Only God-Chapter 617 - 517 Kafu VI’s Anger

Kafu the Sixth only heard on the second day of the campaign that the seven legions attacking Larsen Town had met with a crushing defeat. At first, he thought it was a deliberately spread rumor by the enemy, aiming to shake the morale of his troops.

The Dwarf King, accustomed to victory, took this defeat as an intentionally fabricated rumor. If he paid it heed, he would fall into the enemy’s trap.

In addition to this, Kafu the Sixth had someone pass this "rumor" on to the captive King Hudson, letting him hear just how desperate the Golan people were to spread such nonsensical rumors in an attempt to sway the Dwarven army’s morale.

Since Hudson II had refused to assist the Dwarves in sieging and conquering after his capture, and had shown great integrity, Kafu the Sixth had repeatedly shamed this King of Golan both overtly and covertly. In his view, this man was nothing but a mediocre ruler, a brash man with nothing but courage.

However, Kafu the Sixth’s repeated humiliations failed to break Hudson II’s spirit. Instead, the latter would only have the Dwarf prison guard relay some filthy and abject harsh words back to Kafu the Sixth, still appearing as proud as before, without much humiliation.

The only time Kafu the Sixth remembered causing Hudson II immense humiliation was when he informed Hudson II that Maxwell, who had once berated the King, had seized the regency through a coup and intended to invade the Queen.

Kafu the Sixth would never forget Hudson II’s expression, his face turning beet red, fingers trembling, and muttering words of curses under his breath.

But soon, the mediocre ruler realized Kafu the Sixth’s malicious intent and instead fixed an angry stare at Kafu the Sixth.

Recalling those events, the Dwarf King could not help but laugh heartily. Unquestionably, in Kafu the Sixth’s eyes now, Hudson II was not a monarch of equal standing but a plaything at his own disposal.

By the time evening came, news of the seven legions’ defeat in the siege of Larsen Town kept coming in, bringing more and more details. Some were even claiming to have seen fleeing Dwarves.

Kafu the Sixth furrowed his brows, reason telling him that these must be sly human-spread rumors. After all, he had sent seven legions to Larsen Town. Even if Larsen Town was easy to defend but hard to conquer, the seven legions should have been enough to swallow it whole.

Yet deep inside Kafu the Sixth’s heart, as the news about Larsen Town became more detailed and vivid, he couldn’t shake an ominous premonition—could it be that the seven legions besieging Larsen Town had truly been defeated?

In his anxiety, Kafu the Sixth did not lose his reason. After some thought, he decided to dispatch reserve legions to reinforce the Dwarves besieging Matou Fortress and to send a few scouts to Larsen Town to assess the situation.

Objectively speaking, although Kafu the Sixth had not anticipated the enemy’s moves, his decision-making was not slow, and his decisions were far from foolish—in fact, given the same information, Kafu the Sixth’s decisions could even be deemed "wise".

However, by the time Kafu the Sixth made his decision, when he had resolved to dispatch the reserve legions and scout out the situation in Larsen Town, the battle of Larsen Town had already concluded, and Maxwell along with his reinforcements had already reached Matou Fortress, cooperating with the local garrison to annihilate the besieging Dwarf legions.

The situation on the battlefield changed abruptly and unpredictably; it often happened that one moment, victory seemed within reach, and the next message was of defeat and routing.

The reserve legions Kafu the Sixth dispatched to support Matou Fortress were surrounded by Maxwell’s forces the very next day. This time, humans held the numerical advantage, and it was the Dwarves who had to face an enemy several times their number.

Preemptive ambushes, misinformation, and the morale boosted by victory allowed the Golan forces to rout the Dwarves’ reserve legions in a very short time.

And when Kafu the Sixth learned of this, the Dwarf King became almost deranged with anger.

"Idiots! A bunch of idiots! Nine legions, a full nine legions gone!"

"Hiris, curse them, curse these incompetent fools; they bring disgrace upon the Dwarves! When I return, I shall have them executed, one by one!"

King Kafu the Sixth roared angrily within the military camp, his bellows causing the surrounding guards to tremble and lower their heads, none daring to speak.

Since obtaining the Mechanical Book, Kaelonde had never suffered such a defeat as today, with nine legions, well over forty thousand troops crumbling in the face of a human offensive.

Not long before, these Dwarves had been an army with a hundred battles under their belt, besieging and pillaging through the lands of Golan as if entering unclaimed territory, wantonly plundering and slaughtering with each city they took.

"Curse those humans, Hiris, Gods, curse those people of Golan, each and every one of them despicable scoundrels!"

King Kafu the Sixth pounded his fist onto the sand table in front of him, emitting a hoarse, exhausted roar.

As arrogant and overbearing they had been in conquering Golan, capturing the King, and slaughtering towns, so was the extent of their current pitiful state.

In the eyes of the Dwarf King, if it were a straightforward battle, Kaelonde would have welcomed one great victory after another. But the cunning humans exploited strategies and tactics the Dwarves were least adept at, dividing and conquering them, crushing them one by one.

At this point, a Legion Commander cautiously spoke:

"Your Majesty... the people of Golan have changed..."

King Kafu the Sixth turned his head and glared at him, his gaze almost murderous,

"What’s changed? Just over a dozen days ago, they were begging for mercy under our swords!"

Confronting the King’s wrath, the Legion Commander trembled for a while before daring to suggest:

"Your Majesty... consider a retreat. We have only one main battle legion left; those nine main battle legions have completely collapsed. Since yesterday, we’ve started reorganizing and only managed to form three legions, and even they are demoralized...

Withdraw from Golan, return to the interior of Kaelonde. Though the Golanese may currently be on the rise, as long as we rely on the walls along Kaelonde’s border, we can still..."

Before the Legion Commander could finish, King Kafu the Sixth cut him off.

"Silence! Are you suggesting we also give Helong back to the people of Golan?!

Are you a human spy, how dare you suggest we hand over that land which has belonged to Dwarves since ancient times!"

The Dwarf King bellowed furiously. Not long ago, he had dreamed of a grand Empire, uniting all Dwarves, spanning an empire across two races. But Maxwell’s offensive had shattered Kaelonde’s illusion, and he had lost all sense of reason in his anger.

The Legion Commander trembled, and no one else present dared to make a sound; they could only await King Kafu the Sixth’s orders.

"Listen, we will retreat, but only as far as Helong! There, we will make our stand against the humans in a fight to the death. If we cannot hold even Helong, none of you shall hope for a good life!"