What did you do with the dice?

The legendary Crow's Mouth is like this. Remember Rusalka once said, "You are not a cat, so how do you know that cats will not lead human armies?"

At that time, Sanitta didn't think that there would be a day when Phoenix would be willing to lead the army. Now he suddenly sighed, some people's mouths themselves are a kind of conceptual magic.

But I didn't expect that this sentence would come true in such a very bad situation, and Phoenix took office in a critical situation.

At least Phoenix was conscientiously leading the army by standing in the most conspicuous place in the team. As for Ai Li, as the group's favorite, she was now in a state where half of her soul was out of her body.

The terrain in the forest is not as smooth as outside, especially in this kind of mountain forest, where the trees grow unevenly and the ground is covered with gravel and lame roads covered with fallen leaves.

The entire carriage was like a roller coaster, turning and bouncing up and down with lightning and sparks all the way. When it reached the center of the woods, the four wheels had not yet decided to wander alone. We cannot only praise the driver's extraordinary skills, but also the two horses pulling the carriage for their good cooperation. It is recommended that they retire and report directly to the circus, so that they can go on stage without any practice.

So when Ai Li, who was already prone to motion sickness, arrived at the center of the woods, it took her several minutes just to slump against the carriage and catch her breath after the driver finally said, "We can't go any further. You guys have to get off here."

Ai Li: I should have known not to eat so many snacks before getting on the bus.

This couldn't be blamed on her. Ai Li had been sitting with the "bait" who hadn't spoken a word the entire time. The two of them stared at each other in the carriage. She was really bored with nothing to do, so she could only take snacks from the bag beside her.

She would also share snacks with him, and he would eat them, nodding and smiling at her as a way of expressing his gratitude. But no matter what the situation was, even though a few arrows had just shot through the window and almost grazed his head into the carriage, and were nailed to the wooden board opposite, Robert Challens did not say a word. It was not known whether he was scared silly or was more afraid that Rusalka would settle the score with him later.

Of course, Rusalka had consulted Sanita before making such arrangements for Rewi Alley.

As the saying goes, a living person is more valuable than a dead person. The Marquis's goal is not to kill the bait, but to dispel the rumor that "Rusalka might really have the prince in her hands." If the two Marquis did not believe that Rusalka had the real prince in her hands, they would definitely choose to capture the bait alive, and then destroy Rusalka's rumor by publicly executing the bait.

Because it is useless to shoot the substitute to death with arrows. If Rusalka survives and escapes by chance, he can just say that this is fake news, the eldest prince is still alive, and this is a play directed and acted by the Marquis himself. After all, there is no evidence after death, and then he can find someone else to play the eldest prince.

He pointed out a dead body and said that he was a fake who played the eldest prince. He tried to prove that Rusalka was lying by using this, but he had no credibility at all.

Only after the masses witness with their own eyes the scene of “the execution of the fake one pretending to be the Grand Prince” will they realize that Rusalka does not have the real thing in her hands.

I won’t elaborate on the above logic. In a nutshell, Sanita believes that the safest place is the carriage where the bait sits.

Rusalka: "OK, Rei, just sit in the car."

At this moment, the situation of the main army entering the woods was not ideal. Although rushing into the woods could prevent the enemy cavalry from rushing in, the narrow and difficult paths and the obstruction of trees could easily cut and disperse the army's formation. After entering the woods, the soldiers scattered like pinballs jumping into a pinball machine. Only a small number of soldiers found Phoenix who was standing arrogantly on the roof of the carriage and followed the carriage marks under her feet.

It's not necessarily a good thing that the driver is too good at driving. The enemy really can't catch up, and his own soldiers can't keep up at all.

Phoenix never had the habit of speaking loudly, nor did she carry a loudspeaker with her, so she could only give orders through a messenger whom she grabbed by the collar and dragged into the carriage: "Assemble."

"Okay, okay!"

