"Steady, don't panic — the magic bull herd is coming. Aim at the front few, lure them in... Good, fire!"
Blood blossomed; the magic bulls' death cries shook the wilderness. The pitch-black magical beast tide faltered for a heartbeat — the cluster of magic bulls around the two fallen beasts milling about, searching wildly for the enemy...
"Wind the winches, keep firing!"
With the second volley's launch, the magic bull herd — tangled in complete disarray — finally spotted that stretch of stone wall on the hillside and the few ants atop it who had dared attack them.
*Moo...* An enraged bellow rolled out as the magic bull herd charged the small stone wall on the slope. In moments, the once snow-blanketed hillside disappeared beneath a sea of magic bulls.
Only after these *puff-puff* panting, red-eyed beasts crested the slope did they realize the wall they had seen from below was not perched on the hilltop at all, but halfway up the opposite face — and it was not a wall, but a long rectangular box structure. Yet the magic bulls' simple minds had already forgotten the provoking ants; every beast that gained the summit fixed its gaze on the great swath of bright red cloth hanging beneath the box...
Against the snow-flurrying plain, that vivid red cloth fluttered like a dancing tongue of flame, irresistibly drawing the bulls' eyes...
*Moo, moo! Moo...* Furious bellows rang out ceaselessly. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of magic bulls knows the iron rule: never let a magic bull see bright red on you — it triggers a frenzy, and the beast will chase you to the death...
The magic bull herd on the slope surged forward. Heads lowered, curved horns brandished, they hurtled toward that bright red cloth with thunderous momentum. Pity none of them noticed: the closer they drew to the cloth, the more the ground tilted downward. By the time they thundered past beneath it, the vertical gap between beast and cloth still stood a full two meters.
The magic bulls that had charged through raised their heads to find yet another strip of red cloth fluttering in the wind ahead. Without hesitation, they lowered their heads and charged straight forward again.
This herd of twenty to thirty thousand magic bulls was thus led astray from the beast tide's path by one red cloth after another. Driven into a frenzy by the teasing cloths, they had sprinted for over a dozen li; the vanguard was already exhausted, their eyes clearing with regained sanity, but they could no longer turn back. On both sides rose snow-walled cliffs six or seven meters high; behind them pressed a dense mass of companions. Apart from the downward straight path before them, there was no other road...
When their view suddenly opened wide, the magic bulls found themselves in a vast, open valley walled by sheer cliffs over a dozen zhang high. The bulls did not realize they had entered a death trap; after a dozen li of mad sprinting, this seemed the perfect spot to rest, nibble on grass roots, lichen, and moss to recover their strength. So herd after herd wandered leisurely through the valley, occasionally digging up a few grass roots from under the snow to chew on.
This was the Kru Circular Gorge within the
A few magic bulls twisted and turned through those upward fissures and finally emerged onto the surface. What greeted them was the "bang-bang-bang" of steel ballistae firing; struck as if by lightning, the bulls died on the spot.
"Hurry, drag these carcasses away — more bulls are coming up. Everyone, ready..." Doles stood on a war chariot, high-spirited, issuing orders. These fissures leading from the gorge to the surface were his battlefield; any bull that climbed up would meet its end beneath his steel ballistae.
Several family soldiers came up, expertly lassoing the bull carcasses with ropes. Then they waved a signal; the horses ahead strained, and these thousand-pounds-plus carcasses slid swiftly across the snow to a large clearing nearby. In this freezing weather, the bodies soon froze hard as iron in the wind and snow, stacked in neat rows. Someone would collect the spoils when there was a lull.
"Bang!" The box-frame shuddered violently. Ice and snow sprayed as the green-eyed wild bull that had slammed into the left base shook its massive head, dazed from the impact. It spun in place for a moment before recovering, lowing "moo, moo" as it backed up, preparing for another charge.
"Damn it!" Lorist, atop the frame, snatched up a steel ballista, took aim, and killed the green-eyed wild bull with a bolt before it could ram the frame's base again.
The box-frame where Lorist and the others stood was twelve meters long and eight meters high. To prevent frenzied bulls from ramming the bases, Lorist had deliberately reduced the area of the red cloth hanging in the center, leaving four meters of clearance on each side — so the bulls' attention would be drawn to the middle passage, leaving the two side bases untouched.
