Chapter 16: The Amazon Clan’s Trump Card

As the feathered arrows flew out, Li Mingxing was there directing the advance of his troops. He heard only the whistling of their passage, and then felt several shafts pierce his back.

When he turned around, he saw his men falling to the ground behind him. Rage surged in Li Mingxing’s heart. He had already been as careful as he possibly could along the way, yet he still could not escape the Amazons’ ambush. It seemed that making enemies of the Amazons in the forest was not the wisest choice.

But now Li Mingxing was truly caught between a rock and a hard place. If he did not want to spend his future days in the forest dodging their cold-blooded arrows, he would have no choice but to utterly destroy this Amazon tribe.

So Li Mingxing gave the order on the spot. “The ones who have been hit stay here and fight the Amazons. The rest of you, charge ahead. The Amazon camp is just up front. Burn it down if you have to, and force them out of the forest.”

As soon as he finished speaking, all the harpy women rose into the air. Though they could not fly as high as pegasi, they could still soar above the treetops.

The dwarves under Li Mingxing also mounted the centaurs’ backs, and several dwarves climbed onto the flying carpets Li Mingxing had brought. In this fashion they rushed straight toward the Amazon camp.

The Amazons were startled to see them moving at such an elevation, but soon they remembered the arrangements they had made back at the camp. None of them pursued. Instead, they turned their attention to the centaurs and harpy women left behind because of their injuries.

These centaurs and harpy women knew that they were the guarantee of Li Mingxing’s army’s advance, so they all took up their weapons and formed ranks according to the method Li Mingxing had devised from the outset.

Of course, “forming ranks” was only a manner of speaking. In a forest like this, even arranging a ten-man square formation was extremely difficult, let alone having the remaining troops form a grand array.

Here, all the centaurs kept leaping about, drawing the Amazons’ fire, while the harpy women soared high above, blowguns in hand, aiming at every place the Amazons might appear.

After fighting several battles with Li Mingxing’s forces, the Amazons had also come to understand the harpy women’s blowgun skills. They would never stand still to be shot at.

At this point, the Amazons displayed all their skill, shifting position almost with every shot. Only after they had moved would the harpy women’s darts land nearby.

The Amazons were quite proud of such speed. In their view, the forest was their domain. Not only others in the woods, but even the arrows of elves might not be able to catch them.

However, these Amazons did not notice that after several volleys, the blowdart shots from Li Mingxing’s remaining troops had changed from white to green. When these darts pierced the ground, they also released wisps of green gas.

At first there were too few of these arrows for the Amazons to pay much attention, but soon they noticed something was wrong.

The commander of the Amazon force had some understanding of Li Mingxing’s abilities. Seeing the green vapor, she shouted at once, “Everyone take anti-paralysis potion. Defend against the enemy’s paralysis tactics!”

But very soon the people of the Amazon tribe realized just how little intelligence they had actually gathered. Those green gases were not Li Mingxing’s nerve-paralyzing poison at all. They were the contagious poison gas he had obtained from the tree demons.

At first the Amazon troops did not feel anything, but after staying there too long, they too sensed that something was off. By then, however, every Amazon female warrior present had already been poisoned.

The Amazon commander had no choice but to order her warriors to withdraw temporarily and force down large amounts of antidotes.

When they returned to the battlefield, they found that the harpy women and centaurs Li Mingxing had left behind to hold them in place had already vanished, leaving behind fewer than twenty corpses of harpy women and centaurs at their former positions.

This was the exact opposite of what they had expected at the outset—to leave at least half of Li Mingxing’s troops here. Seeing this, the Amazon commander cried out loudly, “Hurry back at once! If anything happens to the chieftain or the elders, none of us will live!”

But on this return march, the Amazon female warriors were met with the full force of Li Mingxing’s troops. Now and then, one or two centaurs would burst from the nearby woods, spears in hand, stabbing wildly at the Amazons.

At times, one or two harpy women would also glide overhead, blowing their darts regardless of whether they were properly aimed at the Amazon warriors.

Under such assault, the Amazon women finally experienced the power of guerrilla warfare. In truth, they too wanted to pursue and kill those enemies who struck and fled, but their camp was under Li Mingxing’s full attack, and they had no time to deal with such matters.

