Make Azeroth breathtaking

Upon discovering that the target was missing, the T100 quickly switched the detector's wavelength and began searching for Tannis and the other two using other methods. Then, it discovered that Mekkatorque had somehow gotten to its side.

Try this!!!

The dwarf master craftsman roared angrily and pulled the trigger of his gun. Two rays that looked extremely hot shot into the T100's armor plates, breaking through its arcane barrier and melting two large craters in its body!

"Wow, this weapon is pretty cool, what's it called?"

"Dwarf Death Ray! This thing is powerful enough to burn through dragon scales!"

Overspark pulled out his mechanical squirrels and released them. These tiny creatures nimbly dodged T100's attacks, climbed onto its body, and detonated themselves one by one. Under the shockwave, T100's base began to become unstable.

"Why does this squirrel of yours look a bit like my self-propelled mine? I don't recall the dwarf having a penchant for designing these kinds of explosives."

With a flick of her finger, Tannis sent out the G3 Predator, which precisely located the two large craters that had been dissolved by Mekkatorque's death ray on the T100 and began to burn it relentlessly.

"This is a mechanical squirrel, not a self-propelled mine!"

Overspark offered a feeble rebuttal while simultaneously releasing even more mechanical squirrels.

"...It'll still explode..."

Tannis glanced at Overspark for a moment with a subtle look, then continued to command the G3 Predators. Under the combined burning of her and the High Tinker, as well as the explosions of Overspark's squirrels, the T100 was quickly riddled with holes, and most of its weapons malfunctioned.

"...Looks like this thing isn't all that great after all..."

Before Tannis could finish speaking, T100's eyes lit up with a red light. The familiar light made Tannis's heart tremble. She rolled away and hid in a nearby crater, deploying her defensive barrier.

"boom!!!!!!!"

33. The Battle of Gnomeregan—The Sealed Gates

"I was so stupid. Yes, I clearly saw Overspark use explosives, and I knew you guys were researching powerful bombs. How could I not have thought you'd use the signature goblin engineering self-destruct technique... My G3 Predator... is more than half gone... Haha... Haha..."

Tanis sat on her motorcycle, her gaze vacant, muttering a phrase that made Mekkatorque, who was riding a mechanical chocobo following her, both amused and exasperated. Behind them, the members of the Dwarf Commando followed silently on their mounts.

"Just as your goblin engineering system started researching precision tools, how could our gnome engineering system not research more powerful explosives?"

"That's right... but don't you dwarves treat your engineering creations like your own children? How come you know how to use self-destruct devices? And the timing of the self-destruction is even more advanced than our goblin engineering system!"

"This shows that... Thermapulg has lost the heart of a dwarf... He is now merely a walking corpse in a dwarf's shell..."

Mekkatorque sighed.

"You still expect him to have any humanity? Master craftsman, the path of mechanical advancement will inevitably lead to the extinction of humanity, because machines represent rationality, which is too contradictory to our mortal emotional thinking!"

"Mechanical sublimation? Ha...that's a fitting adjective...those who follow Thermaprag have indeed 'sublimated' themselves through machinery..."

As they walked, they discussed various nonsensical things to relieve their inner pressure. When the gate to the Gnomeregan descending passage came into view, Tannis and Mekkatorque fell silent and began to examine it carefully.

A few seconds later, Mekkatorque, who had put down his binoculars, spoke with a puzzled expression.

"No ambush, no obvious traps, and no signs of modification... Thermaprag didn't intend to take control of the gate?"

"I haven't observed anything unusual either, Mr. Mekkatorque, but I don't believe Thermaprag is that foolish—don't forget, he's not using a purely engineering system now."

Tennys spoke cautiously.

"Yes...but we have no choice. You! Guard the area! Miss Tanya and I will go see if we can open the door!"

——————————————Proceed to the main gate————————————————————

After gently stroking the tightly sealed door for a while, Tanis turned to look at Mekkatorque, who was knocking on the wall and searching for something. As a repairman, she knew exactly what Mekkatorque was looking for.

