Section 137 Intelligence

From this point of view, perhaps it was because of this that Tzeentch gave him the power of this "incomplete ascension". With this, the conditions now offered by the Sadist are completely unattractive to Ashrufat.

By this time, the siege had completely subsided. Dead Fang's body was no longer moving. The claws that had been violent and destroyed were also limp between the piles of rubble and garbage. Within the effective range of the catapults, there were no soldiers on siege missions. The task of a small number of soldiers on the front line has been shifted to surveillance.

However, despite the defeat, and after yesterday's march, battle, and last night's confusion, the morale of Ashrufat's army did not decrease. They have won so much that they have even captured most of the Blood Fortress, so that the enemy can only occupy the last positions and resist stubbornly, and many people think that victory is close at hand. The defeat of the siege was only a small partial defeat against the backdrop of a great victory—it was hateful, but it did not affect the overall situation.

In fact, it was also thanks to the strong physical fitness of the Chaos Legion that they had enough physical strength to hold on until now. If it is replaced by the Gruni army, the whole army will definitely lose its combat ability due to exhaustion at this time. In that case, no matter how urgent Ashruphat was, he would have to choose to rest for a day before attempting to attack the city.

However, this is the idea of the soldiers at the bottom, and the higher-ups, especially Ashrufat, are far less optimistic.

The Chaos Legion is naturally very strong in terms of combat effectiveness, but their siege ability is very limited. If nothing else, the attacking ability they showed in Gruni alone was really lackluster. As mentioned earlier, the Chaos Legion used traitors to successfully conquer the White Keep and used surprise attacks to kill King Gruni. However, even with such an advantage, they were unable to break through the mere city of Sarek, giving the opponent a chance to breathe and ultimately lead to defeat.

It's not that the Chaos talent isn't suitable for siege. In Ashrufat's view, the key lies in the lack of experience and equipment for the Chaos cultists. They weren't to blame for this - after all, the Chaos Warriors rarely encountered the opportunity to storm a city as they grew up. In fact, as mentioned earlier, there are very few buildings in the entire Chaos Realm that can be called "castles". Storming a camp is a great thing.

On the other hand, in castle cities everywhere, the war is basically inseparable from the central seven kingdoms that attack and defend cities, and this kind of experience is much richer. Urban attack and defense theory is rich -- it is impossible for anyone who studies the art of war to fail to understand the art of attacking and defending cities. There are special craftsmen in the army who are responsible for making siege equipment, and the army has a full understanding of siege equipment.

Having said that, even if they have a lot of experience, invent a lot of siege equipment, and soldiers are used to cooperating with the attacking Central Seven Kingdoms, siege warfare is still considered difficult. It takes three to five months to attack a city, and it is not uncommon for a siege to last a year or two.

There is no doubt that Startick (if she is the commander of the defenders) intends to do so. Hold it for three or five months. In theory, this is no problem. Although there were not many remnants of the Blood Fortress at this time, and they were nothing compared to the strength that Ashrufat had, siege warfare never depended on numbers. Obviously, no matter how many people there are, there is no way to fly up to the city - magic can take people around, but the number is too limited - unless it is the legendary siege method of building corpses.

Of course, the so-called siege of the corpses is only a legend - most of it is the imagination of those who know nothing about war. Because dirt and stone are clearly better choices than human corpses that can be burned and corrupted.

However, Starmark may be able to hold out for a few months, but Ashrufat can't afford to hold out for a few months. As mentioned earlier, his army simply did not have so much provisions. He did not have the logistical baggage units that were common in the armies of the Southerners, there were no supply depots that had been collected in advance and set up along the marching routes, and there were no field warehouses or anything. He actually gathered a large army, collected all the food available along the way, and fought his way to the Blood Fortress. After the soldiers had eaten the food and grass they had brought with them, there were no supplies.

Of course, the previous war caused him to kill many sadistic believers, and the corpses were piled up. And the Chaos Warriors don't mind eating corpses. This would give Ashrufat a little more time - but he couldn't hold out in the Blood Fortress for months anyway.

And as long as he doesn't conquer the last central castle, there is no doubt that he has not completed the task given by the gods. The consequences of this ......

Ashrufat didn't think the consequences would be slight.

Almost all the top leaders, including Gander, saw this, but they didn't say it explicitly. In the original battle plan, as long as they could defeat the Bloodfang Lord, they would be able to guarantee the capture of the Blood Fortress. Although the Blood Fortress is a fortified city, it is easy to deal with if there are not enough defenders on the castle.

But no one expected that after the Bloodfang Lord was banished, there would be a Chaos Lord in the Blood Fortress who could control the overall situation. No one expected that the Chaos Lord had already made the decision to abandon the outside and defend the central castle. No one expected that this Chaos Lord would have such the ability to kill giant beasts in seconds.

What was supposed to be a devastating battle now seems to be about to turn into a long-term standoff. No one wants to see that.

Of course, what was even worse for Ashrufat was that his opponent was actually Starcut.

