Under his command, the beastkin pushed their speed and mobility to the absolute limit;

They joined and broke apart in a flash, then joined again... wheeling, intercepting, encircling, picking off their targets...

Anyone watching from afar might have thought the beastkin weren’t fighting a bloody, brutal battle at all, but dancing the most ancient of dances.

By the time the White Bear’s fist was about to strike the central army’s standard, the entire flank of the clan army had already collapsed.

“Boss, why don’t we pull back for now?”

“If we keep fighting, our army’s losses will only get worse.”

The soldiers around the trusted subordinate kept urging him, hoping he’d face reality.

The soldiers thought their boss would surely see reason. But then, to their surprise, he suddenly grinned.

“Heh heh heh. It’s still too early to say who’ll win.”

That grin from the trusted subordinate was enough to make the young soldiers tremble.

They had every reason to believe their boss had taken such a heavy blow that he’d lost his mind.

“Boss, you’ve had such a hard life.”

One particularly sentimental soldier even wiped away a tear as he voiced his sympathy.

“Haven’t any of you noticed?”

The trusted subordinate paid no mind to his men’s antics. He pointed into the distance, signaling for them to look that way.

Then the trusted subordinate’s laughter grew louder and louder, until he couldn’t help roaring:

“It’s the head of the family! The head of the family’s finally here!”

Woooooo...

The desolate horn call echoed across the mountains and rivers. It was supposed to intimidate the enemy and rally the troops, but in these circumstances, it sounded more like a funeral dirge.

The Fourth arrived late.

The Fourth was dumbfounded.

He’d spent some time putting his domain’s affairs in order, which was why it had taken him so long to get here.

Earlier, while he was on the road, he hadn’t felt the slightest worry.

The Fourth trusted his subordinate’s abilities. He’d believed that if his forces joined up with the Third Clan’s army, there wouldn’t be a single army capable of standing against them.

His reasoning had been sound.

If there’d only been one enemy army, neither the Dark King’s forces nor the beastkin army could have fought two powerful vampire forces at once.

He simply hadn’t expected...

...that, besides the Dark King’s forces, a White Bear would choose to oppose them.

The moment he received the report, he couldn’t make sense of it at all.

Vampires rarely had any contact with other races, and they’d never offended the beastkin. So why had that damned king chosen this exact moment to come out and cause trouble?

He clearly remembered that...

...not long ago, the beastkin kingdom had fought a war against Dibiles.

Even though the beastkin had ultimately lost, the two sides had later signed a peace treaty. Still, deep down, that king ought to have hated Dibiles.

So why, now that Dibiles was on the brink of being wiped off the map, would he set aside old grudges to help an empire on the verge of destruction?

The Fourth had never married and had no children, so he couldn’t understand the White Bear at all.

There was a truth that had always held true in this world:

Those creatures known as “daughtercons” can’t have their thoughts guessed by anyone using common sense or reason!

Whatever disagreements the White Bear had had with Dibiles in the past, and however much his people wanted to sit back and watch the great battle unfold;

there was only one thing he truly cared about:

His precious daughter lived in Dibiles. If any army decided to join forces with Inran and invade the capital, wouldn’t she be in danger?

To keep Bai Meow safe, he’d personally led an elite legion out to the wasteland;

His purpose was to camp there and patiently wait to see which foolish enemy would come crashing into him.

And in the end, an enemy had come;

Originally, the White Bear had planned to attack the Third Clan’s army, which had entered the battlefield first. But for some reason, the latter had started fighting its own people.

He found it strange, but didn’t waste time standing around in a daze.

He immediately ordered his warriors to attack the Third Clan’s army from behind;

Just then, the Fourth Clan’s army, led by the Fourth’s trusted subordinate and newly arrived on the battlefield, came charging at them as if they didn’t care whether they lived or died.

With no other choice, the White Bear adjusted his plan on the spot and ordered his legion to fight the Fourth Clan’s army instead.

He was the third-strongest person on the continent, and he was also an exceptionally capable commander.

When a commander possessed both overwhelming strength and outstanding command skills, it was hard to find anyone who could beat him in a head-on fight.

