Chapter 344: The Troll Ambush

Hello everyone, translator here. Sorry for going MIA last week. I tried to have everything set up to auto post but that clearly did not work out haha... At any rate you now get a massive 12 chapter release to make up for the chapters you didn't get last week(9 chapters) and the three regular Monday chapters.

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"By the ancestors, there are too many of them! They're like an army of ants, only bigger and better equipped!" Kurdran cursed as he surveyed the scene below.

He and a hunting party were hovering in the air, a benefit of having air superiority. They could adjust their altitude at will, giving them a good view of the strange green-skinned creatures below.

But the situation looked grim.

His scouts had initially spotted these grotesque beings and had estimated that they were at least three days away. Unfortunately, these creatures moved quickly, and now they were less than half a day away from the dwarf territories at the foot of Aerie Peak.

At first, Kurdran had only seen a small group. But soon, he noticed at least three groups within a fifty-meter radius.

These green-skins were divided into groups of about twenty, but it was clear that more groups were emerging from the depths of the forest.

Kurdran flew about a kilometer and found over forty groups of green-skins.

The Wildhammer Dwarves were never ones to shy away from a challenge, but if these creatures were as formidable as they looked, they could easily overwhelm Aerie Peak with sheer numbers.

For some reason, Kurdran found himself missing his Bronzebeard cousins.

Of the three dwarf clans, the Bronzebeards were undoubtedly the strongest in close combat. Their ironclad defense lines would be a good match for these massive green-skinned monsters.

But there were no 'ifs'.

Regardless, Kurdran and his people couldn't just sit by and watch their homeland be destroyed.

Kurdran looked around and raised his Stormhammer high.

"Wildhammer Dwarves, attack!" He blew his horn.

The dwarves raised their warhammers high. The gryphons responded with a loud cry, spreading their wings and diving excitedly.

More than a dozen bolts of yellow lightning struck down at nearly vertical angles.

Of course, their target wasn't the green-skins themselves.

Sending the massive gryphons into the dense forest would be a death sentence.

They had the gryphons skim the tops of the trees, then threw their Stormhammers at the tree trunks, causing the hammers to strike the trunks with great force.

Don't think that the dwarf gryphon riders simply discarded their weapons.

The Stormhammer is not a simple metal hammer. This hammer, forged entirely from the power of lightning, is a product of the arcane.

Even with the lightning power within the hammer deliberately weakened, the powerful impact still caused leaves, berries, and thorns to rain down.

The green-skinned creatures were thrown into disarray by this sudden attack.

Small leaves and such were fine, but nuts were a different story. The large nuts from the trees near Aerie Peak, once mature, were larger than a human head and weighed nearly 5 kilograms.

What does it feel like to have a 5-kilogram object fall freely from a height of ten meters and hit you on the head?

"Thwack!" One unlucky creature had his head smashed by a nut.

The green-skins didn't know what was causing all this. Since the forest was no longer safe, they left. They jogged to the nearest open space.

This was exactly the opportunity the Wildhammer Dwarves had been waiting for.

The reapers that had been circling in the sky for a long time began their real descent.

"Die, green-skins—"

With a resounding battle cry, Kurdran Wildhammer launched the first attack.

The Stormhammer, shimmering with dazzling lightning, was thrown with a howling sound.

The first green-skin reacted quickly, raising his massive battle axe to shield his face. Unfortunately, the attack wasn't a physical one. With a crack of thunder, the hammer made of lightning passed through his axe, delivering a paralyzing electric shock and striking his lower jaw solidly.

From his rubbery, softened jaw, it was clear that all the bones there had been shattered, and his body was suddenly thrown backward.

"Green-skinned mongrels are not worthy to defile our forest!" Kurdran's roar greatly boosted the morale of the Wildhammer Dwarves.

Almost the moment he sent the orc flying, the Stormhammer returned to Kurdran's hand and disappeared again.

This time, it cracked open another green-skinned creature's skull.

Skar, the King of Gryphons, traced an 'S' in the air, elegantly dodging two thrown weapons from the green-skins, and in passing, raked one open with his claws.

Skar flapped his massive wings in the air, making a quick circle without losing speed, and immediately launched a second round of attacks.

If the green-skins had been caught off guard before, now they were all raising their weapons in preparation.

However, this was of no use.

Against the Stormhammer, which could not be blocked and could only be dodged, this method of gradually gathering together was a death wish.

The essence of the Stormhammer is lightning, and its power varies from person to person. It has a key feature: splash damage.

If the victim is too close to others, they will inevitably be affected by the residual lightning. Like this time, Kurdran pulled the hammer back and threw it like a javelin.

The substantial heavy hammerhead first hit a green-skin's right eyebrow. The next moment, his head exploded in a sound like a large-caliber dwarf musket, and when he fell, the sparks of lightning splashing from his body paralyzed two others trying to dodge.

This gave two dwarf gryphon riders, who were diving behind Kurdran, an opportunity. In addition to throwing Stormhammers, a line of three massive gryphons attacked simultaneously.

Especially Skar, her powerful front claws ripped a green-skinned creature's skull, complete with a bloody spine, from his body at high speed. As she sped past, she used her sharp beak to tear open a second one's head, and at the same time, she used her wings to stun a third.

The gryphon riders, like reapers in a field, easily plowed bloody paths through the green-skin ranks.

Unfortunately, the ferocity of the gryphons ended there.

A rain of long spears suddenly shot out from the forest.

With a range comparable to human archers but with a terrifying penetrating power, in an instant, Kurdran's heart was torn as he heard at least twenty gryphons' cries of pain and dozens of dwarf riders' screams.

Almost simultaneously, Kurdran heard his lieutenant, Emhar, scream in agony.

"Trolls!"

Following his lieutenant's shout, Kurdran saw a not-so-sharp stone axe spinning at high speed in the air, tracing an evil arc and hitting another gryphon rider, Beforan, in the shoulder. Beforan's left arm immediately went limp, flapping in the wind, and a wound near his shoulder was spouting bright red blood in the gale.