Time swiftly flew by, and yet another 2 days had elapsed. In total, the Windstone Highland had been besieged for 8 days.
In view of the precedent that Mosake clansmen could possess powerful wild beasts from afar. amd undertake stealthy assassination attempts, Sheyan and the rest upheld exceptionally strict precautions. Anytime and anywhere, there would be several hundreds of zergling patrolling around them.
Furthermore, old Mourbo was a Tsahik of Mother Nature Eywa, and could easily deduce the abnormalities of a possessed wild beast. As such, Sheyan left him by his side all the time as well.
Within the past 48 hours, yet another 17 Mosake clansmen had managed to escape. They were undoubtedly extremely fortunate. Due to the lower headcount of clansmen left, and with Chieftain Cherokee raising his vigilance, any clansmen that attempted to flee had mostly been executed. Their corpses would then be stored as food, and amongst which, included one of the legendary beast-rider.
After acquiring that information, Sheyan began centralizing his military forces, laying out a reserve-duty division of 800 zerglings as a surrounding layer of defense. The remaining thousand zerglings were segregated into 5 battalions, with 200 zerglings comprising each battalion. Anymore would be plainly delivering them to die with the narrow battling terrain. In intervals of 20 minutes, he dispatched a battalion to siege the Mosake clan fort.
Although each battalion of zerglings was totally obliterated within every 20 minute interval, after the 1000 zerglings had concluded their assaults, a 100 minutes had fully elapsed. Within this 100 minutes, the Blackthorn tribe back at the Triangle Shoals had already replenished at least 600 zerglings, and dispatched them back here. In addition to the defending division of 800 zerglings, there were still 1,400 mobilizable zerglings still within his control. Thus, Sheyan had no qualms about the Mosake clan launching any counterattack.
More crucially, at the moment the last of the primary 1000 zerglings were annihilated, Sheyan would only require barely half an hour before he could amass another 1000 zerglings. Hence, he continued employing such an absurd grinding war tactic, sending unceasing streams of 200 zerglings; maintaining an uninterrupted state of battle attrition! Such a crafty war tactic of wearing out the opponent's forces was exceedingly cruel but extremely effective. Still, dispatching troops to die would deal gravely severe damages to the morale of one's own forces.
Fortunately, the arachnids' fighting spirit was essentially the insatiable emotions of insects. Moreover, the Blackthorn Overmind had occupied a mountain load of pandora crystals, exactly like that of a scrooge delightedly lying atop a mountain of gold…….
After nearly a day of employing such a cruel tactic of attrition, the remnants of the Mosake clan were presently on the verge of crumbling. Sheyan estimated the total casualty rate of the zerglings now, had exceeded over 10,000; such was the distinct difficulty of this Golden Side Mission. Nonetheless, Sheyan wasn't eyeing any battle loots, and long fixated his gaze on the ultimate mission rewards. No doubt, this mentality assisted his iron frame of mind.
Day 10 of the besiege on Windstone Highland, 9 a.m in the morning. The Mosake clan's sacred monument, the sacrificial pyramid temple was finally overthrown. Yet to everyone's surprise, this magnificently majestic grand pyramid temple actually had an empty interior. After shifting away several massive slabs, a shocking secret underground channel was revealed. Previously, when Sheyan had hastily raided the place before leaving hastily, he had failed to discover this hidden mechanism.
However, the consolatory fact was that the secret underground should lead to a dead end. If not, the Mosake clan would've seized this secret escape route to flee long ago, why would they press on bitterly till now? Sheyan wasn't worried at all, and he first called for a Takji clan member, one that belonged to the Mosake clan previously; allowing him to identify the corpses in succession.
This was the eventual analysis - At present, eliminating the turncoats and the dead, the Mosake clan was now left with at most 20 - 30 Na'vi warriors. There was seemingly no longer any chance for a reversal. Under such circumstances, Sheyan pondered first before dispatching 30 zerglings into the underground tunnel to investigate.
It could be said that the underground channel was fortified heavily with mechanism snares. The 30 dispatched zerglings were wiped out cleanly. Still, a majority of such deadly snares detrimental to Sheyan and the rest had been triggered and destroyed. After sacrificing nearly another 100 zerglings, the way ahead was basically freed up.
Still after careful contemplation, evidently the thought process involved in constructing these underground mechanism decades ago, was inevitably designed for their own na'vi race; not towards hostile humans or zerglings. Hence, there would remain existence of hidden dangers not visible on the surface.
Contemplating that notion, Sheyan didn't try to be modest with old Mourbo, very blatantly exerting his lips to him. Old Mourbo had no choice but to arouse his domineering abuse of authority, and ordered the other clansmen to infiltrate with the zerglings.
As expected after entering, they managed to trigger several hidden snares. Still, with the majority of mechanism snares being ruined, the Takji warriors were able to avoid fatal casualties by relying on their nimble agility. After another half an hour, they managed to scour through the underground channel twice; affirming that all danger had been eradicated. Then, they finally notified Sheyan and his buddies to enter. According to the Takji warriors' description, the underground channel was generously broad and devoid of any oddly phenomenons.
