Chapter 34: Chaos

In utter despair, Sarug felt himself on the verge of going mad.
Almost all the tribe members were here, along with the duty and patrol squads—433 in total—huddled in disarray in the open space in front of the inner fortress. They were terrified and confused, with morale at rock bottom.
“Sarugbi, what should we do?” Even the centurions were panicked.
“Silence!” Sarug shouted angrily, his voice deafening. The Red Ghosts turned their attention to their leader. Though not particularly intelligent, they weren’t stupid enough to think they could escape back to Morthok alone or in small groups. After all, hunting bison was part of their daily life in the wasteland, and they knew what happened to those who got separated.
“The Sandstone Tribe is our mortal enemy! They won’t accept surrender from any Bonebloods.” Sarug’s expression was fierce as he gritted his teeth.
This wasn’t entirely true, but the deep hatred between the Sandstone Tribe and the Bonebloods was real.
“The cunning Sandstone Tribe will trick us with promises of mercy, then slit our throats like they do with sheep once the battle is over,” Sarug said, gesturing at his own neck. “That’s their usual tactic.”
Among the tribes living in the wasteland, there was a common understanding: those who could fight should surrender without being killed. They could become slave soldiers or exchange prisoners—after all, everyone had their weaknesses. Sarug’s words extinguished most of the Red Ghosts’ doubts. They had indeed heard of the Sandstone Tribe’s treachery, and more importantly, they trusted Sarug.
Sarug knew the ordinary tribesmen would believe him. Their minds were simple, making them easy to control. The harder ones to deal with were the centurions,centurionss, and a few smarter individuals. So his piercing gaze fixed on the closest few tribesmen—8 centurions and 1centurions. Time was running out. If any of them dared question him or challenge his authority, Sarug would kill them without hesitation.
“Sarugbi, we swear to follow you to death!” Acenturions remained acenturions not only because of his strength but also because of his intelligence.
“We’re willing to follow you to death!” Led by one of them, the 8 centurions also pledged loyalty.
Sarug nodded proudly, smirking. “Bring those cunning humans here!”
The human envoy and his entourage were brought forward—7 in total: 5 guards, 1 level 5 warrior, and 4 level 4 sergeants. Sarug had captured them as soon as he received the double alert.
The human envoy remained confident and bold. “Sarugbi, even though the Sandstone Tribe is attacking, there’s still a way to deal with it. The inner fortress has high walls and strong defenses—we can rely on them. We’re willing to command your slave soldiers and use those heavy weapons to drive back the Sandstone Tribe.”
Sarug nodded, a cruel smile on his lips. “Kill them all!”
Crack! Heads fell. The level 5 warrior tried to resist, but Sarug was prepared. With a wave of his hand, a blade of light split him in two.

“It’s those cunning, fickle creatures who revealed our situation to the Tan Shi tribe!” Sarug wasn’t entirely sure, but a blood sacrifice was needed—this alone was sufficient. “We will no longer accept any temptation; we’ll defeat with swords any enemy who dares to challenge us! We are the mighty Blood Bone tribe!”
Ahow…
Sarug knew well how to inspire and motivate his people. Like cunning, this was a necessary skill for a tribal leader’s successor, a secret passed down through generations.
Meanwhile, Neo stood in front of two large iron cage vehicles in the inner fortress, gazing at the human-beasts imprisoned inside, his thoughts swirling.
The last time he was here, he had wondered what the Red Ghosts could possibly use those 2-meter-tall cage vehicles for. Now he understood—to imprison human-beasts.
These human-beasts had grayish-white manes, with green tattoos as their base color. The larger ones were no less formidable than the Red Ghosts’ thousand-thousand leader, while the smaller ones were about twice as thin as ordinary Red Ghosts—those were females.
Valentina approached. “They’re dead!” she said, referring to the last guard.
“I think I know who they are,” Neo said, pointing at the human-beasts in the cages.
“Hm?”
“The human-beasts that attacked Ratno Village.”
Valentina was surprised. “You mean those that fought fiercely against the West Wind Berserkers?”
“Yes,” Neo replied as he walked toward the iron cage vehicles. “What are you going to do?”
“Release them.”
