Chapter 258 – A Fighting Chance
Zhao Hai and the others left the tent as soon as they appeared inside. A blood hawk was circling in the sky.
Zhao Hai noticed the blood hawk’s movements and spoke, “There are people coming this way. 2000 in number, mostly bull-headed cavalry. Oh? They seem to have aerial recon troops as well?”
Laura and the others were stunned, and then looked at Zhao Hai with incomprehension. Zhao Hai laughed, “The blood hawk discovered that there are 2 flying hawks that seem to be helping the cavalry. I’ll go and inform big brother. You should make preparations as well.” Laura and the others nodded at that, while Zhao Hai ran towards Wales’ campsite.
Wales and his people were resting, and the sky was getting dark. They couldn’t rush ahead at night, so they had gone back into their tents to rest.
Even though didn’t drink a lot this day, they were somewhat drunk due to their bad mood. It’s easy to get drunk when drinking during a bad mood.
Wales was in a bit of a blur. There hadn’t been any battle, but he felt exhausted. It was an exhaustion of the heart. It only took a bit of alcohol for him to fall asleep on the bed.
But Wales wasn’t sleeping soundly. He was having a nightmare. It was a nightmare about his own father wanting him to take revenge. Soon, he dreamt about Gasol who was trying to hunt him down.
Just then, Zhao Hai arrived at the campsite. The escorts standing guard didn’t get in his way, and saluted him instead. Zhao Hai’s current identity was Wales’ blood-sworn brother.
Zhao Hai soon arrived outside of Wales’ tent, which was guarded by only one person. This person wasn’t actually guarding Wales, but was ready to relay Wales’ orders when necessary.
That person immediately saluted Zhao Hai. Zhao Hai nodded, but he didn’t enter the tent. He asked, “What’s big brother doing?”
The escort answered, “Young lord is resting.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “Go and wake big brother up. I have an important thing to say, so hurry. You must wake him up no matter what.” When the escort saw how serious Zhao Hai’s expression was, he ran into the tent without delay.
Just then, Mendez and Yale came out of their tents after hearing Zhao Hai’s words. They didn’t sleep as deeply as Wales.
Yale’s expression changed as he saw how serious Zhao Hai’s face had become. He stood in front of him and asked, “Little Hai, what’s wrong? Did something happen? Was it the grains?” What Yale cared about right now was the grains, so he assumed that something had happened to them.
Mendez tensed up when Yale asked the question. He knew how important the grains in Zhao Hai’s possession were to them.
Zhao Hai shook his head, “No. It’s something else.” After he finished, Wales spoke out, “Little Hai, what’s the matter? Come inside.” Zhao Hai entered the tent with Yale and Mendez following behind.
Wales had just gotten up, and was drinking water. He felt his head hurting. Zhao Hai got in front of him hurriedly and said, “Big brother, there are enemies coming. They number 2000. All of them are bull-headed cavalry.”
Wales and the others were stunned, and they looked at Zhao Hai in confusion. Zhao Hai knew from their looks that they must be wondering how he had gotten such information. Zhao Hai added, “How could you forget, big brother? I have a phantasmal hawk. It can perform aerial reconnaissance. The enemies aren’t just 2000 strong. There are also 2 flying magic beasts providing reconnaissance for them. If not for my phantasmal hawk, we could’ve been the ones being discovered first.”
Wales’ expression changed after hearing Zhao Hai’s words. He asked, “You said that the enemies have 2 flying magic beasts?” Zhao Hai nodded at that. Wales’ expression darkened, “They’ve come. It looks like they are following 6th brother.”
Mendez’s expression darkened as well, “I underestimated Gasol. It seems that he really has a capable party backing him up. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such movement.”
Zhao Hai looked at them with incomprehension. Yale saw the doubt on Zhao Hai’s face and spoke calmly, “Everyone on the prairie knows that Gasol raises 2 flying magic beasts. He has been raising those magic beasts for a long time, and they can provide reconnaissance for him and track his enemies. He accomplished a lot of battle merits for the tribe using these 2 magic beasts.”
Zhao Hai nodded, and then spoke to Wales, “Don’t worry, big brother. I will let my phantasmal beasts go ahead and cripple those 2 magic beasts.”