Fortunately, this messenger was responsible. Even though he was temporarily grabbed by Phoenix and all his things were dropped, even the sword at his waist was lost in the stumbling, he still held the horn tightly in his arms, stuck to his bottom line as a messenger, and then blew the assembly call according to Phoenix's order.

But Phoenix faced another problem. The result of blowing the horn in the woods where the straight-line visibility was no more than 10 meters was that one could only hear the sound but not see the person. Only some soldiers nearby who were lucky enough to have barely caught up with the drifting carriage gathered together, while most of the soldiers were still gathered in small groups, exploring the terrain and trying to find a way to the direction of the horn sound.

However, Phoenix also lacked combat experience. Even worse than Rusalka, she did not have a PL channel, so she did not have Sanita's tricks or corrections. After she had carried out the order with the horn for 15 minutes, the surrounding trees suddenly made a rustling sound, and the frequency of the shaking became faster and faster.

By the time Phoenix reacted, the nearest trees had already "stood up" from the soil, and the wrinkles on the bark gradually changed, forming a dry face.

The huge branches like arms smashed down towards the roof of the carriage, deforming the entire reinforced carriage that was poured with molten iron inside.

At the critical moment when subsequent attacks were about to arrive, Ai Li unfolded a golden ripple ring that enveloped the nearby driver, the bait, the messenger, the four bewildered soldiers, and herself.

Then an arrow emerged from the ripple ring under their feet, pointing to the open space in front of the carriage door. The group of people quickly moved about 20 meters in that direction like skating, avoiding the huge hammering of the trees.

As for Phoenix, she has entered the shadow plane and will not be interfered with by the main plane.

Although waiting for an opportunity is indeed a normal combat operation for an assassin, if Rusalka saw this scene, she would definitely tease her and call her a "cowardly cat."

"It's a tree man—!" Ai Li's voice cracked with fear as he shouted, "Everyone be careful, there must be an elven druid nearby!"

It's no wonder that Aerie was so nervous. Elf druids rarely appeared outside the territory of the God of Nature, and their appearance often meant that the elves were seriously planning to engage in a head-on battle.

Elves have a very long lifespan, much longer than cats. Like dragons and foxes, elves are a race that inherits talents through bloodline. Depending on the purity of their bloodline, they are born with many excellent abilities. When creating character cards in Rusalka, there are also templates for self-created elves called "non-rule book elves."

Of course, the templates all have a uniform purchase price of 100 points. The elf template is not a pure-blooded elf born and raised under the roots of the world tree like Alice, but an ancient elf ancestor dug out from the roots of the world tree.

In terms of bloodline, the bloodline provided by this elf template is pure enough to live in the World Tree as a house. It is born with all the talents of the elf race, and comes with druid/nature mage/archer specialties. It also has extremely strong poison resistance, blindsight, rare plant perception, and extra vitality.

Of course, the knights in the game Rusalka will never choose to start with a different race, so I won’t go into details about this.

As the price of longevity and talent, the elves have a very low fertility rate and total population, so their armies are different from those of humans, which rely on having more people than rare races and higher quality than the cannon fodder of the El Empire and the Sea Clan. They rely entirely on eugenics and elite troops.

The main composition is archers like Rangers, paired with Elf Mages, and the number of Elf warriors is extremely scarce. Because of the high casualty rate of warriors in close combat, their racial characteristics are destined to make them unable to outlast any of their neighbors as warriors.

Therefore, their troops rely on creatures summoned by the "Druid" profession, or creatures transformed when necessary, to serve as the front line.

Treemen are the most common units with the simplest summoning conditions. They can be summoned by finding any tree that is over a hundred years old. They have high health, high defense, and strong attacks. They also have the ability to summon the tree's own characteristics. Although agility is a fatal flaw, don't forget that the elves' archers and mages are the most agile units in the world in forest terrains that can summon treemen.

Ai Li's side was suddenly attacked by the tree people, and of course the other soldiers also encountered the same situation.

Without any command, ordinary soldiers were caught off guard when they encountered this huge tree that suddenly rose from the ground, and were smashed to pieces by the hammer at the first sight.

