Chp.27: One-sided massacre

Zamor smugly watched the arrows strike the human army. He was experiencing a strange feeling of pleasure in seeing that scene, knowing that many of the humans who were being killed were responsible for the abuses against his people. He could even recognize some of them. Seeing them agonize in the boiling poisonous water and then being torn to pieces by the jaws of the two basilisks or shot by an arrow gave him a strange sense of pleasure.

He was extremely satisfied. Haku's plan had worked out perfectly. Using an underground river as a weapon… he couldn't recall ever hearing of anyone having such an idea. Perhaps if anyone else had proposed it they would have been mistaken for a lunatic. But now, it was evident that that plan was a winner. The boiling, poisonous water that kept emerging from underground had already killed three-quarters of the army and was still claiming victims every second; at the same time, the two huge basilisks were crawling in every direction, running over anyone in their path, heedless of everything and everyone, and periodically leaping to grab the flying creatures that were desperately trying to escape. All while a continuous shower of arrows from the beastmen army descended on humans, piercing them by the dozen every second.

Zamor had no idea how the dragons had unleashed that eruption of boiling water, or how they had made the two basilisks so strong that they even subdued a wyvern (although it must be said that the wyvern was extremely frightened and confused, and actually it hadn't fight back very much). He wasn't a mage and he already knew he wouldn't understand any of those things, so he hadn't asked Haku to explain it to him. However, in the future he would have to make sure that the few spellcasters on his side study those techniques and learn them, since they could make such a difference on the battlefield. At the moment, however, the only thing that mattered was that they were winning.

Of the nearly five thousand soldiers who had come to fight them, over four thousand had already died and the survivors were too disorganised, frightened and confused to react in any way. Even if the beastmen had stood back and waited and done nothing, within half an hour the two gigantic basilisks would have completely eliminated the enemy. It would have been a total victory.

However, Zamor wasn't an idiot. He knew the battle wasn't over yet. If this was just a clash between armies, then he would have nothing to worry about. But unfortunately, there was one important factor that could turn the tide of battle at any moment: Carrion. Zamor knew that a legendary level could wipe out him and an entire beastmen army in an instant if he wanted to. If he chose to take the field himself, then retreat would have been the only option available.

But he didn't fear that possibility too much. Haku had already shown him that he knew what he was doing; he would take care of Carrion. He had already completed part of that plan by removing him from the military. Now, Carrion was Haku's problem; and if the dragon had failed... Zamor knew that neither he nor anyone else could have further opposed that legendary level. If Haku had lost the battle, Zamor and all his soldiers would have been wiped out in an instant, perhaps even before he could realize what had happened.

Therefore, worrying about Carrion was pointless. Even if Zamor kept a constant eye on him and the dragon, he could do nothing. Therefore, the best choice at that moment was to fulfill his role and focus on his task. He was still the commander of an army, and now it was time to play once again the part of the courageous and indomitable leader.

There was no way the human soldiers could win… but if they managed to regroup they might have escaped. Not only would this have infuriated Zamor, who wanted to see all those bastards pay for their misdeeds, but it would also have jeopardized the teams who were currently freeing the prisoners from the labor camps. Even if they were quite far away, if the soldiers had managed to escape they would certainly have returned there, and perhaps they would have chased after the fleeing peoples. Therefore, they all had to die there. There was to be no survivors. That was how it was supposed to end.

Zamor shot a couple more arrows, then hr put away his bow and raised his trusty spear, then he yelled: "Everyone! The time has come to teach these bastards firsthand who us beastmen are! It's time to reclaim justice! Take up your weapons and raise them against the tormentors!"

The beastmen roared in approval. Most of them belonged to the peoples of lizardmen, tigermen and lionmen, and they wanted at all costs to fight. Swords, spears, maces and axes were raised skyward with extreme fury.

Zamor would have roared too, he felt the impulse, but he knew he had to stay sane. Quickly he pointed his spear at various people in the army and began giving orders: "The archers stay here, and always aim away from that stream of boiling water! Don't worry about the soldiers standing on this side, those are we will occupy! Anything that comes within fifty yards of the gorge exit, you must eliminate it! Understood?"

"Understood!" the archers cried in unison, beating their bows against their chests as if to emphasize their words.

Zamor nodded in satisfaction, then he pointed his spear at others. "Form a line of shields! Create an impassable wall that nothing can pass through! The spearmen take positions between the shields, and advance with them!"

A few particularly well-built beastmen (especially tigermen) came forward carrying huge wooden shields; although they looked rather crude, in reality they had been built over the course of several months and purposely designed to be strong and light. In addition, Maldor had enchanted them one by one with magic and then added some runes to them as well, making them extremely hard. Not even the blow of a level gold soldier would even scratch those shields. Following the training they had undergone for four months, the shield-bearing beastmen formed themselves into a perfect line; among them came numerous beastmen, especially lizardmen, armed with spears, who would then exploit the openings between one shield and another to strike the enemy.

"All others, line up in orderly lines! Do not break lines until my order!" Zamor exclaimed again. The remaining beastmen formed a neat six rows behind the first row of shields. Seeing that the formation was ready, Zamor opened his dimensional pouch and took out three potions. "It's time! Drink!"

Following his order, all the beastmen opened their dimensional bags and took out three identical potions, which they uncorked and drank greedily. One of them was the antidote for the poison placed in the water; another was to provide greater resistance to heat; the third, finally, was the dragon's essence enhanced by Maldor. As soon as they had drunk, all the soldiers felt more powerful than ever; it was as if their muscles had suddenly increased dozens of times and their mana had increased dramatically. They felt so strong that they began to stamp their paws, wanting to get right in and into battle. Zamor had already tried the effects of the dragon's essence, since months before he had asked Maldor to let him try one to see how it worked, but still for an instant he lost his lucidity, intoxicated by all that new power. However, it took him very little to regain it and aimed his spear at the enemy army. "Everyone, advance! Let the blood flow on this land!"

