Chapter 452: Answer Me

Truth be told, this wasn't the first time Orgrim had seen these mechanical monstrosities.

These incomprehensible machines had cost Zul'jin countless lives and turned what could have been a textbook example of a long-distance raid into a laughable wild goose chase.

The red lights scattered across the hills were conspicuous and glaring. They seemed meaningless, but they were broadcasting danger to every orc.

What to do?

"Attack! These things are harmless!" a centurion declared.

Based on past experiences, this was indeed the case. These devices scattered across the wilderness could perhaps blow hidden trolls out of hiding, but they themselves were not aggressive. Perhaps in the eyes of humans, these things were no different from the crude axes made by the orcs themselves.

This centurion was even more daring, rushing forward first, kicking a squawking wisp spirit.

The wisp spirit seemed to fly away like a deflated ball.

If this were the past, his experience would be correct, and his actions would be without issue.

But now...

"Boom!"

With a loud noise, the wisp spirit exploded.

The massive force of the explosion sent the centurion, who weighed over three to four hundred kilograms with his armor, flying. Shrapnel covered his ugly face, blinding him instantly.

What was even more terrifying was that even though his armor had blocked the fatal blow, the explosion still blew off one of his legs.

A centurion, who had some reputation within the Blackrock clan, was now crippled.

At this moment, the wisp spirits rushing forward suddenly accelerated towards the Horde army.

"No! Stop them."

But how to stop them?

The Horde only now realized that the trolls, who were good at long-range attacks, were mostly dead.

Those with some courage threw their only weapons, perhaps saving their lives. If they let them get close, the not-so-powerful explosion was enough to cause any orc to lose an arm or a leg.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" With the continuous sound of explosions, the elven rangers on the other side began to shoot arrows from the wooden wall again.

Suicide bombing, even before Duke's time, was still a nearly unsolvable problem. For Duke, the only problem was that he hadn't found the technology for remote detonation. These rushing wisp spirits were all equipped with bombs, and then Duke used the system to manipulate the Mage's Hand to detonate them directly.

Even so, it was enough to make Orgrim's scalp numb.

To attack or not to attack?

Both were not options.

The losses were already significant.

The Horde was not afraid of sacrifice, but what they feared most was this kind of fruitless bleeding. They had already lost ten thousand men, and apart from tearing down six Alliance wooden walls, they had hardly killed anyone.

Including the troll's spears, the casualties on the Alliance side definitely did not exceed 300.

The huge casualty ratio made the orcs' hearts waver.

Orgrim's army originally had just over thirty thousand. Now there were just over twenty thousand left, and many of the orcs were demoralized. How could they continue to fight?

Duke, standing on the high tower, was very patient. He had not yet taken direct action. Or rather, it was not yet time for him to take action.

Orgrim's core elite had not moved, those ten thousand were the last elite of the Blackrock clan.

These ten thousand were not simple, the system elf rarely reminded Duke, these guys actually had a decent magic resistance. Not only fire resistance, but it seemed to have some frost and arcane resistance, which almost covered most of the mainstream magic.

What Duke was most uncertain about was Orgrim himself. Physical-oriented professions are different from magic ones. Mages are divided into five levels: Earth, Sky, Morning Star, Moonlight, and Sunrise. The ranks of physical-oriented professions are vague, generally divided into good hands, strong ones, and the heroic domain.

According to what Alleria said, it seemed that those who entered the heroic domain, like her, would awaken some traits. For example, she specialized in speed and agility, and then awakened additional wind attributes at the Storm Altar.

Orgrim... unless forced to go all out, it's probably impossible to know.

Duke originally wanted to drag the Horde's elite to death, but a system prompt suddenly startled him.

"Send a message! Let the Silver Hand take the field."

With the drawbridge lowered, the huge east gate of Lordaeron City, which had been urgently repaired, opened with a rumble. A cavalry unit of thousands of people rushed out of the city gate and stopped less than a kilometer away from Orgrim's rear army.

The dazzling holy light of the paladins could be clearly seen from a distance.

The Silver Hand Knights were not numerous, here they were less than half a battalion, just sixty people. And the most capable Uther was not there, the team was led by only Tirion Fordring and Gavinrad, two of the original paladins.

The holy light of the paladins blinded the eyes of the Horde scouts. Thousands of Alliance knights stood still on the side and rear of the Horde.

After the scout had crawled and run to Orgrim to report, Orgrim's face immediately darkened.

He immediately realized that this was Duke's attempt to persuade him to retreat.

"Warchief, we can't retreat! If the humans really had the ability, they would have attacked long ago," Sabellian, Orgrim's current second-in-command, shouted.

"I know."

Orgrim was very hesitant. Duke's tactics and strategy were very clear, which was to maximize the killing of the Horde's elite. He was not stuck on one city or one place, but was solely focused on killing. At this time, however, Duke was persuading the eastern Horde to retreat. Obviously, there must be a problem within the Alliance, and Duke must focus on the encirclement on the west side at the cost of giving up the complete annihilation of the eastern Horde army.

But what was the variable?

Orgrim didn't know.

At this moment, he envied the Alliance's communication methods immensely. This allowed senior commanders to quickly grasp changes in the situation. Unlike the Horde's backward contact method, almost everything had to be communicated by sending people to deliver orders.

Now it depends on whether Orgrim wants to gamble or not.

Even if Orgrim knew that the human cavalry on the side and rear of his army was definitely not an elite force, he could not ignore the existence of this force. Persisting in attacking is very dangerous. Once the number of the Horde drops to ten thousand, it seems that the pincer attack a few days ago will definitely be repeated.

"Damn it!" The massive Doomhammer slammed into the ground, creating a large pit.

Just then, the Alliance suddenly counterattacked.

Led by hundreds, even thousands of wisp spirits flashing red lights, nearly three thousand elven rangers came down from the wooden wall. Amid the sound of explosions, they shot arrows while slowly advancing.

Orgrim also found that not every wisp spirit would cause a large explosion. However, every one of these things flashing red lights looked exactly the same...

Orgrim suddenly did something that surprised all his guards, he actually rushed to the front line.

His massive roar pierced through the chaotic battlefield, reaching directly into the Alliance ranks

.

"Duke Markus! Answer me—are you in league with Gul'dan!?"