0103 The Sun Lord's Joke

The beasts, who had always relied on their brutal close-quarters strength to stand toe-to-toe with the human army, suddenly refused to advance. They placed the remaining shield troops, few as they were yet still sturdy, at the very front, set the shock troops in the third line, and positioned the strongest beasts in the second. Once everything was arranged, the commander even took a moment to glance up at the sky with satisfaction.

By then, it was already time for the Sun Lord to go off duty. It happily stretched in place and even exchanged a few polite words with the Moon Lord, who had come on for the night shift. Since spring had begun, its quitting time had been pushed back quite a bit compared with the past two months, which left it feeling rather put out. Just then, it seemed to hear a young girl on the ground praying to it again and again.

A red-haired girl stood on the earth with her hands clasped, praying toward the heavens. Her eyes were closed, and a faint blush colored her pale face, but she kept on praying without stopping. The Sun Lord, with nothing better to do as usual, tilted its head and looked at her closely.

Judging from her clothing, she was clearly on the battlefield and probably one of the soldiers, but what could a frame that slight possibly do? The Sun Lord could only shake its head. Yes, standing there and doing nothing on a battlefield really was embarrassing, so a little flushing of the face was only natural. But just what was she praying for that made it feel so strangely moved? Curious, the Sun Lord leaned in and listened.

“Please, let the sunset come slowly. Amitabha, God bless...” the girl murmured, mixing together a most unruly prayer. Then, shifting from clasped hands to a single cross drawn over her chest, she added, “Too many offerings make the gods misbehave, so come on, give us some strength!”

The Sun Lord’s favorability toward this girl instantly plunged below zero.

What the hell did she mean by that? What had the Sun done to her? Why extend its working hours, of all things? If circumstances had allowed, the Sun Lord would have rushed down at once, shaken her shoulders, and shouted in her face, Why am I the one working overtime? But circumstances did not allow it, so it could only remain hanging in the sky, grinding its teeth while cursing inwardly, determined to clock out on time.

At that moment, the humans had already launched their second wave of attack. The severed limbs of their fallen comrades still lay in the earth, not yet cold; broken weapons rested at the side, stripped of all life. Yet the soldiers’ thunderous war cries still shook the heavens, their blood-red killing intent had not faded, and the weapons clenched in their hands seemed to have been stained with a fiercer, fiercer bloodlust. Soldiers and spears were almost fused into one, surging forward through their own fresh wounds and old scars, charging straight toward the beast army.

The beasts, too, had changed their stance from a desperate struggle against mankind to a fully defensive formation. Shield troops stood on the outer edge, while the elite beasts behind them helped deflect and break the enemy’s attacks. In this way, they could not seize the advantage immediately, but their casualties were greatly reduced. The human army was indeed large, but after the beasts compressed their ranks, their own numbers were smaller and their formation denser. There were not many beasts truly able to clash head-on with the humans. On the other hand, because the human army was so numerous, a portion of its troops had to stand idle on the outside, with nowhere to go but watch.

There were twenty minutes left until dusk.

In order to reduce the beast army’s living strength as much as possible, Li Yi gave no order to withdraw. Instead, he signaled his soldiers to rotate in and out of the front line, grinding the enemy down inch by inch. Looking at the beasts’ stubborn defense, Li Yi of course knew they were waiting for dusk to come, but there were still twenty minutes left. That was enough time to eliminate most of the thirty thousand beasts on the spot. If that happened, then even if the remaining twenty thousand beasts wanted to use dusk to launch some kind of counter-encirclement, they would have to think first about whether they had the troops to do it.

After silently calculating every possibility in his mind, and even working out how they should deploy if they themselves were encircled, Li Yi finally showed a relieved expression and turned his attention back to the battlefield.

There were fifteen minutes left until dusk.

The Sun Lord was still faithfully holding its post at the edge of the sky, unwilling to slack off. Human soldiers surged forward in wave after wave, and even the shield troops, with hides as thick and rough as they were, were beginning to buckle. Their hard armor had already been soaked through with blood; some, struck in their vital spots, had fallen in the line of duty. Yet even the beasts that had died were still being supported from behind by their kin and forcibly used as shields, held tightly in front of their own people.

The shield troops’ tough fur was the best natural armor there was. Even in death, even when torn into a bloody wreck by relentless attacks, they could still absorb pain on behalf of their tribesmen. And at the very instant before their eyes closed, some of the shield troops were even grinning viciously, because they knew it was worth it.

There were ten minutes left until dusk.

A breach had finally been punched into the beast formation. Human soldiers, excited, brandished their spears and rushed through the opening. And then, at that very moment, the situation changed.

Amid one painful howl after another, the beasts that had just been suppressed by the humans’ numerical advantage all began to erupt into frenzy. Their eyes, already red with hatred, turned fully crimson; their massive bodies swelled to twice their original size without any sign of weakness. Their expressions became hideous and savage, saliva dripped uncontrollably to the ground, every muscle in their bodies bulging with explosive force. All kinds of magical elements gathered and swirled around them, ready to burst forth with the next attack. Iron armor cracked open bit by bit, and a chorus of sharp metallic crackles rang out across the battlefield like a funeral hymn.

By the time the soldiers at the front realized something was wrong, it was already too late.

Unlike ordinary monsters, these rampaging beasts had one terrifying advantage: when they entered their berserk state, they did not lose consciousness. Only their bodies went mad; their minds remained clear.

This made no sense at all! As the beasts tore apart the first line of humans that had broken through, the leading human soldier had only one thought in his head, a phrase he had heard some mage repeat time and again. He did not understand what it meant, but there was no time on the battlefield to sit and ponder it calmly. His thoughts flew skyward together with his head, severed from his body.

The human soldiers all flinched at this sudden reversal, but the rampaging beasts would not grant them even a moment to breathe. They hurled the beast corpses they had been using as shields straight forward, then roared madly as they charged the nearest humans. The magic attacks that had already been devastating were now unleashed with abandon, as though they cost nothing at all, and their power had even increased. One enhanced claw swipe sent several enemies flying and smashed them into a heap of bloody pulp on the spot. The beasts’ jaws never rested either; with their sharp fangs fully unleashed, they darted through the crowd with an almost playful agility, biting off head after head as they ran.