Though this doesn't feel quite right, I still have to say it-you've gotten stronger, but that doesn't mean I've gotten weaker!

The terrain of Shadow Valley was bizarre.

Three ravines separated it from the outside world. Apart from descending from the sky or tunneling underground, there was basically no way for a large army to march through.

The Shadow Half-Elves had been blessed by Avalon to find this place. They'd hidden in the valley for over sixty years, and aside from that one time when kobolds tunneled in and ambushed them, the outside world had never disturbed them.

On the other hand, this damned terrain also made it difficult for the defenders to launch a large-scale sortie. That was why the gnoll warlord had said the Transians holding this place were no threat.

The gnoll warlord wasn't just talking nonsense.

But over the past while, the Silver Dwarves had used their mastery of terrain to conjure a line of firing platforms along the ridges, seemingly out of nowhere. Tunnels connected them to the valley, finally giving the long-range weapons room to do their work.

So when the armed kobolds began swarming up the mountainsides to attack Shadow Valley, the artillery on the projecting ridge platforms opened fire.

Colonel Fraser personally directed the Pioneer Legion's artillerymen as they poured down a steady stream of deadly fire.

Firing downhill gave them an overwhelming advantage. The kobolds charging up the ridges like pigs couldn't break through the barrage. They could only take shell after shell on the barren mountainside, with no vegetation to shield them. The most frustrating part was that they could barely fight back.

Were they supposed to throw their spears and hit flying shells?

The Voodoo priests of the Rending Claw Tribe tried summoning meteorites, but the earth priests in Shadow Valley were ready for them. They constantly interfered with the meteorites' trajectories, sending the blazing boulders on bizarre paths through