Denel was totally confident in his strength, as he was stronger than everyone in a 50km radius.
A typical tribe warrior could hunt beasts by himself, tigers, wolves and lions… Those that could hold their own against half a dozen enemies were in the first rank. Every tribe cherished them, making them team leaders of ten men.
Going further we’d have Denel, a man with a crude grasp of battle aura, who was barely strong enough to hunt weak magic beasts, or hold his own against a dozen men.
Moving on were people that could fight against twenty, found as the chieftains of one-two hundred people.
The only reason Denel ever got his meager battle aura was because of that one time he had death breathing down his neck, pushing him to unearth his potential. It helped defeat his competitors and become the chieftain of Monla.
Yet this enemy had no special power, and the fact that he held his own was astonishing.
But only by taking the heads of such opponents one felt triumph, while those falling after one strike didn’t count for anything, leaving him bored.
Wang Daniu gathered all his power and will before igniting it with rage before swinging his blade to tear his enemy in two.
This focused strike, holding everything he had, was swift, coming right at Denel’s face.
Whoosh!
Before it landed, Denel grimaced and lifted his own weapon. The clash resulted in a bit of faltering from Denel.
Wang Daniu winced, seeing his all out attack didn’t do a thing.
Next came an exchange of blows in which Wang Daniu grew wearier, his strength leaving him as his face grew red. He slowed down from the intensive fight, going as long as it did.
As Wang Daniu was fighting a desperate and losing battle, Zhong Yu called back what manpower he could spare from other areas, to safeguard himself and get some distance from the duel.
Drawing too many soldiers out of the fight led to the fronts collapsing, and the tightening of the ranks to keep a minimum of stability as their options were limited.
The eyes soon landed on Denel and Wang Daniu. If Wang Daniu repelled the first, the tide of war swung in their favor.
While in the opposite case, Zhong Yu hoped twenty soldiers would be enough to kill Denel and maybe he’d still have a chance to squeeze a victory.
‘If Wang Daniu gets killed, I have to kill Denel even if I have to throw all my men at him. His death will cripple the savages’ morale.’
Losing their chieftain, the glorious and unmatched Denel would have them devolve in chaos.
With Monla losing its head, their bitter enemies, the Edson tribe would avail themselves of this chance to destroy them for good.
‘They’ll fight each other for months knowing, I, the outsider, have crippled military and can only watch from the sidelines.’
Resisting foreign enemies before resolving their issues was a longstanding human tradition, many wise men used. With nothing breathing down on the tribe from the outside, conflicts festered from within, until it exploded into a conflagration.
‘By that time, my new army will be fit and trained. The three hundred men will be enough to wipe out savages.’
Though now he could only watch Wang Daniu and Denel’s duel. The outcome would decide the circumstances of this war.
As long as there was no imminent threat, the people there would drift their eyes to the two still fighting in the center of the battlefield. Their very fates rested on it and with it, came the tense atmosphere.
Anderson, who was not in the battle, saw Denel’s sudden power gain in shock, asking himself. ‘Just how did he get so strong?’
But as a savage, a little thinking presented the answer. ‘Their ancestral spirit, Tiger God, must’ve seen the tribe at risk.’
But a spirit bestowing its power? In this act, both sides would lose out in the end. The spirit would be weakened, while the target was ruining his potential, and taxing his mind; to say nothing of the reduced lifespan.
‘This is great. After the victory, I just need to wait for a couple of years until Denel dies. Swallowing his tribe is only a matter of time andI can fulfill my tribe’s centuries old wish.’
‘I might even be worshiped as an ancestral spirit and have sacrifices in my name, living a long life as a soul.’
The ifs proved useless as Wang Daniu was barely hanging on from the dozens of wounds, bleeding him out.
One moment of lapsed focus and Denel struck him in a vital point, making Wang Daniu collapse, who was on his last breath.
But Wang Daniu didn’t let Denel off any easier. Just as he was struck by Denel, Wang Daniu grabbed the enemy’s blade.
With strength no dying man should have, he caught Denel off guard, running his blade through the enemy’s gut.
Denel’s win was stripped away in a moment of carelessness, receiving a heavy wound by a dying prey. His hope of surviving in this battlefield was zero.
At the end of it all, borrowed power wasn’t his. Denel had a hard time using it smoothly, which Wang Daniu capitalized on, giving a mortal wound and robbing him of any chance at surviving this battle.
Fate was inevitable and couldn’t be changed, a fickle mistress that gave people hope, only to take it all away.
Zhong Yu – ‘A lion should use all his strength even against a rabbit, for pride comes before the fall.’
