Chapter 158 8. On the way,
Darkus noticed another weird copper wire tripod on the low sofa, with a snake head on it. This snake head seemed not to be a snake head in the traditional sense, but a snake head with wisdom. people? The nose was cut off so neatly that he had not recognized it just now. The strange trophy was placed on a copper wire tripod, and the open head pointed towards the ceiling of the roof.
"This is the trophy I got from Kulish, a naga? Snake man? Don't look at this strange snake head, but she has the ability to cast spells! According to the high-level warlock on the ship, this one may be a blood naga The queen's attendant." Colonia, who was pouring wine, turned around and said calmly.
"Awesome!" Maranur was half squatting down now. He stretched his head and looked at this inexplicable snake head. After looking at it for a while, he said it in a perfunctory manner.
"Drink some wine. Do you need me to use magic to heat the wine?" Colonia knelt down and placed the goblet filled with wine on the small table.
The two Dacus brothers were already sitting on the low sofa, and Maranul carefully placed the copper wire tripod on the floor. Darkus observed Colonia, and he saw that Colonia's smooth, pale left arm was covered with an intricate tattoo of tightly woven rings and spirals, extending from the tip of her index finger to Her elbow. For a moment, his mind was filled with squirming snakes, squirming, entwining dark shapes moving in and out of his brain, leaving long tunnels behind, filled with dark shadows.
After Colonia placed the drinks, she took the copper wire tripod and sat on the ground. Under the watchful eyes of the Darkus brothers, she took out a delicate bronze brush from the side of the snake man's head and looked after herself. When the snake's head was brushed up, it was illuminated by the dim candlelight, and it was so bright! The two brothers looked at each other, a little confused. As for the wine poured into the goblet, neither brother touched it.
"Wait a moment, it's done!" After Colonia finished speaking, he licked the tip of the bronze brush with his delicate pink tongue, and then placed the bronze brush in a box on his waist. She held up the snake head and stood up gracefully, admiring her work with an exaggerated expression. Then she gritted her teeth and said to the snake head, "I'm very dissatisfied with you! I hate you! You damn stupid snake!" As she spoke, the tattoo on her arm seemed to sharpen and then began to move, like a snake coiled around her arm.
"Are you sure this is your sister? Is she right? Is she okay? I don't know, should we evacuate?" The two brothers Darkus looked at Colonia's strange behavior and looked at each other. The eyes began to communicate wildly.
It was a bit of a joke, but Darkus wasn't worried about his own safety at all. At least the Ogham stone fragments on his body didn't react. Infighting within the family is prohibited, and it is strictly forbidden to cause harm to the children of the family in any way or form. At least while Annasara and her son are still there, no one dares to do so. Can the children of the family not get training? If you want to find excitement in Drukhi society, there is no need to play within the family. Among Newkel's lieutenants like him, not even a member of the family dared to be mean to him at the banquet in the dining area.
"That damn stupid snake cursed me before it died!" Colonia put the snake head in the display cabinet on the wall. She walked back gracefully and sat down, her vivid expression The blue eyes looked at the Darkus brothers, stretched out the tattooed left arm and said.
"This tattoo wasn't so big at the beginning? Has it gradually expanded over time?" Darkus asked curiously, leaning on the low sofa. He felt a little uncomfortable. This discomfort did not come from the opposite side of him. My cousin, it's not this weird tattoo and curse, but the height of this short sofa.
"Yes, my brother, and I can feel that this tattoo is sucking my life force. The mother of the clan helped me prepare a potion that can alleviate it slightly, but the curse is still growing." Colonia's head dropped. He stopped and said a little frustrated.
A bit cheesy, isn't it? How did Darkus know? Because Young Master Newkel gave him detailed information.
"My sister, what about this arm? Can't it be cut?" Maranur asked tentatively.
"That way I will die too, and this curse is connected to my soul." Colonia adjusted her emotions, raised her head and looked at Maranur and said with a wry smile.
But Darkus felt that his cousin's delicate face with a wry smile was like sweet poison, with a hint of distortion and an insatiable curiosity.
"We are family, my sister, what can I do for you?" Maranur asked directly.
"To be honest, I don't know either. The clan mother told me that maybe you have a way, my brother." Colonia raised his head, looked at Darkus and said seriously.
Darkus didn't say anything, but stood up. He walked to the candlestick next to the wall display cabinet and lit the tobacco. After exhaling a puff of smoke, he picked up a white fork bell and rang it. The white material seemed like ivory. The arrhythmic sound made by the fork bell seemed to bring some kind of madness and death. He shook it a few more times until Maranur shouted loudly to stop.
