Chapter 263 : Lann, who was surrounded by excited dwarves after Great Elder Brovar Hogg used the power of his strange seal, asked questions excitedly.
As an ancient and long-lived race, the dwarves have never seen magic, but the scenes of those spellcasters fighting are not as exciting as Lan.
After confirming that these dwarves would not harm his Duke, House turned his attention to the Sharma ice sculpture that was frozen by [Alder's Seal: Bone-piercing].
Outsiders may be intimidated by the Duke's power and dare not think about it, but House, who is already very familiar with Lan, knows that Sharma, who has become like an ice sculpture, is not actually dead yet.
With the environmental bonus of the snow-capped mountains, the Duke's strange seal at this moment can freeze the monster, but it will not kill it completely. Now Sharma just lost consciousness due to the sudden cold, which is the common sense of fainting from cold. It was also because the Duke did not try his best to unleash the powerful force that he used to deal with the Kraken in Skellige. Otherwise, this Sharma would not even have a whole body and would be turned into pieces on the spot.
[However, this kind of monster is indeed not qualified to die at the hands of the Duke. Just subduing it is already an honor for it.] House thought, [After that, I will end it and turn it into alchemy materials. ...]
However, "without waiting for House to approach, with a bang", the ice sculpture of Sharma was suddenly shattered by a huge force.
Saskia wields a great ax and crushes the monster. The handle of the ax was as thick as her arm, and the blade was bigger than her head. Such an ax would be difficult for even a dwarf to swing, but in Saskia's hands it was as light as a wooden pole.
The dwarf who lent the ax to Saskia was already wide-eyed, but he was relieved after thinking that the girl had arm-wrestled and won the wheel battle of dozens of dwarves.
Feeling the surprised look in House's eyes, Saskia showed a friendly smile.
"Well...you're welcome." The lake-like blue eyes blinked twice, "If you have just joined the team, fighting side by side will help you integrate better and gain friendship, right?" Saskia looked at it
. Sharma, who had been eliminated by the lightning-fast offensive, showed an apologetic look: "I originally wanted to charge together to deal with them. But your movements were too fast. I just borrowed an axe, and the enemy... All of them have been dealt with, so I can only help clean up the battlefield."
"So." Saskia kicked the corpse at her feet, "This is what I should do."
...
House felt that the woman in front of him was too strange.
She has a rare tall figure, a very upright appearance, even mature and majestic, and a very calm temperament. But what she said was too straightforward and even childish, which was in sharp contrast to her personal temperament.
And this power... House glanced at Sharma's body on the ground.
This kind of power is difficult for members of the "Lions" who have been strengthened several times to achieve. Although this woman has a strong figure, the shape and size of her muscles definitely don't look like she can exert this level of power.
There is no such thing as "the power of the strong" or "the sense of murderous intent" in this world. If a master with ten enemies stripped off his sophisticated equipment, he would not feel stronger than a veteran.
Therefore, mercenaries often appear among the people to challenge lone strongmen. Villagers dare to attack witchers armed with pitchforks. Warlocks may also be made things difficult for them by their landlords because they default on rent. When this kind of plot is written into a novel, it may even be suspected of "forcibly creating conflict" and it will be criticized by readers, highlighting the absurdity and outrageousness.
That is to say, after House became a "pride of lions", he upgraded and strengthened some of his perceptions, and after traveling around for a long time, he somewhat developed some eyesight. When Saskia first appeared, he felt uneasy as if facing a monster. He thought it was an illusion at the time.
Now it seems that there is indeed something worth pondering.
House took a deep breath. He didn't know since when, weird guys always appeared around the Duke. You must know that when he first met Mr. Geralt, he only felt that poetry was being performed in front of him. The witcher was the most magical person he had ever come into contact with.
But since even the Duke has accepted the existence of the other party, he just needs to open his mind and at most pay more attention to the other party.
So House looked at the shattered body of Sharma, thought for a moment and said, "Uh...thank you."
As if the theory had been verified, Saskia, who felt that she had gained friendship, smiled with satisfaction.
...
The attendants and the new team members are having friendly exchanges.
On the other side, Lan is also talking to Gabo and Layla.
When fighting side by side with human soldiers, Lann would deliberately restrain his seals and fight with swords to show his prowess. This would make it easier to gain recognition and accumulate power.
