my stomach."
"But ever since they started this super WAAAGH, their meat has become even more unpalatable than troll meat."
Having said this, Braut became even more gloomy.
Not only is troll meat notoriously unpalatable, but since trolls have regenerative abilities, it's possible that once in the stomach, they will continue to regenerate.
The legendary green-skinned goblin, the Big Belly King Gollum, is said to have expanded his body to the size of an ogre because he once ate troll flesh.
Although the ogres' powerful digestive abilities allow them to eat troll meat, they would not be willing to eat trolls if given a choice.
In fact, humans are often their best prey in many cases, because they are not only numerous and have relatively delicious meat, but also have an average weak strength.
The name of the ogre race did not come from this, but it is indeed well-deserved.
Of course, that was a long time ago. As the gods increasingly discovered the benefits of humans, they naturally would no longer allow ogres to eat humans in large numbers.
They began to bestow magic, divine arts, various combat skills and knowledge. Humans today are far superior to what they were before.
Moreover, further east of the many ogre kingdoms is the famous Zhendan Dynasty. Over the years, countless ogre kingdoms have been destroyed because of disobeying the other side.
In addition, the Big Gourmet God believed in by the ogres was also beaten up by the Zhendan Dragon God for similar reasons.
Now his real body remains in the main world, always in a half-dead state, constantly reminding other ogres not to offend the Zhendan Dynasty.
By now, it would be an exaggeration to say that they are terrified. The ogres are starving and they are robbing the official caravans of Zhendan. But at least they have indirectly become a little wary of humans and are no longer as unscrupulous as before.
Elves and dwarves are also difficult to mess with, so under normal circumstances, greenskins and goblins are a very good choice.
But now, not only have the greenskins become very strong, but their meat is also much less tasty than before, which makes Braut very painful.
This is also the reason why he came over so quickly when the skinny woman waved at him, and why he wanted to sign an employment contract as soon as Levi gave him some giant meat.
He is not stupid. If he fights with the elves, he will immediately have more meat to eat!
Is there such a situation?
Levi was not sure for a moment whether this was related to the power of thinking possessed by the greenskins, because there was no record before about whether the greenskin meat was delicious or not.
But before he could think about it, Sefa suddenly came closer. When he saw her frowning brows, Levi immediately knew that there must be an emergency, otherwise she would not have this expression.
"What's wrong?"
Sefa said with a little worry: "The egret-headed sphinx sent me an urgent request for help, hoping that I can help it now."
Levi frowned: "It's actually at this time..."
During the previous expedition against the Silver Blood Army, Levi obtained a scroll from the priests that could allow him to conclude a contract with the egret-headed sphinx. In the end, he gave this opportunity to Sefa.
She quickly succeeded in signing a contract with the other party. In exchange for providing some magic materials every month, the other party would make some gadgets to enhance combat effectiveness in the desert, as well as several low- and medium-level magic scrolls for her.
At the same time, Sefa must protect it when it is in crisis, otherwise the contract will be terminated regardless of whether it is dead or not.
But now they are on their way to find the evil gallbladder. If he lets Sefa go alone, he will definitely be worried. If he lets him go with them, who knows when things over there will be settled?
But after some quick thought, Levi finally decided to follow.
The life or death of the egret-headed sphinx is actually not important, and the little gadgets it made are also of no importance to him.
What he really wanted was the specific coordinates of the other party's location.
With the coordinates and the help of magic, he will be able to go there easily in the future.
He still remembered that there was a name on Khalida's list of enemies and his list of prey - Prince Apophis, the Lord of the Cursed Scarab.
There is no doubt that the sphinx lives in the desert. It is not sure which Tomb King it is closest to, but no matter where it is, it is definitely much closer to the Beetle Prince than the city of Lahmia!