Baldy led his silent but fiercely imposing bodyguards into the battle line. Casually chopping down a few routing Greenskins to stabilize morale, they quickly arrived at the already thinning frontal battlefield, clashing against those Bloodmother Minotaurs who had become Greenskin-eradicating machines, frantically slaughtering the Greenskin Boyz.
Under the successive blows, the Greenskins' morale was already unstable; the appearance of deserters proved this. Furthermore, due to their wavering conviction, the buffs brought by the WAAAAAGH! began to weaken, further reducing the Greenskins' combat strength.
Al looked down at the battlefield from the Griffon girl's back. His altitude already exceeded the lethal limit of the Greenskins' crude ranged weapons. Unless it was the absolute most WAAAAAGH! Greenskin Arrer Boy in a super, super, super massive WAAAAAGH!, powered by WAAAAAGH! energy so immense it was as if Gork and Mork had descended personally, only then could they possibly hit Al through the power of "I fink dis shot's gonna hit."
The red spearhead had already broken through the thick but soft green carpet. Only a thin layer of the enemy's central army remained; they were about to be completely pierced through and divided.
"Hell yeah!"
Al was genuinely happy from the bottom of his heart. The Beastmen's combat strength had been proven, and he was the one happiest about it.
Given: 7,000 Beastmen > roughly 30,000 Greenskins > tens of thousands of Human troops, from this it can be deduced!
No matter what, the advantage is mine!
Possessing both the attributes of "the advantage is mine" and "half-cooked rice" (an unpredictable/hard to digest variable), it would be hard not to win.
The Griffon girl beneath him suddenly
let out a warning roar. Al looked toward Veling; two Wyverns were flapping their wings, taking off from within the city and heading straight for him.
Having just raised a flag, Al had to assess the enemy vs. friendly situation. Feeling that one Griffon against two Wyverns might be a bit of a problem, he patted the Griffon girl's neck, signaling her to go down.
This beast, regarded as a symbol of precision and nobility, clearly didn't want to back down, but having a pendant on her back forced her to avoid the fight for now.
To some extent, the Griffon girl seemed to treat the Everchosen as half a cub. From time to time, she would catch some meat outside, bring it back to the camp, place it next to Al, and use gestures and looks to signal him to eat. Or she would chew it into meat paste in her mouth, open it, and show it to Al as an offer.
She would use her wings to protect Al by her side, not letting the anxious, frustrated centaur girl take her adopted son away.
She would use her beak to gently comb Al's increasingly long hair, while gathering the boy in her embrace, letting him squeeze together with a few other still-nursing Griffon hatchlings to sleep leaning against her.
Although Al would occasionally think: I am the Beastlord, not a beast child, the Griffon girl's instinctive maternal love still brought a little satisfaction to the missing parts of Al's heart.
The Griffon circled in the air and suddenly dropped in a rapid dive, casually grabbing a Big Un with her hind claws and tossing it into the Beastman horde, where it was instantly torn into pieces.
The Beastmen quickly scattered to clear an area. The innermost ring of Khorngors lowered their weapons and knelt on one knee toward the center.
Al made his grand entrance.
The Everchosen, wearing the majestic Grim Love armor and a dragon-horned helmet with a golden visor, although still relatively petite in size, already possessed an extraordinary aura—at the very least, he looked like an elite unit.
He said in a muffled voice:
"Crush the enemy forces! Blood for the Bloodmother!"
The morale of the Beastmen, inspired by the Everchosen, surged even higher. The power and speed of their swings increased slightly. The inner ring of Khorngors guarded the Everchosen, protecting the safety of the Griffon's pendant.
The two Wyverns—one still carrying injuries, with many gashes on its wings and body caused by the Veling defenders, panting heavily as it flew; the other appearing to still be at full strength, roaring fiercely—swooped down.
Al swiftly flipped off her back. The heavily armored halberd-wielding Khorngor bodyguards immediately surrounded the boy tightly. The Griffon girl let out a ferocious screech, soaring into the sky to entangle that Wyvern.
The Wyvern landed, its pouncing strike sending several Khorngors flying. However, under the buff of the River of Blood [a Bloodmother blessing where the more they kill, the stronger their combat power becomes; it can be understood as similar to the Greenskins' WAAAAAGH! and Dark Elves' combat buffs], not a single one was heavily injured. They basically scrambled back up rapidly to resume fighting.
The Wyvern faced off against the heavily armored halberd-wielding bodyguards. Its beastly pupils were filled with dread; even its low intelligence could detect the danger of this group of red-and-black beasts opposite it, unable to find an opening to strike.
On the other side, inside Veling city.
When the final defensive line was teetering on the brink of collapse, and the white-haired Grand Sister had already decided to sacrifice herself and her companions to buy time for the defenders to regroup their lines, the roars of Greenskins and the sound of war drums continuously echoed from behind the enemy, conveying urgency and panic.
The green tide was retreating!
