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With Tannis's help, Arthas's small military camp underwent a major renovation. The temporary fence was removed and replaced with an alloy fence from Ratchet, wrapped with steel wire. Two small cannons, though small in caliber, capable of firing high-explosive shells, were placed on two gun emplacements, each equipped with 100 shells. Some large-caliber guns were also distributed to those skilled in engineering weapons. In addition, the soldiers received a sufficient supply of goblin bombs.

"Alright, if those guys use the same mindless zombie charge tactic as before, this camp can hold out for 7 days without any problem."

After finishing the camp's defenses, Tanis spoke to Arthas. Seeing the camp become impregnable, Arthas's furrowed brows finally relaxed a little.

“Our opponent has a spellcaster. Once he sees the changes in the camp, he will inevitably change his tactics, and may even use evil black magic to attack us.”

Jaina looked out of the camp with deep concern. She knew very well that if the opponent was Kel'Thuzad, the defenses that Tannis had built were not impenetrable.

“That’s right, but my knowledge of magic is limited to theory, so I’ll leave the task of dealing with the opponent’s spellcaster to you, Princess Jaina.”

"And us."

Several priests of Holy Light approached them. Although they looked exhausted from providing long hours of healing and purification, Holy Light still emanated from them.

————————————————Andohar, the Great Granary————————————————

Inside the large granary of Andorhal, which had been transformed into the Cult of the Damned's command center, Kel'Thuzad, the Cult's leader, sat upright on a chair made of bones. A few ghouls lay scattered at his feet, and above his head hung corpses twisted beyond recognition. Before him, a cultist dressed in a black robe and wearing a hood knelt on the ground, reporting the latest situation to him.

"So you've chosen to hold your ground, Arthas... Well then, it's time to put some more 'pressure' on you."

Kel'Thuzad gently scraped the bone spikes of the Bone Throne with his right hand, a glint of evil in his eyes hidden by his slightly narrowed pupils.

"Pass on my order: all the undead from the East, West, and North districts, assemble near the human defenses, but do not attack. Also, drag the Abominations to the front lines."

"Yes, Master."

12. The Battle of Andorhal – The Undead Army

As night fell, Andorhal fell silent, but those still alive in the barracks knew that this silence was only the beginning of death.

Lanterns were hung in the open area, several bonfires were lit to illuminate the path, and even torches were lit on the fences that served as walls. Under the light, the sentries, who had recovered from the daytime frenzy, squatted in their posts, vigilantly observing the swaying, zombie-like figures outside.

Inside the central command tent, Arthas, clad in armor and holding his warhammer, sat in a chair feigning sleep. Jaina used mage magic to maintain her alertness, trying to postpone her fatigue as much as possible. Tannis, wearing engineering glasses, lay on her motorcycle, seemingly asleep, but Arthas knew that Tannis was using her methods to monitor the movements of the undead around them.

"That's strange..."

Suddenly, Tennyson spoke up out of the blue.

"how?"

Arthas opened his eyes and looked at Tannis.

"Although the number of zombies surrounding the military camp is huge, they just walk around without showing any aggression. You know, during the day these guys would pounce on anyone they saw."

"You mean, someone's controlling these things, and the culprits aren't hiding far away?"

Arthas's tone became agitated.

"It should be, but I can't pinpoint the location of the controllers, and I can't even locate their range."

Tannis had just opened her mouth when Jaina's voice rang out.

"Based on what I learned in Dalaran, unless a necromancer is extremely skilled, the range of their control over the undead will not exceed one thousand meters."

"What about the number they control?"

Arthas immediately began questioning Jaina.

"This depends on the necromancer's abilities and the complexity of the command. If an average necromancer wants zombies to tap dance, controlling a small squad might be their limit. However, if it's just a simple command to 'circle around the camp,' controlling thousands of them simultaneously wouldn't be a problem."

"So, aside from what we can confirm is that they're nearby, everything else is unknown?"

“That’s right, Arthas.…”

Knowing exactly what her boyfriend was thinking, Gianna paused for a moment before offering advice.