“You should kill them, right? To avenge the people of Ratno Village. They’re likely trade goods between the Red Ghosts and that despicable human organization.” Valentina had seen the magic collars around the Green Ghosts’ necks—those certainly weren’t something the Red Ghosts could create.
Neo, already on one of the vehicles, turned back. “I’ve decided to take a risk—just because they’re druids.”
Valentina was even more astonished. These human-beasts were druids! A profession that had long been pushed to the fringes until it was almost extinct—yet so many of them appeared here all at once!
Boom! With a loud noise, a mass of brown magical light burst in the air.
Hidden in the shadows, Gladith watched Neo coldly. She hadn’t expected to see human-beasts from the Forest Tribe here. “All druids must die…”
The light and noise alarmed the Red Ghosts. Sarug waved his arm and roared loudly, “Kill all those Forest Tribe creatures!”
In Monstoke, almost all human-beast tribes hated and feared the Forest Tribe human-beasts, and Sarug was no exception.
Boom! The gates of the inner fortress suddenly closed. A faint purple light shone on their surface. Liz, covered in that purple light and unable to see what was inside, stood on the fortress wall. Her gaze wasn’t on the Red Ghosts at the gates but on where Gladith was.
Whoosh! In a burst of fiery light, Gladith soared from her hiding place, transforming into her guardian form and charging at Liz.
Liz’s duplicate guardian stepped in front of her, slashing with her light sword. A purple light barrier, like the aurora, flashed in midair. Gladith’s guardian form clenched her fists and fired a brown light cone. The two powerful energies collided in the air, like magical fireworks, casting brilliant light that illuminated the dawn sky.

The sudden appearance of opponents and allies surprised and stressed Valentina, butNeo entered the iron cage without hesitation. Facing the wary, cold gaze of the Wooden Beast inside, he used his right index and middle fingers to unleash life force influenced by the power of the Constructing Wood, forming a Life Pearl, which he then threw at one of the Wooden Beast’s injured legs.
“Life Healing Art! Nature Believer!” the Wooden Beasts exclaimed in delight.
Neо couldn’t understand what they were saying, but he could read their expressions. He pointed at his neck and made a cutting motion. The Wooden Beasts fully understood—Neо was there to help them…
Boom! Boom! Sarug fired two beams of light at the inner castle’s gates, which only showed slight signs of damage.
“Ah!” Sarug was furious. “Scale the walls and charge in!”
The centurions and squad leaders took the lead, charging forward with leaps, their sharp claws gleaming as they gripped the wall sides, sending sparks flying. Once they stabilized themselves, they pushed off and leaped, reaching the 10-meter-high walls of the inner castle.
“You dare violate the organization’s rules!” Gladith never expected Liz to appear here, let alone that she would break the rules to favor Neо and Valentina.
Liz didn’t respond. She drew the dagger given to her by Neо from her waist. With a flash of light, the dagger transformed into a purple-long sword. With a swing, a purple aurora-like barrier, similar to the light slashes emitted by her clones, shot out. A Red Ghost centurion who had just reached the top of the wall was cut in two despite his efforts to defend. The remaining force of the attack sliced through four battlements, sending debris flying.
“Clone Assimilation!” Gladith, who was charging at Liz, screamed in terror upon seeing this and immediately changed direction in mid-air, summoning her chubby warrior avatar to stay at a distance. The Spirit Master could use the techniques of guardian spirits—this was the clearest proof of clone assimilation. Liz was already two ranks above her. Gladith knew her chances of winning against her were less than 10%.
By then, the first light of dawn appeared in the east, and the Blue Ghosts had reached the west wall of Wattsburg.
Most of Monstoke’s barbarians were accustomed to field battles, especially the Cordim. Their racial traits made them better suited for fighting in open fields and wastelands. Their pursuit and encirclement tactics reminded one of lion prides hunting in the grasslands, reflecting simple yet intriguing tactical ideas.
In contrast, siege warfare and urban combat were not the strengths of the human-beasts, but through relentless aggression and generations of experience, they still had a few tricks up their sleeves.
Wattsburg’s walls were 7 meters high—just over a meter too high for most human-beasts to leap over in one go. Moreover, there was a moat more than 3 meters deep and 5 meters wide outside the walls. Although there were no spikes or barriers, and the moat didn’t contain running water, it still posed a significant obstacle that the Stone Beast warriors had to overcome.