Fortunately, there were not many tree people, with only a dozen of them on the entire battlefield. Killing dozens of soldiers was not fatal to the morale of a legion with only 2000 people left. Everyone quickly responded under the command of their respective team captains - either escape or fight.

The shouts of killing and the smell of burning fires gradually spread everywhere. It is indeed common sense that fire overcomes wood. Even soldiers know that to deal with wood, no matter whether the opponent is a spirit or not, they have to set it on fire first.

But what Sanitita said was right. Even living wood in the 21st century is difficult to ignite. In this world with magical elements, in a place like a forest filled with wood elements, the weak fire element is not active at all.

Although the torches lit by kerosene did cause multiple damage to the treemen, it was not enough to burn a treeman to death with this kind of flame that could not even be considered magic. It was just enough to scorch the bark a little, but at least it could be used to burn off some of the entangled thin branches and roots to prevent them from being caught.

The sudden appearance of the tree people, the elven druids waiting for an opportunity, and the hidden arrows of the elven archers disguised as one with the surrounding environment instantly plunged Rusalka's army into a tough battle.

In fact, the challenge level of ordinary treemen is not high. It is determined by the age of the tree itself and the characteristics of the wood, and fluctuates between CR4-5. If it is a team of dozens of human guards, holding restraining props such as torches and fuel, or having sufficiently sharp tree-cutting weapons, as long as they cooperate well, they can cooperate to defeat a treeman.

The Treeman Guards are more powerful. The challenge level fluctuates between CR6-8, depending on the level and nourishment of the tree, as well as factors such as the activity and concentration of the surrounding wood elements and the terrain. Monsters of this level cannot be dealt with by ordinary soldiers and must be led by extraordinary people like Caster or Harukaze.

The Vengeful Treeman Guardian is a variant of the Treeman Guardian. The degree of enhancement is determined by the level of the elf corpse. The challenge level is between cr8-9. At present, it is estimated that in Rusalka's team, only Sanita, Rusalka, Phoenix and the golden big guy next door can fight alone. Sarolt can also deal with it with some people.

As for the others, it wasn't a problem of numbers, but mainly that they couldn't break through the defense. Of course, if there were magic cannons, the result would be very different.

(CR: Challenge Rating, refers to the monster strength that a team of 3-4 adventurers with below-average level X combat power can defeat.)

Why is it below average? Because most group players are like this. Forgetting about the buff effect is the same as not using it. During the battle, after the round is over, they start to slap their heads and ask the DM if they can reverse and rewind. It is obviously a turn-based battle from a God's perspective, but they play so badly that hardcore players want to kick them through and let them see what they were doing in this round.

Moreover, in the DND world view, it is basically difficult to make a single monster strong no matter how hard you try, unless it is in its own nest and has exclusive nest actions.

Most of the difficulty often comes from the monsters around the boss. Because of the turn-based system, the number of sword attacks is limited. If there are too many monsters, players will waste a lot of combat resources on clearing monsters.

So the challenge rating of an Elite Vengeful Tree Guardian is CR9, but now Rusalka is facing this combination: "Elite Vengeful Tree Guardian + an Elf Druid of at least level 14 + a team of Elf Rangers with an uncertain number of people, but conservatively 8."

I can only say that we have physical DPS, T, support, and magic DPS. The lineup is complete and perfect. In the game, with such a number of people and lineup, the challenge level should be at least cr12, and you still have to be in full state, find a suitable position, and cast buff spells in advance to fight monsters.

The only regret might be that this team is on the opposite side, and the target they want to defeat is the boss Rusalka, who has no monsters around and is not in his own nest.

So, Rusalka, who was given top-level treatment and special care, gave her "acceptance speech" in gratitude: (Faced with such a warm and hospitable elf, I couldn't help but think of the wise saying of the ancients: It takes ten years to grow a tree, and a hundred years to cultivate a person.)

Sunita didn't know what to say in response. Normally, he should have complained about the "this tree is not that tree" flaw in the sentence.

