Chapter 379 The Long Night (Twenty)
Under the heavy pressure of the rats, the outermost defenders began to lose men. This was an acceptable casualty. According to the calculations of the Lizardmen, they could hold out until reinforcements arrived before being wiped out. Sacrifice had long been engraved in the plans of the Ancient Saints.
Before this, they were also confident that they could take down enemies that were thousands times larger than themselves.
No one could see that thirteen shapes invisible to the naked eye were following the shadows, moving along the ruins and passing by the corners of the wall.
The black claws of the Night Lord drilled through the broken bricks and stones, squirming in the darkness. While the clan rats' attack attracted the attention of the temple guards, the Black Thirteen flew over the eaves and walls to bypass the entrenched Lizardmen.
They maintained a high speed of movement, and their shapes could not be captured by the naked eye at all. Like a gust of breeze, Black Thirteen and his companions reached the front of the hall of the temple through the upper passage.
Without saying a word, each assassin began to perform his or her task. Some assassins quickly pushed open the door of the hall and retreated into the shadows in time.
The other assassins quickly passed through the gate, using a series of stealth moves - rolling, jumping, and feinting to avoid possible guards. In just a blink of an eye, they all entered the vast temple safely.
The flame of the gods was burning fiercely on the high platform in the center of the temple. The dim candlelight could not illuminate the entire hall. Fourteen pairs of bloodshot eyes in the shadows were staring at the flames, and the fiery impulse almost overwhelmed their caution.
At this moment, every Black Thirteen noticed that there was a white crow dozing in the vent of the dome of the hall. With just a glance, the rodents ignored it - just an ignorant bird.
They focused their attention on the temple guard standing in front of the fire platform. There was only one lizardman, and the defense in this most core area was abnormally lax.
The ratmen who came in took advantage of the situation did not stop at all. Each Black Thirteen planned his own route, either a flank attack or a head-on attack. They had dealt with this kind of clumsy big guy before, and all the Black Claws were confident that they could assassinate the enemy before they could react.
Even if he couldn't kill the lizard man immediately, Black Thirteen, who was surrounded by flames, was confident that he could use the sorcerer's device to steal the sacred fire.
But when they shot poison needles and darts at each other, they realized that this was a tough opponent. Their enemies had weapon skills that did not match their clumsy appearance.
The Lizard Man swung his figure eight nail hammer at an impossible speed, and the scepter made of star stone almost killed Black Thirteen who was approaching him. Although the assassin nimbly avoided the Lizard Man's attack, he unfortunately fell into the Lizard Man's accurately opened huge mouth.
The chief guard of the City of Mist, the "Eternal Guard" Chakas bit the ratman's head to pieces with one bite. Before the corpse twitched and fell to the ground, the Eternal Guard used the tip of his tail to pierce another Black Thirteen who tried to get his dirty hands close to the divine fire.
Black Thirteen's incredible speed seemed slower than a snail in its senses, or in other words, time was stagnant in its perception.
Every frame of the real world was in slow motion. Perhaps Chakas's slow movements were all flaws in the eyes of Black Thirteen and others, but as long as any assassin dared to approach, he would be knocked to the ground with the Star Staff by the temple guards who suddenly burst out with teleportation speed.
The swarming ratmen continued to steal ignorantly. The temple guard used the horns on the helmet of the Original Guardian to easily knock away another rat cub that tried to steal fire. At the same moment, he bit Black Thirteen who tried to fall from the sky and snatch the sacred fire.
The ratman was floating in the air comically, and before it could react to being bitten, it was thrown by the Eternal Guard onto its companion who was trying to pounce from the side, knocking the unfortunate fellow off the stone platform.
The dart that was thrown in an attempt to cut off the tail of its own kind so that it could land successfully missed its target, and the ratman who threw the dart died hastily at the feet of the lizardman in the next instant.
The exquisite coordination turned into a mess in an instant, and two Skaven who tried to roll over from under the Lizardman died at the same time when Chakas turned around.
The remaining five Black Thirteens determined the enemy's strength through the lightning-fast confrontation, but they could only continue trying to steal helplessly.
A dark shadow took advantage of the chaos to climb up the candlestick, and just as it was about to activate the warlock's collecting device, the Star Stone Scepter fell on it, smashing the assassin hiding in the shadow into a thin meat paste.
The other assassin in charge of the main attack wanted to end the lizard man's life from behind. Years of assassinations had made it move silently. Even when it went deep into the Chaos Realm and went to the Demon Prince's palace to steal treasures, it had never been so careful.
No one knew how the lizard man did it. In the previous moment it was facing the rat man with its back to him, and in the next moment it bit Black Thirteen to death before he could stab him with his rapier.
The three Skaven sword masters attacked almost at the same time. They gracefully spun to avoid the Lizardmen's tail sweeps and hammer blows, and performed rare sword skills with the special half-hand swords that the Lizardmen had never seen before.
Although Chakas had never seen a similar display of swordplay, it easily blocked eight hundred and twenty-one swings.
The Keeper of Secrets could do no better, the Skaven Assassins cunningly hid their killing moves on their tail blades, blessed before they acted.
Few have ever seen a Skaven's Weeping Blade, and almost no living creature has ever lived to tell the story of one after encountering one.
However, they did not understand their own goal, and this hasty action was doomed to failure from the beginning - the Eternal Watcher of the City of Mist had never failed since its birth, the Cataclysm had not been able to surpass it, and a mere thirteen ratmen could not allow it to fail in its duty.
When the rats took advantage of the enemy's concentration on breaking the sword moves and swung out the tail blade, they discovered that the Star Stone Scepter had swept in front of them without them knowing.
Three corpses flew out simultaneously, either hitting the stone pillars or sliding several meters on the ground with a thud.
From beginning to end, the lizard man did not leave the three-meter radius of the flames.
Sasorel suppressed the urge to attack and glanced at a group of small bats at the vent.
As expected, the vampires who had not yet implemented their plans also became afraid.
Those bastards should have a little more patience and only take action in unison after reaching a basic understanding.
There is still a chance. The ratmen will never give up. Can they stop thirteen assassins? Can they stop thousands or tens of thousands of assassins? The will of the Lord of Change is already clear - a new god is about to be born. There is no doubt that Sasoril has the best chance at the moment, and its competitors are far away.
In Nehekhara, Arkhan the Black inserted Nagash's main staff, "Arcannish", into the pedestal on the upper level of the black pyramid. With unparalleled awe, the "Lich King" quietly waited for his master to ascend to the godhood.
The armies of the kings made the number of wights that Arkhan could sense dwindle. Time was running out. Even if the "King of Kings" did not understand the whole situation and did not ask his subjects to launch an attack together, the army of Khemri alone was not something Arkhan could deal with.
Time is running out, and perhaps the Lich Lord will die in the pyramid, but it doesn’t matter. Even if it dies here, the Undead Supreme can call it back to the world after becoming a god.
(End of this chapter)
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