The Second WAAAGH (3)

Big Boom-Boom was something Idea Bro and Black Husband had tinkered up together. Its inspiration came from big bows and a simple Ork instinct: if an arrow shot from one big bow could punch through an iron plate, then could two big bows together shoot through two iron plates?

The two of them tried lengthening and thickening the bow limbs, stacking two or three of them onto a wooden axle. But such a massive weapon required even greater strength to draw, and the Bloodtooth Tribe had trouble finding lads strong enough. Besides, those big lads were unwilling to use such a thing. They would rather swing great choppas and hack their enemies to pieces.

Idea Bro and Black Husband puzzled over this problem for a long time. Then, when Idea Bro saw Snotlings using ropes and rolling logs to haul things up and down, a brilliant idea suddenly came to him. He set up something similar at the rear of the wooden axle, so any random lad—or a few Snotlings—could pull the bowstring back.

When fully drawn, it could shoot a short spear nearly two hundred meters, and its killing power within a hundred meters was terrifying. Since releasing the bowstring produced a dull "boom-boom" sound, the lads all called it Big Boom-Boom.

Now, these huge weapons were dealing Guk's force a devastating blow. Lads were used to cramming together in dense formations when fighting, so the Bloodtooth Tribe's Big Boom-Booms did not need to aim at all. They only had to fire wherever there were lots of Orks. After just two or three volleys, nearly all the lads around Guk had been replaced. A spear had also struck his shoulder, though luckily his armor absorbed most of the impact, so it had not pierced very deeply.

"Rotten Eye! Turok! Crush these savages for me!"

At Black Husband's command, over a thousand wagons split into two columns and charged Guk's force from the left and right. These were all massive vehicles, half again as wide as the White Hand Tribe's wagons, each pulled by at least four strong Squigs. There was another difference as well: their wheels were fitted with huge iron plates and sharp teeth.

"Yes, boss! Hahaha!! Come on, bugs!!!"

Amid wild cries, the two wagon columns plunged into the White Hand Tribe's ranks like twin blades, crushing and ramming, stirring the tightly packed formation into a complete mess. The Snotlings did not dare resist them at all and could only flee in every direction.

"Green Tooth! Take your lads and hold them back!"

Seeing his force gradually being sliced into scattered groups, Guk cut down a lad attempting a jumping chop and immediately deployed his "reserve force." Green Tooth and his several hundred lads rode Blitz Squigs. These specially bred Squigs possessed astonishing charge power and speed. Their only weakness was poor endurance, which was why Guk had ordered Green Tooth to wait for his command from the start.

"Got it, boss! Lads!! Follow me!!!"

With Green Tooth's roar, hundreds of Squigs broke into a sprint. Their bodies were strong and sturdy rather than bloated like those of their kin, and they raced toward the charging wagons at astonishing speed.

"Run those savages down!!!"

Following the principle that bigger was stronger, Rotten Eye, the wagon column commander, did not take Green Tooth seriously. He whipped his Squigs furiously, ready to grind those overconfident lads into mince. Behind him rumbled more than a hundred wooden behemoths.

"Ha!! Spread out!"

Before Rotten Eye's astonished eyes, those lads riding "scrawny" Squigs scattered like frightened Snotlings, breaking into a loose formation.

"Kill!!!!!!!!!!!"

With a roar, Green Tooth was the first to raise a spear and crash into the Bloodtooth Tribe's wagon line. He guided his Squig easily around an oncoming wagon, then thrust his spear with all his strength. The driver immediately screamed and tumbled down, only to be crushed into meat paste beneath the wagons behind him.

After only one pass, dozens of Bloodtooth Tribe wagons collided and wrecked each other after losing control. Green Tooth and his lads suffered almost no losses. They nimbly avoided the wagons' ramming charges and used throwing spears, choppas, axes, acid jars, and more to attack the drivers. Because they had been built too large, these Bloodtooth wagons could practically only travel in straight lines and had no ability to turn at high speed. A few lads tried to force a turn, only for their wagons to lose control and go flying away with them.

"Cowards!!!!"

Turning and seeing this, Rotten Eye was so furious that smoke seemed to rise from his bald head. But soon he became even angrier, because those savages actually turned around and chased after them.

"Turn! Turn! Turn! All of you, turn!!"

The order had been given, but lads driving wagons were not exactly reliable to begin with. Some turned left, some turned right, and chaos erupted at once. Some wagons crashed together, while others had their wheels jam against each other. Before they could sort themselves out, Green Tooth and his lads had already swept in to finish them off.

Wagons were overturned, lads trampled beneath hooves, and blades flashing past at high speed slit throats and split skulls. The Bloodtooth Tribe's wagon force went from reapers to the reaped. The White Hand Tribe lads nearby, who had been bullied badly by them earlier, also charged in. Without their momentum, the massive wagons were like Slime Squigs without limbs, helplessly awaiting slaughter.

"I'll fight you savages to the end!! Waaagh!!!!"

Rotten Eye, humiliated beyond measure, leaped down from his wagon and chopped down several White Hand lads in a row. When he saw Green Tooth charging toward him, he immediately raised his axe, ready to teach that cunning bastard a proper lesson. But Green Tooth first smashed an acid jar onto him, then hurled his spear with force. In the end, Rotten Eye could only fall helplessly.

