Rodrian's squad arrived at the front lines quickly. After a brief rest, supported by Shamanic magic and a feint attack from the perimeter, they slipped past the Greenskin encirclement.
They entered the fortress that stood somewhat abruptly amidst the sea of trees.
Many mangled corpses were still scattered among the wooden spikes, fences, and crude trenches outside.
Rodrian was puzzled; why hadn't the Beastmen burned the Greenskin corpses?
He later received an explanation: the Piña Forest possessed sacred power.
The blessed land and plants would not allow Greenskin spores to take root and grow mushrooms; instead, the forest itself decomposed their bodies.
During their brief contact, the mercenaries were intimidated by the power and organization shown by the tribal Beastmen.
They possessed a shared, strange faith in the Four Goddesses, powerful spellcasters, and a massive number of elite warriors.
There were even terrifying creatures lurking and growling among the ranks, serving as soldiers.
And then there was the charismatic ruler—though the "Beastlord" did not meet the mercenaries personally.
Instead, they were received by his third scion, the master of a branch tribe who called herself Barbatos Al.
She was an exceptionally beautiful Beastman of ambiguous gender.
After a brief negotiation, the troops continued their advance, but the short encounter left a deep impression on Rodrian.
Rodrian noticed that after meeting the leader—who had delicate, almost cute horns and the visage of an Elven prince or princess—Stephanie's attitude changed.
Her inherent disgust for Beastmen seemed to vanish, and she stopped complaining about the clients.
He sighed inwardly; people... women...
Rodrian's squad joined the defense of the Sacred Grove. On the other end, Al breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the elite human reinforcements safely inside.
Previously, he had made a major error in judgment!
Specifically, he had underestimated the Greenskins.
From the rescue of Veling to the recent blocking action, Al had generally held the upper hand in his battles against them.
Except for the initial surprise attack by the traitorous Estalians at Cerebrio, he had mostly focused on minimizing his own casualties and guiding the Greenskins to hit the North instead.
He had always operated under the assumption that the tribe would win.
But at the start of the Sacred Grove defense, Al was caught completely off guard.
The Greenskin command did not follow his script of "siege, struggle, and slowly commit the vanguard."
The Greenskins went all out from the start!
Total commitment!
Three Rogue Idols of Gork and Mork stepped onto the battlefield amidst the trembling of the earth.
They nearly demolished one entire side of the wall instantly, bringing the defensive line to the brink of collapse.
Al almost lost his composure, nearly activating the ley line teleportation prematurely.
In the end, the Shamans inside the Sacred Grove joined forces to destroy one Rogue Idol and heavily damage another, though it cost them their ability to fight for the rest of the day.
The third idol withdrew without significant damage.
The Greenskins' opening gambit nearly shattered Al's entire plan.
After the Rogue Idols breached the walls, the howling WAAAAAGH! of the Greenskins flooded into the city like a tide.
At the most dangerous moment, nearly a third of the fortress, including the walls, had fallen.
The Greenskins had penetrated into the very heart of the citadel.
Only through the bloody struggle of the Khorngor Legion and the desperate resistance of the Auxilia, combined with the morale hit the Greenskins took from the loss of their idols, did they survive the first day.
The terrain, not yet fully encircled, allowed space for reinforcements to enter.
Al remained in the military camp, staying with his ready-to-deploy troops while observing the battle through the eyes of a Griffon.
His palms were sweating.
One more strike and the Greenskins would have broken his entire strategy.
To make the Greenskins believe the tribe valued this location, he hadn't initially placed the intended defensive force of five thousand Khorngors and eight thousand mortals inside.
He had only left three thousand Beastmen and five thousand human soldiers.
The remaining five thousand were stationed further north between the Sacred Grove and the Vanguard Legion.
He had planned to move them in on the second day, before the Greenskins could fully surround the city.
As a result, the 8,000-to-20,000 defense-to-offense ratio nearly led to a collapse on day one because of the Rogue Idols.
Al deeply regretted his arrogance; in a world of monsters and magic, if he had them, his enemies might too.
Previously, he had been the one using monsters to steamroll Greenskins; now, he was almost steamrolled by their behemoth units.
The casualties among the defenders that day were massive. Almost every Khorngor was wounded, though mostly light injuries that only increased their rage.
Over a quarter of the personnel were killed or heavily wounded. Nearly three thousand of the eight thousand defenders were rendered combat-ineffective.
It was the bloodiest battle and narrowest victory since Al took command of the tribe.
Fortunately, the planned reinforcements arrived in the city, and the Greenskins did not attack again that night.
Furthermore, with the WAAAAAGH! field weakened after the failed assault, the Shamans from the main camp were able to teleport into the city secretly.
They managed to repair the core of the fortress and tend to the wounded overnight.
Otherwise, Al would have had to consider playing his "Vanguard Legion" card right then and there.
If the Sacred Grove fell, casualties aside, he couldn't rebuild such a fortress in a short time without reserves.
He would have to defend his tribal buildings or take the fight to the Greenskins in the open woods.
Al had confidence in his own abilities.
But if he were truly on the front lines, he estimated he could only command an eight-man squad or ten people at most.
Despite the wealth of knowledge and power he could draw from the All-Knowing One, theory and practice were two different things.
This enemy—or at least their leader—wasn't like the previous ones who just charged blindly.
A simple show of force wouldn't cause a chain reaction of route here.
Especially with the massive disparity in numbers; if the Sacred Grove fell and only half the defenders escaped, Al's available army would be outnumbered four or five to one.
He couldn't take that risk.
Al believed the best plan was to use the Sacred Grove to weaken and distract the Greenskin main force.
Then, at the perfect moment, he would teleport his grand army to strike one of their flanks or the center.
Ideally, he would decapitate the Greenskin leader and shatter their morale.
In Al's blessing-vision, the strong blue dots of the reinforcements entered the Sacred Grove.
The position, which looked like a tiny green circle from a distance, finally had the capital to stand against the surrounding sea of crimson dots.
But Al knew this was just the surface.
The five thousand men of the Vanguard Legion had been split up. Three thousand human warriors and a thousand Khorngors from the main camp were also sent into the city.
They relied on the crumbling defenses to resist the onslaught.
Every day, heart-wrenching casualty figures were tallied.
Al even suffered the illusion that the number of Greenskins was continuously growing.
Luckily, the Rogue Idols did not reappear, or Al would have had to launch his blitzkrieg early.
His hand of cards was nearly empty, but this wasn't a game where the first one to empty their hand wins.
Every day, scouts returned while more were sent out. Al had to maintain constant vision.
With the All-Knowing Blessing, as long as he had vision, he would be alerted even if the enemy possessed similar teleportation abilities.
Only then could he ensure that this decisive battle—the largest and most impactful since he started—would not be ruined by ambushes, enemy reinforcements, or other variables.