But Rusalka's words gave him a very strange illusion, as if he was facing such a scary-looking elf team, while Rusalka was making sarcastic remarks in a safe place.

Chapter 157 Sicilian Front (7)

The battle in the forest was certainly not an accident, but a well-prepared ambush.

Marquis Allen, sitting firmly in the military tent, was enjoying the fine wine that had been buried in the vineyard cellar for 10 years, while eating the sizzling armored beef steak with a plate of refreshing vegetable salad. It was as pleasant as an autumn outing in the suburbs.

He handed the army over to his two most talented sons to command, while he himself stayed in the rear with some elite troops to observe the overall situation and cooperate and communicate with the high-level elves. It would not be too late to take action when the battle was about to be decided.

This was the Marquis's Yu Yu. In his youth, he had fought tooth and nail to surpass his brothers and inherit the noble title. Why would he risk his life on the battlefield now? Of course, he would let his sons follow in his footsteps, leaving his inheritance to the most capable one.

He could only sneer at the thought of someone like Rusalka, who was clearly the head of the family but still took the initiative. Leading by example? It was simply a joke. It sounded righteous, but you have to know that when a person dies, everything is gone.

The Warcraft steaks in this world are different from ordinary steaks. They usually have to be grilled with magic flames until they are 9% done before they can be eaten. Otherwise, if the magic power contained in them is not destroyed, eating too much will not be consumed and will cause diarrhea.

The biggest difference between Monster Meat and regular meat is its texture and flavor. No seasoning is needed; it's just a steak, pure and simple. The meat is incredibly tender, but not melt-in-your-mouth tender. It's chewy yet firm. Every bite is accompanied by a subtle popping sound, and your mouth is filled with delicious juices.

The process of processing Warcraft meat is also very cumbersome. In this world, there is no black technology such as tender beef powder, so if you want to ensure the quality of the meat, you must use a hammer to beat it repeatedly until the whole piece of hard meat becomes soft before you can start frying it.

There are also some tricks to roasting over fire. You need to poke a few holes in the middle and keep turning it over to ensure that it is not overcooked in some places and is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Since magic flames are used, someone has to be there to maintain a constant input of magic power.

Of course Rusalka likes to eat this very much. Who doesn’t like to eat something that tastes better than the 3A steak in the 21st century?

If conditions permit, for example, if Phoenix is ​​in a good mood and is willing to spend an hour or two preparing the meat, he would definitely hope to eat this stuff every meal.

As for the vegetable salad, there is no salad dressing in this world, so a sweet and sour lemon jam is used. When Rusalka came to this world and ate this lemon jam salad, she took a bite and ended her food experience with the words "I won't eat salad dressing unless it's from Kewpie".

Steak and red wine are just one of the staple foods. Of course, there is more on the Marquis's table. Going to the war is the greatest honor he has given to Rusalka. Of course, he has a carriage engraved with refrigeration magic runes to provide him with fresh ingredients, including but not limited to staple foods, vegetables, desserts, fine wines, etc.

An eagle flapped its wings and swooped down from the sky, breaking into the cozy dinner party at the back.

Marquis Allen looked at the eagle flying back in the sky, put down the knife and fork in his hand, and reached out to remove the paper roll tied to its feet.

After reading the above, he stroked his beard with satisfaction and said to the mature and beautiful elf woman who was nibbling at her meal beside him, "Elder, the plan is going very smoothly. Rusalka's army has entered the forest and has been entangled by your men. His troops are clearly not capable of dealing with the noble elf soldiers. If we can successfully capture Rusalka alive this time, all the credit will go to you."

The beautiful elf woman wiped her mouth with a napkin and sneered, "Haha, I know what you, the duplicitous humans, want. Don't worry, I only want the Lord of Pearl Tears and the eldest prince. As for everything else, whether it's money, treasures, or even the Lord of Pearl Tears' territory, you humans can divide it up among yourselves."

Marquis Allen smiled and raised his glass to her: "Thank you for your generosity, Elder."