"After this herd of green-eyed wild bulls passes, we'll go down, gather some snow from the nearby slopes, have the camp boil some water, and reinforce the box-frame's two bases by freezing them solid. Damn, that scared me into a cold sweat just now..." Lorist said.
"Me too..." El replied, leaning against the parapet wall beside him.
To deal with this winter's beast tide sweeping across the family's territory, Lorist had mobilized nearly all the family's forces.
First, Lorist planned to lure and divert the large magic cattle herds from the beast tide, dragging them to the Kru Circle Isthmus. If the beast tide lost over a hundred thousand large magic cattle, the remaining magic goats, deer, horses, and such would be far easier to handle.
Lorist wasn't greedy; if this winter's beast tide numbered close to a million, he only wanted to keep half of them. Combined with a spring sweep of the Fengle Plains, at most three to four hundred thousand magical beasts would return to the Barbarian Plains. If this continued for three years, he believed the beast tide would vanish from the family's territory entirely, never again becoming a major threat.
To achieve this goal, all Family Knights and family armed forces had undergone repeated drills. The defenses of every central town and garrison village from the Second to Seventh Districts were fully prepared. As for the five central towns in the Second through Sixth Districts that the beast tide would inevitably pass through, five of the family's Gold-ranked Knights were personally garrisoning them. They would seize the opportunity when the beast tide passed to release weaker magical beasts like magic goats and deer into the cities, turning the beast tide into a city-wide hunting festival.
The Seventh District's central town, Northfield Town, would not be reached by the beast tide, so there was no need for excessive tension; normal vigilance would suffice.
The Sixth District's central town, Beast-Taming Town, was named by Lorist himself after he dealt with the beast tide here last year. It was now garrisoned by the Chief Gold-ranked Knight, Bodofinger.
The Fifth District's central town had no name yet. The Gold-ranked Knight stationed there was Ross, whom Lorist called "the Tiger."
The Fourth District's central town also lacked a name. The one garrisoning it was the silver-haired Belunek.
The Third District's central town was under the charge of the Gold-ranked mercenary Zino Farea.
The Second District's central town was under Mons Malek, the former military judge of the Krisen Empire's White Lion Legion, known as "Iron Face," who had just advanced to Gold-ranked Knight. After the Northbound Caravan returned to the family territory, Lorist had given him an extended leave. After over a year of cultivation, he finally advanced to the Gold rank, becoming the sixth Gold-ranked Knight under Lorist's command.
Everyone was rubbing their hands in anticipation, brimming with confidence, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the winter beast tide. Meanwhile, Lorist, along with the Gold-ranked Divine Archer Josk, Guard Camp Commander Erl, and others, lay in ambush on this small hill. They were tasked with the most difficult first step: luring the magic cattle herds within the beast tide toward the Kru Circle Isthmus...
"This is the third magic cattle herd, right? About how many head?" Pat asked.
"Fifty or sixty thousand head, I'd say. I estimate there should be about that many." Erl answered.
Lorist said, "About right. After this herd of wild cattle passes, we'll head to that camp for a rest and a shift change. Have Josk lead a rotation. When we head down later, remember to drag that dead cow below back to camp. We've been stuck up here for two days gnawing on dry rations, so this'll make a nice change of fare."
"Understood, my lord."
The arranged temporary camp wasn't far from this hill—just separated by a small hilltop. The camp had been placed there mainly because that hilltop had a small water pool, convenient for drawing water. But when Lorist and his ten-odd men arrived, they found the camp in the thick of a fierce battle—nearly a hundred winter wolves besieging it. Yet under Josk's divine arrows and the fire from the camp's four steel ballistae, the wolves suffered heavy losses, their corpses scattered across the snow.
By the time Lorist arrived, the fight was nearly over. The remaining thirty-odd winter wolves caught sight of Lorist's group and switched targets, lunging ferociously. Then, under the blades of Lorist's ten-odd men, they all fell as corpses.
The temporary camp wasn't large. A ring of wooden palisades four to five meters high encircled it, with a wooden watchtower at each corner, each mounted with a steel ballista.
Josk said with a bitter smile, "My lord, it seems we all overlooked those carnivorous magical beast packs that followed the beast tide looking for hunting opportunities. Fortunately, only a hundred or so winter wolves besieged the camp this time. If we'd run into a large wolf pack of nearly a thousand, we'd have been in for it."
