Chapter 1272: Victory Belongs to the Husky
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
No one had ever seen such a battle scene.
There were no rules, no tactics, no visible formation with battle flags, no order; only the most primitive and wild melee. The strange abhumans and beasts were frantically waving their weapons and claws. They overran the entire wilderness as if they were out of control. It seemed that it was not a sacred battle between Order and Chaos, but an internal brawl of Chaos. The dogfight was so messy that it was impossible to distinguish who was the actual monster.
Perhaps to some humans, both sides of the war were monsters.
But only those who knew the abhuman could see that this battle was not chaotic. There was an order different from the human army that controlled the action of the beasts. This order was based on the abhuman tribes, the tribal leaders headed by the shamans and the barbarian warlords, and the fundamental rule of beast instinct. The Beast Tide was naturally divided into hundreds of small warfare groups. Each battle group was a tribe and each tribal leader followed the strict laws of strength and weakness to take charge of their areas. This rule once determined the hunting territory of each tribe in the Black Forest. When the alpha brought them through the Black Forest, every chieftain and shaman did not forget this rule that had almost become their instinct.
The powerful archaic creatures enjoyed the most opportunities to hunt and challenge the strong enemy. So the beasts were charging in front; they were the great warriors. The tribe with the largest dominant population controlled the most extensive territory; they a.s.saulted the minions of Chaos and were the main force of the legion. Tribes with superb magic skills had the privilege of shuttling through all areas; they traversed on the ground, conveyed messages and spied for intelligence and were the heralds of the legion. Meanwhile, the ultimate creatures such as the black dragons and the elemental lords were not bound by the rule of the Black Forest; only the alpha could order them. They launched a.s.saults on the smoke columns of Chaos directly under the command of the Alpha and were the super war machines of the legion.
These primitive and crude divisions were of course not very intelligent. The alpha was not a genius war expert. This legion of beasts was still chaotic and disorderly, messier than any human armies. But for the Beast Tide, it was sufficient.
The abhumans relied on their battle instinct.
The great flaming serpent, Tiamat, rolled on the ruins in front of Fort Raven, and its body of hundreds of meters swelled into a sea of fire, burning many chaotic minions into ashes. Behind the great serpent, the flaming elves that the elemental lord of fire lent, rushed out to spread the fire to every inch of the land. The damage level of these frenzied elemental creatures was no less than that of the great flaming serpent. After the flames died down, Tiamat raised his head high, the hideous eyes of the snake were glinting with the satisfaction of vengeance.
As a former hegemon in the Black Forest, the great serpent had never tasted humiliation in its life, but when the Chaos arrived, it was driven out of his lair, its offspring as torn into pieces, its spouse was corroded and turned into sludge. The territory he built for the past half a century became a dead zone. It was forced to hide in a cave and lick its wound. This beast had great wisdom but was low in IQ, it had no idea how this storm of Chaos formed. But it knew the ugly monsters that the storm brought were its biggest nemeses.
Then the alpha appeared. A small but powerful weird creature that could turn the monsters of Chaos into ashes gave the great serpent strength so that it could fight the Chaos.
The great flaming serpent, Tiamat, was not necessarily weaker than the alpha, but it decided to follow the alpha from that moment onward.
It knew it could take his revenge by following the alpha.
There were still many individuals like Tiamat in the Beast Tide.
The alpha was only able to subjugate some subhumans by itself. But the rise of Chaos had unwittingly turned the tide in the alpha’s favor. No matter how powerful a creature was, even if it were a legendary one, it would find itself a victim of the Tide of Chaos on way or another. So when the Tide of Chaos swept through the southern forest, many powerful primordial creatures lost their territories and offspring. The unlucky ones who lost their lives were many. In the face of this situation, the indiscriminate protection the alpha could provide became an obvious choice.
Instead of saying that Lily had conquered a particular tribe or a creature, it should be the beacon in the dark, the Light of Order she emanated, that attracted the insecure beasts.
When the forest fell into the darkness and the alpha was the only source of light, all surviving creatures would automatically move closer to her.
So an unimaginable legion formed this way.