Is this a deliberate act of abusiveness, or is the "sadistic bride" itself the purpose? But in any case, Ashrufat felt that the matter had become constrained. Because now he can't even give the order to storm the city with all his might. Because in this way, there is a high chance that Xingke will be killed in battle. At that point, even the Blood Fortress he conquered, the battles he fought along the way would become meaningless. Aside from receiving an "incomplete ascension" that was not of much value to him (Eshurufat was a dark mage, which in itself meant that he had a life far beyond the normal range of a normal person), and "drunken blood" that could be found everywhere in the chaos, he was a free run to serve the Chaos Gods.

He had to figure out what had happened to Starcarving first.

Most of the day passed like this. When the evening came, Ashrufat's scout captain, Gander, finally brought him good news.

In a search and pursuit of the dead, Gander captured a considerable number of sadistic believers. It's actually a lot easier than you think. Those who decided to sacrifice their souls to the blood god had long since died in the previous war, and the rest were those who were less religious, or more rational and emotional. In this hopeless battle, they made the choice of surrender.

Gander didn't even have time to interrogate him, he took the valuable captives directly to the Blood Fortress. Ashrufat personally presided over the interrogation.

It must be said that the interrogation was far easier than expected, because the matter was not a secret to the abusive believers, and they did not feel the need to keep the matter secret. So soon, Ashruphat got a lot of information from different people. Although there are inevitably many contradictory parts in these confessions, the general situation can be deduced.

First of all, although Xingke is not the supreme commander of the Blood Fortress, her status is very transcendent. It is said that she is so favored and favored by the Sadists that the Bloodtooth Lord, who is the Supreme Commander on the one hand, and the Demon Prince on the other, cannot command her. The relationship between the two sides in the Blood Fortress is not so much a dependency as an equal ally. The Bloodfang Lord has the upper hand,

Starcarving has its own separate legion. Although there are not many of them, they only obey her orders. That's right, even the Blood Fang Lord, who is the supreme commander, can't mobilize Star's troops. Some captives even swore that Starmark also had the ability to summon and command demons.

According to the confession, it is completely clear what happened before - the Blood Fang Lord went to battle in all his might, and the Star Carving, which was not under his jurisdiction, stayed behind to guard the Blood Fortress. By the time the defeat of the Bloodfang Lord was decided, Starmark had the time and ability to adjust the remnants of the troops, and all but a few broken death squads would retreat into the central castle.

There is no doubt that Xingke is indeed the commander of the remnants of the defenders. In other words, the next opponent that Ashrufat will face.

As to why Starmark came to the Blood Keep, and why he became a Chaos Lord—the latter question is far more important than the former—is unclear. According to her confession, it is almost certain that she was like this when she came to the Blood Fortress, wearing the Chaos armor that only the Chaos Lord is qualified to wear. But what is certain is that she is clear-headed, sane and has never shown any signs of being controlled by others.

As for her combat prowess - all the sadistic believers who looked down on women and thought they could defeat the female Chaos Lord tried. And the result is also obvious, the star is still the star carving, but the challenger's body has long been thrown to where it was thrown.

As a Chaos Lord, Star's abilities are extremely strong. She possesses a special power that allows her to control her whip with ease. Whipped by her whip, let alone a human body, the Chaos armor can be directly shattered. And because Chaos isn't a ranged weapon, her whip gives her a very strong advantage in battle. Basically, the enemy is reduced to pieces before they get close to it. According to the captive, although Xingke fights with a whip in one hand and a long sword in the other, and is dressed up in both distance and close combat, no one has been able to let her use a long sword so far, so it is still a mystery how strong her combat power is.

This is the end of this wave of interrogation. These captives were all low-ranking soldiers and officers of the Blood Fortress - so they didn't really know much about the Blood Fang Lord and Starcut. The credo of apocaustism is to be strong and weak to die, so the Blood Fang Lord, who is the Demon Prince, easily killed his predecessor and became the Supreme Commander of the Blood Fortress. No one had much curiosity about the origin of the Bloodfang Lord and the Starcarving - since he was the Demon Prince, since he was a follower of the Blood God, since he was able to defeat his predecessor, that was enough.

As for the high-ranking officers, most of the high-ranking officers had died in the previous battles, which is also a characteristic of the sadistic believers. Eshurufat thought that it was unlikely that he would be able to catch high-ranking officers, and he could only hope that he would be lucky enough to catch those who were of low status but knew the inside story.

For this reason, Ashruphat also specially conveyed the latest order to Gander: do everything possible to catch him alive.

Maybe it's luck, maybe the gods really favor him, or maybe Gander is really a very capable man. At midnight, Gander brought a special captive to Ashrufat. That's right, a special captive - a female Chaos Warrior. Moreover, it is not the kind of woman who is five big and three thick, and there is no difference between her and men except for her lower body (among the sadomists, there are quite a few such women), but a woman who looks quite slender and can be considered beautiful in appearance. If it weren't for the Chaos armor on her body that depicts the symbol of Sadism, she really wouldn't have recognized this as a Chaos warrior who believes in sadism.

And more importantly, this woman, although she is just a mere chaos warrior, is actually the guardian of Xingke. This can also be regarded as a shortcoming of the female Chaos Lord, as a female star carving, if the guards around her are men, daily life is inconvenient after all.