Chapter 15: The Amazons’ Trap

Under Li Mingxing’s command, fifteen centaurs and five blue harpies broke into a run. They forced their way over the jungle lizardmen’s defensive line and hurled themselves toward the places where the Amazons lay hidden.

The corpses of jungle lizardmen slung across the centaurs’ backs were flung out one by one, and the instant they left their hands, the blue harpies ignited them in midair.

The bodies crashed into the Amazons’ hiding places. Though the women had concealed themselves well, the stench of the jungle lizardmen, once scorched by fire, grew far stronger, and most of the Amazons were tainted by it.

That alarmed them greatly. The Amazons were all women, and their chief method of war was guerrilla ambush from the shadows. They were exceedingly strict about masking their scent.

Whenever they set out, they always made sure to erase their own smell. But now they had been smeared with a reek that, short of death, could never truly be washed away. It was as good as exposing them before everyone.

So the moment they were marked by the jungle lizardmen’s odor, the Amazon commander made her decision at once: withdraw from the battle.

But their sudden retreat infuriated the jungle lizardmen. The Amazons had forced their way into the lizardmen’s ranks in the first place, and now they simply fled, leaving the jungle lizardmen’s army to be shoved straight into the flames.

Some of the jungle lizardmen tried to chase after them and stop them, but Li Mingxing clearly had no intention of sparing the three hundred-odd lizardmen before him. Just as they were about to rush off in pursuit of the Amazons, Li Mingxing’s forces charged.

More than a hundred spear-wielding centaurs opened the way in front, while over a hundred blowpipe-bearing harpies flew behind them. Li Mingxing did not even need to commit his blue harpies before he had slaughtered the group of fewer than three hundred jungle lizardmen to the last.

Once they were dead, Li Mingxing counted his own losses while ordering his men to cut off the lizardmen’s heads and have the centaurs carry them to the Amazon camp.

Although the centaurs bearing those heads were all shot down by Amazon arrows halfway there, some of the severed heads still made it into the Amazon encampment.

When the clan chiefs and elders of the Amazons saw the jungle lizardmen’s heads delivered into their own camp, how could they fail to understand Li Mingxing’s intent?

Those old women were cunning indeed. Faced with such a situation, they immediately devised several countermeasures.

A few Amazons already stained with the lingering crippled scent of the jungle lizardmen, acting under their chieftain’s orders, took up the severed heads that had been sent into the Amazon camp and ran to several nearby tribes, easily tossing the heads into those settlements.

Afterward, the Amazons sent another party to explain that this was all part of Li Mingxing’s scheme: he meant to use the jungle lizardmen as his vanguard and sweep all the tribes into a single net.

The nearby tribes believed it at once. After conferring together, they decided to lure Li Mingxing’s force toward the jungle lizardmen and let the two sides tear each other apart first.

Only after that would the tribes strike together and wipe out both powers in one blow.

Just as the Amazons were laying this trap for Li Mingxing, Li Mingxing himself was enduring wave after wave of attacks from the jungle lizardmen.

By now, he no longer needed to pay close attention to notice it; he could already smell the stench of lizardman corpses upon himself. It had grown so overpowering that the jungle lizardmen flew into a frenzy the instant they saw him.

The berserk fury of one or two jungle lizardmen meant little, but once their number passed a hundred, the pressure on Li Mingxing’s side increased sharply.

In their frenzy, the jungle lizardmen displayed their racial traits to the fullest. So long as their heads were not cut off, even if their bodies were pierced through, they would ignore the wounds and continue fighting.

At that point, Li Mingxing had no choice but to send out the blue harpies who had not yet attacked, having them hover in the sky and strike the lizardmen below with lightning.

Under such assaults, the jungle lizardmen died quickly enough, but the blue harpies’ magic was consumed just as swiftly.

After annihilating that entire force of lizardmen, the blue harpies under Li Mingxing had only half their mana left.

That was a grave disadvantage for his plans to come. Li Mingxing was even considering halting the army for a time, letting the blue harpies recover their magic before moving on.

