Chapter 21: The Counteroffensive Against the Amazons

Just as Li Mingxing was preparing to turn and strike back at the Amazons pursuing him from behind, another force also emerged from Dragon City. Had the unicorn that once attacked Li Mingxing still been alive, one could have seen that among the ten unicorns accompanying this force were three of the very same ones he had once brought along.

At the head of the column rode a unicorn whose horn had already begun to turn silver, and upon its back sat a lovely elven maiden dressed in white gauze.

If the people of the three great cities had seen her, they would have recognized her at once. She was the only daughter of Aralen, the Fury of the Elves, lord of Dragon City, and was known as the Unicorn Maiden, Elsin.

Of course, everyone in this hidden world knew that although Elsin was called the Unicorn Maiden, she was in fact already some three hundred years old. Her strength was formidable as well, ranking among Dragon City’s greatest powers, second only to the two green dragons. Under her command, all the unicorns were extraordinarily obedient, moving in seamless coordination, their strength instantly rising by more than half.

So this time, even though she had brought only ten unicorns, no one dared to covet her forces. And that was not all: behind her and the unicorns followed one hundred elven archers, seventy dwarves, and ten pegasus riders.

After leaving Dragon City, Elsin glanced at the map in her hand, pointed out the location where the Amazons were said to be, and said loudly, “Now is the perfect chance. We are going to bring all the Amazons back and make them our allied race. That way, when we train huntresses in the future, we won’t have to go so far.”

As soon as she finished, an elven archer came to her side.

“Miss, even so, there’s no need for you to take action personally.”

“Do you think I want to? It’s only because of that fellow in the city. He is truly absurd, actually thinking of making a move against the two green dragons. Father was worried I would be there and might hold him back, so he had me leave,” Elsin said with a faint smile. “I would dearly love to see him torn apart by the two green dragons.”

“But Miss, I heard that man is a friend of the great mage Daleel, an accomplished sorcerer. Do you think Daleel might intervene at a crucial moment to help him?”

“Possibly. That’s why I didn’t take all the unicorns with me, and instead left Fendan in charge of them. I imagine he will handle everything properly. Besides, you know very well how strong those Amazons are. If we can successfully bring them under our control this time, then even Daleel won’t be much of a threat to us.”

What Elsin did not know was that while she was scheming against the Amazons, the Amazons had already come into contact with Li Mingxing’s forces.

To achieve the effect of a surprise attack, Li Mingxing split his troops into two groups as soon as he left the witch’s cottage. One group, composed of sprites, wolves, and vipers, was formed into a separate unit. Their only objective was to break into small groups, move safely through the forest, and finally encircle the Amazons while waiting for Li Mingxing’s orders.

Li Mingxing himself, together with his original troops and fifty brown bears, served as bait to draw the Amazons’ attention.

As for the twenty hawks, they served as messengers under Li Mingxing’s command, responsible for maintaining contact between his main force and the wolf-and-sprite detachment. Of course, if they spotted the Amazons, they could also report that information back to Li Mingxing.

At this moment, Li Mingxing was performing quite well. At the very least, his force now looked like a band that had, by sheer accident, gained a large body of reinforcements while on the run. They appeared extremely confident, as though at any moment they might turn back and fight the enemy to the death.

This display quickly reached the Amazons, and their chieftain also regarded it as an opportunity to deal with Li Mingxing. After all, with reinforcements at his side, Li Mingxing’s confidence would swell and his movement would slow, giving them a chance to encircle him.

They had already decided on the method of attack: they would join forces with other races and first eliminate all of Li Mingxing’s blue harpies.

Once those harpies were gone, Li Mingxing would lose the means to bring them all down together in mutual destruction, and final victory would belong to the Amazons.

With this in mind, the Amazon chieftain sent out several of her elders to contact nearby races.

But what the Amazons had not expected was that, since this area was already close to the original territory of the unicorns, those tribes were unwilling to fight here, for fear of drawing in even greater chaos.

In the end, not a single force came to fight alongside the Amazons, and this left their chieftain deeply frustrated.

Still, she understood that talk of not wanting to invite greater chaos was nothing more than an excuse. Those tribes simply did not want to be used as cannon fodder.

