86. The Fierce Minotaur 1

“Big brother, you promised. You are not allowed to lie to Aileen again.”

Back in the Death Empire, Shi Mo Fei had said that many times, yet in the end it was Elder Orf who helped Aileen get those crossbows made. Mo Fei still had never fulfilled his promise.

Mo Fei gave a sheepish smile. “Brother has matters to attend to, that’s all. Once we reach a big city, I won’t do anything else. First I’ll get Aileen’s crossbow settled properly. That should be enough, shouldn’t it?”

“That’s more like it.” Aileen wrinkled her adorable little nose.

Just then, Mo Fei seemed to sense something. He had great confidence in his spiritual intuition; whenever danger approached, it would always warn him. Could there be some troublesome fellow among these bearmen?

At once, he cast protective buffs on Aileen, Vivian, and the others, and took the extra step of strengthening Woduo and the others beside him as well. He had brought seven of them out, and he could not afford to return missing even one, or he would have no face left to show himself before the wolf tribe’s chieftain.

“Stay close to me in a moment. Unless I give the order, none of you are to charge out on your own. Understand?” Mo Fei was afraid they would be like last time—seeing a grand battle and, with a howl, drawing their curved blades and rushing in.

“Don’t worry, Young Master. Their numbers are too great, and it looks like they have plenty of formidable people with them too. If you don’t say anything, we’ll stay by your side,” Woduo said. He was not the sort to fail to appreciate kindness; he knew full well that Mo Fei was concerned for them.

“So that’s how it is.” Watching the pursuers draw ever closer, Mo Fei recognized the bearmen dressed like siege mages he had seen before when defending the city in the Dragon Soaring Empire. No wonder he had that feeling; these bear mage had indeed turned out to be a bit troublesome.

“Aileen, when the time comes, focus on their mages. Whatever you do, don’t charge in.” Mo Fei thought it over and said it carefully. Still uneasy, he finally assigned Woduo to remain beside Aileen and Vivian, so this small group could deal specifically with the enemy mages.

But as he saw the pursuers closing too tightly on the bullheaded men, Mo Fei grew anxious. At this rate, they would never gain enough distance, and all his arrangements would be for nothing.

“Aileen, you and the others circle around the back mountain now. I’ll take a small squad down to meet them. Be careful,” Mo Fei said. With a sweep of his hand, twenty bullheaded warriors followed him as he charged down the mountain.

By now the bullheaded warriors in front were clearly visible. Judging by their attire, they must have suffered at the hands of the bear mage.

By the time Mo Fei reached the foot of the mountain, those bullheaded men had arrived as well. He quickly ordered the bullheaded men sent to reinforce them to lead the group toward the two flanks of the mountains, while he himself took the twenty bullheaded warriors around behind them. As long as they could block the fastest bear warriors and open up a safe gap, things would become much easier.

Mo Fei then drew two area attack magic scrolls from his storage pouch. He had not expected that he would need to use such treasures here.

Soon, more than three thousand bullheaded men rushed past Mo Fei’s side. He hurriedly ordered the twenty bullheaded warriors beside him to block the road and make a show of preparing to charge.

As expected, not long after, the fastest bear warriors came pouring through the mountain pass. Seeing Mo Fei’s group like that, they were startled indeed, and in their moment of hesitation their pace slackened.

That brief instant was exactly what Mo Fei wanted. He hurled the two area attack magic scrolls toward a boulder not far ahead of them.

Two dark clouds suddenly appeared before the bear warriors. Only a little more than twenty of those who could not stop in time charged into them; the rest of the bear warriors halted at once.

Among them were clearly bear warriors who had been to the Dragon Soaring Empire before. Several voices cried out together, “Retreat!”

But by then the bear warriors who had rushed into the dark clouds were already too late to withdraw. A thunderous crash rang out, and countless bolts of lightning fell in sheets. Agonized screams rose one after another.

Taking advantage of the confusion among the bear vanguard, Mo Fei led the twenty bullheaded warriors immediately back up the mountain. Once again, his magic scroll had proven its worth. Seeing the more than twenty blackened corpses sprawled on the ground, the bear warriors hesitated, no longer daring to charge forward blindly.

“What happened? Why have you stopped?” As the words fell, a bear warrior who appeared to be the commander of this force stepped forward.

