Chapter 280 - 48: Daybreak
Chapter 280: Chapter 48: Daybreak
"Sir! Sir!"
"It’s bad! We have a situation!"
The adjutant burst into Castro’s tent. Inside, Castro was resting on a medium-sized wooden bed, a peculiar piece of furniture specially made for a Centaur.
Although Castro was a Silver-rank Extraordinary, that didn’t mean he didn’t need rest.
An Extraordinary could go over ten days without sleep, but doing so would wear down their spirit completely.
"What? What’s happening?"
Hearing his second-in-command’s shout, Castro’s eyes snapped open. He sat up and moved deftly to his armor rack.
At that moment, Castro was only wearing his under-armor.
Castro looked at his adjutant, asking questions as he donned his armor.
Prince Odoruo’s army was quite unique within the Beastman Empire. One notable difference was the lack of women.
In the war between the Beastman Empire and the humans, the humans had always been the ones under immense pressure.
It was normal for human armies to have no women, but for Beastmen, it was very strange.
"The two human units we’ve been watching seem to be trying to merge forces," the adjutant said.
"Merge forces?" Castro frowned.
"Why would they merge forces?"
"I don’t know. Perhaps they’ve lost their supply lines?" the adjutant asked tentatively.
Castro said nothing, just feeling that there was something fishy about this.
"Is there any other news?" Castro asked.
The adjutant shook his head.
"Nothing so far."
"Sir, should we stop them?"
Castro didn’t answer immediately, his mind turning to the current battlefield situation.
’The enemy could have merged their forces sooner or later, why now all of a sudden?’
It wasn’t that Castro was overly suspicious, but the humans had had better opportunities to merge before and hadn’t taken them. Why had they suddenly wised up now, realizing that concentrating their strength would improve their defense?
Castro mulled it over, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
Suddenly, he remembered the message brought by the Thunderhawk.
’Could it be that surprise human force?’
The thought didn’t last long before Castro dismissed it.
’A joke.’ As far as Castro knew, along that route were the nine thousand troops of Ancient Dumu Town, Tec’s two thousand elites, and about a thousand more Beastman Army soldiers over at Ror Town.
’Could the enemy really have taken them all down in a single day? Besides, no news of any kind has come from those places.’
’It seems I really have been overworked these past few days. It must be that those two groups have run out of supplies.’
"We must stop them. Inform all the Centaur Tribe members to mobilize at once. We cannot let them link up," Castro ordered without much hesitation.
For him, for Castro, even if this truly was a human conspiracy, he had to intervene.
He had no choice. If they really managed to join forces, the cost for him to swallow this prize would increase exponentially.
Moreover, even if an enemy force did rush them from behind, failing to stop these humans from merging now would mean Castro would be trapped and annihilated in Wayne Mountain.
No matter how he looked at it, stopping these humans was the best choice at this moment.
....
"How is it? Are they still chasing us?" Tec took a few deep breaths and looked at the personal soldier beside him.
Even for an Extraordinary of Tec’s caliber, running for so long had left him physically drained.
The personal soldier mumbled something unintelligible, just as another wave of battle cries rose up from behind them.
"They’re coming again?!" Tec exclaimed in shock.
The group of humans following them hadn’t let up since Tec began his retreat.
They had been chasing him since nightfall. Tec had originally thought he could take advantage of a lapse in the enemy’s pursuit to rally his troops. That way, when he reached Wayne Mountain, he’d still have some value and might be able to get some things done, hopefully lessening his punishment later.
But he hadn’t expected these humans to give him no chances at all. When he set out, Tec had over a hundred infantrymen; now, only a dozen of his closest men remained.
"Hasn’t anyone come from the northwest yet?" Tec looked at his personal soldier, clinging to a final sliver of hope.
"Haven’t seen anyone," the soldier said, shaking his head.
Hearing this, a nameless rage ignited in Tec’s heart.
’How can Castro be so shortsighted? Is he really going to start infighting at a critical time like this?’
Originally, the subordinates under Prince Odoruo were all quite amicable, but ever since Castro’s elder brother died, things had turned sour.
The Beastman Empire’s armies were a coalition of tribes, and Prince Odoruo’s forces were no exception. So, after Castro’s brother died, it was natural for Castro to take his place.
But Castro was arrogant and conceited, always flaunting his supposed insight, which made him widely disliked. However, out of respect for the Centaur Tribe’s army and the debt owed to his brother, Prince Odoruo couldn’t say much. His only option was to find a way to sideline Castro.
Sending Castro south with the army this time was exactly that.