“I understand your eagerness to bring the culprit to justice, but we cannot act rashly now. The dead are gone; we are responsible for the survivors.”

"I see......."

Arthas clenched and unclenched his fists, and finally, forcibly controlling his anger, he sat back down in his chair.

"Arrange for the soldiers to take turns resting, and we'll assess the situation again tomorrow during the day."

----------------the next day------------------

The sun slowly rose from behind the mountains, casting its warm light upon the earth, but most of Andohar's residents could no longer feel the warmth of that sunlight.

Around Arthas's camp, countless undead staggered about, making eerie rustling sounds. Skeleton soldiers, carrying bone weapons and shields, silently formed squares, with skeleton archers, pieced together from even more fragile bones, arrayed behind them. An ominous green light flickered on the bone arrowheads.

Besides the classic undead with skeletons and zombies, there is another type of undead that even made Jaina slightly pale.

Ghoul.

"Be careful, ghouls are completely different from ordinary undead. If skeleton soldiers barely reach the threshold of a soldier and can fight a human infantryman to a standstill under the right circumstances, then ghouls have already surpassed the category of ordinary soldiers! Their claws are as hard as steel, they are agile and can easily catch up with a runaway horse at full speed, and their flesh is strengthened by dark magic. Although it looks fragile, its defense is comparable to that of well-tanned leather armor! The most terrifying thing is that these monsters can immediately recover a certain degree of injury by devouring corpses!"

Before Jaina could finish explaining the characteristics of the ghouls, a strange, chilling horn sound resounded throughout Andorhal. Whether it was her imagination or not, Tanis felt the temperature drop several degrees when she heard the horn!

To the low strains of the bugle call, the walkers turned and charged toward the camp with their already decaying legs. In the distance, skeleton archers drew their bows and launched nimble yet deadly bone arrows into the sky. Behind the walkers, skeletal soldiers maintained their square formation and advanced step by step, while a smaller number of ghouls leaped through the horde, searching for an opportunity to ambush.

"Priests! Follow me!"

The moment Arthas heard the horn, he knew it was a sign that the enemy was about to attack. He strode forward and infused the power of Holy Light into the leading soldiers. Instantly, their fear and confusion vanished, and their will was strengthened once more. The priests followed Arthas's lead, unleashing the full power of their Holy Light.

Following this, Jaina, who had already set up a small amplification magic circle inside the camp, began to concentrate her mental power and guide the power of arcane magic. Under her guidance, the water elementals of Andorhal began to gather abnormally in the air, and then turned into ice shards that enveloped the undead army. The undead, washed by the blizzard, were all torn apart, their flesh and bones separated and shattered.

"Begin...the performance!"

Tannis, who had been keeping a close eye on the enemy's movements, made a gesture as if pressing a button. At her command, hundreds of goblin mines she had buried underground burst forth and rushed toward the skeleton soldier and skeleton archer formations behind the walkers. Although some of them were intercepted and had to explode prematurely, the remaining mines still inflicted a terrible blow on the skeletons, who were currently the main force. In an instant, the number of arrows raining down from the sky dropped by more than half.

Meanwhile, the cannons mounted on the pillboxes opened fire under the command of Farrek and Maven. Taking advantage of their high vantage point, they accurately delivered high-explosive shells to their intended destinations. Soldiers equipped with large-caliber firearms also took up their firing positions and fiercely fired at the zombies or ghouls that got too close to the barracks, destroying or dispersing them.

But the undead are undead after all. Despite such a blow, they remained silent and charged forward fearlessly. Some undead that were not too badly damaged also rose again under the impetus of necromancy and continued to fight.

For a time, the battle reached a stalemate...

XIII. The Battle of Andorhal – A Temporary Respite

"Boom! Boom!!"

"Bah!"

"Fizz!"

"Splash!!!"

At the gates of the Andorhal barracks, all sorts of sounds rose and fell. Although the horde of corpses surged wave after wave like a tide, their bodies, which had been slightly enhanced by necromancy, remained as weak as they were in life in the face of the large-caliber high-explosive weapons that the human troops had specially equipped them with.

