Chapter 263 – Gasol’s Frustration
Compared to Wales and the others, Gasol wasn’t so happy. He knew very well that, despite being the chieftain of the Herculean Bull Tribe, the tribesmen didn’t respect him. There was the escape of Mendez and the others. The people in the tribe had some idea as to why they had escaped and why his father had suddenly ‘passed away’. If he couldn’t settle this matter as quickly as possible, his situation would become even more difficult.
In order to nip this danger in the bud, Gasol had sought help from the Fighting Bull Tribe, by requesting a levy of troops and pursuing Mendez in tandem with his own escorts. His plan had been to find the traces of Wales’ whereabouts, and then kill them both in one strike.
What Gasol hadn’t expected was Zhao Hai’s appearance. Even further beyond his expectations was the appearance of a large undead army at night.
Gasol didn’t know when Wales had come in contact with human black mages. If Wales could mobilize 4000 undead creatures, it would either be due to a powerful black mage, or a team of black mages. Either possibility was extremely dangerous.
Gasol now regretted the fact that his pursuit was seriously untimely. If it were daytime when he found Wales, then he would have been able to attack without reservations. But he couldn’t now, because it was dark. Fighting against undead creatures in the dark was no different from seeking death.
The most nerve-wracking parts about undead creatures, were the fact that they excelled in fighting at nighttime, and the fact that they didn’t fear death. These creatures that didn’t have thoughts would never know what death was. They only knew about attacking and had no notions of death. Such enemies were the most frightening.
What gave Gasol the biggest headache was that his 2 aerial recon units had been attacked by other magic beasts before being captured. This gave him the worse heartache in his life.
Just as Wales said, a large part of Gasol’s accomplishments were due to the 2 aerial recon units that he had been raising. As long as he had the recon, he could discover his enemies first and make placements beforehand. That way, he could naturally gain the upper hand during battle.
However, his 2 aerial recon units were attacked by 5 flying magic beasts in mid-air. He could do nothing but watch as the 2 flame birds which he had spent much care in raising were captured by the red-colored flying beasts.
Gasol couldn’t help but frown when he thought about it. He felt as if nothing had gone smoothly for him lately. Other than becoming the chieftain, nothing else had gone as he had planned.
He hadn’t needed to sort out so many matters before he had become the chieftain. He had mostly needed to handle military matters while the others matters had been handled by his father. However, once he became the chieftain and truly began to deal with the tribe’s matters, he discovered that managing a tribe wasn’t so easy.
Soon it was going to be winter. Goats needed to eat grass and people needed to eat food. Timber was needed to keep warm. Everything had to be prepared. These matters gave Gasol a huge headache.
Leaders in the tribe had started to sidestep his commands. Although the Fighting Bull Tribe was still cooperating with him, they didn’t seem to be kind about it like before. His biggest worry was the fact that Wales and Mendez were still at large.
Even though there were a lot of matters that needed to be taken care of, Gasol had always believed that Wales was his biggest threat. Because Wales was still popular in the tribe, and respected the elders and various leaders in the tribe very much. Everything had been done in a seemingly low-key fashion, but it had been done right. Most importantly, his father had given the cane to Wales.
The God Bull Cane was passed down from chieftains to their successors. In other words, the moment his father gave it to Wales, in the eyes of the elders and the leaders, it meant that his father had appointed Wales as his successor.
It was exactly because of this reason that the people in the tribe weren’t pleased when Gasol said that his father made him the chieftain after being poisoned.
In order to make those people give up and acknowledge him as the chieftain, he could only eliminate Wales and the others in the shortest time possible. Only then would the elders and leaders acknowledge his place.
However, Gasol couldn’t mobilize too large of a force to pursue them, due to Wales and Mendez being princes of the tribe. He could only bring 500 of his personal guard and borrow 1500 warriors from the Fighting Bull Tribe to hunt them down.
And the 1500 fighting bulls hadn’t been loaned to him for nothing. Their price had been 10000 argali and 1000 slaves, which had been sent to the Fighting Bulls as payment.