Presently, the bloody remnants of the sunset signalled the arrival of dusk; covering the buildings of the Mosake clan with a layer of gentle afterglow. The chilling darkness lingered over, as though the sun was helplessly and taciturnly retreating in defeat.
Sheyan observed the eerie dark entrance of the underground channel. As he was about to step in, he suddenly inhaled deeply as his heart brimmed with wariness. In this moment, he became somewhat hesitant. Besides, he still had to face that redoubtable Cherokee; having personally witnessed his mysteriousness, brutality and atrocities!
At this moment, Mogensha and Reef could also observe Sheyan's hesitation. Reef couldn't help but utter.
"Boss, we are nevertheless still engaging a Golden Side Mission! It is right not to be overly careless."
His words directly roused Sheyan from his fear. Pa! He breathed in deeply, and slapped his own cheeks with both hands.
"Your speak correctly. When campaigning against the Mosake clan, our progress has indeed been rather smooth. I rather tarry longer to seek stability, and do my utmost to avoid mindless risks."
Mogensha nodded and spoke.
"That's right, boss. Are you thinking of urgently concluding this mission here, and seize the time and your control over the arachnid tribe, to test if any side mission can still be obtained back at the RDA base right? There really isn't a need for that. If we can properly accomplish this Golden Side mission, that would already be considered an accidental reaping! Desiring speed but not attaining, greediness may instead lead to failure!"
After the trio reached an agreement, they cancelled their plan of entering underground. They would rather spend more time to avoid unnecessary risks. The outcome of their discussion, was to directly operate the zerglings. It didn't matter how broad the underground channel was, ensuring every nook and corner was surveyed took precedence. Hence, they dispatched 500 zerglings in. When darkness fell upon them, the total underground environment had yet to be investigated thoroughly.
As it turns out, the underground channel was frighteningly tremendous. Presumably, the ground of the Windstone Highland was merely a thick shell. Such a geographical phenomenon would never appear on earth; but to pandora that was thriving with pandora crystals, suspended mountain ranges could be found everywhere. Thus, the formation of such an eccentric underground composition was not strange at all.
Gradually, information from the underground exploration began to pile up. After studying the information carefully, Sheyan and trio suddenly realized something, and they couldn't help but glance at each other's faces. This so called Windstone Highland, was possibly a volcano that had been dormant for an unknown long time!
As mentioned before previously, the Windstone Highland had the shape of a sawed tree stump amplified by a million times. Its roof was practically a plateau. However, the plateau roof was merely a facade. The upper layer roof plateau was approximately a dozen plus metre thick, which resembled a drum layering sheet; encompassing the concave mouth of this dormant volcano.
Naturally, countless naturally formed rocky pillars acted as support beneath the volcano mouth; as though concealing the secrets of this volcano in. Such a scenery could only be described as the work of God. Nevertheless, Sheyan seemed to have captured a certain vital point in his mind.
A corrupted na'vi, possessing even mightier divine arts that Goddess Eywa imparted down. Too many coincidences, as though attempting to conceal this intriguing landmark geography. The Tree of Souls in the water…….
This fragments of memory surged through Sheyan's mind, seemingly linking up a journey of hints. Yet while he was deep in contemplation, a sudden tremor shook from beneath. Sheyan's first reaction was - an earthquake! Instantly following, unceasing clamours of rumbling collapsations boomed into his ears. Very quickly, a flustered and exasperated old Mourbo raced towards him while shouting.
"Damn this! That bloody underground passage is collapsing. Five of my clansmen are still exploring underneath!!"
Sheyan and buddies glanced at each other, simultaneously breaking out in cold sweat. In their hearts, a rejoicing emerged from this calamity - their earlier prudence was indeed not in vain! How could there be such a coincidental incident; the underground channel not collapsing earlier, but just had to collapse now? Most likely, Cherokee that had fled inside, had utilized some sort of secret mechanism to control such a function!
At present, dealing with only 500 zerglings was indeed far less than desirable. Realizing that Sheyan and the rest weren't fooled, but merely dispatched cannon fodder creatures instead, he had been forced to employ his trump card; sealing up the underground passage to earn precious time for himself.
By this time, old Mourbo was heaving sighs of despair, and his countenance grew miserable. One of his nephew had been part of the collapsing calamity…….according to him, trying to excavate and locate him would take at least half a month. When that time comes, even if his nephew wasn't crushed by the collapse, he would've died of hunger. Of course, the most terrifying consequence would be being found and eaten by a famished Cherokee.
Instead, Sheyan released a long sigh of relief. One must understand; not only was that secret channel Sheyan's advancing route, it was most likely also Cherokee's only way out of his predicament. Being forced to demolish his only way out, one could tell he was indeed at the end of the line, with nowhere to go. As for this collapsation, Sheyan wasn't worried at all……..even though they lacked heavy excavation tools, he still had the option of mustering dozens of arachnid drones over!