Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 926: The Impasse (Part 2)

Sui Xiong had said before that in this war, he would remain neutral and would not take sides.

But being neutral did not mean that he would not do anything. He had expressed that he would extend a helping hand to those refugees who had fallen into extreme desperation. At the same time, he had set a rule for both sides involved in the war: No massacres allowed.

For the former, he had yet to see any refugee who was truly in extreme desperation—though the Orcs’ mobility troops had destroyed many towns and villages, causing hundreds of thousands of people to fall into a tragic situation of having no food and shelter, the humans’ reserves were more than enough to deal with such problems. There was no need for Sui Xiong to do anything more.

If the rulers of the humans had ignored the fates of these refugees and abandoned them, Sui Xiong would pick them up and along the way and behead these rulers as well—the bodies below the heads would simply be left behind for the coffins.

And the rule of “no massacres allowed” had not been violated by anyone up till now. But it did not mean that Sui Xiong had forgotten about it.

On the contrary, he was actually very concerned about this matter. Thus he had always been on guard.

Driving the refugees out to attack the city was, of course, a kind of massive slaughter. So when the commanders of the Orcs’ mobility troops were discussing this plan, Sui Xiong immediately appeared to issue them a serious warning.

His warning worked with great effect. The Orc commanders immediately knew what he meant and abandoned this plan, which originally would have been a very effective one.

It would be impossible not to give up on this plan. Once a great Divine Power, who was obviously in a bad mood, glared at them with eyes that could practically kill a person, who would dare to bite the bullet and say “I’m not giving up”?

Perhaps there had been such tough guys in the world. But obviously, they were long dead and did not have the chance to pass on their precious blood.

So anyway, this time, Sui Xiong did not meet anyone who dared to question him.

He gave a cold snort and disappeared, leaving only a group of officers who were looking at each other with the back of their shirts drenched in cold seat.

Since the plan of driving out the refugees to attack the city was not going to work, then there was only one way left.

To fight head-on.

In terms of military strength, the Orcs’ mobility troops had tens of thousands of men, and all of them were elites. There were even many masters among them. So long as they grasped onto the right opportunity, wanting to cut off the human’s supply lines was, in fact, not that difficult.

The humans’ fortresses might be sturdy, but their food supplies had to be transported after all. The transportation of food supplies naturally required the provisions to be taken out and carted off to the next fortress.

This road used to transport the food rations was the most suitable place for a battlefield.

But whatever the Orcs could think of, the humans most certainly could think of as well. They assembled a powerful and elite troop to escort their food supplies and the number of soldiers in this troop was more than twice that of the Orcs’ mobility troop.

Faced with such an army, the Orcs did not dare to rashly attack.

But they could not bear to see the food supplies being transported to the front lines so easily either. This would provide support to the humans at the defense line at the Great Wall.

Under such a situation, they naturally chose to turn to the gods for help.

The gods of various races, including those of the Orcs, had been searching for the traces of the human gods. And they had been at it for almost half a month.

They searched every place possible, but still, they could not locate the whereabouts of the human gods. It was as if the great number of gods had completely vanished, like they had all fallen.

But everyone knew that the human gods had not fallen altogether.

Inside the Pantheon temple, all of them were nowhere to be seen. But nearly half the number of their seats were still around, especially those mid-level Divine Powers, as well as the stronger gods. Not a single one had fallen.

But from the intelligence provided by the spies who lay in ambush in the human society, apparently, the human gods had yet to re-establish contact with their clergymen. Their clergymen had not been able to restore their spellcasting abilities as well.

More importantly, the allied force of Oracles that comprised of Oracles from the various God Systems had successively destroyed thousands of altars and temples of the human gods during this period. Other than the few major temples that were particularly well-defended, nearly all the sanctuaries of the human gods had been destroyed.

And the losses of their clergymen were just as heavy. Many churches of the gods that had tangible presences had been utterly destroyed. Not a single temple or altar was left. Only a few clergymen who were lucky enough to escape, could build temporary altars—these altars were, of course, built inside the camp. And only the altars within the camps could be free of worries from being attacked by Oracles.

The gods and Oracles could not directly attack an army. This was the rule that the Master of Order laid down after the battle of the Sun’s Death Day.

After all, be it the gods or the Oracles, they were all too powerful relative to any mortals. If they were to attack the army directly, it would definitely result in serious injuries.

The Master of Order clearly did not wish to see such a situation happening, so he laid down that rule.

This rule was obviously beneficial to the humans, but even the Orcs did not voice any opinions.

Rules were rules. While they might benefit the humans now, they might not necessarily disadvantage the Orcs in the future. Moreover… no matter what, now the Orcs with the upper-hand in this war.

Since they had the advantage, there was no need for them to care so much about other things.

The Orc gods were still mainly more concerned about finding and exterminating the human gods.

Only by destroying the human gods could they truly be considered to have won victory in this war.

But, where on earth were the human gods?

No one knew.

What they all could do was to continue the search.

In this case, when the Orcs’ mobility troops asked for help, the Orc gods did not hesitate to send the troops their Oracles to render assistance.

And what these Oracles had to do was to cooperate with the Orcs’ mobility troops to attack the human convoys.

Of course, they would not be doing anything on a personal level. That would be going against the order of the Master of Order. But they could create a favorable terrain with suitable weather and even provide consistent help to the Orc soldiers before and during the war.

With these advantages, the Orcs’ mobility troops would still dare to launch attacks on the human convoys no matter how lacking they were in military strength.

That attack happened in the wee hours of the morn, probably around three o’clock.

It was the late winter season, and this was the time where it was cold and dark, and also, just the time when the humans were the most tired. The human convoys had consistently stayed on guard with daily precautions. But when the Orcs, with the powerful aid provided by the spells of the Oracles, came roaring and storming towards their tents where they stored their food supplies, the humans were still somewhat flustered.

Some of the soldiers hurriedly got up to fight while the others felt that they should protect their rations. There were even some who completely fell into a state of confusion and did not know what they should do at all.

Amidst the chaos, the Orcs’ mobility troops succeeded in burning down a large number of the humans’ rations. Then they left, leaving the blazing heaps of fires, as well as dead bodies that were strewn all over the ground in a mess.

Among these bodies, there were those of the humans, but also those that belonged to the Orcs.

Fortunately, the Orcs’ mobility troops did not manage to burn down all the rations in the end. And the moment the humans at the defense line at the Great Wall learned of this news, they were quick to send reinforcements to the human convoys to help strengthen their defensive ability.

In the end, probably only less than a third of supplies of the originally planned amount was sent to the defense line at the Great Wall in time.

Upon seeing these provisions, the commanders at the defense line at the Great Wall expressed their dread with heavy expressions.

And the Orc Emperor who received the news, showed an equally awful expression.

They all knew that this war was far from ending. They all most probably had a long way to go…