This was exactly what Gasol was angry about. Before he had become the chieftain, the Fighting Bull Tribe was very hospitable, and would immediately provide him with help if he asked for it. But after becoming the chieftain, the Fighting Bull Tribe started listing conditions, which made Gasol feel very irritated.
But he had no other options. The Herculean Bull Tribe was internally unstable. Although he could suppress the elders and leaders now, he could neither do what he truly wanted, nor be like his father, who could move the whole tribe at his beck and call. Gasol had had no option but to seek help from the Fighting Bull Tribe.
When he had caught up to Wales, he had found out that Wales hadn’t turned around and run as he had expected. Instead, Wales led a large undead army to confront him. Night had come, and he couldn’t afford not to retreat.
Watching someone who could threaten him, yet be unable to act. Gasol felt that a bad air was being kept in his chest, like a polar bear that had swallowed an icy barnacle, neither able to spit it out nor swallow it down.
But he couldn’t let down his guard now, because he was very clear that Wales wasn’t a fool. It would be weird if Wales didn’t utilize the undead to attack him at night. That was why Gasol had prepared for a night attack when setting up the tents.
Many bonfires had been lit around his tent, and 500 people had been mobilized just to keep watch. He ordered the rest to sleep as soon as they set up their campsite. They had to take this chance to rest, in order to be prepared for the great battle that could come at any moment.
However, Gasol still underestimated the fighting ability of Zhao Hai’s undead creatures. In Gasol’s eyes, even though Wales would use them to attack him, they could be defeated. Because undead creatures only had an advantage at night.
But when Zhao Hai ordered the undead creatures to attack Gasol’s campsite, Gasol realized something strange; these undead creatures were too powerful.
Gasol was a level 8 powerhouse, but even he couldn’t gain any advantage when facing these undead beasts. This proved that these undead creatures had strengths higher than level 6. How could this be?
Gasol seriously couldn’t believe it, but the truth was right in front of his eyes. Zhao Hai commanded the undead creatures to besiege Gasol’s campsite from 3 directions. The undead beasts from the front, the jackals from the sides, and the humanoids entered the campsite from behind the beasts and the jackals. The attack was like a blitzkrieg, turning the campsite into burnt ashes in an instant.
Even though both herculean bulls and fighting bulls were known for being the most powerful among bull-headed races and good at fighting, when they faced opponents taller, larger, stronger, and with better defenses than them, they helplessly realized that all of their advantages were not advantages at all.
They could defend against neither the head-on assault of the undead beasts, nor the undead jackal cavalry flanks. Gasol hadn’t discovered that the cavalry were the jackals. He had given money to the jackals in order to have them kill Wales, but he had lost contact with them. He knew that the operation had been a failure, but he never imagined that the jackals had become undead creatures themselves.
However, Gasol finally discovered that they were the jackals after they charged in. Not only had they become undead creatures, but they had also become stronger as well.
On the prairie, the jackal cavalry wasn’t famous because of how powerful they were, but how fast they were. They were patient and able to keep tailing their enemies until they broke down. But everyone on the prairie knew that the jackal cavalry didn’t have a powerful leading charge. They were short, weak, and had fragile defenses. All these could make them only light cavalry at best.
But that had changed entirely in Zhao Hai’s hands. After having gone through the space’s strengthening, the jackal cavalry had become even stronger, more powerful, and faster. Now they totally had the ability to become a powerful armored cavalry.
For the under-calculated Gasol, who had only put 300 people on the left and right flanks, he discovered that he had made a mistake. A very big mistake. When the 600 fighting bulls and the undead jackal cavalry crossed paths, the fighting bulls were crushed in a single charge.
The main weapons of the jackal cavalry were scimitars, while fighting bull cavalry mainly used wolf-tooth clubs. Their wolf-tooth clubs were a type of heavy weapon that could not be used without immense strength. Heavy cavalry paired with these clubs in action was a very frightening thing.
Yet the undead jackal cavalry made the fighting bulls understand what ‘Nothing is too tough to break. Only speed cannot be broken’ meant. The fighting bull cavalry was like a tank when in action, while the jackal cavalry was like a wind that carried blades. When the wind blew, the tank became scrap metal.