But facing an ancient race like the dwarves, it is easier to gain respect for the power of the supernatural realm. It was also because of this that Lann used his magic power without any scruples, and used thunderous means to eliminate the Sharma tribe in front of him.
Judging from the attitude shown by Gabo and the other dwarves towards him at this moment, this muscle display was very successful.
"I'm really sorry, Duke Lannister. This has never happened in Mahakam in the past. A general cleaning is enough to keep these monsters quiet for a whole year. I just don't know what happened now..." Gabo said worriedly
. : "Besides that, there is Kelturis... If what the Master Demon Hunter sensed is true, then there must be something that angered her. I must tell the Great Elder this information." For the Red
Dragon Lann didn't know the reason for the abnormality displayed. But if the underground monsters like Sharma reach the ground abnormally, Lann can explain it.
It's all the Ancient Blood's fault... No, it's all the Mirror Master's fault.
Lan thought for a while and said relatively tactfully: "Actually, not only Mahakam, but similar situations have also occurred in many other places in the North. Many monsters have behaved contrary to their usual habits, and many of them are hidden deep in the forests and mountains. The monsters appeared near the gathering place of humans."
"Perhaps because Mahakam is deep in the mountains, it was not affected much before, but it still cannot be ignored."
After hearing Lan's words, Heilela showed her agreement. With a look on his face, he affirmed: "There is a similar situation in Aden. Many soldiers who went deep into the woods to search for the Scoia'tael were eventually killed by monsters." Gabo's expression became more serious: "Is that so? Thank you, Lord Duke, for your guidance
. The information has come, and I need to tell the great elder about it. Many long-standing traditions may need to be changed to a certain extent. At least the cleaning needs to be intensified..." This gathering place itself is just a transit point,
plus Everyone lost nothing in the battle, so there was no need for any rest time.
Everyone soon decided to continue deeper into Mahakam and visit the great elder of the dwarves before sunset.
Yarpan stayed and continued to wait for his family to arrive, waiting for Ryan and his party to come out before joining them.
Saskia followed Lan's team and finally entered the real Mahakam realm.
After the great display of Lann's team just now, Layla became preoccupied and stopped talking to Geralt. Instead, Saskia chatted with Geralt with great interest.
"My father once told me about you, Mr. White Wolf." Saskia said happily. "He praised you for having great love in your heart and for valuing life more than money and honor. I have always wanted to meet you in person. !"
And when Geralt asked Saskia for her father's name, the woman hesitated and didn't say anything.
Bai Lang was very concerned, but he couldn't ask more questions due to the journey.
...
There is not much wind and snow in the mountains at the beginning of spring, and everyone leaves shallow footprints along the way, which will not disappear for a long time.
Without Yarpan's singing, the atmosphere of the whole team was much silent, and the march speed also accelerated.
Soon, an exaggerated city appeared in front of everyone.
In human society, even if it is the capital of a country, the city wall is only seven or eight meters high. It can be ten meters high, which is a level that can only be achieved by the four northern countries. The thickness of the city wall does not exceed three meters.
But the wall of the "city" in front of us is more than twenty meters high, and its thickness is even more immeasurable.
Rather than saying it is a "city", it is better to say it is a hollowed-out "mountain". The dwarves took the place of nature and used miraculous craftsmanship to carve out the city gate at the foot of the mountain based on the structure of the mountain. They carved densely packed towers and sentries on the mountainside, row upon row. Steel and rock achieved the most perfect integration on this "city wall".
"Welcome to Carbon Mountain, the capital of Mahakam!" Gabo proudly introduced to everyone with his chest raised.
Kolgrim opened his mouth wide and nudged Cohen with his elbow: "Do you think it takes more effort to carve such a high wall from the mountain, or to build such a high wall from the ground?" Cohen admired
. She shook her head: "I don't understand architecture, but I know that you will never see such a majestic city elsewhere."
Leila has been here several times, and she can barely pull her eyes and mind away from this man-made wonder. Her eyes met Geralt's inadvertently.
White Wolf looked at her and said sincerely: "I now understand why you said that if Temeria sends out troops, it will definitely fail in Mahakam. Unless they have flying troops, it cannot be conquered by manpower." The city."
At the city gate dug out at the foot of the mountain, stood a group of fully armed dwarf soldiers. They were the Mahakam heavy infantry that Lann had been coveting for a long time.
Dwarves are less than half the height of humans, but about the same weight, which means their bones are thicker and harder, and they have more muscles and greater strength.