“What happened?” He too had naturally heard the thunder and lightning just now. “Since when did the bullheaded men have mages?”

“It was done by a human,” one bear warrior said after making sense of what had occurred.

“A man from that other continent. Back when they were on the city walls, they used magic just like this,” added another bear warrior who had taken part in the siege of the Dragon Soaring Empire.

“How many are they?” Since his own troops had been driven back in disgrace from that other continent, the bear general had no choice but to be cautious.

“We only saw one person...”

“One person, and you all stopped here?” The bear general looked furious. If the enemy had many mages, that would be one thing, but to be frightened into stopping by a single mage—how could he not be exasperated?

“Move out at once and keep pursuing them. We finally managed to force these three bullheaded tribes together this time, and today we will wipe them all out.”

At his command, the troops surged forward again.

By then Mo Fei had already returned halfway up the mountain. Some bullheaded men had followed him onto the slope. Watching the enemy remain stalled at the mouth of the road for a good while before resuming the pursuit, Mo Fei could not help but smile with satisfaction at the effect he had achieved.

“Wait until they draw closer, then send someone to lure them up here. Have the others get the boulders ready. We’ll show them what for in a little while,” Mo Fei called out.

They were close now, but the road ahead had become somewhat narrow, allowing no more than a hundred people through at a time. Looking at the limited number of boulders available, Mo Fei thought for a moment and said, “First squad, charge down and play with them for a bit, then withdraw. Do not get bogged down. Kill a few of them and run. Understand?”

“Understood. Never get bogged down—kill a few and run.”

Mo Fei had split the bullheaded warriors into dozens of squads. Originally this was to make it easier to arrange rotations for those guarding the perimeter, but now they were all being assembled according to his formation.

The first squad soon burst from its hiding place, shouting as it charged up the mountain.

There was no need for any elaborate lure. The moment the bullheaded men appeared, all the bear warriors came rushing toward them. Yet after running so far, the bear warriors had also begun to distinguish strength from weakness. The stronger ones had pushed to the front, leaving this group of more than a hundred bear warriors strung out in a loose line.

Mo Fei saw the opportunity at once. Without hesitation he said, “Second squad, third squad, charge down with me. Work with the first squad and wipe them out, then fall back!”

With the order changed, the other two squads followed behind the first and rushed down as well. Mo Fei had organized thirty bullheaded warriors into each squad, each led by an older, experienced bullheaded warrior. These exceptionally seasoned squad leaders played a role Mo Fei had never expected.

Among the bullheaded tribes, only adult bullheaded warriors could be called elite warriors. Now, when those elite warriors saw that their elders—uncles by age—had charged to the front, every one of them clenched his teeth and pressed forward even harder from behind.

Prepared against the unprepared, and with hardly any effort wasted, the ninety bullheaded warriors launched a single charge. The hundred or so bear warriors who had climbed halfway up the mountain were all brought down, save for a few at the rear.

After the Bear Chief general watched those bullheaded men slaughter his hundred elite vanguard troops, they even wiped the blood from their iron staves on the dead bear warriors’ bodies before strolling unhurriedly toward the mountain crest. He was so enraged he nearly spat blood.

In the past several decades, when had the bear tribe ever suffered such a humiliation? Not only the general, but all the other bear warriors were furious to the core.

“All units, charge up the mountain! I want their heads cut off and hung in the city. I want them to know this: a hundred years ago they were defeated by our bear tribe, and today they will gain no advantage from us either!”

In an instant, the foot of the mountain below Mo Fei was densely packed with bear warriors, all howling as they rushed uphill.

Mo Fei was ecstatic. The more people, the better—this way those boulders could truly show their value. Seeing that the hands of the young bullheaded warriors beside him had begun to tremble, he said, “You are the finest warriors of the bullheaded tribe. Today is the day to show your fierce strength. You must remember, your parents are behind you. If you let these bear warriors pass through your line, you will never see them again.”

“We will never let them through!”

The young bullheaded warriors roared.

Along with the more than three hundred bullheaded men who had retreated up the mountain with him, Mo Fei now had just over a thousand people at his side. Though the enemy was exhausted, the fact that more than ten thousand men were climbing up still made Mo Fei uneasy.