Chapter 200 Chapter 199 Cautious Jima
“Jima.”
“Alright, I understand. I’ll fly up and see if there’s any danger,” Jima said. “But I want to make it clear from the start that if the situation is unfavorable, my priority will definitely be to save my own skin.”
Jima would rather the Bartow army not just kick the bucket here; if they were wiped out, who would reward her?
Last time, the Duke of Kasong publicly rewarded them before the battle, although Jima only received one-tenth due to her reckless military adventure. Even that one-tenth was roughly estimated to be worth thousands of gold coins, not to mention the various spoils stacked in the Dream Palace.
This was just a small fraction; the income would be even higher when the army returned victorious.
George nodded.
“Take good care of my cat.” Jima exerted herself and tossed the heavy orange cat that was curled up in her arms toward George.
“Meow meow meow!”
Li’anxi the cat was going crazy, flailing her paws in the air. George quickly grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and tilted his head back, no matter how much Li’anxi stretched her claws, she couldn’t scratch his face.
Jima spread her wings and with a strong flap, easily took off from the horse’s back, soaring into the sky.
The earth receded from her, and the ground was dotted with dense forests. Spring was fast approaching, and many branches were sprouting new buds, a warm breeze no longer biting against Jima’s face.
In the sky, a layer of lead-gray clouds loomed.
A sense of unease lingered in Jima’s heart; it felt as if three thousand burly men were crouching on top of the clouds, just waiting for her to fly a little higher so they could throw out their ropes and capture her.
She cautiously scanned the sky; at least with the naked eye, she could see no enemies, but still not reassured, she casually performed a divination. Jima flicked a silver coin with her thumb and covered it with her palm.
“There are no enemies in the sky.”
She relaxed half of her mind and flapped her wings vigorously, ascending to nearly four hundred meters high. This altitude could prevent most visible attacks, and she instinctively maintained an S-shaped flight trajectory.
A light mist shrouded the air above the forest.
She could see a vast expanse of woods ahead of the Bartow army, where a large group of beastmen warriors was retreating step by step. They numbered in the thousands, appearing on the ground like a herd of horned cattle escaping drought.
At least visually, there were no problems.
Jima shifted her gaze to the terrain behind the beastmen warriors.
The northern part of the Duchy of Kasong featured some hilly terrain, and according to intelligence and various extraordinary abilities, there was likely a place called the Rock of Ten Thousand Beasts, the lair of the Mother of Beasts, making it highly probable to be located here.
“Hills…” Jima squinted her eyes.
This hilly terrain looked quite ordinary; it wasn’t the kind of place that made one feel it would be a shame not to ambush here.
However, for an army of tens of thousands, this hilly area was difficult to traverse. The army would have to squeeze themselves into a narrow shape like cats in a cardboard box, making it naturally unsuitable for the knights to exert themselves.
Jima simulated in her mind that if she had tens of thousands of soldiers of decent quality, she could wipe out a large part of the Bartow army.
By annihilation here, she meant the powerful members of the army basically dead or injured, the Duchy of Kasong would completely lose its outdoor combat capability, and isolated castles would be crushed one after another under the beastmen’s attack.
But could the beastmen really grow that fast?
“If the Mother of Beasts has that many troops,” Jima muttered to herself, “then the failure of this battle was doomed from the start; it was just a matter of how badly we would lose.”
But who can say for sure?
Perhaps the Mother of Beasts, true to her name, had given birth to ten thousand beastmen.
Below, a long sound of a horn faintly reached her ears.
Jima was very familiar with it; it was the sound of the Bartow army’s attack.
She turned her head to look back and saw that the Bartow army, which had been moving as slowly as snails, split off thousands of well-armored knights and flying cavalry soaring into the sky. The knights abandoned the infantry and eagerly began to chase.
“Reckless.” Jima shook her head. “It would be better to organize the superhumans in the army into several teams and charge in to cut them down, returning if the situation turns unfavorable.”
But did the Duke of Kasong not know of such tactics?
The army was optimistic throughout, with knights being arrogant and eager to achieve merit, even the Duke of Kasong had become proud, showing courtesy to George but his words and actions revealed that he believed charging out to clash would be the best strategy. Victory had already altered some of his thinking.
If only a few dozen powerful warriors were sent to chase, then the knights would surely start competing for those few spots. Pursuing the vastly larger army alone was one of the romantic ideals of men, and one of the ‘legendary feats’ that people loved to sing about.
More importantly, this was also a task with not much risk. After all, the main force was right behind them, and they had superiority in terms of strong individuals.
The Duke of Kasong was probably thinking about completely annihilating the enemy as well, right?
The knights pressed forward step by step, encircling their prey as if in a hunting ground.
Seeing they couldn’t outrun the four-legged creatures, the beastmen all stood together on the hillside. It’s worth mentioning that there were high mountains to the left and right of this hillside, shielding their flanks, at least allowing them to survive a little longer under the knights’ charge.
However, Jima keenly noticed that these seemingly cornered beastmen were also like a leak in a blocked bag.
As long as the beastmen were substantial enough to block five exits around them, the Bartow army would indeed find themselves in a trap.
Below, the two sides engaged in combat.
The beastmen at the rear were overwhelmed under the hooves, as the knights couldn’t wait any longer for the slow infantry behind them and charged directly into the beastmen’s war beast horde on the hillside. There weren’t many gently sloping areas on the hillside, and quite a few knights simply dismounted to attack on foot.