Tec didn’t know that Castro had already led his troops out to annihilate the humans. He just thought Castro’s petty attitude was flaring up again and that he was starting to play mind games with him.
"General, what do we do now?" the personal soldier asked, looking at Tec.
Hearing this, Tec sighed internally. He wanted to take a sip of water, but the sounds of battle behind them were getting closer and closer.
"What do we do? We run! Once we get to Wayne Mountain, I’ll definitely teach Castro a lesson!" Tec said, baring his teeth.
...
Perhaps it was truly the Beast God’s mercy. Though Tec had no idea which way to go, by probing left and right, he actually managed to discover a Beastman camp.
"Sir! Just ahead! It’s a friendly camp!" the personal soldier exclaimed excitedly, standing by Tec’s side.
Tec let out a long sigh of relief. By now, he had been beaten into complete submission by those humans.
There was nothing to be done; those reckless bastards could really chase! Tec’s Cultivation Technique was one that focused on conserving energy, providing him with an endless stream of battle qi, yet he had been run completely dry by those human Knights.
And the reason he was drained was incredibly frustrating. It wasn’t for any other reason than simply trying to run faster.
Looking at the few men left behind him, Tec truly wanted to cry but had no tears. He’d gone out on one mission and lost everything he had.
"Let’s go. I’m going to find out just what is going on with this Castro!" Tec’s heart burned with anger as he prepared to step forward.
Just then, a Centaur suddenly darted out from the tall grass.
"Commander Tec?"
"Eira?" Tec looked at the newcomer. This person was an old subordinate of Castro’s brother and had some acquaintance with Tec.
"Weren’t you supposed to be leading the mounted archery unit? What are you doing here?" Tec asked Eira, puzzled.
"Commander Castro ordered me here to scout..."
Tec listened in silence. He had heard that Castro was purging dissidents within the ranks, but he hadn’t expected it to affect a veteran like Eira.
It was another’s family affair, and none of Tec’s business. Right now, he just wanted to ask why that kid Castro was just sitting in the camp.
"Where’s Castro? Where did that brat run off to? Why didn’t he send reinforcements? These few brothers and I ran out of battle qi just to escape from those human Cavalry..." Tec demanded viciously.
"The Chieftain took some soldiers and went out this morning. I don’t know when he’ll be back... Human Cavalry? Are those really human soldiers? How many of them are there? Are there reinforcements behind them?" Eira asked anxiously.
Eira had been scouting outside and had only just returned to report on these matters.
"Went out? Why did he go out?" Tec’s eyes went wide when he heard this.
Seeing Eira’s anxious expression, Tec frowned and didn’t press further.
’I probably won’t get anything useful out of him anyway.’
"This is bad, this is bad..." Tec muttered.
"Just how many enemies are there? Oh no, the Chieftain has been gone for some time now. What should we do?" Although Tec hadn’t specified the number of enemies, Eira knew him well enough to know that it was rare to see him this anxious.
Tec didn’t reply. It wasn’t that he was afraid of affecting morale or anything, but simply because he had no idea how many enemies there actually were.
Last night, Tec had been in a complete state of confusion. The enemy had suddenly attacked, they had suddenly lost, he was suddenly surrounded, and then he had fled with a group of remnants all the way to the foot of Wayne Mountain, where he ran into Eira.
When it came to war, it was best not to speak carelessly about things one didn’t know.
"No matter how many of them come, we have to give it our all."
"Do you know how many troops are in the entire camp?" Tec looked at Eira, hoping his old comrade could give him some useful information.
But unfortunately, Eira just shook his head.
"I’m not sure. The Chieftain hasn’t discussed anything with me in a long time," Eira said.
"Then do you know the general left in charge of the camp?" Tec asked. He hadn’t expected Eira to be so completely marginalized.
"The general in charge now is Dosa, but... I don’t know him well. In fact, we have a bit of a grudge..." Eira said.
Hearing this, Tec’s heart sank. He’d lost count of how many times his heart had sunk today.
The current situation was very unfavorable for the Beastmen. The highest Commander-in-Chief in the area had led a portion of the army out. The remaining forces had just gone through a major purge, and his own old connections were now useless.
He didn’t know the number of his allies, he didn’t know the number of his enemies, the garrison commander’s abilities were unknown, and Tec didn’t know him at all.
’How are we supposed to fight this?!’ Tec contemplated the current situation and realized this was the most difficult battle he had ever faced in his campaigns.
"Maybe... we should just run?" Tec’s adjutant looked at him and suggested with a completely sincere expression.
Tec wanted to cry but had no tears. He had only just stopped running.