After capturing several small towns along the border, the beastn acquired relatively sufficient supplies. These resources, originally prepared for the defending human soldiers, were now entirely in the pockets of the beastn army.
Inside a captured human city, the commander-in-chief of the beastn tribal alliance, the United Chieftain Balu, sat in the administrative office.
The war reports sent from the front lines were very encouraging. The human side apparently had significant internal conflicts, with many armies unwilling to obey their commanders’ orders. Furthermore, Lucius, the nightmare of the beastn in the previous war, had now fallen. The beastn’s morale was unprecedentedly high.
The beastn coalition army had now captured many villages and towns.
The granaries in these villages and towns happened to be stockpiled with grain that hadn’t been transported after the autumn harvest. Although the yield of this grain wasn’t particularly large, it was enough to sustain the front-line troops for half a year.
The logistics problem, which was quite strained at the beginning of the campaign, had gradually improved with this thod of living off the land.
From now on, every ti the beastn army captured a town, the plundered resources could be transported back to the rear for the won and children of the tribes, as they represented the future of the beastn.
As the troops penetrated deeper into the Empire’s territory, the resistance they faced also slowly increased. All of this was within Balu’s expectations. In fact, the progress achieved so far was already enough to make Balu overjoyed.
Looking at the map originally used to defend against the beastn, Balu’s gaze was fixed on Phenix City, a large city in the eastern part of Antica City, and also the location of the Imperial Army’s front-line command headquarters this ti.
As long as they could capture that place, they would obtain enough supplies. At that ti, they could retreat to the depths of the desert with the provisions before the human army arrived to surround and annihilate them. This way, the lives of their tribesn in the rear would be comfortable for a good while.
You know, during this period, in order to carry out his revenge plan, almost all the beastn in the rear who were not participating in the battle had tightened their belts, saving up grain to supply the front lines.
For these people, Balu felt nothing but gratitude.
...
In a village within the beastn-controlled area, a beastn army of about two hundred soldiers was currently resting.
Seemingly to celebrate the victory in battle, this group of beastn had specifically set up logs in the village square and lit a large bonfire. They planned to spend the night gathered around the bonfire.
Beside the bonfire, several humans were tied up, their faces showing nothing but despair.
So of these people were elderly who had difficulty walking and couldn’t evacuate, while others were young n and won who had stayed behind to take care of the elderly.
The small beastn unit planned to burn these people to death as a sacrifice to their ancestors who had died in the previous war.
The flas burned fiercely. The commander of this beastn troop walked up to the human captives. He scanned the crowd and knelt beside a village girl.
“Ugh... kill ,” the village girl said, feeling very uncomfortable under the beastman’s gaze.
“It’s alright, you’ll be the first to die,” the beastman commander said in broken Common speech.
He had just scanned the captives to find the one he disliked the most to throw into the bonfire first.
Although this village girl was not ugly by human standards of beauty, and could even be described as delicate, in the beastn’s view, won with soft, tender skin, fair complexions, and no muscle were unhealthy and unattractive.
In the beauty contests held in beastn tribes, the winning female beastn basically all possessed very athletic physiques.
As for facial features, for species with different aesthetic standards, beastn looking at human faces couldn’t distinguish much between beauty and ugliness. In fact, soone considered ugly by human standards might even be more popular among beastn.
Subsequently, the beastman commander grabbed the village girl by the throat and lifted her up.
The village girl felt the pain of her throat being constricted and struggled continuously.
Just as the commander was about to completely snap the village girl’s neck, sothing unexpected happened outside.
Dozens of crossbow bolts flew out from the forest, striking the unsuspecting beastn. In an instant, dozens of beastn fell to the ground, emitting painful wails.
Although beastn had significantly stronger vitality than humans, being directly hit by high-velocity crossbow bolts would still incapacitate them.
The other beastn hadn’t even reacted when another volley of crossbow bolts was fired from the woods on both sides of the square.
Then, from the woods, a group of human soldiers rushed out and engaged the beastn here in combat.
Seeing this, the beastman commander quickly threw the village girl aside and picked up his massive battle axe, joining the fray.
The rcenaries also noticed this exceptionally large beastman, so so of the stronger rcenaries proactively grouped together to confront this beastman.
The tide of the battle quickly turned. The beastn side lost one-third of their forces in the surprise attack, while the total number of human rcenaries who ca to attack them was twice that of the beastn. Moreover, since they were rcenaries, their overall strength and quality were generally equal to or even better than those of conscripts and regular soldiers. They could hold their own in one-on-one combat against the beastn.
Of course, when facing the beastman commander, the rcenaries maintained sufficient vigilance and kept their distance from the big guy.
After all, they were rcenaries who had faced real battles against bandits before. Their combat experience was very rich. The beastman commander had brute strength but couldn’t utilize it effectively. Every ti he knocked soone down and prepared to finish them off, another person would cling to him like a fly.
The big commander felt sothing was off as he kept fighting. He swung his massive axe in a horizontal sweep, pushing aside the people around him, then scanned his surroundings.
Then, he realized that on the battlefield, he was the only one still standing.
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