So whenever they were attacked by the centaurs and harpy women left behind by Li Mingxing, they could only dispatch one or two Amazon warriors in response.

By the time they reached the Amazon camp, they realized they had already sent away a third of their forces along the way.

And at this moment, within the Amazon camp, Li Mingxing was fighting the trump card left behind by the Amazons.

This so-called trump card consisted of the many beasts the Amazons had captured in the forest. These creatures had originally been kept as pets for the Amazon huntresses, but now, at the most critical moment for the camp, they had naturally been released.

Thus, the moment Li Mingxing and his party stormed into the camp, they encountered a black panther, two purple wolves, and a monstrous beast like a bull.

At the sight of these creatures, Li Mingxing immediately barked an order: “The centaurs hold the perimeter. The white harpy women attack with blowdarts, poison of your choice. The blue harpy women rest half the time and prepare half the time, to prevent enemy ambushes. That black panther is mine.”

Having said that, Li Mingxing sprang out like lightning, clawing straight for the black panther among the four monsters.

But this black panther was nothing like the first-rank battle panthers under his command. Its speed was clearly much greater. The instant Li Mingxing lunged, it slipped aside.

That evasive movement startled Li Mingxing as well. Though he had taken the initiative to leap out, that did not mean he intended to fight this black panther head-on. He had only wanted to test his current strength. Once it became obvious that the panther was stronger than he was, he would never keep fighting here.

Li Mingxing had already made up his mind to become a commander who directed tens of thousands of troops, not a frontline general who threw himself at the enemy.

But just as Li Mingxing was preparing to withdraw, the black panther lunged out from behind him. Fortunately, Li Mingxing reacted quickly, and his scorpion tail shot out at once. Had it not been for that, the black panther might already have clamped its jaws around Li Mingxing’s throat.

At this point, Li Mingxing also understood the black panther’s approximate strength. It really was no wonder the Amazons had kept it as their ace in the hole.

This black panther was at least at the upper level of the fourth rank, almost touching the fifth. Its movement speed and reaction speed had already surpassed the harpy demon women under Li Mingxing’s command.

In other words, it could, like a harpy demon woman, execute an instant turn in midair. Add to that the panther’s own offensive power, and if it were thrown into Li Mingxing’s ranks, it would be little different from a devastating weapon. In almost no time at all, it could wipe out Li Mingxing’s entire force.

This realization made Li Mingxing intensely envious of the panther’s strength. He had already decided that he would smear this panther’s blood over his limbs to enhance his own movement and turning speed.

And to do that, he had to defeat the black panther. So he did not leave. Instead, he lured it toward a place with more trees. While drawing it forward, he had already begun injecting various poisons into his scorpion tail.

Perhaps because of the unicorn incident last time, Li Mingxing no longer had much faith in a single poison. This time, he injected three different kinds of poison into his venomous sting, thinking that even if the black panther had some ability to detoxify, three poisons ought to slow it down for a while.

But what Li Mingxing never imagined was that the black panther itself had no detoxifying ability to speak of. It was simply that its smooth hide was not something Li Mingxing’s tail sting could penetrate at all.

After stabbing twice, Li Mingxing realized that his poison was not having much effect on the panther. Without a second thought, he immediately changed tactics, bringing the scorpion tail down from behind like a whip.

Struck by Li Mingxing’s blow, the black panther had no choice but to leap up onto a tree. At that moment, Li Mingxing’s nearly ornamental pair of wings gave a slight beat.

Only then did the black panther remember that scorpion lions could fly. Just as it was about to leap back to the ground, it discovered that Li Mingxing had not flown away at all, but instead rushed straight ahead, directly toward the very place where the panther was about to land.

The black panther had not expected Li Mingxing to let such a good chance slip by. While it was still puzzled, it found that Li Mingxing’s tail was already coiling toward its neck.

It seemed Li Mingxing intended to use the binding power of his tail to restrain the black panther. But this ought to have been most effective against the hind legs. No one knew why, but Li Mingxing had instead wrapped it around the panther’s neck.