The bridge

Since they no longer needed to move in stealth, returning to the lower level was much faster than coming up. The fiercest resistance they encountered along the way amounted to nothing more than hateful looks from a few dying Dark Iron Overseers.

When the two of them returned to the mine below, Diago discovered that Tharnok Frosthammer had done even better than he had imagined. Most of the slave laborers-Dwarves and humans, and Diago even spotted a few Gnomes-had already been organized and were making their way toward the entrance in an orderly fashion. Some carried weapons seized from the Dark Iron Overseers, but more carried pickaxes, shovels, and the like.

A dozen or so Gnoll slaves trailed reluctantly behind them, but these opportunists were only good at fighting when their side was winning. They could not be counted on at a critical moment.

Tharnok Frosthammer did not seem to be counting on them, either. He expertly directed the strongest slaves to the head of the column, equipping them with the battle-axes, warhammers, shields, and armor seized from the overseers. If they encountered guards, these men could keep the column from falling into chaos.

"Faster! Move faster!" he shouted from beside the column. He was not afraid of alerting the Dark Iron Dwarf guards outside. In fact, the slaves' earlier fight with the Dark Iron Overseers must already have alerted them. What he needed to do now was lead the slaves out before those guards were ready, rather than let them be trapped inside the cave like fish in a barrel.

Diago realized there was nothing left for him to do. Things had developed completely beyond his control. As a tech geek, commanding troops was not his forte.

"Beautiful work, Tharnok. Even if I'd done it myself, I couldn't have done any better," he praised, addressing the Bronzebeard Dwarf warmly by name. He was flattering himself there. In truth, his command skills fell far short of the Bronzebeard Dwarf lieutenant's.

Still, this made his position clear: he had no intention of taking command from Tharnok Frosthammer. In that respect, he knew his own limitations. On the other hand, he was very confident in his fighting abilities, which made him eager to join the fighting on the front line and cut loose.

"What do you need us to do?" he asked eagerly.

"We need a vanguard, sir!" the lieutenant said after a moment's thought. He pointed at the advancing slaves. "They may be strong, but they aren't good soldiers. At best, they're a bunch of raw recruits who have never seen battle. They need an example, someone to rally around!"

"I think I understand," Diago said. They just needed a mainstay in combat, didn't they? He felt he could handle that, especially after taking down a Priest with his axes. His confidence had swelled even further.

"Stay at the rear and look after the others," Diago said to Masley, turning back. Masley obediently carried out his order. Although his dislocated arm had been reset, it could not withstand intense fighting, but he could still manage some healing and such.

Diago jogged toward the very front of the column and joined it easily. The slaves were a mix of races, so his human appearance was nothing unusual. These people yearning for freedom did not notice the difference between him and those dressed in rags-in the dim mine, it was indeed difficult to notice.

They threaded their way through the dim tunnels. Like other Dwarven structures, this Dwarven creation had been built like a maze. Had Diago not visited many times before transmigrating, he would long since have become lost in this enormous underground cavern. As for the slaves, they had already been thoroughly disoriented by all the turns. These people were usually confined to very small areas, and few had ever been through the entire mine.

They spent about forty-five minutes in the cave, and many slaves were beginning to wonder whether Diago was leading them the right way. Diago was worried too, but his concern was that the Dark Iron Dwarves would be fully prepared. Forty-five minutes was enough for even the slowest person to get ready. They had encountered no resistance along the way, but Diago knew this did not mean the Dark Iron Dwarves had given up. They must be reorganizing their defenses, waiting to deliver a deadly blow somewhere.

Just before the slaves' patience ran out, they rounded a corner, and a miraculous river appeared before them. It was a river of endlessly surging lava, with molten rock splashing up from time to time toward either bank. Its banks had been scoured steep, almost vertical, but after centuries of erosion, everything that could melt had been carried away by the lava flow. All that remained along the banks was heat-resistant dark iron ore. Unfortunately, no one could mine this rare ore. In fact, even approaching it was extremely difficult.

