A Rattling Monster

Chapter 132: The Heart of the Mountain

I and my 8 wraiths silently and discreetly followed the 4000 dwarf warriors that were following Dustag. When we arrived at the first fortress, a huge ruckus was provoked. Of course, for those inside that checkpoint, the long file of warriors and equipment was signifying the fall of a fortress in the hand of the ratmen. Only after a very long discussion with the commandant, the matter was explained.

Of course, he didn't believe a single word of Dustag, and he interrogated many warriors until he realized that they truly think that this retreat is necessary. None of them spoke about me or my undead, but they were all looking under Dustag. They know that I was hidden right under him, and they were very grateful for this win without any casualties. At least for now, and until I make a big mistake, they will trust my words a little. That's still good enough, to know that such a force is relying on me.

But now, here comes the tricky part. I can hear the commandant yelling at Dustag and the others in charge, to confess what tricks they are using to talk with Thongril directly. But none of the men that fought with me say a single word, except the threat that Thongril will personally smash the head of the commandant if he doesn't let them go. Now, the commandant is truly angry, but he is perplexed at the same time. Because, if what we are saying is true, he and his troops should begin to retreat too. The moment the West falls, his fortress will be isolated and without any help possible.

I don't know how many they are here, but they are clearly more equipped than Bori. I can see more and more siege weapons and even some weird cannons. They are not exactly a cannon, but like, 10 cannons attached in a single entity. That should be extremely effective again a large number of ratmen. I see many flamethrowers too, something that Bori didn't have access to. To be fair, it is quite logical too. I don't think the dwarves created a lot of those weapons, since the first time I saw them was my meeting with the Iron Beards. And those warriors are supposed to be the strongest warriors in the Grey Mountain Kingdom and the protectors of the king of the Mountain. They are not some scums picked up in a remote alley.

We stay so long inside the fortress that the first warriors from the eastern fortress catch up with us. I can see Gloni in the batch and he is arguing with another dwarf. This one is clearly not the commandant, but he has exactly the same weapons and armors that Gloni is wearing, I guess he is a lieutenant too. He seems clearly shocked to see so many dwarves from Bori here, and I can see that he is less angry than before. I suppose that he didn't believe the news either, and only by seeing so many men from Bori here, he realized that it is probably true.

The same thing is happening with the commandant located here. Seeing another batch of not really injured dwarves, he begins to question the newly arrived warriors, but meet nothing except incomprehension. They don't know anything, just that, at a moment, they saw dark shadows kill all the ratmen in front of them, and made them retreat. I guess that should be pretty confusing. If I wasn't responsible, I wouldn't really have believed such a story either.

Knowing that something is clearly out of his reach and that if the news is true, every minute is precious, the commandant finally decides to let all of us go to the capital. He even asks one of his warriors to join us, and ask an audience with Thongril. If the two stories are matching, he has to immediately come back. After this, we all marched toward the capital. The journey is quite long, we needed at least two entire days, with all the heavy equipment and artilleries that the dwarves were carrying. But, when we exit the tunnel, I finally see why it is called the Heart of the Mountain.

Imagine the biggest cave that you can see. At least, 30km in size, 2km in height. And inside this deep and big hole, another small mountain is rising in the middle. It is a mountain inside the mountain. The peak should be at half the height of the cave, meaning at nearly 1km. As for its size, a third of the cave, more or less 10 km. So no attack from above can be done, except dropping something. But it is not really effective, just from here, I can't see any buildings, just a mountain. So, all the infrastructures of the capital are under the second smaller mountain. No, I spoke too soon, I see one strange tower above the peak of this small mountain. I wonder what is this?

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

What's this? A helicopter? How are they capable of doing this?

(I told you that what you saw is just a fraction of the weaponry made by the dwarves. Like the ratmen, they have more and more tricks in their bags, and with that natural fortress already created, removing them from here will be impossible. As for that helicopter, I don't know what it is. But that's, my friend, I a gyro-copter. In truth, I have seen worst coming from the dwarves, I have seen something similar to this, but ten times the size and capable of unleashing a rain of bombs under it. We are quite unlucky that those dwarves are not as advanced as those that I know.)

Well, to me, they are still good enough. With those gyro-copters, like you call them, battling inside this cave will be a piece of cake. They have too much freedom, this cave is too big. They can stand above the ratmen army, and there is nothing that can be done, even the sniper won't be able to aim at this. The reason they could accurately fire at me and my lich, in Ronta, was because of our position. On the horizon, meaning the rifles were put on the ramparts, and they were using that to stabilize the terrible weapons. But, firing vertically, how can they truly be accurate that way?

On the mountains, I can see rows and rows of light, probably all the position of the artilleries. No, that's too many, probably more the windows pierced on the walls. Anyway, seeing this I understand the concept of Heart of the Mountain.

(Hehehe, not really, not the true meaning. I mean, it can happen that you will never see it directly, but know that there is just another reason for that name. It is something that can be found in the audience room, on the throne of the King of the Mountain. The true Heart.)

A gem? Or something similar? Oslo? Oslo? Answer, seriously. Ok, fine, just drop that and leave, I'm fine. I will bet on the most beautiful gem possible, but, seeing the strange sentences pronounced by Oslo, I can't deny the possibility of something else. Never mind, I should just keep going.

I hear the reports of the different spirits located on the western front, and they are not really good. More and more ratmen are joining the fray, and now, the fortresses have a very hard time fighting back. The potions are less effective, and more and more humans and dwarves are falling sick. The good thing is, even with the reduced power of Aria, the priests and archbishops are still capable of curing those deadly diseases. But everyone is tired, the magicians and priests are always fighting back against the sorcerers of the ratmen, the knights and dwarf warriors against the masses of ratmen.

Some archbishops are even targeted by the assassins, and already hundreds of them have been slain in the back line. The food has been poisoned, and they are only holding on with the rations that every dwarf had prepared in that case. But, in the two following days, the food and water will be completely gone, and it will be the time to retreat. That's really bad, that's exactly the time that it will take for the lieutenant to come back to the fortress.

I warn Bori about that, and tell him that in exactly two days, the West will have fallen and by that time, the ratmen will rush towards the Heart of the Mountain. There will be just one remaining fortress between the ratman and the capital, but I have no idea how long it will take for the ratmen to destroy it. But, they won't do some schemes like in the East, an attack then a retreat then an attack again. They will permanently assault the last fortress until all the defenders are dead. And even if they blow up the tunnel, it will only delay slowly the advance of the army of Salazar. Only after warning Bori, and let him deal with the information, did we finally reach the main door of the capital.