The beastmen roared and marched at the humans. Though the shields they were carrying were large, their method of construction and the material from which they were made made them light enough for the tigermen who carried them not only to lift them, but to walk with them as well; if you add the fact that the tigermen had drunk the dragon's essence, they could even run while they were holding them. The army rushed down the gorge and rushed at the humans like a wave.

The humans saw the beastmen organize well in advance, but sadly they didn't have time to organize too; panic was spreading by now and the soldiers no longer obeyed their superiors, and what's more the basilisks continued to move continuously reaping victims. Most of the soldiers had now abandoned their weapons and thought only of saving their own skin, trying to escape, but as soon as they tried to escape on the opposite side of the gorge, a shower of arrows hit them, killing them one by one. Humans literally had beastmen on one side, arrows on the other, and two basilisks in the center. It was an unequivocally disastrous situation.

When the beastmen arrived, tens of humans were crushed by their shields before the real weapons even skewered them. The beastmen hit the humans with unheard-of strength and pushed them back towards the jet of water; by now the water that emerged from the cavity had lost most of its initial power and had also cooled down a little, but it still remained hot enough to cause a lot of pain, and above all it was poisonous. Humans were pushed into the water, suffocated or poisoned to death. Hundreds of soldiers died without being able to make any resistance. Someone tried to fight, drawing their weapons to face the beastmen, but they had a foolproof tactic: in fact, if the soldier in question was of level mithril or even level adamantium, the beastmen with shields simply broke ranks and absorbed him into their army , leaving those with swords and axes to deal with it. In a normal battle such a move would have been foolish, since the rest of the soldiers would have used the opening to break the enemy formation; but in that context, where only a few humans were still able to maintain lucidity, there was no one who could. A single human, however strong, was helpless in the face of dozens of beastmen enhanced with dragon's essence, so once incorporated into the army he was quickly killed. Furthermore, the few remaining combative soldiers often did not even reach the army: in fact, the two basilisks had not stopped their work of death and if they noticed that someone still wanted to fight they devoured him in an instant, especially if they showed that they possessed a level of considerable strength. Basically, they were paving the way for the beastmen.

In less than two minutes, the beastmen reached the base of the stream, thoroughly clearing an entire side of the gorge without losing a single man. Now, only the other side remained; Zamor couldn't say for sure, but he was pretty sure that no more than three hundred men were left on the other side of the stream, a number that kept dwindling due to the arrows and the two basilisks. He decided it was time to get serious. "Break ranks! Spearmen, attack from the front! Everyone else, circle and attack from the sides!"

The beastmen obeyed promptly; the tigermen threw their shields to the ground and the spearmen ran towards the spout of water and plunged into them. Since most of them were lizardmen, they knew how to move nimbly within the precious liquid; the green lizardmen of the Baudonia City Alliance in fact lived in a swamp, and therefore knew how to move excellently in the water. By now the jet was only five or six meters high and the temperature had dropped a lot; thanks to the antidote to the poison and the heat resistance potion, the lizardmen swam inside it without problems and, taking advantage of the current which continued to go upwards, they gathered speed and then jumped out from the opposite side of the jet, throwing themselves against the soldiers as if they were falling from the sky and impaling them with their spears. The soldiers could not even defend themselves. In a single moment, the more than seventy spearmen had killed seventy human soldiers; whereupon they charged the others before they could realize what had happened and killed at least fifty more. The humans concentrated on them, but soon a new enemy arrived: the other lizardmen circled the water spout and charged the humans like bulls. Every remaining soldier, by now, had to deal with at least ten opponents. Very quickly, the water that was now flowing in the depths of the gorge turned red and dozens of corpses with their heads crushed, decapitated or mangled were dragged away by the current. All while the archers in the distance continued to shoot their deadly arrows and the two basilisks devoured and crushed everything that came within range.

Zamor was only able to kill three humans, because all the others had already been killed by someone else. He found it almost ironic that he had killed far more during the gladiatorial revolt. He gazed contentedly at the battlefield around him, watching the last of the humans being wiped out completely. It was a truly one-sided massacre. It was incredible: a troop of just a little more of nine hundred beastmen had defeated an army of almost five thousand humans without losing a single man, and all this without using great powers, but only intelligence, knowledge and perfect military tactics. It almost seemed like a legend. Maybe he should have paid someone to write a story about it.

Suddenly he heard a voice behind him: "Your wife has completed her part of the plan. There are no more enemies now"

It was Glausar, who was next to him using the invisibility rune. Haku had given her the task of both protecting Zamor (there was always the possibility that he would die, and Haku didn't want it since he needed him to keep the army together and make them carry out his commands) and to act as connection between him and the other dragons and therefore the other battlefronts. To communicate, the dragons disconnected from their avatars every five minutes for just three seconds, returning to their real bodies which were all massed in the same spot not far away; if there was no news, they reactivated their avatars. Through that method, they kept up to date.

Zamor nodded in relief. It really seemed that everything had gone well. Now, it was up to Haku to finally complete the plan. "You!" commanded numerous beastmen. "Reach the other side of the gorge and then spread out and look for any survivors. If you don't find any within half an hour, come back"

The beastmen promptly complied and rushed off to find more humans. While it was unlikely anyone had escaped, Zamor didn't want to take any chances. Haku had told him that everyone had to die and they would. Moreover, Zamor also didn't dislike that everyone died.