Of course, some of the more agile undead, under the command of necromancers, formed small teams and attempted to climb up from the other sides of the Andorhal barracks, where the terrain was relatively higher and there were fewer defenders. They hoped to break through the Andorhal barracks' defenses, cause chaos inside the barracks, and demoralize the defenders.

Then, before this group of lesser-known undead could even get close to the metal fence, they were blasted to smithereens by various mines and hidden autonomous weapons lying in ambush there.

After the raiding force was torn apart several times, the necromancers had to face a fact they were unwilling to confront: assuming the Andorhal camp's counterattack remained at its current intensity, the war would inevitably end with them exhausting their cannon fodder—and if things really did develop that way, soon these frontline commanders would join the sea of ​​cannon fodder—and incidentally lose their minds.

Naturally, this information also reached Kel'Thuzad, who had been closely monitoring the development of the battle.

"It seems I underestimated 'Tannis.' Is the power of engineering really capable of influencing an entire war single-handedly...?"

After a quick glance at the battle report, Kel'Thuzad accurately determined that the reason the battle had become so stalemate was not Arthas, nor Jaina, but precisely Tanis, whom he had initially thought was just one person and could only play a few tricks.

'Engineering has reached such a level; perhaps the Scourge could conduct some research in this field in the future...'

Thinking this, Kel'Thuzad stood up from his chair and stepped out of the barn. Outside the barn, the cultists of the curse knelt on one knee and bowed to their leader.

'But... her actions are merely a small ripple in the grand scheme of her master's plan...'

----------------noon------------------

About a hundred meters from the fence, Arthas sat on the ground. His silver armor was covered in blood and dust, and his golden hair was matted with sweat. His slightly swollen eyes showed that he had not rested at all. Although the power of the Holy Light perfectly suppressed the smell of sweat on his body, in his current state, no one could associate him with the elegant crown prince of Lordaeron.

"Have some water and something to eat, Arthas."

Jaina, whose mental energy was somewhat depleted, walked over to Arthas with her staff and handed him a glass of water and a piece of something that looked very hard.

"Thank you, Jaina."

Arthas took the water and food that Jaina gave him, smelled the cup, and frowned.

"Jaina, what about in the water?"

"It contains salt and sugar, which Miss Tanyas got. There isn't a large quantity, but all the soldiers will get a little. According to her, this will help them recover better."

Arthas nodded, then squeezed the other thing Jaina had handed him—a piece of food that felt as hard as a brick—and a question mark appeared on his face once again.

"What has Miss Tanis gotten herself this time?"

"Compressed rations seem to be the latest dual-use food for military and civilian use researched in Ratchet City. They can quickly replenish the energy consumed, and the taste is also okay—remember to soak them in water first."

Jaina sat down next to Arthas without any regard for her image, took out her water glass, and painstakingly broke off a small piece of another compressed ration and put it in to soak.

"I'll help you."

Seeing Jaina struggling, Arthas reached out and helped her crush the substance into the water, bit by bit.

"Thank you, Arthas."

"You're welcome."

After such a pointless conversation, the two fell into an awkward silence. After a long while, Arthas finally spoke.

"I can't imagine what a terrible situation we would have been in if we hadn't hired Tannis. Shortages of water and food would have been inevitable, and the soldiers would have had to rely on makeshift defenses, fighting those fearless creatures with their bare hands..."

As he spoke, Arthas stirred a cup of paste with his fingers and looked back. Although he didn't see Tanis, he knew that the girl who loved dealing with all kinds of machines was doing her best to serve his battle.

"It's a bit pricey, though. She charged one silver coin for this piece of food. Also, I bet those bombs and stuff are about 20% more expensive than the market price..."

Before Jaina could finish speaking, Tennys's sullen voice reached their ears.

"Miss Jaina, so you mages don't have to pay any fees to open portals?"

"Of course not! Even with targeted teleportation, the cost of opening the portal is at least one gold coin, not to mention the mage's labor costs!"

"Then there are quality limits on the portals, right? If there are too many, do you have to pay extra?"

"Of course."

"so......"

Tanis pointed behind her, where new ammunition crates were piled up.