"Lord Minister?"
Lyle swung his magic greatsword, his eyes narrowing as he heard the Gray Dwarf soldiers ahead call out to the high-ranking Gray Dwarf.
Was that the Gray Dwarf who possessed the Rune technology?
With a thought, Lyle watched the surging crowd of Gray Dwarf soldiers before him and raised the palm holding his magic greatsword.
"Magic Slash: Wind!"
A three-meter-long slash was unleashed from the tip of the magic greatsword, cutting down all the dense Gray Dwarf soldiers in front of him in one fell swoop.
"Ah!!"
Miserable shrieks echoed everywhere.
The Minister of Forging felt his hands and feet go cold. He trembled, wanting to turn and flee, but in the next moment, his body floated up uncontrollably.
Lyle dashed right in front of him, reaching out to lift the Minister of Forging. Seeing his panicked expression, he said calmly, "I have a lot of things to ask you. All-Race Charm!"
The Minister of Forging's body stiffened, and he stopped struggling.
At this very moment.
The three thousand humans, led by Yaral, were forming a dragnet, slaughtering the Gray Dwarves fleeing from the Oasis.
Pfft!
A spear swept out.
Yaral lunged forward, skewering a Gray Dwarf's body and lifting it on her spear shaft. With a thrust of her arm, she flung the corpse away.
"Will Lord Hero be in danger entering the green zone alone?" Yaral looked up toward the depths of the Oasis, a look of worry appearing on her face.
However!
Yaral was well aware of Lyle's strength, and she understood that her current task was equally important—she must not let a single Gray Dwarf escape.
In the caves beneath the Oasis.
The Sandstorm Elemental Spirit's re-entry threw the entire underground into chaos. The once-stable tunnels grew fragile under the erosion of the yellow sand.
Tunnels collapsed, and the ground trembled!
A massive number of Gray Dwarves scrambled to escape from the underground caves up to the surface.
Those with good luck crawled out of other caves, while those with bad luck were buried by collapsing tunnels, or even killed upon running into the Sandstorm Elemental Spirit!
Located at the center of the Oasis.
In a cave beneath the area near the water source.
A fifty-man legion of fully armored Gray Dwarves was protecting a middle-aged Gray Dwarf wearing a Crown, navigating through the underground passages to flee toward the outside of the Oasis.
"How could this happen!"
"Humans shouldn't have any Hero-class powerhouses." The Gray Dwarf King's face was filled with terror. Compared to the robust Gray Dwarf warriors around him, he had a round belly that wobbled as he ran.
He looked like a moving leather ball, utterly pathetic.
However, the Gray Dwarf race naturally possessed excellent physiques. Even in such an obese state, the Gray Dwarf King's running movements still appeared somewhat agile.
"You useless trash, move faster."
In the slightly narrow passage, the Gray Dwarf King saw the soldiers ahead suddenly slow down and shouted in anxiety.
Boom!
Boom!
Violent tremors continued to echo from afar, causing the wooden stakes used to stabilize the sides of the underground passage to shake, sending layers of soil scattering down.
The look of terror on the Gray Dwarf King's face deepened.
The soil in the desert was very loose and not suitable for constructing underground caves, so the underground caves where the Gray Dwarves lived were all located beneath the stable soil of the Oasis.
The lower a Gray Dwarf's status, the closer their dwelling was to the outer edges of the Oasis where the soil was loose.
The Gray Dwarves' invasion of the humans' Oasis was, in essence, because their own occupied Oasis could no longer sustain their growing population.
Bang!
The soldiers in front suddenly halted.
This almost caused the Gray Dwarf King behind to crash into them. His already anxious expression turned to fury, and he was just about to berate his subordinates.
"Your Majesty."
A weary, familiar voice came from ahead.
The panicked expression on the Gray Dwarf King's face froze, replaced by a look of pleasant surprise. He quickly pushed past the soldiers in front to look at the two figures blocking the passage.
One was an elderly Gray Dwarf with graying hair, while the other Gray Dwarf stood behind him, wearing a strange vest-like outfit and holding a long, cylindrical weapon in his hands.
It looked neither like a hammer nor did it bear any resemblance to blades or swords.
"Minister of General Affairs!"
The Gray Dwarf King looked at the two in pleasant surprise, then quickly spoke, "Hurry, come with me! If we stay any longer, the entire underground cave system might collapse."
The Minister of General Affairs lowered his eyelids and let out a soft sigh in the face of the terrified and panicked King.
"Respected Your Majesty, where else can we flee?" The Minister of General Affairs' voice rang out, causing the air to suddenly grow still.
The panicked expression on the Gray Dwarf King's face also froze instantly.
Just like the human race, even though they knew they couldn't withstand the Gray Dwarf legion, they still resisted to the death because everyone knew.
In this Valley of Despair, once they left the Oasis and the water source, death was still the only outcome.
"We fled from the outside world to this Valley of Despair, and now we have to flee the Oasis, all because of a single powerful enemy!"
The Minister of General Affairs was highly emotional, his eyes bloodshot as he stared intently at the Gray Dwarf King:
"When did our great Gray Dwarf race become so cowardly and weak?!"
"Just because that strong human is an existence who has stepped into the Hero Realm?! We still have over ten thousand clansmen, and he is only one person!"
"Your Majesty, do you hear the screams and wails of our clansmen? They need you right now!"
The atmosphere inside the dim passage fell silent.
The Gray Dwarf King's hands trembled, a flush of red appearing on his rough skin. At this moment, he could clearly feel the gaze of all his surrounding clansmen.
"What... do I need to do?"
The Gray Dwarf King opened his mouth, then uttered a few words in a somewhat dejected voice.
"Those humans are no match for us at all. The only trouble is that strong human. As long as we can deal with him, we can wipe out the humans once again and reclaim their Oasis."
The Minister of General Affairs struck while the iron was hot, speaking rapidly.
The Gray Dwarf King naturally knew that their true trouble was that strong human, but the question was how to deal with him.
That was no longer an existence that could be dealt with by sheer numbers alone; if the opponent wanted to flee, they couldn't possibly stop him.
"Astor," the Minister of General Affairs spoke.
Beside him, the Gray Dwarf wearing the strange outfit and holding the weapon stepped forward.
"This is that weapon from the treasury, and it is also our hope for a comeback," the Minister of General Affairs said to the Gray Dwarf King.
The treasury weapon?
The Gray Dwarf King looked again at the equipment in Astor's hands, a trace of recollection flashing in his eyes. No wonder it looked somewhat familiar.
It was no surprise he had no impression of this weapon, because in his memory, this weapon could not be used at all. It was kept in the treasury more as a commemorative item.
To be precise!
Most of the things in the treasury had far more commemorative significance than practical use. After all, when the kingdom fell, most of the treasures, weapons, and items were either used up or entirely lost in the war.
As for what remained...
...there were very few things of actual value.
"I recall this weapon shouldn't be usable, right?" The Gray Dwarf King looked at the Minister of General Affairs, now suspecting if the old man had gone senile.
"That fellow Piye has been researching it all these years, and a few years ago, he finally used Rune technology to figure out a way to use this weapon."
The Minister of General Affairs' voice was excited: "And Astor is also the only one who can bring out the power of this weapon."
"As long as we have this inherited weapon, we have a chance to defeat that strong human."
Piye was indeed the Minister of Forging.
The Gray Dwarf King's spirits were shaken.
At the same time, the Gray Dwarf King was no fool. He understood that the Minister of General Affairs telling him all this wasn't just to prove the possibility of defeating that mysterious strong human.