The Fourth knew full well how terrifying the White Bear was. So when he learned that the beastkin army’s commander was that very king, he felt torn inside.

He hesitated, unsure whether to fight or retreat. Some of his subordinates grew deeply uneasy.

“Head of the family, what should we do?”

An officer turned to the Fourth and asked a question that could no longer be avoided.

What should they do?

Have it cold!

Add an egg, and it might even taste pretty good...

There was no point thinking about a late-night snack. The Fourth understood that the situation was this:

If he retreated, he’d be abandoning his trusted subordinate and that army. That wouldn’t do;

If he charged in, his own forces would inevitably suffer heavy losses. At that point, forget gaining anything—this expedition would be a colossal loss.

If they didn’t want to fight, they could only leave. The problem was, leaving wouldn’t be easy.

To move quickly, the Fourth had left all his extra supplies behind along the way. Now his soldiers carried only a few days’ worth of dry rations—nowhere near enough for the whole journey;

The bigger problem was the beastkin. The Fourth knew their commander wasn’t stupid, and was certain the enemy wouldn’t simply watch his army retreat without a fight.

The king still hadn’t sent all his warriors into battle. The Fourth was sure...

...the White Bear had held them back so that, at the right moment, his reserves could hunt down the enemy reinforcements who’d just reached the battlefield.

If the Fourth retreated, the beastkin would pursue them;

Their reserves weren’t numerous, so swallowing the Fourth’s forces whole might prove difficult;

But all they had to do was harass them along the way and slow their march. In just a few days, the Fourth’s army would run out of food, leaving them at the beastkin’s mercy...

After weighing it over and over, the Fourth reached his conclusion:

Fighting was a bad idea, but retreating was even worse!

There was no other choice. He’d just have to make his men grit their teeth and fight.

And so, before the beastkin legion had even dealt with the Fourth Clan’s detachment, it clashed with the army personally led by the Fourth.

The White Bear had anticipated this, and had stationed more than ten thousand reserve troops in the rear.

The reserves were few compared to the soldiers the Fourth had brought, but at least they could fight from behind fortifications.

The other side’s situation was different:

The Fourth’s lands were hardly fertile, and he had little money to spend on military affairs to begin with;

And since he needed to maintain the size of his army, he’d had no choice but to sacrifice quality.

His army was poor. Most of his soldiers couldn’t afford iron armor or bows;

When his men fought, they relied on sheer momentum. At the start of a battle, they crashed into the enemy ranks like a giant wave;

If they broke through, they won. If they couldn’t, they lost. It made no difference who was in command.

“Smash right through them!”

The Fourth let out a furious roar, snatched the great standard from the standard-bearer, and swung it so fast it became a blur.

“Kill!”

The vampire powerhouse leading the vanguard was named Dala Da. When he saw his forces had reached within fifty paces of the enemy, he didn’t need to see a signal to know it was time to show what he could do.

Dala Da swung his battle blade, surged forward, and roared as he struck;

He led five thousand elite vanguard troops, driving their running charge to its limit.

Even thunder cracking through the spring sky couldn’t match the force of this army’s roar.

The two armies rushed toward each other like surging torrents, one fast and one slow;

At last, they crashed together with tremendous force. Dust billowed up to blot out the sky, and countless lives were snuffed out.

Boom!

Even from the rear, watching from a distance, when the two armies collided, all anyone could hear was that world-shaking boom.

Battle cries, pounding footsteps, drums and horns, weapons clashing, warriors shouting as they hacked at one another, the sharp sounds of blades biting into flesh and blood spraying, the dying cries of the wounded...

Countless sounds came together to form that single boom.

There was no exchange of ranged attacks. From the very start, the battle between the two great armies had reached its boiling point.

At the last moment before the armies clashed, Dala Da used the momentum of his charge to push off with both feet and leap high into the air;

Carried by the force of his charge and jump, he crashed toward the enemy formation like a meteor falling from the sky.

A forest of spears rose to meet him;

At first glance, he seemed to be the very definition of “reckless and foolhardy.” Surely his only possible fate was to be pierced through by the spears.

But if you looked away from him and took in the people around and behind him, you wouldn’t think that.