Although he also looked down on the pride in the bones of these pure-blooded elves and sneered at their self-righteous attitude in his heart, as a noble of Snidi, the most basic quality was to say one thing in his heart and another in his outward appearance.

Being able to hate the other person so much that he wants to curse his whole family in his heart, while still smiling and treating him as a brother, only in Sinidi can he be considered a good and tactful nobleman.

For example, now, the elf elder snorted contemptuously and ignored his toast. Marquis Allen had already thought of eighteen ways to rape her, to see if she would dare to act so arrogantly at that moment. But in reality, she still smiled as if nothing had happened, and naturally brought the raised cup back to her lips, took a sip, and then put it down.

The one who came to Marquis Allen this time was one of the five elders of the Forest of Elf. The highest authority in the Forest of Elf was the Elf Queen of ancient elven blood. Under the Queen were six elven elders. Since female elven bloodlines inherited more and stronger abilities, the elves have always been a matriarchal society. Except for the six elders, the other five were all women.

Even though the male-to-female ratio is not as exaggerated as that of the Rhine people, at about 4:6, the elves are very keen on going out to find their ideal spouse, which is why the theory of pure-blooded elf bloodline came about.

Therefore, Sanita also gave Rushaka some basic knowledge about races in this area, telling him that pure-blooded elves are not necessarily stronger than half-bloods, it can only be said that most of them are indeed more specialized in "elf specialties" than half-bloods; male elves are not necessarily weaker than female elves, it can only be said that the average level is not comparable, and there are always powerful individuals.

But the elves have a chain of contempt. If your bloodline is impure/your gender is wrong, at best you can be the captain of a ranger team. The Sixth Elder is called the Male Light to put it nicely, but almost no elves living near the World Tree don't know this. He just knows how to please the Queen, so he was given an empty title.

Some people worked hard to be appointed as the captain of this special operations team, but ended up being looked down upon by the pure-blood traitor Alice in the team, who clamored for Rusalka to kill him to vent her anger for herself, the pure-blood who was ordered around like a magical beast by him all day long.

To be honest, Rusalka felt a little sympathetic to the other party after hearing this - she decided that if she met him again, she would definitely give him a quick death and not let him have the chance to fall into the hands of the scumbag Elf Alice.

----

On the western battlefield, two armies were fighting fiercely.

With just one encounter, a huge gap was broken in the Marquis' army. Even though the heavy infantry quickly filled the gap, the continuous swings of the giant sword flashing with holy light meant that even if the tower shield was not destroyed, the soldiers behind the tower shield had their arms shattered and could no longer support the shield wall.

Sarolt brandished his warhammer, which gleamed with golden light. The hammer in his right hand erupted with a powerful golden light. With the blessing of Nicea's "Blessing" and "Firm Faith," he smashed a path with a single blow of his hammer. "Stick to your faith! Knight Rusalka led the enemy away for us, and now he's still fighting alone! We must not retreat here. Break through their blockade immediately and go support him!"

Countless Paladins of Esdi led the way, followed by infantry.

Generally speaking, the front row on the battlefield would always be filled with some death squads or cannon fodder with shields, but on Esdi's side, it was the opposite, with the elite knights rushing in the front. This made the gap between the two sides suddenly huge, and the first line of infantry on the Marquis's side was riddled with holes in the first encounter.

Sani Tieta once said that heavy cavalry is a crushing force like tanks in any era of cold weapons.

Although there are magic and supernatural beings in this world, ordinary soldiers, no matter how thick their armor is, will still be unable to defeat supernatural beings.

But Esdi's high-level paladins are truly extraordinary heavy cavalry that conforms to the world view. Their main feature is that your father is still your father, and your father's father is your grandfather.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see the decline of the Allen army the moment the soldiers of the two armies came into contact. The tactics used in the Sinidi Civil War were completely useless against Esdi. After all, the Star Knights who took the lead were too overbearing. Although many of their horses died during the charge, the loss of mobility was not a big deal. Even if they got off their horses and were surrounded, it didn't matter. They could rely on their strength and equipment to completely crush the surrounding militia, and they could kill the surrounding militia with just a wave of their weapons.