Yet spanning this river, a natural barrier, was a stone bridge of extraordinary workmanship. The Dark Iron Dwarves had proudly declared that this miraculous creation had been designed and its construction supervised by Kroen Zhutie, but the Bronzebeard Dwarves and Wildhammer Dwarves scoffed at the claim. Indeed, to Diago at that moment, the bridge looked more like a natural formation. It was over thirty meters long but probably less than two meters wide, with neither railings nor suspension cables. It looked more like a long strip of stone laid flat. Diago estimated that no more than three people could walk abreast on it. Any more, and someone would inevitably be squeezed off.

The far end of the stone bridge was completely shrouded in darkness, and no one could make out what lay there. In reality, it was not that dark; compared with the dazzling river of lava, however, few could see the relatively dark opposite bank, screened by its steep edge. Diago reckoned the view from the other side would be much the same.

Even so, someone still spotted the white, round patch about the size of a pot lid at the far end of the darkness.

"I can see the entrance!" a human slave shouted ecstatically. He ran forward in great strides, completely ignoring Diago's command to stop. With him taking the lead, more slaves rushed onto the bridge, scrambling to get ahead of one another. At that moment, their yearning for freedom completely overwhelmed their fear of the unknown ahead.

Just then, gunfire rang through the cavern.

"Get down!" Diago roared, rolling toward the rock wall to one side.

But the slaves were nowhere near as quick to react. Many fell in unison like wheat before a scythe. The slaves on the bridge screamed as they fell off, without raising even a single splash.

Diago was almost completely helpless. He had never imagined he could feel as powerless as he did now. This vast, impassable chasm had blocked the entire column.

Diago finally realized that hunters were ill suited to acting as a vanguard. They were better suited to providing fire support or acting as snipers. Although hunters were quite capable of camouflage and reconnaissance in the wilderness, Rogues or Warriors were undoubtedly better suited to spearheading the kind of rapid assault they needed now. The former could use Stealth and trap disarming to approach the enemy silently and launch a surprise attack; the latter could use their heavy armor to withstand more damage and draw more enemy fire.

He huddled miserably in a corner, staring blankly at the stone wall opposite. There was an iron ring there for holding a torch, but it was empty, with nothing in it.

He shifted his gaze away in a daze, but suddenly realized he seemed to have overlooked something, and almost instinctively looked back.

An iron ring... a torch... he thought absently. An idea suddenly flashed through his mind. A torch?

Diago finally realized what he could do. Overjoyed, he yanked the demon backpack around from his back to his chest and began rummaging inside. When his hand emerged, it was tightly clutching a box of percussion caps and bullets.

He took a long arrow from his quiver, pulled off the arrowhead, and fitted a percussion cap over the end of the shaft. Fortunately, the cap fit the shaft perfectly and snugly.

He picked up several more bullets and punctured the hard seals at their bases, allowing the gunpowder inside to pour out easily. He carefully poured the powder onto strips of cloth torn from his robe, then wound the powder-covered cloth around the arrow shaft right next to the percussion cap and tied it tight.

Just like that, he had made a crude illumination arrow. Suppressing his impatience, he made four more in succession.

Finally, he rose from the ground with four arrows held between his fingers, one of them a freshly made illumination arrow. He took a deep breath and nocked the illumination arrow.

May the gods protect me! he prayed fervently. At that moment, he resolved that once he escaped, he would pledge his faith to a god, though he had not yet decided which one.

He released the bowstring. The bow's limbs snapped the string straight, and the illumination arrow crossed the river of lava and flew into the darkness on the other side.

With a faint click, the arrow struck something. A blaze immediately bloomed in the darkness as the gunpowder on the illumination arrow burned fiercely, driving away almost all the darkness on the opposite bank.

The ambushing Dark Iron Dwarves were startled by the sudden light. More than one Dwarf scrambled to his feet in a panic, trying to extinguish the flames, but a brutal onslaught came just then. Arrow after arrow shot across the river.

It was almost a display of virtuosity. After loosing the first arrow, Diago deftly turned his fingers and set the second arrow held between them onto the string, almost twice as fast as drawing an arrow from his quiver or picking one up from the ground. The arrows flew in an almost unbroken stream. When the last arrow left the string, the Dwarf struck by the first had only just begun to crumple, struggling.