"One-Ear! You hold those bastards back too!"

After sending out Green Tooth, Guk assigned Black Snotling One-Ear a difficult task as well. He had only thirty wagons, while the left flank faced at least four hundred Bloodtooth wagons. But he would not run. He was a proud Black Snotling!

"You! And you! Go around that way!!"

The White Hand Tribe's wagons were far more agile. One-Ear directed his subordinates to constantly provoke those big lads, and he had his own advantage. Each wagon carried at least thirty Snotlings—how they even squeezed on, nobody knew—and every Snotling was equipped with a bow and spear. Their weapons had little killing power, but One-Ear had prepared plenty of Stinky Mushroom Sauce aboard the wagons. These foul-smelling mushrooms strongly irritated Squigs and Jumpys.

Thus, the Bloodtooth Tribe lads quickly discovered that whenever those cowardly Snotlings attacked them with their laughable weapons, the Squigs pulling their wagons became restless and frenzied, even biting one another.

"Kill them! I'm going to squeeze those Snotlings to death all year long!!!!!!"

Turok, the other commander of the wagon force, flew into a rage at this sight. He could not accept being toyed with by a pack of Snotlings, so he immediately led his lads in furious pursuit of the Snotling wagons. Before they realized it, they were getting farther and farther from the battlefield, no matter how Black Husband shouted and cursed at them...

But this alone could not fundamentally change the battle. Thanks to Black Husband's encouragement and the wagons' early performance, the Bloodtooth Tribe, which had been collapsing, reorganized and launched another counterattack. The fleeing lads turned back toward the enemy in the face of their boss's blades. Their numerical disadvantage was gradually becoming more apparent, and more Bloodtooth lads were pouring in from every direction.

"Crooked Mouth!!"

With one savage sweep of his long-handled axe, Guk knocked down seven or eight lads before him. Standing atop a pile of corpses, he roared as he tried to summon his most trusted lad. His Big Roarer had not been able to fight beside him to the end. After being struck by the tenth short spear, it had finally fallen. Its body could no longer bleed a single drop.

"I'm here!!"

After a while, Crooked Mouth came running over, covered in blood. His armor was shattered, a long wound ran across his chest, and bloody foam still spilled from his mouth.

"Go get those Weirdboyz! Make them work!! Deal with those weird things!!"

"Got it, boss!"

Bending to avoid a short spear that whistled past, Crooked Mouth hurriedly dragged those shivering figures out from the middle of the formation.

"Get to work!"

Crooked Mouth shook one of the figures gripping a wooden stick, but it only stared at him blankly with wide eyes.

"The boss wants you to deal with those!"

Crooked Mouth pointed toward the Big Boom-Booms firing short spears. There were still around sixty of them now; the rest had broken one after another during firing. After all, it had already been difficult enough to piece together a pile of mismatched parts.

At first, the Weirdboy merely scratched its ears and pursed its lips. But when it saw the Big Boom-Booms, it immediately freaked out, jumping high into the air before falling back down. It wrapped its arms around its head and began whimpering.

"Don't be scared." Crooked Mouth encouraged it. "You won't die!"

The Weirdboy was still sniffling. Crooked Mouth considered giving it a beating, but startled Weirdboyz were famously stubborn, so that probably would not work.

"Squig!"

Opening one yellow eye, the Weirdboy watched Crooked Mouth pull a Slime Squig from his belt pouch and dangle it in front of his face.

"A Squig for you?" Crooked Mouth said. "A sweet, fat Squig."

The Weirdboy hesitantly reached for the Squig. Just as it was about to grab it, Crooked Mouth pulled it back.

"Work first! Same goes for all of you!"

The Weirdboy sighed, nodded, sat down in a crouch, curled up, and wrapped its arms around its thin knees. The other Weirdboyz did the same. They slowly rocked back and forth, drool dripping as they began muttering to themselves.

The air tightened strangely, and Crooked Mouth felt as though everything around him had frozen. A Bloodtooth lad tried to sneak up on him with a throwing spear, but suddenly grunted and began trembling all over.

"Tch!"

Crooked Mouth felt the handle of his choppa grow hot. He hurriedly spat on it, silently complaining that Weirdboyz always came with so many side effects. Even the wind above began acting strange, whipping up clouds of dust and letting out eerie shrieks.

Green light rose from the Weirdboyz' heads one after another. Their eyes turned from yellow to green, and drool poured from their mouths in streams. Their swaying grew increasingly violent, and their cries sounded like the explosive roar of flying sand and tumbling stones.

"What's happening!"

A sudden crash of splintering wood rang out. Before the lads operating the Big Boom-Booms realized what had happened, chains of electric arcs roasted them into charcoal and blasted those great killing machines into pieces one by one. The moment Idea Bro saw this, he jumped away from his Big Boom-Booms as fast as he could. But after a while, he realized that his own machines had not been affected.

Waaagh!!!!!!!!

Just as he was wondering about that, a unified roar suddenly erupted across the battlefield. It was so loud that he felt the entire fortress trembling. When he came back to his senses and looked again, the White Hand Tribe lads were all shrouded in a layer of green light, charging forward like a raging tide!