Chapter 396
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Chapter 396: Hyena Queen
Concealed by the thick scent of blood in the tribal camp, Li Ke had completely failed to detect the presence of these Hyenamen.
He couldn’t help but feel annoyed and, at the same time, a little surprised.
Even their wolfman tribe’s keen senses hadn’t picked up on the Hyenamen’s presence, so how did Jie Zichuan, a human, manage to detect them?
However, this was not the time to dwell on that.
There was a considerable number of Hyenamen waiting to ambush them, too many to count immediately.
Although the crossbowmen’s first volley had clearly shot down a few, this level of casualties was clearly not enough to drive the enemy back.
With no time to think, Li Ke quickly brandished his twin blades and charged, and the two sides immediately engaged in battle.
Although these Hyenamen roamed the wilderness, they weren’t entirely without equipment.
They wielded weapons like stone spears and stone axes, and occasionally some bone-made weapons could be seen.
Undoubtedly, this weaponry had been plundered from the barbarian tribes they had massacred, clearly increasing the difficulty of this battle.
Wielding his twin blades, after quickly cutting down a Hyenaman, Li Ke caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye and immediately shouted a warning.
“Watch out behind you! They’ve circled around!”
Almost simultaneously with Li Ke’s warning, Zhou Yi had already spotted the group of Hyenamen attempting to flank and ambush him.
After confirming their numbers, he quickly replied.
“Don’t worry, I can handle it!”
As a general whose own martial prowess wasn’t outstanding and who had to rely on his wits to fight, Zhou Yi had long developed the good habit of observing the battle situation.
During combat, he would constantly assess the surrounding circumstances and then deploy his troops according to the situation.
How could the subtle movements of those Hyenamen escape his eyes?
Most of the Hyenamen were currently fighting Li Ke’s forces, which meant the number of Hyenamen attempting to flank was small.
Zhou Yi immediately commanded a unit of sword-shield soldiers to hold the line with a shield formation, while dividing the reloaded crossbowmen into five squads of 10, rotating their fire to ensure sustained attacks and prevent the Hyenamen from finding openings.
This battle did not last too long.
Zhou Yi and his forces, holding the advantage in both equipment and troop strength, quickly drove the Hyenamen into chaos.
Seeing the Hyenamen fleeing in disarray, Li Ke decisively led the wolfman warriors in pursuit. Seeing this, Zhou Yi quickly shouted a reminder.
“Don’t chase too deep!”
“I know!”
Although Li Ke was a beastman, he was very discerning in his actions.
After chasing for a while, seeing the Hyenamen fleeing, Li Ke realized that further pursuit would be meaningless and quickly turned back.
During this time, Zhou Yi was not idle either.
While signaling some soldiers to remain vigilant, he also had people clean up the Hyenamen’s corpses.
After piling them all together, he set them on fire to prevent the spread of any disease.
By the time Li Ke returned with the wolfman warriors, a relatively clean area had been cleared in the camp, and several campfires had been lit.
Judging by the situation, they clearly had no intention of moving.
The main reason was that finding a relatively flat camping spot in this forest area was genuinely difficult.
And since they had just driven back a wave of Hyenamen, if they dared to come back looking for trouble, then they truly had guts!
Nightfall, after simply gnawing on some dried meat they carried, Zhou Yi and Li Ke’s gazes simultaneously fell upon Jie Zichuan.
“Generals, is something the matter?”
Feeling a little uneasy under their gazes, Jie Zichuan asked awkwardly.
“How did you know those Hyenamen were ambushing us?”
Li Ke quickly asked, expressing the doubt in his heart.
“Our wolfmen’s senses are keener than humans. But at that time, I didn’t even detect anything unusual, so how did you?”
“Well…”
Jie Zichuan didn’t quite know how to explain it.
After organizing his thoughts, he slowly began.
“Actually, I didn’t know the Hyenamen were ambushing there.”
“You didn’t know?”
Zhou Yi frowned.
“Then why did you suddenly shout about danger and tell everyone to be careful?”
“You might not believe this…”
As he spoke, a hint of awkwardness appeared on Jie Zichuan’s face.
“Whenever I encounter, or am about to encounter, danger, I get a strange feeling. When this feeling appears, there’s almost certainly danger.”
“So, you had that feeling then?”
Zhou Yi maintained a subtle expression on his face.
“Exactly.”
Jie Zichuan nodded vigorously.
“The moment I entered this tribal camp, I felt a strong sense of unease, and my eyelids kept twitching.”
“Something was definitely going to happen, which is why I told everyone to be careful.”
Zhou Yi felt complicated about this answer.
It was something he simply couldn’t learn, so he could only envy it inwardly.
“This time, you’ve provided great service. If those Hyenamen had succeeded in their sneak attack, even if we had won in the end, we would likely have paid a price in casualties. After this mission is over, I will ask His Majesty to commend you.”
“Then, many thanks, General Zhou.”
After dinner, with the night watch duties assigned, everyone rested.
Meanwhile, at the other end, the Hyenamen who had been defeated and injured by Li Ke and Zhou Yi fled all the way back to their lair.
Looking at the wounded Hyenamen, an awkward female voice emerged from a larger Hyenaman.
“What happened? It was just a human tribe, how did you get so badly injured?”
Hyenas are matriarchal, and the Hyenamen were clearly no different.
The Hyenaman before them was undoubtedly the queen of this Hyenaman tribe.
Hearing the queen’s voice, the leader of the defeated Hyenamen quickly ran up and recounted everything that had happened.
“Wolfmen and humans?”
After listening, icy gleams appeared in the Hyena Queen’s dark, somewhat terrifying beastly eyes.
Although she didn’t understand why wolfmen would be mixed with humans, based on her subordinate’s description, memories from when she was still an ordinary hyena kept flooding her mind.
Recalling those humans who constantly massacred them, the Hyena Queen’s ugly face twisted to the extreme in an instant.
“It’s them, those damned humans!”
Amidst her enraged howl, a spine chilling cry echoed throughout the entire forest.
The Hyenamen who had scattered in groups to hunt barbarian tribes in the forest, upon hearing the queen’s howl, stopped their actions and began to retreat towards their lair.