In the blink of an eye, three Dwarves fell, followed by four, then another four. Before the illumination arrow was stamped out, nearly a dozen Dwarf soldiers had been shot to the ground.

What terrified the Dark Iron Dwarves even more was that, just as they finally stamped out the illumination arrow, another blaze flared among them.

After this happened four times, the Dark Iron Dwarves finally broke. They stopped trying to stamp out the sizzling illumination arrow and instead lay flat behind stacks of wooden crates, refusing to raise their heads again.

Diago breathed a sigh of relief as well. He had only one of his newly made illumination arrows left. If the Dark Iron Dwarves had held firm, he would not have wanted to make another batch-it would take too long, and there was no guarantee the Dwarves would not devise a countermeasure.

He tucked the Catalpa Bow behind his back and charged out with his hand axes.

"Follow me!" he roared. The slaves were clearly inspired by his earlier performance, as though a god had descended among them. Roaring as well, they charged after him.

Though not as swift as a Warrior's Charge, Diago's sprint was still extremely fast. It took him only a few seconds to cross the bridge's thirty-odd meters. When he reached the Dwarves' wooden-crate barricade, the first Dark Iron Dwarf guard to react was only just climbing out from behind a crate.

Diago's keen axe swept across his neck, sending a fountain of blood skyward, but by then the other Dark Iron Dwarves had finally reacted too. They swarmed toward Diago, brandishing warhammers and axes. Diago met them fearlessly. The advantage of wielding a weapon in each hand made his attacks fast and deadly, while the weight of the hand axes gave them greater force and speed than swords or daggers. He ravaged the Dark Iron Dwarves like a spinning windmill, his twin hand axes crashing into their weapons and bodies, hacking them to pieces.

When the whirlwind finally stopped, at least five Dark Iron soldiers lay fallen around Diago, and he had driven back several times that number of wounded. Diago panted heavily. Truthfully, his close-combat skills were not particularly good-average at best-but this assault had taken the Dark Iron Dwarves completely by surprise. Having just been pinned down by arrows, they were routed before they could offer any resistance.

Regardless, Diago's storm of attacks had bought the slaves precious time. The first wave across the stone bridge had already reached him and joined the battle. Victory seemed within reach.

Diago inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He put away his hand axes, intending to provide fire support for the slaves with his bow, but just then, something unexpected happened.

He caught a flash of fire out of the corner of his eye, but before he could dodge, a gunshot reached his ears. Diago felt as though someone had struck him hard in the chest with a sledgehammer, and he tumbled to the ground.

Diago lay on his back, his mind completely blank, without pain or fear. It was a strange feeling. He felt as though his soul had left his body, and everything around him flashed past before his eyes in slow motion.

"Glory to the Father God!" He saw Tharnok Frosthammer roar and charge out from beside him. Wielding a captured hammer, the Bronzebeard Dwarf raised a tide of blood among the Dark Iron guards. He seemed more proficient with this sort of weapon. The gun Diago had given him earlier was now in another Bronzebeard Dwarf's hands.

"Buddy, where's the wound?" he heard Masley shout anxiously. Then that familiar purple face appeared before his eyes, filled with panic.

Without waiting for an answer, Masley cast Lifebloom on Diago. He was experienced: this spell could help stop bleeding without stimulating muscle growth and sealing a bullet or arrowhead inside the wound.

Whether it was the healing spell's effect or not, Diago felt his soul returning to his body.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me!" Diago coughed and sat up. He pushed aside the Night Elf's searching hands and felt his chest. He found a hole in his robe, and inside it, a flattened bullet was stuck firmly to his scale armor.

He pressed through the scale armor. The skin beneath hurt a little, but not badly.

There might be some bruising and swelling, but the bones should be fine, he thought with relief.

As for whether Diago's makeshift illumination arrows would work, you can try them yourselves, but attempting this carries risks, so experiment with caution. I take no responsibility...