PS: This chapter is 4800 words, enjoy reading!

"Mouse Mother? Mother Mouse?" In the dim underground tunnels, groups of Great Swordsmen, Walking Knights, and the Dwarf Army advanced slowly, deliberately slowing their pace so the dwarves could keep up.

This time, more than twenty Rick Guards also descended. These Rick Guards were equipped not only with melee weapons but each had a revolver fire cannon.

Laine mentally remarked on how wealthy the Emperor's army was.

For the Imperial Knights, they were allowed to equip ranged weapons. For instance, the famous Moore Knight Order often used ranged weapons predominantly, resorting to melee only when absolutely necessary.

In the Southern Empire, the affluent Imperial Army always dressed flashily, much like the current group of the Flower of the Empire (Great Swordsmen) before them, clad in brilliantly colored armor, colorful helmet plumes, garish tights, and adorned with a pile of accessories, looking quite flamboyant.

The Imperial Knights were the same, proud of their identity and resenting any comparison with the knights of Brittania. In the history between the Empire and Brittania, whenever knights faced knights, the Empire never won; every battle ended the same. Emperor Leopold defeated Brittania with fortified artillery, and Emperor Carl Franz defeated Brittania using steam tanks and powerful infantry corps, finally defeating Casvan through a flank assault.

Laine knew that, in truth, the fighting prowess of the Imperial Knights wasn't bad; the issue was that the knights of the Knight Kingdom were too strong. Holy Grail Knights were above common logic; facing external invasions, often before the Duke's army could arrive, a single Holy Grail Knight with a group of Holy Grail Pilgrims would have already achieved victory.

Thinking too far, Laine felt Surya pinch him, quickly refocusing his attention.

"No, you humans clearly know very little about the Skaven Ratmen. The Mouse Mother is the weak point of a Skaven Ratman clan," Belgar's face showed some excitement: "The Mouse Mother is the only known female existence among the Skaven Ratmen, a reproductive machine for the entire Ratman clan. Generally, each clan has only two or three Mouse Mothers, sometimes just one, and it's responsible for the entire clan's reproduction."

"The Mouse Mother is a massive heap of flesh, weighing several hundred kilograms, without any combat ability, unable to survive independently. If we can eliminate this clan's Mouse Mother, it would be a devastating blow to the Ratman clan." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Quick, write this down!" Heilberg hurriedly signaled the Rick Guards to take notes.

"If we can do this, it will be ideal. But since the Mouse Mother has no combat ability, why would it be on the front lines?" Laine found it odd; if so, why would such an essential weak point for the Ratmen be brought to the front lines?

This didn't sound very reasonable.

"It's food," Belgar, carefully identifying the pathways of the deep mine tunnels, pondered for a while: "The Skaven Ratmen require food, a lot of it. If a Mouse Mother wants to produce at full capacity, it needs to consume large amounts continuously for twenty-four hours. The castrated Slave Rats serving her, under the command of Ratman Engineers, continually inject her with hallucinogenic potions to keep her excited while she consumes food frantically. These Mouse Mothers can produce an entire litter of rats every week, which can mature in just two to three weeks."

Now, the Old Demon Hunter also understood. Master Ernst, holding a War Axe engraved with a golden Iron Cross in one hand and a scimitar with blue runes in the other, spoke in a gruff voice: "To have the Mouse Mother produce vermin tirelessly, ample food supply must be ensured. Hence, it's not surprising for the Mouse Mother to come to the front lines after a successful Skaven rat attack, or we can hypothesize that... the Skaven Ratmen simply hadn't expected they wouldn't be able to conquer Hemgart!"

Hearing this, Belgar nodded, and the King of Eight Peaks suddenly remarked with an indiscernible tone: "Hey, I always wondered how someone of your intellect became the Demon Hunter Supreme Grandmaster. Now I understand, you just don't like to use your head to think about problems; compared to your brain, you prefer to let your ax and sword do the talking, right?"

"Facing heresy, what we need is judgment and purification," Ernst, unwilling to exchange too many words with Belgar, shot a fierce glance at Laine. If it weren't for knowing that a Holy Grail Knight wouldn't be corrupted, he might have already turned his ax and sword against Laine.

This was Ernst's logic mode.

Continuing to descend, after more than two hours, the army had ventured deep underground. Contrary to expectations, they found vast caves and even underground architectural complexes!

Now these massive stone structures had been occupied by Ratmen, filled with makeshift dimensional stone lighting devices and planks, along with rat feces, emitting a foul stench.

"This place is just one giant pile of trash," the female Knight gripped the hilt of her sword at her waist and asked Belgar: "Judging by the architectural style, the arrangement of these megaliths, and the precision of the craftsmanship, have the Ratmen occupied the Dwarven fortress?"

"Shh~" Belgar moved to the entrance of a huge stone chamber, cautiously peering outside: "Clan Rat patrol!"