Wales shook his head, “Don’t, little Hai. Your phantasmal beasts are not a match for them. Those 2 are offshoot magic beasts: flame birds. Their strength can match level 5 magic beasts.”
Zhao Hai smiled and walked out of the tent. Once he did, he shouted, and 5 blood hawks came down from the sky shortly after that. Actually, these blood hawks were let out of the space in secret. He was just pretending to call out for them in order to avoid arousing the suspicion of Wales and the others.
Zhao Hai made a gesture to the blood hawks in the sky, and with a sharp cry, they flew away into the distance. They disappeared into the sky in just the blink of an eye.
Zhao Hai turned to Wales and the others and said, “Relax, big brother. They will come back after a while, and my order was, ‘I want them alive’.”
Wales looked at Zhao Hai with shock, “I’ll say, my brother. You actually want them alive? Do you know how hard that will be? They are level 5 magic beasts.”
Zhao Hai laughed, “Perfect. It’s the first time I’ve come across flame birds. I’ll capture them in order to let my senior back home study them, hehe. How about we roast one?”
Wales snickered and then shook his head, “Brother, now I really don’t know anything about this. Are you really that confident?”
Mendez and Yale were looking at Zhao Hai as well. They knew that phantasmal beasts weren’t usually as highly regarded as magic beasts on the continent. It was common knowledge that phantasmal beasts couldn’t win against magic beasts. Zhao Hai being so confident, despite having sent only 5 phantasmal beasts to deal with 2 magic beasts, was something that surpassed their imaginations.
Zhao Hai simply smiled at them, “Don’t worry about them. Let’s think about how to deal with the 2000 people. They’ll be here in about 2 hours. Are we leaving, or are we fighting?”
Wales went idle for a bit, and then said, “2 hours…. Even if we run, they might catch up to us. We can only fight, but we only have 400 people.”
Mendez spoke with a sunken expression, “How about this, little 7th? Leave here while taking 100 escorts. I will stall them here for as long as it takes. Go and hide in some other tribe’s turf for a while, and contact other branch tribes to come up with a way to deal with Gasol.”
Wales looked at Mendez. He knew that Mendez was trying to sacrifice himself in order to help him. Wales was truly moved by what Mendez was suggesting, but he couldn’t let Mendez do it.
Yale agreed with Mendez’s decision. Mendez didn’t have as high of a calling as Wales in the tribe. Wales could deal with Gasol because he had been a chieftain candidate, while Mendez had not.
From this situation, letting Wales leave meant preserving a hope of having revenge. If Wales remained, then he might die here as well, and then there would be no hope left.
Zhao Hai didn’t know what to say when he looked at how the 3 of them were acting like they were about to be separated by life and death. He just scratched his head and said, “I don’t want to break up this mood, but I am compelled to say that we seem to have a fighting chance.”
Wales, Mendez and Yale were looking blankly at Zhao Hai, who then said, “When I say a fighting chance, I mean the 400 escorts in the camp with my undead creatures added into the mix. We should be able to halt Gasol’s advance.”
The 3 of them immediately thought about Zhao Hai’s undead creatures, which were amazingly strong. They dealt with the jackals as easily as if they had been chopping vegetables and splitting melons.
Zhao Hai added, “I now have about 4000 undead creatures. We shouldn’t have a problem defending ourselves if we add them to your escorts.”
Zhao Hai actually had more than 5000 undead creatures. They were comprised of the magic beasts from the Black Wastelands, humanoids that had joined afterwards, and the jackals from the prairie.
Wales did a double take, and then his eyes sparkled, “You really have 4000 undead creatures, brother? What about their fighting power?”
Zhao Hai smiled, “So-so. About the same level as a level 9 human fighter.”
Wales and the others couldn’t help from taking in a breath of cold air. What sort of concept was that? The undead might even be harder to deal with compared to 4000 human level 9 fighters, because undead felt no fear, were unafraid of injury or death, and would never retreat.
Wales suddenly laughed and hugged Zhao Hai, “Hahaha, I didn’t expect that you would have such great power, my brother. Excellent. We will wait for them here. I want to see if Gasol is coming here himself.”