The Greenskin Arrer Boyz on the high ground retreated first, followed by the Big Uns and Goblins at the very front, and then the troops in the middle. The remaining bewildered Trolls, who had bewilderedly stepped onto the battlefield, bewilderedly followed the Greenskins in retreat; a few were held back and surrounded to be killed by the combined efforts of the defenders.
Covered in blood—mostly that of her enemies—the Grand Sister smashed the head of the last Greenskin Big Un in sight. Leaning on her warhammer, she fell to her knees, staring blankly at the end of the alleyway, a place paved with the corpses of humans and Greenskins.
The heavy iron-bound scripture lay not far in front of the Sister, quietly sitting in a pool of blood, as if in a daze.
"Sigmar..."
The Grand Sister muttered. All of her currently surviving companions knelt alongside her, praying:
"God-Emperor above! For the glory of Sigmar!"
After confirming that the Greenskins were truly retreating and it wasn't some other plan—though there was no need for one; if they attacked a bit longer and the Sisters died in battle, the defenders would have completely collapsed, leaving only the elderly, the young, women, children, and the wounded, with capture and slaughter waiting for most of them.
The surviving defenders began searching for and rescuing the wounded, collecting corpses, and dispatching a few scouts toward the outer city to observe where the Greenskins went. Simultaneously, they continued to organize their defenses, preparing to deal with the next attack.
Although, if there was another attack, Veling wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer.
After the threat subsided, residents who drummed up the courage to come out and move about, helping treat the wounded and searching the ruins, cast gazes of reverence and gratitude toward those Valkyries of the battlefield, the Sisters of Sigmar from the Empire.
This wandering Sisterhood Order, numbering less than two hundred, had forcibly held up the defensive lines of Veling City with their own flesh, blood, and heavy armor. From the city walls to the main gates and down every alleyway, until the enemy retreated, they stood tall on the front lines, as dazzling as unfalling banners.
In the face of the Goddess's silence, they inspired the fighting spirit of the Estalians, using humanity's courage to directly defeat the terrifying green tide!
Perhaps, if things proceeded along the best route for humanity, it wouldn't be surprising if Veling City later became a rare, special place in Estalia where the Imperial faith of Sigmar became popular.
However, things obviously were not going to develop in the direction the Sisters were praying for.
Alina swung her halberd, sending the Greenskin Warboss's choppa flying. With a reverse slash, she tore a gash in the Hellforged plate armor on the Greenskin's chest, knocking him back.
Leaping forward violently, she trampled and crushed two Greenskin bodyguards attempting to step up and save
their Boss. With a swing of her long halberd, a row of hideous, ugly green heads flew into the air before her.
She pulled her body back and turned, looking at the Night Goblin advisors desperately shouting: "Save da Boss! Save da Boss!"
Baldy's slave brothers-turned-bodyguards charged forward fearlessly, blocking the centaur's path. The Night Goblin advisors frantically commanded the terrified Boyz—who couldn't muster even a bit of WAAAAAGH!—to drag their heavily wounded Warboss away in retreat.
The Greenskins routed.
The heavy defeat of their Warboss caused their already struggling formation to completely collapse. Everywhere, Greenskins abandoned resistance and fled, screeching and wailing. The human cavalry legion that suddenly appeared on the right wing to launch a surprise attack also played a significant role in this.
The Centigor legion engaged the charging Greenskin Boar Boy Big Uns, and with the support of the hidden wolf packs, routed the latter.
There were also many Greenskins retreating from the city. Before they could even understand what was happening, they were bowled over by the rapidly advancing Khorngors and Minotaur legions, triggering a chain reaction that led to a massive rout.
That Wyvern at full strength had its limbs pierced by the halberd-wielding bodyguards, and its head was chopped off by the Blessed Minotaur Commander. The other severely scarred one, however, under unfavorable battle conditions, submitted to its beastly instincts, lay prostrate on the ground, and lowered its head to the Beastmen.
Perhaps its brain was a bit sharper, sensing that familiar yet terrifying, magnificent vast power among the enemy, and therefore chose to submit.
Al watched with deep satisfaction as his legion swept the battlefield, slaughtering all the Greenskins, chopping off their heads, and piling them into skull pyramids.
A massive inverted Khorne symbol composed of Greenskin corpses was laid out, set against the backdrop of a blood-drenched wilderness.
"Mom will love this."
Al thought to himself. He didn't feel as repulsed by the bloody, metallic scent in the air; instead, he felt that the bloodiness brought by his side's victory was actually quite fragrant.
"Blood for the Bloodmother!"
The Everchosen shouted loudly. Chaos rifts appeared in the sky, swallowing the corpses within to accumulate as sacrifices.
The Beastmen knelt before the miracle, lowering the heads that had just been bloodthirsty and warlike.
Al gazed into the distance at Veling, which was close at hand. Although it was battered and torn, having suffered the ravages of the Greenskins, it was nonetheless the first "city" he had encountered since coming to this world.
"Then, it is time to offer it to the Throne."