Similarly, when wearing full armor, dwarves can also wear heavier armor than humans and lift thicker shields than humans. Seen from a distance, these heavy infantrymen looked like lumps of iron. Lann estimated that their plate armor was half as thick as a thumb.
In the future, an organized dwarf heavy infantry will shine during the Civil War. They withstood the charge of Nilfgaard's heavy cavalry head-on. Not only did they completely consume all the impact of the heavy horses, they even pushed them forward!
Until the end of the battle, this phalanx of dwarf heavy infantry was not broken through once.
You must know that the Nilfgaardian heavy cavalry is the absolute ace of the Black Sun Empire's heavy investment. If they are allowed to drive straight into the camp that breaks into the northern border, the human regiments in the northern border will have no single enemy.
But at this moment, all humans don't know that the dwarf heavy infantry can have such power. In fact, the organized legion of dwarves has never appeared on a recorded battlefield so far.
Apart from the dwarves themselves, only Rann knew how powerful they were.
"This is the great elder's token." Gabo strode forward to approach these Lann's greedy infantrymen and began to talk to them.
Gabo used to be one of these heavy infantrymen, but now he holds a diplomatic position and is so famous that the city gate guards recognized his identity at a glance.
"These are the guests of the great elder." But even if they looked familiar, Gabo still had to show the complete procedures and documents, because this is Mahakam - a place that pays great attention to traditions, procedures, and rules.
They soon arrived at the place where the great elder was. From a distance, I heard a loud voice that was no less than, or even far greater than, that of Yarpan.
The great elder was not in a meeting place, but in an arsenal. The sounds of hammers and billets colliding could be heard from inside, but they still couldn't cover up the roar of the great elder.
"Damn it, what happened to this year's 'spring cleaning'? Have you been in the mine for a long time, so your eyes are covered with stones like Sharma!" "Why are all the clans reacting to me now
? We were attacked by monsters, and even that big lizard couldn't stop those monsters!"
Everyone followed the voice and saw only a dwarf with gray hair and skin folds like tree bark.
He looked old, but his body was as strong as a rock. He raised a huge double-edged battle ax and banged it, causing sparks to splash onto the face of the dwarf officer in front of him who was being scolded by him.
"Barclay! Tell me, have your eyes been stuck with stones?"
"...No, Great Elder."
"Then tell me why this year's 'spring cleaning' is like this!"
Gabo watched from a distance. , face as earthy. No one wants to get into trouble with such an angry great elder.
However, before Gabo could avoid the attack and wait for the great elder to calm down first, the old dwarf stationed with the battle ax turned back as if he had something to say, and at a glance he saw Lan, who stood out from the crowd, and the Cintra troops behind him.
Visible to the naked eye, the great elder became even more angry.
"Damn it! The dirty monsters in the cave are enough to give people a headache, but why are humans here? Are they here to ask for money or people? Humans will never come to the dwarves until they are at the end of their rope!" Lann picked a pick
. eyebrow. The Grand Elder Brovar Hogg in front of him is said to have sat as the ruler of Mahakam for centuries, and he even wears a crown.
But it is obvious that time has not extinguished his temper, but has turned it into dry wood and burned it more and more intensely.
Gabo couldn't hide this time. He hurriedly stepped forward to prevent the Great Elder from saying anything that might cause a diplomatic accident. He hurriedly explained: "Great Elder, this is Duke Lannister from Cintra, Lan. ·Lannister Rhianlen. He is the one who brought the lost equipment blueprints through Carlo before, and hopes to talk to you."
Carlo Varese is the "Machete" who is now in Novigrad. actual name.
The great elder's anger was suffocated. He had been sending Gabo out for some time, and now counting the days, it was indeed the time for the people of Sintra to arrive.
In just one breath, the great elder's face, which was originally like a melting pot, became as rosy as drinking a glass of fine Mahakam ale.
"Haha, Lannister, the Lion of Cintra, you are finally here!"
Seeing the great elder's extremely fast face-changing speed, Geralt behind Lan couldn't help but think of Layla's original words:
[Brovar ·Hogg is very cunning, and he seems to be more proficient in politics than most of his Majesty in the North. ]
[I also hope that you can remind Duke Lannister in a timely manner, so that he must not be fooled by the stereotype of dwarves, and must be careful when negotiating. 】
(End of this chapter)