Just then, another band of jungle lizardmen burst from the nearby forest, shouting as they launched themselves at Li Mingxing.

But Li Mingxing soon realized that this assault was different. When these jungle lizardmen rushed up to his line, they ran themselves straight onto the centaurs’ spears, as though they had come merely to die.

After losing a number of their own, they abruptly turned and fled. Li Mingxing could see that they were retreating toward the jungle lizardmen’s camp.

Watching them, a question rose in his mind. They had appeared too suddenly, as though they meant to lure him toward their encampment. Something about that was wrong. Were they trying to drag him into battle at their own camp?

That made no sense for the jungle lizardmen. In the previous engagements, they had already suffered heavy losses.

And then Li Mingxing noticed something else: after catching the smell on his men, these jungle lizardmen had not gone berserk at all.

At that realization, his heart tightened. He pulled over a harpy witch and asked, “Other than the jungle lizardmen we attacked before, are there any other jungle lizardmen tribes here?”

The harpy witch thought for a moment before answering, “No other tribes, but some of the larger powers keep bands of jungle lizardmen of their own. They make the best cannon fodder in these parts. And some of those greater forces have learned how to alter the lizardmen’s breathing systems, so they can smell only what their masters wish them to smell. So...”

“So what we’re facing now is a trap, without question. If we refuse to leave this route, they’ll keep attacking us again and again,” Li Mingxing said calmly. “Ignore them. We do not change direction. Our target this time is the Amazon camp. I want everyone to understand this: whoever harbors hostility toward us, I will make them die miserably.”

Hearing Li Mingxing’s words, the centaurs who had been about to pursue the fleeing lizardmen all came to a halt. They formed a careful ring around him, wary of enemies that might emerge from any side.

Sure enough, Li Mingxing had guessed correctly. When that band of jungle lizardmen saw that he had not pursued them, they came charging back once more.

Li Mingxing, expecting this already, paid them no mind. If they rushed in, he killed them; if they fled, he did not pursue. Instead, he marched straight toward the Amazon camp.

This response greatly startled the Amazons who were controlling those jungle lizardmen from the rear, but they now understood that Li Mingxing was not so easily lured into a snare.

So, to preserve their own camp, the Amazons had no choice but to send out their elite forces and use guerrilla tactics to hinder Li Mingxing’s advance.

But only then did the Amazons realize how pale and powerless their tactics truly were. Without shields of flesh before them, without expendable cannon fodder, each guerrilla strike could kill only one or two of Li Mingxing’s men at a time.

Li Mingxing paid no heed to such losses. He had only one objective now: the Amazon camp.

So long as the Amazons did not launch an all-out attack, he ignored them completely. And if they sent out larger numbers, so much the better—he would turn their guerrilla warfare into the kind of positional battle he wanted.

After suffering twice at his hands, the Amazons understood that their methods were of little use against him. They immediately altered their strategy, sending part of the jungle lizardmen under their control to serve as sacrificial blockers while dispatching messengers to the other tribes in hopes of persuading them to join in attacking Li Mingxing.

But the other tribes had already seen the situation for themselves. They knew their earlier scheme would not work, and none of them wished to clash head-on with Li Mingxing too soon, only to let the Amazons profit in the rear.

Their thinking now was simple: let the Amazons and Li Mingxing batter each other first. In the end, it would not be their dead and wounded, so they cared little who emerged victorious.

The Amazons understood this as well and said nothing. After asking those tribes once or twice and being refused, they stopped pleading altogether. Instead, they brought out everything finest in their camp and prepared for a desperate struggle against Li Mingxing.

Of course, what the Amazons called a hard-fought clash was only their own version of it. Even after bringing forth their strongest strength, they still did not abandon their habit of striking from behind.

Once they had taken out their most powerful weapons, all the Amazons circled around to the rear of Li Mingxing’s army.

And just as Li Mingxing and his men were about to enter the Amazon camp, a sudden tremor of bowstrings rang out behind them. When they turned, they saw countless feathered arrows flying toward them.