"Do you mind?" Darkus turned around and asked. He was not asking if he could smoke, but that he liked this thing. Maybe the lizard people would like this thing more? Who knows?
"You can take whatever you like from this room. I don't mind. As long as you don't take anything from the experimental table."
Darkus came back again carrying the fork, but this time he did not choose to sit on the short floor. It was really painful on the sofa. The low sofa was meant for half-lying with legs curled up. He lay on the back of the low sofa and shook the ivory fork bell in Maranur's ear, and soon the two brothers began to fight.
Maranur cursed and took the ivory fork bell before lighting the tobacco.
"Since the clan mother told you this, don't have any illusions about Morathi, the mother and her son." Darkus took a puff, exhaled the smoke and said lightly.
After Darkus finished speaking, the whole room was silent, except for the hissing sound of the firewood in the fireplace.
"Maybe there are two places that can help you solve your problem, but maybe neither of them can help you solve your problem. We are family! If that doesn't work, we'll go to Kulish and chop up that Blood Naga Queen!" Da After seeing no response, Keus continued.
"As long as there is hope! My brother, I am good at divination, enchantment and alchemy. I am best at using plants to refine analgesic and detoxification potions. I am proficient in shadow and dark spellcasting." Colonia stood up gracefully and looked at Darkus said seriously.
Darkus nodded and took out the prepared gifts from his arms, a velvet bag filled with Lustria gemstones and an Ogham stone fragment, as well as a bottle of highly corrosive liquid extracted from the mouth of an ancient salamander. liquid.
"Then do me a small favor first. Take out the flammable substances in this liquid and see if there is a synthesis method. If not, see if there are similar substances."
There are no investment requirements, no midnight meetings , there is no secret meeting under the shroud of darkness to make decisions that affect the family or Krakalund, and there is no such thing as Colonia lazily leaning on the low sofa and saying something. We haven't seen each other for a long time, here. Stay with me for a while, you and I have a lot to do and stuff like that.
The three siblings chatted for a while, and then the brothers left.
"We are a family! If it doesn't work out, we will go to Kurish and chop up that Blood Naga Queen!" Maranur kept repeating this sentence like a repeater on the way back, with exaggerated expressions and grandiose behavior.
"Get out!"
"My dear brother, you are so domineering when you say this! You are right, we are family!" Maranur said seriously when they were about to say goodbye. He patted Darkus on the shoulder. Separated.
Dulias looked through the list of trophies, and there was no blood statue of Gilgadresh in it. One sheep is driven, two sheep are herded.
Darkus suggested that Young Master Newkel simply invite more children from the family and powerful people to attend classes. Young Master Newkel accepted this suggestion after thinking for a long time. Soon some outstanding family children selected from the list and children from the Mogar, Godrich, Takaia, and Thorn families arrived. For three hours every afternoon, Young Master Newkel started from the period when the first Phoenix King Aenarion fought against the Chaos Demons during the great invasion, and then talked about several elven civil wars and a summary of the battles against the northern Huns.
The children of the family are not reserved when facing Young Master Newkel. Does this have anything to do with Darkus? It was interesting enough for him to let the children of these families take lessons from the top strategic and tactical masters in Druchi society. But what chance could there be? There were so many messes. He is recording, studying and absorbing it seriously. Whether he is commanding the Druchi Army or the Lizardman Army in the future, he will benefit a lot. The knowledge taught by Major Newkel is very advanced, from a strategic and tactical perspective, and It’s not about sticking to a certain form.
"On the effectiveness of magic and air superiority in traditional combat?"
Unlike the world before Darkus, the medieval new world talked about magic and air superiority, and the combat was more three-dimensional, just like the time when the Black Ark was captured. This is not a game. Flying units in the air must move within the long-range attack range on the ground. The dragon's breath outside the shooting range of long-range ground weapons will cause great damage to the personnel and morale of the ground troops, and the lizard-man pterosaur is equipped with highly destructive stone projectiles for high-altitude throwing. There is no countermeasure for the same large-scale magic. If it is successfully released, the effect will be devastating, such as the dark abyss, the flame storm, the sharp wind and so on.
But this does not mean that ground troops are completely useless. The number of dragons is limited, and their breath will always run out. There will always be stone bullets from pterosaurs? Possibly unlimited stone bullets? After the magic wind is drained, the ground troops are fighting. In the end, it depends on which side's ground troops are stronger. In the chaos of the battle, the dragon can be stabbed to death by spears. The black dragon before Malekith, Sulek, is Caledor threw a spear into his mouth and pierced his head to death. Of course, the spear was a magic item.