"You've installed emergency switches on the outside? Aren't you afraid they could be used by hostile individuals?"

"That switch requires authorization; even if the higher-ups of the Dwarfs discover it, they won't be able to open our door..."

Mekkatorque took out a screwdriver and began to remove the screws from a metal wall. Soon, a small screen and its accompanying keyboard appeared before everyone present.

"Great, hopefully it still works."

Mekkatork pressed the button next to the screen and was pleased to see the screen light up.

"Next..."

Having confirmed that the emergency switch circuit had not been cut off, Mekkatorque took out a card, inserted it into a slot below the screen, and entered a password. The moment he pressed the last digit, a dwarf face made of pixels appeared on the screen.

"Sermaprag!!!"

The moment Mekkatorque saw the pixelated face, he knew he had fallen into a trap, and the instant he roared the name, Thermaprag's voice, now full of intonation, rang out from Gnomeregan.

"Hey... isn't this our 'Master Craftsman'? What's up? Got it and are ready to join us?"

"I've come to let you rest in peace! Sermaprag!"

Mekkatorque pulled out his dwarf death ray gun and aimed it at the screen.

"Rest in peace? You can grant me rest? I have transcended the dwarves, becoming a more intelligent and powerful being. I... am Gnomeregan!! Now! Face my legion!"

As soon as Thermaprag finished speaking, several beams of white light flashed on the ground, and a group of mechanical guards emerged from the light and began to attack Tannis and the others.

"Can I just blow up the gate, Mr. Mekkatorque?"

Tanis smashed the head of a mechanical guard who was trying to pierce her heart with the butt of her rifle, then kicked it away, shouting a question.

"No! The gates of Gnomeregan have a self-locking mechanism! If it's forcibly broken, this passage will be sealed off!"

Mekkatorque answered Tannis loudly while dealing with the mechanical guards.

"So, the only way to get in is to find a way to regain control of the gate?"

Tanis pulled the trigger repeatedly, saving a dwarf who was almost killed.

"That's right!"

Mekkatorque deftly dodged a beam of light and, with a backhand shot, burned the core of the mechanical guard that was trying to kill him.

"Then, cover me, I'll give it a try!"

After throwing an electric grenade to temporarily disable the approaching robot, Tennys quickly rolled and slid to reach the emergency switch of the Gnomeregan gate, roughly pried open its casing, and revealed the wiring inside.

"This one...this one...and this one...!"

Once she identified which lines she needed, Tannis reached out and severed them, attaching the broken ends to her mechanical assistant. She then opened the assistant's control panel and began rapidly typing. The mechanical guards, seemingly realizing what Tannis was doing, turned and surrounded her.

"Warriors of Gnomeregan! Cover Miss Tanis! Don't let them interfere!!!"

Riding atop his mechanical chocobo, Mekkatorque pressed a button, causing two machine guns to flip out from its sides and unleash a furious barrage of fire on the mechanical guards. The other dwarf soldiers also drew their spare weapons, fighting back with all their might. Their aim wasn't to kill, but simply to delay the enemy!

“Your struggles are pointless, especially yours, Miss Tanis. You shouldn’t have interfered in Gnomeregan’s internal affairs at all… Now, it’s too late for you to regret it.”

Thermaprag's haunting voice rang out again, and two beams of teleportation light flashed once more. Two robots, much larger than ordinary mechanical guards, emerged from them and, to Mekkatorque's horrified gaze, began firing at the spot where Tannis was.

The bullet pierced through Tennys's figure, struck the wall, and splattered sparks. Tennys's figure blurred for a moment, disappeared, and then reappeared not far away.

"projection?"

Thermaprag immediately ordered the large mechanical guards to switch their weapons to shotgun mode, preparing to indiscriminately cover the area surrounding the emergency switch. However, before they could complete the switch, Mekkatorque's weapons intercepted them.

"Your piece of junk is no match for me! Sermaprag!!!"