A general is the heart of an army. And for a vanguard commander who always leads the charge, that role is even more crucial.

The Fourth Clan’s vanguard was made up of hardened bandits and desperate outlaws. Their commander’s insane move gave them a powerful jolt;

The enemy’s earlier show of weakness had also stirred the savagery within them;

After all, bandits— even those from other races—are the sort who prey on the weak and fear the strong.

They followed Dala Da’s example. Nearly a thousand hardened soldiers used the same reckless tactic;

They leaped into the air one after another, swinging their blades as they lunged;

This gave the Fourth Clan’s first wave of attacks far more force than anyone could have expected;

It also made the opening moments of the battle especially brutal.

The beastkin army had deliberately slowed its advance, weakening its charge, but its ranks remained relatively orderly;

Their forest of spears wasn’t completely impenetrable, but its defensive strength was still nothing to scoff at.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

The vampire warriors who leaped into their mad assault slammed into the spears one after another, as if they were trying to kill themselves. Several spearpoints punched right through each of them;

Blood sprayed from their mouths, but the blades in their hands kept swinging;

They seemed determined to cut down a few spear shafts for company, even if they couldn’t reach their target.

Most of the beastkin army’s soldiers were reserves;

They weren’t well trained enough. They’d handled the initial counterattack fairly well, but they were clearly unprepared for the second wave;

In that first counterattack, many spears had pierced the same corpse.

If they’d been beastkin elites, they would’ve worked together without a word, heaved the corpse off the spears with their comrades, and hurled it at the enemy ranks like a shot from a catapult;

Then the elite soldiers would have held back the enemy following behind and freed their spears.

The reserve soldiers had no such understanding between them.

Some spearmen tried to wrench their weapons free with all their strength;

Others were desperate to pull their spears out so they could stab at the next wave of charging enemies;

And some thought they might as well just thrust forward with the corpse still caught on the spear.

Each soldier had a different idea and acted differently. The officers didn’t know how to coordinate them, so the troops couldn’t work together at all.

As a result, when the second wave of enemies crashed into their ranks, most of the spears were in no condition to attack.

The casualties were nearly double those of the first wave, and this time the defenders paid the price.

From a distance, the beastkin reserves’ orderly square formation quickly lost its shape, becoming jagged like a saw.

Among the first wave of attackers, Dala Da was by far the most terrifying warrior.

Relying on his superb martial skills and the sharp reflexes he’d honed through countless brushes with death, he twisted his body nimbly in midair.

He dodged three spears, knocked away another three with his battle blade, caught the last one with his bare hand, and made it safely into the enemy ranks.

The moment his feet touched the ground, the battle blade in his hand swept out in a huge arc;

Every beastkin reserve soldier caught in its reach was driven back in a spray of blood. Each one was either dead or wounded;

In an instant, a wide space opened up around him.

More vampire warriors poured through the gap;

They followed close behind Dala Da, roaring as they fought and raising wave after wave of bloodshed.

When long weapons face short ones, the most important things are keeping your distance and maintaining formation.

Before the fighting began, the beastkin reserves had done well;

but once the battle turned fierce, their line was broken through. Within another breath or two, it was on the verge of collapse.

That was extremely unusual.

Without flying, beastkin moved far faster than lesser bloodkin;

yet even after the two armies had clashed, the other two reserve units were still leisurely making their way toward each other.

The strange turn of events on the battlefield caught Old Four’s attention.

If he watched a little longer, he would surely realize:

It was a feint! A feint!

The center was pulling back, wearing down their own elite soldiers. Then the beastkin army’s two wings would launch a counterattack...

The original square formations shifted past one another like a Rubik’s Cube, slowly taking shape again;

What the commander ultimately pulled off was a formation change—not a perfect one, but one capable of turning the tide of the battle.

“Phew!”

Bai Shui lowered her command flag and wiped the sweat from her brow.

Her reason for choosing to enter the battle was also her concern for Bai Meow’s safety.

She didn’t care whether White Bear died. But if the former were defeated or killed, it would mean her country’s army had lost—and could no longer help her granddaughter, far away in the capital of Dibiles.