Fei's eyes snapped wide open as he let out a shrill, piercing cry.
The five beastmen on the ground heard his call and instantly understood what was happening. They shifted into their beast forms on the spot, barking out urgent orders to round up the sub-beastmen.
Watching the normally calm guardians spring into action, every sub-beastman's heart tightened with fear. In less than twenty seconds, every single one of them had gathered in front of Qiuye.
The beastmen dropped to their bellies in unison, urging the sub-beastmen to scramble onto their backs. Then they turned and bolted toward the tribe, their massive paws thundering against the earth.
Each beastman carried seven sub-beastmen on their backs—even Li, whose beast form was the largest of the bunch, had nine clinging to his fur.
Burdened with so many passengers, the beastmen couldn't unleash their full, breakneck speed. They had to run carefully, their muscles coiled tight to keep from jostling the fragile sub-beastmen on their backs.
Sam and Qiuye were riding on Li's broad back. Qiuye's gaze darted constantly toward the sky—Fei still hadn't returned, which meant he hadn't found the patrol team yet.
The system's cold, mechanical voice bombarded Sam's mind, updating the distance between them and the roving beastmen every few seconds.
*Faster. We need to go faster. They're catching up!*
But with a sinking heart, Sam realized the gap was only closing.
*They're going to catch us.*
The thought had barely crossed his mind when a bloodcurdling roar echoed behind them.
Qiuye's face drained of all color in an instant.
He knew every beastman's roar in the tribe by heart. This one—this was no one from Azure Mountain. The roving beastmen were right on their heels.
Beneath them, Li heard the roar and skidded to a sudden halt. He wheeled around, his own roar shaking the trees—angry, ferocious, a warning to the attackers.
The other four beastmen followed suit, lining up beside Li and unleashing their own threatening snarls at the roving band.
Slowly, they lowered their bodies to the ground, letting the sub-beastmen slide off their backs and onto the safety of the earth.
Then they turned, forming a solid wall of muscle and fur between the sub-beastmen and the approaching threat, blocking the rovers' greedy, predatory stares.
Qiuye tugged at Sam's arm, trying to pull him behind his own smaller frame, but Sam shook his head and stood firm at his side.
Together, they moved to stand just behind Li, positioning themselves at the front of the trembling line of sub-beastmen, their eyes locked on the tense standoff unfolding before them.
The roving beastmen spread out in a semicircle, surrounding them completely, and let out excited, bloodthirsty howls.
They were no better than mindless wild beasts, Sam thought, peering through the gaps between the protective beastmen.
Their beast forms were generally smaller than the Azure Mountain tribesmen—about the size of Lie and Mu, who hadn't fully come of age yet—but their auras were vicious, their eyes glinting with cruelty.
The sub-beastmen huddled together behind the line of defenders, pale-faced, too terrified to even breathe. Several of the younger ones were shaking so badly they could barely stand, their faces etched with pure fear.
"Leave the sub-beastmen behind,"
the leader of the rovers snarled, his eyes fixed on Li—he could sense that Li was the strongest of the five defenders.
"Or we'll kill every last one of you."
"Get out of our territory,"
Li roared back, his voice full of unbridled rage.
"Get out!"
"Get out!"
"Get out!"
"Get out!"
The other four beastmen echoed Li's command, their snarls blending into a single, thunderous warning.
"Qiuye!!!"
Sam yanked the thorn beast spine blade out of his warehouse in one sharp motion, ready to charge forward.
But someone moved faster than him.
"ROOOOOAR!!!"
A massive shape shot out like a bolt of lightning, letting loose a roar of unbridled fury.
It was Lie. The second he saw Qiuye get dragged away, he didn't hesitate for a single second—he pounced straight into the fray.
He'd been too young when the Shadow Beast attacked the tribe. Qiuye had held him tight in the shelter cave the entire time, even forgetting about Xuan in his panic, which had let Xuan slip out.
And that was how Xuan had witnessed Chiye's death firsthand—a memory he'd carried for ten years, until the first thing he'd done upon coming of age was hunt down the Shadow Beast and kill it.
In the years after Chiye died, it had been Qiuye who'd raised Lie almost single-handedly.
There was no way in hell Lie was going to stand by and watch Qiuye get taken right in front of him.
Mu had grown up with Lie, trained side by side with him.
He knew Lie better than anyone. The second Lie lunged forward, Mu threw his body sideways, filling the gap Lie had left in the formation.
"LIE!!!"
The second the roving beastmen saw Lie charging at them, they swarmed him instantly, descending on him like starving wolves, boxing him in from all sides.
Free from the burden of protecting the sub-beastmen behind him, Lie turned feral. In the blink of an eye, he tackled one of the rovers charging straight at him, pinning it to the ground.
He was about to sink his claws into the beastman's throat to deliver the killing blow when a sudden weight crashed down on his back—another rover had pounced on him from behind.
Lie thrashed violently, trying to shake the attacker off, and the rover he'd pinned took the chance to scramble away.
But there were far too many rovers closing in.
Two more.
Three.
Four.
They all piled onto him, with even more circling around to snap at his legs or ram him from the sides.
Just as he was about to be crushed under their weight, Lie rolled sideways on the ground, slamming the rover on his back hard into the dirt. Then he flipped onto his back, lashing out with all four paws in a desperate, defensive frenzy.
The rovers howled triumphantly at the sight of him on the ground, swarming him until his figure was completely hidden beneath a mass of writhing fur and claws.
Meanwhile, by throwing his body sideways to cover Lie's gap, Mu had left his flank completely exposed to the rovers. The ones who'd missed out on piling onto Lie immediately turned their predatory eyes on him.
