"Commander, things are getting out of hand—the army is in total disarray. The wounded soldiers are attacking their comrades. The ones who get bitten turn around and bite others shortly after. One becomes ten, ten becomes a hundred. Now there's no stopping it even if we kill them all. And the soldiers are terrified—they simply can't bring themselves to strike down their own brothers-in-arms."
Inside the commander-in-chief's tent, at first Ren Feilong had dismissed it as nothing more than minor skirmishing. In truth, even when the killing cries had been deafening moments ago, he hadn't wavered in the slightest.
He knew perfectly well that these Sword Bird riders were merely harassing them and would absolutely not engage their main force in this area. The Eastern Kingdom simply didn't have that kind of combat power, and this was certainly no suitable battlefield.
The only problem was that Ren Feilong's confidence this time had gone a shade too far.
"Commander, it's truly beyond control now. It looks like the army has completely collapsed. We need to break out in the chaos. Otherwise, the entire army will fall apart!"
Ren Feilong smashed his teacup to the ground. "Useless, all of you are useless! A few thousand Sword Birds and they've thrown my million-strong army into chaos?"
"Commander, this time is different. Who could have guessed that our own soldiers would suddenly start attacking their own people? And it's as if they're under a curse—one bites another, with no logic at all. It's like they've all been poisoned by some evil toxin, turning into walking corpses without any awareness."
"Evil toxin?" Ren Feilong's eyes shot wide open. "Could it be—no!"
A horrifying possibility suddenly struck Ren Feilong, and he immediately barked orders: "Pull the army back together, conduct a roll call. Anyone who has been bitten is to be killed on sight. Those who haven't been bitten must assemble and consolidate, ready to break through! Every unit, every camp—check each other and keep watch on one another. Not a single bitten person is to slip through!"
For the first time, Ren Feilong truly wavered. He had served in the military for thirty years, earned countless battle merits, and witnessed innumerable life-and-death engagements.
But tonight's battle was completely unlike any before. One could even say this wasn't a battle at all—it was a catastrophe.
"Commander, we'll cover your escape!"
"Commander, go this way! Keep your eyes open—if anyone's been bitten, kill them on the spot!"
The scene was utter chaos, and Ren Feilong's command tent was no exception.
Things had progressed to the point where no intact formation remained on the field. The units had been almost completely scattered; whether you'd been bitten or not was purely a matter of luck.
Fortunately, these were all capable commanders. Before long, those who hadn't been bitten had gathered in groups of several hundred, and within moments, tens of thousands had assembled.
They charged left and right, finally carving out a bloody path to freedom.
Just then, the moonlight in the sky dimmed once more, as though something had blotted it out.
The next instant, the vast army of Sword Birds reappeared across the night sky. Another devastating volley of arrows rained down like a torrential storm.
"Kill! Kill the Black Moon Kingdom bandits! Kill Ren Feilong!"
"Ren Feilong, you're called the Black Moon Kingdom's First Star General—after today's battle, I'm afraid you'll have to rename yourself the Black Moon Kingdom's First Bringer of Doom, won't you? Hahaha!"
Ren Feilong nearly coughed up blood upon hearing this.
This battle had been nothing short of suffocating. They'd been utterly played by their opponent, with absolutely no power to fight back.
All their deployments, all their strategies and tactics—none of it had worked.
Yes, they had indeed been played.
Truth be told, the Eastern Kingdom's Sword Bird army hadn't actually killed that many Black Moon soldiers. Nearly all of the Black Moon Kingdom's current casualties had been caused from within.
Ren Feilong, his face grim as iron, fled in disorder through the darkness under his subordinates' cover.
At this point, whether it was the round shield formations, the arrow formations, or the long-spear formations—everything had completely collapsed. There was no way to reorganize.
Without those grand formations, fighting the Sword Bird army would be far more difficult.
At first, the Sword Birds had only been conducting harassment raids. But without the formations to shield them, the Sword Birds flew lower and lower, and had even begun diving down into close-quarters combat.
"What's happening with the Black Crow Knights? Why haven't they returned to protect the Commander?"
"Commander, we can't just keep running blindly like this. We need to find cover and avoid these aerial troops. Otherwise, our numerical advantage will be gradually whittled away."
"Commander, over there—the forest is thick, we could..."
Ren Feilong erupted in a furious tirade: "Thick forest—are you trying to get us killed? Most of our soldiers have already turned into biting demons. If we enter the forest, our field of vision will be restricted—how are we supposed to break out? And entering the forest, with the grass and trees dry this season, if the enemy launches another fire attack, we'll have no sky to fly to and no ground to burrow into."
Entering the forest would make it harder to escape from the bitten soldiers and would leave them vulnerable to fire attacks.
Not entering the forest meant facing the Sword Bird army's relentless pursuit.
It was truly a dilemma with no good answer.
……
High in the sky, two Golden-Winged Sword Birds flew side by side. Each bird carried a rider. One was Jiang Chen, and the other was Ye Rong.
Ye Rong normally had his own mount, but since this was a battle between the Black Moon Kingdom and the Eastern Kingdom, he felt it wasn't appropriate to draw too much attention. So instead of riding his own mount, he rode a Golden-Winged Sword Bird.
"Brother, see that? Over there—that one in white robes and silver armor—that's Ren Feilong. See the flying dragon embroidered on his white robe? That's his personal trademark."
"This Ren Feilong—really is the type to worry about appearances even when death is knocking at the door. Why not just rip off that white robe while he's running?" Jiang Chen genuinely wondered whether this so-called First Star General had something wrong in his head.
"At the end of the day, the so-called First Star General is still just a mortal. In the face of true catastrophe, he's really no better than anyone else. He just happened to face a monster like you this time—his defeat was destined. Alright, enough talk. I'll go create a diversion for you. The killing blow has to come from you. Your marksmanship is better than mine, and your equipment is superior."
Ye Rong let out a sly laugh, slapped the Golden-Winged Sword Bird, and charged straight toward Ren Feilong head-on.
"Ren Feilong, do you recognize me—Jiang Chen?" Ye Rong let out a strange cry, deliberately making a show of bravado as he raised a longbow high.
Whoosh!