Dodge, the leader of the Blue Ghosts, was more concerned by the fact that there were no defenders on the walls. As he puzzled over this, he saw a brown light mass appear in the sky above the inner castle, followed by a purple barrier.
Dodge understood—the Blood Bone Clan was too busy dealing with its own problems.

“What remains of the Boneblood Clan without courage? Warriors of the Beach Stones, use your weapons to force those cowards who dare not even leave their nests to submit completely!” Dorgi had a loud, resonant voice, and his powerful words echoed through the air, clearly audible to all the Blue Ghosts.
Howl… howl…
The human-beasts had no war drums, only horns, but when they became excited, they preferred to use long shouts to vent their emotions and encourage one another. At this moment, their blood boiled with desire for battle.
Sarug, who was preparing to scale the city walls, heard the battle cries of the Beach Stone human-beasts. He knew it would take less than 10 minutes for them to reach his current position.
“It’s too late to set up defenses!” Sarug had originally planned to hold the inner city and drive meat slaves onto the city walls to serve as slave soldiers. However, Liz’s sudden appearance ruined his plans. Sarug was furious, but his remaining sense of reason told him that confronting this even more powerful foe head-on at this moment was utterly foolish.
“Warriors of the Boneblood Clan, follow me!” With veins bulging on his forehead, Sarug roared and changed his orders. Holding his long-handled battle axe high, he led them down the main road toward the southern city gate.
Although the Red Ghosts didn’t understand what Sarug was doing, they instinctively accepted the new orders and retreated in droves, following Sarug.
Meanwhile, a thousand well-prepared Blue Ghosts rushed toward the city, dropping bags of food and piling up ten stacks by the moat. Several Blue Ghost centurions immediately leaped onto the western city walls of Fort Watts.
Dorgi saw the safe signals given by the Blue Ghost centurions.
“Enter the city!”
The supplies were left behind; the food stacks served as springboards. The ordinary Blue Ghosts formed ten columns, charging one after another, leaping over the stacks to climb over the city walls, then gathering to storm the inner city.
Inside the inner city, rescue efforts were in full swing. Neo used his life-energy absorption technique to drain the power from the magic collars, rendering them ineffective. The freed Woodbeast human-beasts regained their strength and transformation abilities, turning back into humans and crawling out of the wide gaps in the iron cage carts. The doors of the cage carts had been welded shut, and breaking free would take too much time.
Gladith and Liz also left after the Red Ghosts departed, with Valentina on watch. “Quick, another wave of human-beasts is coming—Blue Ghosts!”
“Enter the castle!” Neo shouted, still helping free the Woodbeasts in the second cage.
“We can fight!” A male Woodbeast said, transforming once again into a battle bear weighing over 3,000 pounds, its paw alone half the size of a table.
“Let those two tribes fight each other as much as possible. Do you understand what I mean?”
“Mm!” The Woodbeast grunted roughly…
“Dorgibi, I’ve spotted a group of Boneblood Clan members. They left the city from the south,” reported a scout rider as the Blue Ghost army reached halfway.
“Tam, lead 300 warriors to the inner city. If they’re in large numbers, surround them first—don’t attack head-on.”
“Understood, Dorgibi.”

“Warriors, follow me and first defeat the Boneblood Clan that has left the city!” At Dorgi’s command, the Blue Ghosts split up—one group pursued the Red Ghosts, while the other charged toward the inner city.
5 minutes later, in the west of the city.
A hundred Blue Ghosts were busy collecting supplies and food with an army of over 200 orcs and a dozen minotaurs. With the sound of hooves, the Red Ghosts arrived.
“Kill them!” Sarug roared as he led his tribe at the Blue Ghosts.
Seven centurions, one decurion, plus Sarug—just these nine had combat power beyond what the Blue Ghosts could withstand. With a single assault, the hundred Blue Ghosts and the slave army were completely scattered; over half died, and the Blue Ghost centurion was decapitated by Sarug.
Aaaah… Sarug howled in fury with bloodshot eyes.
Aaaah! Aaaah! The Red Ghosts also let out fierce roars.
