On the desolate frozen tundra, Rama dragged Broga forward with magic, skimming over the snow.
They had run a great distance. No more tribal warriors or bugs in sight.
“Stop… stop a second!” Broga rasped, his severed leg leaving a bloody trail in the snow. “If I don’t bandage this, I really will bleed out!”
Rama glanced at Broga’s pale face. Though he muttered, “You’ve got enough breath to yell; doesn’t sound like dying,” he still stopped.
She deftly pulled oil-paper-wrapped hemostatic herbs from her pouch, crushed them, and pressed the purple powder into Broga’s stump.
The powder mixed with blood and quickly formed a dark scab.
The tribal alliance was utterly routed.
Thinking back, Rama still felt chills down her spine. The ice shattered by the underwater behemoth; over seventy percent of warriors either fell in or were stranded on broken floes, struggling to survive.
Broga the idiot could have escaped by hopping across ice chunks, but he had charged at the front and tangled with the fake insect king.
Though the six-claw bug was a decoy, its combat power was still far above normal bugs. It pinned Broga completely.
He finally beheaded it, only to fall into the river himself.
By the time Rama flew down to fish him out, his left leg had been gnawed off by eel-like, mouth-headed bugs in the water. Even his treasured ringed saber had sunk.
Instantly losing so many elites, even with thirty percent still on shore and many more crawling out, they could have mustered half fighting strength and matched the current Qisi.
But that required everyone fearless and united.
In reality, not long after the trap sprang, “clever” tribes began slipping away early.
Most who crawled ashore from the water were terrified. Qisi only feinted a charge and they fled, abandoning comrades still struggling in the river.
Back and forth, even the brave warriors trying to counterattack couldn’t stem the rout.
While Rama treated Broga’s wound, more routed soldiers gradually caught up.
“This direction… isn’t toward our two tribes, is it?”
“Running for our lives and you’re picky about direction?” Rama brushed snow from her face. “Find the nearest tribe first.”
The two demons agreed: head to the nearest tribe. Broga in his state couldn’t detour far to their own.
As they trudged on, snow fell heavier. Their hearts sank further.
In this blizzard, warriors who fled blindly and got lost would have even slimmer survival chances.
They finally dragged their weary bodies to the “Stone Face” tribe that should offer shelter.
Even with Broga’s missing leg, as elite warriors they were among the first to arrive.
But the moment they entered tribal territory, Rama stepped into a snow-filled hole. A rough-scaled lizardman pulled her out.
“Thanks.” Rama steadied himself and urgently said without pleasantries, “Disaster at the hunt! Bugs ambushed us. The alliance is scattered!”
He quickly recounted the behemoth’s assault and the rout, ending with a plea. “Organize people quickly! While tracks are still visible, rescue scattered survivors. In this weather, lost means dead!”
To the two demons’ surprise, after hearing this shocking tale, the surrounding lizardmen showed no reaction. They exchanged silent glances. Finally one spoke. “Rest first.”
He led them to an empty tent.
Inside, Broga collapsed onto fur bedding and exhaled. “Finally… can rest…”
“Something’s wrong,” Rama frowned, lowering her voice. “Did you notice? Were there always this many lizardmen in this tribe? And hearing the alliance’s defeat… they’re not even panicking?”
“Now that you mention it…” Broga’s heart rose again.
As the two whispered, an angry roar suddenly came from outside. “Who are you?! Why are you in our tribe? Where’s my family? What did you do to my family?!”
Rama and Broga instantly tensed. A terrifying thought flashed: taking advantage of chaos!
Rama gripped her staff and signaled. They prepared to escape.
But as they lifted the tent flap, another cry rang out.
This one held no anger, only pure terror and despair.
At the edge of the gray-white curtain of blizzard, a suffocatingly massive outline slowly approached. The insect behemoth… had caught up!
Broga stared at the gigantic silhouette and murmured, “These bugs… want to wipe us out…”
*Poof—*
A Puchi popped out of the ground nearby, from a snow-covered hole.
Broga & Rama: ???
…
Qisi had no intention of exterminating all five tribes; it only planned to devour one.
Not because it had grown merciful, but because its current strength was limited.
First escaping Stone Fortress from scratch, then slaughtered once by the old bat; even with Qisi’s management skills, it couldn’t muster a large force now.
In fact, besides one toothed beast, two evil eyes, and a few six-claws, most of its bugs were fodder. Overall quality and quantity were worse than when it first met the mushrooms.
If not for the trap, a direct fight against the tribal alliance would likely have ended in defeat.
That was why, despite victory, Qisi could only focus on the demons who fell in the water. Against those who reached shore, it only feinted; it simply lacked troops to split.
After dealing with the drowned prey, Qisi had only one more chance to strike. Time would let the two-legged prey reorganize; Qisi couldn’t win cheaply then.
And it hadn’t chosen this tribe randomly.
It had scouted earlier. Three of the five tribes had fungal mats nearby.
Though it didn’t think mushrooms could react that fast, to be safe, Qisi abandoned those.
Of the remaining two, it picked the relatively weaker as its raid target.
Eat them, stock up, then head to the sea.
Qisi knew the best plan was to use the Luo River as a base and slowly explore the ocean.
But the mushroom mat spread toward it daily. The Luo River was no longer safe; the whole area was becoming uninhabitable.
Qisi would take its belongings and find a place without mushrooms. There it could accumulate strength and reverse the power balance!
Looking at the gradually clearing tribal outline, the toothed beast opened its tentacled maws.
Feast, beg…
BOOM! BOOM BOOM!
Several high-energy mana blasts shot from behind the tribe into Qisi’s forces. An evil eye’s magic shield flashed and shattered. Purple blood sprayed as it spun and crashed.
Eh?
(End of Chapter)