Philip put aside his big sword and leaned against the wall. The veteran was utterly drained. Looking at the battlefield below, Philip sighed softly: he could see that his job was done and there was no need for him anymore.
The Beast Tide was overrunning the Chaos.
Philip saw several lizardman soldiers fighting with spears of stone and a monster using sticks and stones to push back the minions of Chaos. The equipment of these “b.a.s.t.a.r.d soldiers” was ridiculously rudimentary. But the humans knew that they must not underestimate the strength of the abhuman. The abhumans could not match the level of civilization, weapons, and magic skills of the humans, but they were born with powerful physical bodies. The skin of the gigantic monster was as tough as steel armor; the teeth of the demonic wolf were as sharp and st.u.r.dy as the cold steel sword of the elf. In a one-on-one battle, a fully armed human was not necessarily better than a savage abhuman.
The reason why civilized kingdoms could suppress and keep the abhumans outside the border was not of physical strength but of the collective power. The single most robust barbarian individual was no match for an entire kingdom.
But now, the alpha had brought these beasts together.
On the battlefield, the special Light of Order of the alpha had rid the natural weakness of the Order relative to the Chaos and tipped the balance in the battlefield.
The power of Chaos started to decline.
After losing their absolute advantage, the minions of Chaos were only ordinary monsters and beasts under the Light of Order. They were capable of weakening and dying and would never be able to return to the Chaos once they died under the Light of Order. As the battle raged on, more and more forces of Chaos disappeared in the light curtain. The storm engulfing Fort Raven receded.
The first pillar of smoke and dust collapsed under the a.s.sault of Dragon’s Breath of Black Dragon Ordusa. It was a sign of the end of the battle.
“General, they have lost! Those monsters of Chaos are losing the battle!”
A soldier, unable to hide his excitement, shouted next to Philip.
“General, what is happening today?”
Philip’s mouth twitched. “How do I know? All I know is we have survived, well, if the beasts down there do not plan to make us their food.”
The second pillar of smoke and dust collapsed under the joint attack of the element lord of fire and the great fiery serpent, Tiamat.
Outside Fort Raven, the clash between the Beast Tide and the Chaos bathed the land in blood and ashes and every collapse of the smoke pillar would bring cheer to the people in the fortress. There were only a small number of soldiers cheering at the beginning because humans still could not figure out the intention of the beasts. Facing a mysterious army that was not any cuter than the Chaos, the humans did not feel excited at all. But slowly cheers spread. There was a rumor starting to go around the soldiers and commanders: the beasts were here to protect Fort Raven, and their leaders had contacted the fortress commander General Ulysses. No one could know whether this rumor was right, but it still injected a much-needed boost of confidence in the heart of the exhausted defending soldiers.
The storm gradually stopped, and the black smoke pillar had collapsed. The minions of Chaos were reduced to ashes, purified, and carried by the wind to settle down somewhere else eventually. The battlefield had returned to normal.
The bloodthirsty imp and the violent bear monsters were almost enjoying the killing. Some natives tribes who had just followed the alpha seemed too eager to take credit for themselves. A few tribes in the Beast Tide, falling out of the main forces, wanting to pursue the smoke columns that were receding toward the south. But a loud howl swept across the land and everything returned to its order.
It was the howl of a wolf, but it sounded a little different from the usual wolf howl. The last sound of the cry was short as if it choked back in the throat. The howl echoed throughout the Beast Tide and everyone quieted down and bowed. Looking from the high towers of the fort, it looked like the beasts were in great fear and awe.
The people on the wall quickly realized that it was the voice of the alpha.
A legion of beasts had risen from the southern part of the mainland and its leader was an unprecedentedly powerful alpha wolf—the rumor was true.
When the Beast Tide quieted down under the command of the alpha, the tribal leaders began to order to treat the wounded and conduct a censure. Some of them were tasked with setting up tents while some started to come near Fort Raven.
Philip had a clear view of the situation down below. He immediately realized that this group of beasts was staying outside the fort, but wanted to contact Fort Raven.
The veteran could not help but think of the rumors about the alpha wolf circulating among his men.
He instinctively clenched the hilt of his sword nervously.
“I am afraid it is going to be a three-headed wolf!”