“The wounded head north to the east gate; the rest, follow me to storm the city!” Sarug raised his battle axe again.
Using the platforms left by the Blue Ghosts, the Red Ghosts swarmed over the walls into Fort Watts, then headed straight for the inner city.
2 minutes later, Dorgi led his troops to the west wall following the footprints, where they saw corpses everywhere and his subordinates returning.
“Ah…” Dorgi was furious and roared, “Storm the city!”
The Blue Ghosts climbed the walls again…
By then, the Blue Ghosts led by Tam had already taken control of the inner city and were ordering their subordinates to search it. Good news came one after another: the Red Ghosts had fled, there was plenty of supplies, hundreds of meat slaves, and vast amounts of food…
With the sound of hooves, Tam wondered, “Has the main force returned?”
“It’s the Boneblood Clan!” the sentinel cried out in terror.
“Gather! Gather! Close the city gates!” Tam shouted loudly, leading dozens of Blue Ghosts to try and block the gates.
It was too late.
Sarug led the charge first. “Take back what’s mine! Die!” Behind him followed Red Ghost decurions and several centurions, forming a killing force.
Tam couldn’t withstand such a group of powerful enemies. Even Sarug’s combat energy alone left him in disarray, not to mention the numerous blade attacks. He couldn’t hold out for even a minute before being wiped out on the spot.
“Close the gates! Climb the walls!” While ordering his main force to ascend the walls, Sarug also instructed the decurion and four centurions to lead 200 subordinates to massacre the Blue Ghosts inside the city. “Break them!”
The decurion understood Sarug’s intent—attack wherever there were gatherings. Without a leader and unable to unite, the Blue Ghosts inside the city couldn’t mount any proper resistance. By the time Dorgi arrived with his troops, fewer than 150 Blue Ghosts remained alive, scattered throughout the city.
Dorgi knew this was the Red Ghosts’ weakest moment and personally led his troops to attack the city.
Though fewer in number, the Red Ghosts had the advantage of location and better weapons and equipment than the Blue Ghosts. With consecutive victories, they were in high spirits and fierce. Arrows rained down, causing heavy casualties among the Blue Ghosts trying to climb the walls.
However, the Blue Ghosts were numerous and had specialized archers covering their ascent, firing a dense barrage of arrows. Although the Red Ghosts suffered far fewer casualties than the Blue Ghosts, each death weakened their defense. Eventually, the Blue Ghosts seized an opportunity, taking advantage of the gaps in defense. A vanguard led by Dorgi and several Blue Ghost centurions charged onto the city walls.

They slew several Red Ghosts in a row, securing their territory, and the Blue Ghosts began to expand their presence on the city walls. Sarug led his men to the scene, but Doge was no less formidable, holding Sarug at bay while more and more Blue Ghosts climbed onto the walls.
Seeing the situation turn critical, the Red Ghosts’ commander brought over a hundred of his subordinates to rescue them, immediately easing the pressure on the Red Ghosts.
The scattered Blue Ghosts inside the city took this opportunity to gather, with over a hundred of them charging straight at the city gates. Sarug tried to send reinforcements but was firmly held back by Doge. The Red Ghosts’ commander did arrive, but he lacked the strength to break through the Blue Ghosts’ desperately formed defense line. Eventually, the Blue Ghosts managed to open the city gates from within. From then on, the brutal battle between the two sides reached its peak.
With the Blue Ghosts in large numbers and the Red Ghosts being fierce and well-equipped, the fight became a fierce struggle with no clear advantage for either side.
“Hurry, act quickly!” Valentina whispered, urging the people of Wurtzburg.
Taking advantage of the two Ghosts fighting ahead, Valentina and Neo, with the help of the Woodmen Beasts, freed the flesh slaves from their shackles and sneaked into the castle. This was not only because the castle was sturdy and difficult to attack but also because there was a secret passage similar to those in the Quansrod family’s fortresses, provided by Bafas’ lord, Kip Brain, who had previously been among the flesh slaves.
However, besides the Red Ghosts and Blue Ghosts, the Dark Claws had also arrived.
“Neo! We meet again.”
Neo looked in the direction of the voice and saw Vladimir, enveloped in black smoke, on the roof of a room…