Chapter 346: Breaking the Siege

At this moment, a thousand possibilities raced through Kurdran's mind.

For a split second, Kurdran was almost convinced that this was a conspiracy.

The timing was too perfect!

Just as the Aerie Peak was under attack, you show up, even before I had the chance to call for help!

This Duke's timing was faster than those death merchants who rushed to sell arms at the first whiff of war.

The next second, Kurdran could only laugh bitterly.

The entire Lordaeron was in chaos, and the Wildhammer dwarves were not oblivious to it. They were not an entirely isolated race. Even the merchants who frequently visited Aerie Peak had informed the Wildhammer dwarves that the entire continent was at war.

From the Silverpine Forest in the west to the Hillsbrad Foothills in the center, and then to the Arathi Highlands in the east, it was just that the Wildhammer dwarves' consistent non-confrontational attitude made them subconsciously reject the information that war was approaching.

In fact, just two weeks ago, he had received a long letter from Magni Bronzebeard, detailing the orcs' unreasonable territorial demands and their most barbaric acts of genocide.

All resisters were executed.

Even those who surrendered, if they were deemed troublesome or too expensive to keep as dwarf slaves, were also executed.

If the overseer was in a bad mood, they were still executed.

These extremely barbaric green skins never valued the lives of other races.

Or rather, they didn't even value the lives of their own kind.

Unfortunately, the current situation was not good. On one side were the robbers who had brazenly invaded their home, and on the other side was a treaty that was almost a fait accompli?

Duke saw Kurdran's dilemma: "No, no, no, great King of the Wildhammer. It's not just us who have come. At the request of Magni Bronzebeard, one of the leaders of the Alliance, 50,000 elite Alliance soldiers are already lined up on the border of Hinterlands. As long as you permit, the warriors of the Alliance will surely crush these invaders for the Wildhammer clan. Rest assured, there are no additional conditions."

Dwarves are a tough lot. Threats and bribes would only earn you a blunderbuss to the face, and they would rather fight the orcs to the death than beg for mercy.

Duke's method of first enticing and then pushing people into the Alliance at least made the Wildhammer dwarves feel much more comfortable.

"Alright, in the name of the King of the Wildhammer dwarves, I accept the goodwill of the Alliance. As long as you prove that what my relative said is true, the Wildhammer dwarves will join your Alliance."

Duke smiled and immediately sent a magical message: "Jandice, let Marshal Bolvar advance."

The elite soldiers of Stormwind, who had been prepared for a rapid march, abandoned all their food and supplies, carrying only their weapons and equipment, and rushed into the Hinterlands.

In the sky, Duke held Sylvanas by her slender waist, letting the Banshee Queen rain arrows down on the Horde rushing on the ground. At the same time, Duke used the system sprite to scan and mark the trolls hiding in the forest, killing them with magic.

But there were still too many of the Horde.

The Horde swarmed towards Aerie Peak without any formation.

Half a day later, it could be clearly seen from the sky that the green tide of the Horde and the silver steel flood of humans had a fierce collision.

The well-trained elite soldiers of Stormwind, under the command of Marshal Bolvar, moved slowly.

They formed a solid shield wall, exposing their long spears. The Horde had to endure a barrage of javelins thrown from behind the shield wall before they could face this terrifying wall.

Any attempt to sweep away the cluster of long spears was in vain. Behind the two rows of sword and shield soldiers were three rows of pikemen, who repeatedly thrust and withdrew their long spears, ensuring that any orc had to face more than six long spears at the same time, which was beyond the limit of orcish martial prowess.

The orcs crashed hard against the shield wall, and some parts of the wall were broken where the defenders could not fully resist the orcish onslaught.

The ensuing rain of javelins allowed the sword and shield soldiers to have time to repair their formation, quickly stepping over their fallen comrades to fill the gaps in the formation.

The trolls on the other side also threw long spears, these primitive and rough stone-tipped spears indeed caused a lot of trouble for the humans.

Fortunately, the penetration power of these thrown spears was limited and could not compare with the penetration of metal spearheads.

When Bolvar ordered the front row of sword and shield soldiers to be increased to three rows, the formation finally stabilized.

The waves of the Horde crashed against this shield wall, and the damaged parts became fewer. In contrast, the Horde suffered a greater blow.

When the third wave of the Horde arrived, the fff group's flamethrower team arrived and taught these Horde a lesson.

Originally, Marshal Bolvar had prepared for a tough battle.

But after the initial onslaught of the Horde, he was surprised to find that those who rushed out of the forest waving weapons were actually Horde laborers.

Although these laborers also had a considerable fighting spirit, could the combat power of laborers compare with standard orc warriors? Let alone the elites of the Blackrock clan.

The overall decrease in height, strength, and speed made this battle more like a civil war between two human kingdoms.

When the sun set, there were as many as forty thousand orc corpses piled up on the battlefield at the foot of Aerie Peak.

"A glorious victory!"

On the battlefield, the dwarf warriors who were fighting on the front line let out passionate cheers. Their new allies - those human warriors mostly just smiled faintly, not seeming too excited.

"How come, are humans now too cool to even celebrate a victory?" A dwarf warrior asked.

"Believe me, every human warrior bearing the griffin emblem has a double-digit orc kill count, we've seen far more orcs than you have. But the orc laborers who came today, they really can't get us excited!" An elite warrior of the Griffin Legion replied.

Two hours later, in the throne room of Aerie Peak, Kurdran Wildhammer received Duke and his party. He had thought that most human leaders were stodgy old men.

Clearly, his preconceived notion was wrong.

Apart from a human Marshal in his forties or fifties, everyone else present looked excessively young.

Duke Markus, a young man wearing a blue and white mage robe, with a clean-shaven chin and a pair of deep black eyes, was their commander.

Then there was a guy who radiated a soft golden glow and claimed to be a 'paladin'.

Finally, there was a wild and rebellious elf girl. Although Kurdran didn't find her particularly cute, her brave and beautiful figure won his favor.

Kurdran rarely saw so many special people. Especially the dozens of barrels of fine wine that Duke brought afterwards, which made him feel even happier. Now, he was glad to have met these people.

Dwarves only consider men who can drink as brothers, Kurdran secretly decided, regardless of whether Duke was thin or weak, anyone who can drink is a brother!