Druchi is just the opposite of the Lizard Man. An army like Druchi with extreme military results and social attention has been fighting for more than five thousand years. It has a complete system of fighting at both distance and distance, and it is the best now. Everything that can be done has been done in the past five thousand years. Darkus is not an all-rounder, and he does not need to show his cleverness to come up with some ingenious things, such as backpacks, military kettles, maza and other small items, and the pants he is wearing now He was also very satisfied, at least the inner thighs would not be rubbed when riding the cold lizard. There is no need to carry out any military reforms, just the whole "Mule of Darkus" comes out. As for other daily necessities and playthings, there is no need to buy them. Who is the king of playing cards? Who are J, Q and K respectively? Doesn't this make trouble for yourself? He discussed these issues with Young Master Newkel several times, and finally came to the conclusion that the number of druchis was not enough, and the number of slaves was even less enough!
Instead, it was the fallen empire like the Lizardmen that had to be built. There were also several badly-shatten Lustrian beast combat platforms in the family warehouse, but Darkus had no plans to place the Reaper Ballista on them now. . He assigned several research tasks to the family's forgers, including studying the structure of the Osinite stone, using physical methods to study the gold structure of the Chakua Shield, forging black steel plate armor inlaid with gold and strengthening the serrated sword. Damage ability. He didn't have a suit of armor that really belonged to him yet, so he had to find a way to get one. Maybe the Oceanite Stone could play some role.
As for placing the Reaper Ballista on the combat platform, Darkus will do it when he prepares to return to the Lustria continent. He will have to adjust the shooting angle. If it doesn't work, he will put it flat. The back of the Triceratops' head was a relatively weak point, and he didn't want an enemy to jump onto the combat platform and use a Reaper Ballista to hit the entire back of the Triceratops' head.
In his spare time, Darkus took his powerful retinue and Genevieve to the market to relax and try to find more treasures. Maybe he came at the wrong time. He only found some handicrafts and nothing useful. They could only be used as For decoration. Perhaps influenced by his legend, when he was shopping, he met many powerful children of Krakalond who were shopping there and engaging in forced buying and selling. This made him not interested at all, so he went back after casually shopping in the afternoon.
Although Genevieve is the image of a sixteen-year-old blond girl from Bretonnia, she has lived for hundreds of years and is well-informed. She is not affected by morality. She only has a trace of sympathy for the slaves in cages. Sympathy, and then nothing more, she did not say anything about the Holy Mother to Darkus, but instead looked at the two frozen black arks on the sea for a long time on the Nagaris Bridge.
"Perhaps Nagaros is not as terrifying as you said?"
"Because in addition to the identity of the ancient saint Umak, I also have the identity of an outstanding child of the Krakarond Hell Calamity family. I will wait for you to go to the north and arrive at the real world. You won't think so after Nagaros, let's go, it's a bit cold here."
Soon, this winter passed.
Darkus ushered in his twenty-second spring. There was no warm wind blowing to bring new life, development and prosperity, nor was the Black Ridge Mountains in the upper reaches of the Red Poison River to wake up from their slumber. Without the wheat seedlings in the fields, they are like women enjoying spring, dancing with their green clothes. No, no, nothing. Only the clouds in the sky and the volcanoes that erupt from time to time. Krakaronde is so depressed that it is breathless all year round.
There are still the familiar old faces, the two Maranur sisters, the three Takaia brothers, Walter, Carlion and Genevieve from the Thorn family. There are also pirates from the cold-eyed family of Naika, but the pirates like Naika, Darkus, have been arranged to train on the ship. As for Elmir? Everyone was pregnant. She stayed in Krakarond and lived in the Night Governor Castle and was protected. Her elder brother and younger brother had gone out, and the Cold Eyes family and the Takaia family became deserted and empty again.
There are also some old faces, including Garroth from the Godric family (appeared as a child who is too young to understand), Cowell from the Mogar family (Klarkarond appeared on holiday), and Enns from the Hellfire family. Te and Selire. These Druchi dignitaries are either Maranul's retinues or Dacus's retinues. They want to follow the Dacus brothers to Nagarund to exercise and see what the Yankees' little shock is. Kind of.
"If I had known I was going to be an adjutant in Naggarond, I would have brought the big guy back. Maybe if I were an adjutant, I wouldn't have to go out to fight as much? Who knows?" Darkus smoked on the Black Ark Temple of Malice. Yan paced and thought about it. His original plan was to return from Lustria, stay in Krakalond for a while, then go to the old world, go to the Sea of Claws and land in the Nord territory of the empire, and first go to the Old Witch Visit the place where Heliben was born, then go to Lauren Loren and then go all the way south to see if his status as the chosen elves can be used in Aslai. The vampire war in the empire is probably about to start. , and now he is going to be an adjutant in Nagarund.