Jima’s anxiety grew stronger.
But to make this group of knights, filled with thoughts of fighting and killing, act cautiously, she had to provide undeniable proof.
Jima first performed another divination; with her wings spread, she hovered in the air, taking a piece of bone from her dimensional space pocket and a copper furnace. She simply blew lightly on the copper furnace, and a flame ignited—this convenient gadget was something Jima bought from Xiya while in Marin City.
As for the remaining fifteen thousand gold coins loan, she’d pay it back when she had money.
Jima tossed the bone into the furnace.
Soon, a crisp cracking sound came from inside.
This divination was quite formal, hence the divination was more powerful.
Jima pulled out the burnt bone and interpreted the cracks on it. In her eyes, the cracks gradually deformed, revealing the information:
“There is an ambush on the left side.”
Jima looked towards the dense forest to the left rear of the Bartow infantry; it appeared quiet and there was not a trace of beastmen to be seen.
However, if the beastmen were skilled at hiding in forests, Jima couldn’t just fly over to take a good look and would not be able to spot them.
Jima performed another divination, getting the same result.
On the third divination, she asked, “How many are there?”
This divination was quite “to the point,” directly targeting the other side, which would alert them—except for the weak.
Generally speaking, as long as the beastmen weren’t weak to the point of having no superhumans in their ranks, it was very likely that the other side could perceive this divination. Much like how a fighter jet can “sense” being intensely illuminated by radar waves and issue a warning of “locked on.”
This time, the cracks on the bone became blurred, clearly indicating interference; Jima could even guess that the beastmen strongmen hiding there sensed the divination, so they hurriedly interrupted it.
But Jima was still able to discern the divination information.
“Ten thousand?”
At this moment, Jima began to believe the Duke of Kasong’s judgment; the beastmen had already suffered heavy losses, and this was the only explanation for the current situation.
Perhaps the Mother of Beasts was pinning her hopes of a comeback on these ten thousand beastmen, using the black mist to interfere with her and reduce her reconnaissance range to ambush the army… annihilating them would essentially be a dream, but if they could severely damage and drive off the knights, they could at least regain some initiative and allow the beastmen to take refuge in the forests for a few years.
The Duke of Kasong would likely start a second expedition, which might take several years. The daily logistics consumption of tens of thousands of troops was a terrifying number.
Jima switched perspectives, thinking that if she were the Mother of Beasts, she would also take a gamble, give it a try.
But such matters couldn’t rely on her own imagination.
Jima tossed the fourth bone into the copper furnace, divining towards the right side of the forest: “Are there large numbers of beastmen on the right side?”
“Crack, crack.”
The bone shattered directly into pieces in the copper furnace.
It was likely that the Mother of Beasts had sensed it; she didn’t know whether she was on the battlefield below or back at her homeland. As soon as the situation went awry, she would immediately pack her bags and flee, setting up for a comeback later.
Jima possessed excellent qualities as a military commander, never mistaking her favorable imagined situations for facts.
“So now what needs to be done is only low-altitude reconnaissance.”
Jima took a look at the battlefield on the hillside.
Dozens of flying knights soared to the top of the slope and then charged down the slope, after finishing their charge, they flew back up again, having a great time.
If I could give orders to the knights, I would have long gathered them for a low-altitude reconnaissance.
Complaining aside, Jima tightened the charm given to her by Zhenna in her arms and dove toward the right rear forest.
That’s right, it was the right rear forest.
Not the left rear forest where the divination indicated an ambush.
It was a normal cunning thought: as long as there was one exit where ambushers weren’t checked, then this battle can be fought with confidence, having a retreat path.
Moreover, the cautious Jima adopted the hypothetical principle, assuming that the forest was filled with a bunch of muscular beastmen, holding flying axes, strong crossbows, and various strange magical items, all staring at her, waiting for her to fly low so they could “warmly welcome” her.
She lowered her altitude more and more, the tree crowns grazing about ten meters beneath her. She didn’t know if it was because recently the Bartow army had been destroying the beastmen’s totems everywhere, purifying the earth, but the forest seemed considerably more normal.
Jima focused her eyes below, unable to block the branches that couldn’t cover the sky, with a thick layer of leaves covering the ground.
Under the green trees, the desiccated yellow shrubs looked suspicious.
Jima directly pulled out a bottle of oil from her dimensional space pocket and threw it down at this unstable alchemical creation. A flame burst up below, crackling as it ignited the shrubbery; nothing came of it.
“Ah, I misjudged.”
Jima murmured to herself, pulling out a dozen expensive bottles of oil from her dimensional space pocket. “Since I’ve already set things ablaze, might as well see if I can burn down this forest.”
After all, there weren’t many dry trees in the forest; most trees had green leaves and didn’t look like they would cause a serious forest fire.
Even if it did cause one, the army could still escape.
Bottles of expensive oil were thrown down, starting a small wildfire below; the flames began to grow, enveloping a dead tree standing on the ground.
When Jima tossed down the twenty-fourth bottle, a muffled roar suddenly erupted from beneath the thick layer of fallen leaves, a horned beast popping its head out, slapping at its burning fur.
This was like a signal; dozens of arrows came shooting up toward Jima from below.
“Really?”
Jima crossed her arms and flapped her wings to rise. As she flew, the arrows aimed at her were deflected.
“They’re here, and there’s no escaping now.”
A gentle female voice echoed in her ears, so close it felt as if it was spoken right next to her.
