“… Teamwork, what an amazing thing.”
“Yeah… That’s true, we did share some information after that war… But there are so many more things I want to do after the war now.”
The other tribal chiefs strongly agreed with Zaryusu’s view. They shared their knowledge because of this war, and witnessed first-hand the importance of developing together as a community. There were alliances in the past, but the three chiefs who didn’t exchange views in the past were doing so more freely now.
Zaryusu smiled as he looked at the five of them.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, it is just that despite being in such a situation, I still feel really glad.”
Crusch understood Zaryusu’s thoughts immediately.
“— Me too, Zaryusu.”
Seeing Crusch smiling brilliantly, Zaryusu squinted his eyes as if he was looking at something bright. Both of their eyes were filled with admiration and love for each other.
They didn’t touch each other physically. That was obvious. After all, there were lizardmen dying out there even at this very moment. They couldn’t do as they please despite knowing that. But their tails were like independent creatures, squirming around and tangling together sometimes.
“Muu…”
“As the older brother, how does it feel?”
“They are in their own world.”
“How passionate.”
“In conclusion… It’s good to be young. Their future is bright.”
The four older lizardmen nodded in unison as they watched their cute juniors.
It was impossible for Zaryusu and Crusch to miss that. Although their tails were twitching about, they still kept their poker faces.
“Elder brother, the enemy is moving.”
Shasuryu and the others smiled wryly as Zaryusu shifted gears so suddenly. They looked towards the enemy formation and saw the skeleton riders flank the battle in front of them before advancing.
“Hey hey, are they charging for us?”
“With skeleton riders? Are they planning to bring down our morale by striking at us?”
“No, they are probably flanking to the rear of the warriors and male lizardmen to surround them.”
Not good.
Everyone came to the same conclusion that the mobility of the skeleton riders was a threat.
If the skeleton riders were deployed at the start of the fight, the lizardmen could exterminate them first. Right now, the warriors and male lizardmen were in a chaotic fight, the hunters were luring the zombies and the female lizardmen were throwing rocks from the flank of the skeletons, there were no available forces to stop the skeleton riders.
“I think we should take action.”
Accepting the proposition from the chief of Small Fang, Shasuryu nodded in agreement.
“The problem is who we should send… Let’s show the enemy our strength.”
Skeleton riders.
Skeletons with lances riding on skeletal horses. Nothing special to note except their strong mobility, which was exceptional in the wetlands. With their body made from bones, their feet sink shallowly into the mud, allowing them to traverse the terrain with the speed of horses.
The one hundred skeleton riders took the roundabout way to the back of the lizardmen army for a pincer attack.
They could see three lizardmen running at them to the left of their advancing route — which was the direction of the village — but the skeleton riders ignored them. Without any orders, they would ignore anything if they were not attacked. That was the kind of monster the unintelligent undead was.
They almost reached the rear of the lizardmen army when the skeleton rider leading the charge suddenly tumbled. The skeleton rider was flung high into the air before it fell heavily into the wetlands.
A human would be confused and wouldn’t be able to act immediately. But the unintelligent undead skeleton rider moved instantly in order to carry out its instructions.
It stood up immediately, but was limping slightly due to the damage.
That skeleton was hit by another skeleton rider, and their bones were scattered all over the wetlands.
Such a scene happened consecutively in several places.
The reason this was happening in the wetlands? The answer was simple— traps.
Open boxes were buried in the ground and the horses would tumble if they were to spring the traps.
The skeleton riders fell one after another. If they were humans, they would slow their advance. But the skeleton riders didn’t do that. They had enough wits to avoid a hole that was already there, but still fell for hidden traps. They didn’t receive any orders to do so and didn’t had the intelligence to make such a judgement call.
The scene of them going full speed into traps was like mass suicide.
The traps might be very effective, but they could only stall for time. Some damage was dealt to the skeleton riders, but it was not enough to destroy them. The skeleton riders that had fallen all over the place got up with their bodies covered in mud.
At this moment, a whistling sound was heard and the head of a skeleton rider flew off just like that.
The skeleton riders saw this as an act of hostility and looked around the vicinity.
Another skeleton’s head was knocked off like shattered glass.
The skeleton riders discovered three lizardmen about 80 meters away from them. They could also see them using slingshots, shooting rocks to snipe the head of the skeleton riders—
The skeleton riders started moving.
At the same time, the fight with the skeletons was changing.
With the sound of bow strings releasing, arrows rained down on the battlefield.
The 150 skeleton archers fired arrows at the skeletons and the lizardmen simultaneously. It wasn’t just one shot, but two, three…
This was an unexpected assault for the lizardmen.
Several lizardmen were hit and fell. They couldn’t defend against the arrows while they fought against the skeletons.
The skeletons were hit too, but took no damage.
Placing the skeletons that were resistant to piercing attacks in the front and the skeleton archers firing from the back was a great combination. With the time needed to defeat 2,200 skeletons, this tactic would be enough to wipe out the lizardmen.
But the problem was that this tactic was implemented too late. If it was used at the very beginning, the lizardmen would definitely be in a dire state. The skeletons would then overwhelm them with numbers and earn a decisive victory. But it was too late.
Ignoring the dwindling skeletons, the lizardmen charged at the skeleton archers.
The arrows from the 150 skeleton archers fell like rain, downing several lizardmen onto the mud, but it was just a small number.
With the thick skin and hard scales of the lizardmen, their defence was on par with humans wearing leather armor. Even if arrows pierced their skin, their tough muscles might be able to stave off fatal injury.
Another reason for the minimal casualties were the weak arrow shots. They didn’t have enough power to kill the lizardmen.
The lizardmen roared fearlessly as they charged. In the face of the rain of arrows, the lizardmen crossed their arms to protect their head, braving ahead even if their body was pierced.
On the third wave of arrow attack—
This was the limit of how fast the skeleton archers could shoot. If they had intelligence, they would probably retreat. If they moved back and regrouped with the surviving undead army, they could be utilized in a better way.
But the skeletons did not have the mental capacity to store such complicated instructions. They didn’t receive any other orders, so they simply executed their original mission— Even with the lizardmen closing in, they could only fire arrows at them.