The militia's attacks were simply unable to penetrate their heavy armor and the defensive runes engraved on them. As a result, the suicide squads who wanted to carry out effective contact killing on the first line became cannon fodder in vain.

The heavy infantry commander, seeing his side's declining momentum, knew he could no longer hide his strength. He roared, "What a bunch of wimps! All heavy infantry, listen up! Go to the front and withstand their charge! The cavalry is quickly taking Lord Pearl Tear's head, and their support is arriving soon!"

But their luck was not very good. Taking into account the inability to command on the PL channel, in order to ensure that the left wing would not be weakened, the left wing arranged by Sanita was Esdi's most elite troops, which was also the part with the strongest combat effectiveness.

The soldiers on the Marquis' side were mainly heavy armored infantry. Their purpose was not to wipe out Rusalka's left-wing troops, but to buy time for the cavalry troops, try to delay Sarolt's pace of returning to the entrance of the basin for support, and ensure that Rusalka's central army could be successfully wiped out in the woods.

The enemy commander, the Marquis's son Croissant, watched his own army in disarray in the distance. Those in the front tried to flee but couldn't, while the elite troops in the back tried to advance but were held back. He almost wanted to smash his telescope to the ground. "Damn it! How can we defeat Esdi's army head-on without cavalry? Rusalka is absolutely insane. He actually placed Esdi's elite troops on the flanks and led a bunch of miscellaneous militia into the woods! How can there be such a fool in this world!"

If Rusalka heard this, he would definitely be angrier than Croissant. When he led the people, brother clearly said they were elite troops?

Of course, Croissant had reason to be angry. After all, he was in charge of commanding the troops here, while the one in charge of commanding and following up in the center was his brother, the Marquis's eldest son, Allen Gis.

I thought the other party chose to attack Rusalka, the killer, and I was secretly happy, but halfway through, an elf reinforcement appeared to help him deal with Rusalka.

Looking at the army, judging from the current momentum, the other side is clearly picking on a soft persimmon, while they are gnawing on a hard bone, a thorny one at that.

Not only would he take the credit after the deed was done, but he would also be branded as a poor commander. Who could stand that? Would the Marquis even listen to his explanation that the left wing was far stronger than the center, that Rusalka didn't understand military planning? He himself wasn't capable. That sounded like an excuse to exonerate himself.

Now, he was neither able to advance nor retreat, and could only grit his teeth and say, "Raise the sling."

Seeing the messenger nod and leave, a legion commander beside him was also stunned and hurriedly shouted: "But sir, the situation is not yet..."

"Don't worry about the casualties!" Croissant said coldly: "Also, do you want to disobey military orders?"

"I dare not..." The legion commander lowered his head with a hint of dissatisfaction in his eyes, but after all, he was a higher-ranking official and he said nothing more.

Soon, several hideous and huge catapults were slowly pushed out from the rear, and a group of laborers began to carry stones and put them on the trebuchets with sweat dripping down their backs. The magic storage masters responsible for inputting magic power also gradually took their positions, and magic crystals were continuously thrown into the energy storage pool.

Although it is called a "catapult", this device is actually a "boulder launcher", a lower-level substitute for the magic cannon, and a replica of the ancient magic weapon "fire meteor" inherited from the Lord of Time next door.

Although it cannot do what the fireball does, which is to quickly convert magic power into pure fire magic power, then ignite stones and accurately carry out a double range attack of "fire explosion" + "gravel explosion" on the target, but by compressing magic power and launching a large stone to hit people or city walls, it is still very deterrent.

The only drawback of this thing is its accuracy, but now Allen has occupied an advantageous terrain where he can shoot from a high position and attack from a low position. He only needs to use the inclination angle to create miracles, which can also be considered a kind of shooting accuracy.

Huge rocks flew towards the battlefield at a rapid speed, leaving only screams wherever they were crushed. Even the Star Knights did not dare to face such attacks head-on and could only dodge in panic.