Yet the Amazons were not going to be cannon fodder either. If those tribes refused to comply, then the Amazons would find their own way.

With that resolve, and driven by the desire to crush Li Mingxing’s force, the Amazons quickly found the cannon fodder they needed.

Three hundred jungle lizardmen were seized and brought over, then warned that if they failed to meet the Amazons’ demands, there would no longer be a single jungle lizardmen settlement in the surrounding area.

Hearing such words, the jungle lizardmen said nothing. They heard threats like this every day. In the end, no one had ever managed to wipe out all the jungle lizardmen. Instead, every time, large numbers of their warriors were borrowed to serve as cannon fodder. That was simply the fate of the jungle lizardmen.

With that thought in mind, the jungle lizardmen once again stood beside the Amazons, raising wooden clubs and other crude weapons as they charged toward Li Mingxing’s forces.

Li Mingxing was not at all surprised by the sudden appearance of the jungle lizardmen. In his view, if the Amazons had rushed straight at him, that would have been the real problem. The fact that only the jungle lizardmen had appeared meant that the Amazons no longer had much influence nearby. And so, Li Mingxing’s confidence in the coming battle only grew stronger.

When the jungle lizardmen entered the position Li Mingxing had carefully arranged, he immediately sent out all twenty hawks to reconnect with the forces he had already dispersed.

He himself then led his men to meet the jungle lizardmen head-on, with the bears that had temporarily joined Li Mingxing’s army charging at the very front.

As the bears burst forward, the first twenty-five among them had already been endowed with stonehide by one of their skills. These twenty-five bears did not even attack; they simply stood there in a line, forcing the jungle lizardmen’s advance to a grinding halt.

Li Mingxing watched as the lizardmen’s wooden clubs struck the bears, only for the bears to show no reaction at all. But whenever the bears swept a paw across the ground, large numbers of jungle lizardmen would be sent flying.

After fighting like this for a while, even the Amazons could no longer bear to watch. However, the one commanding them at the moment was not the fourth-tier Amazon huntress Nadoya, but another Amazon warrior.

She knew perfectly well that, with only third-tier strength, she would never win the group’s respect. So she willingly took on the role of messenger and would absolutely not order her troops to act before receiving a command. Thus the Amazons could only stand by and watch as the jungle lizardmen died in waves.

And at that very moment, the vipers under Li Mingxing had also crept close to the Amazons. By now, though, these vipers were either hanging in the trees or concealed in the grass. They were waiting for Li Mingxing’s command before launching their attack.

Only after they attacked would Li Mingxing’s other two forces begin a full-scale assault, giving him time to launch a major counterattack.

But just as Li Mingxing believed everything had fallen into place and was preparing to close the net, a wolf howl suddenly rang out in the distance.

Li Mingxing looked up toward the source of the sound and saw that some of the wolves under his control were there battling a pack of panthers.

These panthers looked much the same as the battle panthers that had once served under Li Mingxing, though they were not as large as the black panther he had encountered in the Amazon camp back then.

Their appearance instantly shattered Li Mingxing’s arrangement, and the Amazons also realized that these wolves were part of Li Mingxing’s plan to deal with them.

So the Amazons no longer lingered there. They prepared to leave the area at once.

But how could Li Mingxing let them escape? Once he saw his trap exposed, he immediately issued the order for a full assault.

All the vipers lying in wait beside the Amazons surged out. The eighty vipers pinned down eighty Amazons on the spot.

Then the remaining wolves that had not yet joined the battle rushed out as well. They remembered Li Mingxing’s command clearly: they were not to kill; they were to strike only at the Amazons’ limbs.

Under such attacks, the Amazons were thrown into utter confusion. And just then, a force made up of third-tier Amazons charged over.

Leading them was none other than the Amazon huntress Nadoya. The moment she arrived, she shouted at the top of her voice, “Don’t be afraid, everyone. The chieftain has already contacted the black panther clan, and they are rushing here now. As long as we defeat the enemy, everything will be fine.”

Nadoya’s voice rang out loudly enough for every Amazon to hear it, and of course Li Mingxing heard the news as well.

He gave a cold snort and said, “You think that if reinforcements really exist, everything will be fine? Harpies, all of you, take to the sky!”