(Peled: ?)

And so, led by the dwarf, El arrived at the dwarf's highest command post in the monster defense line.

This time, the dwarves he saw were quite different from those he had encountered on the road.

The body is encased in metal machinery, with mechanical arms and other devices mounted on the armor.

"Are you the hero of humanity?"

"Yes, that's me."

The value of the hero's identity is beyond doubt, and the dwarf commander very frankly told El about the predicament that the dwarves were currently facing.

One of the four Heavenly Kings under the Demon King's command, the Rock King, the Mountain Giant Lawrence, is their opponent.

The basic strategy of dwarves is to rely on firepower advantage, focusing on having plenty of artillery fire to bombard the enemy.

A defensive line 100 meters long, when fully armed, can unleash enough power to annihilate a hundred elite demon assault teams within a minute.

Such firepower made life miserable for the demons, forcing them, who usually preferred to engage in direct, aggressive attacks, to learn to employ tactics.

By using monsters like sandworms to dig tunnels, they could infiltrate the dwarves' defenses underground, mimic the dwarves' trench digging, assemble heavily armored assault teams specifically to counter their firepower, and increase the deployment of air power...

Previously, the dwarves and demons fought evenly, with the dwarves occasionally gaining the upper hand.

Until the Rock King arrived, this guy was just too big.

No need for fists or anything, a single toe can crush a dwarf's chariot. Trenches are useless, and artillery can only scratch the surface of this monster.

What unbreakable defense? I thought it was a speed bump.

Faced with such an ultimate siege monster, the dwarves' tactics were transformed from positional warfare into guerrilla warfare.

Now, wherever the mountain giants appear, the dwarves there immediately retreat.

Then shift your forces to deal with the other demons that followed this monster, and take back the territory you lost earlier.

The Mountain Giant, possessing the fighting prowess of the Rock King, was wary of the dwarves' secret weapons and dared not venture too far in one go, thus managing to maintain a stalemate between the two sides.

"However, overall, we are still at a disadvantage. As soon as it comes over, all our facilities will be rendered useless."

Every time we build a new defensive line, our resources are depleted.

Every time our defenses are breached and we are forced to evacuate, it is difficult for us to transfer everyone without losing a single one.

Resources, manpower, and morale are all being constantly depleted; the advantage in a protracted war is not in our hands.

"I see, I think I understand now."

El understood more or less that the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings used targeted tactics to deal with each of the several races.

Dwarves are almost completely immune to magic and can only enhance their combat abilities by forging weapons and researching techniques such as gunpowder.

In this situation, their weapons are of the type that can be easily equipped to a large number of soldiers, and have extremely strong low- to mid-level combat capabilities.

Moreover, gunpowder can be mass-produced, and soldiers only need to know how to fire a gun, making training easier than that for warriors or mages.

However, the lack of powerful mages means that, until more advanced weapons are developed, their current burst damage is weaker than that of other races.

Rock King has strong defense. The Mountain Giant's talent allows it to recover from damage as long as it stays on the ground, and its huge size brings unparalleled destructive power.

It's fair to say that this thing is a hard counter to dwarves, making the experience on the dwarf front even worse than on the human front.

"Boom..."

As they were talking, they felt the ground begin to shake, and the shaking became more and more pronounced.

"Well, our luck... Your Excellency, that monster is coming, let's retreat."