The temporary camp held only a hundred or so elite guards selected from the guard camp, and only four Family Knights—Josk, El, Pat, and
After another ten-odd days, Lorist and Josk took turns atop the square frame luring and diverting seven large magical cattle herds, estimated at over a hundred thousand head. By then the beast tide had passed, leaving only carnivorous magical beast species. Lorist's group was trapped in the temporary camp for nearly seven days, fending off several packs of magical wolves and leopards. After inflicting heavy casualties on these beasts, forcing them to abandon their attacks on the camp, they finally broke free and headed for the Kru Circle Isthmus.
Cattle climbed up from the crevice, and before they could even steady themselves—*thwip, thwip*—two bolts struck, and the magical cattle toppled. While they still thrashed, lassos were thrown from the side; once the noose caught a head, the beast was dragged away, and the next magical cattle climbed up to repeat the process...
Magical cattle corpses piled like mountains on the clearing nearby. Row upon row of corpses frozen rock-hard were stacked seven or eight layers high. The clearing kept expanding, and mountains of magical cattle corpses soon appeared one after another. Doles had already dispatched messengers to Panstone Castle with urgent word, requesting several thousand more men to haul away the carcasses.
The land around the isthmus crevice had been dyed crimson by magical cattle blood. But as more and more herds filled the isthmus, the starving and thirsty cattle had to find a way out of this circular isthmus. Besides climbing up through the crevice, countless cattle turned back, preparing to return via the straight path they'd come from.
Only four hundred-plus steel ballistae were positioned above the crevice, while Doles's chariot legion at full strength numbered two thousand five hundred steel ballistae. Lorist had already arranged over eighteen hundred steel ballistae in ambush along both sides of the straight path. Every magical cattle turning back suffered a torrential rain of bolts in the latter half of the path. Cattle corpses piled layer upon layer on the slope, and magical cattle blood flowed like streams along the straight path...
Throughout the entire winter, Doles's newly formed chariot legion battled the magical cattle herds that had fallen into the Kru Circle Isthmus trap, risking severe cold. It took over two months to wipe out all 170,000 head of magical cattle. Everyone was exhausted to the bone, and of the 2,400-plus steel ballistae, nearly a thousand were worn out from the high-frequency use.
When the last small herd of magical cattle collapsed on the isthmus clearing, Doles plopped down on his chariot and said to Lorist beside him, "My lord, I never want to shoot at cattle again in this life. The sight of these cows makes me sick to my stomach."
With the arrival of spring and the beast tide's retreat, good news arrived one after another. First was Beast-Taming Town, the central town of the sixth district and the first area to experience the beast tide. Thanks to Lorist and the others luring away the magical cattle herds from the beast tide, Bodefen, who held Beast-Taming Town, boldly opened the city gates over a dozen times, letting in over two hundred thousand magical sheep, antelopes, and deer—magical beasts with low combat power—making Beast-Taming Town the town with the richest meat harvest in this beast tide. Subsequently, the mass-produced sheep-rib circular traps allowed Beast-Taming Town to harvest the corpses of several thousand marked carnivorous magical beasts after the beast tide retreated.
Next, the five central towns from the fifth district to the second district also had their own harvests. When added up and tallied, it was discovered that the small herbivorous magical beast populations in the beast tide were almost completely wiped out. Of the over one million magical beasts, fewer than three hundred thousand managed to retreat back to the Wild Plains.
Lorist was overjoyed. This way, in just two more years, the beast tide would completely disappear from the family's territory, and they could finally farm in peace and carry out various large-scale developments.
Patting Doles on the shoulder, Lorist said, "Alright, it's time to set out. Josk's mounted archer camp will escort your chariot legion to sweep up the magical beasts stranded on the Felicitas Plains. Tiger Ros's heavy armored lance cavalry is also waiting for your arrival in the third district. This time there might also be magical cattle herds remaining on the Felicitas Plains, but there will be more carnivorous magical beasts, so you must be careful. When you return after completing the mission, I guarantee the new steel ballistae will already be waiting to be equipped to you."
"Yes, my lord." Doles stood at attention and saluted.
…(To be continued.)