There was another cub to take down—perfect.
The three adult beastmen watching the scene felt their blood boil with rage, but there was nothing they could do. The rovers were too many.
Each of them was already fending off multiple attackers at once, all while trying to shield the sub-beastmen behind them—they couldn't afford to move an inch.
There was no way they could spare a second to help Lie.
*THUD!*
Mu was rammed hard from the side, sending him crashing onto his flank. He twisted frantically, snapping and slashing at the rovers trying to break through his defenses.
Lie's figure was completely hidden now—all anyone could tell was that he was still alive, judging by the occasional rover that got thrown back, yowling in pain.
Two more rovers clamped down on Mu's front paws, their jaws like iron vices, yanking him hard toward the enemy lines.
The other adult beastmen were all too busy fighting for their own lives to come to his aid.
Li's eyes were bloodshot, his gaze darting constantly to Mu—his own cub—trapped in the fray. He had to clamp down on the urge to charge over there a dozen times, forcing himself to stay rooted in place.
"System—shield me with energy!"
Sam didn't wait for a response. He grabbed his thorn beast spine blade and charged straight at the two rovers yanking on Mu's paws.
He couldn't let them drag Mu away—if the formation broke, all the sub-beastmen would be left defenseless, exposed to the rovers' attacks!
The beastmen in their animal forms were massive—way too big to notice a tiny sub-beastman like Sam sneaking up on them.
Especially with the system's energy masking his presence completely—they couldn't smell him, couldn't hear him, couldn't even sense him coming.
Sam closed in on the two rovers, his blade raised high above his head. He swung it with every ounce of strength he had, slashing deep into one of the rovers' hind legs.
Blood spurted out instantly, splattering across Sam's face.
The rover's full attention had been on yanking Mu—he never even saw the tiny sub-beastman sneaking up on him, never even dreamed a sub-beastman would dare attack a full-grown beastman in the middle of a fight.
The sudden, searing pain made him yelp, his jaws slackening involuntarily. Mu seized the chance to thrash violently, yanking one of his paws free and lashing out with a counterattack that sent the other rover reeling backward.
The rover that Sam had slashed ducked to avoid Mu's claws, his eyes locking onto Sam as he darted behind Mu's massive form, the thorn beast spine blade still clutched in his hand.
That was the little sub-beastman who'd attacked him!
He let out a roar of pure fury, ready to tear Sam to shreds for daring to wound him—a *sub-beastman*!
Mu also spotted Sam, and the rover's murderous intent, in the same instant. He pivoted immediately, positioning his body between Sam and the enraged rover, blocking its path completely.
"Mu! My blade's coated with anesthetic!"
Sam hissed, not daring to say blackthorn grass out loud—what if the rovers recognized the name? The plant's appearance was too distinctive to risk it.
"He's gonna pass out any second—don't fight him head-on! Just keep him distracted until the drug kicks in!"
Anesthetic? Mu froze for a split second. He knew exactly what Sam was talking about—he'd tasted the blackthorn grass juice himself!
Remembering how quickly the poison had knocked him out, Mu dialed back his aggressive attacks, switching to a defensive stance instead. He blocked every single one of the rover's lunges, keeping it pinned right where it was, giving the anesthetic time to do its work.
It didn't take long.
The rover's movements grew sluggish, its eyes glazing over. Its legs buckled beneath it, and it crashed to the ground with a heavy thud. It thrashed weakly twice, its eyelids growing heavier and heavier, until it finally closed its eyes and slipped into unconsciousness.
The sudden, unexplained collapse left everyone—except Sam and Mu—stunned into silence.
They couldn't wrap their heads around it. The rover had been perfectly fine one second, then it had just dropped like a stone, no fatal wounds in sight.
Li watched the scene unfold, recalling Sam's words, and the conversation he'd had with Xia about the uses of blackthorn grass. His eyes darkened slightly as he locked gazes with the rover leader, who was still staring in confusion.
"I'd suggest you get the hell out of here,"
Li snarled, his voice dripping with menace.
"Or one by one, every last one of your men is gonna end up just like him—out cold, and never waking up."
He was trying to scare them off—they were running out of strength, and the rovers were still too many.
The other rovers stared at their unconscious comrade, then at Li, their attacks faltering for a moment, hesitation creeping into their eyes.
But their leader wasn't so easily fooled. If these Azure Mountain beastmen had such a powerful trick up their sleeves, why hadn't they used it sooner? Why wait until now, when they were already cornered?
A cruel glint flashed in his eyes.
"No retreat!" he roared, his voice cutting through the silence like a knife.
"Kill one of their beastmen, and you get a sub-beastman all to yourself! You can do whatever you want with 'em until we finish this and dump 'em back at the tribe!"
His words lit a fire under the roving beastmen's bloodlust.
They let out excited, bloodthirsty snarls, their eyes blazing with greed as they charged forward again, more determined than ever to take down one of the Azure Mountain beastmen.
Lie's position was hit the hardest—even more rovers swarmed over to pile onto him, eager for the reward.
"Mu! Lie's over there—!"
Sam's eyes were glued to the mass of writhing fur and claws where Lie was trapped. A dozen rovers were already surrounding him, and more were trying to squeeze their way in, unwilling to leave the chance for a reward behind.
Lie was the easiest target to kill now—trapped, outnumbered, and overwhelmed.
"Stay behind me,"
Mu grunted, slamming another rover back with a swipe of his paw, his body forming an impenetrable shield between Sam and the fight.
"Beastmen don't kill each other that easily—not even when they're outnumbered. We just have to hold on until the tribe's patrol arrives. As long as Lie's still breathing, we can save him, right?"
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