The current cold lizards are all brought back from Lustria. These little naughties are a little stupid, but they can barely communicate. Darkus also specially arranged for these stupid naughty lizards to wear lizard armor. Big and plush, he was worried that these stupid naughty pears would not be able to withstand the cold when they went north. Of course, he also prepared some thick Kaitans and easy-to-move velvet pants that he wore. He also changed his boots. He didn't want his feet to freeze.
During the first elven civil war in Ulthuan, Malekith's attempt to disintegrate the Maelstrom was sucked back into Nagaryth, and that huge energy caused devastating damage to Nagaryth. Many cities and fortresses near the sea were protected by powerful magic and were lucky to survive the tsunami's impact, while other surrounding lands were disintegrated or washed away by the tsunami. The elves who supported Malekith floated on the angry waves like unmoored islands, these cities and fortresses carrying the elves of Nagaryth like arks.
The elves on the Ark were faced with a choice, either abandon their wandering haven and surrender themselves to the mercy of the other elves of Ulthuan, or toughen up and survive on their own. Druchi chose the path of resistance, erected huge masts and cast magic, turning the fragments into ocean fortresses. From then on, the Black Ark was born, and the Black Ark also turned the elves of Nagaryth into Druchi.
Darkus walked through the gate, which opened into a low cavern filled with bustle like a small market square. Pirates, soldiers, and slaves mingled with each other. Huge lights burned from stone pillars set at intervals in the square. The cold light does little to dispel the darkness in the vast space, casting the druchi and market stalls in eerie shadow.
"It's like living in a tomb!" Darkus suddenly longed to breathe fresh air, letting the howling cold wind and weak sunlight float his body.
This is the Black Ark Malevolent Temple, and it is still in the dark underground sea at this time. In front of it are a large number of looting ships opening the way, and behind it is a black Ark, which is the Soul Claw of the Mogar family.
Darkus turned left in the square, cut off from the bustling druch by a halo of light, to a wide slope that wound upwards into the shadows. A group of guards stood at the bottom of the ramp, taking the Sovereign from the hands of Druchi as he moved up and down the curve. It seemed that the Drukhi had to pay a toll to pass. He walked over with his followers. After the guards saw him and his followers, they immediately respectfully moved out of the way.
Walking along the winding road, Darkus felt no different from climbing the curved spiral stairs of the Druchi Minaret, except that it took nearly half an hour to reach each level. Soon he and his followers arrived to a desolate small square, and then entered a dim side passage deep into the depths of black marble. This dim road was as flat and smooth as a road, but it exuded an unpleasant smell, which seemed to be the smell of horse manure. . Narrow recessed doors and blinds would pass by every once in a while. To Darkus, it was no different from walking in the civilian area of Krakarond. Occasionally, familiar sounds could be heard in the air, such as the crack of whips. and the clatter of chains, the screams and shouts of rage, and the violent crash of the cage as it was closed.
"Right! This is the smell!" Darkus and his followers walked aimlessly, walked, walked, and they were dizzy. The followers were not very familiar with the Temple of Viciousness either. He was I wanted to take a walk and see what this five-kilometer-long floating object on the sea looked like. It was an eye-opener!
After walking for a while, as the block deepened, various buildings in the shape of blocky and thick-walled fortresses were separated by narrow, dirty alleys. There should be a slave concentration area inside, which could accommodate up to several people. Thousands of slaves and provide a training ground for the slaves in the House of Flesh fighting pits aboard the Temple of Malevolence. But it was a little empty inside at the moment. There would definitely be no programs or consumption when they just went out to sea for a raid. Druchi on the ship would have to suffer for a while.
Darkus was curious and prepared to go in and take a look around. Under the warm hospitality of the steward in the slave owners' concentration area, he entered a showroom. The steward Druch trotted in front and introduced him with an enthusiastic expression. Inside there are polished and gleaming marble columns, each equipped with polished black steel manacles to display items.
Outside the showroom is a long and narrow corridor, where you can see rows of training rooms. In each room stood one or more pairs of slaves, who were being taught various martial arts by instructor Druch, who was frowning and about to get angry at any time. When Darkus passed one of the rooms, he heard a pitiful scream, and he followed the scream to see one of the instructors demonstrating different methods of weakening his opponent by cutting the tendons of an emaciated human slave.
"What kind of broken wall place, there are three floors inside and three floors outside, like a maze."
Soon, Darkus walked around in a circle and left again. It was getting late and he should go back. This afternoon he I only visited a very small part of the deck above the Temple of Malevolence.
(End of chapter)