34. The Battle of Gnomeregan - Breakthrough

While the dwarves fought desperately against Thermaprag's mechanical minions, Tannis was also racing against time to decipher the gate's access permissions, trying to seize control of it. The virtual screens of 0s and 1s were rapidly refreshing, with flashing light spots indicating to those in the know just how intense the battle between Tannis and Thermaprag was!

"How much longer, Miss Tennys?"

Mekkatorque, who had already turned his mechanical chocobo into a turret, held the still-burnt gnome death ray gun in his left hand and a buzzing, crackling sword in his right. With the support of his mechanical chocobo, he was locked in a fierce battle with a large mechanical guard. The other gnomes, who had cleared out the smaller mechanical guards, surrounded another large mechanical guard and rained all sorts of ray projectiles with random effects on it.

"I've only hacked the second firewall so far. Just how many firewalls have you installed on top of it?"

Tannis, her forehead already slightly damp with sweat, danced across the virtual keyboard. Even with the help of the mechanical assistant's computing power, the dwarf's binary-to-hexadecimal conversion was still very difficult for her.

"Three layers! But I'm not sure if Thermaprag has added any additional security systems!"

Meccatok, struggling against the powerful mechanical guards, shouted loudly.

"It seems he didn't add any more... How much longer can you hold out?"

"My weapons can still operate under this load for ten more minutes! If they don't cool down after ten minutes, they'll burn out!"

"I see!"

Knowing that time was running out, Tannis gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, and circulated her inner energy, gradually sinking into a state of tranquility. Apart from the numbers flashing on the virtual screen in front of her, nothing else was in her eyes.

Finally, after a long string of data was input, Tannis heard the heavy sound of the gate opening, signifying that she had gained control of the Gnomeregan gates.

"Mekkatorque! Okay! Wait! Danger!!!"

As soon as Tannis finished speaking, several shells landed outside the gates of Gnomeregan, blasting some gnomes who couldn't dodge in time to the ground. Mekkatorque cleverly took cover behind the enemy he was fighting, using his body to shield himself from the shelling.

"Enemy unit detected. Execute elimination."

Accompanied by a cold, indifferent electronic voice, a vehicle that looked about eight-tenths similar to the dwarf steam tank, but was equipped with more aggressive weaponry, slowly drove out of the gates of Gnomeregan. The turrets whirred and spun, locking their massive cannons onto the still-standing Mekkatorque.

However, before the tank could fire, Tannis's drones whizzed overhead, dropping a barrage of various bombs. The tank, caught off guard, swayed slightly and failed to lock on.

"Airborne units have been identified. Activate air defense modules."

The electronic voice sounded again, and with that sound, the two panels at the rear of the vehicle slowly opened, and a flying machine that looked about eight-tenths like the head of a dwarf flew out from it. It unfolded the machine gun on it and opened fire on Tennys's drones. In the rattling of the machine gun, all of Tennys's drones, which had little defense, were turned into scrap metal.

"Air threat cleared, activate Bastion module."

The cold, electronic voice struck Mekkatorque's heart like a heavy hammer. Four thick mechanical supports extended from the sides of the tank, piercing deep into the ground, while several smaller cannons rolled out, aiming at several corners of the battlefield.

"That shape is... a flamethrower?? Conceal! Conceal!"

However, despite Tannis's deduction of the weapon the vehicle intended to use and her immediate deployment of a force field barrier, the gates of Gnomeregan lacked sufficient cover to conceal all the gnomes...

"Ah!!! Ah!!!"

Amidst heart-wrenching screams, some dwarfs, their bodies covered in fuel, transformed into human torches. They ran, shouted, and writhed in despair, awaiting their inevitable demise in agony.

"Mekkatorque! Buy me five seconds!!!"

Knowing that if things continued this way, the tank would wipe out more than 50% of their manpower, Tannis quickly tapped the mechanical assistant a few times and began projecting something that was clearly not an ordinary engineering creation.

"Time jump detected. Annihilate."

Sensing unusual activity on Tannis's side, the chariots turned their cannons, attempting to nip the threat in the bud.